Brigid TitgemeierBeingBrigid Functional Nutrition · Transforming Women's Health Using Food as Medicine

Dr. Terry Wahls Went From Nearly Bedridden to Riding a Bike

3 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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1:04

In this first‑person monologue, Dr. Terry Wahls recounts a rapid, dramatic turnaround from being on the brink of permanent bedridden status due to secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) to regaining functional independence. After a grim prognosis, she discovers a study by Nyeribe on electrical stimulation for paralysis and incorporates that therapy into her regimen. Simultaneously, she enrolls in a neuroprotection course, expands her supplement protocol, and begins a new dietary plan on December 26. Within weeks she can sit in a regular chair for dinner, by February she walks in the hospital using two walking sticks, and on Mother’s Day she rides a bike around the block. Wahls interprets these milestones as evidence that the prevailing medical understanding of secondary progressive MS is incomplete and that substantial recovery may be possible for others with the same condition.

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I'm on track to become bedridden because I'm very close since I can't sit up anymore. Very, very grim future. But I'm like, okay, I gotta do all that I possibly can. And then 2 weeks later, I get this study from Nyeribe to review electrical stimulation in people who are paralyzed, who will never walk again. We add it to my regimen. And so I start doing electrical stimulation. And then also at that same time, I have this course on neuroprotection, which I take. I have a longer list of supplements. Which I add. I start this new way of eating December 26th, and at the end of the week, I tell Jack, could I sit in a regular chair for supper? First time I'd done that in years. And then in February, for the first time in years, I start walking in the hospital with 2 walking sticks. And then on Mother's Day, I really wanna try riding my bike. And I get on that bike and I bike around the block. That is when I understood that the current understanding of secondary progressive MS was incomplete. And who knows how much recovery might be possible? If I can come back from such profound disability, there is hope for you as well.