Brianna Carothers was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis almost 18 years ago. She refused to believe that a cure was impossible and turned to dietary & lifestyle changes, nutritional supplements and prescribed medication to heal herself. Today she has been free of MS for 10 years. This is her story.
* Connect with Brianna on Wednesday, May 27, 2020 during a FREE, live, interactive event during which Brianna will be discussing energy healing. *
In 2001, 20-year old Brianna Carothers was diagnosed with Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS). At the time of her diagnosis, she was having 20+ episodes per day, 5-10 seconds in length that included: loss of movement, loss of strength, her face going slack, slurred speech, and tingling throughout her body. She also had drop foot, fatigue, and minor loss of vision. An MRI revealed seven lesions on her brain. Her medical team was apologetic, because there wasn't much they could do other than provide medication to space out the episodes and slow down the disease’s progression.
Brianna took a semester off from school to adjust to her new normal. Excessive body heat and stress were thought to trigger MS episodes so she quit many of her daily activities, including playing college basketball, running and even going outside where she lived in Arizona. The focus became staying cool. She was also warned about having kids in the future, because pregnancy, specifically after giving birth, could trigger and worsen her symptoms.
Regardless of what the doctors said, Brianna’s parents insisted that there had to be other treatments she could try. So together they started researching. The first thing they did was to buy the book Prescriptions for Nutritional Healing. The section on MS provides suggestions for food – what to eat, what to avoid and a suggested list of vitamins and supplements. This was her starting point. Brianna took every vitamin and supplement on the list. She removed gluten, dairy and red meat from her diet. She began doing yoga 3x per week, which allowed her to stay active and in shape without raising her body temperature. While having a very restrictive diet was incredibly hard, she noticed positive changes almost immediately. Her episodes started decreasing right away. By the end of the first month, Brianna went from 20+ episodes to just 2-5 per day, and she felt better, too. Within 5 months, she was down to only 1-2 episodes per week!
At this point, Brianna’s parents wanted a second opinion, so they went to a very well known MS doctor. Unfortunately, he told her that the only thing helping was the medication, and while the diet, vitamins and other treatments were okay for her health, they were “silly” for treating MS. That was hard for Brianna to hear, because at that point it had been five months and she was feeling much better.
Rather than letting the doctor’s words discourage her, she chose to stay positive, listen to her body and continue her healing protocol, trying new alternative treatments as she learned about them. Some were more successful than others. The ones that stuck were:
Aforementioned dietary changes (remaining free of gluten, dairy and red meat) and supplements.
Integrative Medicine - Brianna went to Dr. Weil’s Integrative Clinic at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where doctors evaluated all the vitamins and supplements she was taking and made adjustments to fit her body. They also discussed reducing inflammation through food choices.
Yoga
Chiropractic
Meridian Stretching, which are stretches designed to impact specific muscle groups and organs based on the body’s meridians. (According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, meridians are 12 pathways in the body along which vital energy flows.) Information is available in a book called The Genius of Flexibility by Bob Cooley. Brianna worked directly with Bob Cooley’s business partner, Tom Longo, who customized stretches specifically for her. Up until that point, she had horrible flu-like side effects one day per week from the medication. However, when she did Meridian stretching daily, making sure to spend extra time on it the night of and the day after her medication injections, that one day of sickness became almost non-existent. Brianna describes that as “life-changing.”
By the time she returned to college in the fall, Brianna wasn’t having any episodes at all. Over time, her lesions began to shrink and became dormant. Two-and-a-half years after her MS diagnosis, she had gone from seven lesions to two-and-a-half. Four of them had completely disappeared and all that remained were scars. Two remained the same size, but stopped showing activity, and one shrank to half its original size. At that point, Brianna requested that she stop taking her weekly medication injections. After another successful MRI, her doctor agreed. Even after discontinuing the medication, the remaining lesions continued shrinking and never showed signs of renewed activity.
Since then, Brianna has continued adjusting her alternative treatments as needed and adding various new ones:
Acupuncture, which she began 8 years after her diagnosis to work on stagnant energy, specifically in the liver, kidney, and stomach meridians.
Kinesiology - Her practitioner was able to pinpoint even more specifically the vitamins, minerals and foods that were right (or not right) for her body.
Energy work - Brianna says this has been one of the biggest turning points in her health over the past few years. As she explains it, “when something happens emotionally or physically to your body, it changes your energy pathways. By going through your body and releasing the energy points, it clears the pathways again, resulting in better health.” She used the book Energy Medicine by Donna Eden to get started. Energy medicine had such a profound impact on Brianna that she has since become an energy medicine practitioner and now helps others balance their energy.
Bowen Technique – A form of muscle manipulation similar to chiropractic, but without joint cracking. She added this within the past year.
In 2018, Brianna received the news she had been hoping for since 2001. She learned that she hasn’t had MS for the past 10 years! Somehow the message had gotten lost in all the medical jargon, so her doctor finally explained, "Listen, you had MS. We can see the scars. We can see the lesions that have shrunk down and become just a little scar on your brain, and those will likely never go away. But you don't have MS now. There's no activity. You have no new lesions. You haven't had anything for 10 years." While her doctors will never say that she is cured, the likelihood of her ever having any MS-related issues is less than 2%. She is officially classified as ”benign MS.”
While Brianna was thrilled to hear this news, her life had already returned to normal years ago. She has given birth to three babies without any problems. Although she never resumed basketball, she did get back into running and has participated in several 5K's and sprint triathlons. As for her diet and other alternative treatments, she plans to continue them, as they keep her healthy and make her feel good.
Where She Found Hope
Brianna says her hope came from many different sources:
From her husband. Even before they began dating, he supported and often participated in many of the alternative therapies with her. He has been a major source of faith, love, and support since the beginning.
From her parents, family and friends. Without that support, all of her dietary changes and alternative treatments would have been much more difficult to implement and maintain.
From within herself. She was willing to try, to go outside the box and to stay positive. She refused to settle for what the doctors told her.
Wanting to live life on her terms. Brianna says her fear of being wheelchair bound for the rest of her life was stronger than having to give up food. As she says, "If it's a choice between my hands and bread, my hands win every time."
Immediate success. Feeling better and diminished episodes provided her with faith that what she was doing could make a difference.
Achievable goals. Rather than make one large goal, Brianna made many smaller goals. It began with “I don't want so many episodes.” And once she reached that goal, she moved onto the next: “Okay, now I don't want any episodes... Now I don't want to be on medication anymore... Now I want to prove to everybody that I don't have MS anymore.” Even though she wasn't stating them out loud, they remained in the back of her mind and kept her going – a kind of subconscious affirmation.
Advice for Others
Brianna wants to make it clear that everybody’s body is different. The dietary changes that worked for her may not be the same ones that work for someone else. It is important to have a qualified healthcare practitioner evaluate your body for what works and what doesn’t, because everyone and every situation is unique. She says the book Eat Right for Your Blood Type provides good information around this topic, focusing on reducing inflammation by removing inflammatory foods. However, the book is basic, so she suggests utilizing the complete SWAMI program if you want to better understand what works for your individual body.
Brianna says another big lesson she learned was the need to take care of herself. Prior to being diagnosed with MS, she frequently said yes to everybody’s requests for help – to the point where she neglected her own health. Having MS taught her to draw the line and begin saying no so that she could focus on healing herself. This became extremely beneficial, as she was also able to say no to treatments that were not serving her. Learning to stand up for herself empowered her to stick with the treatment plan that she knew instinctively was right for her even if multiple doctors said otherwise.
Her advice to others is to be their own health and wellness advocates, even if it means not going along with what the doctors say. It’s hard to do in our society, because we feel like doctors are the end-all, be-all, but they’re only human and don’t always know everything that can help. As Brianna says, “Being willing to continue looking for something else IS okay.”
* Connect with Brianna on Wednesday, May 27, 2020 during a FREE, live, interactive event during which Brianna will be discussing energy healing. *
Resource Links
Prescriptions for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
The Genius of Flexibility by Bob Cooley
Energy Medicine by Donna Eden
Eat Right for Your Blood Type by Peter D’Adamo
Subscribe to Connect4Hope to receive weekly Notes of Hope, which include new Stories of Hope, blog posts and inspirational messages.
Do you or someone you know have a Story of Hope to share? Email us at connect2connect4hope@gmail.com.