Choose life over lifestyle

WHO recognises homeopathy as the world’s second largest medical system. Practised in over 80 countries, homeopathy is the first choice for more than 50 crore people across the world and 10 crore people in India.

A Metropolis Health Services Survey has shown that Indians are more prone to lifestyle diseases. By 2020, 65% of all deaths will be due to lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancer and AIDS. Homeopathy has always been ahead of time, employing miniscule doses to produce mega results, a true application of nanomedicine. In fact, Dr Hahnneman founded homeopathy based on the vaccination principle at a time when Louis Pasteur, who is credited with the invention of vaccination, was barely 7 years old.

Homeopathy uproots the disease, recognising its multi-factorial origin and psychosomatic elements, and treating the patient as a whole. Homeopathy, unlike conventional medicine, doesn’t produce side effects even when taken for prolonged periods. Homeopathic medicines do not target the disease-causing organisms; instead, they stimulate the defence mechanisms and restorative energies of the body so that it heals itself. It is not only curative but also preventive. For example, a homeopathic medicine Belladonna successfully prevented the development of viral encephalitis in a village in Andhra Pradesh. Similarly, remedies like Morbillinum and Variolinum are used as prophylactics to prevent chicken pox.  

In choosing life over lifestyle, we need to move from sickness to wellness. Wellness is not merely an absence of disease but the dynamic equilibrium between the body and mind. Homeopathy helps in wellness by boosting the immune system, replenishing the energy levels of the body and rejuvenating the mind. Our future generation needs to inherit wellness and not disease from us. Towards this end, a change in perspective is the need of the hour, where healing therapies complement rather than compete against one another. Also, a doctor should not look at his patient as a person in desperate need of his expertise but rather as a knowledgeable consumer in equal partnership to achieve common goals of health and wellness.

(This article has excerpts from Dr Mukesh Batra’s speech at FICCI’s Conference on Wellness organised on the 16th April, 2009.)

Article by Dr Mukesh Batra
L.C.E.H., F.H.M.A. (U.K.), F.R.S.H. (Med) P.(Lon), M.D.H. (U.S.A.), F.B.I.H.(U.K.)
Published in Times of India on 26 May 2009