My thoughts on "How I Went From Wheelchair To Walking By Changing My Diet: Dr. Terry Wahls"

Click HERE to watch Dr. Terry Wahls tell her story


This is an amazing story. I hope that everyone here will take the time to listen. Her words are important, even if you happen to be one of the lucky ones without current physiological symptoms or chronic autoimmune disease (like Type 1 diabetes, celiac, MS, etc). What she explains about how our genotype is being changed by the choices we make every day made a big impact on me. I am not a doctor, so hearing what I believe to be true coming from someone with her depth of knowledge is especially powerful.

A few years ago my husband and I decided to take charge of our food choices and reduce the use of toxic chemicals in our home. We experienced amazing health benefits and I am thankful everyday that we were able to make the changes we did. It was not always easy to make such unpopular choices. The media often claims that  "gluten-free diets" and the "Paleo lifestyle" are fads, or worse, that they are harmful. If you knew me three years ago, you might reconsider. The lifestyle I lived before was killing me slowly, all the while convincing me that it was my own fault (for not exercising enough, for eating too much, for having bad genetics, etc). Now I eat real food, and not only feel satisfied (not starved), but I have energy to do any task I need to (and some to spare). If someone told me they were eating tree bark, bugs and dirt every day, and it improved their energy, health and wellness, I would be legitimately happy for them! So I wonder why anyone would criticize my food choices, considering the obvious positive effects I've seen. Still, it happens.

My favorite part of Dr. Wahls speech was her quote from Thomas Edison, “The physician of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patient in a proper diet, the care of the human frame and the cause and prevention of disease". Yet today, 100 years later, we keep creating more drugs and putting our efforts into covering symptoms rather than finding the root of our dysfunctions. When I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1986, the doctors told my parents that they would find a cure within 20 years. We are still looking, yet millions of dollars are being spent to research more drugs to add to the treatment regimen. Treatment is not a cure. It is my hope that one day I will see the paradigm shift that Thomas Edison foretold, but until then, we each have the power to make better choices.