TEDx Talks
7 HN recommenders · recommended in 9 months, 2011–2022
17:47 · 4.2M views · Nov 30, 2011
Dr. Terry Wahls tells how she used diet to manage her multiple sclerosis and get out of a wheelchair, drawing on mitochondrial biology. TED flagged the talk as health advice based on personal narrative.
HN commenters point to it as a moving personal story that motivated dietary changes, though it is also cited as anecdotal evidence.
10 comments from Hacker News
Less than 2 years ago, my wife was diagnosed with MS (Multiple sclerosis). As soon as we found out, I started digging like crazy to learn more about why this happened and what we could do to prevent it from progressing. I'm a big believer in that the body has the ability to heal itself by avoiding certain foods and intaking others. I mean, food is fuel we put in our body. After digging for a while, I came upon some staggering discoveries. First, there are people who have reversed their MS almost completely on diet alone. The diets consist of A LOT of high-nutrition fruits and vegetables along with Omega 3's, organic meats, etc. These Paleo-like diets also forbid gluten with the main reason being that it causes serious inflammation in some folks. This TEDx video by Dr. Terry Wahl was very helpful ( this video ). I read her book and it literally laid the foundation for which changed our eating habits entirely. A month or so after, we flew out to Massachusetts to a well-known wellness center where they performed various blood and stool tests. The Dr's (including a Nutritionist) sat down with us for the entire day and asked about daily habits from what our work days were like to what we ate. Without mentioning my own research, they also said that gluten is something we should completely remove from our diet. There's a ton of other stuff out there, but since removing gluten entirely, my wife has felt great. We just did an MRI and she has no new lesions. She no longer experiences blur
Related to this topic I think you might find Dr. Terry Wahls' story fascinating, she pretty much 'cured' herself from Multiple Sclerosis by adopting a 'paleo' diet. She presented her findings at the 2011 Neuroscience conference ("Effects of intensive directed nutrition, progressive exercise program and neuromuscular electrical stimulation on secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (PDF)[1]") She also had a TED talk[2] taking us through the process of getting out of her wheelchair and the specific food she ate. I know this immediately turns on your B.S. sensors, but she changed her lifestyle after spending hours on Pubmed doing research on nutrition's impact on the brain and specifically the mitochondria. I highly recommend the talk, it is both very informative and very moving. And there are some saddening statistics about the lack of vitamins and minerals in the American population. [1] [LINK] [2] this video
Just one anecdote on that point. I'm pre-med and I recently shadowed the director of cardiac research (a cardiac surgeon) at the big hospital/medical school in this area. He was asked point-blank by a patient, "I've been reading that with diet and exercise I might be able to reverse my heart disease. What do you think?" The doctor's answer was, "Absolutely not." This is one data point, so it's hardly conclusive, but coming from a doctor who (a) teaches doctors and therefore plants seeds for the next generation and (b) should be an expert on new medical treatments with his position as the director of research, it's troubling. Meanwhile, there is a growing minority of doctors who take patients through an eating "bootcamp" where they help them take out processed foods/white-flour/high-fructose corn syrup from their diet, teach them how to shop and cook plant-based foods, etc. I saw a documentary on it, "Forks Over Knives" I believe. Fascinating stuff. In the documentary, they take a man with advanced heart disease, cut out all meat/dairy/processed foods from his diet, and take before-and-after blood readings (cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.). It was surprising how quickly the intervention reversed his numbers. There are other pioneers working in this area. There's Dr. Terry Wahls, an MD who reversed her multiple sclerosis by eating what some would call a "paleo" diet (only vegetables, fruits, nuts, meat). Here's her TED talk if you're interested: this video She's currently workin
I've been transitioning to the troglodiet (tm): fresh veggies, legumes, meat. More or less the caveman diet, Atkins, paleo, Eat to Live, etc. This Dr Terry Wahls TEDx talk has been very motivating. Minding Your Mitochondria this video Dr. Wahls is mitigating her MS thru nutrition. For me, eating lots of vegetables makes my chronic psoriasis go away. When I slack on the nutrition (eg traveling), my psoriasis comes back. I believe, but cannot prove, that psoriasis is basically external arthritis. I figure better nutrition is improving my health overall, including brain function. One side effect I did not expect: I now crave hearty kale salads. Years ago I had a gf who was really gunghu for kale, chard, sorrel, and other leafy greens. I could handle it once or at most twice a week. Blech. Now things are different. Better recipes certainly help. I think once my body got used to the good stuff, it demands more. Moderate exercise and plenty of sleep too, of course. Good luck.
My wife has an auto immune disease and we have both switched (through progressive stages) to the Wahl's Protocol. I've never felt healthier and her symptoms are improving--she's also on disease modifying treatment, so we're doing this in addition to medication, not instead of it. The Wahl's Protocol is designed for cell and brain health, so it may be exactly what you're looking for. See Dr. Terry Wahl's Ted Talk here: this video