Facing Forward

Hi I'm Chad King. I was diagnosed with MS in 2007 and my doctor said I'd be paralyzed within 7 years. Well I'm still standing and feeling better than ever. This is my journey.

[facingforward]

Brit scientist could be about to CURE multiple sclerosis and provide hope for millions

“A British scientist could have made one of the most important medical breakthroughs of recent years.”

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://www.mirror.co.uk/science/brit-scientist-could-cure-multiple-10572223

Dr Su Metcalfe and her team at LIFNano believe they have found the cure for the devastating condition, multiple sclerosis .

More than 2.3million people globally are affected by the debilitating condition and symptoms include blindness and muscle weakness.

Dr Metcalfe told the Cambridge News : “Some people get progressive MS, so go straight to the severe form of the disease, but the majority have a relapsing or remitting version,” she says. “It can start from the age of 30, and there’s no cure, so all you can do is suppress the immune response, but the drugs that do that have side effects, and you can’t repair the brain. The cost of those drugs is very high, and in the UK there are a lot of people who don’t get treated at all.”

Dr Metcalfe and her team have combined one of the body’s cleverest functions with some cutting-edge technology. The natural side of the equation is provided by a stem cell particle called a LIF. She was working at Cambridge University’s department of surgery when she made her big breakthrough.

Dr Metcalfe said: “I was looking to see what controls the immune response and stops it auto-attacking us,” she explains. “I discovered a small binary switch, controlled by a LIF, which regulates inside the immune cell itself. LIF is able to control the cell to ensure it doesn’t attack your own body but then releases the attack when needed. “That LIF, in addition to regulating and protecting us against attack, also plays a major role in keeping the brain and spinal cord healthy. In fact it plays a major role in tissue repair generally, turning on stem cells that are naturally occurring in the body, making it a natural regenerative medicine, but also plays a big part in repairing the brain when it’s been damaged. “So I thought, this is fantastic. We can treat auto-immune disease, and we’ve got something to treat MS, which attacks both the brain and the spinal cord. So you have a double whammy that can stop and reverse the auto-immunity, and also repair the damage caused in the brain.”

But the breakthrough wasn't over then, as the LIF could only survive outside the cell for 20 minutes before being broken down by the body, meaning there was not enough time to deploy it in a therapy. And this is where the technology, in the form of nano-particles, comes in.

Dr Metcalfe said: “They are made from the same material as soluble stitches, so they’re compatible with the body and they slowly dissolve,” says Su. “We load the cargo of the LIF into those particles, which become the delivery device that slowly dissolve and deliver the LIF over five days.

"The nano-particle itself is a protective environment, and the enzymes that break it down can’t access it. You can also decorate the surface of the particles with antibodies, so it becomes a homing device that can target specific parts of the brain, for example. So you get the right dose, in the right place, and at the right time.”

The particles themselves were developed at Yale University, which is listed as co-inventor with Dr Metcalfe on the IP. But LIFNano has the worldwide licence to deploy them, and Su believes we are on the verge of a step-change in medicine. Dr Metcalfe said: “Nano-medicine is a new era, and big pharma has already entered this space to deliver drugs while trying to avoid the side effects. The quantum leap is to actually go into biologics and tap into the natural pathways of the body. “We’re not using any drugs, we’re simply switching on the body’s own systems of self-tolerance and repair. There aren’t any side effects because all we’re doing is tipping the balance. Auto-immunity happens when that balance has gone awry slightly, and we simply reset that. Once you’ve done that, it becomes self-sustaining and you don’t have to keep giving therapy, because the body has its balance back.”

LIFNano has already attracted two major funding awards, from drug firm Merck and the Government’s Innovate UK agency. Dr Metcalfe admits she is something of a novice when it comes to business, but has recruited cannily in the form of chairman Florian Kemmerich and ceo Oliver Jarry, both experienced operators in the pharma sector.

With the support of the Judge, the company hopes to attract more investment, with the aim of starting clinical trials in 2020. She said: “The 2020 date is ambitious, but with the funding we’ve got and the funding we’re hoping to raise, it should be possible. “We’ve got everything we need in place to make the nano-particles in a clinically compliant manner, it’s just a case of flicking the switch when we have the money. "We’re looking at VCs and big pharma, because they have a strong interest in this area. We’re doing all our pre-clinical work concurrently while bringing in the major funds the company needs to go forward in its own right.”

Immune cells have been a big part of Dr Metcalfe's career, and her passion for her subject is obvious. “I wanted to understand something that was so simple on one level but also so complex,” she says.

“The immune cell is the only single cell in the body that is its own unity, so it functions alone. It’s probably one of the most powerful cells in the body because it can kill you, and if you haven’t got it you die because you haven’t got it.”

And MS may just be the start for LIFNano. “MS is our key driver at the moment, but it’s going to be leading through to other major auto-immune disease areas,” she adds. “Psoriasis is high up on our list, and diabetes is another. Downstream there are all the dementias, because a LIF is a major health factor for the brain. So if we can get it into the brain we can start protecting against dementia."

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Finding Calm in the Storm

“The world would be a much happier place if everyone took 20 minutes out of their day to reset and recharge.”

From the moment we wake up, to when our day is over and we fall back asleep, our brain is constantly working. Meditation is a restart for your brain.

Resting my mind through meditation has been hugely instrumental to my progress and stability. Living in New York City, being a full-time musician, and not having a routine schedule makes it very easy for my mind to wander and run away from me. Meditating has helped to ground me and relieve much of my stress and anxiety. It keeps me present and is a constant reminder that I am much more than this physical shell of a body.

Ziva Meditation

My meditation practice began about 4 years ago when I took a course with Emily Fletcher at Ziva Meditation. To describe it in the most simplistic way, this style of meditation involves sitting down for 20 minutes a day (twice a day if you can), closing your eyes, and slowly repeating a mantra. Whenever your mind begins to wander, you come back to the mantra. If you’re looking to start meditating, I can’t recommend this course enough. It was a beautiful introduction and foundation to my meditation journey.

Santa Monica Healing

After a few years of practicing Ziva off and on, I discovered Santa Monica Healing and had a few sessions with April Pfender. April introduced me to Chakra Meditation and Reiki which have changed my life. These styles of meditation are more of a guided meditation practice - i.e. for chakra meditation you focus on the top energy center above your head (crown chakra) and move your way down to the bottom energy center (root chakra); and for reiki, someone else will guide the meditation through touch and transferring of their energy. These therapeutic styles of meditation have helped me discover and uncover so much about myself and are my go-to whenever I feel off and need some mental cleansing and clarity.

HeadSpace

There is also a beautiful app called HeadSpace that’s a nice and easy introduction to (guided) meditation. The first 10 lessons are free and it’s really cost effective if you decide to continue after that. Definitely worth checking out.

My Meditation Practice

My meditation practice, currently, is custom built taking everything I’ve learned so far and utilizing what has been most effective for me.

Lately I’ve been putting on an album by Kev Thompson called Solfeggio Frequencies and taking 20 minutes after I wake up and 20 minutes about an hour before bed to meditate. Here’s what my 20 minute journey looks like:

I sit with my feet flat on the ground

Hands resting on my lap, palms facing up

I close my eyes and begin to repeat a mantra that follows the breath

On each inhale through my nose I think to myself “so” and on each exhale through my nose I think “hum.” (via Deepak Chopra) About 2-3 minutes

Once my mind has settled here, I bring awareness to the top of my head and consciously release any tension that might be there and work my way down to the soles of my feet. For example, I release any tension that I might be holding in my forehead…then my eyebrows…then my eyes…my nose…my lips…etc.  About 2-3 minutes

Once I’ve relaxed my entire body, I bring my attention to my heart center and feel for my heartbeat. About 1-2 minutes

Once I’ve caught on to my pulse, I bring my attention to the tips of my fingers or toes (I like to use my extremities) with the intention of feeling that same pulse in that location. About 1-2 minutes

By this point, my attention is no longer on the outside world or figuring out dinner plans or my to-do list.

I next bring my attention to the crown of my head again. I imagine my skull opening up as a bright white healing light from above enters and floods my entire body. I imagine it touching (and healing) every crevice and fold of me. If there is a particular area of my body that needs extra attention, I like to guide that light to that area and breathe into it. About 3-5 minutes

I then imagine myself (covered in this healing white light) standing behind another version of myself whose back is turned towards me. Note: This next part might feel a bit like The Matrix (the movie) but it’s the most healing part of the meditation. This other version of me is the person I am looking to be or become. So you are standing behind and looking at the ideal you. For example, I might be looking at the version of myself that is free of disease, free of ailments, and free of pain.

I then imagine slowly stepping into the shoes of this ideal self, as if I’m entering this other me, becoming this other me, and truly feeling what it’s like to be this new me. I walk around (in my head) and deeply feel what it’s like to exist in the world free of disease, ailments, and pain. Happiness (and a large smile) usually floods my system immediately following this. About 5-10 minutes

When I feel complete, I’ll bring my hands to heart center in prayer form and give thanks. I give thanks to myself for showing up and being open to receiving this energy. I give thanks to those who have supported me on my journey and give thanks to the teachers who have guided me along the way.

The world would be a much happier place if everyone took 20 minutes out of their day to reset and recharge.

xo

*Note that these time stamps are what work for me, and you should move at a pace that feels good to you!

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MS Drugs?

Hi! I know it’s been a minute. I had a couple new (possibly MS) symptoms pop up over the last few months and I wanted to dive in and truly understand what was going on and what stresses in my life might have triggered them before touching base again. It also moved me to look again at the MS drugs that are available today and even reconsider them as a treatment option.  

Then a friend showed me this video by Professor George Ebers that was a good reminder of why I’m treating this disease the way I am. If you or someone you know has MS and/or is considering taking one of the drugs available, please watch this video.

It’s so frightening to wake up one day with a new symptom on your hands. But hearing Professor Ebers say that a relapse or a new lesion on an MRI doesn’t equate to “your disease is progressing” and does not tell you if or how your disease will progress, gives me pause and strength to continue on this journey. That these MS drugs don’t help determine the long term outcome of this disease is very powerful information! I am profoundly moved to get to the root of these symptoms and this disease...and I will!

Dr. Terry Wahls had secondary progressive MS. She was in a tilt-reclined wheel chair and found a diet and lifestyle that helped to reverse her disease course and heal her! I saw her recently, and I can honestly say in the 5 years that I’ve known her she looks the best yet. It’s amazing and inspiring and makes me feel like everyone should be following her diet.

She just released a new cookbook that makes following her diet, pristinely, even easier, too. Check it out here. And if you haven’t read her first book and are going through your own health journey, I can’t recommend it enough: The Wahls Protocol

Remember our bodies are just reacting to the environments we create for them (inside and out!)

Lots of love,

Chad

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Why My Sexuality and MS Are One and the Same

Today, Out Magazine posted an article I wrote for them that shares how my MS and my struggle with my sexuality come together. I don’t believe disease is random. Our bodies are only reacting to the environment inside and outside of it. I believe my struggle with being gay was the biggest trigger point for me that began my MS journey. 

Why My Sexuality and MS Are One and the Same

via Out Magazine 

In April 2007, at 21 years of age and on the verge of graduating from New York University, I finally gained the courage to come out as gay to my best friend, Ian. Two weeks later, my legs buckled while walking, which progressed to vertigo as I sat at my desk. Then came a constant tingling in my arms and legs, a feeling I would fall asleep and wake up with. I didn’t know what was happening to me.

After a few months of seeing several doctors, and undergoing many tests, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease of the nervous system. An autoimmune disease is one where the body thinks its own cells are invaders and begins to attack itself.

My body was suppressing its immune system for almost 15 years, and it makes sense that these symptoms and this disease would show itself as soon as I was “free.”

When I was 7 years old I was enrolled in Vicki Parks Stars of Tomorrow Dance Studio in Southwest Florida. I was attending jazz, tap, and acrobatics class about five times a week. It was my calling to perform. I was the most free, confident, Chad I’d ever been.

One day at the studio, an older female student came up to me with a group of her friends and asked, “Chad, do you look at Playboy or Playgirl?” By that point, I had heard of Playboy magazine, but didn’t quite know what it was. From her tone, however, I knew there must be a “right” answer. I crossed my fingers and said, “Playgirl.” All the girls laughed at me and went back to class. It was the first time I felt ashamed.

Right around this same time at school, kids began making fun of the way I spoke, my hairstyle, my clothing, my handwriting, the group of friends I had (mostly female), and the fact that I studied dance. “You’re such a faggot.” “You look so gay.” “Do you even like girls?” These words would cut deeply on a daily basis. So I changed it all. I quit dancing. I made sure I was only friends with guys who were into sports. I changed my handwriting to a sloppier, less bubbly style. I stopped putting product in my hair. I became best friends with my biggest bully. I, regretfully, threw out a ton of home videos of me as a kid—indirectly discarding away so many amazing memories of my entire family—all to make sure no one suspected I was gay.  

I didn't want anyone to see through this layer of heteronormative skin I was forcing myself to grow. I went so far as to make sure that when a girl would pass me, my eyes would go straight to her chest, so that if anyone saw where my eyes were looking, they wouldn’t question my sexuality.

It was such an effort to exist as this Chad. Every word, every move, was so meticulously planned out. But deep in the back of my mind, I knew I was gay, but could never allow myself to explore that part of myself. I had to do everything in my power to make sure no one could find me out. And I did it. I did it so well. I did it so well, in fact, that I would express a genuine strong distaste for gay people to all my friends. This continued throughout middle school, high school, and even college.

By the end of my senior year in college, still not having come to terms with my sexuality, my stress level was higher than it had ever been and my emotional state felt as unbalanced as ever. At random points throughout the day, I would start crying for no apparent reason. I knew I couldn’t hold on to this facade for very much longer. I knew a breaking point was coming. The week before I came out, I remember walking into Ian’s room several times in the evening feeling like my internal organs were completely exposed and I was ready to tell him everything. But I would turn around before he noticed me there, not having the courage to speak. I started to journal what I was experiencing. I remember one entry in particular saying, “My fingers continue to dance around the words that I long to type.”

That same week, Ian came out of his room and asked me, “Did you know that one in 10 guys is gay?” That question, so perfectly timed. A question I was so hoping to be asked. I said, “Really? [long pause] Really? [another long pause] Because I think I am.”

I remember celebrating with Ian that night so vividly, getting wasted and dancing around his room like fools to David Bowie and Queen. The day after, I felt like I was seeing color for the first time. The sun was shining bright on my soul. I felt so incredibly liberated, finally free in over a decade. I didn’t have to be anyone else. I was just Chad.

Two weeks later, all my energy shifted suddenly to my MS symptoms. The timing of this was devastating. When I was finally feeling like myself again, I was turned upside down immediately. But if these symptoms had not shown themselves when they did, I might not have the same insight and understanding of this disease that I have now.

My immune system was rocked from years of me being terrified of myself—from years living in fear, living in a state of fight or flight. When we are in this fight-or-flight state, feeling a threat to our survival, our immune system will shut itself down. For instance, if you're being chased by a sabertooth tiger and at the same time are battling a bacterial infection, your body will know that surviving is priority and that it can address the infection later. It's a form of protection our bodies instinctively have. But staying in this state for too long compromises the immune system. It doesn't allow the immune system to function like it needs to.

All bodies don't react to high levels of stress in this same way. But from years of managing this disease and these symptoms, I know that stress is my biggest enemy. No, I'm not a doctor, but I’m certain my MS and my struggle with my sexuality are one and the same. I’m continuing to love myself more and more every day, and continuing to feel physically, emotionally, and spiritually, better and better. I’m slowly getting back to that fearless 7-year-old Chad that I once was, and who I know I still am.

[facingforward]

Supplements: Vitamin D

I take a good amount of supplements on a daily basis. I’ll start to roll out and describe each one on this blog. Let’s start with Vitamin D.

I’ve been taking a Vitamin D supplement for years. It’s the one supplement I won’t go a day without because of how much science there is that links MS and low vitamin D levels. About 90% of all MS patients are deficient in Vitamin D.

As a whole, our bodies don’t get enough Vitamin D from exposure to the sun or from our food, and supplementing becomes important. Low vitamin D levels can even increase your risk of many other diseases including type 1 diabetes, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune diseases. 

I’d highly recommend getting your Vitamin D level checked. If you aren’t battling a health condition or disease, 50-70 ng/mL is optimal. My doctor recommends I keep my blood level to a range of 80-90 ng/mL since I have MS. Right now I take 10,000 IUs every day. Yay! 

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My story via Human Health Report

I recently shared my story with the fine folks at Human Health Report and I wanted to repost the interview here. xoxo 

"Senior year of college, I was diagnosed with MS. That was in 2007. My legs started buckling underneath me. I had vertigo when I was sitting stationary. My legs and arms started tingling. I had optic neuritis, where my vision would go blurry at random points throughout the day. I went to 3 different neurologists because I didn't believe I had MS. I didn't understand why it would be affecting me. I was way too young. All 3 said I had MS, and the 3rd one said you have to get on this medication otherwise you're looking at paralysis in 5-10 years. So I started the medication because I didn't want to be paralyzed. The medication actually started making me worse. I started getting seizure-like symptoms, and déjà vu like 50 times a day, where I would feel like I had been here before. I could tell it was messing with my body and chemistry. So about 6 months into it, I said I can't commit to a lifetime of this. There was no end date to the medication, and it only had a 40% success rate of slowing down the progression of it. That rate didn't sit well with me. I found a chiropractor in NYC that tweaked my diet. He got me off a ton of the crap I was eating. He got me eating a ton of good fats. My symptoms started subsiding. Right around that same time, I found a woman named Doctor Terry Wahls, who was diagnosed with MS, paralyzed, and within a few months started walking again because she changed her diet to a paleo diet. I ended up changing my diet to a paleo diet, and all of my symptoms subsided. I've been doing that ever since. It's been 6 years now, and I feel so good. Symptoms pop up when I don't take care of my body and it's just a sign that I know I'm not getting enough sleep, too stressed, or I'm eating the wrong foods. I've gotten to the point where I'm totally managing these symptoms and I feel great. I feel human again. I feel whole. I feel like I wasn't truly living until now. I paid zero attention to my environment inside and outside of my body until this happened. Hippocrates said, "let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." And it's so true because nutrition is the cornerstone of why I'm feeling the best I've ever felt."

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How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat

My good friend Allie Moss showed me this article and I wanted to share it with you all since it’s very relevant to my last post. It’s also very disturbing! 

How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat

The New York Times - September 12, 2016 

By ANAHAD O’CONNOR 

The sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and promote saturated fat as the culprit instead, newly released historical documents show.

The internal sugar industry documents, recently discovered by a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, and published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggest that five decades of research into the role of nutrition and heart disease, including many of today’s dietary recommendations, may have been largely shaped by the sugar industry.

“They were able to derail the discussion about sugar for decades,” said Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at U.C.S.F. and an author of the JAMA Internal Medicine paper.

The documents show that a trade group called the Sugar Research Foundation, known today as the Sugar Association, paid three Harvard scientists the equivalent of about $50,000 in today’s dollars to publish a 1967 review of research on sugar, fat and heart disease. The studies used in the review were handpicked by the sugar group, and the article, which was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, minimized the link between sugar and heart health and cast aspersions on the role of saturated fat.

Even though the influence-peddling revealed in the documents dates back nearly 50 years, more recent reports show that the food industry has continued to influence nutrition science.

Last year, an article in The New York Times revealed that Coca-Cola, the world’s largest producer of sugary beverages, had provided millions of dollars in funding to researchers who sought to play down the link between sugary drinks and obesity. In June, The Associated Press reported that candy makers were funding studies that claimed that children who eat candy tend to weigh less than those who do not.

The Harvard scientists and the sugar executives with whom they collaborated are no longer alive. One of the scientists who was paid by the sugar industry was D. Mark Hegsted, who went on to become the head of nutrition at the United States Department of Agriculture, where in 1977 he helped draft the forerunner to the federal government’s dietary guidelines. Another was Dr. Fredrick J. Stare, the chairman of Harvard’s nutrition department.

In a statement responding to the JAMA journal report, the Sugar Association said that the 1967 review was published at a time when medical journals did not typically require researchers to disclose funding sources. The New England Journal of Medicine did not begin to require financial disclosures until 1984.

The industry “should have exercised greater transparency in all of its research activities,” the Sugar Association statement said. Even so, it defended industry-funded research as playing an important and informative role in scientific debate. It said that several decades of research had concluded that sugar “does not have a unique role in heart disease.”

The revelations are important because the debate about the relative harms of sugar and saturated fat continues today, Dr. Glantz said. For many decades, health officials encouraged Americans to reduce their fat intake, which led many people to consume low-fat, high-sugar foods that some experts now blame for fueling the obesity crisis.

“It was a very smart thing the sugar industry did, because review papers, especially if you get them published in a very prominent journal, tend to shape the overall scientific discussion,” he said.

Dr. Hegsted used his research to influence the government’s dietary recommendations, which emphasized saturated fat as a driver of heart disease while largely characterizing sugar as empty calories linked to tooth decay. Today, the saturated fat warnings remain a cornerstone of the government’s dietary guidelines, though in recent years the American Heart Association, the World Health Organization and other health authorities have also begun to warn that too much added sugar may increase cardiovascular disease risk.

Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, wrote an editorial accompanying the new paper in which she said the documents provided “compelling evidence” that the sugar industry had initiated research “expressly to exonerate sugar as a major risk factor for coronary heart disease.”

“I think it’s appalling,” she said. “You just never see examples that are this blatant.”

Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, said that academic conflict-of-interest rules had changed significantly since the 1960s, but that the industry papers were a reminder of “why research should be supported by public funding rather than depending on industry funding.”

Dr. Willett said the researchers had limited data to assess the relative risks of sugar and fat. “Given the data that we have today, we have shown the refined carbohydrates and especially sugar-sweetened beverages are risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but that the type of dietary fat is also very important,” he said.

The JAMA Internal Medicine paper relied on thousands of pages of correspondence and other documents that Cristin E. Kearns, a postdoctoral fellow at U.C.S.F., discovered in archives at Harvard, the University of Illinois and other libraries.

The documents show that in 1964, John Hickson, a top sugar industry executive, discussed a plan with others in the industry to shift public opinion “through our research and information and legislative programs.”

At the time, studies had begun pointing to a relationship between high-sugar diets and the country’s high rates of heart disease. At the same time, other scientists, including the prominent Minnesota physiologist Ancel Keys, were investigating a competing theory that it was saturated fat and dietary cholesterol that posed the biggest risk for heart disease.

Mr. Hickson proposed countering the alarming findings on sugar with industry-funded research. “Then we can publish the data and refute our detractors,” he wrote.

In 1965, Mr. Hickson enlisted the Harvard researchers to write a review that would debunk the anti-sugar studies. He paid them a total of $6,500, the equivalent of $49,000 today. Mr. Hickson selected the papers for them to review and made it clear he wanted the result to favor sugar.

Harvard’s Dr. Hegsted reassured the sugar executives. “We are well aware of your particular interest,” he wrote, “and will cover this as well as we can.”

As they worked on their review, the Harvard researchers shared and discussed early drafts with Mr. Hickson, who responded that he was pleased with what they were writing. The Harvard scientists had dismissed the data on sugar as weak and given far more credence to the data implicating saturated fat.

“Let me assure you this is quite what we had in mind, and we look forward to its appearance in print,” Mr. Hickson wrote.

After the review was published, the debate about sugar and heart disease died down, while low-fat diets gained the endorsement of many health authorities, Dr. Glantz said.

“By today’s standards, they behaved very badly,” he said.

Original article: HERE

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My best friend, Fat

“Omg I can’t eat that. Look how much fat is in there!” 

Fat has gotten such a bad rap the past couple decades. But fat is not the enemy! This post is devoted to the beautiful, incredible, AWESOME macronutrient called fat (but not trans fat!). 

The brain is the fattest organ in the body (60% fat!) and needs us to provide it essential fats to function properly. About 7 or 8 years ago I started adding healthy fats into my diet on a daily basis and saw a dramatic shift in my MS symptoms and how I was feeling. Around the same time, I cut out gluten from my diet and saw these neurological symptoms improve even more. The combination of taking away the gluten and carbohydrate-rich foods PLUS adding in the good fats, gave me dramatic benefits to my health. 

For over two million years, humans used fat as its main source for fueling the body. But once the agricultural revolution happened about 10,000 years ago and wheat and grains became a staple, our diets slowly evolved to become extremely carb heavy. Side note: The carbs our ancestors consumed looked very different than the processed carbs we eat today and many scientists believe it’s these processed carbs that are at the root of inflammation and our society’s chronic diseased state. But let’s go back to the fat! 

Take a look at the myelin sheath that surrounds every nerve cell in your body.

This myelin sheath is a fatty covering that allows the nerves to efficiently send their signals. If you have Multiple Sclerosis, your body attacks this myelin which disrupts the signals and causes you all sorts of symptoms. But the most important part about this is that fat is covering and protecting your nerve cells to keep things running smoothly.

We need to constantly be feeding our bodies healthy fats (omega-3 fats) to make sure our nervous system (and that fatty protective layer of myelin) is constantly able to do its job. These fats also help regulate our immune system and reduce inflammation in the body. 

Below is a list of some foods high in fat that I eat:

Avocados 

Coconut and Coconut Oil 

Brain Octane Oil (I like to add a tbsp to my morning smoothie)

Flaxseed Oil 

Olives

Extra Virgin Olive Oil 

Salmon and other fatty fish

Chia seeds

Walnuts 

Cod Liver Oil (get the cinnamon tingle!) or Krill Oil

Free-range eggs (don’t forget the yolk!) 

Cacao butter

Nut butters (I LOVE cashew butter)

There are also very unhealthy fats, like trans fats, that increase inflammation in the body. Here are a list of some oils/fats that I stay away from because consuming them increases the risk of a symptom popping up for me:

Partially hydrogenated oils (Trans fats!)

Vegetable oil

Palm oil / palm kernel oil 

Rapeseed oil 

Cottonseed oil 

Canola oil 

Soybean oil 

Corn oil

Sunflower oil 

Safflower oil  

There are many studies that show how increasing the healthy fats in your diet decreases the likelihood of cognitive decline (like in Alzheimers) and neurodegenerative diseases (like MS). Grain Brain by Dr. David Perlmutter is a fascinating read and includes so much info on this if you want to dive further into this subject.

From Grain Brain: 

“Unfortunately, most of us equate the idea of eating fat to being fat, when in reality, obesity - and its metabolic consequences - has almost nothing to do with dietary fat consumption and everything to do with our addiction to carbs. The same is true about cholesterol: Eating high-cholesterol foods has no impact on our actual cholesterol levels, and the alleged correlation between higher cholesterol and higher cardiac risk is an absolute fallacy.” - Dr. David Perlmutter  

Embrace the fat!

xo

ps. one last nugget about fat that I wanted to share: Our bodies burn and use up carbohydrates (to use as energy) before it burns fat. So if I’m trying to lose weight, I’m going to either cut my carb intake or exercise a lot more to get to the fat burning stage! 

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The Biology of Belief

The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton

I just got done reading/listening to this book FOR THE 3RD TIME. This book has changed my life. 

The author, biologist and professor Bruce Lipton, shows how your perception of this reality affects the biology within you. It's so fascinating. Anyone conscious should read this. I definitely recommend listening to the audiobook version. Bruce narrates it himself and it feels like you're sitting in on a class of his. 

A couple points from this book that I LOVE:

"We are a composite of 50 trillion cells living as one giant cell." 

"There's not one new function present in the human that's not already present in every single human cell. Whatever we can do as a human can only be done because our cells are doing it in the first place." Every cell in your body is a mini-you! 

DNA does not determine the fate of your health, your perception does! 

When we are in a state of fight or flight, or experiencing high levels of stress, our immune system shuts down in order to protect the body. Example: If we are being chased by a large sabre-tooth tiger and at the same time are battling a bacterial infection, our body will know that running from this tiger and surviving is priority and will shut down its immune system in order to allocate the body's resources. What's interesting about this is that keeping your body in this fight or flight, highly stressed out, state for too long can eventually lead to a compromised immune system and disease. If you zoom out and look at the stressful world we live in today, it makes sense that our immune systems are constantly in a state of imbalance!

Give this book a listen or read. I hope you love it as much as I do.  

Xo

[facingforward]

Wait, what am I eating?

It’s so easy to pick up a beverage that has eye-catching, brightly colored packaging and assume it’s safe to consume. I remember in college I would drink 2-3 Red Bull energy drinks a day during final exam time without even blinking an eye. Many of us never think to look at the ingredients list to know what we’re putting in our bodies. It's societal. Food education was never a thing growing up. It’s so unfortunate that it took being diagnosed with a disease for me to begin looking into what these processed foods were made of.

Let’s take Diet Coke as an example. Here’s a breakdown of some of the most toxic chemicals that are inside:

Aspartame

Aspartame has long been said to cause a number of different health problems. It’s been shown to cause headaches, seizures, brain tumors, cancer, and a slew of other neurological conditions. 

When consumed, Aspartame breaks down into phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol. 

Methanol, when heated above 86 degrees, converts to formaldehyde, a deadly neurotoxin and carcinogen. Remember the human body temperature is 98.6 degrees, so you're literally producing embalming fluid in your stomach after you drink Diet Coke! The EPA recommends consuming less than 7.8mg of methanol per day to avoid poisoning. A single can of diet soda sweetened with Aspartame, contains approximately 20 mg of methanol. Symptoms from methanol poisoning include headaches, dizziness, nausea, gastrointestinal troubles, weakness, vertigo, chills, memory lapses, and numbness. 😳

Phosphoric acid 

This chemical is used in fertilizers and cleaning supplies and commonly used as a rust removal. Gross. Imagine what it does to your insides!  

Here is the full list of ingredients for Diet Coke: 

At the beginning of my diet shift, as soon as I cut out processed foods and beverages, the persistent tingling I felt in my arms and legs subsided. And to test it out, I remember drinking a diet soda a few months later, and lo and behold the tingling sensation came back.

I am 100% certain that knowing exactly what I’m eating and committing to always looking at the ingredients list has saved my life and has been so helpful when managing this disease.

Your body is only running off the nutrients you feed it. Just like you wouldn't put bleach in the gas tank of your car and expect it to run smoothly (or at all), why put a toxic food or drink into your body and expect anything different?

xo

[facingforward]

Hooray for Antioxidants!

Inflammation is at the root of so many diseases, including MS. And there are a number of reasons it occurs in the body. One of those reasons could be from having an unhealthy amount of free radicals in your system. 

A free radical is a molecule whose chemical bond is broken causing that molecule to begin stealing what it needs from other healthy molecules to try to get it back in balance. A domino effect can occur, causing inflammation. Here’s where antioxidants come to the rescue, yay! 

Antioxidants help stabilize these free radicals. They are so important to the health of your immune system. If you have more free radicals in your system than antioxidants, that’s when inflammation and disease can occur.

How can you get more antioxidants? One really great place to start is from foods like blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, dark chocolate and artichokes. But when my body is feeling off, and I feel like inflammation or a free radical overload is occurring, I also like to use a glutathione supplement to help increase the antioxidant/anti-inflammatory protective cells in my system.

Glutathione is an extremely important antioxidant that is naturally produced by our bodies. It helps boost the immune system and helps fight inflammation. For someone with an autoimmune disease, fighting inflammation is key to fighting this disease. 

I’ve been taking Glutathione Force by Bulletproof off and on for about a year now as a preventative measure to make sure that my immune system is always as strong as it can be; so I can keep inflammation at bay and make sure free radicals don’t get a chance to wreak havoc on my system. 

One more note about inflammation. Steroids are so frequently used to treat it. But their use comes with so many possible side effects - some worse than the benefits of the steroids! (Possible side effects of oral steroids like Prednisone include raising of blood pressure, blurry vision, weight gain, increased risk of infections, and more) Glutathione is an amazing steroid alternative. 

There are even doctors that will administer IV glutathione for a stronger dose, and without the side effects that steroids can have. I've done this before and had great success. (Dr. Salerno in NYC is great)

Hooray for antioxidants!

[facingforward]

My Basic Diet

On this post I’ll go into what I do eat and what I don’t eat and give some examples. I’ll go into a lot more detail in later posts as to why these specific foods, but I’m essentially on a Paleo diet - lots of veggies, some meat, low carb, high fat.

What I DON’T eat:

Gluten (breads, pastas, pastries, wheat products)

Dairy (animal milks, cheese, cream)

Refined sugars & artificial sweeteners (cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, splenda, brown rice syrup)

Processed vegetable oils (rapeseed, soybean, canola, sunflower, safflower oils)

All types of alcohol! Maybe a glass of red wine on a special occasion.

What I DO eat:

Dark leafy greens (kale, spinach, collard greens)

Sulfur-rich veggies (cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage)

Meat/Fish (wild-caught fish, grass-fed meats)

Fruit (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, dates)

Probiotic-rich foods (sauerkraut, pickled vegetables, kimchi) 

Prebiotic-rich foods (garlic, onions, artichoke, jicama, dandelion greens)

High fat oils (coconut oil, flax seed oil, extra virgin olive oil, cod liver or krill oil)

High fat foods (avocados, nuts, olives, chia seeds)

What I eat IN MODERATION:

Starchy carbs (potatoes, squash, zucchini, quinoa, rice)

Legumes (white, black, pinto beans, lentils)

Nightshade veggies (eggplant, peppers, potatoes)

Bananas, Oranges

Some other dietary rules I live by:

Eat “organic” whenever possible. 

Never eat meat or fish if it isn’t sustainably farmed 

Cook whenever possible. It’s always better to know exactly what you’re fueling your body with.

This diet will most likely change the more I learn about food and nutrition and it’s effects on the human body, but for now this is making me feel great so I'm gonna stick with it.

[facingforward]

This is Dr Wahls. She was paralyzed with MS, changed her diet, and began walking again within months. This video was the beginning for me. After being on my doctor’s medication for 6 months and feeling worse than ever, I switched to this diet and watched my symptoms subside. 

Her book The Wahls Protocol is just as inspiring and includes a wealth of knowledge about the body and how to treat disease with food and nutrition.   

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” - Hippocrates

[facingforward]

Hi

I wanted to create a space where I can share with you all the ways I’m managing my MS without compromising the quality of my life. I am not a doctor. I’m just sharing what has worked for me and the research that I’ve done that could possibly help you too. By closely exploring your own body and all it’s sensitivities, you can understand what makes you feel great and what makes you feel not-so great. We all have so much to learn. Excited to be on this journey with you.