Medicine - INDIA Volunteer Stories

Medicine and Healthcare - Bonnie Chien

Growing up in Taiwan, I’ve been exposed to traditional Chinese medicine and many alternative, holistic methods of healing. To expand my perspective of other traditional practices, I decided to undertake a journey to India after hearing about Ayurvedic medicine from a Projects Abroad correspondent.

When allopathic medicine fails to cure or offer typically assumed fast relief from disease, patients often turn to alternative options such as Ayurveda and Siddha medicine, traditional forms of Indian medical practice. Siddha is the main system practiced in southern India and is believed to be the oldest system of medicine in the world. My personal strong interest in alternative medicine led to my placement in Dindigul with Dr. Sundarameenal (Dr. Meenal) at her private clinic and at Gandhigram Hospital where she volunteers. She even showed me some of her hundred‐year‐old palm leaves with writings in herb‐based ink of ancient Siddha knowledge passed down from generation to generation.

Dr. Meenal’s specialty is infertility cases and she sees many patients who have failed to conceive and tried allopathic hormonal treatments to no success. Her practice has been quite successful, with many women producing “Siddha” babies, babies borne successfully from Ayurvedic/Siddha treatment that often consists of specific concoctions of herbal ingredients such as aloe vera.

My 2‐week placement gave me a brief but illuminating glimpse into the power of Ayurvedic/ Siddha herbal medicine. Although I could not keep track of all of the different plants and their capacities, I appreciated their ability to rid ailments with little to no side effects and to address the source of health imbalance steadily and completely. I saw that women who underwent Siddha treatment not only produced healthy, bright babies, but that the women themselves were also happier and responded positively to the treatment with no negative repercussions.

Dr. Meenal always acts as the attentive sisterly figure who guides patients in selecting the appropriate herbal treatment regimen for their various conditions. In India, the herbal pharmaceutical industry is quite competitive and many companies vie for business with the doctor! Each company makes slightly different mixtures of herbal medicines with different ratios of ingredients under different names; the drugs nonetheless treat the same conditions. Although the products are derived from traditional wisdom of the properties of herbs, the product marketing is by no means old‐fashioned. The brochures are clear and vibrant, with flashy, fitting names such as “Geriforte”, an herbal concoction that alleviates stress and increases vitality.

Every morning, Dr. Meenal makes her way to Gandhigram hospital for her gynaecology outpatient clinic. She does not have as many patients here compared with her own clinic so I made my way to the adjoining Nature Body outpatient clinic a few times. Here, the doctor and her two interns specialise in acupuncture, acupressure, massage, and yoga treatment for various ailments from arthritis to skin disorders. They have also shared with me some interesting therapeutic techniques they use occasionally such as chromo‐therapy and magnotherapy.

Chromotherapy subjects patients to different wavelengths of light that can balance energies and heal complaints, particularly emotional ones. Magnotherapy operates on the principle that placing magnets of opposite poles on the hands can induce magnetic fields that increase energy flow and improve circulation. Traditional Indian medicine indeed has such rich heritage and I have been lucky to try some of it myself ‐ I took some citrus‐based herb powder for digestive problems that had an effect the next day! I have yet to experience more divergent practices such as chromotherapy and magnotherapy, though! Although the efficacy of these practices is controversial, the beauty and liberty of alternative medicine is that its complex, flexible parameters can often hit the sweet spot of a patient’s distinctive complaint when no other method does.

Dr. Meenal is also involved in Lakshmi Seva Sangam (LSS), an herbal product manufacturing unit of the Gandhigram trust, to promote the sales of herbal medicine. She took me with her to organized camps in rural villages in Sivagangai and on the Sirumalai hillside. At Sivagangai, she and other members of LSS spoke to local practitioners about the benefits of herbal medicine and changes and improvements the company had made in the products. The company emphasised that the potential clients’ patronage would also support job opportunities for the rural poor, particularly destitute women, whom LSS seeks to employ.

The simplest way herbal medicine can affect everyday life is through food ‐ “food is thy medicine; medicine is thy food.” South Indian cooking utilizes many spices and vegetables with time‐tested health benefits. For instance, garlic, coconut, and cumin are frequently used in preparing various chutneys for eating with rice, dosa, idly, and many other rice‐based products. Garlic and coconut normalize digestive abilities while cumin tones blood pressure and blood circulation.

I have witnessed the far reaching influence of traditional Indian medicine carried out by the tireless efforts of my mentor, Dr. Meenal, and her colleagues. They seek to introduce traditional healing practice as a way of life rather than only as a resort to cure disease. Spending two weeks shadowing Dr. Meenal has shown me many different types of healing that are naturally integrated into everyday life, the most profound of which is spirituality. Although I do not practice religious rituals, I realised that adopting some spiritual habit such as meditation and a more conscious perspective on my physiological intake of food and other environmental elements will enable me to live a simpler, more economical lifestyle. My holistic medical experience also provided a holistic perspective on life.

Bonnie Chien