Dr. Preetha Ashok
Natural Healing Explorer
12:35 PM | 29-05-2019
Definition of health
Health does not merely refer to physical fitness. The WHO in 1948, gave a worldly acceptable definition of Health which goes by, ’Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely absence of disease or infirmity ‘.
Which means a person has to be mentally, emotionally and physically be considered ‘healthy’. This might not be truly applicable to the present world - A world divided by class, caste and creed.
The middle-class population
Let us most importantly focus on the elephant in the room,’ The Middle-Class population of India’.Yes, the middle class,that amounts to around 267 million of the population of India.
According to the NHA survey, an average Indian spends about 42% of his OOP (Out of Pocket expenditure ) on health care, which equals to an average of ₹5,00,000 in a yearly saving of ₹12,00,000, according to budget expenditure reports.
Let us say an average middle-class family earns ₹75,000-1,00,000/month and savings amount only up to 20% of the total salary, which is about ₹20,000 per month.
Now let us consider an example,
One of the older members of the familyis in a terminal stage of liver cirrhosis, and requires immediate liver transplantation.
According to surveys, a liver transplantation in India, costs about ₹4,00,000-₹20,00,00 in India, depending on various criteria, which means,in cases of healthcare emergencies such as this one, the family has to give up their savings of 3-4 years, which they might’ve have put away for future use (Eg: Education of Children, Buying a house, daughter’s wedding etc). The family’s savings are immediately liquidated for one medical emergency.
Methods to overcomes these emergencies
Now how do we overcome or combat this dual economic and health emergency?
The best and most sustainable way is adopting preventive healthcare methods. Most of the alternative systems of India, that come under AYUSH system (Ayurveda, Naturopathy and Yoga, Unani, Siddha And Homeopathy) aimmainly at two things,
1.Preventive care
2.Rehabilitation after illness has been treated with allopathic modalities.
Me, being a student of Naturopathy and Yogic Science, would like to put light on this system of Alternative medicine.
Naturopathy is concerned with ‘treating the whole body, and not merely any form of systematic illness’. The method of diagnosis is to find mainly the ‘ROOT CAUSE of the disease’, and treated accordingly. Treatment is never given just for external systems. This diagnosis is done through various modalities such as Iridiagnosis, Pulse Diagnosis, Facial diagnosis. These diagnostic methods are then combined with biochemical tests and other conventional methods of diagnosis and investigative procedures after which a conclusion of the underlying disease is reached.
Now, Naturopathy is best defined as a preventive system of health care.
Let us consider the previous example of the person with Liver Cirrhosis.
Liver Cirrhosis can be prevented at an early stage with the right medical intervention.
Treatment should start right at the beginning when the condition was more acute and less severe. In the initial stage of the disease, Naturopathic modalities are best suited. The modalities mainly aim at ‘systemic detoxification of the entire body’, which further remove the accumulated toxins in the body.
For eg,if a drain in a sink/washbasin is blocked, water does not drain out, but rather starts accumulating and forms a stagnating pool in the basin. So what do we first do, then?
We try to remove the blockage in the drain, right?
The body is also treated in the same way. We first have to remove the accumulated toxins in the body, because when toxins accumulate in the body, there is no proper circulation of blood and other nutrients, which further causes decline of health. So the preliminary aim of Naturopathy is always ‘removal of accumulated toxic/morbid matter’. This is done through various modalities such as,
1.Inducing sweating (Steam Bath, Sauna Bath)
2.Elimination through intestines (Enema, Colon Therapy)
3.Hydrotherapy
4.Manipulative Therapy
5.Acupuncture and Acupressure
6.Therapeutic Fasting (Read voluntary abstinence from food)
But most importantly, one must remember treatment comes not only from a doctor or system of medicine, but through the patient’s own effort. As an individual, we must be conscious of our own health, which can be done by proper exercise, mindful eating and mindful living. We humans have evolved as the highest living species, only because of the ability of judging what is right and wrong. We must abide to nature’s laws to remain healthy. When a person follows all this, he is immediately following Naturopathy -a system of treatment through nature’s modalities. Mindful eating, mindful living and mindful exercise are the 3 major components of Preventive healthcare as we all know. These three automatically improve the vital force or vitality of a person, which is concordance to what we call ‘IMMUNITY’.
Understanding health is the basis of health care. New concepts are bound to emerge based on new patterns of thoughts.
Thus we must focus on preventing the disease and promoting the health of an individual. This approach on health also highlights the importance of lifestyle and personal attitude towards building up a good health status. For creating a healthy society we must focus on the actions that reduces exposure to risk that might increase chances of getting a disease and also develop a behaviour that can improve our bodily functions.
In conclusion, I’d like to say that ‘YOU are your own doctor’. You are solely capable of keeping yourself healthy, and likewise YOU are mainly directing yourself as your own doctor of preventive care.
With this resolutionin mind, let us make a resolution, to live healthy in our own way.
-Yours in nature,
Preetha Ashok
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01:08 PM | 21-06-2019
Very Well Written Preetha! Looking forward to more such articles from you :-)
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