Welcome To The Multiple Sclerosis And Neuroimmune Summit

Welcome to the MS and Neuroimmune Summit. I’m Dr. Terry Wahls. I am your host. And I am so glad that you were here. Now, I have a deeply personal connection to this summit and to all of you.

You see, I have secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. and I watched my father suffer for, 20 plus years with mono neuritis. Multiplex a autoimmune condition affecting his his, peripheral nerves, leading to progressively severe and horrific levels of pain.

Then eventually weakness, and eventually became very difficult for him to walk. it was difficult to sleep, difficult to function. and, I saw him die. age 65.

And so what? I developed electrical face pains, during medical school. and I would see these electrical face pains get relentlessly worse for the next 20 years.

I thought about my father and his progressive pain. And though my physician said that his condition and my condition were unrelated in my heart, I thought they were related.

And I thought likely I would eventually have my trigeminal neuralgia turned permanently on, and that I would have, like my father, this continuous, horrific levels of pain.

and so when I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I, you know, then I had seven years of relentless worsening despite, you know, seeing the best MS center in the country, seeing the best physicians taking the newest drugs.

I was thinking about my father and, the progressive nature of his illness and the progressive, worsening, of my electrical face pain. And that’s when I asked myself, am I doing all that I can?

and I went back to reading The Basic Science. and, by the way, it was, quite a chore for me, because I’m not a PhD. I’m not a neurologist. but I kept reading, I kept studying, and I would decide that mitochondria are the driver of, disability.

And I would create a supplement cocktail based on my review of the basic science and the animal models. And that was, slowed my decline. And, of course, I am super grateful for that.

then I, discover electrical stimulation muscles. when I was reviewing a, research protocol, for using the electrical stimulation, muscles and people who were paralyzed were never going to walk again.

and I convinced my physical therapist to give me a test session. Yeah, it hurts really quite badly. But when it’s over, I feel great. My therapist says it’s probably the endorphins.

And so we add the, electrical stimulation to my little mat exercises that I’m doing. Ten minutes. If I do longer than that, I can go off to work. and then I discovered the Institute for Functional Medicine, and they have a course on nerve detection, which I take, and it’s audio synchronized PowerPoints, and I go through them, I go through the, the, thick, notebook of cases.

And I have a longer list of supplements, which I add and I’ve already been on the paleo diet for five years after having been a vegetarian for the previous 20.

and then I have a really big one. I sort of laugh at myself that it took so long to have this a What if I redesigned my paleo diet based on this long list of supplements?

So that’s more research to figure out where these foods are in the food supply, where these nutrients are in the food supply. And I start this new way of eating.

December 26th, 2007. Now, at that time point, I cannot sit up in a regular chair. I have a zero gravity chair with my knees higher than my nose. I have one, at the V. A., where I staff the Rosen Clinic, another at home, and I haven’t set with my family for meals, in years and not been able to go out, to movies or to restaurant.

and it’s difficult to drive more than the ten minutes it takes me to drive to work. I can take just a couple of steps, with two walking sticks. I’m beginning to have brain fog.

and as I said, my electrical face pain is relentlessly worse. And my chief of staff had assigned me to the traumatic brain injury clinic. I was going to have to start this new job.

in January. So I start this new way of eating some 26. A week later, I go to the new clinic to which I’ve been assigned, the traumatic brain Injury clinic.

The first two weeks, I just watch my partners, you know, examine patients. On the third week, it’s my turn to start examining these patients because I.

We don’t have any residents in this clinic. And I come home Monday night, and I tell my wife, Jackie, that, you know, that actually didn’t go to bed. And, by the way, could I sit in a regular chair for supper?

So I sit with my family. and it goes, okay. in the rest of the week, I, you know, go to clinic. and, it goes okay. So Friday, I told you, you know, I think I can do this.

And I go back in to see my physical therapist who says, Terry, you’re definitely stronger in advanced exercises. I’m doing ten minutes, now, twice a day, 20 minutes, then 15 minutes twice a day than 20 minutes twice a day.

And then I start walking with walking sticks at the hospital, which stuns my colleagues. And then I start walking with one walking stick. And then, you know, I begin walking short distances without any walking sticks.

And I tell Jackie in April, and I’d really like to try riding my bike. And she says, you know, honey, if it keeps going, well, maybe, in the fall, we can do that.

Well, two weeks later. And you know what? I really want to try riding my bike. so we have an emergency family meeting. and Jackie tells Zach, who’s my 16 year old son, six foot five.

Zach. You run along side on the left, she tells Zebby, who’s 13 years old. Zebby, you run along side on the right and she’ll follow and we all get into position.

She gives a signal. I push off and I bike around the block. And you know that 16 year old boy, he’s cried. The 13 year old girl, she’s crying. Jackie’s crying.

And if you look closely at me now, you can see that. When I relive that moment, tears can still come to my eyes, because that’s when hope came back. Because if you have a progressive neurologic disorder, most of us will eventually let go the future.

We take each day simply as it unfolds because the future is way too grim. But that day I rode my bike, I realized that the current understanding of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis is incomplete.

Who knows how much recovery might be possible? And I began biking a little bit more every day. then, in October, Jackie signs me up for the courage ride. And, the first I biked at that point was eight miles.

That day, I biked 18.5 miles. And once again, we’re all crime. And this fundamentally changes how I think about disease and health. It will change the way I practice medicine, and it will change the focus of my research.

And I began, giving talks to the local organic grocery store, to local churches, mosques, temples, community colleges, schools. I got banned as a speaker, by some organizations because they thought my my ideas were dangerous.

but I kept speaking whereas invited my, chief of staff and the, University of Iowa chief of medicine called me in and winery to start doing a clinical trial, testing my ideas in others with progressive MS.

They got me the mentors. and I began doing clinical trials. That was, in 2010. We started we enrolled our very first patient. What I want all of you to know is whatever chronic health problem you have, whether it is a neurologic problem, a mental health problem, a neuroimmune problem, a autoimmune problem, multiple sclerosis.

There is hope. There is so much that you can do that can better control your symptoms, that can help you reduce your fatigue, improve your quality of life, reduce the severity of the co-morbid medical problems.

And that’s why I’ve put this summit together. you’re going to hear from other experts. You’re going to hear from other scientists, other clinicians, other entrepreneurs who have, identified clinical protocols, products, things that you can do that can help you better manage your symptoms, improve your quality of life, but most importantly, empower you know, at a high level.

I want to be sure that I’m going to pull up my books here. be sure that you’ve picked up, The Wahls Protocol. Cooking for Life and The Wahls Protocol.

Get the revised and expanded version. We have many, many translations of my books of English is not your first language. go to my website, TerryWahls.com, and look to see if one of the translations are available.

to make it easier for you to learn these concepts. we have multiple levels of the diet. level one, level two, level three. so we have a basic level that adds more vegetables.

reduces the sugar, in the harmful foods, gluten and dairy, in particular, and can be done as a meat eater or as a vegetarian. Then we have a paralytic version, and then we have a ketogenic version.

We will have a handout for you that, you can download to get the outline. It’s great for your refrigerator on how to implement the walls diet. At a very basic level.

Eat more greens. Eat more non-starchy vegetables. it have plant protein. That’s a great way to start. And we’ve given you a, first chapter for my very first book, which was, Minding Your Mitochondria.

and, pick that up. We have the first chapter for The Lost Protocol. Pick that up. We have the first chapter and some recipes from The Wahls protocol. Cooking for Life. Pick that up.

we have, a couple more, talks that will be, explaining a bit more about how, we’ve developed the various tools to support your adopting a healthier diet and wellness program.

There is so much that you can do, so much that you can do. I am so glad that you were here. And welcome. this will be a week that transforms your life.

offers you hope, empowerment and confidence that there is much that you can do to improve the life for yourself and your family and your loved ones. Much love to all of you.

and welcome to the MS and Neuroimmune Summit.