Welcome

Welcome to The Health-Care Survivor’s Library: Introducing books being written by Mike Tawse: The Health-Care Survivor, and other Recommended Reading.

I was born with spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy, which affects everyone slightly differently. For me, it has restricted my mobility and muscle control and my eyesight and visual perception were severely limited, which made reading particularly difficult.

For people who have only known me for a relatively short time, my enjoyment of books and my determination to write, have been slightly difficult to explain. It is true that my eyesight and visual perception only improved enough to make reading a pleasure, or even particularly useful, as the most remarkable ongoing part of My Serrapeptase Adventure, which began in 2006. Books and writing have been part of my life for many years and I was determined to write, despite doing so being physically difficult and often painful, before I learnt about voice recognition in the early 1990s.

Fortunately, I grew up with a family and friends who enjoyed reading, and many of whom were happy to read to me. Perhaps it would be fair to say that what I think of as an enjoyment of books could be more accurately described as enjoyment of the spoken word. As a child, I was fascinated by radio drama, without my eyesight being a problem.

I grew up reassured by the knowledge that cerebral palsy was a stable condition, which would not degenerate. In common with many people with congenital (lifelong) disabilities, in the UK, I was put through a mix of special and mainstream education and I was treated by a succession of doctors, surgeons and therapists of all kinds, many of whom added to the toxic cocktail, usually called prescription medication, of which they all seem to be so fond. Therefore, once I accepted my limitations and overcame or managed some other difficulties, it should have been possible to live a life, which was not dominated by my health… or the lack of it.

By the late 1990s, cerebral palsy was ready to remind me that it often has a sting in its tail, about which very few people are told until it strikes. It is true that the underlying brain damage which caused it had not changed, but the cumulative effect of the wear and tear caused to every system of the body simply by living with it, combined with years of toxicity from prescription medication had begun to overpower me and to send my health into a relentless downward spiral. In December 2005, I had finally accepted that this would be my lot for as much time as I had left and that there might not be very much of it.

So much has changed since then; I am now seeing the world with fresh eyes. My return to naturally sustained good health, since January 2006, continues to amaze me every day, and it is my privilege to share it with you, via My Serrapeptase Adventure website. Now that my health is stable and my continuing progress suggests that the future is one to which I can look forward with confidence, I am, at last, able to concentrate, more fully, upon the research and writing I had intended to do, so many years ago.

The Disability Maze Books

My hope is to encourage a holistic, positive, approach to the assessment of individual needs. There is much evidence to suggest that assessments carried out by professionals in the fields of education, social-care and health, often have a negative focus. In simple terms, the aim of many forms of assessment seems to be to highlight limitations and to focus on the things that someone finds difficult, or impossible. This approach is often referred to as ‘the deficit model’.

One reason for the popularity of deficit modelling is that it gives easily predictable and replicable results. There are obvious advantages for assessors with this approach. The assessor knows, in advance, that someone with a given condition is likely to respond in a particular way during the test.

The major difficulty with deficit modelling arises from this same predictability. It is far too easy to allow our familiarity with given conditions, and the test procedures, to guide us towards familiar responses. The danger is that conclusions and recommendations are not drawn from test results. Instead, recommendations are made from a predetermined stock.

A positively focused assessment will consider the impact of the individual’s needs as well as that of our recommendations. An impact model takes full account of the consequences of our recommendations on all aspects of a person’s life and includes consideration of the impact upon family members, friends and colleagues, whose lives may be changed when a person with a disability gains a new skill or level of autonomy.

The Health-Care Survivor Books website will track my progress in researching, writing and publishing, The Disability Maze Books.

The Health-Care Survivor’s Story

The Health-Care Survivor’s Story, tells the full story of My Serrapeptase Adventure and of “The ‘Miracle’ Enzyme”, Serrapeptase, which gave me back my life in January 2006. It is a great, continuing, health adventure, enabled by the sharing of information on the internet, the airwaves and now in print. It is a story of personal determination, inspired by the kindness of people around the world.

Since I learnt about Serrapeptase, I have been able to move away from medically controlled symptoms, towards naturally sustained good health.

Just before Christmas, 2005, my life was about to change. One of my friends told me about “… an amazing food supplement called Serrapeptase.” As part of my research, at the time, I learnt about the work of the author, broadcaster and natural health advocate, Robert Redfern, The Serrapeptase Guy. Amongst the information, which I found were highlights from interviews, which Robert had given to The Power Hour Radio show. These recordings were a true gift to me because reading was very difficult for me; they enabled me to find the information, which would change my life. In a very few weeks, the show was to become the integral part of my own story, which it still is today.

On January 3, 2006, with my sceptic’s hat firmly on my head, I took Serrapeptase for the first time, sat back and waited for the results. I did not have to wait for long. Within just 48 hours, my lungs began to clear and over the following few days my lung capacity improved and stabilised. In the following weeks, my heart rate returned to normal and stabilised and my digestive system returned to normal. Before the end of February 2006, I was able to stop taking all my prescription medications and my condition has been stable and continued to improve since then.

By November 2006, my eyesight and visual perception, which were damaged as a direct result, and integral part, of cerebral palsy, had also begun to improve. My eyesight is now within normal range and the improvement continues to this day. Does this mean that the remarkable enzyme, Serrapeptase, can overcome the impact of congenital brain damage? I do not have a complete medical answer to this, but I am enjoying the challenge of finding one. There is now some research, based upon studies of newborns, suggesting that inflammation may be amongst the underlying causes of cerebral palsy. One indicator for this was the elevated level of inflammatory cytokines. I am not yet sure that it is possible to extrapolate from this that reducing the level of inflammation in adulthood, could help to mediate the effect of congenital damage, but am sure that it is a question worth asking, and that the answer will be a fascinating one to find.

2007 was the year in which the smallest detail became a visual feast and the awe-inspiring beauty of open spaces was shown to me with crystal clarity for the first time in my life. My ability to see new things for the first time, and familiar things with new clarity is, perhaps, the most exciting and unexpected of all the gifts of My Serrapeptase Adventure… so far.

For the first time, I was able to recognise the faces of friends from a distance, which gave me a curious mixture of the familiarity of established friendships, combined with the excitement of seeing someone for the first time; because they,  literally, looked different each time my eyesight has improved.

I continue to be most excited by being able to find beauty in the most intricate detail and the magnificence of open space. It is inspiring to see that the glint in the eye of a smiling friend is as beautiful as the best-known natural wonders of the world.

2008 was my third year, free from the ‘toxic cocktail’, popularly known as prescription medication. I continue to be inspired by the fact that Serrapeptase began to free me from my symptoms within hours, and then, within weeks, from the medications. This was the year in which I  discovered that many of the symptoms from which Serrapeptase has rescued me were, in fact, known, and even expected, side effects of all the prescription medications, which I had taken, for decades, and about which I was never warned. I began to learn as much as I could about cerebral palsy and also about all the medications I had been given. I also took the opportunity to begin learning about the natural approach to sustained good health, including the various supplements, which have enabled me to be a survivor of the health and social-care systems of The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and to think of myself as The Health-Care Survivor.

The book, A Life-Saving Return To Naturally Sustained Good Health, tells the story in detail, and provides an overview of my research findings.

Recommended Reading

Regular readers of My Serrapeptase Adventure will know that my improving ability to read is among its most precious and surprising gifts My ability to read has improved, gradually, but consistently, since my eyesight and visual perception began becoming clearer in November 2006. I still need a lot of practice, and must make a considerable effort to improve my fluency, but reading is already a much more useful pleasure than it ever was, before my adventure started.

Recommended Reading, provides me with an opportunity to share reviews, and other information, about some of the books, articles and research papers, which I have found most interesting, informative and even inspiring.

I will also keep you fully informed about the progress of my own writing.