Allopathy or Ayurveda or ??

Just before we left Gurgaon for Chennai, Krishnan had a severe stomach infection. Whatever he would eat, he would throw up and he was in really bad pain. When we consulted our GP Dr. Nehal Vora, she prescribed some medicines and then when the situation didn’t get better, she asked us to get an ultrasound done to rule out any blockage. Everything turned out right and then she diagnosed the problem for what it was and prescribed the right antibiotic. In just two days, Krishnan was completely back to normal. Allopathic medicines came to the rescue. The modern scientific equipments like the ultrasound came in handy to make the right diagnosis.

I am undergoing the Menopause phase and it has several related health issues. Menopause has been happening to women since the time human beings started walking on Earth. Its just nature’s way of ensuring that young women are able to carry the burden of giving birth and older women stop reproducing. In the allopathic method of treatment, I will have to undergo a scan, pap smear and maybe some hormone replacement therapy. I am unable to understand why…. I get the point that women need to ensure their diet is appropriate during this time, that they do enough exercise to not lose the bone density and nature will take its course. I still wanted to make sure that I am doing all the right things and so I went to an Ayurvedic doctor in Chennai, Dr. Harini Radhakrishnan (Kesari Clinic). She just felt my pulse and checked my weight, asked me about my diet and gave me some ideas on how to eat, and what to avoid. She then gave me some ayurvedic tonics and told me not to get too fussed if my periods stopped within a couple of months.

The medicines cost nearly nothing but the effect on me was tremendous. I felt better overall and I could see that the walking and other exercises were making a difference whereas earlier, the needle just didn’t move. Then a few weeks back, I ended up having a few patches of rashes on one of my thighs and the patches were so bad that Krishnan was scared just looking at them. So we went to Dr. Harini again – it was also related to the Menopause and she gave me a balm to apply …. the rashes were gone in a day!!!!! Finally we went to her a third time because we ran out of the tonics that she had given me. Here’s where the magic happened. While we were talking to her, Krishnan coughed once, just once and she says “you have phlegm and a cough coming on, I will give you a cough syrup that will take care of it.” Krishnan was stunned because he started his career as a Medical Representative and he had never seen any doctor figure out a cough that quickly when even he didn’t know it.

Krishnan did end up having a cough for two days and that cough syrup cured him fully in 2 to 3 days. We were going to Indore to conduct a training program and there was no sign of the cough !! The reason I bring this up is because in Feb this year – all three of us, Krishnan, my mother and I went through a round of fever-for-a-day, cough for two weeks and the allopathic doctors we met, did give us the medicines but it didn’t cure the cough quickly enough. Some of the medicines made me so drowsy that my mother got scared.

Ayurveda has been around for thousands of years and whether the modern doctors want to believe or not believe it, recorded history says Sushruta was the father of surgery – “Sushruta (Around 800 BC)[1] was an ancient Indian surgeon and is the author of the book Sushruta Samhita, in which he describes over 300 surgical procedures and 120 surgical instruments and classifies human surgery in 8 categories.” “The Suśruta-saṃhitā, in its extant form, in 184 chapters contains descriptions of 1,120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations based on animal sources. The text discusses surgical techniques of making incisions, probing, extraction of foreign bodies, alkali and thermal cauterization, tooth extraction, excisions, and trocars for draining abscess, draining hydrocele and ascitic fluid, removal of the prostate gland, urethral stricture dilatation, vesicolithotomy, hernia surgery, caesarian section, management of haemorrhoids, fistulae, laparotomy and management of intestinal obstruction, perforated intestines and accidental perforation of the abdomen with protrusion of omentum and the principles of fracture management, viz., traction, manipulation, apposition and stabilization including some measures of rehabilitation and fitting of prosthetic. It enumerates six types of dislocations, twelve varieties of fractures, and classification of the bones and their reaction to the injuries, and gives a classification of eye diseases including cataract surgery.”Source – Wikipedia.

I believe allopathy can learn a thing or two from Ayurveda and vice-versa. If I want quick relief, of course I want to pop a pill, but I don’t want to pop a pill for everything. I don’t want to pop a pill for fever, for cold, for menopause … its really not needed. The side effects of these medicines is huge. Its not to say that “a” system of medicine is better – but I want to go with a system which helps me to stay healthy and supports my body to fight whatever infection there is. I want a healing system of medicine that is not treating just my symptoms. The American system of flu shots and vaccinations for everything under the sun …. the germ phobia leading to allergies of all kinds is something I wish never comes to India. But well, it has. Our modern hospitals have doctors who heal, and doctors who are not healers. No, am not supporting that family who tried to beat up the doctors – thats stupid. If you mess up with your body, no doctor can fix you. Am speaking about the issue in general. Students pay enormous sick-to-the-stomach kind of money to get admission to a medical college and hospitals charge so much that one is happier dying than getting treated… this imbalance must be rectified.

Its not a pissing match and Allopathic doctors need not assume that they know everything there is to know about medicine and healing – and Ayurveda is really not an alternative system, it is a legitimate system of medicine and healing. A lot of what happens in Allopathy is also controlled by the drug manufacturers – the big pharma companies. I don’t even want to skim that topic because just the skimming will take a few pages. What the big pharma companies did to make half the world diabetic and their stellar role in pushing sugar while making fat look like the devil …. the manipulated trials, the list is endless.

I recently read that at some medical conference, doctors are almost selling certain products like “stents” while performing live surgery. Hmmm… if this is true, I would rather believe in some obscure God and my own body to heal itself than go to a doctor.

Here’s what we do and plan to continue doing in the future – Krishnan and I don’t pop a pill till something is unbearable, we continue to eat right and exercise regularly so we can stay away from a hospital. For any of the health issues that we face, we would first try to see if the body cures itself, otherwise we try Ayurveda and then finally Allopathy. That sequence is what works for us.

Note – No offence to any of my friends who are doctors – each one of you is a true healer and your heart is in the right place, so whatever system of medicine you follow, your patients will be healed because you will do the right thing.