“Holistic Medicine can reverse the biological effects of aging”

It’s a basic human instinct to live as long as possible. But according to Dr R K Tuli, Founder, Society for Holistic Advancement of Medicine “SOHAM,” it is important to not only live long, but live healthy, feel well, look good, be productive, and remain useful to others as long as we live….

 

This phenomenon termed ‘Positive Wellness’ should be possible at any age with nil or easily manageable disability burden. Modern medicine does not offer any means to arrest or reverse the effects of biological ageing, or the resultant diseases attributable to aging. Dr Tuli provides the mantra of anti-aging by incorporating the ancient ‘art’ with modern ‘science’ in the form of an all-inclusive approach to health termed Holistic Medicine, which is highly useful for therapeutic tapping of subtle shifts in our physiology, generating biochemical communicators to mould the molecules that comprise cells, tissues, organs, systems, and the human being as a whole.

Dr Tuli elaborated on the efficacy Holistic Medicine at great length in a conversation with Double Helical.
The inbuilt natural technology inherent in every human individual can be easily harnessed to tap into natural reservoirs of unlimited universal energy, creativity and vitality; arrest, and effect reversal of any disease process, minimise morbidity due to biological aging, improve health at any age and restore Positive Health & Total Wellness.

According to WHO statistics, average life expectancy at birth in India was 57 years in 1990, it increased to 61 years in 2000, and further improved to 65 years in 2009, in comparison to current global average of 68 years; whereas in Japan the same stood at 83 years. According to this trend, we are gaining an extra four years to live with the passage of each decade. In near future an increasing numbers of us in this country would live a hundred years or more. It’s mandatory that increasing longevity must be supported with better health, minimal medication & good quality of life ‘QOL’.

Increasing life span is attributed to increased affluence, better living conditions, higher education, more health awareness, healthier nutrition, improved sanitation & hygiene, safer working conditions, prevention & cure of infectious diseases of the past, and better medical facilities. At the same time, we have to be aware of limitations of the system of modern medicine that does not fully address the emerging threat to our survival in the form of diseases attributable to lifestyle disorders, viral infections, or due to the impact of physical aging.

We can significantly enhance efficacy of health care in the elderly by judiciously reducing our dependence on symptomatic relief offered by modern medicine with the time-tested wisdom of various harmless drug-free modalities of officially recognised traditional systems of health to reverse the effects of aging and arrest, or even cure various diseases attributable to the process of aging.

All inclusive integrative drug-free modalities that are used as ‘Holistic Medicine’ therapy include meaningful lifestyle modifications along the path of ‘yoga’ including restful mind, positive thoughts, good sleep, stress elimination, breathing practices, healthy nutrition, initiation of regular physical exercise, panchakarma for detoxification and all modalities of acupuncture therapy, supported by psycho-hypnotherapy in chronic refractory diseases.

The traditional Indian as well as Chinese philosophy of health views each human being as a microcosmic whole of the universal macrocosm, creating magnificently organized networks of energy, information and intelligence, in dynamic exchange with our environment, infinitely capable of transformation and renewal, and continuously replacing all the old body tissues according to a predetermined cycle. We can minimize disease burden, improve our health and life by complementing conventional medical care with conscious awareness of this phenomenon. It helps us to decelerate, arrest and even reverse to an appreciable extent the impact of ever moving clock of biological health.

Excerpts of a freewheeling interview with the renowned practitioner of Holistic Medicine, Dr R K Tuli…

Why Holistic Medicine? It’s being increasingly recognised the world over that it would never be possible to meet all the health expectations of the humanity with the exclusive allopathy based conventional model of healthcare. The WHO recommends and our National Health Policy too has promulgated integration of all the recognised systems of medicine.

What is Holistic Medicine?
Holistic Medicine is the wholesome approach to Health where each individual is treated as a whole ‘Body, Mind & Spirit’ by a synergy of the evidence based ‘science’ of modern medicine with the highly complementary and reproducible time honoured ‘art’ of drug-free modalities of all the officially recognised traditional systems of health for elimination of all sickness and promote Positive Health and Total Wellness.

What are the benefits of holistic medicine?
It treats the human being as a whole, body, mind & soul. It offers ‘synergy’ of drug-free modalities of all the recognised systems of Health. It’s equally beneficial at all the levels of health, and at all ages. It helps to take care of all the ailments of an individual concurrently. No drugs, No interventions, No Dope, No Iatrogenesis.

Holistic Medicine is highly reproducible, universally beneficial, and cost & time efficient. It’s very simple and easily accessible; can be rendered anywhere & everywhere. It optimizes healthcare by complementing existing infrastructure at no extra cost. It tremendously enhances skills, leading to greater professional satisfaction of the practitioners and would restore old glory of the medical profession.

What are the basic steps to anti-aging?
Change your perceptions of aging & escape conditioning to Reverse Biological Clock.
Start reversal of your biological age by Deep Rest: Restful Awareness & Restful Sleep.
Synchronize your biological rhythm with the rhythm of nature: “Early to Bed & Early. .
Enhance Mind – Body integration by Breathing Consciously and daily YOGA.
Do Aerobic Exercises regularly for stretching, strength and cardiovascular fitness.
Intelligently nourish your body with healthy organic food and eating consciously.
Eliminate Toxins from physical & emotional bodies: drink >2 liters of water daily.
Create Flexibility & Creativity in Consciousness; Forgive & Forget; Help others.
Make LOVE the most important thing of your life: Be Thankful & Appreciative.
Maintain a Youthful Mind – be playful, laugh, be enthusiastic, and be light hearted.
Accord priority to drug-free Natural Therapies in preference to medical interventions.
Select a competent Holistic Physician as your Family Doctor for Care of your Health.

Why do you focus on integrative healing? Do you feel that allopathy in itself is not capable of curing ailments?
Every system of medicine has its advantages, but none of the systems is perfect. The allopathy for all its initial advantages is today losing its glory due to loss of efficacy in controlling infections as the germs have mutated to become increasingly resistant to antibiotics and have been replaced by viral infections for which the allopathy has limited remedies. It’s exposed to its grave deficiencies in that it only treats the proverbial ‘tip of the iceberg’, that is just the symptom without ever going to the root cause of sickness.

Due to break down of family system in our country and changed lifestyle, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like anxiety, depression, insomnia, diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, autoimmune disorders, allergies, hormonal disturbances, poor fertility, cancer, drug abuse including dependence on tobacco and alcohol, have come to dominate the sickness pattern. Allopathy at best offers symptomatic relief merely at physical level of health from all these life-long diseases with inevitable side-effects and cumulative toxicity, besides progressive morbidity and unaffordable expenditure. According to WHO statistics, it’s a major cause of mortality in the world and 4% population falls below poverty line due to its prohibitive expenditure annually.
Besides, if offers no cure to diseases attributable to aging and ever increasing population of the elderly. The maximum suffering due to sickness and expenditure on health is during the last years of one’s life which invariably exceeds their entire savings.
Therefore, it’s the clarion call of the day that we integrate strengths of the respective systems of health which helps to overcome their inherent deficiencies, viz., the support of allopathy is inevitable for surgical support, life-saving emergency situations and its application in diagnostics. But, all the NCDs can be prevented, controlled and even cured only by following the dictums of Maharishi Charaka and Maharishi Patanjali, respectively.
The medical authorities have to understand that human being is not merely a body or its parts, but a complex of body, mind, senses and the soul. While prevention from disease remains the universal truth, for late comers human health can be improved at any stage and every disease is reversible with the dictum, “Earlier the Better”, by optimum integration of all the systems of health termed Holistic Medicine.
Which modalities do you combine while treating patients? Which is the most effective modality in curing people completely, according to you?
It may be highlighted that no one system of medicine is complete to take care of all kinds of sickness. Also, no two drug based systems can be prescribed simultaneously due to problems of drug-interactions. The people invariably ignore their health, giving priority to everything else in life, and realise it only when struck with a serious ailment or an emergency. In that situation they must rush for allopathic care to save their life first, for which it’s universally accepted to be the most advanced and scientifically endorsed system. It has come to dominate health care worldwide, and most people are dependent on it. However, even though it may save life in emergency situation, it never addresses to the root cause of the problem and creates dependence on medication for rest of the life. To eliminate this evil we need to complement on-going medical management with drug-free modalities of traditional Indian & Chinese wisdom, including the New Age developments in health. This optimum harmony is termed Holistic Medicine.
I practice and support Holistic Medicare comprising lifestyle management, Ashtanga Yoga, Panchakarma, various modalities of acupuncture, and hypnotherapy. I classify New-Age modalities of healing techniques like Reiki, Pranic Healing, Mantra, Mudra, Chakra Balancing, etc. as derivatives of Yoga. I treat the person as a whole, and all diseases get cured concurrently as revealed by testimonials in the Life Positive magazine every month consistently for over 22 years.
The picture below indicates white or the solar light as the source of all life representing its physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of health. But, this white light in turn is made of seven different colours of the rainbow. Therefore, it’s represented that even though allopathy represented by the colour red may be the backbone of health care delivery system, we need optimum integration of all the systems to give us positive health and total wellness ‘Body, Mind & Spirit’.
Holistic Medicine = Modern + Traditional Medicine (Traditional = Indian & Chinese)
[Conservative Medicine + Life-Style & Stress Management + Ashtanga Yoga + Acupuncture-Reflexology + Panchakarma-Detoxification + Counseling-Hypnotherapy- PLRT-NLP + Reiki-Pranic Healing-Chakra Balancing + Regenerative Medicine]
Do you think it is possible to reverse ageing and stay young for as long as you want? If yes how?
Yes, in a willing person it’s absolutely possible to reverse the physical damage due to ageing by restoring positive Mind-Body balance and nurturing the spirit of the person. It’s universally recognised that ‘You are as old as you Think’ or the age is what’s in your mind. Our Yogis who have mastered the art of harmony of ‘Body-Mind-Spirit’ are its living example. They live a life of bliss which ends in healthy departure and not death as for the usual mortals.
The ‘science’ of evidence based modern medicine when complemented with the ‘art’ of time honoured wisdom of traditional systems of health is termed Holistic Medicine. It’s a board certified specialty in the US, and is being increasingly recognised worldwide as the emerging speciality of future. It offers an easily accessible, predictable, reproducible, sustainable and highly cost beneficial approach to health while infusing people to ever remain healthy, productive and young.
The process of aging commences as soon one is born. It’s possible to remain ever young by creating awareness among the youth of the long term benefits of simple Vedic or Gurukul lifestyle including eating habits. As part of SKILL INDIA programme, we can broaden to include benefits of drug-free modalities of Yoga, Panchakarma and the system of Acupuncture to enhance performance of available primary healthcare workers and medical doctors. They should be trained to impart health and not merely treat sickness. Holistic Medicine as a speciality must grow and such physicians should be available at every tertiary care hospital to complement the best of medical care offered to enhance its efficacy. After a lifesaving event, each patient, instead of being subjected to more medication and life-long dependence on the hospital system, should as a protocol be offered secondary prevention to revert to positive health once again.
I am often questioned that why I do not train more doctors in my skills. Well, whatever juniors who have worked with me to acquire the skills have not been able to cut the ice due to lack of demand or I’d say awareness amongst people that with little help they can reverse their sickness and restore health by tapping on their self potential. All the people, including the medical profession, have been conditioned for long to think that only ‘allo’ or the external interventions can treat their sickness. We have to kindle the awareness of infinite capability of the ‘auto’ or the self-healing, as part of the natural intelligence installed within each one of us, to prevent or even overcome any kind of sickness. Let the whole world wake up to know that no antibiotic would help without your own immune system, and no surgery in the world would be possible without patient’s capacity to finally heal their own wounds.
Our ancient culture has so many holistic ways to bring the human body to a state of harmony and balance. Why do you feel that medical science which is alien to our demography and requirements became so popular in India?
You are wrong to say “our ancient culture has so many holistic ways” as the nature has only one way and that’s the nature’s order – you disturb that and you invite disease. There is only one way to live a life of bliss & youth by following Patanjali’s sutras. Many ways have been created by humans, like many gods, for their own selfish interests and created abundance of ‘Quacks’ ruining our heritage. The education system in our country had been corrupted by the aliens to subjugate to their business interests and that included practice of medicine whereby you all the time depend on external aids. Allopathy has its distinct advantages of quick relief and emergency care; the rest is our fault to let our life totally depend on it.
What do you think is the future of medical treatment in the world?
I always remember as prophetic the words of Dr. Prathap C. Reddy, the founder Chairman of Apollo group of hospitals, who stated in year 1995 that Holistic Medicine is the future of 21st century. This led to the establishment of the world’s first ever department of its kind at Delhi’s Indraprastha Hospitals. The likes of Dr Deepak Chopra have gained world fame propagating this concept. Most of the aware people talk about it in their social chats, but are driven to allopathy by the conditioning all around.

 

Musings

By Chandra Mohan

I was surviving,

Getting my next high

Broken body; mind rigid

I must comply.

Dipped in thoughts

Perforating the abyss of darkness for pleasure,

Uttering muses only the walls can measure.

If you can quit for a day, you can quit for a lifetime they say.

But the high is on my hunt

To take me.

Take me to a night

Where I roam around, drunk in passion

Bathing under the cerebral streetlight.

Where the world lights like glowworms with immorality,

I am left in a reverie, standing for eternity.

I know it’s wrong, it’s a crime

But it’s too hard to escape

I want it another last time.

(The poet is BA English (Hons) from Doon University, Dehradun)