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Multiple Sclerosis Podcast, hosted by Brooke Slick and Jodi Feltham: For Living a Life by Design not Diagnosis
Episodes
Thursday Jan 12, 2023
Thursday Jan 12, 2023
Today we're going to be talking about integrative and functional medicine and how you can use them in tandem for your best and healthiest outcome while living with MS.
No matter where you are in the trajectory of your disease. Whether you've just been diagnosed or you've had it for 30 years, you may have asked yourself, "What can I be doing for myself above and beyond the drugs I'm taking, or the infusions I'm getting? There has to be something else."
That's where our next guest, Dr. Susan Payrovi, comes into play. Dr. Payrovi is the co-founder of True Medicine which you'll hear more about in this episode. She's board certified in integrative and functional medicine and has dedicated her practice to a whole-person approach to treatment that goes beyond simply throwing drugs at a patient to see what sticks.
Over and above her degrees that hang on her wall, Dr. Payrovi is even more uniquely qualified to provide advice to her patients because she herself lives with MS.
Please join Jodi and I in welcoming Dr. Susan Payrovi as she educates us on the power of lifestyle habits that can lead to lifelong wellness.
EPISODE NOTES
- What is integrative and functional medicine?
- The power of lifestyle habits
- Looking at the human body through a different lens
- Looking at the underlying cause of symptoms
- Looking beyond the physical body
- The profound effect of childhood experiences
- Convincing a patient to consider integrative and functional medicine
- The advantages of working in groups
- Starting with one small change
- What integrative and functional medicine isn't
- What one lifestyle habit would have the biggest effect
- How to make gains in sleep
- The role exercise plays in good sleep
- Cortisol, Melatonin and how they affect sleep
- The lesser known benefits of exercise/movement
- The gut microbiome
- How much exercise to create change
- Rats and remyelination
- The best time of day to exercise
- How much exercise is enough
- Keeping positive mindset in your MS toolbox
- Looking for the gifts of your MS
- Stress management
- Mindset and longevity
- Underestimating the power of our thoughts
- The influence of who you surround yourself with
- Integrative and functional medicine and insurance
- Dr. Payrovi's True Medicine practice
- A structured way to think through your goals
- 12-day detox challenge
- Gut restoration program
LINKS
THE MS GYM:
BROOKE SLICK:
Wednesday Nov 16, 2022
Wednesday Nov 16, 2022
Welcome to part two of our podcast about the gut and microbiome with coach William Dickinson.
In today's episode, we'll learn more about:
- The five pillars of good gut health (stomach acid, digestive enzymes, bile, motility and the gut mucosa)
- How the microbiome interacts with these five pillars
- The importance of having a diverse microbiome to combat disease
- Whether or not deficiencies in the five pillars are causing your unnecessary symptoms and discomfort
- What the “root cause” is and how it plays into your disease and treatment process
- My personal experiences working firsthand with William and the successes I’ve seen in my food intake and digestive function.
- Additional resources to learn more about gut health and auto immunity
Links:
Wednesday Nov 02, 2022
Wednesday Nov 02, 2022
We’ve all heard so much information about the importance of good gut health. But what does that really mean?
Today’s guest, coach William Dickinson, will help us unravel some of the mystery around autoimmune disease and the gut.
In part one of this podcast, we will learn about William and his own health journey through chronic fatigue syndrome.
He’ll share his:
- Root causes
- Debilitating fatigue that left him bed ridden for one-and-a-half years
- Restricted diet
- Deep-dive research into the gut and microbiome
- Own healing journey
- Discovery of the connection between autoimmune disease and the infamous, leaky gut (intestinal hyperpermeability)
- Formulation of the Five Pillars to heal your gut course
Links:
Wednesday Oct 19, 2022
Wednesday Oct 19, 2022
Welcome back to the second episode of our interview with actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler.
In this episode, we pick up where we left off when I asked Jamie if she'd experienced a postpartum relapse of her MS. We also discuss Jamie's MS mom guilt, and how she makes vacationing with young children and MS easier. Also in this episode, she shares her experience with Coach Trevor and the hope that his advice has given her. We finish out this intriguing interview by touching on Jamie's diet choices as well as what and how she uses cannabis for spasticity.
EPISODE NOTES:
-Raising young children with MS
-Remission of symptoms during pregnancy
-Postpartum depression
-What she can and can't do with her children
-The guilt of having others do things with her kids
-"Other moms can run"
-Focusing on what she CAN do
-Would I have been a better mom without MS
-When your spouse and children become your cheerleader
-Raising children with a conscious
-Julie Stamm's book, Some Days
-Bringing value despite MS
-The value of therapy
-Finding solace in friendships
-Vacationing with young children and MS
-Not slowing anybody down
-Choosing smaller hotels
-Making vacation easier with accessibility
-Jamie's experience with Trevor and the MS Gym
-Feeling so much hope
-The handbook for living
-Blown away by Trevor's compassion
-Infectious and genuine
-Diet
-She's tried ALL the diets
-Being kind to herself
-Nothing strict
-Everything in moderation
-Whatever makes her feel normal and not restrictive
-Sugar is the enemy
-Restricting water intake
-Avoiding stimulants
-Cannabis for spasticity
LINKS
THE MS GYM:
BROOKE SLICK:
Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
Welcome back to another season of The MS Gym Podcast. Jodi and I had planned on taking the summer off as we typically do, but opportunities kept presenting themselves that we simply couldn't turn down.
We've been absolutely humbled and honored that potential guests have been coming to us, instead of the other way around.
That's right. Word continues to spread about The MS Gym. continues to spread about Coach Trevor, his 100% commitment to and extensive knowledge of how the MS body responds to movement, and his well-informed grasp on how neuroplasticity can restore functionality that was perceived as being impossible.
With that kind of reputation, word gets around fast and far, and that's exactly how it happened with this episode's guest. A friend of hers told her about The MS Gym, she took a look at some of Trevor's videos and was intrigued, so she decided to contact The MS Gym to see how she could work with Trevor, only to find out that we had been trying to contact her to be on the podcast. You see, this was no random guest we were reaching out to. This was a Hollywood actress, famous for her role as Meadow Soprano on the long running HBO series The Sopranos, and now appearing in the ABC series Big Sky, who, after keeping her MS diagnosis under wraps for around 16 years, decided to go public. Little did she know, the MS world was cheering her on, anxious to see how she could use her far-reaching platform to shine a light on MS.
If you haven't figured it out by now, our guest on today's episode, as well as an upcoming episode, is Jamie-Lynn Sigler, a 42-year-old mother of two young boys, and wife to an incredibly supportive husband.
Over the next two episodes, Jamie opens up about a wide range of topics, from how she handled being diagnosed at a young age, making the decision to go public, the gift of workplace accommodation, raising young children, how she uses cannabis for relief, to, most importantly, her own experience with Trevor and The MS Gym.
EPISODE NOTES:
-Being diagnosed with Lyme disease
-MS at 20 when Sopranos was peaking
-Avonex
-Not being a good patient
-The stress of divorce
-Keeping her MS a secret
-Wanting to get rid of MS
-Finding a partner who was "in it" with her was a turning point
-The emotional side of MS
-Figuring out how to thrive with MS
-Dating with MS
-Being pleasantly surprised by the acceptance of
others
-The tipping point for revealing her diagnosis to the public
-Making excuses for her visible symptoms
-Taking time off after having her son
-Coming clean about her MS
-The People magazine article that changed everything
-Her celebrity status doesn't make MS any easier
-Feeling a great sense of responsibility as a celebrity with MS
-Accommodating her MS symptoms when filming
-Not wanting to feel like a burden on the set
-Masking her gait issues
-Using a stunt double
-Inclusivity in Hollywood
-Dreaming of a role that incorporates her MS
-Feeling guilt and shame about her limitations
LINKS
THE MS GYM:
BROOKE SLICK:
Wednesday Aug 03, 2022
Wednesday Aug 03, 2022
Tune in for the second part of our discussion with world-renowned Dr. Terry Wahls, creator of The Wahls Protocol. In today's discussion, we'll learn more about Dr. Wahls' role as a researcher. She shares about her upcoming randomized study, Efficacy of Diet on Quality of Life in Multiple Sclerosis.
Diet is often heralded as the key ingredient to managing MS symptoms. But, with over a dozen "MS diets" out there that are often contradictory to each other, how do we really know which one is best? Or is there even one diet that works for everyone?
Everyone shares their opinions about the "proper" MS diet, from fellow MSers to complete strangers. But is the only evidence available anecdotal? What makes this study so exciting is that it's the largest, longest, randomized study about diet and MS.
Study outcomes will be measured both with physical measures, such as MRI findings and changes in walking ability, and patient-reported outcomes in regards to fatigue and mood.
We're all looking forward to the proof in that "gluten and dairy free" pudding. So grab those spoons and let's dig in.
In this episode, we'll learn more about the study.
- Inclusion/exclusion criteria
- Location, start date, and duration
- Physical measures being tested
- Primary and secondary outcomes
- 3 different diets being compared
- Randomization process and adherence requirements
- Time line of results
Dr. Wahls also discusses:
- The importance of adopting a diet that's realistic for each household
- The recent updates to her book, The Wahls Protocol, and how results from this study may shape further revisions
- The carnivore diet as the "ultimate" elimination diet and her reservations about it
For more information about Dr. Wahls upcoming study check out these links:
Additional links:
DR. TERRY WAHLS:
Book - The Wahls Protocol - with access to BONUS content
THE MS GYM:
Wednesday Jul 27, 2022
Wednesday Jul 27, 2022
Hello everyone and welcome to a very special 2-part episode of the MS Gym podcast. At the moment, Jodi and I are currently on our usual summer podcast hiatus, but when author Dr. Terry Wahls, the creator of The Wahls Protocol, reached out to us to help share information about a new study she's working on, we were honored and MORE than happy to oblige. We both thought it would be a perfect opportunity to host an episode together and, of course, we couldn't wait to share the episodes with our listeners.
So, you might be thinking, who is Dr. Terry Wahls? What's the Wahls Protocol?
Dr. Wahls is currently a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City, Iowa, U.S.A., where she teaches internal medicine residents in their primary care clinics. She also does clinical research and has published over 60 peer-reviewed scientific abstracts, and papers.
What gives Dr. Wahls a unique perspective in her field, is the fact that in. 2003 she was diagnosed with RRMS and quickly transitioned to SPMS a few short years later.
At that time, she put her researched-oriented brain to work and discovered that most MS treatments centered around drugs that were years away from approval. Given that, she diverted her attention to the role of vitamins and supplements, which were readily available, in helping brain disorders, as part of a treatment plan. She added to her research repertoire functional medicine, a biology–based approach that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease and from there started compiling a list of supplemental nutrients that would assist in brain health. Her ah ha moment came when she asked herself, what if she created a diet that would include those important brain nutrients, not from supplements, but from the foods she ate...and the rest is Wahls Protocol history!
In this episode one of two, we'll get a closer look at Dr. Wahls own physical decline and how she ate her way back to health and onto creating the now infamous Wahls Protocol. We'll also ask her about the new study she's working on.
EPISODE NOTES:
- Who is Dr. Terry Wahls?
- Her unique perspective
- Eating her way to healthy
- Too weak to sit in a chair
- Why mitochondria is key
- Diet, exercise and supplements
- How it changed her career path
- What MS drugs she's taken over the years
- Her chemotherapy experience
- Redesigning her Paleo diet
- When the magic happened
- The highlights of the Wahls Protocol
- Where are the nutrients in the food?
- Her troublesome trigeminal neuralgia
- Being able to sit at the dining table
- Making symptomatic strides from food alone
- The bike ride that changed everything
- Bringing the Wahls Protocol to the masses
- When her own residents started trying her protocol
- Running her own clinic
- "Give me your sickest people"
- Is it a healing diet?
- A body's regenerative capacity
- Fixing the microbiome
- Is it a high fat, low carb diet?
- Less sugar, more vegetables and protein, yes or no?
- FATS, what types are important?
- How the standard American diet is destructive
- Meeting people where they're at
- Explaining why there is NOT a one size fits all diet
- Is coconut oil really like "the devil"?
- Pre-diet blood work
- How our genetic differences change the efficacy of our diet choices
- Should children be on a ketogenic diet
- Who you shouldn't be listening to
- The family factor
- Dr. Wahls study
LINKS:
DR. TERRY WAHLS:
Book - The Wahls Protocol - with access to BONUS content
THE MS GYM:
BROOKE SLICK:
Wednesday Jun 22, 2022
Wednesday Jun 22, 2022
Travel with us overseas today as we chat with Julie Wake and explore her:
- Initial symptoms and delayed diagnosis
- Defeated feelings and "death sentence" mindset
- Lifestyle commitments to diet, mindfulness and exercise
- New found ability to see her mobility tools as an aid and not a crutch
- Recent travel endeavours
- Daily motivation for pressing play
The MS Gym Links
Wednesday Jun 08, 2022
Wednesday Jun 08, 2022
What an encouraging podcast episode we've got for you today from one of our superstar gymmers, Annika.
Join us as we learn about her:
- Prolonged diagnosis and denial
- Tangled web of disease-modifying therapies
- Experience with the Coimbra Protocol (high-dose vitamin D medical treatment)
- Finding The MS Gym
- Hope through neuroplasticity
- Inspiration and courage to tackle new adventures
- Daily exercise habits
"My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn't prevent you doing well, and don't regret the things it interferes with. Don't be disabled in spirit, as well as physically.” - Stephen Hawkin
The MS Gym Links
Wednesday May 25, 2022
Wednesday May 25, 2022
This episode is up close and personal for me. It explains why I've been off grid for the last few months, my continued battle with trigeminal neuralgia, and, even more disturbing (at least to me), my mental struggle with fear.
I will share how even the most strong-willed, strong-minded person you know, may need to seek counseling to get over the mental hurdles of living with a chronic illness.
Most importantly, I want you all to know that seeking counseling is for the wise, not the weak. It can set you free from your time-wasting, joy-sucking struggle with fear and mental angst.
EPISODE NOTES:
-Flu, shingles and a trigeminal neuralgia (TN) attack
-How pain can make your life very small
-Surgery, surgery and more surgery over the years
-My next move
-Weighing options
-My choice to have gamma knife (radiation) treatment
-The patience required for recovery
-The disappointment of attacks after surgery
-Being offered pain meds as a stopgap
-Waiting for the healing to happen
-A long history of medical mishaps
-A stroke at age 35
-An unexpected autoimmune clotting disorder
-Finally, an MS diagnosis
-A pile of failed MS drugs
-Suck it up buttercup mentality
-Constantly revisiting painful medical trauma
-Getting stuck in a loop
-Reliving past traumas
-The difference in past trauma and trauma now
-The unpredictability of TN
-The fear that led me to counseling
-Having your fear validated
-Simple tools to reprogram your thoughts
-Shutting down the stigma
-Seeking counseling does not mean you're weak. It means you're wise
-Stop letting fear waste your time and destroy your joy
LINKS:
The MS Gym
Instagram - @themsgym
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMSGym
Website - www.themsgym.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheMSGym/?ref=share
Brooke Slick
Instagram - @brooke.slick
Website - www.brookeslick.com