Man with Arthritis Running Marathons?
Mike Leon  

I want you to meet Mike Leon. He is a mechanical engineer who does product development and product forensics.  On the side, he and his family volunteer to raise and train service dogs.

Since 1976 Mike has had 3 knee operations.  Over the years, he’s been hit by a dump truck, Buick, a Ford Explorer and even a picnic table.  He was also hit by a car while biking which took his knee out requiring the third surgery to the same knee. Injuries from each of these left Mike with a daily level of pain that became part of his daily life – pain from a level 2 to 10 (10 being the highest). Arthritis type pain set in due to these accidents and there were many days he woke up and went to bed it pain. At one point he could not hold a pencil in his fingers.  When Mike arrived at the Plant City Lifestyle Center, he had joint pain in his fingers, neck, knee and back.  The pain would wake him up at night.  He had learned to live with the pain by using ice packs and taking medications to manage it.  

Mike found out about the Hallelujah Acres Lifestyle Center in Plant City from one of our alumni guests.  He saw that we were having a weekend event in October 2009 and believed that his wife, Betsy, who suffers with MS, would benefit from getting this knowledge. Surely spending some time with owner, David Orcutt, who overcame all Multiple Sclerosis symptoms, would be an encouragement to his wife. Mike explains, “Betsy is the planner in the family but as head of my household, realizing that this needed to be a team effort, I urged her to go – she did come but with both her carnivorous heals dug in deep!”

Mike writes, “Within hours of arriving, I started to detox at the Lifestyle Center. In one of the classroom times, Sherry suggested we make out a symptom chart of all our ailments. After a few weeks on the lifestyle,  I was beginning to see changes. It gets exciting to put a “Gone Date” next to your symptom baggage list. After 1 ½ months I noticed I was feeling great and on January 9th (3 months after I started the lifestyle change), a neighbor mentioned that there was a Half-marathon coming up and would I like to do it. My first instinct was to RUN – away from the idea! I started to think, ‘If I could finish it in three hours, perhaps, I would not embarrass myself too much.’ Well, I did it in two hours and 27 minutes.  I just turned 50 years old and received my AARP card so to me this was a great motivator to my running and finishing this race.
13.1 miles is 3 times further than I had run in more than 20 years!  The knee pain and swelling would usually dictate my running ability and during this marathon, I realized I did not have any knee pain or swelling. I now have an enormous amount of energy – I feel more than 20 years younger, like I did when I was 25!”

“On Father’s Day I took my family to the ‘Dinner and a Movie’ night that Dave & Sherry hosted in Brandon, FL.  The following weekend, I took my two daughters,  Jessica (17) and Samantha (13) to the June Hallelujah weekend program in Plant City.”  One of his daughters did not like nuts and was quite skeptical about the foods we were serving but she promised herself that she would try the foods. In her evaluation sheet she stated, “I loved everything, especially the lasagna. I really enjoyed the themed rooms, learning that there were so many options of good foods we could eat. I loved it when Sherry rang the dinner bell. Dave & Sherry are really fun to hang out with!”  Samantha writes: “This program was fun and educational. It was great to realize that there is a lot of fun, guilt free foods that are still good for you.  Staying here gave me the ability to focus on the changes that I need to make.”

In June 2010, I asked Mike what his motivation was for coming back to our Lifestyle Center with his daughters. He said that he wanted his kids to have a healthier mother and that he did not want them to make the same poor health choices they had made. He did not want to outlive his children and recognized the importance of teaching them health principals now. When Mike was in college he got pneumonia from poor health choices.   Jessica will be going off to college soon and has already had pneumonia in middle school and bronchitis in high school.  He didn’t want history repeating itself.

Update on Mike’s wife, Betsy – Betsy was declining when she had arrived at our center. When she bent or fell down she could not get up without help. She began holding onto objects to stabilize herself and her mental capacity was declining. The MS had drastically affected her vision and color perception.  Since her weekend in October (now 9 months), she has less body overheating and fatigue (a big problem symptom of many with MS), she can now cycle  10 to 12 miles (recumbent 4 wheel pedal Quadra cycle).  She’s been getting stronger every week.  Betsy was unable to play Rummikub with the family as she could not distinguish colors – a vital part of the game – and a couple weeks ago, they all got to play it together as Betsy was able to differentiate between the colors.  Mike said, “We are excited about the changes we are both experiencing thanks to our willingness to live the Hallelujah Lifestyle.”

We will be following Betsy’s progress as she allows her lifestyle choices to heal her immune system so she too, like David, can run again and live a life – MS free!