Health is Also a Matter of Eating Correctly

I am not a vegan or vegetarian. I have a lifestyle that embraces the Wahls Protocol – balanced nutrition, stress management, toxins awareness and removal, and exercise. Dr. Terry Wahls is a physician who developed multiple sclerosis (MS) late in life.

Wahls Protocol Successes

https://terrywahls.com/about-the-wahls-protocol/ All medicines and treatments for her MS did not work. She wrote a book, The Wahls Protocol. She put herself on her own protocol. After spending four years in a wheelchair, she was able to walk using a walker in three months, walk with a cane a month later, and bicycle eighteen miles several months later.

My wife went through breast cancer surgeries, months of chemotherapy, and weeks of radiation therapy. Fatigue was one side effect of chemotherapy that was impossible to address effectively. On Day 1 of radiation therapy, she started the dietary option of The Wahls Protocol. Within 48 hours, her fatigue was gone after months of chemotherapy.

She never developed fatigue from weeks of radiation therapy. Immediately after her last radiation treatment we left Houston, Texas, and drove to Jacksonville, Florida. I rented a U-Haul to bring my parents’ estate items back to our home. My wife, 48 hours after her last radiation treatment, drove 500 miles, by herself, for two days on our return to Houston, Texas.

Wahls Protocol Details

https://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/wahl-diet-ms This protocol is fruits, vegetables, and proteins. It does not include dairy or eggs, grains, legumes, or sugar. Some restrictions are given for nightshades (bell peppers, eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes, etc.). It is closer to a Paleolithic diet than the Atkins Diet.

This eating regimen is based on getting balanced nutrition every day. I believe this is what helped my wife recover so quickly from her chemo fog and thwart radiation fog. I am a big advocate for balanced nutrition based on the success I have seen personally with my wife’s recovery from cancer. I failed to mention earlier, that she walked 500 miles across Spain in 30 days (Camino de Santiago) to offer thanksgiving for her recovery – two years after her cancer surgery.

The protocol identifies three similar meals – green leafy vegetables, sulfur-laden vegetables, colored fruits and vegetables (the same color goes all the way through the fruit or vegetable), and protein. We tried to eat three meals a day and it was too much food. Eating three meals provides a person with approximately ten times the recommended daily allowance of around 30 nutrients the body needs daily.

I have tweaked the dietary protocol to not have the same protein within 48 hours. We also supplement with vitamin E (all four tocopherols and four tocotrienols) and vitamin K2. It is difficult to find foods containing these nutrients that we enjoy eating. We eat about one to one and a half meals daily. This means that we have incorporated caloric restriction into our normal eating habits.

pH is another important part of a healthy lifestyle. Fruits and vegetables leave the body alkaline. Proteins, carbohydrates, fats, exercise, and normal metabolic processes leave the body in an acidic condition. The Wahls Protocol naturally leads to an alkaline environment inside my body. I have taken pH sticks and tested my pH many times before and after eating to ensure that I stay at 7.4 or above.

Eating the right foods can lead to great health. Not eating periodically can also lead to enjoyable health later in life. Fasting is part of my lifestyle. I do a 72-hour-fast monthly to rebuild my immune system. Dr. Valter Longo developed this type of fasting. https://www.bluezones.com/2016/04/fasting-for-longevity/

Conclusion

What does a healthy lifestyle include that will hopefully yield a full life with the ability to do anything you want? Annual physicals are a must. Daily nutritionally balanced meals are required. Stress management absolutely should be done several times daily.

Toxin awareness (read and understand labels) and removal will keep your immune system focused on foreign invaders than toxic chemicals added to foods and personal care products. Caloric restriction can start with something as simple as using a smaller plate and never going back for seconds.

pH is like toxin awareness. Get some pH paper and test yourself often to know the foods you eat are keeping you in the alkaline range. Exercise should involve balance, strength, cardio, stretching, endurance. And, of course, smile often and enjoy everything around you.

Live Longer & Enjoy Life! – Red O’Laughlin – RedOLaughlin.com