Yulia is the first OMS Ambassador in Israel. Based in Jerusalem, Yulia received an MS diagnosis three years ago and has since been following the OMS lifestyle to maintain an excellent life.
Almost three years ago, I suddenly started feeling vertigo. A doctor suggested that I have some blood tests and then explained that I had a virus. I had the blood tests and they were normal. But after 3 weeks, I suddenly woke up one day and could not fully see out of one eye. It was a huge shock for me. I had never worn glasses and I needed to work as a Chief Financial Officer with Excel spreadsheets and numbers. It was a very, very scary time for me – going from a totally healthy person, to having a few tests, then a few hospitalizations and finally an MS diagnosis…
After a few months, following steroids, my vision came back completely. I considered that what had happened to me was a wake up call and an opportunity to rethink everything about my lifestyle, my priorities. I started to wonder what I could do in this complicated situation? I also realized that life can throw unexpected things at you and nobody actually knows what’s going to happen to us tomorrow (and not only about health).
I started seeing online information about people who were able to improve their health. I came to Matt Embry’s videos; he was really inspirational to me. After that I saw work from both Swank and OMS. I slowly began to change my lifestyle completely, in line with what I was seeing could be helpful to my health. Exercise today is an integral part of my daily routine. I have stopped
smoking. I’ve changed nutrition to be more in line with the recommendations. I started to feel much better, MRIs also showed that almost everything in the previous results had disappeared. I now also have Tysabri infusions regularly and have increased the intervals between treatments.
I strongly believe that one day I will be able to look after myself completely by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, potentially even without medication. I do this in collaboration with my neurologist. She has even invited me several times to speak with medical students to explain my situation to them. I am very active in several organizations related to MS with the primary purpose of being an example to those people who are facing the many challenges of the disease and showing them that we can potentially live well with MS, we can actually live an excellent life.