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Having good health is easy to take for granted when all the other hurdles of daily living keep our attention focused elsewhere. But once something in our bodies mysteriously malfunctions, we are often taken completely off guard, and may feel very frightened and powerless. Most people expect changes to occur with age and dismiss minor things like diminishing eyesight, hearing, or weight gain to the process of maturing. In 2010, Karen Jelsma attributed her headaches and recent cognitive changes to menopause. In 2013 she surprised everyone at the Minnehaha County Jail in Sioux Falls, when she decided to retire from her position as a well-liked correctional officer. She felt that she was forgetting some of the things she needed to do for the job at the jail. Another symptom Karen would acquire is unilaterally called brain fog. “I would read something and know that I saw the words, but I couldn’t understand what they meant.”

It wasn’t until March 4, 2014 that Karen’s health took a decided nose dive. “I remember the exact date, because it was my dad’s birthday. It started with a severe headache that got so bad it hurt to blink. By the next day, I had lost my vision. I pretty much lost use of everything on my right side. I would fall down because, I couldn’t feel anything, and my nervous system had shut down. I couldn’t hold dishes. Some mornings I had to lay there and wait for my nervous system to start working, just so I could get out of bed.”

Karen had initially gone to the Yankton Medical Clinic, but was referred right away to a neurologist in Sioux Falls. Subsequent MRI’s revealed five lesions in her brain. In addition to the vision loss, the neurologist also noticed a drop in her walk. Drop foot is a condition commonly found in people suffering from MS. It’s caused by nerve damage to the ankle muscles that make it difficult to lift the foot properly, which disrupts normal walking. Due to the culmination of symptoms and the MRI results, a formal diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis was made.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease where the immune system goes haywire and starts attacking healthy tissues in the body. With MS it specifically destroys the myelin sheath that covers and protects the nerve fibers in the spinal cord and brain. Once the nerve fibers are damaged, communication between the brain and body is altered and may show up in negative symptoms. Depending on where the nerve damage occurs and the duration, this respectively determines the locations, types and severity of symptoms. While MS isn’t usually fatal, it is a chronic, progressive disease that can still be debilitating and cause permanent loss of mobility and other disabilities.

Karen says after she was diagnosed, “the doctors gave me this book about MS and what to expect, and it was so bleak. It took about three months after I got off my pity pot to finally decide to start doing some searching for answers.” This was because she was still having worsening symptoms all the time, even while on the drug Teclavir. Teclavir is a commonly prescribed drug for MS that costs around $5500 retail. Karen’s monthly portion was around $200. “I was applying for disability and only had my retirement check. I started watching online videos about MS, because I couldn’t focus enough to read a book, and once I found Dr. Wahls and started following her diet I began feeling better.”

Dr. Terry Wahls is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Iowa. She was also struck by MS in 2000, and has successfully put it into remission, and reversed many of her symptoms through severe diet alterations and supplements. Dr. Wahls went from a tilt-reclined wheel chair to being able to bicycle eighteen miles a day. Dr. Wahls and many others have written books about autoimmune disease, and there are many cookbooks, blogs, and Youtube/Ted talks online about various dietary strategies.

Karen bought Wahls’ book and started following a strict AIP: Autoimmune Protocol Diet. ‘It took about five months in for it to really start working, but I felt amazing, just amazing. I never felt like that before.” Karen stayed on her new regimen for a full year, before attempting to reintroduce an old favorite, eggs. She had to patiently wait, and carefully monitor how she felt after any new food reintroduction. She systematically weaned herself off of Teclavir over the course of a month. Karen learned about Functional Medicine through Dr. Wahls, and researched online Functional Medicine practitioners in each state. She found a health care provider she routinely visits at Avera in Sioux Falls, and has noticed since that time that they are increasing.

Functional Medicine focuses on the underlining cause of disease. Avera’s website states that “Functional Medicine looks beyond traditional treatments to help you be your healthiest self. We take the entire picture into consideration, including medical history, personal risk issues, medications, nutrition, exercise, lifestyle and environmental factors.”

For most of her life Karen had regularly used medications to help control her allergies and asthma. She’d had some food testing in the nineties, and found out she was sensitive to wheat, but no recommendations about changing her diet had been made by her health professional at that time. Karen states, “I just figured they would give me allergy shots if something flared up, but I didn’t know that it was attacking my immune system.” The reason some people decide to have allergy testing done, is because scientific studies have shown that undiagnosed food allergies, and a leaky gut can lead to inflammation. Constant inflammation, can in turn, be the source of many diseases.

A test used to check for leaky gut is done with a stool sample. In Karen’s case she tested positive for a high bacteria count and required a course of antibiotics right away. The term, Leaky gut, AKA intestinal permeability, is used to describe when harmful byproducts of the digestive system are leaked from the small intestine into the bloodstream and or body cavity. A compromised digestive system can lead to chronic inflammation and other physical symptoms.

Years later Karen was retested through a functional medicine clinic in Sioux Falls, and learned she was most sensitive to sunflower seeds and green beans. Karen states that even though these are healthy foods, she feels that she tested that way, because she had eaten so much of them in her life. What she has found is that once she stopped eating these foods long enough for her body to heal and stop thinking they were the enemy. She could eventually have some of them again in limited amounts. She has given up wheat, grains, and refined food for good. She recollects on a past road trip she took to Chicago with her friends, “I ate whatever they ate, and by the time we got back I couldn’t hold a cup again. That’s when I decided to eat healthy for good. I can have a little of the other stuff once in a while, but there’s no way I’m going down that road again. I don’t keep any wheat, grains, or refined sugars in my house”

Karen has been symptom free since 2015, and no longer takes any medications. Even though Karen still has checkups with her Functional Medicine doctor in Sioux Falls, she no longer gets MRI’s done. “I choose not to, I just think if you don’t need them, that some things like x-rays are sometimes a little overdone. If I suddenly started having symptoms again, then I’d have it checked.” Her doctor told her that the interesting thing about brain lesions is that some people may have multiple lesions and never show any symptoms or become aware of them, whereas someone else could have only one lesion and show all the symptoms.

One source of relief for Karen’s constant neurological pain was found in massage. Karen recalls “I had a friend that was into aromatherapy and when she gave me a massage that was the first time I didn’t feel like an electric fence was going off 24/7, and a relief from the buzzing. The constant electrical-like sensation was soothed. I found that stress causes breakdown in the body and if you can alleviate the stress you can get better.”

Karen wanted a platform for employment that allowed her to help others, and share her hard gained nutrition experience too. “A lot of people will roll their eyes when you tell them that what they’re eating is killing them.”

In 2016 she enrolled in Globe University’s massage therapy and reflexology program in Sioux Falls. She also received an online Health Coach certification as well, through The Integrative Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She is the owner of the Tyndall Massage Clinic located at 1510 Main Street, Tyndall. Karen’s clients come from all demographics. She has a regular, that’s ninety-five years old and is in amazing shape. She’s also helped pregnant women, and high school athletes as well. She is very generous in allowing new customers to try different types of massage during an initial appointment. Besides offering various styles of massage such as deep tissue, Swedish, pregnancy, sport and hot rocks (a personal favorite), she is also licensed in reflexology, and a technique called cupping. People come in for massages for a variety of reasons, sometimes it’s injury, but often once I found Dr. Wahls and started following her diet I began feeling better.”

Dr. Terry Wahls is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Iowa. She was also struck by MS in 2000, and has successfully put it into remission, and reversed many of her symptoms through severe diet alterations and supplements. Dr. Wahls went from a tilt-reclined wheel chair to being able to bicycle eighteen miles a day. Dr. Wahls and many others have written books about autoimmune disease, and there are many cookbooks, blogs, and Youtube/Ted talks online about various dietary strategies.

Karen bought Wahls’ book and started following a strict AIP: Autoimmune Protocol Diet. ‘It took about five months in for it to really start working, but I felt amazing, just amazing. I never felt like that before.” Karen stayed on her new regimen for a full year, before attempting to reintroduce an old favorite, eggs. She had to patiently wait, and carefully monitor how she felt after any new food reintroduction. She systematically weaned herself off of Teclavir over the course of a month. Karen learned about Functional Medicine through Dr. Wahls, and researched online Functional Medicine practitioners in each state. She found a health care provider she routinely visits at Avera in Sioux Falls, and has noticed since that time that they are increasing.

Functional Medicine focuses on the underlining cause of disease. Avera’s website states that “Functional Medicine looks beyond traditional treatments to help you be your healthiest self. We take the entire picture into consideration, including medical history, personal risk issues, medications, nutrition, exercise, lifestyle and environmental factors.”

For most of her life Karen had regularly used medications to help control her allergies and asthma. She’d had some food testing in the nineties, and found out she was sensitive to wheat, but no recommendations about changing her diet had been made by her health professional at that time. Karen states, “I just figured they would give me allergy shots if something flared up, but I didn’t know that it was attacking my immune system.” The reason some people decide to have allergy testing done, is because scientific studies have shown that undiagnosed food allergies, and a leaky gut can lead to inflammation. Constant inflammation, can in turn, be the source of many diseases.

A test used to check for leaky gut is done with a stool sample. In Karen’s case she tested positive for a high bacteria count and required a course of antibiotics right away. The term, Leaky gut, AKA intestinal permeability, is used to describe when harmful byproducts of the digestive system are leaked from the small intestine into the bloodstream and or body cavity. A compromised digestive system can lead to chronic inflammation and other physical symptoms.

Years later Karen was retested through a functional medicine clinic in Sioux Falls, and learned she was most sensitive to sunflower seeds and green beans. Karen states that even though these are healthy foods, she feels that she tested that way, because she had eaten so much of them in her life. What she has found is that once she stopped eating these foods long enough for her body to heal and stop thinking they were the enemy. She could eventually have some of them again in limited amounts. She has given up wheat, grains, and refined food for good. She recollects on a past road trip she took to Chicago with her friends, “I ate whatever they ate, and by the time we got back I couldn’t hold a cup again. That’s when I decided to eat healthy for good. I can have a little of the other stuff once in a while, but there’s no way I’m going down that road again. I don’t keep any wheat, grains, or refined sugars in my house”

Karen has been symptom free since 2015, and no longer takes any medications. Even though Karen still has checkups with her Functional Medicine doctor in Sioux Falls, she no longer gets MRI’s done. “I choose not to, I just think if you don’t need them, that some things like x-rays are sometimes a little overdone. If I suddenly started having symptoms again, then I’d have it checked.” Her doctor told her that the interesting thing about brain lesions is that some people may have multiple lesions and never show any symptoms or become aware of them, whereas someone else could have only one lesion and show all the symptoms.

One source of relief for Karen’s constant neurological pain was found in massage. Karen recalls “I had a friend that was into aromatherapy and when she gave me a massage that was the first time I didn’t feel like an electric fence was going off 24/7, and a relief from the buzzing. The constant electrical-like sensation was soothed. I found that stress causes breakdown in the body and if you can alleviate the stress you can get better.”

Karen wanted a platform for employment that allowed her to help others, and share her hard gained nutrition experience too. “A lot of people will roll their eyes when you tell them that what they’re eating is killing them.”

In 2016 she enrolled in Globe University’s massage therapy and reflexology program in Sioux Falls. She also received an online Health Coach certification as well, through The Integrative Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She is the owner of the Tyndall Massage Clinic located at 1510 Main Street, Tyndall. Karen’s clients come from all demographics. She has a regular, that’s ninety-five years old and is in amazing shape. She’s also helped pregnant women, and high school athletes as well. She is very generous in allowing new customers to try different types of massage during an initial appointment. Besides offering various styles of massage such as deep tissue, Swedish, pregnancy, sport and hot rocks (a personal favorite), she is also licensed in reflexology, and a technique called cupping. People come in for massages for a variety of reasons, sometimes it’s injury, but often simply stress management. Stress can be a significant contributor to illness.

Karen shares how her massage therapy instructor had a client that had a leg amputated during the war, and he was still suffering from ongoing phantom pain. As part of her massage she’d actually move her hands in a virtual massage where the missing limb once was, and it brought the man tangible relief. This is one example of how the brain can continue to feel pain from previous injuries long after it originally occurred.

Karen’s experiences with MS and changes in diet have positively influenced her three children also. Robbie, aged twenty-six who lives in Springfield, plans on building a greenhouse and growing his own food.

“At one point he had to carry an EpiPen all the time because he kept having allergic reactions so bad. He now eats a more Mediterranean style diet, does his own baking and creates his own healthy recipes, and no longer needs the Epipen.” Shelby, aged twenty-five and has a graphic design business she shares in the same office with her sister, Dena that is conveniently housed in the same building as their mom.

Shelby has discovered a line of all natural cosmetics and beauty products called Beautycounter that she uses and sells. Even Dena, aged 33, with four children, is careful about what she feeds them.

Although she grows some vegetables and herbs at home, Karen is lucky that her dad has a huge organic garden with free range chickens, and a brother ranches on the family farm too. The farm is just outside of Avon. She has a cornucopia of wonderful food available close to home. Everyone in the family shares whatever produce they are growing. “It just makes me so sad when I go to a grocery store somewhere and I see people filling up their grocery carts with processed foods, but they’re in wheelchairs or they have canes. My heart goes out to anyone who is suffering.”

Karen in no way wants to discourage people from seeking traditional professional medical help. She just wants to spread the word that there are many complimentary therapies available that can greatly improve even the most serious illnesses, and enhance or prolong the wellness of the already robust. Depending solely on pharmaceutical medication, when there is so much more we can do to help ourselves, is a disservice. Healthy food can be our medicine too. Being healthy is a lifestyle decision that embraces many components, we need only to be receptive to putting them into practice to harvest the results.