Category: Success Story

For video presentation, please click this link: https://www.facebook.com/chris.teo.96/videos/856155349414412

Erik Peper, PhD and Angelika Sadar, MA wrote this article Grandmother Therapy: A Common-Sense Approach to Health and Wellness https://peperperspective.com/2024/07/24/grandmother-therapy-a-common-sense-approach-to-health-and-wellness/.

The lead write Erik Peper is a professor at the Institute for Holistic Health Studies San Francisco State University. Let me reproduce some parts of the paper which I believe apply to us living in this part of the world.

• In today’s fast-paced world, college students and young adults often struggle with various health issues. From anxiety and depression to ADHD and epilepsy, these challenges can significantly impact their daily lives. But what if the solution to many of these problems lies in something as simple as “Grandmother Therapy”?
• Grandmother Therapy is all about going back to basics and establishing healthy lifestyle habits. It’s the common-sense approach that our grandmothers might have suggested: regular sleep patterns, balanced nutrition, increased social connections, and regular physical activity.

The Problem: Many college students:

• Skip breakfast before their first class
• Rely on fast food and sugary stimulants
• Have irregular sleep schedules
• Spend excessive time on gaming and social media

The Medical Approach: Often, the quick solution is medication – swallow those magic drugs!!!!!

• Depression? Take antidepressants.
• Insomnia? Use sleeping pills.
• Anxiety? Try anti-anxiety medication.
• ADHD? Prescribe Ritalin or similar drugs.

While these treatments may help manage symptoms, they often overlook the underlying lifestyle factors contributing to these issues.

The Grandmother Therapy Approach:

1. Establish regular sleep patterns
2. Adopt healthy eating habits
3. Increase social connections
4. Incorporate regular physical activity
5. Reduce gaming and social media use

. Summary

 By addressing fundamental lifestyle factors, we can often improve our health and well-being significantly. Remember, sometimes the most effective solutions are the simplest ones.

The Challenges of Simplicity: While Grandmother Therapy may seem straightforward, its simplicity can make it challenging to implement. It requires commitment and a willingness to change long-standing habits.

Implement many LifeStyle Changes at once: Recommending one change at the time is logical; however, participants will more likely experience rapid benefits and are more motivated to continue when they change multiple lifestyle factors at once.

Call to Action: Are you struggling with health issues? Try implementing some aspects of Grandmother Therapy in your life. Implement changes and see how they impact your overall well-being.

Ella is doing well. And she is taking the herbs, and of course NO chemo. Let me reproduce some of the e-mails she wrote us over the years.

30 August 2019 – With Ella and Peter in Singapore

14 May 2020: after twelve years.

It seems so long ago when we last met … it was a get together for all of us and so lovely seeing Irene and family.

You must be so proud of your grandsons … Chris I have read all the books you gave me and they are fantastic. So easy for the lay person to understand and full of great information. Your passion shines through each page and your knowledge is priceless.

As I have mentioned before, it is so hard to educate the people here … It is much easier to pop a pill than to take the time to understand what your body needs to survive. You must see this all the time, especially from those in the

western world.

We are into winter now and feeling the cold … I love rugging up and taking a 4 km walk along the cliffs where we live with so much wild life to see … I am at my happiest when I am with Mother nature. I know you both are too.

Anyway, keep up the good work as the world needs people as you. After reading all the stories of your patients and how they found wellness, thanks to your dedication on helping them to heal. It is a great feeling to help those who look outside the square when given a cancer diagnosis and with guidance take on their own healing to wellness. You and Im must see these many times.

Sending love and blessings and keep forwarding the emails. Until we meet again, Hugs

xx Ella xx

May 2023 – Almost 14 years after her diagnosis, Ella sent us this note.

We are glad that we are able to help Ella in her time of need. We are even more happy and grateful to the Almighty to see her again in Singapore – so well and full of life. There are a few things we can learn from Ella.

1. Patients have choices or options.

You choose what you believe in and live with the consequences of your choice – for good or for bad. There is no point in trying to point fingers at others when things go wrong. Remember, it was your choice.

Ella knew what she wanted. She empowered herself well ahead of time about what cancer really is and what chemo could do to her. She was not blind when she made her choice.

• She was right, the doctor was wrong!

Ella said she wanted to prove her doctor was wrong! Good to have something to look forward to, a wish in life, so to say. At CA Care we have seen such predictions proven wrong most of the time. But let us not blame the doctors. They only say things based on what they know or have been taught in medical school or while under practical training. And that is all there is to it. I have since realized about the tight system or box that they are brought up in.

Patients who choose to go into the box with them have a limited view about the well-known limited choices of

surgery, chemo or radiation. Get out of the box and you see a totally different view for your problem. When we met Ella again in Penang and then Singapore (twelve years later), she had proven her doctor wrong many times over!

• Quality life.

I have posed this question to Ella when she came to visit us about a year after taking the herbs. Given a choice – which

one would you choose? Do chemo and live for two-and-a-half years OR have a solid one-year life of happiness without chemo?

Ella took a calculated risk or gambled with her life and she won. She had lived longer than what her doctor had predicted. Even with chemo she was told she would have only two and half years – and remember, most of the time would probably be spent going in and out of the hospital. But with the herbs, she suffered no side effects and she had lived a good life.

What else can you ever bargain for? And what additional proof do you need in order to believe?

• Positive attitude.

Ella was so lively and positive in her attitude. That is the way it should be. Do what you have to do first, to help

yourself and then be happy with it. Live a positive life. Enjoy life to the fullest – busy being a grandmother of six kids, and at the same time being a wife running a happy family.

Many patients say they have positive attitudes. Saying is one thing, practising it is another. Ella is not a lamb easily led to the slaughter. She worked for her healing.

Actually, we knew Ella way before she had cancer. She is a health activist in Australia and she has been helping cancer patients as well, but not to the same extent as we do in CA Care due to the limitations imposed by the laws of her country.

Christmas time is party time with all the so-called great and wonderful food. Ella enjoyed the celebration but chose to stick to her healthy diet. Many patients don’t have that willpower. One lung patient said to me: Oh, the Hari Raya – we went home to our kampong (village) and I “tak tahan” (cannot stand) seeing those foods. So, I ate some, here and there. I suffered after I came home.

• Don’t be a kiasu.

Ella is not a kiasu (afraid-to-lose-want-to-win all-the-time) type. Kiasu people like to ask a lot of questions but it is

no use – waste of time, because they don’t really believe in what we do. When they face a little problem they run away!

The herbs have to be boiled – that’s a big chore! The herbs do not taste good, that is also unbearable to the kiasu.

Our therapy is not easy to follow. It is not for any Tom, Dick and Harry. It is not for the faint hearted either. Patients need to be brave and be fully committed to find their own healing. There is no magic bullet. It requires a change in lifestyle, diet and attitude towards life.

We can show you the way, but you have to travel that road yourself. For that reason, it is a pleasure and our privilege to be able to help such a person like Ella – not a kiasu. We share the joy of her healing.

This 6-part article In remembrance of Stephen Taylor is one of the few long articles that I have written for our website. You may be wondering why!This is because I feel that there are many important lessons we can learn from Steve’s experiences. That is, if you want to read and learn. But if you are not interested to know and learn, then this article is meaningless. So what? You would say, he is already dead. Why waste time reading a dead man’s story? Sad.

Before I go further, let me remind you clearly and loudly. We in CA Care are not anti-doctors or anti-modern medicine. I have stated this point since we started CA Care some 27 years ago!

• If there is something wrong with you, my advice is always to go and see your doctor and find out what is really wrong with you. Don’t go to the alternative practitioners or Chinese sinseh for a diagnosis.

• If you have cancer, go and see an oncologist and ask what he/she can do for you. The gold standard of cancer treatment is surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy or immunotherapy. After listening to your doctor, you have to decide for yourself what you want to do. It must be your shot – don’t let others around you or your doctor “dictate” what you have to do. Reach out to your Inner Being to know what you want to do to help yourself.

If you need more help and are willing to read, ask your computer. These days, your computer can give you many answers. If you are still not satisfied and need an alternative view of what to do, you are welcome to consult us. Again, I say – we are not anti-doctors even though our views are often at odd with your doctors.

1. Steve’s initial stand was: No to Medical Treatment.

In this case, Steve at the beginning, did not want to go for medical treatment at all. He knew what it was like some years ago when he had prostate cancer. He lived many years after the initial hormonal treatment that failed him and he subsequently went on to find healing without undergoing further medical treatment. But that was prostate cancer. When he was diagnosed with salivary gland cancer, it was a different ball game altogether.

2. No Magic Bullet, Healing Take Times.

Almost all cancer patients who come to see expect a magic cure. No, I am sorry I cannot cure your cancer. There is no magic bullet for cancer. That is my experience. You need to learn how to live with your cancer and “cure” yourself. Others around you can help but ultimately it is you and you alone who determines the outcome of your healing.

Taking herbs for one, two or three month and expecting the tumour to go away is madness. And if there is anyone on earth who claims that he/she can deliver such magic cure, know that he/she could just be equally insane. There is no instant cure. Healing takes time.

3. Healing of cancer is not only about the tumour. Patient’s mindset and personal attitude are equally important.

In my 27 years of experience dealing with cancer, I realized that I can only help 30% of those who come and see me. The remaining 70% just cannot be helped. After talking to patients for a few minutes, I could roughly predict if I would be able to help them with their problem or not. 

Healing cancer is not just focusing on the tumour, it is about healing the whole body – both physical and mental. Your personal attitude and mindset play a very significant role in determining the direction and outcome of your effort to heal yourself.

The common attitude most people have is to fight with the cancer,  wanting to win in the war against cancer. Over the years I have come to understand that in any war no one wins! Turn on the news and see what happened to Iraq and now Ukraine! War, fight and see what happened to the ordinary folks? What you see on the screen (and the reality on the ground) is mass destruction. That is what war is – misery and destruction. Is this not be the same when you rage a war in your body against your own cancer?

I have come to realize that it is better to learn how to live with your cancer than fight with it. This is a tall order. Not everyone can do that.

Many patients come to me with these mental attitudes:

• My doctor said this, my doctor said that. Yes, my doctor knows best.

Read what some honest medical experts say:

In an address to students at the Harvard Medical School, the Dean, Dr. Burwell said:

• Half of what we are going to teach you is wrong, and half of it is right. Our problem is that we don’t know which half is which.

Listen to what Professor Jerome Groopman of Harvard Medical School said:

Every morning Steve looked at  his face in the mirror. With each passing week the tumour was still there! To him it was growing bigger and bigger! For prostate cancer he could not see what was going on inside him – so it was not scary. But for parotid cancer it was a nightmare every passing day. So, it needs a “brave heart” with a strong mindset to say, I shall live with it.

• It is natural for all patients to react by saying I must go for treatment immediately. I must destroy the cancer before it starts to spread all over the body.Yes, I understand that.

But listen to what some medical doctors themselves said:

• Some patients come to us with the belief that doctors use scientific, proven method to cure cancer. Other methods are just hocus pocus, not scientifically proven, etc. I can only say this – if you know enough science you will know that the accepted dogma of follow the science could just be a “bias” representation of the truth.

Instead of debating whether what you are doing is scientific or not scientific – proven or not proven, read what these authors said:

• In my emails of 3 September 2022, Steve and I had many exchanges on this matter (See Part 3). The use of herbs – where is your proof? Your statistics? Herbal therapy could be just a baloney (foolish, deceptive or nonsense)!

I don’t wish to defend that remark. If you believe me, you believe. If you don’t believe what we do, go and find someone else whom you can trust and can help you.

There seems to be the impression that Chris Teo is saying that medical treatments are totally ineffective. No, no need to throw such brickbat at me. Almost all patients who came to see me for help have undergone medical treatments and they failed – given up. So all the cases I see and talk about are failed medical cases. That is the reality and truth. Those who succeeded or are helped by medical treatments do not come and tell me their stories or success. There is no reason for them to come and see me. We are not running a competition here.

I believe that learning from failures is the key to every success. That is if you want to take time to learn. That is the reason why I spend lots of my time writing stories of my patients. It is my hope that by sharing these stories you can learn and avoid the path that lead you to your early demise. You don’t have to believe me if you think that these case studies that I wrote are just fakes or cooked-up and are not backed by statistical data.

• In dealing with cancer patients, I come to realize that strong faith in Spirituality is important for anyone to keep calm and have peace of mind. This is an important ingredient of healing.

Read what Dr. Allan Hamilton, neurosurgeon of University of Arizona said:

• Many patients view cancer as a “curse” or a “punishment”. How many of us dare to see cancer is a “blessing” or a “wake-up” call?

4. Surgery – The Only Way To Make The Tumour Disappears Immediately.

When Steve wrote me, I could not offer much. This type of cancer is rare. In my 27 years helping cancer patients, I encountered only 5 to 6 cases of such case. So I can’t say much.

When Steve at last decided to go for surgery, I agreed with him. Well, he thought I was pulling his leg or was fed with his ramblings. No, I was just being honest. If you want the tumour to disappear “magically” within a day, then go and get it removed by the knife. This is a fact – you cannot dispute that.

However, my role was to warn Steve about the possible side effects of the surgery and the possible sufferings after the procedure. I always remember this saying: The operation is a success but the patient died. Read what the internet says about this quotation – very interesting!

5. The best surgeon, best equipment and the best hospital. What more can you ask for?

Every doctor whom Steve consulted gave the same advice. Go for surgery. They even helped him identify the best surgeon in Bangkok – that means the best in the whole of Thailand. The surgery could be done in the best hospital using the best equipment ever found in the country. So this tipped the scale. Steve decided to change from his earlier stance on surgery. He was in the hands of the best expert available in the country. So why not? Steve said no one in his/her sane mind would reject such an opportunity. That is what ALL patients want to hear.

Yes, I did not object to that logic. Go for the best and let the best take care of you. Furthermore, this expert had handled such case every week! So he surely has vast experiences and expertise. This is an opportunity of a life time!

6. Surgery prolongs life and promote quality of life.

This is the “honey pot” hung in front of all patients. Steve was given the impression that a surgery done by an expert with experience would have a very high possibility of living 4 to 6 years, compared to say 2 years when doing nothing. He also understood that surgery would not cure his cancer. But then there is another bonus – after the treatment the patient can have a better quality of life.

Attractive reward outcomes. Which patient would not accept or dare to reject such offer?

7. Let us face reality.

I started life as an academic – teaching and doing search in the university. I became a full professor.  I know what science is and what statistical data are and what they can be used for. Let us not use the excuse that it is not proven or it is not scientific as a smoke screen for our own bias or ignorance. What is important to ordinary folks – you and me – is real life reality not what the science text books say.

In the case of Steve, he was attracted and was convinced that surgery – which is a scientifically proven and globally accepted procedure –  can make the tumour in his cheek go away safely. Yes, he was absolutely correct on that score if that is all that you want.

Steve was told by the expert that with surgery his life can be prolonged by 4 to 6 years, compared to say 2 years if you do nothing. In theory yes, that is correct too. But also know that in real life situations you may be dead wrong and that your prediction could just be based on your own “professional blindness” or bias?

Over the years I have come across many cases and have shown (I don’t want to use the word “prove”) that such prognosis is just WRONG. To illustrate my point, study these 3 cases below:

Now to PROVE my point, let us examine what ACTUALLY happened to Steve.

• The expert doctor said: With surgery your life can be prolonged by 4 to 6 years. If no surgery only 2 years.
• What is the reality? Steve died 3 months 13 days after the surgery. Where is the promised years?
• Question: Before the surgery, Steve was on and off the herbs for about 3 months. He did not die. But he died, 3 months after surgery. What if he did NOTHING and did not go for that surgery? Would he have died after 3 months?

What other proof do you want or what statistical data do you want? Oh, certain people may say Steve is just unlucky! Okay – what other reasons can we give to justify this tragedy?

• Another question: The expert doctor said after surgery, Steve could lead a better quality life. Really?
• What is the reality? Make your own judgment after reading again what Steve went through after being discharged from the hospital until his death.

Let me end by citing a short conversation I had with an expert after my auntie had a very massive metastasis in her lungs. The doctor suggested that my aunty undergo chemotherapy immediately.

My question: Doc., why do you want her to undergo chemotherapy? We cannot expect to cure her with that treatment.

Doctor: It is just to promote her quality of life.

My response: Doc., let us be frank – between you and me. We all know that the side effects of chemotherapy would be terrible. Don’t you think so? If you agree that chemo is not like taking a walk in the park, can you be very honest with me — how could chemo ever promote her quality of life? It would be hell all the way.

Doctor: Yes, I totally agree with you.

My auntie declined chemotherapy and she went on to live for many more months after that, before she died peacefully one morning. It was a good death without chemotherapy. No regrets.

Part 1

https://youtu.be/XE_nyzhJANE

Part 2

https://youtu.be/FAgaAEOfKGg