We are now at a point in this story where things really start to get exciting. {Part One told my early memories of Dad and his work. Part Two took us through some dark and difficult times.}

Once a year, we would receive an “Aarcon Report.” (Aarcon handles the financial side of Dad’s research). The “Aarcon Report” was typically a single page, in which Dad reported on how his work was progressing and developing. He would report on various Vitamin X candidates that had  been tested and falsified, showing survival curves of mice, etc. We always read the report with interest and sometimes spent a little family time around the breakfast or dinner table, conjecturing about what would happen if Grandpa/Dad ever solved this puzzle. How would the world change if aging were ever cured? Could aging ever be cured? Would God actually allow that to happen?

Mostly though, life moved on, our children grew, our family grew, and every year life became more demanding.  We didn’t spend much time at all thinking about the what-ifs of Dad’s research. We also didn’t talk to anyone else much about it, since trying to explain it was tricky. It might require a series of blog posts to explain it properly. 🙂

To give you a feel for the year-by-year progress of Dad’s work on the aging quest, here are some brief excerpts from the annual “Aarcon Reports,” picking up with 2012.

“Aarcon Report” for 2012 (Published Feb. 2013)- We began testing a family of seventeen substances, each a potential vitamin X candidate, in September of 2010. … This experiment involved lab care for more than two hundred seventy mice — a fairly large undertaking for our modest facilities. This experiment has now nearly run to completion, …

It is now clear that all members of this set of related compounds are somewhat toxic to mice, cutting normal lifespans nearly in half. … It is thus conclusive that this family of compounds does not contain vitamin X.

“Aarcon Report” for 2013 (Published Feb. 2014)-“completion of the [Noah’s Flood] book demanded completion of some fairly grueling computer calculations to quantify certain aspects of the Flood.”

“Meanwhile, the quest after new vitamin X candidates continues at the present time with a candidate of considerable interest currently under investigation.”

“Aarcon Report” for 2014 (Published Feb. 2015)- “Five vitamin X candidates from two families of compounds are currently under investigation in the rodent lab. These candidates are the best yet– as they should be. Much of science involves trial and error. But each “error” teaches us something, improving the next trial’s probability of success.”

This brings us to the part of the story when things began to change, totally out of the blue, as far as we were concerned. On January 26, 2016, we got an email from Mom.

“After watching for a few weeks, and Dad going off of the medicine for about a month, it appears that Dad is in remission. He can walk around the block without his bike, can get up off of the floor on his own, and no longer feels exhausted after taking a walk with me using his bike. His disease is the remitting type, but this is the first time in 8 years that this has happened.  This appears to be very unusual; to have the disease for so long and then to go into remission.  I believe in miracles!!! No more treatments! We no longer receive the medicine and are in a watch and see mode. This is such a blessing!”

We rejoiced! We were amazed, and how we praised the Lord. After all these years, Dad’s natural strength had returned? No more treatments? We wondered if this remittance of the disease would last. I also wondered if maybe there was a little bit more to the story than had been told in the email.

I wrote back and half jokingly said, “He hasn’t been taking any vitamin X, has he???”

Mom, in an uncharacteristic manner for her, did not directly answer my question.

“Dad has (cautiously) taken various vitamin X candidates over the years, and there may be a connection there.  But CIDP is naturally capricious, so while this may be due to vitamin X, it may also merely be a temporary reprieve having nothing to do with vitamin X.  We really hope there is a connection as this has been a long quest and we feel ourselves running out of time.”

Could we assume from her answer that yes, he was testing a Vitamin X candidate, and now his ‘incurable’ disease had gone away? It certainly sounded like it. We all wondered about it. We didn’t hear anything else for a little while.

“Aarcon Report” for 2015 (Published Feb. 2016)- “This latest conceptual breakthrough suggests that we may now be very near to the end of this long quest. …

Meanwhile, I am currently designing experiments and building apparatus to learn how this second set of compounds might have been produced and distributed around the globe prior to the Flood. This requires synthesis in the ARP chemistry lab of the compounds of interest and their potential environmental precursors. Once the compounds have been synthesized, measurements will be made to reveal how they would behave in the oceans and in the atmosphere, and what chemical reactions they might be expected to undergo in Earth’s environment.”

2017 dawned. We had absolutely no inkling of what an amazing year it was going to be as far as Vitamin X was concerned.

On March 7, 2017, in context of a friendly email conversation, Dad casually mentioned, “I am now all but certain I have found Vitamin X.” All but certain? How unusual for Dad to say such a thing. I knew he would never make that statement lightly. What did this mean? Would this whole aging/vitamin thing actually move from theory (on Dad’s part) and conjecture (on our part) to reality? Would this substance become known and available to the public? What would happen if people actually stopped getting old? Steve and I stayed up late one night talking about all these questions. Little did we know how many late night conversations would be coming our way over the next year.

I pestered Dad with emails full of questions. He kindly took time to answer me. I asked him directly if he thought it was Vitamin X that had healed his CIDP. He replied, “My CIDP began to clear up after I had been taking the current vitamin X candidate for about three and a half weeks.  This followed something like eleven years of CIDP, so it seems probably not coincidental.  Theoretical considerations corroborate the supposition that it is probably not coincidental.”

[I believe that at least one reason God allowed Dad to suffer with this disease for 11 years was because it was going to have such a key part to play in the discovery of the vitamin. It gave Dad some quick and compelling evidence that he was finally on the right track with the right compound. This possible compound was being corroborated strongly by theory, but having this personal experience was a nice addition to the other evidence that was beginning to pile up.]

“Aarcon Report” for 2016 (Published March 2017)- My main responsibility in the present report is to communicate to you that I am reasonably sure I have now correctly identified vitamin X. …

I first identified as a candidate the compound I now believe to be vitamin X back in September of 2014. By late November, 2015, tests with mice had revealed no signs of toxicity, and the theoretical case for this candidate had become so strong that I felt I should begin testing it on myself. …

It appears to me for this and other reasons (which I cannot share until patent has been applied for) that I have found vitamin X.

We made the trek to visit Mom and Dad and other family in March of 2017. This was the first time we had seen Dad since the healing of his disease. As the cousins ran wild through the house, we talked and talked about this discovery and all things related to it.

We squeezed into Dad’s tiny office and listened intently as he showed us the most recent results of his research. He had taped several graphs on the wall. Using known scientific principles, Dad had been able to explain the biblical lifespan data with mathematical precision. Dad’s computer model, working from how the vitamin had been lost from the Earth’s environment because of the Flood, had produced a graph of lifespans versus time that matched up exactly to the biblical lifespan data. The mystery of why people had lived so much longer before the Flood had, at long last, been solved. It was all due to a previously unknown vitamin.

I watched Steve, who had (understandably) taken the Aging research mostly with a grain of salt over the years, now standing there with his attention completely fixed on that model. He listened to every word Dad said. Light bulbs were coming on for all of us during that brief, illustrated discussion and explanation of why lifespans had changed the way they had. That model posted on the wall of Dad’s office was remarkable. It still is. Have a look for yourself. 🙂 [The lifespan data and model match can now be seen in the Aging book.]

At one point during the visit, Steve went out to help the guys load a yearling bull onto a trailer. Later, he told me, shaking his head, “You should have seen your Dad practically leap over that fence. I couldn’t believe it. He is nothing like he was when he was suffering from that disease.” We also observed Dad’s skin, which had been plagued with eczema from his youth. It looked smooth and healthy. Was this the vitamin visibly at work?

We learned that Dad was writing a book about the discovery. We learned that Mom had been trying out the new vitamin herself for a few months; she shared what positive effects she had noticed, such as greatly improved sleep, and balanced her report with some things that had not improved up to that point, such as her arthritis.

We returned home again talking non-stop about all of this on the 12 hour trip. Where was this all going to lead?

In late June of 2017, Mom texted a picture of a paper manuscript.  She said, “Look what I am proofreading!” I zoomed in on the screen so I could see the typed title. “Aging: Cause and Cure.” I rushed to show Steve and the older kids. As a family, we were again kind of incredulous. Was this really happening? Apparently Dad had finished the book. He was now actually proposing both the cause of and the cure for aging.

On July 3, 2017, Dad mailed the PPA (preliminary patent application) to the US Patent and Trademark Office. At that point, he no longer had to keep the identity of the compound a secret. Later that day we received a copy of the Aging book to proofread ourselves. [The Aging book is now available to the public as a free download.] Steve stayed up over half the night reading it. After all these years, we finally were going to see the mysterious Vitamin X identified. The next morning, at our local 4th of July parade, a tired Steve and I kept looking around at all the people in the park, thinking, can this be real? This unsuspecting world is sure in for a major surprise if this is all really true. Joshua and I started reading the Aging book that day, in between other Independence Day festivities.

We kept asking each other, “What is it called again? ‘Methylphosphonic acid’? How do you even pronounce that?”♥

Stay tuned for Part Four!