Natural Awakenings Twin Cities March 2023
Read the March 2023 edition of Natural Awakenings Twin Cities magazine. This is our annual Food and Nutrition Issue which features articles on plant-based resources, veggies for the win, supplements that help the heart, organs of detoxification, health coaching, releasing emotional baggage, human-grade dog foods, eco-friendly water heating and so much more! Be sure to check out our local content, including News Briefs announcements, Community Resource Guide with providers throughout the metro who can meet your individual wellness needs, and all the happenings in the Calendar of Events. There is additional online-only content that can be found at NATwinCities.com.
Read the March 2023 edition of Natural Awakenings Twin Cities magazine. This is our annual Food and Nutrition Issue which features articles on plant-based resources, veggies for the win, supplements that help the heart, organs of detoxification, health coaching, releasing emotional baggage, human-grade dog foods, eco-friendly water heating and so much more!
Be sure to check out our local content, including News Briefs announcements, Community Resource Guide with providers throughout the metro who can meet your individual wellness needs, and all the happenings in the Calendar of Events. There is additional online-only content that can be found at NATwinCities.com.
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wise words<br />
TERRY WAHLS<br />
ON MANAGING AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE<br />
WITH LIFESTYLE INTERVENTIONS<br />
by Noelle Citarella, MS, RDN, CDN, IFNCP<br />
Terry Wahls, M.D., is a certified practitioner at the<br />
Institute for Functional Medicine, as well as clinical<br />
professor of medicine at the University of Iowa,<br />
where she conducts clinical trials testing the effect of<br />
therapeutic diet and lifestyle to treat multiple sclerosis<br />
(MS) symptoms. She is the author of The Wahls Protocol:<br />
A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune<br />
Conditions Using Paleo Principles, as well as an<br />
accompanying cookbook, The Wahls Protocol Cooking<br />
for Life.<br />
When Wahls was diagnosed with MS and later<br />
relegated to a tilt-recline wheelchair in the early 2000s,<br />
she decided to fight back. Drawing upon her medical<br />
background, she identified certain nutrients that were<br />
critical for brain health and started taking supplements.<br />
The disease’s progression slowed as a result, spurring her<br />
to dig deeper. Since then, through rigorous scientific study<br />
and numerous clinical trials, Wahls has developed<br />
groundbreaking<br />
dietary and lifestyle<br />
recommendations<br />
that alleviate autoimmune disease symptoms.<br />
No longer bound to a wheelchair,<br />
she bikes to work every day and stands as<br />
a living testament to the power of tenacity<br />
and strenuous scientific inquiry.<br />
What are the key components<br />
of the Wahls Protocol?<br />
The protocol is a lifestyle that supports<br />
the steadily improving health of everyone,<br />
not just MS patients. It focuses on eating<br />
more vegetables and fruits, and ensuring<br />
sufficient protein. It reduces or eliminates<br />
added sugars, ultra-processed foods, dairy<br />
and gluten-containing grains. While the<br />
diet may get more complex, a great place<br />
for anyone to start is including more<br />
non-starchy vegetables, less<br />
processed food and more<br />
meals cooked at home.<br />
The protocol also includes<br />
lifestyle interventions,<br />
such<br />
as time in<br />
nature,<br />
meditation,<br />
mindfulness and physical<br />
activity. Even for patients who<br />
are wheelchair-bound, going from<br />
chair to bed, exercise will improve<br />
their quality of life. It is a way of approaching<br />
living that creates a more<br />
healthy, nurturing environment.<br />
What excites you most about<br />
your current MS study?<br />
Seeing what happens with brain volume<br />
and quality of life. We hypothesize that<br />
lifestyle changes will get the rate of brain<br />
volume loss to match that of healthy aging.<br />
Jonathan D. Sabin/TerryWahls.com<br />
20 <strong>Twin</strong> <strong>Cities</strong> Edition NAtwincities.com