Montel Williams on Multiple Sclerosis

welcome back to md VOD where we're talking about multiple sclerosis and to better understand any disease it's helpful to hear what it's actually life like to live with it today we're joined by special guest mr. Montel Williams family thank you very much thank you very very much for joining us the Montel you've accomplished more than most people in their lifetime you're an author you're an amazing television host you do great things about wellness today that I love and you were in the military did incredible things what what do you attribute all of your healthful success to I no ifs ands or buts is it's absolutely changing and living by what I've been preaching rather than just preaching it you know people have heard me for the last 10 years my life talking about the fact how important exercise diet making sure that if your medication you take your medication take it and comply the way the doctor wrote it you've heard me talk about that and I have tried the probably up until about four years ago did this really 65% 70% you know you try to make it happen a couple days a week and make it work and then the next couple days well then a couple days make it work it wasn't until I actually flipped the switch and said no I mean I got to stop with the goofing around I got a really pay attention to this because unless I do show any thought of impacting the speed by which this illness is ravaging my body I could throw out the window if I pay attention and recognize that there are things that we can do I can't cure MS but there are things that I can do to impact how I feel every day you got to get busy with it and so the second I realized that I was not going to one live down to other people's expectations I say live down to them because the other ones were telling me that just because I had an s I'm going to degrade this way or that way number two when I also realized that I can live up to my own which means yeah I can't go nuts but if I want to push myself a little bit let's push a little bit in the direction of living as healthy as I can that's what's making the difference awesome advice and and we talk about this all the time we talk about how important diet and exercise are and any disease in the prevention and the treatment and maintenance of symptoms and what what specifically do you recommend in terms of diet that might help you with multiple sclerosis here's what I'm starting to figure out and again I'm not a doctor you know I'll have my can hang a plank and and I want to make sure that anything I say that somebody backs us up by talking to your doctor your talking your health provider but I will tell you I've kind of learned a few things in the last now eight years one inflammation inflammation inflammation we know that that's the nemesis for probably 78% of diseases that we all suffer from especially the chronic ones inflammation there are things that God gave us that Nature gave us we can forget all the medicine that is that today stop the stoop and go to the grocery store but I would came up out of the ground fruits vegetables everybody the National Institute of Health the FDA everybody has written a paper on it in the last ten years the prep the first lady talks about it it's the fact that fruits and vegetables are nature's anti-inflammatories Monto lives has MS biggest nemesis of MS inflammation I get it I'm a real quick study so that means if I can get some fruits and vegetables I can reduce my information I just happen to do it on hyperdrive so what I've done is I realized way back when I first started in this regimen I couldn't eat as many piece of fruit and vegetables every day that I would need to consume to really do what I want to do and let's try to impact my illness when I say couldn't eat as many I need to eat seven a piece of fruit five six cups of vegetables nobody look fine after three days you chop in your jaw get sore you look at people like this back Marcel's crazy so what I realized if I could blend it or emulsify it put it in some sort of a smoothie I can be pumping this in all day and that's exactly what I do so I every single day I consume no less than 60 ounces of fruits and vegetables emulsified in coconut water I specifically use coconut water because it's one of those hydrating liquids on the planet I pick particular fruits because I'm looking for certain things and certain reasons to get anti inflammatory response things like watermelon things like pineapple things like blueberries antioxidants I'm using a banana because I also need to sustain myself with the work inside of doing I pile up the green I'm telling you spinach kale anything I don't use broccoli because it caused a little digestive distress but I'm saying but I use everything green put it in a blender hit it on high speed let that grind up for a while and pump in a pitcher three times a day every day that's a great a great point antioxidants and again just back to inflammation inflammation is really the the the problem with a lot of diseases I'm a cardiologist I can tell you that inflammation directly impacts heart disease and it certainly impacts ms and just to give you a picture of what inflammation is if you took a piece of sandpaper and rubbed it on your leg you would see how hot and swollen and itchy and inflamed it would get that's what we're talking about inflammation is really the the problem in many many diseases whether it's arthritis or MS or even heart disease and so antioxidants are really important in terms of preventing and treating many diseases and fruits and vegetables as you've heard from someone that's doing incredibly well with an inflammatory disease Montel Williams so you know that we were talking about the fact that that that rubbing that feeling right there all that exacerbation is really what's going on in my nerve endings so I'm trying to reduce that and the more I can reduce that means that the signal from my brain may get through now I have issues I mean a lot of people think you know because they see me on television I get to hide it very well that month all he must be doing great look I have left leg weakness I've got a left hip flexor that doesn't respond the right way every now and then as I'm walking up I may have a nerve that my brain will send a signal and my leg will go in a direction it's not supposed to go in just by itself I have a little bit of left shoulder weakness I had for six years in a row some of the most excruciating neuropathic pain in my shins in my feet and my lower extremities and it wasn't until about two years ago that that started really subsiding and now I think part of it has to do with a couple reasons we know that neuropathic pain over time the brain tries to figure out a way to deal with it or I probably go crazy so I'm dealing with it a little bit better but I also believe that all the things that I'm doing from the exercise from the eating of fruits and vegetables to a lot of things I'm also doing a supplement world because there's a lot of supplements out there that we haven't done the right amount of research on that we know can impact us now I'm a guinea pig in myself I'm involved in a study from the University of Wisconsin I'm building a study with out of really nurses San Diego I've been involved in multiple projects to impact my health and that's maybe what the message of this whole interview should be we can't lay around waiting to live down to other people's expectations you reach out is it five years ago there was an excuse because the information wasn't there nowadays it's online you just type in whatever your problem is I type in MS and say start clicking away at problem problem problem level you'll start getting information for us to be as smart as I can never be as smart as you sure as a doctor but what I can be is as filled with knowledge I need you to help me interpret it so I need to go off to see a doctor and say look I heard about this and you could say no month off doesn't work okay I'll run away come back next week I heard about this you got well that's not a bad idea get a little bit more fruits and esposito okay I'll do that boom call in another battle that's what people should be trying to do be proactive about your life because I got to tell you something this year we're gonna hear more garbage from the left the right Obamacare Romney care I don't care about those people because I don't think they know what they're talking about we're so busy worried about sick care in America we should get busy worrying about health care and if we get busy worrying about health care we will start informing people giving them the knowledge so that they can impact their individual health care footprint lower the cost which means that lowers the cost for all of us and then we have to worry about things like raising taxes I mean I can go on don't give you got me started one of the points you got be sorry one of the points that you made that we love at MDV OD as we talk about it all time and Montel just beautifully set it without any encouragement he says look you know knowledge is power and the more knowledgeable you are the healthier you will be and this is you know living proof of that talking about things that we can do to prevent prevent the disease prevent the complications and also live with it in a very healthful way back to something you mentioned earlier because I think it's important at least I want to know to tell patients with MS what exercise regimen do you use and do you think is the most helpful for living with MS I believe every ms pace it out there yes again let's talk to your doctor first let's find out where you are I don't care if you never worked out in your entire life you can start down the path to exercise and just by taking little steps at a time first thing you can do there's not a doctor out there that's a neurologist will tell you not to walk get your butt up off the couch walk out the front door walk down to the mailbox walk back sit down tomorrow get up walk past the mailbox three steps walk back walk to the mailbox one but you know I'm saying we got to get started started moving that's first I suffer from I'm telling you there there are days and more days where it was everyday there days I can't put my feet on the floor when I wake up in the morning my feet are just it's not pins and needles my friend I got knives shooting up to the bottom my heel I could stumble myself into the bathroom I try to get in the bathroom and then I try to get my feet up off the floor I sit in the living room for a little bit I tried to problem that doesn't work and then what I do I swear to you a goat I grab some chlorophyll I do some things with supplements so I grab a little chlorophyll I grab something outside the refrigerator I walked put my gym clothes on I go down in my building there's an elliptical and I get on that elliptical and what that does to me and people with MS will understand what I'm saying I get that egg cracking shell thing going once it cracks the love a sudden it starts to feel ok feels a little bit better two minutes in feels it better four years ago I could do two minutes on an elliptical I can do an hour on elliptical now Wow a year and a half ago I couldn't do a treadmill add more than a 1.1 flat I'm doing a treadmill now 23.2 on a six incline and I can do an eight incline it's now that very year and a half I am NOT pushing what I'm doing is I'm not taking no I'm not accepting it I'm not going to if I can do some things I talked to my doctor look people dem s the biggest thing that we fear is that the second you start working out you get a little warmer maybe if you have like I do you have vision issues so your vision starts to get a little blurry okay you start the tingle a little bit we all quit because doctors say so you don't want to turn it into an exacerbation stop the silly as soon as you stop working out that for me it eases and goes back away so it comes up when I work it out well guess what the benefits I get from that hour of working out outweigh that five to ten minutes in the middle of that X or routine that hurts so and then guess what I feel better throughout the day so I think aerobic training is key when you start to feel weakness you don't need to use weights but you need to use some resistance to train in those areas at your weakness I am constantly doing things to manipulate to help move my hip flexors I have to four years ago let's see I was I even with MS up until about four years ago I was able to snowboard every single winter the pain of my feet got so bad for about a year and a half and my hips started not responding the way I wanted I just got afraid I couldn't go back out on a mountain so for the last three years I didn't go back out I went two years ago for two days I hurt bad my feet hurt I was less that it looks like it some of them have to quit talked to couple doctors they said yeah you might have they might have seen your best days with that with with snowboarding I was about ready to give up I started working with a couple trainers and doing a couple of other things I've got this whole medical routine I'm doing out of the uterus Wisconsin I started taught a little bit different training and my hip started responding differently there's about a two years ago many about a year and a half ago so as I've made it respond this last year somebody said hey you want to try to go snowboard for a day or two and I went yeah let me do it so I went and guess what it's up online right now I went out and I was able to do it so at the end of this month we're sitting here this is May the end of June I'm going to Alaska and I'm do a full week of hella boarding up back country in Alaska why cuz I'm gonna pick them I'm shoot this so I can prove the people even when you think you should quit you don't have to it's great great advice so get up and move us do aerobic exercise light resistance training light resistance training and that can be your own body resistance and I mean you can use a chair this chair is a workout device right here I could I can do squats on this chair it's just that squat rack I've turn this chair around and you know use it to do just some smile little push-ups on it starting off slowly and for anybody who is if you feel like you've had some issues with your mobility you might want to break yourself hire trainer there's a lot of kids out here right now that don't have jobs 20 bucks an hour for some kid who's who's the you know the captain of the high school football team to run you through some stretches once a week that's not bad kids can use a little extra money I mean so I mean if you just you need to work with a trainer get yourself moving little resistance will help you strengthen those muscles around the area that you have weakness which will help you counterbalance some of your weakness so I think aerobic resistance and then dietary changes and the one we said earlier the eat listen mate I take one drug and I'll I'll talk about it I don't like to say it by name because then everybody thinks that I'm gonna take Martel's drug and I'll be is no your doctor will tell you what's drug to take but the one I take you have to inject every day I'm an honest drug now for 12 years I'm one of the longest running patients on this drug who is missed only 14 shots in 12 years every day I take it within two hours of itself every day if I'm on the East Coast I try to shoot at 7 o'clock at night so when I'm over here I try to get it between 3 and 4 and I mean so I'm trying I'm trying to make sure that I get that shot taken every single night around the exact same time no matter where I am in the world and I've been doing this now for 12 years that's a little anal that's incredible advice though because the one of the most important things in terms of preventing you know recurrence and MS symptoms from coming back are is compliance with your medications this is such important for you to go ahead it's not just MS it's everybody we have the least compliant people in America you go to the drugstore buy a drug for a hundred fifty bucks use three of them and leave it on the shelf and wonder why it's still sick I write you know I want to smack people with this you have to take about yes sir I'm sorry you have to convince I appreciate that and you got to eat right already and you gotta exercise yeah and one one other thing I'll ask you is are there any things that you should avoid in terms of dietary supplements or anything you're eating in your diet or and what exercises might we avoid if we have Emma we want to make sure that you don't there's there's this there's this threshold with MS because of our body temperatures and if you especially if you have any kind of temperature versions or issues with regulating your body temperature I had for quite a long period time I couldn't go out a lot of heat above 90 degrees can really start to weaken me very quickly so you have to pay attention to how rapidly your body heats up so I would say can you be a marathoner yes can you be a triathlete yes but as you're training if you start to notice that let's say you know you push yourself to a point where you start not just getting tingling but you're getting numbness and there's something more wrong I back off to your doctor you know don't push yourself to that point of failure because you know what I'm going to show people over the course of the next year I'm really on a mission not compelling yet I wanted people to understand that again ten years ago a doctor told me I would be in a wheelchair in four years haha okay so he was wrong no wheels - I told myself two years ago you can't guess what I can't now and I'm going to continue to until I don't want to not until I can't so what I think what I'm really trying to do right now is to make sure that this journey between now and the time that I leave this place will be on my terms and yeah I have a mess it's going to continue to just come at me and I'm going to continue to do everything I can to put up a good fight and like I said if at the end of the day this week anime to a point where I need assistance I'll still exercise to my assistance if this gets to a point where you know whatever it is I will then have had an unbelievably good life because I live every day to the fullest and try to make sure I took advantage of all the mouths I have to live as well as I can Wow incredible advice from an incredible person know about your disease take your medications eat right and exercise I mean if that's not applicable to every disease known to man and woman you know I don't know this was incredible information I want to thank you so much for joining us spread the word this was outstanding Montel thank you so much for joining us here on MV VOD to discuss multiple sclerosis Montel is a living example of how combining diet exercise and stress reduction with a thirst for knowledge about your disease is so powerful in healing Montel showed us what we should all try to be like with or without MS we hope this information helps those of you living with MS lead healthier happier and more productive lives join us next time here on MD VoD your health live and on demand

Channel: emPOWERme.tv

Views: 218,311

Rating: 4.8750472 out of 5

Keywords: diagnosis, disease, doctors, healing, health, john kennedy, life, montel williams, ms, md-vod, mdvod, Multiple

Id: VpmKTMObICE

Length: 19min 47sec (1187 seconds)

Published: Mon May 21 2012