- The Routine Way To Good Health
- By: Shubhra Krishan
Take a Daily Dose of good
health from an Ayurvedic physician
You tossed and turned all night.
The alarm didn’t go off. You’re late for work. There’s
a deadline to meet, but your computer is acting up. Three cups
of coffee later, your head still throbs. Your back hurts. Your
eyes sting each time you blink.
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Diagnosis: stress.
Prescription: aspirin?
"No way," smiles John
Peterson of Muncie, Indiana. Sitting by the banks of the rippling
Big Thompson river in Estes Park where he’s flown down on
vacation, Peterson looks so relaxed you’d never guess his
profession. But perhaps being an Ayurvedic physician takes away
much of the stress of being an MD with a thriving practice.
"I learned Transcendental
Meditation in 1972 to help me cope with the stress and fatigue
of medical school and have continued meditating twice a day ever
since. I took the first Maharishi Ayur-Veda physicians training
course in 1985 and found that it helped me understand myself,
the patient, the world, and ever modern medicine in a richer,
fuller way," says Dr John Peterson. |
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"Not just stress--Ayurveda
has a terrific way of dealing with disease as a whole",
he continues. "Because it treats the person as a whole,
and not just that part which is affected. Every day, I see people
who perceive their problems as purely physical.
Typically, they will say their
head hurts or their kidney seems to be in trouble. But after
an appointment with me, they realise it is all one: body and
mind and heart. Once they understand that, getting rid of a physical
problem becomes a blessing in disguise—it becomes a journey
towards fuller health."
How easy is it for him to
explain Ayurveda to his patients?
"It takes time, but it is
not really tough," says Dr Peterson, "Because the Ayurvedic
theory of disease and healing has a very solid scientific base.
After all, it does make sense that human beings are matter--
and all matter is composed of the five elements—which are
the building blocks of existence. Again, it logically follows
that only living matter can have those three controlling forces
we call doshas. Look at the properties of each Vata, Pitta and
Kapha. Vata is what moves us, Pitta is the fire that burns within,
Kapha stabilises us in body and mind. Notice how dynamic they
are, these three doshas—how intimate with and vital to the
sustenance of life. It is not difficult to understand that it's
the interplay between these doshas that affects the general and
specific condition of a living being."
But there are no stethoscopes
or X-rays calibrated to measure the health of these doshas. So
how exactly does he diagnose his patients?
"Through pulse diagnosis
and observation of how you look, move, and talk—I first
determine your individual constitution and the state of your
doshas," says Dr Peterson. It is amazing, he says, what
you can learn simply by placing three trained fingers on the
wrist. " You might think all I can catch is the heart rate
and rhythm," he smiles, "But invariably, I surprise
my patients by telling them things their own spouses may not
have known."
Like the lady who came to him
with a complaint totally unrelated to her digestion. The doctor
took her pulse, and immediately knew her Apana Vata , the sub-dosha
that resides in the abdomen, was out of balance. When he told
her that, she stared at him in total disbelief, and then revealed
that she had indeed been suffering digestive problems for years,
but had given up on them because nobody had been able to help
her.
Dr Peterson says he gave the
lady just one medicine. Plain warm water. He asked her to drink
it as many times a day as she could. Within weeks, the lady was
cured of her problem. "It’s a miracle," she enthused
on the phone.
So how does pulse diagnosis
really work?
"Each wave of your pulse
conveys something important to me. I read the pulse at three
different levels of pressure, each of which informs me about
the state of your doshas" explains Dr Peterson. " Further,
your pulse tells me about the health of your srtoas—or microcirculatory
channels, which carry nutrients to the tissues. If one or more
of these srotas are blocked or impeded, I’ll know at once."
Dr Peterson says most people
who see him are new to these ideas, so he advises them to take
their time getting used to these basic Ayurvedic concepts. "For
I know that the more a person believes in treating himself/herself
as a whole, the faster and better the healing process will be."
Happily, says the doctor, people find these concepts so very
logical they nearly always want to know more.
This lady, says Dr Peterson,
had tried every remedy in the book before she discovered water.
That, he says, is because the modern world is so totally conditioned
to quick relief and suppressive treatments. In Ayurveda on the
other hand, says Dr Peterson, you need never damage your body
by ingesting side-effect-causing pills and potions. You give
it just what it really needs. Some tender loving care, supplemented
by totally natural and safe herbal formulations. |
