Tales: Living Proof Movie Review

Tales: Reviewing Living Proof by Matt Embry

I have recently watched a movie (twice in a row) on Amazon Prime that has really opened my eyes about several things. Living Proof is about a young Canadian (Matt Embry) who has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). And how this young man, his father, and others are on a journey to find answers, treatment, and possibly a cure. 

MS is an autoimmune disease that causes the immune system to go awry - deciding the that spinal cord and brain "shouldn't be there" and attacks as it does any other foreign thing that enters the body. 

MS is on the rise.

Living Proof gives us a peek at what young Mr. Embry is doing to delay the inevitable physical deterioration that MS patients face. He shares the details of how he personally has continued to be symptom free for 20 years. And Living Proof gives us a peek into the wider scope of MS treatment and how big money seems to control the trajectory of research, financing, and the dissemination of treatment information. This movie includes very important information about the history of MS treatment progress and lack thereof. 

Matt Embry. Filmmaker. Advocate. Outwardly healthy young man. Multiple Sclerosis patient. Son. Matt travels the world to interview the experts and the patients (also the experts) to look for answers and hope. Some of the answers may include the treatments:  stem cell treatment, CCSVI procedure, diet, dietary supplements, and medication. The more he learns about the disease, the stronger of an advocate he becomes. Not only is he fighting the disease he has to fight those who appear to want to silence him.





Dr. Ashton Embry.  Geologist. Voracious reviewer of MS-related studies and treatments. Compiler of information related to MS. Advocate. Devoted father. 

Dr. George Ebers. Neurologist. MS Researcher. Head of Clinical Neurology at the University of Oxford (15+ years). 45,000+ academic citations. Principal investigator, FDA. Retired. Dr. Ebers headed down his path of study due to an Aunt who passed of MS. He has some very important insights to share.

Dr. Christopher Duma. Neurosurgeon. Has used stem cell treatment with a small sample of MS patients successfully. Stem cell treatment is not approved by the FDA for MS treatment (at the time the movie was made). He faced barriers in attempting to further provide this treatment to MS patients. 

"Where the industry wants to go is to produce a drug in the form of a stem cell.  ...that becomes their product. There is an incentive for them to create that product...." rather than use the free stem cells existing in the patients body. 

Dr. Paolo Zamboni - "Found that the majority of MS patients he examined had dangerous blockages in their juglar veins".  (A medical condition known as CCSVI. Treatable with angioplasty.) 

Dr. Mike Dake - Cardiothoracic surgeon. Stanford University Medical Center. Also Jeff Beal's cardiothoracic surgeon and who performed his CCSVI surgery to unblock Jeff's juglar vein. This procedure started to send Dr. Dake into research and treatment for MS patients. He treated approximately 59 MS patients. 57 of those 59 patients had this narrowing of the juglar veins. His work in this area has not continued due to being pressured to stop. 

Judy Graham - Author and MS patient. In 1970s she began writing about her experience with MS. She then published Managing Multiple Sclerosis Naturally: A self-help guide to living with MS.

Ms. Graham shares her struggle with the MS Society of Canada who were by her report, "beyond abusive" with trying to limit her sharing of her experiences with MS.

Books written by Judy Graham:

Books by Judy Graham on Amazon

MS Society of Canada. "One of the largest MS societies in the world with annual revenues topping $50 million."  A primary source of information to patients with MS. -- And shockingly absent from all things the Embry family has learned and is trying to share with others. Absent with the exception of sending Matt a legal "cease and desist" letter. 

Other appearances.  I am grateful to these people who agreed to appear in Living Proof and share about their own MS battle, progress, and treatment choices/limitations:

Larry Findlater 

Viola Tsang 

Jeff Beal 

Cindy Riffel

David Lyons)

Dr. Terry Wahls

MS Hope and Direct-MS by Matt Embry and Family.

Matt and his family created Direct-MS, a charity to help collect donations to fund research about diet and MS. They are 100% volunteer-based charity and because of this nearly all of the funds raised (95%) go directly to research, presentations, and information distribution. For more information visit Direct-MS. 

MS Hope is Matt's own website that shares the story of his fight with MS. He does not collect donations and his goal is to help spread the information about how he has used diet, supplements (Vitamin D), and the CCSVI procedure to continue to be a healthy, athletic young man who happens to have MS.  For more information visit MS Hope. 

It is notable that the only observable interest the MS Society of Canada has shown in what Matt is doing is the "cease and desist" letter they sent to him related to his personal website. 

There are several messages in this movie are important. And I hope I have the ability to convince you to view this movie. Even if you are not interested in MS treatment this movie exposes some very important things related to the general topics of health, diet, research, and how our donations to charitable groups are sometimes funneled into specific areas. If this happens in the realm of MS, it only makes sense that it also happens in the areas of cancer, diabetes, other autoimmune diseases, and etc.

If the focus is on cures that generate income, it would only make sense that then areas of other possible effective treatments or cures - that would generate less income for the pharmaceutical companies - would be overlooked. Or even worse - intentionally blocked.

Thank you to Matt and all who appeared in his movie to share their stories.

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Personal Disclaimer: For the purpose of transparency, I want to add that my interest in health-related research and funding stems from a variety of things. One of these things is a history of difficult-to-diagnose family illnesses. My mother and her mother passed away at relatively early ages after battling illnesses that in hindsight seem to be related to autoimmune diseases. My sister is currently diagnosed similarly. I share many of her symptoms. Our family is also rife with diagnoses such as IBS, ulcerative colitis, and rheumatoid arthritis. I have often complained about the seemingly lack of interest in fund-raising for research for some diseases while millions of dollars are poured into research for specific diseases -- with no cures for any of them; highly funded or not. I have always thought that medication versus prevention, early/accurate diagnosis, and cures have been the focus of the medical and pharmaceutical communities. In this way, I went into this video with bias. My take-away from this video, among other things, is a renewed desire and commitment to continue to change my eating habits.