This is a great interview with Dr. Terry Wahls, who cured herself from secondary progressive Multiple Sclerosis by changing her diet to one high in micronutrient density. As a practicing medical doctor, she sought out the best hospitals and latest drugs for treatment to help her, but continued to decline. Her stomach and back muscles had become so weak that she could not even sit without support. She was confined to a tilt recline wheelchair and was headed for dementia and a bed-ridden state. Conventional medicine had failed her and she knew she had to take matters into her own hands in order to have any hope of improving (as all of us who suffer from chronic illness do). She began reading research papers on MS studies in mice and other animals and knew she had to start incorporating specific micronutrients to her diet. (Removing gluten, eggs, and dairy had not helped her improve). After a great deal of research and incorporation of 20 micronutrients to her body through food, she was able to walk with a cane three months later. Six months later, she could walk throughout the hospital without the use of a cane, and got on her bicycle for the first time in 6 years. And 9 months later, she was able to ride her bike for 18 miles!
She now treats her patients with the methods she used to cure herself, and has performed scientific studies on the ability of diet to improve the health of patients with autoimmune disorders or other chronic illness.

Disease begins at the cellular level. Nutrients taken in by the body first go to performing the most essential functions to keep the body alive. If a person is operating in a nutrient deficient state, their long term health will be affected. This is why it takes years to replenish the nutrient reserves in a person who has been deficient for a long period of time. I found it interesting that Dr. Wahls mentioned going to conferences when she began to feel better, where she didn’t have access to the 9-12 cups of vegetables she had been eating each day. Within 36 hours, her symptoms of brain fog and fatigue had returned. It took her 4 and a half years to build up the reserves in her body such that she could travel and not need so many vegetable per day to function. I think it is very important for those of us who suffer from chronic illness and those who are close to someone with one, to recognize that healing from a nutrient deficient state takes a long time (many years!), even when the person is doing all of the “right” things. I believe that the many people who have been on the AutoImmune Paleo diet who are frustrated about their lack of improvement are not getting the micronutrients their bodies need because they have cut so many foods out of their diets, fearing they will cause inflammation. Another problem that this sets up is oral intolerance in the future. When they finally do try to incorporate these foods back in their diet, the body rejects it because it no longer recognizes it as food. I think it is very important that we take as much fear as possible out of anything we do. If we are afraid of food hurting us, the fear will damage our body, as opposed to eating things that will help our bodies function more optimally.

Dr. Wahls gave a TED talk on her experience in 2011, called “Minding your Mitochondria”. I love this title because it addresses the importance of this often over-looked organelle in our bodies. Doctors and scientists are still overly focused on our DNA sequences and blame the mutations within them for disease- a theory that has long been overturned. Ultimately, disease boils down to the functioning of our cells, and the mitochondria in our cells are responsible for producing all of the energy needs of our body- not only from the conversion of glucose to ATP, but from photons in sunlight. I believe that I was able to hike the PCT in a severely nutrient deficient state because I was receiving energy from the sun! In these last three years, my exposure to sunlight has been nearly non-existent (as it has been throughout my life), and combined with the lack of nutrients that my body was absorbing due to the holes in my small intestines, I became more and more depleted of both nutrients and energy. And given that I have eaten a diet high in sugar and grains, and very low in nutrients, my entire life, I have a lot of work ahead of me to build my body back up! But I now believe that it is possible to regain my health and energy. It will just require a great deal of dedication and patience.

It’s fascinating that Dr. Wahls’ TED talk now comes with a disclaimer that it falls outside of their “guidelines”. Monsanto and several major pharmaceutical companies are sponsors of TED talks and have an agenda to shut down any messenger who speaks about the ability of natural substances to heal. Every day, our health is being more and more jeopardized by these large companies seeking obscene profits. Our soils are depleted of nutrients, our water is polluted, chemicals are being rained down on us the skies through chemtrails, and our crops are all being transitioned to toxic genetically modified substitutes. I can’t imagine how we have allowed this to be done to our planet. I can’t understand the reasoning of the few in powerful positions who have planned this. Are they not even capable of contemplating the health of their own children and grandchildren?
We must act quickly to take responsibility for our own health, empower ourselves with knowledge and tools, and together take a stance against the poisoning of or planet. What else is of greater importance?