More About Me

How books, curiosity, and multiple sclerosis shaped the way I see the body’s inner intelligence

Last week, a kind reader wrote to me and said it was nice to read something more personal.
That made me smile and think: why stop there? Today, I’d love to share a little more about where I come from, what shaped me, and how I learned not only to live but to thrive with multiple sclerosis.

A researcher at heart

I was born in a Champagne village so small it had only forty inhabitants. Yes, forty. Idyllic, perhaps, from the outside. But for me, as a 13-year-old (and the youngest in town), it felt more like isolation and boredom.

My escape was books. One of my favorites told the stories of children around the world> a boy in Wyoming, a girl in Vietnam. I was fascinated. And deep inside, I started dreaming: I want to live abroad. I want to discover new things.

Which I did. I left France at the age of 21. That same curiosity led me into research. Ask me a question, and I’ll happily dive in to find an answer. My academic path eventually took me to a PhD on the Irish economy. But then life shifted. Multiple sclerosis arrived, and my research turned inward: toward the body itself.

Strangely enough, MS didn’t close doors. It opened new ones. It made me curious not just about what can go wrong in the body, but about everything that goes right.

Falling in love with the body

To me, the human body is the most extraordinary piece of intelligent engineering.

We marvel at artificial intelligence, but our own bodies are infinitely more sophisticated. Every cell, every system, every pattern is a reminder of nature’s brilliance.

Take fractals, for instance: those repeating patterns we see in trees, rivers, and yes, our own lungs. The branching of the bronchi ensures that every tiny air sac can receive oxygen, even in limited space. Or consider the intricate passages of our nostrils, designed to filter, warm, and humidify air before it reaches our lungs. Everywhere we look, we find elegant, ingenious solutions.

And the magic grows when we move. In 2020, researchers at Stanford studied nearly every molecule that shifts during exercise. They tracked 36 volunteers, aged 40 to 75, and measured blood samples before and after a treadmill test. Out of 17,662 molecules, more than half changed because of exercise. Some spiked, some fell, some lingered for hours. These molecules touched everything: metabolism, immunity, tissue repair, even hunger regulation.

Isn’t that astonishing? A simple walk, a stretch, a movement, and our whole inner world lights up.

Speaking of stretching: Dr. Langevin’s research with yoga showed that stretching increases anti-inflammatory markers in the body. More proof of the quiet miracles happening inside us.

Mind, body, spirit

Of course, it’s not just the body that fascinates me.

Growing up in France, I absorbed Descartes’ philosophy that mind and body were separate. But MS taught me otherwise. Yoga confirmed it. The mind and body are not just connected: they’re inseparable, always in conversation.

Today, my mission is simple: to inspire others to fall in love with their bodies. Not just to admire their strength or endurance, but to recognise the quiet intelligence, resilience, and beauty of the whole system, body, mind, and spirit working together.

Because when we see our bodies not as broken machines, but as brilliant allies, something shifts. We begin to thrive.

With love

Véronique