The Bend Like Bamboo Resilience Show: Dr Terry Wahls, Clinical Professor of Medicine Ep 45.
Welcome to The Bend Like Bamboo Resilience Show. Each week, I interview amazing people, who share their inspiring stories of resilience. Enjoy our dive deep into educational and amazing insights as I explore the stories of my special guests, learning how they have overcome adversity in their lives.
In each session, together we can learn actionable tools that can help us elevate our mindset, seeing our setbacks as an opportunity to grow. To Bend Like Bamboo is to adapt with the power of flexibility. When we can transform our ‘story’ we can also change our minds about what can be possible in our minds, bodies, and lives.
Introducing Dr Terry Wahls.
How stress and nutrition impact repair in autoimmune disease.
Amanda visiting Dr Wahls in Iowa USA in 2013
Dr. Terry Wahls practices internal medicine and treats psychiatric patients at the VA in Iowa City Iowa. In the year 2000, she was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis.
MS is an autoimmune inflammatory disease that damages the myelin of neurons (imagine the white plastic that covers your phone charger cable), causing breaks in communication between the brain cells, neurotransmitter imbalances and cell death, with resulting physical and cognitive disabilities, including blindness, dizziness and pain. In its earlier relapsing-remitting stage, MS is treated with chemo and immune system suppressants. Dr. Wahls pursued the best and most aggressive treatment available.
Nevertheless, in 2003 her MS had developed into the secondary progressive variety. At that stage, the treatment strategy was to slow the unavoidable loss of function. Dr Wahls was using canes to walk, soon she was in a wheelchair almost all the time. Wahls is a doctor and she researched her condition, but there were no treatments to reverse the loss of function, not even any clinical trials available for her to join.
So she went back to school, staying up at night after the rest of the family was in bed. She studied the basic science of her condition and similar ones, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's Huntington's. Then she designed her own treatment based on the basic science about why brain cells die. She experimented on herself, developed a diet regime, tested potential food sensitivities. She started working with a physical therapist to use neuro-muscular electrical stimulation, continued the diet modifications.
Over the course of that year, Wahls went from moving around on a scooter to walking with canes to walking out of her wheelchair to riding a bicycle eighteen miles without assistance. Today, Dr. Wahls has recovered, she walks, bike rides with her family, and actively shares with the world how she is doing what people with secondary progressive MS don't do - and that is recovering.
In her first book “Minding your Mitochondria” she explains how those little maintenance workers don't have all the proper nutrients, like amino acids, the correct minerals, and fatty acids, then they can't build according to the DNA blueprints. Those nutrients are the building blocks that mitochondria in our cells need to keep our bodies healthy. If those replacement molecules and structures get made incorrectly or not at all, our bodies begin to deteriorate.
That led to her creating “The Wahls Protocol” a nutrition program that I followed with great success when I was also in a wheelchair and paralysed. When I began to learn how to flood my brain and gut with the right nutrients, the game literally changed for my recovery. My symptoms began to subside, alone life changing. I began to feel better mentally and emotionally, physically I walked faster, and I began to jog. In 2010 did my first MS Fun Run with MS Limited Australia and it has been a yearly tradition since.
Naturally, I had to meet this amazing woman.
How Dr Wahls and I met
I met Dr Terry Wahls in 2013 in Iowa, I was travelling n the USA and reached out to her. She agreed to met with me after I shared with her how much of an impact her protocol made in my recovery from a paralysis from MS.
I was so excited, and nervous. She was so lovely, she sat with me in her office, talked with me and listened to my story and the impact she had made in my life. She showed me the research she was doing, and we remained in contact. I am so excited to share this heart-felt podcast with you, where together Dr Wahls and I re-unite and chat about the further progress she has made helping people with autoimmune disease.
The impact stress and nutrition have on autoimmune disease
When I was 24 I was diagnosed with MS, and 5 years later I was paralysed at age 29. Thankfully after months in hospital, and taking a balanced approach of Kinesiology and Neuro-physiotherapy I was mobile again. I was so grateful to be home after 2 months living in rehabilitation. But I still had symptoms and I knew more work had to be done.
I began to research other stories of recoveries and discovered Dr Wahl’s story. I learned that over 90% of kids and adults are not getting enough recommended daily intake (RDI) of 2 serves of fruits and 5 serves of vegetables a day. Dr Wahls’ protocol increases our RDI to 9 cups of vegetables a day, eliminating grains and dairy. I began to prepare all of my meals, continued to exercise and reduced my stress levels as best I could. I noticed I could walk further, symptoms subsided and began to build strength in mind and body.
In this podcast Dr Terry Wahls and I talk about the impact stress, mindset and nutrition have on repairing autoimmune disease, get your tissues as we go deep and we get emotional. Her story is incredible and she will inspire you with hope that it is possible to make a recovery happen against all odds.
We all have a story, and we will have events that happen in our lives that will shake us, turn our words upside down and completely transform who we are. We have all experience stress and change. Our ability to be flexible is the key to managing our stress levels because who we are in those moments is connected to the choices we will make, our ability to reach our fullest potential and intimately our wellbeing.
If we can practise flexibility in our minds, bodies and lives, we can be more adaptable and open to change when we are stressed, when we want to give up, or when we want to give in. Who we are in those moments is connected to the choices we will make, our ability to reach our fullest potential and intimately our wellbeing.
My journey led to me discovering an inner anchor within me that allowed me to adapt. Helping others I discovered that a flexible mindset impacts everything that matters: our body’s ability to repair, how happy and resilient we are and how connected we feel. Since then I have made a 14 year recovery still in remission.
Now as a practitioner and the patient, I wrote a book to share my story, evidence based techniques that helped me that I also use with my clients, and all the lessons I leaned along the way. When Dr Wahls agreed to give my book a testimonial I was thrilled.
“An inspiring story that shows the power of flexibility and perseverance. Better flexibility, balance and self-care are keys to restoring your vitality. A must read for everyone with a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.”
Terry Wahls, MD, IFMCP, Author The Wahls Protocol A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions
Bend Like Bamboo the BOOK
Below check out Dr Terry Wahls’ new study that you could be eligible to join. Recruiting relapsing remitting MS patients – efficacy of diet quality to improve fatigue and quality of life.
Learn more about Terry’s story, her protocol and new trial in the podcast and live video on YouTube below.
Dr Terry Wahls’ new research study.
We are recruiting patients for a new research study!
EDQ-MS: Efficacy of Diet on Quality of Life in Multiple Sclerosis.
You are invited to participate in a research study to evaluate the effects of three diets. Modified Paleolithic Elimination diet, Time Restricted Olive Oil-based Ketogenic diet, and your usual diet with information about the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Participants in the usual diet group will be encouraged but not required to follow the Dietary Guidelines for Americans diet. Quality of life, including long term effect on motor and vision function, fatigue, mood, and disease activity will be assessed by online surveys, study participant tasks, and brain imaging.
The study will be conducted at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Patients will be followed for two years. In person visits will occur at baseline (month 0), month 3, and end of study (month 24).
Complete this survey to see if you are eligible. HERE
If you have any questions about what it means to be part of a research registry, please feel free to contact a member of the study team by email (MSDietStudy@healthcare.uiowa.edu), phone (319-384-5002), or mail (200 Hawkins Drive, c/o PIC, SE216 GH, Iowa City, IA 52242).
Terry’s tips:
Have hope that recovery is possible.
Nourish your body on a cellular level with nutrition to support your mind and body to repair.
Exercise and reduce stress levels, as this is also important.
Learn more about Terry’s amazing story, and her business in the podcast and live video on YouTube below.
You can also listen to the interview on the Bend Like Bamboo Resilience podcast
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