Whitney Dafoe Updates

[wingate]

Wow, I feel really happy for him. It must feel incredible to regain that ability.

In my head I kept telling him “don’t overdo it!” as I was watching. But, that’s something he knows as well as the rest of us.

@Yann04 - big hugs to you.

 

[BrightCandle]

In my head I kept telling him “don’t overdo it!” as I was watching. But, that’s something he knows as well as the rest of us.

I could see his hands shaking at the end there, I think he may of overdone it quite a bit unfortunately.

It is amazing to hear his voice after all these years and to see a bit of emotion in his eyes.

 

[Varda]

It’s been two years since I could speak.

Two years is such a long time… I’ve only experienced being non-verbal for days during bad PEM. It must be so hard for you, I can’t imagine.


Whitney has made incredible progress lately, first eating and now speaking. May 2026 bring him even more improvement!

I hope he will share with the community what it is that helped him, when he feels ready to do that.

 

[ChronicallyOverIt]

Mentions that the born free protocol probably helped him {{unfortunately?}}.

Thread here:

Thread 'The Born Free Protocol'

Jul 8, 2024

There seems to be substantial, growing interest in this alt-med protocol among pwME if my Twitter is anything to go by—and not just among the people most into alt-med. So it seems worth being informed of.

The Born Free protocol is the creation of Joshua Leisk. Here’s how he introduced himself on s4me a couple years ago:

I'm more of an anomaly. I'm a fully recovered CFS/ME sufferer with a strong background in IT and and interest in bioinformatics. I "retired" at 38 and got bored. I like puzzles, pathways and systems. This was a puzzle that had bothered me for a few decades, so I thought...

• jonathan_h
• Replies: 55
• Forum: Other treatments

• 

The borne free website has crashed do to significant traffic, most likely do to the X post and the Reddit post outlining borne free and Whitney’s improvement.

I’d been interested if Ron Davis’s take on the protocol. This is is causing quite a stir in my local groups, with some saying that he must endorse it if his son is doing it.

 

[DHagen]

I hope he will share with the community what it is that helped him, when he feels ready to do that.

He has, and, as the other posts here note, it is rather troubling.

From the video:

I don't know how my stomach has started working again or how I started being able to talk again. It is most likely from Joshua Leisk’s Born Free Protocol. I started his protocol right before these changes started to happen and nothing else was changed in my medication or physical routine at that time, so I feel confident, but not certain his protocol is responsible.

 

[DHagen]

Active Reddit thread (as of evening 18 Dec 2025) with Whitney himself commenting on and defending the Born Free protocol:



Whitney also claims that Ron Davis believes the "biochemistry in the protocol" is "brilliant." There are going to be a LOT of people jumping into this.

 

[Holinger]

I read the whole reddit page and found it pretty troubling. Great that Whitney is able to engage but some of the reasoning is a bit weird.

 

[Trish]

I wish Whitney well but I also wish he would be more careful about attributing his improvement to an unevidenced protocol.

I hope this doesn't turn into another situation where a prominent ME/CFS sufferer becomes the poster person for unevidenced treatment and thousands end up being harmed.

We have heard in the past that some people have done very badly on the protocol, and the version we saw of it when we looked a few years ago made no sense.

I can also think of some other pwME who have improved significantly without doing the protocol, and been scrupulously careful not to publlicise whatever treatment they were testing at the time they improved - understanding that it could just as logically be coincidence.

OMF has lots of money. If they think the protocol makes biological sense, the responsible thing would be to set up clinical trials, not do a social media blitz.

 

[Braganca]

Odd too because they attributed his previous improvement to Abilify. So it would be an obvious hypothesis that he is on an upward trend over time recently, and this is unrelated to either treatment.

 

[OrganicChilli]

OMF has lots of money. If they think the protocol makes biological sense, the responsible thing would be to set up clinical trials, not do a social media blitz.

I wish he'd just stay off his phone for a while.

And OMF should ideally distance themselves from him if this family can't tell apart fact from fiction. Maybe it's time for Ron Davis to retire and let other people, who are less emotionally involved, continue his work.

 

[Yann04]

I remember Whitney writing he cycled dozens of supplements and drugs for years hoping that one would make him better.
There’s perhaps a possibility the one that was being cycled at the time of recovery gets the kudos whether or not there is any causality.

 

[Kitty]

The entanglement between the Davis family and OMF looks unfortunate when things like this are the result.

Whitney's entitled to say whatever he likes, but given the links, he could do with a friend to remind him that the human story is the most important and the most interesting part. Not theories about what changed, or why.