End of 5 weeks - reflections before travel

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I feel like my last few blogs have been kinda whiny, sorry about that. Will try to not let that happen anymore.

So, the Iridology with the Naturopathic doctor was interesting. She had already heard of the conditions Lisa was dealing with so I wasn't particularly impressed by anything she said about her, Elliot she didn't really get right, Ally she actually picked up on some things that I don't think Ally told her about but that I guess she got right, but as for mine she was completely off. I was wondering if she would pick up on my stomach issues, which she sort of glazed over as all of us having some issues since that's the source of most of the toxins that enter our body, she completely missed my neck and shoulder thing, but then insisted, with a "wow, look at that!" that was "confirmed" in both eyes, that I was having some problems with my lungs. Actually I haven't been having any respiratory issues at all, and then she proceeded to ask whether I'd ever had any or had anything chronic, and when I said no, asked whether we had any family history. Now, I could be wrong, but of the problems our extended family has had, I'm pretty sure none of them involved asthma or anything like that, so no, really, no respiratory at all. She insisted that there must be something accumulating, and said I should "make sure I take care of my lungs."

Frankly, not impressed.

Anyway, so that was enough of Naturopathy. It's an interesting practice, but as far as I can tell, it seems (in general) much better for symptomatic treatment of chronic problems than something to use as curative. The hydrothermic treatments, for example, which are one of the few that have known mechanisms, all work on vasodilatation/vasoconstriction because of the heat/cold in the water while the treatment is being done. While I could see this relieving the pain/soreness/increasing blood flow/decreasing blood flow while the patient is undergoing the treatment, I don't really see (but maybe this is my limitation in understanding) how this would cause a systemic, permanent change in the patient. Take hypertension, for example, a common enough problem. As treatment they put the patients arms and legs (or hands and feet) in cold water, so that there is less venous return and therefore a smaller cardiac output (sorry for the med talk). Yes this would work for awhile, but once you take them out and the body re-adjusts, won't they just go back to being hypertensive? The problem is that the set point for the patients' homeostasis is off, so does this actually reset it, or really, just make a temporary change that the patient therefore has to keep repeating for the rest of their lives? I don't know. I'm not saying that Allopathic medicine is perfect by any means either. There's tons of stuff that we don't know how to cure and also only provide symptomatic relief for, but I guess my major problem is that Naturopaths selectively limit themselves. I asked, for example, how Naturopathy would attack something like AIDS, since they admit themselves that they don't know how or why the things they do are supposed to work. How do you treat something new? The answer was simply that they don't. They don't believe in drugs, even herbals, and there's really not much you can do for an auto-immune disease with fasting/dieting, hydrotherapy, yoga, or massage. For that, there's nothing they can do. I can't imagine practicing a medicine that purposely limits itself like that, that intentionally refuses to address certain diseases not because it's not able to, but because it simply "doesn't go there."

Overall (and this statement is of course limited in the way all generalizations are), I think one of the Naturopathic doctors made a good point. In India the problems most people face are things like gastroenteritis, TB, malaria, Hepatitis, things that Western medicine has cures for. In the developed world the majority (not the most severe but the majority) are lifestyle problems like obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, all of which can be better treated with more holistic Eastern medicine. The two sides should switch medicines.

Thursday I came back from Rishikesh so that I could do one more rotation with Dr. Gandhi on Friday, before officially ending the program and starting traveling. One the way over, driving along with Hindi pop music playing, racing along and even getting hit by a bike with two boys on it, I realized something - I like India. It's taken me a really long time to come to this conclusion for sure, with a lot of ups and downs and a few oh-my-gosh-I-feel-miserable-let-me-go-home's mixed with oh-wow-this-is-the-most-amazing-thing-ever, but I think yes. I like it here. It's crazy and hectic and sometimes smelly and dirty, but it's also complicated, deeply rooted in traditions and vibrant culture, colorful, paradoxical, and wonderful. I'm not sure when I'll be back again, but I hope eventually I will...

Only 2 minutes left on my account so I must log off and publish, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get onto the internet again before I go home. If not, I'm planning on going to see the Taj Majal, over to Jaipur for all the forts and palaces, to Hardwar for the temples, and up to Dhramshala where the Dalai Lama is. Wish me a good, safe trip if I don't get to write again!

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Comments

[adogg]

it sounds like you are having such an amazing time-- finding yourself, realizing what your life is about. thanks for sharing your exciting stories with me. --adalia