Turning to Ayurveda

The disease is in an advanced and progressive stage. Hope is fading fast. "At this stage, it is difficult to bring patients out of depression and try to cure them," says Dr Dilip P. Gadgil, managing director of Niramaya Ayurvedic Research and Consultancy in India, at the recent Asia Pacific Congress And Exhibition On Indian Systems Of Medicine.

But still, he adds, some miraculous recoveries have been noted.He says that in modern medicine, cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells and some people think that it happens because of the hybridisation process in both agricultural and animal farming. Since these species have lost their immunity, they have to be given prophylactic antibiotics and pesticides.

Chemical fertilisers are also used to enhance the production.

Since our body is made up from the food we eat, it is difficult to achieve immunity through this food.

For Dr Dilip, urbanisation has worsened the situation.

"Unhealthy lifestyles such as lack of exercise, stress and competition have disturbed our daily routine. In addition, we are eating a lot of fast food and junk food," he says.

He adds rising fear, anxiety, and depression contribute to more diseases.

"Addictions such as to alcohol and tobacco further worsen the situation. These are some of the causes of cancer," says Dr Dilip. Abnormal cells that form start reproducing very fast and produce metastasis or secondaries.

In ayurveda, he says, practitioners use different system of diagnosis and treatment as they have to consider hetu (causes), purva rupa (pre symptoms), rupa (symptoms), upashaya (relieving factors) and samprapti (the activities of doshas and the process of creation of disease).

"We need to go to the root cause of the problem and adjust lifestyle," he adds. Dr Dilip says it is important to preserve immunity to stay healthy. Some golden rules include:

• Eat only when you are hungry.
• Sit down, chew properly and don't eat too slow or too fast.
• Eat regularly, at the same times each day.
• Prefer cooked food to raw. Digestive enzymes work more effectively at higher temperatures.
• Don't read, work, watch TV or talk while eating. Just eat.
• Fill one-third of your stomach with solid food, one-third with liquid and keep one third empty.
• Don't eat again for 3-4 hours, until you have digested your previous meal.
• Drink warm water with or after your meals. Avoid cold drinks, because they compromise the digestive fire (agni).
• Always eat freshly cooked food. Don't keep and reheat leftovers.
• Don't take hot showers after meals. It draws the blood away from the centre and into the extremities.

Dr Dilip also advises eating sweet food first (such as fruit). Milk and fruit should not be consumed together, and honey must not be heated or dissolved into anything hot.

It is said that ghee and olive oil are the best fats to use. After lunch and dinner, it's good to drink an infusion of fennel, anis, cumin, coriander seeds and fresh ginger.

In general, spices used in cooking aid digestion. These include ginger, garlic, onion, cumin, coriander, cardamom, turmeric, mustard seeds, curry leaves, black garam masala and asafoetida.

In ayurveda, spices and herbs are medicine, used in a therapeutic way and can cure, diseases.

Dr Dilip recalls a cancer patient with tumours that had spread to various organs, who had gone to him for help. He treated the patient with a mono-diet of hot milk and ginger, turmeric and special herbs for nine months. The milk, he says, came from a special breed of cows.

The patient was cured.

Diabetics, he says, should avoid excess intake of sweets, carbohydrate and dairy products. Instead, they should take more fresh vegetables and bitter herbs.

Other useful foods include roasted or fried barley, cornflour, bitter vegetables, barley porridge, ghee, rice and herbs such as gokshura (Tribulus terrestris), gudmar (Gymnema Sylvestre), triphala, musta, cardamom, fenugreek or coriander, mixed with honey.

By Annie Freeda Cruez
Source:AsiaoneHealth