Betty's House . . . Life After MS
From My House to
Yours
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MISSION STATEMENT
It is the mission of
Betty's House to help all people with
Multiple Sclerosis believe that
they need not be a victim of MS, but rather that they can
be a victor;
that they can be "enabled" by their MS
rather than
"disabled,"
and that the choice is up to them.
MY
NAME IS BETTY IAMS, AND 20 YEARS AGO I WAS DIAGNOSED WITH PRIMARY
PROGRESSIVE MS. I WELCOME YOU
TO MY HOUSE. I AM DELIGHTED TO SHARE MY VERY POSITIVE EXPERIENCE. FROM
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS AND THE FEAR AND HOPELESSNESS I FELT AT
DIAGNOSIS, TO DEVELOPING A SUCCESSFUL HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
FOR MYSELF, AND A WHOLE NEW LIFE. TODAY I HAVE BEEN SYMPTOM FREE FOR
SEVERAL YEARS, AND MY
"UNINVITED GUEST," WHICH IS WHAT I CHOSE TO CALL MY MS, IS AN
INSIGNIFICANT FACTOR IN MY LIFE. I HAVE TOTALLY REVERSED ALL SIGNS
THAT I EVER HAD MS, AND I HOPE MY STORY MAY BE BENEFICIAL TO ALL
WHO VISIT BETTY'S HOUSE.
MY MESSAGE IS SIMPLE ̶ I DEFEATED MS AND YOU CAN TOO!
There is a lot of information at Betty's House. Please stay awhile, bookmark the site, and visit often. I have always wanted this website to seem as though you and I were sitting in my cheery kitchen, enjoying a cup of coffee, as we talk about what I call my uninvited guest, MS. Please check out the "What You'll Find at Betty's House" contents below for details of all the information here, including the books I have written, recommended exercise DVDs, meditation, healthy nutrition, etc. All the things I used to reverse my MS.
JOURNEY TO WELLNESS: The most recent issue of my web-based newsletter, Journey to Wellness, you may access HERE. if you would like to be on my mailing list, please sign up HERE. You may also check out the archives of the last couple of year's issues.
i have a special video gift
for all who visit Betty's House.
I suggest you may watch it every day before your meditation, or whenever you
wish.
(IF YOU LIKE YOU MAY PLACE A LINK ON YOUR COMPUTER DESKTOP FOR EASY ACCESS)
YOU
MAY ACCESS IT HERE.
Betty
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Everything I have learned, believe and practice in
FOUR STEPS TO OVERCOMING MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS now available in the Amazon Kindle Store at $5.99.
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For years I have wanted to broaden the scope
is now available as an Amazon/Kindle e-book for only $4.99. Take a look today - you'll be glad you did.
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Join
my mailing list HERE
YOUR E-MAIL
WILL NEVER BE USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE
Private Telephone or Skype video Consultations
If you are newly diagnosed, when it is so important to get started on a good program before you sustain significant neurological damage, this may be an option you wish to consider. Or perhaps you feel "stuck," and have become discouraged. A private consultation can really kick start your program. These consultations can either be done by Skype video (if you have a web cam), or by telephone, up to two hours in length. A coach or mentor can be invaluable in your healing journey. If you are interested in knowing more about a personal consultation, please let me know and I'll send specific information, as well as testimonials.
At 55 years of age, divorced and in a very successful sales and marketing career, I began to develop a weakness in my right leg. In retrospect it was really preceded by an increasing bladder control weakness, which I at the time attributed to aging, as well as other elusive neurological symptoms, some dating back as far as five or six years.
After being advised by several assorted health care practitioners that the leg weakness related to an old back injury, I continued my hectic life style. After a couple of years, however, during which I noticed some sense of loss of balance and hyper reflexes on my right side, as well as an increase in my right leg weakness, I began a serious search to discover the source of my problem. It became increasingly difficult to continue my state of "denial" when my friends and associates were asking me why I was limping! My excuse of "new shoes" was getting weak. And some days I was just too fatigued to make it through a full day.
It took several neurologists and other medical specialists, numerous MRIs and other neurological tests to finally make a diagnosis of Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. That was just two months after my 58th birthday. I was told I had almost made the record books. It certainly was a distinction I could have done without! MS usually strikes young adults between 20 and 45 years of age.
I was devastated and terrified. My mother had experienced her first MS symptoms when I was in my late teens, and she had been confined to a wheelchair at the time of my diagnosis for over 25 years. My mother's MS was the relapsing remitting kind (quite different from mine), so her symptoms were not at all similar. I have since learned that no two people experience MS exactly the same way. MS is a degenerative process wherein the myelin sheath surrounding the spinal chord and brain develops lesions or hardened areas called a sclerosis (scar), hence the name multiple sclerosis, or many scars. The individual symptoms vary widely depending on severity and location of the lesions.
Today I am 78 years old and have no MS symptoms
whatsoever.
I often write about what I know for sure, and I promise you that I absolutely
know for sure that
YOU CAN DO IT TOO!
My Search for Meaning and Answers:
I believe the human body is designed to heal itself. Science calls this the Spontaneous Healing Response. When you cut your finger you can easily see this automatic healing taking place. And your body doesn't know the difference in healing a cut finger and something you or I would consider far more difficult to heal. It is only our perception that makes one hard and the other easy. I believe the body has its own innate intelligence, separate from our conscious mind, and it knows what is wrong and how to correct (heal) itself. The person who has relapsing remitting MS experiences this healing response during a period of remission.
I believe we all possess a Spirit which is connected inexorably to the one Universal Divine Presence. I believe that at some level we all create our reality. Because of that deeply embedded belief, and after being told by my neurologist that there was/is absolutely nothing allopathic medicine can do for primary progressive MS, I began to search for alternative possibilities.
I tried just about everything, and the first year and a half spent over $20,000 - all to finally reach the all-important conclusion that the answers I needed were all inside of me! I researched medical literature. I surfed the Internet for weeks and months on end. I downloaded reams of scientific data. I read every research paper I learned about. In a few months I came to know more about the MS degenerative process than any neurologist I have yet talked to.
The important things I learned were:
First: Voila! There were things I could do to stave off advancement of this degenerative disorder. Well, needless to say, I was sure glad to learn that! I share them with you through the pages of this website, and more importantly each month through my Journey to Wellness newsletter and the books I have written.
Second:
The most important thing I learned early on to do for myself was to meditate each day, and thereby "tune in" to the infinite part of my nature. I call it the God within, but whatever one calls it does not matter. I just know that the process changed my life in a very positive way. I recommend it for everyone. Meditation is also widely accepted by the medical community as a very effective way to reduce stress. If you would like some help with meditation, be sure to read this meditation report.
'Awaken the medicine within,
and restore the natural
self-healing capacity of body,
mind, and spirit.'
One of the most effective ways to activate this formula is the regular practice of four essential self-care strategies:
 | Attention to simple nutrition - healthy food is nature's medicine |
| Deep relaxation thru meditation |
| Gentle movement of the body together with breath practice |
| Self-applied massage |
These techniques are easy to learn, easy to apply, require no special knowledge or training, and can be practiced daily by everyone.
My copy of The Healer Within is highlighted and marked up throughout. I am very grateful for what I learned from Dr. Jahnke early on in my own journey to wellness. Still today I frequently refer to this incredible book. Follow this link for more information on The Healer Within.
Just beneath the surface of our
being each one of us has a unique self-healing ability.
It is somewhat like a
built-in self-repair system that never sleeps. That ability is always
knocking on the door of our consciousness,
attempting to communicate with us.
The secret to our ability to decipher this communication is in developing
the
ability to interpret that unique language. I call this
communication ability our Internal Guidance System (IGS).
I suppose everyone who lives with MS develops their own theory or theories about the cause or causes of MS. If dealing with MS, first with my mother for over 40 years, and now myself for the past over 18 years, plus many, many hundreds of hours studying everything I can get my hands on about not only MS but so-called autoimmune problems in general, classifies me as an expert, then I believe I am entitled to an opinion on what it is not, as well as what it is.
First of all, I do not believe MS is either an illness or a disease, as we generally define those words. I believe it is rather a degenerative process, and a syndrome of otherwise unexplained neurological symptoms, most usually sharing the characterization of lesions (hardened areas) in the myelin which insulates the spinal cord and/or brain. I also believe that what we call MS today is probably a group of different but closely related neurological problems. I believe the cause/causes are multifaceted. I think that given an underlying genetic predisposition or factor which is not yet fully understood, there are a number of triggers which can precipitate the presentation of from one to several neurological symptoms which ultimately are called Multiple Sclerosis. I believe some of these triggers are societal, while others are personal.
Some of those common triggers are stressors of various kinds - psychological, environmental toxins, food allergies, physical traumas, etc. Sometimes it seems that several of these stressors being present at a given time, when an underlying predisposition exists, pushes the body "over the edge" and we end up with a diagnosis of MS. In other words, it is simply lifestyle related. As with many other physical disorders, MS is a demonstration of a body out of bio-chemical balance. The challenge, of course, is how to return our body to a state of perfect balance, or homeostasis.
Because there is no single cause of MS, there will, in my opinion, never be a real cure, until the genetic predisposition is unraveled. Most scientific and allopathic medical research into MS has been directed toward a "magic bullet," which after hundreds of millions of research dollars has failed miserably to help the vast majority of people with MS. Given the unfortunate status of MS research today, those of us who live with it as part of our daily lives are on our own. Fortunately genetic research is today beginning to open the door to understanding a whole host of physical challenges which have a genetic origin (predisposition) of some kind.
But for now, in order to manage MS where we can live relatively normal, healthy lives — and I truly believe that we can do that — we need a multi-faceted approach. In the "Suggestions for the Newly Diagnosed" section of this website, you will find an extensive guide for starting on a holistic program to manage what we call MS. Actually, this information applies equally to both the newly diagnosed and the person who has dealt with MS for a longer period of time. The earlier one begins this program after the onset of MS symptoms, however, the better our chances of preventing major neurological damage.
I also strongly recommend this program for anyone with any degenerative or so-called autoimmune physical challenge. I believe all will respond positively. With each passing year I become more and more convinced that Qi Gong, the healing form of Tai Chi, which involves gentle movements together with breath work, and meditation are the most important aspects of my personal wellness program. Please read this Qi Gong Report and this Meditation Report.
PLEASE NOTE:
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Archives of recent issues of Journey to Wellness are always available here. If you are newly diagnosed or not familiar with my work, I suggest you take one archived issue each week and really study the material covered. Over a period of a year Journey to Wellness covers just about every aspect of the healthy natural lifestyle that I recommend for MS. |
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I welcome any e-mails you may wish
to send to me; please be sure to use one of the following as the
subject:
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2013 2014
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July-August Fall
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Betty Iams
● Davis, California
● USA
Contact:
I honor and salute my son, Kevin, a
brilliant civil litigation attorney, who graduated to his next experience on November 18,
2006 after a valiant 2-1/2 year battle with Adenocarcinoma Lung
Cancer. The greatest gifts he ever gave me were his son, Zachary, and his
beautiful wife, Christine. I love sharing their lives, and I feel Kevin's
presence frequently. I know that he lives on through the love we shared.
May 30 1964 - November 18, 2006
LAST UPDATE
December 15, 2014
