Food As Medicine

Tags

Copaxone, Mark's Daily Apple, MS, Paleo Diet, Terry Wahls

Grilled Salmon, Roasted Cauliflower, Roasted Carrots, with Spinach and Kale Salad

I wish my Whole Foods bill could be covered by insurance.  Then again, that has been my sentiment about a lot of things that I believe can help my medical condition, including a lovely restorative spa vacation.  In early December, I received the disturbing news that my medication, which is covered,  wasn’t working as well as my MS specialist felt that it should be.  This was very disheartening because I had put so much trust in the Copaxone.  From the day of my first injection, I really thought everything would be fine.  I had been on it for 9 months already and hadn’t experienced any symptoms, but my MRI showed new lesions. I suppose all good things must come to an end and now a seed of doubt had been planted.

As I’ve said before, timing really is everything.  Just days before that dreadful call, my daughter had sent me an email, asking if I had ever heard of Terry Wahls and if I would consider altering my diet to help prevent MS relapses.  I told her I hadn’t heard of her and that I really had pretty good eating habits already.  It had only been a couple of days and I hadn’t yet looked into her suggestion, but after receiving the call, I needed a new plan. I Googled The Terry Wahls Foundation.  I found several snippets of videos at first, and books for sale.  I wanted free information, I didn’t want a scam.  Why I blindly bought into $50,000 worth of Copaxone, but resisted spending $38.00 on a book is truly a mystery to me and I’ve since splurged on a couple of great books.  One of the video snippets mentioned eliminating grains, refined sugar and processed foods completely.  So that is where I began, no grains or sugar, to the extent of reading labels on everything, which is pretty simple when you eliminate the next thing, processed foods.  When is the last time you had to read a label on a carrot?

I traded my coffee, with its no fat half and half, which is loaded with hidden sugar, to yummy chai which is delicious black. Both contain caffeine so there was no withdrawal. It wasn’t very difficult even with the holidays fast approaching.  My husband’s work party was days away and I had already ordered the stuffed chicken, but my plan was to eat around the stuffing, skip the tortellini in the soup and eschew the bread basket.  The party was a piece of cake (grainless of course).  When the appetizers came around I chose only the skewered chicken and the shrimp; I passed on the stuffed mushrooms and fried breaded zucchini.  The woman beside me was sorry she ordered the vegetarian meal as soon as she saw my chicken; we traded and I fell in love with the healthy alternative.  It was a beautiful portabello mushroom stuffed with butternut squash, walnuts and cranberries.  I wasn’t missing anything and I danced all night in my heels!

Beet Salad

Within the first 5 days after eliminating grains, sugar and processed food, I dropped 6 pounds.  I didn’t change my diet as a means to lose weight, but I must say, knowing that I previously carried 6 pounds of  grain induced bloat gave me the feeling that I was onto something.  That weekend I found the Terry Wahls TEDxIowaCity YouTube lecture,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc, which describes in detail her nutrition plan. That video has since gone viral.  I watched it twice and took notes about the food that Dr, Wahls used as medicine to feed her mitochondria. She went from being wheel chair bound, to riding her bike to work everyday after researching and putting into practice the nutrients involved in sustaining a healthy brain.  I have already posted the lecture link on this site, and if you haven’t watched it in its entirety now is the time to do so. Where I had previously focused on only eliminating, I was now learning what I needed to add and I was seeing that it was even more important than what you take away.  The concept of focusing on what you are gaining, rather than what you are giving up began to become embedded in my mind and really motivated me.  That and the prospect of preventing my lesioned, black hole ridden brain from shrinking away was all the motivation I needed to go straight to the nearest produce department.  In a nutshell, Dr. Wahls suggests adding 9 cups, though I have heard it can be 6 for women, of a combination of leafy greens, sulfur rich vegetables and brightly colored fruits and vegetables.  She also added grass fed meats, wild caught salmon, seaweed, and organ meats.  I have adhered to all but the organ meats and seaweed, which is proving to be more difficult to enjoy than I expected.  While the 9 cups of greens and colorful vegetables are a daily need, and one in which I have come to really enjoy, the organ meat and seaweed is supposed to be once a week, seaweed for its iodine and organ meats for the many nutrients they provide. I am not a nutritionist, I still need to research either a way to make these last two things palatable, or supplementally available to me.  I buy grass fed meats when the stores I shop carry them, but am not a purist at this point.  And wild caught salmon seems to always have bones, where the farm raised do not, but I’m a work in progress.   All I can say is that I have never eaten better.  Recipes are not really necessary because I eat whole food, unadulterated beautiful whole foods seasoned with fresh herbs and olive oil.  My salads are amazing and the combinations I make are limited only to your imagination or produce drawer.  I have lost a total of 15 pounds and as bratty as it may sound, I am feeling a little too skinny, but it’s not for lack of eating as I definitely get my 9 cups and then some, every single day.  If it sounds like a lot of food, well that’s because it is.  Most people say that breakfast is the hardest habit to change, but I have come to enjoy my giant bowl of raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries, accompanied usually by an egg.  We are all creatures of habit; just make the change and it will become your habit.  There are many sites that are dedicated to grain free diets.  Modern Hunter Gatherer, Paleo, Caveman, they are all based on the same principals and a quick Google search will give you access to recipes for grainless muffins, and breads if you need a fix. My husband has learned to make the most delicious pancakes using almond flour and buckwheat flour, all grainless, and when he releases that recipe, I will share.   A really great resource for health in general and grainless diet in particular is http://www.marksdailyapple.com/.  When I came upon this site, one of the first thing I saw in its archives was a link to the Terry Wahls lecture; I had come full circle. I don’t feel deprived in any way, although on occasion I think about pizza. The idea of preventing MS relapses surely outweigh any craving I may have, so staying the coarse hasn’t been too much of a chore. Grainless or brainless…

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Tags

Acupuncture, Chinese Medicine, Copaxone, Gilenya, MS, ms specialist, Multiple Sclerosis, Terry Wahls, Tysabri, Yoga

John William Waterhouse: Pandora, 1896

I received an early Christmas gift on December 6, 2011. It wasn’t a gift in the traditional sense, but it is definitely one that I have yet to finish unwrapping. This gift was delivered in the form of a telephone call from my MS specialist. I had been waiting to hear from Dr. K since my early November follow up MRI. Describing this as a gift may lead you to believe that the phone call delivered some good news; a clean MRI. On the contrary, Dr. K was calling to tell me that she had just read my MRI and that I had two new spots on my brain, “They aren’t in an area of great concern, but we need to consider a new medication for you.”  She went on to recite her often repeated list of the various options and before she could continue, I asked her if it was just too soon after starting the Copaxone; maybe I would have had spots in areas that were of concern if not for the Copaxone.

I felt like a junky, defending my drug of choice. My healing euphoria was being challenged. It was the beginning of my intervention. Had I been fooled into a false sense of empowerment, while only shooting blanks? My troop of one was about to have a very serious drop in morale. I was having a hard time paying attention to Dr. K as she spoke, after all, I was in the parking lot of Walmart preparing to meet my husband to buy Christmas lights. She caught me by surprise, though I had been waiting to hear from her since the first week in November and it was now already December.

I interrupted her spiel about the medication choices, and asked her if she could just send me the information. I was sitting in my car; I didn’t even have a pen. My expectations, once again, were a little out of sync with the reality because what I thought she would send was a letter, or maybe an email, with personal and professional opinion regarding these choices.  What I really wanted to know was, if she were me, what would she choose for herself?  If I were her sister or her mother, what would she recommend. What I received instead, two days later, were three large envelopes delivered by Fed Ex, containing glossy brochures, produced by the pharmaceutical companies, touting the various drug I was to once again consider.  I also came home to a message from my insurance company’s home delivery service which was waiting to ship my Copaxone refills.  They were calling to arrange it.  I guess I needed to decide quickly. I emailed Dr. K to thank her for the advertisements; the information I could have just as easily obtained on the web; the glossy ads showing smiling paid spokes-MSers walking through wheat fields unassisted. I also needed to ask her if I should refill my medication for at least one more month while making my decision.  She quickly, immediately in fact, replied in all capital letters: DO NOT REFILL YOUR COPAXONE.  Was this really happening?  If the MRI was so dire, why did it take her a month to call me? She apologized for not calling sooner.  She didn’t know I had rescheduled the MRI because no one had sent her the results.

You may still be wondering why this disappointing phone call is being described as a gift.  Up until 3:07 pm on December 6, I had, for lack of a better phrase, been feeling pretty groovy.  I was the master of my domain.  A soldier with a perfect kill rate. I had been giving myself daily injections, not having any noticeable side effects, still not having finished informing all of my family, when just like that, I’m told it’s not working.  I was more devastated from that phone call, than I was the day I was diagnosed.  But here is the gift I began to unwrap on that day; I finally faced up to reality and I told my youngest son I have MS. I began to talk about my MS with my husband.  I felt as though I was finally shedding the last bits of denial that I had been clinging to despite the comfort it was affording.  It marked my first effort at truly seeking out alternative treatment options beyond the medication I had been banking on.  I needed to take back control and the call was a gift because it motivated me to do that.

I called my MS specialist and told her I wasn’t changing medications.  I was going to stay on the Copaxone for a while longer, and try other means of amplifying its effectiveness.  After researching my options I decided that the cons of the other medications far outweighed the pros.  Dr. K recommended Tysabri or Gilenya; she wanted to take an aggressive approach.  I couldn’t see making myself sicker to prevent that which may never come, or that which may possibly be inevitable.  It was at this time that my daughter happened to mention that she saw a YouTube video about dietary changes used in controlling the effects of MS.  I watched the Terry Wahls lecture and immediately decided to give the diet a try.  I’ve never eaten better in my life, and while it’s too soon to tell, I really hope it works.  It makes me feel very “clean” and clear headed, though it could be argued that it’s a combination of all the other changes I’ve incorporated.  I made an appointment for acupuncture and continue to go for treatments once a week.  I found a yoga class that I now participate in twice a week and I simply love it.  I began practicing Qi Gong everyday.  I started doing things specifically targeted towards a positive focus for healing.  I am not ready to throw medical science and pharmaceutical research out of the window, but there is also science behind the nutritional benefits of an Multiple Sclerosis diet.  There is science behind the benefits of Vitamin D3 supplements; I now take 4,000 IUs per day. My acupuncturist is a medical doctor and she truly believes in the merits of Chinese medicine.  I am beginning to see them as well.  The stress reduction value of yoga has long been established.  My mind became open to all these wonderful new concepts of energy healing; ironic seeing this disease is one in which your brain shrinks and mine seems to be growing.  The gift that I received with that December phone call is still being unwrapped.  I am relishing the tearing open of my gift, with the anticipation that the best is yet to come.

Joy Riding

Tags

Biking, MS, MS Health, Terry Wahls

The spring before I was diagnosed, my husband bought me a bicycle for Mother’s Day.  I had been experiencing numbness in my feet and legs for several months and all my previous forms of exercise gave me an uncomfortable electrical sensation.  I would get a strange feeling from the tips of my toes up through my groin whenever I tried to do anything that involved foot to ground impact.  Riding a bicycle did not cause any such symptoms. Zumba and Step Aerobics appeared to be activities I could no longer participate in.  Rather than dwell on that which I can no longer do, I now focus on the fact that I have rediscovered the joy of riding a bike.  I have been riding since.

Audry Hepburn on Sabrina sound stage

If you haven’t ridden a bicycle in a while, I highly recommend it regardless of whether or not you have an MS diagnoses. Physically, it’s a great no impact aerobic work out that has a wide range in terms of how physical you want to make it.  Mentally, besides the usual production of endorphins that exercise brings about, it is an activity that simply makes you happy.  There is something charmingly childish about riding a bike.  Most of us learned this never forgotten skill when we were about 6 years old.  And when I hopped on that saddle after years of not having ridden, I was instantly hooked.  We mainly ride on bike paths and the ones near where we live run along either the river or the ocean; both are amazing.  Even on the warmest of summer days, the breeze is created by sheer momentum.  This winter we have had milder than average temperatures and were able to sneak in a ride or two in December and January. Hills can be tough; hills are a challenge for any rider. We have learned the best points of bike path entry which affords a down hill start, thereby energizing and invigorating you from the get-go and then gives you a strong aerobic finish at the end of your round trip.

There are two stories which inspire me and make me believe that cycling is available to people with a wide range of abilities. The first is Terry Wahls’ TEDxIowaCity Minding Your Mitochondria lecture. Interestingly, when I discovered Terry Wahls’ viral video, I couldn’t help but notice that Dr. Wahls described how she went from a wheel chair to biking to work after changing her diet.  I doubt that Dr. Wahls ever considered becoming a runner as her mobility returned, but she found that she could ride a bike as she rehabilitated. This life changing video inspired many lifestyle changes I have made as well as reconfirming my cycling theory.

My friend Hope, the woman I met on that fated flight from Arizona, is plagued with moderately advanced symptoms of MS.  When I met her, one of her hands was unusable, she had a leg brace and used a cane.  I followed her off the plane as she painstakingly made her way towards baggage. In one of our email exchanges, I  told her about my bike riding and a few weeks later she emailed me and told me she had purchased an adult sized tricycle. She was thrilled.  She spoke enthusiastically about the fact that she felt like a 5 year old girl, riding her trike through the park near her winter home in Florida. I have a feeling she hadn’t felt so alive in years.  Hearing this brought me such joy, nearly as much as riding.