The Current - A Saskatchewan scientist says he has a treatment for ALS. Critics say his claims are questionable

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

ALS is a death sentence for those diagnosed with it. Now a scientist in Moose Jaw claims he has discovered the secret to stopping the disease in its tracks. CBC’s Geoff Leo investigated the claims of a treatment, which desperate patients are forking over tens of thousands of dollars for, in his documentary Hard to Swallow.

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Find an agent today at Desjardins.com slash business coverage. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is the Current Podcast. It is well known that a diagnosis of a myotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS is a death sentence. There are about 3,000 ALS patients in Canada at any one time. A thousand people are diagnosed every year. A thousand people die from the condition. Now a scientist in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan claims he has discovered the secret to stopping the disease in its tracks and setting patients on a path to recovery. His claims

have attracted the attention of desperate patients and the scrutiny of government regulators. This is the CBC's Jeff Leo with his documentary, Hard to Swallow. Our main worry is… Don't make a sound. I'm… a 22 right now. That's Michael Gieselman on a call with a scientist in July of last year.

He's describing how far his ALS had progressed. On the rating scale for the disease, a 22 is very bad news. It means Michael has trouble speaking, swallowing, walking, using his hands. His wife, Shannon, who's been watching him deteriorate for years, jumps in. Okay, let me help you. Alright, so just to paint a picture of exactly where Michael is at, for breathing-wise, he was like at a 30% for his lungs. So what's problematic here is that time is of the essence and I can't imagine him going much more. He did not think

himself he would make it to August. This was July 15, 2024. That's the day Shannon and Michael met on a Zoom call with Dr. Dayan Goodenow. He bills himself as a world-renowned neuroscientist and an ALS expert. Shannon recorded the call to keep track of the details. It's a horrible, horrible disease. So my heart goes out to you and that person foremost. When Michael was diagnosed in early 2022, he was told ALS is a death sentence,

killing most people within two to five years. The ALS Society of Canada says there is no cure. And while existing treatments can relieve some symptoms, they don't change the progression of the disease. But he didn't accept that. He was incessantly researching on the internet for a cure. Then he stumbled across Dr. Goodenow's videos online. Not to be flippant, but stopping the progression of ALS actually isn't that hard.

It is really biochemical math and it's... Dan Goodenow is not a medical doctor, but he does have a PhD in medical science with a focus on psychiatry. His company is based in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and Southern California. On his website, he says his treatment can stop the progress of ALS symptoms and reverse them. Claims like this have earned him attention in the alternative health world online. In 2007, Dr. Dayan Gurnau identified loss of the cell nutrient Plasmalogen. Gurnau's videos get hundreds of thousands of views on the website of the Epoch Times.

Dr. Gurnau has spent decades researching the biochemistry of neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, ALS and autism. Goodenow told Michael and Shannon, Americans who live in California, that he has the solution they've been looking for. you do something stupid, there's really no reason why you should. You're not going to die of ALS, in our care. Okay? But you might die. I mean, that's just the, that's just the God's honest truth. Goodenow said in order to achieve this, Michael should enroll in his four-month program, a program Goodenow's staff would deliver right in his own home at a cost of $90,000 U.S. would deliver right in his own home at a cost of $90,000 U.S. So what exactly are we buying into right now like this? What's the program? What are we getting?

We're going to come in, do assessments, get blood work done, get you started on a systematic supplement protocol to restore the biochemical health. The program is based around supplements that Goodenow invented and manufactures. A key component is plasmalogens. Fats which form crucial parts of the cell membrane. He says plasmalogens are critical for brain health but people with neurodegenerative diseases have a deficit. He says his supplements can fix that. So it's a fairly comprehensive biochemical can fix that. So it's a fairly comprehensive biochemical re-engineering, if you will. And so all we're doing is restoring the inherent cellular system to do the job it was designed to do.

Goodenow's Chief Business Officer Tracy Zimmerman assured Michael and Shannon that this would work. We don't plan to fail. And we haven't failed. We have a 100% success rate at stopping the progression and restoring function in ALS, and we're going to be able to help. Right around that same time, Jeff Sando, a businessman in his mid-60s living just south of Los Angeles, met with Zimmerman about his ALS. Jeff's wife, Teresa, also recorded the call. And Jeff, we expect you to get stronger. So the goal here is to put time back on your side, right? And we want to do that as soon as we can, right?

Because again, we do have a 100% success rate in stopping the progression and restoring function of people with ALS. The father of two was diagnosed with ALS in early 2024. I wasn't nervous going to the doctor when he called us in. So it was pretty devastating when he tells you you have something that there is no cure for and you're just going to slowly die. That was dramatic. Goodenow assured them that despite the dire diagnosis, the future can be bright.

It's clearly unambiguously possible to get better. Okay? That's good to know. How exciting is that? That is very exciting because you know, you go to the doctors here and you just get nothing but bad news. You know, I don't want I hate having to defend the whole medical industry because there's good parts in it. But they really do fail in diseases like ALS. Zimmerman suggested to Jeff and Teresa that Goodenow's fix for ALS is actually well known in the scientific world.

It's sad, but the scientists have actually known how to reverse ALS for decades. And I'm not putting down pharma in any way. Go ahead. But the same organization, the same companies that profit off of you being stiff are not going to be the companies that are going to bring you a cure and anyone who believes that is deluded in themselves. Yeah, they don't want a cure disease. Zimmerman pitched them on a four-month program but with a twist. Instead of the whole thing being delivered in Jeff's home, the first three months would take place at Goodenow's treatment center in Moosejaw at a cost of $75,000 US.

Zimmerman explained that others had seen success going this route. My name is Cory Mitchell, 49 years old. Cory's story is prominently featured on Goodenow's website. The disease has completely stopped. There's been no progression whatsoever. And I'm now starting to feel like time is on my side. Jeff and Teresa were hooked, and a few weeks later, they were on their way to Saskatchewan.

Corey's story was also influential with Michael Gieselman. What has Corey improved on? Well, first thing is breathing and his speech. He couldn't breathe and he couldn't speak hardly at all back when he first started. Well Michael found that story persuasive. His wife Shannon was skeptical. Do you feel like Cory continues to improve?

Versus having it like plateau or he continues to approve? She reached out to Cory and his partner Jennifer by phone, and that left her with more concerns. You heard Dr. Goodenow and you thought, this is totally true? What did you think? No, totally BS from the very beginning. Show me what you're saying. Like, I didn't believe any of it. But just a few days later, Michael decided to go ahead with the program.

Oh, I was beside myself. I could barely even restrain myself from, how can my husband believe? So my husband is the most skeptical person on the planet, but this is what's so sad about the whole thing. That's how desperate these poor people with this disease are. Goodenow said it's just a matter of time before the world realizes what he has. This will be standard to practice

for the treatment of ALS. Absolutely, 100%. Okay. Teresa Sando videotapes the buffet line at Dr. Goodenow's restorative health center in Moose Jaw. Today, it's tacos. They arrived at the center in early September with high hopes, but the facility did not quite meet their expectations. For example, the kitchen was on the second floor, but the only way to get there was the staircase, a big challenge for Jeff, who had trouble walking and was often in a wheelchair. Goodenow acknowledges the problem.

We always laugh about the stairs, right? People say, Dayan, when are you going to put an elevator in your facility? But he says in a way, it's part of the program. They'll come in not being able to walk or basically being able to get out of a wheelchair. And the goal is within three months is to get them walking upstairs. He provided Jeff with a sheet

detailing his supplement program, a day-by-day protocol listing a large and growing number of pills he was supposed to take at 8 a.m., noon, 4 p.m., and bedtime. At the bottom of this sheet was a footnote, quote, this is a self-directed program. This protocol may be modified to suit your lifestyle and or preferences. We're here as a self-directed research process. People come in with their own voluntary will and they develop programs themselves. I have no idea why he would say that except to try

to limit his liability to try to claim well this is a self-directed plan and you know it's not really designed by me it's designed by the the patient. I wouldn't pay that much and I wouldn't have gone there for guidance. He's the neuroscientist that should know what I need. He wants to avoid the claim that he's providing medicine, right? That he's acting as a physician. That's what Timothy Caulfield believes. He's a University of Alberta law professor who specializes in legal and ethical issues in health research.

And his defense will be, well, I'm not acting. I'm just providing these people with information and they're doing it themselves. For decades, Caulfield has examined what he believes are questionable treatments in articles, books and documentaries. We live in a world full of noise, of science versus pop culture. He has examined Dr. Goodenow's website and he sees some familiar patterns in the vague

language being used. Cutting edge research, not available anywhere else, that can defeat disease and restore health. This is the go-to strategy. Heavily, heavily imply that you can cure the condition without explicitly saying you can cure the condition. At Desjardins Insurance, we know that when you're a building contractor, your company's foundation needs to be strong. That's why our agents go the extra mile to understand your

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During my interviews with Goodnow, Christine Haas was always listening in. She's a former journalist and Texas-based crisis communications consultant. Occasionally, she weighed in. If I could just interject, I don't think Dr. Goodnow ever said that he could stop and full out. He's saying the symptoms stop and he's never said that it is a cure.

Caulfield is frustrated that this sort of facility is able to operate in Canada seemingly without oversight. Goodnow's supplements have not been approved by Health Canada, and yet he's able to offer care to some of the most vulnerable patients. We absolutely need to have the regulatory mechanisms, the policy levers to stop this kind of thing, right? A few months back, I reached out to Goodenow to learn more about him and his claims. I really thank you for taking the time and seeking me out and digging into this stuff. I do recognize it's a rabbit hole.

Well, I mean, to me, it's in the world of big if true, right? In the sense that if you can genuinely and demonstrably take conditions that people in the medical establishment are saying, there's nothing we can do with this, and you say, I can halt it and I can reverse it, then yeah, it's something that people ought to look at, obviously. Typically when scientists make claims to revolutionary breakthroughs, they point to peer-reviewed studies, rigorous research that has been independently verified.

Have you done any studies that would demonstrate that you can halt or reverse the progress of ALS in patients? Any published studies? Not published at this point in time. When pressed for evidence, Goodenow instead pointed to anecdotes, testimonials. During our tour of his Moose Jaw facility, we spoke with Scott Myers, a 65-year-old ALS patient from Akron, Ohio. Seriously, within the first week, I don't know if it was psychosomatic, but I had recovered

the last movements that I had lost know if it was psychosomatic, but I had recovered the last movements that I had lost a couple weeks prior to that. Then there's Corey Mitchell, whose story Goodenow discusses on his podcast. On today's podcast, we will tell a powerful story about Corey, someone diagnosed with ALS who was defying the odds. What conclusion scientifically do you draw from from Corey's story? Clearly the progression, okay, the the actual progression of the disease can be stopped, okay, fundamentally unambiguously his progression stopped. And secondarily, if you stop the progression and you provide additional support and physiotherapy,

and he can actually begin recovering. It only takes one person to get better, to falsify the hypothesis that this is a disease that is, that cannot be reversed. David Taylor, who's the Chief Scientific Officer at the ALS Society of Canada, finds this unconvincing. He points out that the disease does not take a linear path. He says it's common for patients to hit plateaus where their symptoms stabilize or even improve. In addition, he points out that sometimes improvement can be attributed to a placebo effect. It is well known that in any form of medicine, people who spend a lot of money, who go through

a regimen that is more invasive, who have any kind of promises associated with a particular therapy, that those individuals do better with their disease. He says the only way to be sure your treatment works is a thorough, careful scientific study. And he says he's seen no evidence to indicate Goodnow has made some sort of breakthrough. And if we had seen that plasmalogens was a specific thing to ALS

that led to something exciting, there would be people who are focusing on that in the lab. There have not been to date and people are looking at everything for decades. You have an individual person's hypothesis versus an entire field of people who are spending every moment of every day trying to find that thing that's going to fix the disease. Come on. Watch the ball. Go get it. We traveled to the outskirts of Sacramento, California to learn more about Corey's story from his partner, Jennifer Hoff. She says she definitely witnessed Corey's conditions

stabilize and improve when he got to the Moose Jaw facility. She says it may have been Goodenow's supplements, but it was also likely a reduction in stress and an improved diet. We changed his diet like completely. And of course, you know, changing your diet and getting your inflammation down in your body, your body's going to respond. She says Goodenow left no doubt as to his interpretation of Cory's improvements. He literally told him, you've beat ALS, you're in recovery phase, now we just have to work on building your muscles.

She and Cory agreed to help promote the program. Goodenow paid them $2,000 a month to take calls from prospective clients. We're getting bombarded with phone numbers of all these people. Hey, can you talk to so and so about, you know, the moose jaw, what was your experience? Share your experience. She says last fall,

Corey's ALS symptoms accelerated again. His voice was too rough to get on the phone anymore. She called Goodnow to ask for advice. Not even a phone call back. And that's when I started to, you know, be like, something's not right here. So with regard to Corey,

you were able then through your treatment to stop the progression and then reverse the progression. Correct. And how's he doing now? He's not doing well. He died a lot of years ago. Corey passed away on October 21, 2024, about eight months after leaving the Moose Jaw program. Jennifer called Goodnow to break the news. I called, called and called and called, left urgent messages, nothing. Not even a phone

call back. Though Goodenow had not seen Corey for months prior to his death, he is certain of one thing. What he died from wasn't from ALS progression. His disease did not progress to his death. He died from other causes. That's a lie. That's a flat out lie. I was there when he died, I held his hand. I watched him die.

I used to be a professional race car driver. Corey's testimonial video remains on Goodenow's website. Because he's still a symbol of hope, because he actually defied the odds. Corey's testimonial video remains on Goodenow's website. You're saying that man's effort, you are basically pissing on his grave, Jeff. And it's really, really disturbing to me. It was Corey Mitchell's story that persuaded Michael Gieselman to sign up for Goodnow's program. Michael died four months after paying the entire bill up front. He was just being a sold-out bill of goods, and I just, I had to let him, I had to let

him. That's how he chose to spend his last days. Jeff Sando is now back in California living with the reality of his deterioration. Going for a walk with his family involves a specially equipped van and a high-tech wheelchair. He says he used Goodenow's plasmalogens faithfully for months. But after five months, I was just like, I was actually, it seemed like it was picking up pace, not slowing down. And it wasn't just me. Jeff said during his time in Moosejaw, he made several friends.

Everybody had declined pretty significantly. So how documented is that decline? Do they have evidence of their decline or is it just their opinion? Show me the evidence of the decline. The number of successes that we have is irrefutable. And we do document every single person that comes through our center. They

leave that center better than they came in. And that's just simply a fact. Earlier this year, I asked Health Canada about Dr. Goodenow and his plasmalogens. In a statement, the organization confirmed that his supplements have not been approved for sale in Canada. It said a recent investigation found his company was, quote, importing, advertising, and selling unauthorized natural health products. Health Canada says Goodenow's company has since made changes that it finds satisfactory. Goodenow says it was all just a misunderstanding. He says while companies can't import these products, individual customers are legally allowed to bring in up to a 90-day supply for themselves.

He says he and Health Canada have a great relationship. But Goodenow is not happy with CBC. All you're doing is Jerry Springer-level hype. That's not reporting. That is just saying, okay, let me sensationalize someone's personalized story. And you are actually preying on emotions of a very fragile community unnecessarily. The whole thing has been a roller coaster for Jeff Sando. It began with such hope. I thought I was going to come home and walk up those stairs from my garage in here.

I was going to be on the road to getting my normal life back. He's spending as much time as he can now with his wife and kids. This afternoon they're out for lunch. In between conversation his daughter feeds him. It's clear they have a familiar routine. He says he spent all that time and money in hopes that it was an investment. You know instead of two years with my kids I would have 15 20 years with my kids. years with my kids. So...

Yeah. Yeah. I get to see my grandchildren. I get to see my grandchildren. I get to see my grandchildren. I get to be able to walk my daughter down the aisle.

I don't know if I'll get to do any of those. I don't know if I'll get to do any of those. Sorry. Sorry. I don't know if I'll get to do any of those. Sorry. ["The Last Supper"] That documentary, Hard to Swallow, was produced by CBC investigative reporter Jeff Leo with help from CBC's audio documentary unit.

You've been listening to The Current Podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.