From MS Diagnosis To TEDx Speaker Miracle

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

When I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) at the age of 24, the only people I knew personally with this dreaded disease spent their young lives bedridden. I also feared this would be my life. Within 13 years of being diagnosed I became legally disabled due to the devastation MS caused to my body, and it appeared what I knew to be true would be my path.

Needless to say, I was scared and for most of my adult life lived a fear driven existence.

The highest form of disability a human can have is bilateral loss of their hands. By the age of 48, I was unable to use my hands to maintain daily life. I could no longer drive, lift, carry, turn, rotate or use my arms or hands beyond a single act. On a good day I could dress, feed and bath myself and that would be all. I had full-time help and people living with me.

My life was becoming unmanageable and fear increasing every day.

My neck became a huge issue, and I could not turn it left to right or look up or down. I lived in traction several times a week simply to stop the horrific pain of feeling like my head was being pushed into my neck. I used to pray for traction like an addict for a drug. It was the only way I could get any relief even if only for a few hours.

I also had a rib girdle that felt like a truck was sitting on my chest making each breath a challenge. To make life even more exciting I lost the ability to feel my bladder and the left side of my body from head to toe.

My body was failing. I was alone. I was going bankrupt due to healthcare costs.

By this point I was taking 24 pills a day and injecting with an MS disease-modifying drug every other day. My out-of-pocket healthcare costs averaging $37,000 year, not counting the cost of full-time help and having others live with me.

By 2008 when the market crashed in America I was now in a very dark place. I lost my home and feared being homeless, institutionalized, and I considered taking my own life.

Needless to say my life was desperate while living in constant pain and fear for each day.

I decided my life, as I knew it, was toxic.

It was at this time I decided to give up gluten. Within a few weeks my body started to love not having gluten so much that it presented a strong message for me to look at all the foods I ate.

As luck would have it Mark’s, Daily Apple was one of the 1st places I found online to help me navigate the idea of using food as medicine. Almost every time I asked Dr. Google a question the answer was found on a blog posted on the MDA. All of which felt like a lifeline because I was navigating this transition feeling very alone. Mark’s Daily Apple was part of a very small community of like-minded thinkers who took time to share his experience, which helped to inform my journey toward miracle status.

Literally, I was fighting with my doctors about using food as medicine.

My Western medicine healthcare teams were drug pushers and nothing else. They discounted diet and lifestyle from the word go, and each appointment only reinforced that my disease process had become the most debilitating form. They wanted me to accept where I was and make plans for where I was going, which was to be bedridden.

Mark’s Daily Apple gave me hope, purpose and direction to navigate the unknown road before me using food as medicine.

Within months of giving up gluten I decided to remove all processed foods, grains, refined sugar and dairy except grass-fed butter and goat/sheep milks based cheeses. These choices were inspired by Mark’s blog, which offered not only insight into the ‘why’, but also the ‘how’ and ‘what to expect.’

I remember my 1st labs after about 6 months of following my primal inspired way of eating and my doctor calling me very upset. I needed to go on cholesterol medication and that my numbers were high. She used this blood work to once again reinforce her lack of support food could be medicine.

I was shocked my blood work was not better since I started my conscious journey. Immediately, I chose to go to Mark’s blog to find out more about cholesterol and, as luck would have it, I found exactly what I was looking for. Western medicine does not have the same lens regarding fat and cholesterol, so educating my healthcare team was going to be an ongoing practice.

This was the 1st time I brought my doctor a blog post explaining ‘my health care lens,’ and it was from Mark’s Daily Apple.

I hope by sharing my story it inspires others to know they are not alone and deserve health and happiness. I believe in all of us to live our dreams, and I am grateful for the community of like minds like Mark’s Daily Apple that continue to support this journey. I could never do it alone and am truly grateful. Namaste.

V Capaldi
TEDx Speaker, Influencer, Miracle
Top 50 Wellness Warriors Changing Healthcare in America
http://ift.tt/1szxYWX

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