The Wahls Protocol Quotes

“The power of healing is within you. All you need to do is give your body what it needs and remove what is poisoning it. You can restore your own health by what you do -- not by the pills you take, but by how you choose to live.”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

“You are alive because your cells are self-correcting chemical factories. Your job is to facilitate that self-correction, not impede it.”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

“The good news is that these detox symptoms typically begin tapering within a couple of weeks for our clinical trial participants. In my clinical practice, I tell people to wind down the bad food as they wind up the good food over a week. When it is done that way, the detox symptoms are generally somewhat less bothersome. And remember what’s happening when you feel them: The bad stuff is coming out!”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

“Artichokes Avocados Bean sprouts Beans, green Bok choy Broccoli Brussels sprouts Cabbage, green Celery Cucumbers with skin Grapes, green Green peas Kiwi, green Leafy greens Lettuce Limes Melons, honeydew Okra Olives, green Peppers, green Snow peas Watercress Zucchini with skin Red Beets Blood oranges Cabbage, red Cherries Cranberries (fresh or frozen without sugar) Grapefruit, pink or red Grapes, red Onions, red Peppers, red Plums, red Pomegranates Radicchio Radishes Raspberries, red Rhubarb Rooibos tea Strawberries Tomatoes Watermelons Blue/Purple/Black Aronia berries (grown throughout North America and Europe) Black currants Black mulberries Blackberries Blueberries Boysenberries Dates Eggplants Elderberries Figs, purple Grapes, black or purple Huckleberries Kale, purple Marionberries Olives, black Plums, black Prunes Purple heirloom carrots Purple yams or potatoes (remember these are starchy—and these must be pigmented all the way through in order to count in this category) Raisins Raspberries, black Yellow/Orange Apricots Cantaloupe Carrots Ginger root Grapefruit, yellow Kiwi, golden Lemon Mangoes Muskmelons Nectarines Oranges Papayas Peaches Peppers, orange and yellow Persimmons Pineapples Pumpkins Squash, summer and winter Starfruit Sweet potatoes and yams Tangerines Turmeric root”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

“high blood pressure, high cholesterol, mood disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic brain injury instead of relying only on drugs. The residents learned that diet and lifestyle are powerful treatments—often as effective, if not more so, than drugs. The patients in the traumatic brain injury clinic were also eager to learn what things they could do to speed the healing of their brains. In patient after patient, I watched symptoms and the need for drugs decrease as diet and lifestyles improved.”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

“recognize that 9 cups sounds like a lot, and there are two reasons for this. One, in order to get enough concentrated nutrition, you need to eat a lot of vegetables.”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles

“At the most basic level, scientists are discovering that nearly all of the chronic diseases that cause so much suffering and are steadily driving up the cost of health care all share mitochondrial dysfunction, excessive inflammation, high cortisol levels, and other markers of broken biochemistry. In a very real sense, we all have the same disease because all diseases begin with broken, incorrect biochemistry and disordered communication within and between our cells. For health to return, the chemistry must revert to normal, and communication within and between our cells must be restored. This is true for every disease.”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

“Autoimmune disease is like scrambling a few notes in the middle of a grand symphony. As more and more notes are scrambled, the harmonies and melody are increasingly lost until there is no semblance of the original score and what was once beautiful music just sounds like noise.”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles

“The power of healing is within you. All you need to do is give your body what it needs and remove what poisons it. You can restore your own health by what you do—not by the pills you take, but by how you choose to live.”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

“When vegetables begin to look a bit stale, chop them and put them in a Crock-Pot on low all day with water or broth to make vegetable soup. Don’t throw away the leaves on radishes, beets, or turnips. These can be used in smoothies or cooked and enjoyed. They are highly nutritious and count toward your daily quota of greens. The leaves on cauliflower, broccoli, and kohlrabi are also edible. Use them in smoothies and soups, and eat them steamed. Two easy ways to use greens: (1) Put them in a blender with fruit and/or orange juice or full-fat coconut milk and blend on high to make a”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

“they are triggered by deficiencies in your cells that lead to broken biochemistry and impaired signaling between your cells. When you look at chronic disease in this way, it’s obvious that you should treat the cellular deficiencies that cause diseases to develop in the first place instead of just treating the symptoms, which is what most conventional pharmaceutical treatments do.”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

“study after study has shown that diet, toxin exposure, and activity level account for 70 to 95 percent of the risk for autoimmune disease, mental health issues, cancer, and, in fact, most chronic diseases.”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

“disease begins at the cellular level, when cells are starved of the building blocks they need to conduct the chemistry of life properly, and that the root of optimal health begins with taking away the things that harm and confuse our cells while providing the body with the right environment in which to thrive.”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

“you want a smaller brain that thinks poorly, eat more antinutrients like the trans fat–laden processed foods. Eat fast food daily or even just three times a week and you are well on the way to early dementia!”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine

“WAHLS WARRIORS SPEAK In August 2012, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The symptoms came on suddenly: tingling and numbness in my right arm and right and left hands, bladder urgency, cognitive issues and brain fog, lower back pain, and right-foot drop. One Saturday, I was playing golf, and by the next Friday, I was using a cane to walk. I was scared and I did not know what was happening. I was started on a five-day treatment of IV steroids. I began physical and occupational therapy, and speech therapy to assist with my word-finding issues. Desperate, I searched the Internet and read as much as I could about multiple sclerosis. I tried to discuss diet with my neurologist because I read that people with autoimmune diseases may benefit from going gluten-free. My neurologist recommended that I stick with my “balanced” diet because gluten-free may be a fad and it was difficult to do. In October 2012, I went to a holistic practitioner who recommended that I eliminate gluten, dairy, and eggs from my diet and then take an allergy test. About that time, I discovered Dr. Wahls, whose story provided me hope. I began to incorporate the 9 cups of produce and to eat organic lean meat, lots of wild fish, seaweed, and some organ meat (though I still struggle with that). My allergy tests came back and, sure enough, I was highly sensitive to gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, and almonds. This test further validated Dr. Wahls’s work. By eliminating highly inflammatory foods and replacing them with vegetables, lean meat, and seaweed, your body can heal. It’s been four months since I started the Wahls Diet, and I’ve increased my vitamin D levels from 17 to 52, my medicine has been reduced, and I have lost 14 pounds. I now exercise and run two miles several times per week, walk three miles a day, bike, swim, strength train, meditate, and stretch daily. I prepare smoothies and real meals in my kitchen. Gone are the days of eating out or ordering takeout three to four times a week. By eating this way, my energy levels have increased, my brain fog and stumbling over words has been eliminated, my skin looks great, and I am more alert and present. It is not easy eating this way, and my family has also had to make some adjustments, but, in the end, I choose health. I am more in tune with my body and I feed it the fuel it needs to thrive. —Michelle M., Baltimore, Maryland”
― Terry Wahls, The Wahls Protocol : How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine