Need a booster shot of motivation to get healthier? Try a TED Talk.
The power of food
If you are looking for something to motivate you about the power of food to heal, look no further than “Minding Your Mitochondria.” Terry Wahls, MD gave a TEDx talk in Iowa about how she cured her secondary progressive multiple sclerosis by changing her diet, in addition to other lifestyle modifications. The talk, which has nearly two million views on You Tube, describes how, with all conventional treatment options exhausted and confined to a wheelchair, Wahls, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City, turned to the research literature for fresh ideas.
By gradually changing her diet so that it was solely based on whole foods with a primary foundation of fresh vegetables and animal fat, she was able to walk again. Today, she is running clinical trials of what is known as “The Wahls Protocol” for people living with multiple sclerosis. Unfortunately, the powers that be at TED Talks have put a warning message on this video saying that is “falls outside TEDx’s curatorial guidelines” and the “viewer discretion is advised.” Wahls has harsh words for this decision:
My key message is about eating 9 cups of vegetables and berries each day, along with a personal narrative of how I developed my nutrient-dense diet based on thorough research. My personal health narrative is not the first shared on TED either. TED endorsed personal stories about illness and recovery when it hosted Jill Bolte Taylor’s talk, My Stroke of Insight. Yet her story has no warning label. What could explain this hypocrisy?
Perhaps TED’s sponsors are influencing its curatorial decisions. Monsanto is a major TED funder, as are several major pharmaceutical companies. Monsanto, an agricultural, chemical, and biotech company, is also one of the biggest proponents of food alteration via genetic modification. The genetically modified organisms (GMOs) they create are being connected to various health issues and environmental damage, which makes sense–changing the DNA of our food is likely to change how our bodies react to and process that food.
The power of compassion
Peter Attia, MD is the president of NUSI (the Nutrition Science Initiative) which is sponsoring innovative nutrition research designed to determine why people get fat. Is it because we consume too many calories? Or is it because of the types of foods we eat? (This Wired magazine feature on NUSI from August, 2014 is a great intro to NUSI’s work.) In this talk, “What if we’re wrong about diabetes?,” Attia describes treating an obese patient with diabetes when he was a young doctor working in the emergency department of a hospital. He emotionally confesses the contempt he had for her, believing that her illness was a product of her weak will. Now, he says, he knows better. And he offers an apology. It’s one, quite frankly, owed to millions of people by their health care providers who remain as ignorant as Attia once was.
The power of data
Hans Rosling is a professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. In this TED Talk, “The best stats you’ve ever seen” ―which has been viewed more than 8 million times―Rosling neatly debunks myths about the health of the developing world versus that of the United States. It must be seen to be believed.