LONG AGO, 

We had the concept of a ‘family doctor’ This doctor knew and treated the entire family and was like family too. He felt accessible and friendly.

He KNEW his patients. That means he was aware of what type of food they ate, their basic lifestyle, business or job characteristics, possible hereditary factors, nature etc etc.

Any health problem that was bought to him was analysed against this background and a decision was reached. These were the good old days.

COMING TO THE PRESENT,

We have a general practitioner who prescribes medicines for a week or two and soon refers you to a ‘specialist’ that you must see.

A specialist is a doctor who has gained in depth knowledge of a particular system in the human body and so he becomes so and so specialist. In no way do i mean to downplay the extensive knowledge these doctors have or the years of hard work they have spent gaining it. (I am not talking about surgical branches here) 

But it is also a fact that this speciality usually comes at the price of missing the full picture.

THE PATIENT

A patient is one whole person. A combination of one body, one mind and one soul. 

Any problem that he may face can start at any of these levels, but if it continues for long, sooner or later, it affects all and is affected by all. Broadly, these facets are all interdependent and not independent. 

On the physical level too, various systems of the body work harmoniously through their cooperation.

HOW DISEASE HAPPENS

If one part is in dis-ease, it affects the other parts too.

For examples- 

If the stomach is frequently irritated by too much spicy food, this irritation is felt by the blood too and the blood circulates in the entire body. The spicy feel even reaches the mind and it is then no surprise that this mind will not be too able to handle day to day stresses easily, the blood vessels may have the tendency to rupture and cause bleeding in the brain. 

A body that has a big collection of wastes or undigested material in it, is forced to let these wastes travel to other parts of the body. If they land in the joints, they cause a joint disease. If they are lodged in the skin, it manifests as a skin issue.

Of course this is a very brief description, missing the technical points, but it is enough to give us an idea of how it is all connected. 

HOW IT IS TREATED BY SPECIALISTS

Now, a specialist is trained to look at a particular part too much and modern medicine has no practical concept of inter relation of systems. So these problem areas are treated while ignoring its source. The patient is never told what he is doing wrong.

When one specialist doctor is done with his part of treatment, the patient is sent to another specialist to solve another problem. No one will realize that this ‘another’ problem has occurred in the ‘same person’ simply because the offending imbalance was just pushed away from one part. The patient becomes a football and is played around until he gives up trying to get well.

WHAT SHOULD HAVE  BEEN THE TREATMENT 

If instead of this sad picture, the patient was educated about his wrong eating habits and how it was affecting his body, he would have had the option to stop the source soon. Then treatment should be provided for the imbalance already present. This would stop progress of the disease immediately and make recovery possible. 

AYURVED SAYS

All disease arise from the gut

The first treatment for any disease is avoidance of the cause

So,the most natural question to specialists giving special treatments is – 

But .. what about the gut??