MS reversed with diet

[gac3rd]

Dr. Terry Wahls MD is a clinical professor at the University of Iowa VA hospital in Iowa City who came down with MS, went through the best western medical treatment available at the Cleveland Clinic and found her self in a tilt recline power wheelchair where she had to be lying down most of the time.

She started eating her veggies and is now back walking, working and teaching. It is the only reversal of severe MS symptoms I have every heard of.

Here is a list of her YouTube videos. http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...y+wahls&page=1

I recommend the first one,
TEDxIowaCity - Dr. Terry Wahls - Minding Your Mitochondria

as the place to start. It is short at 17 minutes, but it does not give quite the whole story.


The second one, the IC people, is longer, but you get a bit more information.

Hope this is of some interest.

[skippy13]

I believe that diet plays a big role in how I feel. I crave onions and mushrooms and peppers and things mentioned in the second piece and I never eat dairy save butter. I watched it all the way through and think that she is definitely on to something here.

I don't know that her recovery is anything more than coincidence, but I like to think that it is related to dietary changes to some extent. I know that by trial and error I have fallen into similar dietary patterns simply because they make me feel better.

I do not have a diagnosis of MS, but I have for many years been tested repeatedly for the disease. At one point the docs have told me that I have significant demyelination. But that could be related to my C5-6 problems.

All I can say about the diet changes is that they cannot hurt.

[SCI-Nurse]

Since the vast majority of people with MS (85%) have the relapsing remitting type (RRMS), and can spontaneously go into remissions (and exacerbations), MS is a set up for all sorts of "cure" claims being made that have no real scientific basis. This includes scams aplenty. Dietary causes and "cures" for MS have been claimed for many many years, and none have been able to withstand scientific investigation. Autoimmune diseases like MS are much too complex to be simply cured by somelike like a simple change in diet.


(KLD)

[gac3rd]

Originally Posted by SCI-Nurse

Since the vast majority of people with MS (85%) have the relapsing remitting type (RRMS), and can spontaneously go into remissions (and exacerbations), MS is a set up for all sorts of "cure" claims being made that have no real scientific basis. This includes scams aplenty. Dietary causes and "cures" for MS have been claimed for many many years, and none have been able to withstand scientific investigation. Autoimmune diseases like MS are much too complex to be simply cured by somelike like a simple change in diet.

Clearly MS is a complex disease, or more likely a set of diseases, and any individual may or may not respond to a given treatment. Dr. Wahls website says she has "secondary progressive multiple sclerosis". I gather from Wikipedia that this form does not have spontaneous remissions, only periods of not getting worse.

I have spent a lifetime working with statistics and am more than aware that correlation is not causation. However, Dr. Wahls is a professor of clinical medicine at the University of Iowa and has been actively publishing papers for years. She has apparently obtained funding for a MS organization in Canada for a small clinical study of this idea.

I think it is fair to say that Dr. Wahls is a bit beyond the typical crank, and if you take a look inside her book at Amazon, or just listen to her for a hour, you might give her more attention.

Her basic claim is that the typical American diet is detrimental to our health. This idea has overwhelming basis in fact, but the medical profession is strangely blind to the idea. The fundamental idea that she is proposing is that if you give the body the substances it needs to function, it will do a better job of it. Moving to a better diet has zero downside risk, it will almost certainly improve your general health, and, hey, if it causes MS remission so much the better.

This may not help all folks with MS, but there seems good reason to think it helped at least one person, and it may be of interest to others to at least know about it.

[willingtocope]

I'm not a patient of Dr. Wahls', but I am a patient of one of the "co-authors" on her paper describing her regimen. My doctor says she has indeed gone from wheelchair bound SPMS to a fairly mobile life.

BUT...her regimen requires 2-4 hours per day between EMPI treatments and her exercise program. Because she is a doctor at both the VA in Iowa City and the hospital, she has a ver flexible schedule. Yes, she does ride a bike to work...but, it has a small motor to assist. Her diet is restrictive and probably not really doable for most people. Plus, on the occasions when she has to travel and is unable to follow her routine, she quickly loses her mobility.

In short, Dr. Wahls is indeed on to something...but...it would be difficult for anyone else without her resources to follow.

[jody]

Originally Posted by skippy13

I believe that diet plays a big role in how I feel. I crave onions and mushrooms and peppers and things mentioned in the second piece and I never eat dairy save butter. I watched it all the way through and think that she is definitely on to something here.

I don't know that her recovery is anything more than coincidence, but I like to think that it is related to dietary changes to some extent. I know that by trial and error I have fallen into similar dietary patterns simply because they make me feel better.

I do not have a diagnosis of MS, but I have for many years been tested repeatedly for the disease. At one point the docs have told me that I have significant demyelination. But that could be related to my C5-6 problems.

All I can say about the diet changes is that they cannot hurt.

skippy I am having the same sort of thing, with being diagnosed with ms, except the lumbar puncture was not positive. the neuro is still hanging on to the diagnosis even with the evidence of cervical compression.

[gac3rd]

Originally Posted by willingtocope

I'm not a patient of Dr. Wahls', but I am a patient of one of the "co-authors" on her paper describing her regimen. My doctor says she has indeed gone from wheelchair bound SPMS to a fairly mobile life.

BUT...her regimen requires 2-4 hours per day between EMPI treatments and her exercise program. Because she is a doctor at both the VA in Iowa City and the hospital, she has a ver flexible schedule. Yes, she does ride a bike to work...but, it has a small motor to assist. Her diet is restrictive and probably not really doable for most people. Plus, on the occasions when she has to travel and is unable to follow her routine, she quickly loses her mobility.

In short, Dr. Wahls is indeed on to something...but...it would be difficult for anyone else without her resources to follow.

Thanks for the on the ground insight. It is clinically interesting, but personally saddening, to hear that the effect goes away quickly if she goes off of the diet.

[willingtocope]

Originally Posted by gac3rd

Thanks for the on the ground insight. It is clinically interesting, but personally saddening, to hear that the effect goes away quickly if she goes off of the diet.

For what its worth (its all theory), my doctor thinks its more the EMPI stimulation and exercise program that helps her.

[gac3rd]

Understood. Thanks. I don't have MS, a cousin an two friends are as close as I am.

I did have an experience with my father-in-law, who has type II diabetes, and a diet similar to Dr. Wahls', but no beans and quinoa rather than meat. It made a dramatic difference in his A1C blood sugar measurement and a dramatic difference in my blood pressure (last doctors office 103 / 61) and cholesterol levels.

The diet completely got me off of medication of any sort, and there are no confounding factors. It is the diet. These experiences, and Dr. Wahls' presentations of her experiences made me hopeful.

It will be interesting to see how her clinical trials pan out. I have not found any results on Google Scholar or her website. If you know of any I would like a reference. Thanks.

[tabithakat]

I can't watch the video at the moment as my PC wont load it but will watch it later as I've not been told that diet could be have an affect on my symptoms.