Commusings: From Bedridden to Biking Again by Dr. Terry Wahls

Dear Commune Community,

Today’s essay by Dr. Terry Wahls is a portrait in courage. In 2000, Terry was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). Three years later, she became dependent on a tilt/recline wheelchair.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a ghastly immune-mediated neurological disease that affects the central nervous system. MS is characterized by the destruction of the myelin sheath—the protective covering that surrounds nerve fibers. When the myelin is damaged, the ability of the nerves to conduct electrical impulses to and from the brain is disrupted, leading to a wide range of neurological symptoms. None of them good.

They include profound fatigue, difficulty walking, numbness in limbs, electric-shock sensations, tremors, lack of coordination, vision problems, slurred speech, bowel disorders and memory degradation.

The cause of MS is not completely understood but it is generally categorized as an autoimmune disease. Essentially, the body's own immune system attacks and destroys the myelin sheath of the central nervous system. Women are 2-3 times more likely to develop MS than men and it is far more common in higher latitudes, which has led to speculation that it might be associated with vitamin D deficiency.

The "standard of care" for treating MS has generally been focused on symptom management and disease-modifying drugs.

However, it was Terry’s discovery of functional medicine that got her focused on addressing the root cause of her disease. By combining a wide assortment of protocols, Terry was not only able to impede further development of the disease, she was able to reverse its course.

Terry’s inspirational healing journey doesn’t mean that all cases of MS are reversible. However, it does point to the power of food as medicine and the agency that we have over our own health. I am honored to have Terry's course (and this essay) on the Commune platform.

I am always sharing protocols for well-being on IG @jeffkrasno.

In love, include me,
Jeff

• • •

From Bedridden to Biking Again by Dr. Terry Wahls

Watch the video version of this essay here.
 

Twenty years ago I am out walking with my wife Jackie, and a half-mile from home, my left leg grows weak. Dragging it, I hobble home.

The next day, the neurologist says, “Terry, this could be bad or really, really bad.”

At night, in bed next to Jackie, I think about my zingers, the jolts of electric face pain that have been growing relentlessly worse for 20 years. I don't want to become disabled. I'm praying secretly for a rapidly fatal diagnosis.

Three weeks later, I hear multiple sclerosis. I see the best MS center in the country. I take the newest drugs. Three years later, I am in a tilt-recline wheelchair.

I take mitoxantrone, a form of chemotherapy. It does not help. I take Tysabri, the new biologic. It does not help. My face pains are relentlessly worse. My 10-year-old daughter hugs me as tears stream down my face.

I can no longer sit up. I'm in a zero-gravity chair with my knees higher than my nose.

I go back to PubMed and I begin reading the basic science and I begin experimenting on myself based on what I learn — adding supplement after supplement.

The speed of my decline slows.

I adopt the paleo diet, but I'm still declining.

I discover a study using electrical stimulation of muscles. I ask my physical therapist, “Can I try that?” He says it's for athletes and that yes, it helps grow bigger, stronger muscles, but he doesn't know if my brain will be able to talk to those muscles. He might be making it harder for me to take the few steps that I can take, but he does let me have a test session.

It hurts really, really bad. When it's over, though, I feel great. My therapist says it's because of the endorphins, but I begin doing e-stim to as much pain as I can tolerate.

And then I discover the Institute for Functional Medicine, and I take their course on neuroprotection. I have a longer list of supplements, and then I have a really big aha.

I sort of laugh now that it took me this long… What if I redesigned my paleo diet based on all the science that I've been studying through the lens of functional medicine?

So I have a new focus to my diet based on what nutrients I need to consume – what I should eat – not just what to avoid. I start this new way of eating on December 26.

In January, I go off to a new job in the traumatic brain injury clinic. I start as an observer and for the first two weeks, things are okay. The third week I begin a new role where I have to examine patients. I didn't think I'd have the strength to do that, but at the end of the first day, I can do it. It's not too bad. At the end of the first week … it’s not too bad. I think I can do this. And at the end of the month, it's very clear I am going to be able to do this.

And then in February, I decide to mail a letter. I grab my walking sticks and I walked down the hall of the clinic for the first time in four years.

People are stunned.

And then I begin walking throughout the VA hospital first with two walking sticks, then only one.

On Mother's Day, I tell my family I want to try riding my bike.

We have an emergency family meeting: My kids don't think I should. They don't want me to risk falling. But Jackie decides, yes, I can try. She tells my big 16-year-old, six-foot-five son to jog on the left, my 13-year-old daughter to jog on the right, and she'll follow.

I get on my bike… it wobbles… but I catch my balance and I'm biking!

I bike around the block. My 16-year-old boy, he’s crying. My 13-year-old daughter, she's crying. Jackie's crying and I cry whenever I talk about that moment.

You see, I had been told in medical school, and by all of my physicians, that once someone develops the progressive phase of MS, functions once lost are gone forever. It was the grim truth of my condition. When I needed the wheelchair, I accepted that I would never run again, never bike again. I had learned to let go of the future, and take my days, one at a time.

Riding that bike changed everything. Hope for a better future came back to me. How much recovery might be possible? How much recovery could I achieve? I ride my bike a little farther each day. I can bike 8 miles, including hills.

In October, Jackie signs me up for The Courage Ride, 18.5 miles.

Once again, as I cross that finish line, my kids are crying, Jackie's crying, and I'm crying every time I talk about that ride. It changes how I think about disease and health. It changes the way I practice medicine and it changes the focus of my research.

I am Dr. Terry, and I'm changing the way autoimmunity is addressed across the globe. It is my mission to give hope to millions. It is my mission to give hope back to you and your family.

>> Watch Terry's course, Hope & Healing for Autoimmunity

---

Dr. Terry Wahls is a clinical professor of medicine and conducts research studies that test the effect of nutrition and lifestyle interventions on multiple sclerosis (MS) related symptoms and quality of life for people with MS and other progressive health problems. She is also a patient with secondary progressive MS, which confined her to a tilt-recline wheelchair for four years. She is the author of The Wahls Protocol: How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine, and the cookbook The Wahls Protocol Cooking for Life.

Since developing The Wahls Protocol® in 2007, Dr. Wahls has transformed the lives of millions — including her own. Today she is a long-distance biker, gardener, painter, and hiker, continuing her healing journey day by day.