Curt has learned a lot in the five years since the day he was diagnosed with MS. In part one of this two-part post, he explores two of the more disturbing realizations that have changed his perspective on the world and on the medical industry.
I can still remember the tone in my neurologist’s voice when he said the words.
“All signs are looking like you have multiple sclerosis”.
His tone was a strange mix of empathy and…apathy. I could tell he did his best to show genuine concern, but deep down I knew I was just one of dozens, if not hundreds of patients who he’d delivered the same life-changing news to as a part of his daily routine over the course of his career.
It was May 25th, 2015.
I remember wandering the halls of the hospital in a daze after leaving the neurologist’s office. The hospital had a confusing, maze-like layout as it was, and attempting to navigate the winding hallways after the shock of an MS diagnosis was challenging to say the least. It didn’t help that my main symptom at the time, numbness and tingling in both feet, made walking more than a little uncomfortable.
After 30 minutes, I finally stumbled across my car and hesitantly started the long rush hour commute home. I remember at one point sitting in the middle of a traffic jam, staring at the bumper of the car in front of me. I started crying for the first time in years.
Having limited knowledge of MS, terrifying questions flooded my mind. They are the same questions I imagine most people diagnosed with MS are burdened with immediately after diagnosis.
“How long until I’m in a wheelchair?”
“How much shorter will my life be?”
“What will Tina think? Will she still want to leave?”
“…why me?”
Despite tears blurring my vision, I somehow made it home safely. After breaking the news to Tina, we had a long, heart-to-heart talk and, buoyed by her strength and calm reassurance, I emerged hopeful that we weren’t going to let this MS thing be the death sentence I had feared it was.
Together, we were somehow going to turn this diagnosis into a positive.
A lot has happened in the five years since that day. Tina and I got married in 2017, and we bought our first house. My Mom passed away from lung cancer in 2018, just 10 weeks after receiving a shocking terminal diagnosis. I’ve grown and learned a lot; about MS, about myself, and about the world.
When a friend asked me recently, “What are the most important things you’ve learned since your diagnosis?”, I had to pause for a second.
My instinct was to turn to my default answer: about how diet and lifestyle can have a massive impact on our health. And indeed, I especially credit our diet to my ability to stay free of any new MS symptoms since 2016.
Then I started thinking deeper; I thought of the many positives (and some negatives) that have come since that day in 2015, and the many new lessons I’ve learned.
Here are some of them.
1. We’re surrounded by dangers to our health
Until the afternoon of May 25th, 2015, I had no problems engaging in the following activities without a second thought:
- Going for a jog alongside a busy roadway
- Staying up late to binge watch a new show
- Polishing off a pizza and following it with ice cream and a coke on a ‘cheat day’
- Working for 14+ hours straight to meet an urgent deadline
Of course, if you know anything about health, you can probably pinpoint the potential health hazards with all of the above. From the air we breathe, to the food we eat, to the sleep we sacrifice due to the addictive temptations of technology, to the stresses and long hours we endure at work – modern life has created an environment filled with ‘small dangers’ that, over time, can cumulatively lead to serious health consequences.
Your focus, and my focus since 2015 and for the rest of my life, should be to identify these unhealthy habits and stop or mitigate them before they cause (or exacerbate) serious illness.
In my case, years of ignoring the potential negative effects of these habits eventually manifested in MS lesions on my brain and spinal cord at 30 years old. In others, it may be cancer at 60. Or type 2 diabetes at 40. Or another illness.
And sure, others may get lucky and remain healthy long into old age despite maintaining unhealthy habits. But speaking from personal experience, I know how dangerous it can be to continually roll the dice.
One arguable positive that has come from my MS is what I call my ‘internal alarm’. Although my symptoms have been stable for years now, there is still the odd time where an old symptom—usually tingling and a ‘pins and needles’ sensation in my legs—will start to flair a bit when I’m doing something I shouldn’t be. Usually it’s from eating too much sugar, or sacrificing sleep, or letting stress take over. It’s my body telling me to stop what I’m doing and revert back to the healthy habits and foods that have helped me keep the disease at bay.
You might also have your own ‘internal alarm’; it could be in the form of feelings of sluggishness, or brain fog, or maybe a stomachache. I implore you to genuinely listen to your body and recognize what may be the cause. Then, correct it before it becomes a much bigger problem.
2. Sick people make a lot of people really rich
Who benefits from sick people? Or to put in another way, who loses out if we remain healthy and don’t need to visit the doctor or be put on medications?
It’s a question I never really thought about before my diagnosis. I always thought of illness as an unfortunate, necessary evil. Something we as humans were forced to endure, but fortunately with the support of a modern medical system whose sole goal was to treat and cure illness so that we can all live long, healthy lives.
However, a bit of digging uncovered a hidden side to the medical industry that I had previously been blissfully ignorant to: the medical industry, particularly pharmaceuticals, is big, BIG business.
According to The Pharma Letter, the worldwide pharmaceutical industry was worth nearly $1.3 trillion US in 2019. That’s right…trillion. And the Business Insider recently reported that the average annual cost of MS medication per patient quadrupled over a 10-year period: from $18,660 in 2006 to $78,847 in 2016: more than the median family in the US makes each year.
OK, so drug companies charge an arm and a leg for medications, for many reasons that other websites, news agencies, and bloggers have outlined in detail. Another shining example occurred this past week: biopharmaceutical giant Gilead has set the price of remdesivir, their promising drug for treatment of COVID-19, at a whopping $3,120 US despite it costing them a tiny fraction of that amount to produce.
But how about doctors, such as neurologists? Surely they’re focused solely on what is best for their patients, and not influenced by external parties like drug companies?
Hold up.
According to Global News, the 10 largest Canadian pharmaceutical companies gave more than $151 million to doctors and hospitals throughout Canada in 2017–2018, however due to a lack of regulations that mandate transparency, it’s unknown exactly where most of that money went and how it was used. And in turn, “multiple studies have shown that even small transfers of value can have an effect on how physicians prescribe certain drugs.”
So it begs an unnerving question, one that I’ve pondered every time I’m sitting through another forceful plea from a neurologist about how, despite my symptoms remaining very stable, I should go on an expensive disease-modifying therapy (DMT): could the promise of gifts or money from drug companies cause some doctors to over-prescribe certain medications, even if they aren’t necessarily needed or what is best for the health of patients? It’s a question worth asking.
Even the MS Society of Canada, despite maintaining some great initiatives to support those with multiple sclerosis, only devotes a fraction of the money they raise towards MS research. The remaining funds raised go mostly towards employee salaries, administration costs, and the costs of holding fundraising events.
They also seemingly ignore the latest (and obvious) nutritional advice—including some guidance that they themselves promote on their website—when they partner with a popular fast food chain every year to raise money by selling cheeseburgers. This despite increasing evidence that fast foods—excess salt, saturated fat, sugar, dairy, and vegetable oils among others—lead to inflammation in the body, intestinal permeability, and an exacerbation of symptoms in MS and autoimmune patients.
If ‘finding a cure’ and ending MS is the goal, is this the best path to take?
Fortunately, there are many out there who truly do have MS patients’ best interests at heart and are not overly influenced by monetary gain. One of our favourites is Matt Embry: a Calgary-based filmmaker who also has MS and runs a website, MS Hope. He has remained symptom-free for years by following the ‘Best Bet Diet’, developed by his father, Ashton.
Our diet incorporates many of the core principles of the Best Bet Diet as well as the Wahls Protocol, and I attribute much of my own healing to following the guidance of both.
I also highly recommend Matt’s documentary, Living Proof, which sheds more insight into the complex machine that is the medical industry and highlights how significant healing can be achieved naturally, without medications.
It’s reassuring to know that there are many out there who are truly driven to discover and share what is truly best for those suffering from illness…even if ‘what is best’ doesn’t involve making immense profit.
So since my diagnosis I’ve learned that the world is chock full of danger and that some in the medical industry may be driven more by money instead of what is best for patients.
Sorta depressing, right?
Fortunately, this knowledge has led to a multitude of other, more positive lessons. In part two, I talk more about these lessons and the tremendous impact they’ve had on my healing.
Stay healthy, and thanks for reading.
Curt is successfully optimizing health and healing illness (and helping others do the same) with the help of his wife, Tina. Read Curt & Tina’s inspiring story, “From on our heels to On Our Heals”. Feel free to send them a message.