March 13, '00

        We went to Massachusetts Monday to see Mom and Dad's Chiropractor, Dr. Bill Maykel. He felt he could help AL with his ALS by de-toxin him. He isn't taking any new patients because he is going into more research and to teach the method of Applied Kinesiology in chiropractic care. It was a great visit! They tested him for food, mold and pollen allergies.  They determined what foods he needed to stay away from for the next 3-6 weeks and what vitamins and minerals he should take to de-tox. He has to stop eating anything with wheat, corn, dairy, beef, poultry, lamb, apples, cantaloupe, currants, avocado, sesame oil, sunflower oil, and balsamic vinegar. That's quite a list and it sounds awful but he can have pork, fish and shell fish (thank goodness), all vegetables but corn, all fruit but what's listed above, and nuts. So it's not so bad. He has to buy spelt bread, muffins, and rice flour for baking. Needless to say we will be reading a lot of labels to get this straight. Especially the wheat and corn part because there are a lot of things with one or the other of these in it.
        They also found he has two vertebrae in his neck compressed and a separation in his right shoulder. They felt that if they adjusted those spots he would gain back some strength in his right arm. They did two adjustments plus some electrodes. When he left he could flex his right biceps in his arm and grasp onto a glass and hold in the air with his hand. He has not been able to do either of these things in a few months. We were very excited and had tears of joy. We feel we have finally found some hope! Dr. Maykel also feels with the de-toxin we can slow down and perhaps stop this illness from progressing any further. Al is going to be his "study" patient and challenge to try to help this illness. It's interesting how the holistic approach is to make your organs (liver, etc.) work better and heal from the inside out, conversely, the only medicine FDA approved for this illness destroys your liver.  Talk about opposite sides of the fences! 
        Now we are trying to detox by eliminating the food he is sensitive to plus he has lots of vitamins and minerals to take to help his liver, adrenal gland and they determined he has a parasite in his intestines. They are also going to test him for metal toxin because he has so many silver fillings in his mouth. Don't we all? He is also trying to quit smoking and cute way back on sugar. We found an article about how sugar has a strong negative affect on ALS patients with their speech and swallowing. 
        The hardest thing for Al will be quitting smoking. But if he falls off the wagon he just needs to climb back on and try again! Smoking is very bad for this illness because the illness makes your breathing worse. We are feeling very positive about all this. Thank you so much to everyone who have written to their Congressmen for the Medicare Bill, ordering your awareness pins and helping towards the awareness and research of this awful illness. We can't cure this without you help. Our love to all. Love always, Glo & Al