Thursday, August 26, 2010

Of superbugs, superdrugs and a superpower

August was an inconvenient month for the medical fraternity. In the battle of superdrugs versus superbugs, those pesky little fellas had won yet another round!

Even the Indian government was not amused. How dare The Lancet name a superbug that’s turned resistant to antibiotics after our capital city! How dare the esteemed medical journal name blacklisted bacteria ‘NDM-1’ or ‘New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1’! But the politics of medicine is an altogether different story. Read more...

To counter “drug-resistant superbugs”, conventional medicine typically clamps down with an iron fist, using stronger and stronger chemical forces to stamp out disease and its many symptoms. So to fight fire with fire, researchers go into overdrive and come up with even deadlier antibiotics. Gotta get those annoying superbugs any which way, right?

So now, there are two battles raging in your body – the disease process and a battle of egos between researchers and germs!

Take a look at these poor fellas…
 ... at least they’ve found a way to battle the antibiotics’ onslaught.
           
Human beings, in the meantime, are waiting for deliverance, for doctors to outwit those nasty germs. You never know what those lowly but hardy ‘pathogens’ might come up with next!

The Life Force
At the core of homeopathy is a belief in the life force – an innate, dynamic energy that instinctively and automatically tends towards self-preservation. It is the life force that keeps us alive and kicking every living moment. It is this very same creative energy that powers our need for survival and intensifies at the very hint of a perceived threat.

The vital force unites mind and body; it maintains the very integrity of the human being; and it connects this integrated and unified human being to the environment and the universe. It is a positive, self-sustaining and self-preserving energy that powers our very instinct for survival. It is ‘life’ itself.

The life force is 'life' itself
The life force also naturally tends towards a state of balance – mentally, emotionally and physically – and is therefore is self-regulating. The body is will thus go to any lengths to fend off threats and heal itself in order to return to a state of balance. That is why we possess a natural tendency to self-heal and regenerate.

Disease Is A Sign Of Healing
Are they really out to get us?
Ever since Louis Pasteur proposed his germ theory of disease more than a century ago, conventional medicine has painted a grim picture of microbes as vicious little devils waiting on the fringes to move in, attack us and make us sick.

The truth is disease is the result of an imbalance in your body’s internal environment. This takes place when your immune system – the body’s best defence – is compromised or overwhelmed due to one or more reasons such as infectious microbes, unhealthy eating and sleeping habits, prolonged exposure to toxic or polluting substances and prolonged stress.

However, given the body’s knee-jerk reflex to self-heal and repair itself, your system still fights back valiantly. Hence, sickness – fever, pain, inflammation, even infection, nausea, headaches – is indeed a positive sign. It means the gloves are off! The outcome of this contest – destructive processes versus immune system – depends on how healthy you are and the reserves at your disposal.

Health is a state of balance
Sometimes, as in the case of chronic disorders such as diabetes, persistent hypertension, immune-deficiency syndromes and tumours, there is a systemic shift, leading to a systemic breakdown. At some point, the body’s defences get perverted and twisted, the process becomes self-perpetuating and you get trapped in a diseased state.

Your body’s defences can no longer heal you but they nevertheless keep up the fight. In the meantime, the destructive processes keep chipping away at your tissues, organs and systems. The result is chronic and serious illnesses such as metastasising tumours, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and cardiac problems and a stroke.

That’s when you need a system that understands your body and respects it, and homeopathy unlike allopathy does just that. The popular misconception that homeopathy is a ‘mild’ and ’long-term’ form of treatment and that it does not address serious, life-threatening conditions is exactly that – a misconception. In fact, MindHeal specialises in just cases and experiences dramatic and quick results.

I will explain how that’s possible and much, much more in subsequent posts. Suffice to say for the time being that when the human being is viewed as a complete whole – mind and body – an experienced practitioner can unlock a powerful healing force.


In my next post in this two-part series, we will discuss how homeopathy harnesses the life force and helps you tap into the awesome power of self-healing. Yes, all this with those ‘little white pills’.

Re-awaken the healer in you...
- Dr Anita Salunkhe, MD

MindHeal Homeopathy is based in Chembur, Mumbai. To find out more about The MindHeal Way, call: 022-25230530 / +91-9930363981. Or write to crm@mindheal.org. Website: www.mindheal.org. We’ll be happy to answer all your queries.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Welcome to MindHeal!

MindHeal is a journey into inner healing.

After practising for 21 years under some of the best homeopaths in India, and consulting both in India and abroad, I founded MindHeal Homeopathy.

MindHeal is a genetic and constitutional approach to unlocking the human body’s intuitive power to heal itself. (See About MindHeal). And if that sounds rather complex, no worries. Leave the intricacies to our MindHeal team.

Using pure homeopathic remedies, we adapt classic homeopathy to modern concerns and experience some truly dramatic results.

So, do those sugary, white pills really work? Well, watch these videos. It will take less than 5 minutes.
 
BEFORE


15 days later… (Also notice the overall change in the patient’s physical appearance, temperament and general demeanour)

AFTER


Myth #1: Homeopathic remedies ‘take an age’ to work and are meant only for those who have the time ’to check them out’.

Most patients arrive at my clinic after running from pillar to post and consulting with numerous specialists. Apart from undergoing a series of diagnostic tests (which by the way are useful even to a homeopath although from a slightly different point of view), they are usually given various drugs and, like our patient in the video, sometimes recommended surgery even when not necessary.

Most people are bred on conventional allopathic medicine and having reached a point of desperation, frantically swallow this course of treatment.

Is there another way?

Discussion: Homeopathy doesn’t ‘treat’ patients. It is a mind-body approach to healing. That’s why the first consultation takes about an hour. Follow-ups typically take around 15 minutes.

Myth #2: Unfortunately, the detailed history-taking of the first consultation has given rise to the myth that homeopaths 'dig deep into your personal history', and that the process is long and tedious. Not true.

As illustrated in the video, the initial consultation is used to determine:
  • the major sources of stress in the patient’s life
  • possible triggers for disease
  • the patient’s temperament and dominant personality traits
The practitioner needs to assess the individual in his / her context, identify potential stressors, triggers for illness, and how the individual reacts to his / her life circumstances – there is no attempt at counselling.

The initial consultation thus provides a holistic picture of the individual – your temperament – which corresponds to your unique genetic, biochemical and organic make-up. Together, this forms your ‘constitutional’ make-up. Hence, homeopathic remedies – yes, those little white pills – are called ‘constitutional remedies’.

Triggers: In our video, the patient’s trigger was a visit to his terminally ill sister-in-law, which brought back memories of his wife who had died a painful death many years ago. When struck by ptosis, he couldn’t function at work but felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness. He continued to go to the office so that he wouldn’t feel 'completely useless’. But that didn’t work. The clincher (at the end of the video) was his utter powerlessness at being unable to help his son with finances.

For a self-made, inflexible and proud man who didn’t accept handouts, this was a deadly psychological blow, which he converted into a physical symptom.

In subsequent posts, we shall discuss how people unconsciously ‘choose’ their symptoms or why two people with similar temperaments develop two completely different types of illnesses.

Re-awaken the healer in you...
–  Dr Anita Salunkhe, MD
 
MindHeal Homeopathy is based in Chembur, Mumbai. To find out more about The MindHeal Way, call: 022-25230530 / +91-9930363981. Or write to crm@mindheal.org. Website: www.mindheal.org. We’ll be happy to answer all your queries.