Testimonials About Reliv by Dr John Ong

Why I’ll be in RELIV forever!!!
By John Harold N. Ong, MD
Orthomolecular Medicine
PAGM

My wife, Dr. Earleen Ong, who also happens to be a doctor at a private medical center, gave birth to my daughter, Angelique Gabrielle “Arielle”, on April 12, 1995. Upon delivery, my daughter was assessed and was given an APGAR score of 4. The APGAR scoring is a practical form of clinical assessment of the newborn which evaluates the baby’s condition. It is recorded at one minute and then again at five minutes.

APGAR Score

SIGN SCORE (0),(1),(2)

A Appearance(Color)
(0)Blue; pale
(1)Body pink; Extremities blue
(2)Completely pink

P Pulse (Heart Rate)
(0)Absent
(1)Below 100
(2)Over 200

G Grimace (Slapping sole of foot or catheter in nose)
(0)No response
(1)Grimace (+)
(2)Cry, cough, or sneeze

A Activity Muscle Tone
(0)Limp
(1)Some flexion of extremities
(2)Active motion

R Respiration (Respiratory effort)
(0)Absent
(1)Slow; irregular
(2)Good strong cry


 Babies with a Score of 7 to 10 at 1 minute are considered VIGOROUS.
 Babies with a Score of 4 to 6 at 1 minute are considered MODERATELY DEPRESSED
 Babies with a Score of 0 to 3 at 1 minute are considered SEVERELY DEPRESSED


My daughter Arielle had, at 1 minute, pink body with blue extremities, slight grimace, a little flexion of extremities, an absent respiratory effort, and most alarming of all, a heart rate below 100. Resuscitation was initiated and only after 15 minutes were we sure that she was breathing spontaneously. Thus, at 1 minute, Arielle’s APGAR score is 4. Given this history at delivery, we were now contemplating about the future health and mental status of my daughter.

True enough, at 4 months, my daughter can’t even hold her head up. Normally, a child at 1 year of age, must be able to stand alone without support. We couldn’t even remember when Arielle crawled, what more, stand-alone. It seemed to be an eternity that we have waited for her to move normally according to her age! She was always drooling, had difficulties both in fine and gross motor skills, and at the age of 4, and had not spoken a word. The normal developmental milestone of a child goes like this;

1 month Regards
2 months Smiles
3 months Turns head
4 months Holds head
5 months Rolls over (trunk first)
6 months Transfers objects
7 months Sits briefly
8 months Creeps
9 months Pulls up
10 months Cruises
11 months Walk with support
12 months Stands alone

We brought Arielle to a developmentalist and she diagnosed at the age of 4 with GLOBAL MENTAL RETARDATION! That day, my wife and I saw our world crumble. I have never cried so much in my entire life! (Now that I’m writing about it, I can’t contain myself and tears just roll from my eyes!)

Back to reality… my wife and I could NOT and would NOT accept defeat! We followed all the recommendations. We sent Arielle to speech therapy, occupational and physical therapy, and each day, I saw myself paying 350 pesos to 600 pesos a day just to give my daughter a chance to survive in this world.

We felt that nothing was happening. We literally made our world revolve around my daughter. That’s why when my grant from a medical school from the United States came, I grabbed it for further studies. In this new field of medicine, I will learn how to detoxify and solve my daughter’s problem. And so I thought! I learned a lot there however. I learned how to look into cellular nutrition as a possible complimentary supportive treatment for both genetic and heredo-familial disease. I learned how to detoxify toxins from patients using the same toxic substance that they have been exposed too. But the sole reason for my further studies have not been met. I WANT TO MAKE MY CHILD, MY BEAUTIFUL CHILD, BECOME NORMAL!!!

After 2 years in training, I returned not confident enough that I have accomplished my goal. My daughter was then 6 years old. We have to decide where she must study. The recommendation is a special education school. Then came my angel, who happens to be none other than my father-in-law, Mr. Teodoro Seño. He was still a director of a multinational pharmaceutical company when he told me about the food supplement which seemed to be an answer for so many questions. He told me about RELIV!

Reliv? Never heard!!! As skeptical as I am for being in the medical field, I agreed to attend one of their meetings in Ortigas. It was Mrs. Rose Blancaflor (now like a mother to all of us) who was giving the presentation. I heard testimonies and stories. Stories that seemed possible yet so dramatic that I became more skeptical. As doctors, we want evidence-based data! I even want randomized clinical trials and I was asking my father-in-law to supply me with one. I was asking about their so-called bioavailability tests. I’ve probably asked about 2,000 questions from my father-in-law which he couldn’t answer. Then came the word “network marketing”! MY GOD!!! The more that I felt that this is NOT for me. When they explained that this is a food research and scientific company that only uses network marketing as its tool to give health and wealth to people, I was now telling my father-in-law that I wanted to go home and forget about it.

Now that I think about it, if I had walked out of that presentation, I would have also walked out from the sole reason why I was there in the first place… for my daughter’s sake. To appease my father-in-law, I signed in and got the Reliv products. We only had NOW, Fibrestore, Ultrim, Innergize, and ReversAge then. I studied and examined all the ingredients that we have been studying in the laboratory. How come I never heard about it in the States? Nevertheless, I started giving it to myself first.

I have had urolithiasis (kidney stones as well as stones in the urinary tract) for many years. The night I took my first scoop, I slowly felt flank pains and I was so sure that the product was not for me. Being a doctor, I told myself that I would challenge it to the point that I’ll stop when pain is unbearable and go consult my friend doctors to tell them that I was so gullible to believe about RELIV. After 3 days of on and off flank pains, it stopped and I urinated ground stones! I was stunned!

So I gave it to my mom who is diabetic, my father who had 4 episodes of stroke, my cousin who has asthma, my aunt who has arthritis, and to anyone I know who might need it. I took their blood chemistry exams before and after they took Reliv and I was amazed with the results.

Then came the decision to give it my daughter. My wife was against it for some time for we have not tried the product on a child. I reassured her that everything will be fine after giving her a kiss, I place a scoop in my daughter’s milk formula. I told my wife and yaya that everytime Arielle drinks her milk, they must incorporate NOW in the milk formula. I again turned to my wife and I told her that after a month and my daughter is having reactions with the product, I will terminate my membership and forget about RELIV. What do you know!!! In 3 weeks time, Arielle stopped drooling! I was ecstatic! But still, this was too early to tell. My wife who was the one more skeptical than I am, whispered to me that to halt the drooling is a triumph enough for us. I nodded in agreement. My daughter then had a gradual increase in weight. She began moving faster and was responding all the time to us with a smile. Then after 4 months into the product, Arielle walked to my wife and I in the living room, and said, “Dada, where you go?” My wife looked at me and we both started sobbing! My wife Earleen wouldn’t stop crying. Arielle was looking at us confused but that night, all the weight in my shoulders, all the pain in my body, and all the anxiety that we had, floated away like a bad dream.

Now, at the age of 8, Arielle is not in special education. She is not in any speech and occupational therapy. She’s in a regular school and has lots of friends. She is one of the top in her class and has excelled in her studies. Remember that she couldn’t walk nor run jump before? Well, now, she’s enrolled in ballet school and had her first recital last year. Am I proud father? You be! I’m the proudest father!!!

So when people ask me now, why I’m in Reliv, I quickly answer that I am in Reliv because God answered my prayer. “Reliv made me believe in hope again. It gave my daughter her life back.” And we, the entire family, will be taking Reliv products forever… and ever… and ever!

“When sometimes we doubt, let’s look at the past to teach us the future.”

“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food!


--- Hippocrates, Father of Modern Medicine