Dr. Wahls is a professor of internal medicine at the University of
Iowa, where she teaches, and does rounds in a traumatic brain injury
clinic. This conventional medical doctor had the courage to step outside
the medical paradigm. Initially diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS
in 2000, she went the conventional route and was taking chemotherapy
drugs and other immune suppressants in an attempt to slow the disease.
By 2003, Dr Wahls transitioned to ‘Secondary Progressive Multiple
Sclerosis’ (the more advanced form), and had to begin using a
tilt-recline wheelchair because of weakness in her back muscles. In MS,
the immune system becomes sensitized to and attacks proteins in the
myelin sheath which protects the axons of the central nervous system.[3]
Like anyone with a degenerative condition, she wanted to forestall
further deterioration as long as possible. Because of her medical
training, Dr. Wahls knew that research in animal models of disease is
often 20 or 30 years ahead of clinical practice. She stayed up late each
night to scour through
