Terry Wahls

{{Infobox person

| name = Terry Wahls

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|birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1955|11|09}}

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| occupation = Physician, writer}}

Terry Lynn Wahls (born November 9, 1955) is an American physician and paleo diet advocate. She was an assistant chief of staff at Iowa City Veterans Administration Health Care and is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa. She has a private practice and conducts clinical trials. She was diagnosed with a chronic progressive neurological disorder and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/meryl-davids-landau/multiple-sclerosis-diet_b_2258056.html|title=An MS-Stricken Doctor Changes Her Diet ... and Reverses Her 'Irreversible' Decline|last=Landau|first=Meryl Davids|date=19 December 2012|work=The Huffington Post|access-date=21 March 2013}}{{cite news|url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/mar/12/speaking-of-ms/|title=Speaking of MS|last=Rogers|first=Adrian|date=March 12, 2013|work=The Spokesman-Review|access-date=21 March 2013}} Wahls is a promoter of functional medicine.{{Cite web|date=2020|title=Terry Wahls, MD|url=https://www.ifm.org/about/profile/terry-wahls/|website=The Institute for Functional Medicine|language=en-GB|archive-date=December 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207075003/https://www.ifm.org/about/profile/terry-wahls/|url-status=live}}

Professional positions

In 2000 Wahls moved to Iowa City, Iowa, to become the associate chief of staff for ambulatory care at the Veterans Administration (VA) Iowa City Medical Center and associate professor of medicine in the college of medicine at the University of Iowa. In that same year, Wahls was diagnosed with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (MS)"UI Researchers Develop Innovative Protocol of Treatment for MS Patients". N.p., 14 Nov. 2011. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. https://www.ccsvi.nl/prikbord/Direct.aspx?guid=tag:ccsvi-ms.ning.com,2011-11-17:5297960:BlogPost:186423 that progressed to a stage where she was using a wheelchair and on the verge of being unable to continue practicing medicine.

Terry and her partner, Jackie Reger, have two children, Zach and Zebby.{{cite news|work=Time Out Chicago|url=http://timeoutchicago.com/arts-culture/gay-lesbian/14723929/zach-wahls| first=Jason A.|last= Heidemann|title=Zach Wahls|date=April 20, 2011|access-date=June 1, 2012}}

The Wahls Protocol Diet

Wahls advocates a low-carbohydrate paleo diet.{{Cite web|last=Moore|first=Charles|date=2014|title=Can Low Carb, High Fat Ketogenic Diets Improve MS And Other Neurological Disease Symptoms?|url=https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com/multiple-sclerosis-news/2014/06/16/can-low-carb-high-fat-ketogenic-diets-improve-ms-neurological-disease-symptoms/|website=Multiple Sclerosis News Today|language=en-GB|archive-date=November 30, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130201612/https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com/multiple-sclerosis-news/2014/06/16/can-low-carb-high-fat-ketogenic-diets-improve-ms-neurological-disease-symptoms/|url-status=live}} The diet promoted by Wahls to treat MS is a modified paleo diet, relying primarily on grass-fed meat, fish, leafy vegetables, roots, nuts, and fruit and restricting dairy products, eggs, grains, legumes, nightshade (solanaceous) vegetables, starches and sugar. Wahls has claimed that the diet alleviated the symptoms of her own multiple sclerosis.{{cite web |url=https://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/wahl-diet-ms |title=What Is the Wahls Protocol Diet and Does It Work for MS?|website=WebMD |publisher=WebMD, LLC |access-date=19 January 2019}}

Wahls' promotion of her diet and lifestyle regimen as an important strategy for managing MS-related symptoms as well as other disorders has been criticized for relying too much on anecdotal evidence, for failing to initiate adequate research to verify the claims, and for Wahls' perceived conflicts of interest (selling numerous products and educational materials related to her protocol).{{cite web |title=Should Iowa professor promoting MS diet lead study to see if it works? |url=https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2016/08/25/should-iowa-professor-promoting-ms-diet-lead-study-to-see-if-it-works/89343218/ |publisher=Des Moines Register |access-date=22 July 2020}}{{cite book |last1=Howard |first1=Jonathan |title=Cognitive Errors and Diagnostic Mistakes: Case-Based Guide to Critical Thinking in Medicine |date=2019 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |isbn=978-3-319-93223-1 |url=https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319932231 |access-date=20 January 2019}} A 2020 Cochrane review found no research supporting efficacy or effectiveness of diet or vitamin supplementation for treatment of MS.{{Cite journal|last1=Parks|first1=Natalie E.|last2=Jackson-Tarlton|first2=Caitlin S.|last3=Vacchi|first3=Laura|last4=Merdad|first4=Roah|last5=Johnston|first5=Bradley C.|date=19 May 2020|title=Dietary interventions for multiple sclerosis-related outcomes|journal=The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews|volume=2020|issue=5 |pages=CD004192|doi=10.1002/14651858.CD004192.pub4|issn=1469-493X|pmid=32428983|pmc=7388136}}

Clinical neurologist Steven Novella writes that Wahls "paint[s] a picture of reality that is at drastic odds with the evidence" and elevates "nutrition to a magical stature that is not based on a lick of published evidence".Novella, Stephen (2014). [https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/can-diet-cure-ms/ "Can Diet Cure MS?"]. NeuroLogica Blog. Retrieved 18 November 2020.

Selected publications

The Wahls Protocol: How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine (2014)
The Wahls Protocol Cooking for Life: The Revolutionary Modern Paleo Plan to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions (2017)