Wahls Protocol - Healing for Multiple Sclerosis
I am a champion for The Wahls Protocol. Wow, the Wahls lifestyle reverses autoimmune disease. These healers who recover from chronic autoimmune diseases and share their healing protocols amaze me the most.
Meet Dr. Terry Wahls, MD. She is a research doctor and very athletic, running marathons, climbing mountains in Nepal, black belt in tae kwon do. Still, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2000.
Dr. Wahls is committed to public education. She shares her healing method through her book The Wahls Protocol. Sign up for newsletters on her web. Subscribe to her YouTube channel, and listen to her interviews by several podcasts hosts. In 2018, the Institute for Functional Medicine presented her with the Linus Pauling Award for her contributions as a researcher, teacher, clinician, and patient advocate.
Here are some of my favorites videos:
Dr. Wahls Ted Talk - Minding Your Mitochondria
I love her Ted Talk-Minding Your Mitochondria. She shares her journey of healing. Despite having the best doctors and the latest drugs for three years, her MS continued to worsen until she was in a reclining wheelchair. Dr. Wahls researched PubMed learning brains with MS shrink over time. Similar to Huntingtons, Parkinson, and Althemers, all brains shrink.
She discovered another important link – the mitochondria are not well, “mitochondria are the driver of disease”. Mitochondria are small structures in a cell. Most importantly, mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell, producing energy. Healthy mitochondria are vital to normal cellular function.
Then Dr. Wahls discovered the Institute of Functional Medicine, and learned how to protect brain cells. MS damages brain cells and she learned which vitamins are needed to fully support brain health. The mitochondria needs vitamin B, sulfur, and antioxidants to thrive.
Next it occurred to Dr. Wahls to get these nutrients from food. Not having enough nutrients is the same as starving oneself. Lacking proper nutrition, minerals, essential fats, sets the stage for chronic disease and behavior problems.
After three months on the Wahls Diet, she could walk short distances. Another month, she didn’t need a cane. Five months later, Dr. Walls is riding a bike. It is such a pivotal movement. After nine months, she biked 18 miles. The following year, she is trail riding in the Rockies. She encourages all to eat for our mitochondria to optimize health.
Dr. Wahls and Dr. Hyman - Reverse Autoimmune Disease
The only thing better than listening to one of my favorite gut healing experts is listening to two. Dr. Hyman (see my blog) interviews Dr. Terry Wahls and her healing program for MS.
Dr. Hyman estimates over 80 million people suffer with autoimmune disease, more than heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined.
Dr. Wahls states it is critical to address mental, emotional, spiritual needs so people are willing to do the work, she spends more time her. Sleep and stress management are as important as nutrition. The Wahls Protocol heals many autoimmune diseases. Many conditions improve including, asthma, allergies, and muscle dystrophy, and cystic fibrosis. She shares good tips. For example, enjoy greens. Proper amounts reduce risk of macular degeneration, cataracts, and even dementia.
She develops individual eating plans and stresses the importance the entire family committing to the diet. She offers food sensitivity tests. Most days, she saunas and takes nightly ice baths. Gentle stressing of the body with hot and cold therapy is healing.
The Wahls Protocol - Guidebook for Healing
I love her book The Wahls Protocol. (I’m sure continuing my old lifestyle would have resulted in an autoimmune disease.) Containing 500 pages, it is a guidebook for health. She provides detailed information for variations of the Wahls diet and strategic lifestyle changes to reverse MS. Her program works for many autoimmune diseases. Followers who struggle with weight, lost weight easily without being hungry. Blood results improve with lower A1C and cholesterol.
Wahls Wisdom
Here are some of my favorite Dr. Wahls quotes from her book:
- I want to restore your hope. This book is about hope.
- When chronic disease is the result of a deficiency, drugs aren’t going solve the problem.
- Your doctor cannot cure your autoimmune disease.
- This is where it all begins—with cellular health.
- When you eat and live in accordance with the needs of your cells, your body can finally concentrate on healing, and that is when the dramatic changes will happen for you.
- The power of healing is within you.
- Maximize your body’s natural detoxification process.
- Minimize your toxic exposure
- Listen deeply to your body. Find the symptoms (feeling well and energetic) that tell you when your cells are working optimally, and the symptoms (pain, fatigue, sensory problems, cognitive problems) that tell your cells are not working properly.
- As a physician and researcher, I do not agree that a vegetarian diet is the healthiest diet for humans—and in fact i believe it can actually be harmful, particularly if it is not practiced carefully.
- Movement begets movement, and energy expenditure can result in more energy.
- Lack of mobility leads to immobility.
- In my clinics, I have seen several individuals with diabetic neuropathy and others with neuropathies in which we could not find the cause (idiopathic) respond quite favorable to adopting the Wahls Diet or Wahls Paleo Diet.
Signs of Mitochondria Damage
The best determinant of health is great energy. If you feel fatigue, experience migraines and headaches, or have a chronic disease. Dr. Wahls recommends supporting your mitochondria with a dense nutrition diet and supplements.
Here is her list of drivers that damage mitochondria:
- A high-sugar, high-starch diet.
- Over the age of 50
- Statin drugs
- Prescription or over-the-counter meds taken regularly.
- Diuretics and medications that lower stomach acid.
- Long term, overexposure to toxic chemicals.
The Wahls Diet
Dr. Terry Wahls diet is Paleo based, local, fresh in season, organic, consisting of leaves, roots, berries, meat and fish. Her diet is also eliminates gluten, dairy, egg, and sugar. She feels the pain from inflammation if she eats these foods. This is the most basic level delivering a kick-start to your systems.
The Wahls protocol diet is structured to deliver three cups each per day of each category:
- Leafy greens – kale, arugula, and spinach
- Sulfur vegetables – cabbage family, onions, mushrooms, and asparagus.
- Colored vegetables – beets, carrots, peppers, berries, and oranges
It is also important to include high quality protein for omega 3 fatty acids. Examples are, wild fish, and grass-fed meat. Including organ meats is important as they are potent in minerals. Eat seaweed once a week to maintain iodine. This diet will dramatically increase vitamin and mineral content in diets. Best of all, no one is starving on this diet.
Dr. Wahls does not recommend vegetable oils for many reasons. Olive oil, not heated, is OK. For high heat cooking oils, she recommends rendered animal fats, i.e., lard, tallow, or chicken fat. Coconut oil is an option.
The Wahls Protocol provides several levels of the diet. There is the basic Wahls Diet, then the most popular Wahls Paleo. Wahls Paleo Plus with an Wahls Elimination version, they are challenging diets. Her book documents each one and the benefits. Her book is full of recipes with a great variety of foods.
Wahls Elimination Diet
Dr. Wahls recommends strictly following a supervised elimination diet. It is the gold standard for determining if you have a food sensitivity or allergy. These diets are difficult to do without support. This diet should be followed for a minimum of 100 days, ideally for six months.
Then reintroduce food ingredients, favorites first, one per week. Keep a diary and log any symptoms that reappear. Symptoms from the reintroduced foods are a sign this food is sensitive for you and should not be in your diet.
It is very important to not have any of the foods you eliminated during this time. Even one bite can compromise results.
Wahls Warning: Some experience detox symptoms and a sudden change in diet can make symptoms worse, i.e., acne and headaches. Dr. Wahls says “Better out than in!”.
The Wahls Diet App
This is a fee based app to assist in managing MS and autoimmune symptoms. It incorporates principles from her protocol. I enjoy this app. Dr. Wahls stresses the importance of local, seasonal food. She includes a huge variety of foods in her nutrition dense recipes- using food as medicine.
The Wahls Protocol App- Support Habits for Healing
The goal of this app is to make it easier to adopt healthy lifestyle changes. Is it available through MasterHealth: Habit Coach, a fee based app.
I tried it for three months, I’m impressed. If you like feedback, this app is for you. Of course, it is only as good as the input. This app will help you build better habits. Most importantly, the short videos share why it is important to adopt these lifestyle changes.
This little app offers over 100 robust action items to build healthy habits, adopted from Dr. Wahls’ book. This can be overwhelming, so the app meets individuals where they are in their journey. Actions are ranked with the biggest impacts rank as a ten. Smaller, but favorable impacts rank as one. The best part, each action has a link with a short Dr. Wahls video educating how each action will help health goals. For example, the new habit may improve skin, mood, balance, strength, etc.
Ranking the actions helps to determine the ideal starting point. Dr Wahls suggests addressing diet early. Difficult habits are broken down into achievable bites. See the prompts, alerts, and be inspired by little celebrations as you achieve goals. For example, perhaps you don’t enjoy greens. Pick this habit, add one leafy green serving a day. This is a high impact, achievable goal. Next, the app suggests two servings per day, choose if ready.
Select achievable goals, focus on one area, i.e., stress management, improve diet, or exercise. Build on success with more goals, i.e., mediation, reducing stress, sleep, movement and balance exercises. The app ask how are you doing and adds new actions or removes actions as they become habits.
Using the app also creates a community for support and sharing. Pods are available for group sessions. Pods are helpful in maintaining success and enthusiasm, a great way to connect and engage. Celebrations are helpful in staying on course, as well as, seeing the consistency scores.
Wahls Wisdom about Food Allergies and Sensitivities Testing
She makes excellent points that allergy/sensitivity tests are controversial. It is also difficult to determine every sensitivity through an elimination diet, due to delayed reactions. Most reactions occurs within 72 hours, but some are delayed as long as seven to fourteen days.
Wahls Warning: Do not get a blood test for gluten sensitivity with a primary care provider. A negative test does not rule out gluten sensitivity. The test is not worth the money and the doctor may advise you can eat gluten which can slow healing. Many who test negative for gluten sensitivity will experience health improvements including a reduction in allergy symptoms. (This is true for me and all of my intolerances.)
Dr. Wahls Recommends Electrical Stimulation
Dr. Wahls enjoys using electrical stimulation, e-stim. She experienced tremendous improvement in her motor skills, physical therapy, rehabilitation, mood, and mental clarity. She also experienced improvement with spasms, pain, and cognition. It is very challenging for those with MS to gain improvement in these areas as they typically do not respond well to treatment.
Dr. Wahls interviews Garrett Salpeter. Garrett is a friend of hers and the founder of Neufit. (Neufit is a sponsor of the Wahls Protocol.) They discuss the healing benefits of electrical stimulation. The Neufit team developed the Neubie, a neuro-bio-electric stimulator. The device sends electrical impulses, direct current, through the skin to contract muscles and stimulate other tissues. This device improves flawed communications between the brain and body. The Neubie discovers hypersensitive areas, then stimulates these hot spots. Electrical pulses can correct broken neuro pathways.
The Neubie is FDA-cleared to reduce spasms. The Neubie can reduce some pain. The strategy to calm down the brain. Overtime, e-stim can diminish pain. This is not a solution for all pain. For example, physical damage takes time to heal. However, many recover faster from surgery, stroke, swelling, strains, and prolonged pain. Many with neurological injuries or diseases also benefit from e-stim.
E-stim improves cognition by helping the brain connect with specific muscles. This improves proprioception, the ability to understand exactly where the body is in space. Overall, e-stim promotes healing of bone, muscular, nerve, and connective tissue. Many with neurological injuries or diseases will benefit from e-stim.
Trouble Shooting the Wahls Protocol
If you are not improving as much as you would like, it’s time to reevaluate. Use the tool in her book, the Medical Symptoms Questionnaire. If your score is greater than 40, toxin overload is a contributing factor. Dr. Wahls says new exposures can be the cause, i.e., food allergens, mold, stress, toxins or infection. Dr. Wahls recommends working with a functional medicine doctor for to determine tests needed. She also includes a reference for labs she recommends in her book.
Dr. Wahls also strongly recommends naturopathic doctors (NDs) and doctors of chiropractic (DCs). In fact, these doctors receive more training and are often more focused on using nutrition than medical doctors or osteopath doctors. They offer comprehensive evaluations and how to heal with food and natural treatments.
Clinical Trials for Progressive MS
Fortunately, Dr. Wahls was on the institutional review board at Iowa University before she was disabled. They saw her MS recovery, but still denied funding for a study. However, the Dean of the College of Medicine was so impressed with her progress, he asked the board to consider funding the study and received approval. The nutritionist stated it was the most nutrient dense diet she evaluated. In 2022, she received $2.5 million to study her MS diet.
Dr.Wahls acknowledges…
It is the global village that created the change in research priorities for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. That led to a change is funding. More research about diet and lifestyle is happening because of your collective voice.
It is the global village that will reclaim its health by teaching one another that we are in charge of the food we eat and the way we choose to live. With hearts filled with gratitude for having our lives back again, we teach, and the teaching spreads around the world.
Find a Wahls Health Provider
If you have MS or any chronic condition, the Wahls lifestyle can reverse illness. Find a Wahls Protocol Health Practitioner for expert help.
My Notes
Although I do not have MS, I’m adopting many of her recommendations. I also love that Dr. Wahls also recommends naturopathic doctors (NDs). She says, NDs focus on nutrition and receive more training in nutrition and offer comprehensive evaluations.
Dr Terry Wahls says…
I can envision a day when we are able to obtain a genetic analysis of our genes and our microbes’ genes and a measurement of the precise chemicals in our bodily fluids and tissues.
I think if she received the Carroll Food Intolerance Test, her results would clearly state she is intolerant to gluten, dairy, and eggs. Most likely, she is also intolerant to a specific food combination.
Dr. Wahls does not use the term “food intolerance”. I think this is the key to making her diets easier. There is a big difference between allergies, sensitivities, and intolerances, (see Carroll Food Intolerant page for details). Identifying intolerance with the Carroll Method first makes her diets easier to follow and speeds the healing process.
Check out my Home page. I advocate for a simple and accurate food intolerance test. Easily identify foods you can’t digest with the Carroll Food Intolerance Test.
Find real healing by eliminating your specific food intolerances and adopting The Wahls Protocol.
Namaste,
Diane
Diane@GutHeal.net