John Pageler – vision and hope
If you’ve followed my blog, or have read anything of it, you’ll have picked up by now two things: firstly I read as much as I can on anything containing therapeutic and optimistic keywords such as “recovery”, “overcoming” and “managing” MS; and secondly I very much follow the “diet is good” theory – particularly the Dr Roy Swank diet as modified by those who have come after him.
In regard to both points I’ve found many interesting things in my research. One inspiring story I discovered recently was that of the great John Pageler of the US, a now elderly man diagnosed in 1967 with Relapsing Remitting MS. He was fortunate, back then, to be in Portland Oregon, and as such his local neurologist was the now legendary Dr Roy Laver Swank. After a couple of unexplained events John suddenly went blind while driving on the freeway at 70mph. After a scary “roadside assistance” by the highway patrol, after waving a white handkerchief blindly out his car window, John was taken to see an optometrist and later Roy Swank. He was told, as was the case at the time (and remains the case for progressive MS), that there were no drugs that could assist him – and as a result he began to see Dr Swank not as a nutter-theorist, but as a visionary. John immediately started on the Swank-recommended diet (the “Swank Protocols” as he calls them). Though he became medically retired from the US Air Force, he went into full remission from 1970 to 1990. He had a relapse following hospital food on an unrelated issue, but again returned to full health and mobility. Twenty years after diagnosis, and many years after throwing away his walking cane, John took up playing tennis. In 1988 he had his first MRI scan, which showed that he had so many lesions in his brain that he was told he should be comatose. Instead he was informed he was in full remission. Through his life John passionately researched supplements and the Swank low-saturated-fat diet. He became a US and international icon of MS recovery, and wrote a book about his knowledge and experience. Being the sort of guy that he is (or was, I fear that he might have passed away after his last entry 4 years ago when he was said to be in ill health), John or someone close to him has now made that book freely available on the internet … at this site.
John’s story is not only an inspiring and fascinating one in its own right, but it is compelling as a “comparative”. For example he cites a case where he met a guy unprepared to give up his existing diet, and met him again years later when he was in a wheelchair and John was unaffected – and how, after changing his diet that guy too had a similar recovery. The book is not a hallelujah-believe-and-you’ll-be-cured book, but a no nonsense, blunt but uplifting book … very much worth reading by anyone with MS in my view.
You know my view about diet, and about those who have stood on the giant shoulders of Swank – most notably and recently George Jelinek. This book of John Pageler’s, going back to 1967 and to the absolute bedrock of someone meeting Roy Swank and following his protocols, is also one of the most worthwhile things I have ever read about MS. I’ve given you the link to the book, above, but I would also encourage you to read the last, or second last, entry by John Pageler on his website. If you are not minded to read the book, please just read this final advice by John Pageler, and pass it on to anyone you know. Here’s the link – it’s sure to help.
Best wishes on your own recovery, KB.