Leave well alone!
-by Sheela Rani Chunkath
I am reading a very interesting book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb titled Antifragile. It is a dense book of about 500 pages. As it is physically a fat tome, I found carrying it around quite a task. I therefore downloaded it on my iPad and read quite a bit of it on my plane ride to Delhi. I love technology and modernity for these sort of conveniences, but when it comes to my health, especially preventive health, I think our sages and seers had the answers.
Taleb who is a different kind of thinker writes brilliantly. He writes about the global financial crisis in his book the 'Black Swan' and introduces the concept of 'antifragility' in his book Antifragile.
He writes about a legal way to kill people and he says, "If you want to accelerate someone's death, give him a personal doctor. I don't mean provide him with a bad doctor: just pay for him to choose his own."
So if you get a stomach pain, and you are conversant with the basic principles of Ayurveda or Siddha, you will immediately look for proximate causes. What did I eat? Did I skip my lunch? Did I eat very late? Did I eat and immediately exercise? Did I eat very heavily and go to sleep? Was the food stale? Was the oil bad? Was there Ajinomoto or other allergens in it? Once you kind of know what could have caused the problem, you wait for the pain to go away by skipping the next meal. You eat rice kanji if your hunger returns. You eat something light and keep the vayu under control. You are encouraged in ayurveda to put up with a bit of pain to see how the body corrects itself, given a little time and minimum intervention. On the contrary, allopaths are trained in a work ethic that encourages them to do something. You must at the very least have a scan and a couple of pain killers. Often you are asked to eat light normal food which everyone interprets as they will. They often end up eating inappropriate food which further aggravates the stomach pain.
If you go to an allopath doctor his training and profession will make him prescribe something. A good ayurvedic doctor, on the other hand, will often wait and watch. Since the focus is on prevention, ayurvedic vaidyars will encourage you to follow the ayurvedic principles of dinacharya and ritucharya which will keep you healthy. I think this is part of the reason why ayurvedic vaidyars don't win awards and recognition. As Taleb writes, "it is much easier to sell "Look, what I did for you" than "Look, what I avoided for you". "I have looked in history for heroes who became heroes for what they did not do, but it is hard to observe nonaction, I could not easily find any." The doctor who refrains from operating on a bad back (a very expensive procedure), instead of giving it a chance to heal itself, will not be rewarded and judged as favourably as the doctor who makes the surgery look indispensable, then brings relief to the patient while exposing him to operating risks, while accruing great financial rewards to himself. The latter will be driving the pink Rolls-Royce". The ayurvedic doctor who prevents disease, and keeps you in good health is less likely to get recognition and rewards.
If you are serious about your health and that of your family, I think you need to take the management of your health into your own hands. Consult a vaidyar only when your remedies don't work. That is not to say, procrastinate forever and let the disease take hold. My contention is that if you can from the beginning follow the basic tenets of ayurveda, it is unlikely that you will have serious health issues. Of course you need to be conscious about stress and your environment.
I see many people who started out with very minor health problems, who are now quite sick because of aggressive medical intervention. "The doctor knows best" philosophy is one I don't subscribe to. I think you know your body best and you have the time to dwell on how it reacts to various situations and inputs. Be conscious of what different foods do to your digestion, how you react to exercise, to stress, to lack of sleep and you will learn to avoid those things and activities that make you ill.
--- The writer was earlier Health Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu and is currently Additional Chief Secretary and Chairman & Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation. She can be reached at Sheelarani.arogyamantra@gmail. com. Earlier articles can be accessed at http://arogyamantra.blogspot.com/