The thought which always makes my mind curious is how a common man will become more & more health independent. Basically I am a graduate from the school of modern medicine. I have a high respect to all the medical community who is trying to give its all to make a healthier society. And in achieving that the modern medicine has shown a remarkable development in all its aspects. So many unbelievable things are started happening now. But even after such a glories picture my mind signals me that the common man is becoming more & more health dependent, health dependent on the medical system. Is that what we are aiming at? Rather any science, any wisdom should give, should offer freedom to the human beings, and should offer independence to human beings. Any education achieves the same goals, financial independence, social independence, political independence. Then why not health independence!
The picture is exactly opposite here. Rather our dependency is increasing more & more on the medical system. Now for very simple, very common complaints we are running to the Doctors. We have totally forgotten our own wisdom or we are so confused that we can even not manage simple cold & cough at home. Is that the picture few decades ago? Definitely not. People were managing so many issue with household remedies. Yes of course I am totally agree that this common wisdom should know the limitation of our own & when to take the Doctors advice?
Let’s talk about an example over here. A lady professor with complaint of headache came to me. Before she has done with her family doctor, then the physician, then the Neuro-physician. They have done their role precisely. All the investigations up to the scanning has ruled out any major issue. The required medicines where given. But the headache was there. As I am doing my treatment considering the Principles of Ayurveda I took her detail history, her daily routine, her eating habits. This took me almost half an hour. I came out with the simple diagnosis and much simpler solution. I found out in her routine that she was not taking breakfast as she was not feeling hunger at that time. She used to get good hunger at noon and was having her tiffin. Since last few months her college time table changed. She used to get break for lunch at 3 pm. This was reason for her headache. Her sugar levels must be going down giving her a headache. I asked her that she cannot go above the laws of nature, laws of health. She must respect her body signals. Naturally she must eat when she is hungry. As no other choice has left for her she started managing her lunch in 10-15 minutes between the lectures. The very same day her headache vanished.
This taught me a lot. This incidence made me think. Why so many doctors she went can’t found out such a simple reason? Unfortunately we all are giving importance to very complex situations, syndromes many a times neglecting the very common causes. And then why is it so? We are taught in that way. Do we ask the patient about whether he gets hunger, when he gets it, he eats when he is hungry or not, does he eat even though he is not hungry, what is the quality of the food he eats, does he eats food outside or he eats freshly made home food, does he sleeps well and so many such questions. The answers of all the lifestyle related diseases lies here, in this questions.
Let me give few more examples. One young women came with complaints such as on & off stomachache, indigestion, nausea, loss of appetite, lot of weakness. I asked her above questions and I got her solution. She was working in an office where she has to reach at 9 am. So even though she was not hungry she was eating a full breakfast with fear that she will not get time to eat afterwards. As a result she was so full that she was not getting hunger at the time of lunch. But she was force the food at that time also. She was breaking the most important rule of not having food when hunger is not there. Naturally she was suffering from indigestion & related complaints. And because of indigestion the food she was eating was not nourishing her cells, making her tired, weak. I asked her not to eat in the early morning but to eat little late when she gets real hunger. So she started taking a small tiffin with her and eating after she reaches office. Naturally she used get hunger for lunch little late. So she was started eating late lunch. And all her complaints vanish in a few days. And now she is enjoying what she eats, even if it is a very simple food. Eating after getting a good hunger is a fun.
You must be realizing that we are giving lot of importance to the body signals. After all why these signals are there? Our live body systems knows when & what she needs. And also how much she needs. So when the need arises she gives a signal, isn’t it? But today we are far away from this natural instincts, as in many other ways we are gone away from the nature. We have become machines. We have also lost the sense that we all are individuals, we have our own constitution, which is different from others. How can be hunger of all the human beings will be same, how can be thirst of all the human beings will be same. So how can we advise that everyone must eat three times a day or four times a day, everyone must drink such and such amount of water every day. Even a same individual will not have a same hunger every day or a same thirst every day. We are just eating on time even our body does not wants it, we drink water even our body does not demand for it. We must respect this individual variations, these body signals.
A patient came to me with off & on cold, cough, mucus problems. Now I knew what specific questions to ask for specific complaints. So I asked him about his water intake. As expected he told me his quantity of 3-4 liters proudly. My next question to him was are you get so much of thirst. He said no, I drink it deliberately. He must have read somewhere or someone must have advised him. Then I asked him when these complaints started with you. And he told that he never had anything like this six months back, his health was so good, he didn’t know from where it started without any reason. Nothing happens without the reasons. Then my last question to him was since when you are drinking so much of water? And the answer was since last six months. That’s all, the puzzle was solved. This excess deliberate water was doing the mischief, getting converted into the mucus. I asked him to stop this deliberate drinking. Now he was waiting for next advice and tons of medicines, yes this time Ayurvedic medicines. Today many patients wants Ayurvedic, natural medicines, not the modern one, not the allopathic one. But they want medicines! This patient was disappointed by just this advice and no medicines. I opened my cupboard of medicines and promise him to give as much as he wants when he comes next time. But request him to follow this advice just for 15 days. Fortunately he never came back. As he started drinking as per his thirst all his problems went off. He called me and conveyed his thanks.
I can give you so many of such examples of my patients where I have treated their ongoing problems just by very simple solutions. Yes, in certain cases I have to give some medicines, some treatments. And sometimes I am taking help of my friends and specialist from modern medicine. But to my surprise in most of this patients I am able to reach to the root of the problem, to the cause of the problem. And another very important fact I must put in front of you is that these root causes are very much day to day causes, very much obvious causes such as food and life style as mentioned above. Naturally the solutions are very simple, just simple balancing. Changing the timings, quality, quantity of the food, changing the life style, reducing or increasing exercise & rest, giving away some way to their stress.
Then the next thing comes in the mind is that why a common man cannot find out his own problem and balances himself. As in above examples if they would have known the laws, the professor about the eating after getting hunger, the young lady about not to have food if the hunger is not there and the man about not to drink water deliberately they would have not suffered from the problems. Even though if someone doesn’t knows the laws but just follows his own natural instinct, the body signals, he will be saved from many problems. And then the mind thinks of the old generation people. They were doing exactly the same, following the signals. I am not surprised today to see the strength, the stamina to work of that generation when I compared them with this new generation. The small workshop on fundamentals of Ayurveda and some experiential learning can make a common man wise enough to expertise in the art of keeping him healthy.
This is what Ayurveda speaks. Knowing the signals, understanding there meaning and fulfilling them is the essence of Ayurveda & not just the medicines and treatment. One shloka says if one does not follow what is good for him (food and lifestyle) then how medicines will serve the purpose, what is the use of medicines? And if one follows what is good for him then what is the need of medicines. That itself clears the role of food & medicines. Today patient come to me saying hence forth I will not follow Allopathy, I will follow Ayurveda & he starts some Ayurvedic medicines such as Chavanprash. He has not understood the essence of Ayurveda. Another shloka says health is like a table with three legs, three pillars and they are food, rest and life of morality. We must understand here that they are not mentioning anything about medicines & treatments. They are focusing on food & lifestyle.
This age old science talks a lot about this root causes and diseases. I don’t know how they correlated this cause & effect phenomenon without these new age equipment’s. I think most of these relationships are so experiential, so obvious. Eating without hunger & getting indigestion, drinking water deliberately & suffering from cold. Surprisingly all these fundamental rules has a very strong base of the theory of five elements, Pancha Mahabhoot theory. This strong base makes this rules fixed, eternal.
The rule of eating after hunger and not eating without hunger is forever. And if one breaks it the consequences are very much explained. And can be experienced by oneself and on the patients also. What will very is what to eat & how much to eat, this depends on the individual hunger. Once one knows about the equation of the five base elements every puzzle will be clear for him. I cannot explain the equation here due to the limitation of the space. But I am sure that many unsolved mysteries will be revealed after understanding this. I am very much eager and waiting to share this wisdom with my friends from modern medicine. What is the reason of getting breathlessness in cold weather, why pulses makes gases, what is the relationship of gases & body ache, headache, what is the common thread in antibiotics & bitter taste, is there any relation between gases & degenerative diseases, which is the best antioxidant, why medicines with bitter taste are good in mucus problems and so many revelations are hidden the treasure of Ayurveda.
Another very important revelation came to me after so many years is that the Ayurveda & Allopathy are not different, they work on the same principles. Their language of explaining the science is different, they are looking at the thing with different angles but they are looking at the same thing. They are talking about the truth, the science behind it. And also there is a difference in the intensity. Let me explain. If one is feeling hot, he will open the windows, he will put on the fan, this is Ayurveda. And if he puts on the AC that is Allopathy. The intensity is different but the principle is same, cooling down the heat by giving cold wind. As the intensity is different so the effects as well as the side effects are different. The AC will have more side effects. Another example is drinking the water from the earthen pot & water from the freeze. The ice cold water will have more side effects. And who says that Ayurvedic medicines does not have side effects? Take a spoonful of black pepper and consume it. No need to tell you what will be the side effects, you can very well imagine. You will experience all the hell fire with in you.
Lastly I must share this experience of mine. A patients comes to me with the complaints of bloating & pain in the abdomen, constipation with hard stools, joint pains & noise in the joints, dry skin & dandruff, dryness of eyes, gets hunger but cannot eat fully, cramps in the legs, extreme weakness and headache. I came to the root cause of all this complaints as a gas problem, a Vata issue in a language of Ayurveda, and treats him by just changing his diet and lifestyle. And he recovers from all his complaints. Such a correlation! So much of varied issues and the cause is one and naturally the treatment is same for all the issues. Just imagine how many doctors he has to visit for such varied complaints, a gastro enterologist, an orthopedic surgeon, a skin specialist and an ophthalmologist. You can imagine the wisdom of this age old science. It’s my sincere wish that the Doctors from modern medicine should come ahead to understand this science & strengthen their own practice.
More than that once common man learns this wisdom he will start knowing how to respect his body signals, what the root cause of his particular complaint is and how to balance the effects by simply adjusting the food & lifestyle with minimal help of medicines and treatments. He will become more & more health independent.
May all enjoy real health, may all become more & more health Independent
Dr. Nikhil Mehta Pune.
The picture is exactly opposite here. Rather our dependency is increasing more & more on the medical system. Now for very simple, very common complaints we are running to the Doctors. We have totally forgotten our own wisdom or we are so confused that we can even not manage simple cold & cough at home. Is that the picture few decades ago? Definitely not. People were managing so many issue with household remedies. Yes of course I am totally agree that this common wisdom should know the limitation of our own & when to take the Doctors advice?
Let’s talk about an example over here. A lady professor with complaint of headache came to me. Before she has done with her family doctor, then the physician, then the Neuro-physician. They have done their role precisely. All the investigations up to the scanning has ruled out any major issue. The required medicines where given. But the headache was there. As I am doing my treatment considering the Principles of Ayurveda I took her detail history, her daily routine, her eating habits. This took me almost half an hour. I came out with the simple diagnosis and much simpler solution. I found out in her routine that she was not taking breakfast as she was not feeling hunger at that time. She used to get good hunger at noon and was having her tiffin. Since last few months her college time table changed. She used to get break for lunch at 3 pm. This was reason for her headache. Her sugar levels must be going down giving her a headache. I asked her that she cannot go above the laws of nature, laws of health. She must respect her body signals. Naturally she must eat when she is hungry. As no other choice has left for her she started managing her lunch in 10-15 minutes between the lectures. The very same day her headache vanished.
This taught me a lot. This incidence made me think. Why so many doctors she went can’t found out such a simple reason? Unfortunately we all are giving importance to very complex situations, syndromes many a times neglecting the very common causes. And then why is it so? We are taught in that way. Do we ask the patient about whether he gets hunger, when he gets it, he eats when he is hungry or not, does he eat even though he is not hungry, what is the quality of the food he eats, does he eats food outside or he eats freshly made home food, does he sleeps well and so many such questions. The answers of all the lifestyle related diseases lies here, in this questions.
Let me give few more examples. One young women came with complaints such as on & off stomachache, indigestion, nausea, loss of appetite, lot of weakness. I asked her above questions and I got her solution. She was working in an office where she has to reach at 9 am. So even though she was not hungry she was eating a full breakfast with fear that she will not get time to eat afterwards. As a result she was so full that she was not getting hunger at the time of lunch. But she was force the food at that time also. She was breaking the most important rule of not having food when hunger is not there. Naturally she was suffering from indigestion & related complaints. And because of indigestion the food she was eating was not nourishing her cells, making her tired, weak. I asked her not to eat in the early morning but to eat little late when she gets real hunger. So she started taking a small tiffin with her and eating after she reaches office. Naturally she used get hunger for lunch little late. So she was started eating late lunch. And all her complaints vanish in a few days. And now she is enjoying what she eats, even if it is a very simple food. Eating after getting a good hunger is a fun.
You must be realizing that we are giving lot of importance to the body signals. After all why these signals are there? Our live body systems knows when & what she needs. And also how much she needs. So when the need arises she gives a signal, isn’t it? But today we are far away from this natural instincts, as in many other ways we are gone away from the nature. We have become machines. We have also lost the sense that we all are individuals, we have our own constitution, which is different from others. How can be hunger of all the human beings will be same, how can be thirst of all the human beings will be same. So how can we advise that everyone must eat three times a day or four times a day, everyone must drink such and such amount of water every day. Even a same individual will not have a same hunger every day or a same thirst every day. We are just eating on time even our body does not wants it, we drink water even our body does not demand for it. We must respect this individual variations, these body signals.
A patient came to me with off & on cold, cough, mucus problems. Now I knew what specific questions to ask for specific complaints. So I asked him about his water intake. As expected he told me his quantity of 3-4 liters proudly. My next question to him was are you get so much of thirst. He said no, I drink it deliberately. He must have read somewhere or someone must have advised him. Then I asked him when these complaints started with you. And he told that he never had anything like this six months back, his health was so good, he didn’t know from where it started without any reason. Nothing happens without the reasons. Then my last question to him was since when you are drinking so much of water? And the answer was since last six months. That’s all, the puzzle was solved. This excess deliberate water was doing the mischief, getting converted into the mucus. I asked him to stop this deliberate drinking. Now he was waiting for next advice and tons of medicines, yes this time Ayurvedic medicines. Today many patients wants Ayurvedic, natural medicines, not the modern one, not the allopathic one. But they want medicines! This patient was disappointed by just this advice and no medicines. I opened my cupboard of medicines and promise him to give as much as he wants when he comes next time. But request him to follow this advice just for 15 days. Fortunately he never came back. As he started drinking as per his thirst all his problems went off. He called me and conveyed his thanks.
I can give you so many of such examples of my patients where I have treated their ongoing problems just by very simple solutions. Yes, in certain cases I have to give some medicines, some treatments. And sometimes I am taking help of my friends and specialist from modern medicine. But to my surprise in most of this patients I am able to reach to the root of the problem, to the cause of the problem. And another very important fact I must put in front of you is that these root causes are very much day to day causes, very much obvious causes such as food and life style as mentioned above. Naturally the solutions are very simple, just simple balancing. Changing the timings, quality, quantity of the food, changing the life style, reducing or increasing exercise & rest, giving away some way to their stress.
Then the next thing comes in the mind is that why a common man cannot find out his own problem and balances himself. As in above examples if they would have known the laws, the professor about the eating after getting hunger, the young lady about not to have food if the hunger is not there and the man about not to drink water deliberately they would have not suffered from the problems. Even though if someone doesn’t knows the laws but just follows his own natural instinct, the body signals, he will be saved from many problems. And then the mind thinks of the old generation people. They were doing exactly the same, following the signals. I am not surprised today to see the strength, the stamina to work of that generation when I compared them with this new generation. The small workshop on fundamentals of Ayurveda and some experiential learning can make a common man wise enough to expertise in the art of keeping him healthy.
This is what Ayurveda speaks. Knowing the signals, understanding there meaning and fulfilling them is the essence of Ayurveda & not just the medicines and treatment. One shloka says if one does not follow what is good for him (food and lifestyle) then how medicines will serve the purpose, what is the use of medicines? And if one follows what is good for him then what is the need of medicines. That itself clears the role of food & medicines. Today patient come to me saying hence forth I will not follow Allopathy, I will follow Ayurveda & he starts some Ayurvedic medicines such as Chavanprash. He has not understood the essence of Ayurveda. Another shloka says health is like a table with three legs, three pillars and they are food, rest and life of morality. We must understand here that they are not mentioning anything about medicines & treatments. They are focusing on food & lifestyle.
This age old science talks a lot about this root causes and diseases. I don’t know how they correlated this cause & effect phenomenon without these new age equipment’s. I think most of these relationships are so experiential, so obvious. Eating without hunger & getting indigestion, drinking water deliberately & suffering from cold. Surprisingly all these fundamental rules has a very strong base of the theory of five elements, Pancha Mahabhoot theory. This strong base makes this rules fixed, eternal.
The rule of eating after hunger and not eating without hunger is forever. And if one breaks it the consequences are very much explained. And can be experienced by oneself and on the patients also. What will very is what to eat & how much to eat, this depends on the individual hunger. Once one knows about the equation of the five base elements every puzzle will be clear for him. I cannot explain the equation here due to the limitation of the space. But I am sure that many unsolved mysteries will be revealed after understanding this. I am very much eager and waiting to share this wisdom with my friends from modern medicine. What is the reason of getting breathlessness in cold weather, why pulses makes gases, what is the relationship of gases & body ache, headache, what is the common thread in antibiotics & bitter taste, is there any relation between gases & degenerative diseases, which is the best antioxidant, why medicines with bitter taste are good in mucus problems and so many revelations are hidden the treasure of Ayurveda.
Another very important revelation came to me after so many years is that the Ayurveda & Allopathy are not different, they work on the same principles. Their language of explaining the science is different, they are looking at the thing with different angles but they are looking at the same thing. They are talking about the truth, the science behind it. And also there is a difference in the intensity. Let me explain. If one is feeling hot, he will open the windows, he will put on the fan, this is Ayurveda. And if he puts on the AC that is Allopathy. The intensity is different but the principle is same, cooling down the heat by giving cold wind. As the intensity is different so the effects as well as the side effects are different. The AC will have more side effects. Another example is drinking the water from the earthen pot & water from the freeze. The ice cold water will have more side effects. And who says that Ayurvedic medicines does not have side effects? Take a spoonful of black pepper and consume it. No need to tell you what will be the side effects, you can very well imagine. You will experience all the hell fire with in you.
Lastly I must share this experience of mine. A patients comes to me with the complaints of bloating & pain in the abdomen, constipation with hard stools, joint pains & noise in the joints, dry skin & dandruff, dryness of eyes, gets hunger but cannot eat fully, cramps in the legs, extreme weakness and headache. I came to the root cause of all this complaints as a gas problem, a Vata issue in a language of Ayurveda, and treats him by just changing his diet and lifestyle. And he recovers from all his complaints. Such a correlation! So much of varied issues and the cause is one and naturally the treatment is same for all the issues. Just imagine how many doctors he has to visit for such varied complaints, a gastro enterologist, an orthopedic surgeon, a skin specialist and an ophthalmologist. You can imagine the wisdom of this age old science. It’s my sincere wish that the Doctors from modern medicine should come ahead to understand this science & strengthen their own practice.
More than that once common man learns this wisdom he will start knowing how to respect his body signals, what the root cause of his particular complaint is and how to balance the effects by simply adjusting the food & lifestyle with minimal help of medicines and treatments. He will become more & more health independent.
May all enjoy real health, may all become more & more health Independent
Dr. Nikhil Mehta Pune.
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