is a physician who is an assistant chief of staff at Iowa City Veterans Administration Health Care and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa. She teaches internal medicine residents, sees patients in a traumatic brain injury clinic, and conducts clinical trials. She was diagnosed with a chronic progressive neurological disorder and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. She now publicises and practices the application of strategies she believes helped her achieve a dramatic reversal of her symptoms, mostly based upon diet and lifestyle changes.
Wahls was born in McGregor, Iowa to Lois Koopman and John Charles Wahls. She was raised on a small family farm in northeastern Iowa near Elkader.
Following graduation from Central Community High School in 1972, Wahls attended Drake University. After receiving a bachelor's degree of fine arts in studio art in 1976, Wahls was accepted into the pre-med program at Iowa State University. After completion of her science studies there, Wahls was accepted into medical school at the University of Iowa in 1978.
Wahls received her M.D. degree from the University of Iowa in 1982 and accepted a residency in obstetrics and gynecology from Barnes Hospital, Washington University in St. Louis. After a year of residency there, Wahls transferred to internal medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in 1983. Wahls became certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 1986. In 1987 she moved to Marshfield, Wisconsin and became a physician member at Marshfield Clinic. In addition, Wahls was an adjunct clinical assistant professor with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine.
In 2000 Wahls moved to Iowa City, Iowa to become the associate chief of staff for ambulatory care at the Veterans Administration (VA) Iowa City Medical Center and associate professor of medicine in the college of medicine at the University of Iowa. In that same year, Wahls was diagnosed with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. that progressed to a stage where she was confined to a wheelchair and on the verge of being unable to continue practicing medicine. She adopted a functional medicine approach and developed a diet which she believes contributed to a reversal of symptoms. She now is concentrating her practice on that approach.
“I am an academic internal medicine physician, which means I teach at a major university.
And you know, I was a very skeptical physician. I taught my patients and my resident physicians to be very skeptical of diet, supplements, complementary alternative medicine.
But God has a mysterious way of working.
In 2000, I began to have problems stumbling and was ultimately evaluated with MRIs of my brain, my spinal cord, my spinal tap and was found to have abnormal lesions in my spinal cord. Abnormal spinal fluid and a diagnosis of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis was made.
I knew I wanted to treat my disease aggressively, so I sought out the best MS center that I could find, which was the Cleveland Clinic.
I saw the best people, took the newest drugs, but I went steadily downhill.
In 2002, my Cleveland Clinic physicians told me about the work of Loren Cordain.
I read his books, his papers, and after 20 years of being a vegetarian, I adopted a Paleo diet, giving up all grain, all dairy, all legumes.
But unfortunately, I continued to decline.
The following year I needed a tilt-recline wheelchair. My disease converted to secondary progressive MS, and in that state of the disease you expect things to get progressively worse.
I took Mitoxantrone; which is a form of chemotherapy. I continued to decline.
Then I took Tysabri, a biologic drug. I continued to decline. Then I was placed on Cellcept.
At that point, I went back to reading the basic science and would decide that mitochondrial dysfunction was key.
So I created a supplement cocktail to support my mitochondria. I slowed down the speed of my decline, and for that I was very, very grateful.
By the summer of 2007, I was so weak, I could not sit up in a regular chair. It was a struggle to walk 10 feet using two walking sticks.
I had progressive brain fog, and I was having problems with severe trigeminal neuralgia.
It was that summer, I discovered the Institute for Functional Medicine. I took their course on neuro protection. It had a bigger list of supplements that I was taking.
And then in the fall of that year, I had another big “Aha” moment like,
“I should redesign my diet and lifestyle, specifically based on what I had learned with functional medicine.”
That was some more research. And now I have a very structured Paleo diet.
I went back to my daily meditation, and the speed of change was remarkable.
Within 3 months, I was up out of the wheelchair walking with the cane.
In 6 months, I was walking without a cane.
In 9 months, I get on my bike and I biked around the block; the first time in a decade.
And in 12 months, I was able to do a 18.5 mile bike ride with my family.
Now this changes how I understand disease and health.
It would change the focus of my clinical practice, and it would ultimately change the focus of my research.
I switched my previous research to this new area of studying diet and lifestyle to treat multiple sclerosis and other chronic progressive diseases.”
Dr. Wahls’ Dietary Protocol to Reverse MS
Mitochondria are the body’s power producers, so it makes sense that Dr. Wahls pinpoints their role in optimizing brain and immune system health. Here’s the broad strokes of the dietary advice the Wahls Protocol suggests for MS and autoimmune-specific conditions:
- Remove the 3 most common foods that trigger abnormal immune system response: gluten, casein, and albumin (the protein in egg whites).
- Take in 9 cups of vegetables and fruits daily (fresh, juiced, blended, or lightly steamed), specifically:
-- 3 cups leafy green vegetables (spinach, kale, lettuce, etc.)
-- 3 cups brightly colored fruits or vegetables (Ideally these would be 3 different colors, and colored all the way through … so no bananas, for example … I always knew bananas were no good!)
-- 3 cups sulfur-rich vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, onions, garlic, etc.)
- Consume bone broth and fermented foods daily.
- Have high quality wild-caught or grass-fed protein for dinner.
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