How I transformed my health - 5 year review

This week is a huge week for me, as it’s the fifth anniversary of me making one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life.

To give you some context, In the summer of 2006, whilst on holiday I took ill.  My body started to experience pins and needles, and after spending most of my holiday in hospital, I returned to Belfast, where over the next twelve months, I became very unwell.

I had lots of neurological problems, and to give you the short version, my body was not working properly.  I now understand that what happened on holiday was that my body came under attack from my own immune system, and this was to ultimately lead to a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, 12 months later in a Belfast Clinic. 

For the next nine years I was on all kinds of drugs/medication to help manage my MS, including a daily injection of a disease modifying drug called COPAXONE.

In April 2016, after many years of research, I decided that I had built up enough strength in my body and my mind, to go in a different direction.

I decided I was going to divert from the conventional approach to managing disease with medication, instead implementing a new regime, which would be a lifestyle approach to managing my illness.

Five years later, and I am glad to report that my body continues to heal and recover, and many of the neurological problems I was experiencing for so many years, have subsided somewhat, with some disappearing altogether.  A truly incredible experience, and clearly vindication, that my approach has been the correct one for me. 

One of the reasons why I wanted to talk about this subject this week, is the fact that I became aware a number of years ago after an appearance on the LATELATE show on RTE,, that my own story of healing and recovery, was giving so many people hope with their own challenges in life.

I now get contacted every week from people all around the world, looking for advice and guidance around how they might be best to manage their own health, fight disease and overcome illness.  It’s something I have become accustomed to, and a position I enjoy, as I get an opportunity to share and communicate with so many people.

One of the questions I get a lot from people, is whether they too should go off medication?  This is a complex question, and my view is that it would be deeply irresponsible of me or anyone else, to advise people whether they should stop taking medication.  I am not a doctor, and I do not profess to be, however I do advocate people do become students of their own conditions and engage in deep discussion with their medical teams around all of these kinds of discussions and lines of questioning.

It is of the utmost importance patients feel comfortable speaking to their medical team around all of their concerns, and they feel there is a space to speak about matters they are thinking about, or are concerning them.

In relation to conventional medication, for me the developments in that industry over the last 100 years have been incredible and in some specific areas, really exciting. However when it comes to managing and ending chronic disease, actually, I do not think this is an area the conventional medical world has made enough progress in.

Take MS for example, for the last 15 years, I have been listening to big pharma, neurologists and other stakeholders, say they hope to have a cure for MS in the “not too distant future”.

Given I am highly invested in this subject matter, and have spoken at different international events on the topic from 2010, sharing the stage with some of the most highly regarded neurologists in the world – how are you going to cure something, when you don’t even know where it comes from, or originates from?  Sure they have put forward some ideas and connections to origination of MS, but there is still quite bit to go in this regard.

The other question arising out of this would be - does big pharma really want people to figure MS out and then ultimately, not have a need for their products?  

The disease modifying space is a billion-dollar industry.  I will let you decide what the answer might be to that question!!

A few years ago, a really good doctor friend of mine said something quite profound to me

“Medication is designed to manage disease, not induce health” –

…this is a powerful statement, and when I started to understand what he meant, I knew I had to take back control, and implement a strategy into my life that would actually induce my own health, and help my body to heal and repair.

Dr Wahls 

A number of years ago, my own research into all of this, led me to someone who went onto really inspire me, in terms of the decisions I was ultimately going to take around managing my health so much better.

Dr Terry Wahls, is an author and highly regarded neurologist in the USA.

A number of years ago, she contracted an aggressive form of MS, which led to her taking lots of medication to try and manage the progression of her illness.  However, her condition continued to progress despite the meds, and she became very debilitated, and wheelchair bound.    

As her health continued to deteriorate, she made a huge decision, which was to go off medication and transition away from the conventional approach to managing her disease.

Instead, she decided she was going to manage her illness through nutrition, and what she refers to as the lifestyle approach to managing chronic illness. 

Guess what? her decline stopped, and slowly but surely, with her new approach, her body started to heal. #Wow !!

Dr Wahls story of recovery is pretty incredible and now internationally recognised.

I would encourage you to watch her TEDx talk on YOUTUBE, “Minding Your Mitochondria” which now has had over 3 million views.  You might also want to get her book “The Wahls Protocol”, which is a fascinating read. 

April 2016

Five years ago, after a number of years of research, I was able to rewire my own mind, and set upon a new journey of healing and recovery in my own life. Just like Dr Wahls…

My plan was to ditch the medication and go on a plant-based diet.  I figured out at that stage, that it was the levels of inflammation in my body that was causing the damage, and the best way to deal with this, was to eat a diet that was anti-inflammatory. 

This meant I would be able to eat anything I wanted, apart from meat and dairy products.  More particularly lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and legumes.  

So pretty much I was avoiding foods that had a head/and or a tail on them, and a central nervous system - which was a way one of my friends once described it to me :)

Although there are now many people who are living plant based, and there has been an explosion of veganism over the last few years, it never ceases to amaze me how, when people I speak to ask me about this, often the next question put to me is, “If you don’t eat meat, what do you eat?”

Forty years ago, it was a treat at the weekend say, for people to eat a Sunday roast or a piece of meat.  Nowadays people are eating meat and animal products up to 3,4 and 5 times a day.  It’s gotten completely out of control. 

The beautiful thing about life is that every day is a school day.

My illness pushed me towards a plant-based way of living, which ultimately pushed me into becoming vegan.  That means I don’t eat or use anything involving animal products.  

The journey to veganism was an interesting one in itself, but I justify it all to myself, as I am a lot healthier for it, and also in relation to the biggest problem facing humanity – CLIMATE CHANGE – I am doing my bit there also.

Did you know animal agriculture, is one of the biggest contributors to the climate change problem? If you want to further your knowledge on this, go check out Cowspiracy on Netflix - a superb show. 

Five years on

So, this week, is a week when I get some time to reflect on my life to date, look through my diaries of the many bad days, weeks and months from 2006, up to today, and try and make sense of how the last fifteen years of my life has played out. 

A very quick health summary of my last 15 years living with MS would read as follows;

• First 5 years – horrendous experience, lots of pain, and very little hope – I gave up!

• Next 5 years – start to wake up, ask questions and make small changes in my life and my mind.  I started to get some hope back. 

• Last 5 years – totally transformed my life and my health, by going plant based and implementing a lifestyle approach to managing illness.  I was able to change my attitude and my approach to every day, focusing on my health, my nutrition and my daily exercise programs.

It’s been an incredible ride, lots of pain and many dark days, but as I reflect on the last 15 years, I am truly grateful I have been able to turn things around.

The great news is if you are reading this, and looking for some hope and inspiration – YOU CAN TOO !!

Life is an incredible gift, but a word of warning.  There are NO FREE LUNCHES.  You must do the work.

I don’t know anyone who has achieved any kind of success in life, who hasn’t worked incredibly hard. 

If you are struggling with life today, for whatever reason, fear not, and try not to lose hope. 

I urge you to take back control, educate yourself around the condition, or your challenge in life, and finally, TAKE MASSIVE ACTION.

My closing thoughts on this important week for me is this; 

“regardless of how bad things are today, how dark things appear, never give up hope or let go of that thought, that things can and will improve.   If you can hold onto that thought, that is the start of your own journey to health and fulfilment”.

You can reach me across my social channels.  Also check out my two books on amazon.  

 You can email me at conor@conordevine.com

Trail run in Tyrone