Thursday, April 3, 2014

A Light in the Darkness

Homework Assignment:  Read. This. Book.

The Wahls Protocol: How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine
Like many physicians, Dr. Terry Wahls focused on treating her patients’ ailments with drugs or surgical procedures—until she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2000. Within three years, her back and stomach muscles had weakened to the point where she needed a tilt-recline wheelchair. Conventional medical treatments were failing her, and she feared that she would be bedridden for the rest of her life.
Dr. Wahls began studying the latest research on autoimmune disease and brain biology, and decided to get her vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids from the food she ate rather than pills and supplements. Dr. Wahl’s adopted the nutrient-rich paleo diet, gradually refining and integrating it into a regimen of neuromuscular stimulation. First, she walked slowly, then steadily, and then she biked eighteen miles in a single day. In November 2011, Dr. Wahls shared her remarkable recovery in a TEDx talk that immediately went viral. Now, in The Wahls Protocol, she shares the details of the protocol that allowed her to reverse many of her symptoms, get back to her life, and embark on a new mission: to share the Wahls Protocol with others suffering from the ravages of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune conditions.
Yes, she has MS instead of narcolepsy, but they are very similar, and MS patients often have low orexin levels.  Almost everything she writes about applies to us too.
It's a great read-  her story is amazing, her credentials are impeccable, her research is thorough, and she writes for regular people, not like a doctor.  
She covers almost everything I rant and rave about- the broken medical/pharma system, dietary fallacies, basic nutrition and immunity, and has a whole diet plan spelled out simply.   Some of it may not apply, and she doesn't really cover infection,  but she explains a lot of things that I am not qualified to write about.

And she's calm.   Not a spaz like me.

If anyone can break through the matrix, it's her.
Read the book.

ps,  Thanks to Sara for recommending this!