Retired Tampa doctor Vincent Tedone perks up when he talks about his daughter Deanna.

"Everything you say about her has to be a superlative, because that’s what she is,” Tedone said.

Deanna Tedone-Gage started to not feel like herself late in 2007. She had trouble going down stairs. An avid runner, she stumbled over her own feet on a regular run. She thought she was tired, worn out.

Two years later, the Tampa woman was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Doctors said there wasn’t much they could do for her.

"It was really disheartening, to say the least,” Tedone said. “Basically, go home and die."

Deanna had just gotten married. She had graduated from law school. She said she had her whole life ahead of her and couldn’t give up. She saw multiple neurologists and got the same answer.

"They all sang the same song,” Tedone-Gage said. “Two to five years to live and no hope."

Tedone, a former orthopedic surgeon, had other plans.

"I said to my daughter, ‘I’m not going to accept this,’ ” he said. “And she said she doesn’t accept it either.”

Tedone and his Tedone-Gage went to work. He channeled his medical training and poured over medical journals and research. She tried every theory.

"I was absolutely the guinea pig,” she said.

Through trial and error, the doctor and his daughter discovered a combination of supplements that scaled back her symptoms. Her trembles stopped. The cramps that woke her up in the middle of the night silently screaming subsided. It was working.

"The body is a beautiful, beautiful organism,” Tedone said. “It can heal itself. We just need to give it what it needs.”

The process is now called the Deanna Protocol. It’s a series of supplements taken multiple times a day. These supplements are products found in healthy individuals, but are lacking in ALS patients.

The crux of ALS is nerve death. These nerves control the movement of the muscles and, as they begin to die, the muscles weaken and waste away. Eventually, those with ALS die of respiratory failure.

Tedone says the Deanna Protocol prolongs cell life. The longer it takes for the cells to die, the slower the disease progresses. With a slower progress, symptoms are controlled.

“When you know the muscle symptoms are controlled, you know that the nerve cells are not in danger of dying because they’re getting enough energy,” Tedone said.

The Tedones had a breakthrough and needed to share it with the world. They started the nonprofit organization Winning the Fight to share the Protocol with other ALS patients around the world.

“If it takes my father and me, the loyal guinea pig, to champion something to help others, I’m OK with it,” Deanna said.