”How Autoimmunity Changed My Practice of Medicine” is a presentation by Cynthia Li, M.D. that took place at Silicon Valley Health Institute on December 15, 2016. Up until my early 30s, I was living life at the fullest: traveling abroad for 6 months with my husband, working full-time in a primary HIV/AIDS clinic, exercising regularly, and eating a diet of mostly organic low-fat foods. Living life forward, I thought I was quite healthy. Now, with hindsight being 20/20, I realize also I had underlying imbalances for many years already– starting out as subtle symptoms I either disregarded or pushed beyond– that were signs of mounting inflammation and physiological stress.
These underlying imbalances and what I know now to be a genetic predisposition, led to postpartum thyroiditis after my first child was born. I followed the usual course of seeing an endocrinologist and taking medication, however, even after my numbers normalized.
Nonetheless, I was still functional, so in my doctors’ and my own opinions, I was doing well enough. Soon thereafter, a 2nd pregnancy, along with other inciting factors, threw me into a chronic state of debilitating symptoms no one could decipher– not my primary care doctor, various specialists, my acupuncturist, or myself.
I found myself in the group of patients that either (a) was not recognized or validated by the health community, and/or (b) was not help able. I was spiraling in a vortex of diagnoses that included autonomic dysfunction, multiple food sensitivities, and chronic fatigue syndrome. I wasn’t even sure if some of these conditions truly existed, but the experience of my symptoms was undeniable. In the years that followed, I explored the fundamental connection between nourishment and health.
I explored our inextricable spiritual and physical connectedness to our own environments as well as our inner environments of the microbiome (the gut, the skin, and respiratory microorganisms with which we co-evolved). I delved deeper into evolutionary biology and the effects of epigenetics (how gene expression is affected by environmental factors).
I experimented with integrative medicine, acupuncture and herbs, mind/body medicine with a focus on neuroplasticity (rehabilitation exercises to rewire the communication between our brain and hormonal pathways), and whole foods-based ancestral diets like WAPF, GAPS and the Paleo Diet. I learned how to cook delicious, nutrient-dense foods.
I also learned to tap into the support offered by the strong, loving community around me, and how to practice pleasure again. After a 2 year medical leave, I returned to clinical practice, but with a very different set of eyes. I saw more clearly the beautiful complexity of the human mind, body, and spirit; as well as what it looks like when that delicate balance is disturbed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2018 marks the 34th year since Palmer Kippola was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Against the diagnosis and grim outlook provided by my neurologist at age 19,
I’m now thriving, symptom and medication-free. But it wasn’t always this way.
The First Day
One day in August 1984, home on summer break after my freshman year at college.
I woke up with a creepy tingling in my feet which slowly rose to my chest.
Later that day my parents and I sat in a neurologist’s office where she made the dreadful pronouncement: “I’m 99% sure you have multiple sclerosis (MS), and there’s nothing we can do.” At home later that day, my body went numb from the chest down and I had no sense of my body in space. For nearly two months my body remained completely numb. This was a devastating time for me and my family. We had little information about this mysterious MS and no idea what the future would present. We started planning for my life in a wheelchair. By late September the shroud of numbness started to retreat (thank heavens! my mom would say), but it took a full 2 years for it to vanish. And thus began my relapsing-remitting relationship with MS.
The first 15 years were marked by significant episodes of symptoms every 2–4 years, ranging from similar tingling and numbness to profound fatigue and searingly painful optic neuritis that landed me in the hospital 3 times in two weeks. During these last 15 years, I have been on a steadily improving course. Effective stress-reduction techniques definitely helped, as did removing sugar; but my holy grail was giving up gluten and dairy in 2010. Since then I have been completely symptom-free and, finally, medication-free.
There are new people entering the MS world all the time. And I suppose I’m still fighting the battle on behalf of Barbara and she’s no longer here.
1. Whether Palmer Kippola had MS or didn’t, I don’t know. My sister didn’t know FOR SURE for decades. Very early one doctor said “may be MS”…the others did not know… she was in her early 20’s…they knew a lot less back then perhaps. She went on to work in her profession for many years, lots of stress, bad sleep patterns, and rich foods. She was on the GO for many years. And then it all hit her.
2. I gave her suggestions over the years like LDN, eliminating sugars/carbs and what I could do without being pushy and invasive on how she was dong her treatments. And talked about Grape Seed Extract and Pycnogenol and the IMMUNE SYSTEM. She had pneumonia quite a bit over the last couple decades… She never got on these antioxidants.
3. Combining so much of the information out there is key, I believe. It’s certainly what I would do if I was challenged with MS, it’s what I do with my health challenges which is MOSTLY arthritis.
4. I did a search on Integrative Approach to MS and found a lot of info. Maybe some of the newbies would want to do that.
5. I mentioned the doctors kept my sister hanging with the hope of Stem Cells and was going on 10 yrs ago when she started talking about this. Hasn’t happened, will it ever? I know the family asked that donations be given to the stem cell research of one of the doctors she saw in NYC.
Anyway, I can’t let go YET on Fighting for My Sister and just putting stuff out there from my mind. There is so much info today on EVERYTHING….this study, that study, this research etc etc etc.
Peace Out ALL….Caroline__________________
Most important supplement: grape seed extract
A clean diet will be the foundation. No processed food, no sugar and unhealthy grains like cheap breads.
I did Wahls for a bit, it only made me worse. Yes! My daughter was diagnosed 4 years ago! She said this doctor has saved her. She follows the diet and exercise plan. You should see her at gym. You’d never know she has MS!!!
Black seed oil capsules are what I have taken for years. I was diagnosed at 33 and told I would be in a wheelchair by the time I was 40. I will be 59 in August …so far no wheelchair 
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Sacred frankincense essential oil from
Cannabis. I have MS and I’ve been taking cbd everyday for a week. unknown 😉
I personally haven’t had much improvement but I’m a believer and know it takes more time. It does however steady my mind so I’m not constantly thinking and can sleep better. I have ms and got my card here in Florida. I have been taking 3x a day 5 drops of 1500 CBD and 2% thc and I feel a world of better. No more migraines, have more energy and wish I knew about this when I was first diagnosed!
The high CBD and low thc probably took a good week to start realizing little things here and there and then it hit me when it started pouring and I got to actually enjoy the rain instead of in bed with ice packs and migraine remedy of pills and till puking and miserable until it passed. Once I realize that it helped me get through the storms we have her in south west Florida, I knew I was hooked. My energy levels starting getting better a little at a time. I was told by the doctor to take it on an empty stomach then eat after. It kind a just gets better the more I use and then I’ve become more aware of my body.
Make sure he has the spiritual side of things balanced too like how there is powerful healing in forgiving others and being at peace with others in your life and with yourself.
When Matt Embry was diagnosed with MS over 20 years ago, he and his father sought out a way to keep Matt’s MS symptoms to a minimum by incorporating nutrition and fitness into his lifestyle. Being able to maintain a healthy drug-free life for over two decades has driven Matt to share his ideas with MS patients across the world through his website MS Hope.
Last year Matt decided to share his journey with MS through his documentary “Living Proof”. The film is a story of hope told from Matt’s perspective as patient and filmmaker as well as the perspective of different people, with varying degrees of symptoms, Matt met while on his MS Hope tour.
Some do because they are very lucky or have enough money to buy the most expensive treatment. But what happens if someone is a regular person that has nothing to do with medical education but is capable of finding something that might cure or even slow down the progress of MS, for instance?
That sounds too good to be true though. But there is a problem: how will the money making machine, such as The MS Society or pharmaceutical companies react to it when all of a sudden patients will turn their attention from medical treatment to non-medical treatment? Exactly! Because one will lose money, while another one will get an opportunity to buy a few extra years more without spending a dollar. And that is not profitable for any one who produces so-called medicine that won’t provide a long term solution, but rather killing slowly.
Matt Embry, a writer and a director of Living Proof back in 1995, when he was 19-years-old and too young to cope with major challenge of life, finds himself diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. 20 years later, he still looks healthy and strong due to the diet that his father, a geologist, put him into. Releasing himself from damaging and useless treatment from MS Society, Matt and his father sent their findings to the MS Society of Canada who simply ignored the fact of helpful and clearly effective diet that can allow MS patients to continue living their life, maybe not to the fullest, but way better than the one they could have had with the same medicine which was sold to them by the pharmaceutical corporations.
From Dr. Paolo Zamboni, the audience will learn that the majority of MS patients he examined had dangerous blockages in their jugular veins, a condition known as CCSVI. But the challenge is Dr. Zamboni is not able to get funding to extend his research, and moreover is at high risk losing his license if he continues providing treatment that works. Funny, isn’t it. But that’s alright if you feel you want to get angry. Because I was and still am. But when another specialists know how to treat CCSVI effectively and with visible sign of improvement in MS patients, the same treatment was forbidden for unknown reasons. But let’s not forget we all can draw our conclusion from it, isn’t it?
Matt’s struggle, which should have never happened in the first place, continues when the MS Society of Canada started focusing on wrong things such us the design of Matt’s website, www.mshope.com rather than on a diet he provided that could benefit every MS patient.
Living Proof is a heartfelt film that follows the director’s journey of coming to terms with his looming infliction. It’s also an engaging exposé that shines the spotlight on what appears to be corporate collusion to continue to profit on the sick (i.e. MS patients are also kept in the dark about cheaper medical alternatives and encouraging experimental treatments are tied up in FDA bureaucracy).
Matt Embry takes audiences on an unexpectedly emotional journey in Living Proof. The Calgary-born filmmaker pulls double duty as the director and subject of this compelling film that uses his own diagnosis with multiple sclerosis to interrogate the recommendations and prescriptions that encourage people to lead healthy lives. After tackling the lives of numerous Canadians, most notably hockey player Theo Fleury in the acclaimed Theo Fleury: Playing with Fire.
Embry puts himself before the camera with a personal quest that consistently moves and surprises. The film reveals the fallacies of Big Pharma and the prescription drugs that do little to yield a hopeful future, while Embry’s experience yields another story. Living Proof offers a hopeful journey…. as Embry and his father, Dr. Ashton Embry, commit themselves to researching alternative efforts to treat this disease that has no known cause or cure. Using his personal quest to save his own life and those of others to come, Embry meets with doctors and other people living with MS to listen and learn about their experiences.
The film also shows the director and his father on their tours sharing the message of Embry’s MS Hope, which advocates practical action plans, like the MS Best Bet Diet, that offer healthy alternatives to costly drugs and campaigns. Also Embry’s efforts show the benefits of these alternatives compared to the paths chosen by others who aren’t as fortunate and experience the debilitating effects of the disease, Living Proof offers powerful and hopeful evidence for change. It’s an amazing story told with the kind of sincerity and conviction that should inspire action.
In the Q&A, Matt Embry emphasized that he’s not a doctor or researcher, he’s advocating for change. “I believe that the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada is important to have. They have programs that are supporting people. The question is: What can that change look like? That’s what we’re trying to get to.”
To learn more, visit Matt Embry’s website MSHope.com.