Promising Cure

Just the other day I was chit-chatting with a fellow Rotarian, Immediate Past Secretary, Dr Ravi. We were talking about heart diseases. He said it's strange that the Chinese are generally blessed with huge arteries whereas the Indians have relatively smaller arteries. Therefore when the Chinese have, say, 80% - 90% clogged arteries, a lot of the times they are in time for medical help. But when the Indians have that same degree of blockage, they will most probably not make it. I am not sure if this was based on his own clinical observations or from a madical literature.

On the other hand, the Chinese are prone to many kinds of cancer, e.g. colon, liver etc. Comparatively lesser number of the Indians suffer from these cancers. He said the "big guy up there" has a way to balance things up.

I don't know about the Indians, but as far as my family is concerned, there is a lot of truth in what Dr Ravi said. My grandmother died of liver cancer at the age of 65. Actually she had cervical cancer which she fought for quite a long time. The doctors recommended surgery at an early stage, but my grandmother refused. Some old people wouldn't go under the knife no matter what you tell them.

Instead, she went for the so-called traditional methods for healing. This sinsei, that sinsei; this bomoh, that bomoh. In the end, she couldn't stand the pain and agreed to go for the surgery.

By the time she agreed to the surgery, the doctors gave a 50%-50% chance of survival. Surprisingly the surgery was successful after all. However, her condition continued to deteriorate after the surgery. Upon further checks, the doctors realised that she had liver cancer too. Well, it was too late to do anything, and grandma died about 3 months after the surgery.

Last year, my niece died of cancer at the age of 21. It started on her left cheek. She went through a series of surgeries to remove the cancer and to repair her face. But a few months later, it was found that the cancer had spread into her brain. She died after fighting for about a year.

It was during those few months when my niece was fighting for her life that we heard of someone from Sarawak who reportedly could cure cancer by using herbal cocktails. He claimed to have cured many people. But by the time we found him, it was already too late. When my brother, Dennis, told me about this Sarawakian healer, I dismissed the claim of a cure for cancer. I remember telling Dennis that if indeed he had the cure for cancer he'd be a multi-millionaire by now.

But now that I have found this article, maybe there is hope for a cure for cancer after all. 70% success rate on an "incurable" disease sounds fantastic to me. Perhaps it won't be immediately available yet—many more clinical tests will have to be performed first—but who knows, in a couple of years from now, cancer might no longer be such a dreadful disease. At least we have now reached human testing stage, so I consider the vaccine as very promising. I am also glad to note that we have found a more useful purpose for tobacco.

With any luck, I might be able to see the cure for cancer during my lifetime. I hope so...