MS | thrive

Mitochondria
& multiple
sclerosis

M.S. according to Mayo Clinic:

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system).
In MS, the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between your brain and the rest of your body. Eventually, the disease can cause the nerves themselves to deteriorate or become permanently damaged.
Signs and symptoms of MS vary widely and depend on the amount of nerve damage and which nerves are affected. Some people with severe MS may lose the ability to walk independently or at all, while others may experience long periods of remission without any new symptoms.
There's no cure for multiple sclerosis. However, treatments can help speed recovery from attacks, modify the course of the disease and manage symptoms.

A different picture according to Terry Wahls:

From wheel chair to bike riding
~ Terry Wahls MD

If you've read the article under cancer you will have understood the mitochondrial connection and why it makes so much sense. Here we see it's importance from a neurological perspective as told by Dr Terry Wahls MD who reversed MS, a disease that is declared UNCURABLE by mainstream medicine.

For four years, secondary progressive multiple sclerosis confined Dr. Terry Wahls to a tilt-recline wheelchair. As per the Mayo-clinic description above, she was declared incurable. Watch her tell the story of how she was riding her bike within a few months of her self-prescribed protocol.

MUST WATCH (17mins)

Terry Wahls talks of how her body healed from MS with food and supplementation.

She reiterates much of what you will read elsewhere on this site from other like-minded doctors, who were forced to looked beyond their training for the answers that would save them.

“Too many of us have spent years, sometimes decades, failing to provide our cells with the building blocks they need to conduct the chemistry of life properly.” ~ Dr. Terry Wahls

minding mito

Minding our Mitochondria

CASIE LUKES · OCT 6, 2014

As a former Tae Kwan Doe national champion, Dr. Terry Wahls knew what it was like to be supremely fit. In 2000, though, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease without a cure, and her future looked bleak. Going to the best MS center in the country and taking the latest drugs provided no help. By 2003 she was in wheelchair and on chemotherapy and it looked she would, in not very distant future, be bedridden.

Facing a bleak future, she did what many people with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome do: she stopped relying solely on doctors and began researching the latest findings on PubMed, the big medical literature database. She didn’t just look at MS, though; she looked at diseases that feature neurodegeneration such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s in which, like MS, the brain actually shrinks.

Time and time again the word ”mitochondria” popped up in her research. After finding that fish oil, CoQ10, and creatine protected mouse brains she started taking those supplements. Her rate of decline actually decreased, but she was still declining.

Neuroprotection for the Brain

Encouraged, she looked further and came upon protocols developed by the Institute for Functional Medicine to provide neuroprotection for the brain.

Supplements

Protect Myelin (the covering of the nerves) — Vitamins B1 (thiamine), B9 (folate), B12 (cobalamin), Iodine, Omega-3 fatty acids). (It’s not clear that myelin problems occur in ME/CFS. Baraniuk’s GWS findings suggested that they might, but his central finding did not include myelin disruption.)
Help Out Neurotransmitters – sulfur, Vitamin B6
Mitochondria – provide the energy for the brain with B vitamins, sulfur, antioxidants. (Several studies do suggest the mitochondria in the brain may be affected in chronic fatigue syndrome.)

Food

Greens make up a major part of Dr. Wahls protocol

Recognizing that science was probably missing many vital nutrients, Dr. Wahls focused next on foods to feed her brain.

Using a pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer (PALEO) diet as a model she created a simple diet plan:

Greens are rich in B-vitamins, and she noted that lowly kale has the most nutrition per calorie of any plant. Beside helping the brain, sulfur helps the liver and kidneys detoxify the body. Sulfur-rich vegetables include cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, turnips, rutabagas, onions, leeks, garlic, mushrooms, and chives.

Colored Vegetables – Add three cups of other colored vegetables and fruits (beets, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, parsnips, berries, peaches, etc.) to increase antioxidants.

High Quality Protein – Eat high quality protein to get omega-3 fatty acids (wild fish such as salmon), grass fed beef, and organ meats (liver, tongue, etc.)

Seaweed – Eat seaweed at least once a week to provide iodine and selenium to help the myelin and remove toxins.

Dr. Wahls recognized that most Americans can’t imagine eating three plates of green vegetables and fruits every day given the grain-heavy diet they currently consume. But she noted that food allergies and sensitivities, which she believes run rampant in our population, often disappear on this diet. She made special notice of the problems that gluten can cause.

green leaves,
sulfur-rich vegetables,
other colored vegetables

Per day

3 cups (1 plate) of each

and grass feed beef, organ meat, and seaweed.

See how to make sure your mitochondria
get what they need here.