The Wahls Protocol

How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

By: Terry Wahls, Eve Adamson

Narrated by: Pam Ward

Like many physicians, Dr. Terry Wahls focused on treating her patients' ailments with drugs or surgical procedures - until she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2000. Within three years, her back and stomach muscles had weakened to the point where she needed a tilt-recline wheelchair. Conventional medical treatments were failing her, and she feared that she would be bedridden for the rest of her life.

Dr. Wahls began studying the latest research on autoimmune disease and brain biology, and decided to get her vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids from the food she ate rather than pills and supplements. Dr. Wahl's adopted the nutrient-rich paleo diet, gradually refining and integrating it into a regimen of neuromuscular stimulation. First, she walked slowly, then steadily, and then she biked 18 miles in a single day. In November 2011, Dr. Wahls shared her remarkable recovery in a TEDx talk that immediately went viral. Now, in The Wahls Protocol, she shares the details of the protocol that allowed her to reverse many of her symptoms, get back to her life, and embark on a new mission: to share the Wahls Protocol with others suffering from the ravages of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune conditions.

©2014 Dr. Terry Wahls LLC (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

"For anyone suffering from autoimmune or other chronic health problems, this book will be life changing." (Mark Hyman, M.D., author of The Blood Sugar Solution)

Outstanding book

Great examples and guidens, excellents and incredibles testimons. I love it!
Good source of information with a great details

Awesome

I bought the copy book too for reference. Narrator sounds like a newscaster. I'd rather hear the author's voice (always). Amazing book.

Excellent

This is an excellent book packed with information. I highly recommend. It's a must read/ listen.

Diet & Autoimmunity - the systematic way

I am a nutritionally-oriented pharmacist. I encourage patients to take more responsibility for their health - with a bit of guidance. This works well and gives me great job-satisfaction but I'd always felt uncomfortable dealing with the most serious health conditions - afraid my encouragement to change diet would just raise false hopes and deny people the foods they feel comfortable with.

This book is a fantastic validation of the need for more courage. It documents a journey and is a compendium of what works and why

It is systematic - the author came to her current path by a process of elimination. She'd tried the best treatment options offered by her medical peers - and deteriorated - she'd then tried food supplements - and still deteriorated, albeit at a slower rate than when she stopped them.

And then she tried dramatic dietary change - a combination of paleo and ketogenic - along with nerve stimulation. This saw her leave her reclining wheelchair and progress to walking with - then without - a stick, and then onto a bike and ultimately the TED stage. Terri doesn't describe herself as cured, but has worked out how not to feed her MS and to maximise her cellular energy.

In my work, I struggle with the space between the solid, credible but often smug and blinkered world of orthodox medical science and the passionate, motivated, ever-experimenting but sometimes equally opinionated world of nutritional therapy.

It wounds me when a GP insults my work as 'lacking in evidence' while not even deigning to look at the double-blind studies I offer in support. And it disappoints me when some therapists fail to differentiate what has solid support and what derives from internet blogs.

Wahls's book straddles these worlds effortlessly and gives great courage. She has done the vast amount of reading and research - much while in her wheelchair - and has interpreted and applied it all in an n=1 experiment on herself. She looks at orthodox and less orthodox options and gives her verdict based on research and her experience.

I have recommended the Wahls Protocol to sufferers of autoimmune conditions.

The Audible book doesn't come with the tables from the book and that is a shame. It really should. Or at least a discounted Kindle or paperback option as an alternative.

That said, it is well narrated and engaging in the Audible format.

Suggested audience: 1) those with autoimmune conditions, 2) those involved in their healthcare

Excellent information!

This book and information should become commonplace knowledge everywhere if people want to live healthy! This is a lifestyle not a diet.

This information is life changing

Great book and very inspirational. I started the Wahls paleo and have already seen improvement. Terry Wahls explains the science which I am very interested in.

Good information for M.S. suffers

Hard to read if you have no need for improved health. This book has good nutritional information, but I disagree on the notion that diet without supplements will be sufficient. I don't think Dr Wahl knows about all the great professional supplements available that aide in gut and adrenal function etc. Many could make healing from M. S. much quicker.

Outstanding!

Practical and inspiring with just the right balance of science. Dr Wahls brings enormous and desperately needed credibility to the powerful potential of lifestyle interventions in the treatment of chronic disease. One of the best books I have listened to.

Everyone can gain something from this book

What made the experience of listening to The Wahls Protocol the most enjoyable?

I don't have MS, but I have early signs of arthritis, another autoimmune disease. I've read many of the Paleo books out there, but for some reason everything just clicked when I read the Wahls Protocol. Dr. Wahls takes Paleo to the next level and describes what an ideal diet and lifestyle look like for all humans. I've followed the protocol for several weeks and feel great. Conversely, it doesn't take long to feel the affects of highly processed food. For me it's been trial and error, but I'm making positive changes!

What other book might you compare The Wahls Protocol to and why?

Dr. Wahls story is moving and touching as we learn how she goes from athlete to wheelchair-bound and back to athlete. She was told her MS is progressive and she would only get worse. It is absolutely incredible how she turned that around. I read the Wahls Protocol after reading "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain Paperback" by John Ratey. This book completely changed the way I view exercise. I would recommend this one as a complement to the Wahls Protocol.

Have you listened to any of Pam Ward’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I really liked the narrator. She was assertive but not preachy.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

All of the personal stories interwoven into the book were very inspirational. Especially those of the author and her family. My heart goes out to all of you with MS and your families.

Great and Interesting Read

Dr. Wahls is full of facts and evidence in this eye opening hope giving book. I can't wait to see where she takes this.