8 Things Terry Wahls, MD, Swears By For Reversing Autoimmune Disease

Here at mbg, we're all about finding ways to combat and prevent chronic conditions with diet and lifestyle changes. While conventional medicine is also necessary (and important!) for treating disease, we recognize the power of a holistic look at our health—in some cases, food truly is medicinal.

That's why I was excited to chat with functional medicine doctor Terry Wahls, M.D., who has a pretty incredible personal health story: After becoming wheelchair-bound with multiple sclerosis, she figured out the diet and lifestyle changes that would restore her health and allow her to walk (and run!) again. 

"I designed a protocol very specifically for my brain, and of course, it had a dramatic impact for me," she tells me on this episode of the mindbodygreen podcast. "Ultimately, I found that it had a dramatic impact in my primary care clinic in folks with obesity, diabetes, heart disease—they're all getting better."

In terms of what Terry Wahls typically eats, she maximizes vegetables (specifically greens and those sulfur-containing, deeply colored veggies). She found that this way of eating worked specifically for her brain and led to her dramatic reduction in her MS symptoms. 

She makes sure to get at least 9 cups of veggies, even when traveling. In fact, Wahls tries to incorporate more vegetables into her diet on days when she's traveling, in order to support better detoxification. 

Wahls definitely believes in the power of a good fast. "A ready supply of food appears to be very inflammatory and really accelerates aging, increases rates of autoimmune disease, and probably obesity, diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and cancers," she explains. 

In addition to eating tons of veggies, Wahls also places importance on getting in a high amount of omega-3s. She even eats what she calls a "membrane pudding" for dessert after her evening meal. 

Of course, it's important for Wahls to keep her body moving—in addition to biking 5 miles to and from work every day, she completes a workout meditation that usually takes her around two hours. 

Although she places emphasis on movement, Wahls recognizes it's just as important to get some rest. "The vast majority of folks in the two years prior to the onset of their serious illness is a major life stressor," she notes. That said, it's important to take the time to calm your mind and wind down. 

Another way Wahls suggests we calm our minds and wind down is to get a good night's sleep. In order to do this, she recommends an ice bath for 20 to 30 minutes. According to Wahls, ice baths depress your core temperature and make you have a shorter latency sleep (the lightest of the sleep stages). 

Supplements are tricky, Wahls admits. While she has an enormous supplement stash herself (and increases her intake of sulfur, vitamin C, and curcumin while traveling), she recognizes that supplements are usually not a one-size-fits-all matter. 

It sounds simple in theory, but even 95% won't cut it, says Wahls. "I know in college and in high school, if you got 95% on your test, that would be probably an A. But this is stopping your disease with diet and lifestyle, and it's far more important than just a test," she explains. 

What she means is that reversing autoimmune disease with diet and lifestyle requires an unwavering commitment to the experiment. You can't change just one factor and expect to be completely disease-free.

Wahls' advice is to try it carefully for a period of time before determining if these lifestyle changes are right for you. "If you want to stop your underlying disease with diet and lifestyle, run the experiment like a real scientist and actually do it meticulously for 100 days. Then at the end, you can draw your own conclusions," she says.