A guest post from Wahls Health Practitioner, Alene Brennan from alenebrennan.com
Ten years after my MS diagnosis, I was lying inside an MRI machine with a cage around my head and tears sliding down the sides of my face.
The technician had just told me I wouldn’t need contrast. At the hospital where I get my scans, that usually means they haven’t seen anything new or questionable. It was the first hint that my scan might still be stable.
A few hours later, the report appeared in my patient portal: no new lesions, no active lesions, no evidence of active progression. Stable.
Ten years after hearing, “You have multiple sclerosis.” Ten years after the diet changes, supplements, MRIs, prayers, and setbacks, I was still stable.
I cried again.
If you’re a fellow Wahls Warrior wondering, Does the Wahls Protocol® really work? I get it. My answer is yes, it has made a profound difference in my life.
And I am on a mission to help others too.
But the honest version is more complicated and less perfect than a dramatic before-and-after story.
The Life I Was Afraid of Losing
I was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS at 36, only six weeks after losing my mom to cancer. It was already one of the hardest seasons of my life, and then suddenly I was sitting in a neurologist’s office trying to understand what this diagnosis meant for my future.
The timing felt especially cruel. After 12 years climbing the corporate ladder, I had finally left, moved to New York, gone to culinary school, and started building my nutrition business. I was also thinking about marriage and a baby.
I had plans. A lot of them.
Then I got MS.
My friends were walking down wedding aisles while I was walking hospital hallways. They talked about being tired because they had babies growing inside them. I was exhausted because I had lesions growing on my brain.
I still wanted the life that I had worked so hard to build, I simply no longer had the energy to pursue my dreams the way I used to.
I wasn’t searching for a cure. I was searching for hope, for some sense of control, and for a way to keep being me despite MS.
That search led me to Dr. Wahls.
I Thought I Had Found the Golden Ticket
When I discovered the Wahls Protocol®, something in me came alive. Here was a framework that took food and lifestyle seriously. Here was someone living with MS who understood why I wasn’t willing to accept that my only role was to wait and see what the disease might take from me.
I got on a plane, trained with Dr. Wahls, and became certified in the protocol. If I’m being honest, I thought I had found the golden ticket.
I changed my diet and lifestyle. Six months later, my follow-up MRI showed that the lesions in my brain had shrunk and were inactive and my symptoms had decreased.
That result gave me tremendous hope. But I want to tell this story honestly, because that’s what we need as fellow MS sisters right? We need the “real talk” because without that it’s easy to think that we’re the only one who struggles and that’s simply not true.
Because when someone hands an exhausted woman with MS a long list of things she “should” be doing, my honest response is: With what time? With what energy?
Knowing What to Do Isn’t the Same as Living It
I started as a newly diagnosed woman desperate to do everything “right.” I’ve followed it while building a business and through periods of crushing fatigue. I followed it on my wedding day and honeymoon, during pregnancy and postpartum, and now as a mom in my 40s raising a toddler.
Not perfectly. Not without hard days. But through each season, I have continued learning how to return to it and make it work in the life I’m actually living.
That experience has taught me something no certification could: knowing what to do and knowing how to live it are two completely different things.
I went into this with a lot of training. I was a nutritionist, natural-food chef, yoga instructor, and personal trainer. I understood the value of food, movement, sleep, and stress support. But no amount of professional knowledge changed the reality of being newly diagnosed and overwhelmed by what was happening inside my body.
When you’re newly diagnosed (or in the middle of a flare) you may be dealing with crushing fatigue, brain fog, fear, and the sheer overwhelm of trying to understand what comes next. In that state, the Wahls Protocol® can feel intimidating. Maybe even unrealistic.
If that’s where you are right now, my best advice is this: Focus on what you can do today.
We often believe we need to wait until we have enough energy, time, or clarity to follow the Protocol perfectly. But waiting for perfect conditions can keep us stuck much longer than taking one imperfect step.
Choose the smallest supportive change that feels possible today. Then let that step help you take the next one. You don’t need to transform your entire life overnight. You simply need a place to begin.
A smaller step taken sooner will build more momentum than a perfect plan you’re too overwhelmed to start.
Stable Does Not Mean Symptom-Free
There is another truth I want every Wahls Warrior™ to hear: my stable MRI doesn’t mean I no longer have MS.
I still experience occasional fatigue, brain fog, and heat sensitivity. For me, the symptoms connected to earlier damage didn’t simply vanish because my scan showed no new activity.
Stable and symptom-free are not the same thing.
The Wahls Protocol® did not erase my diagnosis or give me certainty about future MRIs. As I move through my 40s and perimenopause, I’m more aware than ever that my body is changing. I cannot coast on past success.
At the same time, stable is worth celebrating. It is a gift I don’t take for granted. The Protocol has helped me turn down the volume on symptoms, create more stable energy, and feel that I have a meaningful role in supporting my future health.
Ten years ago, all I wanted was a stable MRI. Today I understand that stable is not the finish line. I still want energy. I still want a clear mind. I still want to show up for my daughter, build my business, move my body, travel and live the big life I dreamed about pre-MS.
What Happened After Ten Years
What happened after ten years on the Wahls Protocol®?
My lesions shrank and became inactive early in my journey. My symptoms decreased. My scans have remained stable. I built the nutrition business I feared MS might take away from me. I became a mom. I now record “My MS Podcast” for ambitious women living with MS from my bedroom closet, sometimes with my laptop balanced on the little step stool from my daughter’s bathroom.
I also still have MS. I still have hard days. I still get scared before MRIs. I still misjudge my energy and pay for it later. I’m still learning how to be an ambitious woman in a body that can’t always keep pace with everything I want to do.
That is the real story.
The Wahls Protocol® has not made my life perfect. It has helped make my life feel possible again.
You Don’t Need to Do It All. You Just Need to Begin.
If the Wahls Protocol® feels overwhelming right now, please don’t wait until you have the energy to do it perfectly. Start with one step that works in your real life and allow that step to build momentum.
Inside my free masterclass, The MS Biological Clock™ No One Talks About, I’ll show you how to do exactly that. You’ll learn why taking action now can support your long-term health, how to create habits that work with MS fatigue, and why consistency matters far more than perfection.
You don’t need another impossible wellness plan. You need a realistic way forward.
Join the free masterclass, and I’ll help you find your place to begin.
