|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
After 20 Years in Crisis-Oriented Medicine Dr. Reddy Switches to Ayur-Veda
Sixty to seventy hours a week spent at work. Most of those hours spent in the operating room. Most of those patients finding only temporary relief through their surgeries. Stress. This was Dr. Kumuda Reddy's life.
Dr. Reddy has always been interested in alternative medicine. Ten years ago she traveled to Fairfield and took a course for physicians, led by Drs. Stuart Rothenberg and Richard Averbach, on Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care. Upon her return to her home in New York, friends began asking Reddy for help. These friends were tired of feeling bad, living with pain, dealing with side effects from their medicines, and of seeing their children suffer from similar complaints. So Reddy began practicing as a Maharishi Ayur-Veda physician part time.
Demand for this knowledge was high. Soon, largely through word of mouth, Reddy had more than 1,300 patients and had left anesthesiology to practice Maharishi Ayur-Veda full time. But 99 percent of her patients were coming to her for treatment, leaving 1 percent who were coming for prevention. This could be better, she thought. To make it better she wrote a book.
In Forever Healthy: Introduction to Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Care (Samhita Enterprises Inc., New York, 1997) Reddy and her collaborator Stan Kendz give the basics of Maharishi Ayur-Veda. It is concise and thorough. For family and friends who are unfamiliar with Maharishi Ayur-Veda it is an excellent introduction. The chapters are short, clear, and each is followed by a summary. Reddy calls the book "a one hour read," and though for some it may take longer, statements such as, "Living in tune with nature is like swimming downstream-- it's effortless" make the time spent enjoyable.
One of the purposes of the book was to make Maharishi Ayur-Veda a household word. This is why Reddy gives the book to her patients, why large quantities are boxed and sent to corporations, and why she gives free talks on Maharishi Ayur-Veda around New York. She has received so many invitations to speak that she says it has become her main hobby.
At first, Reddy's colleagues laughed at her interest in Maharishi Ayur-Veda. "They just thought it was ancient-- ancient meaning useless," Reddy explains. But the Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care program was working. "Some patients find relief in two to three visits after suffering for years," says Reddy. Now the other physicians in her area have become progressively more open and recognize the value. Whatever her colleagues' original reactions were, "The ultimate validation is always the experience of the patient over time," she says, and continued excellent results have had a strong impact.
Forever Healthy stresses the complementary nature of conventional Western medicine and Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care. "It's the integrated approach," says Reddy. Although Reddy's found that patients who follow Maharishi Ayur-Veda need to rely less and less on Western medicine she states, "I still recommend conventional therapies such as prescription drugs or surgery when I feel that is necessary." It is the addition of Maharishi Ayur-Veda to conventional medicine that gives patients "the best of both worlds."
Reddy herself is an example of integration. With her husband, a practicing urologist, she has three children. In addition to her strong family life, Reddy has practiced medicine for more than 20 years. She took her medical internship in India, studied in England, and completed her residency and fellowship in anesthesiology at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. In each country she studied conventional medicine. As a result Reddy knows the benefits of conventional medicine and where it has room for improvement. She saw, through the knowledge of Ayur-Veda that Maharishi brought out, that health care could be perfect because it could be complete. As people in her area have responded to this idea of integration and become her patients, society has responded--Barnes & Noble and Border's Books, both nationwide bookstore chains, will soon be offering Forever Healthy for sale.
"Where to go for more," is the last chapter of the book. It is designed to help people contact local physicians who have been trained in Maharishi Ayur-Veda or for those who are interested in the expanded Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health program. Included in this chapter are phone numbers, addresses, and Web sites of where to find more information.
Ninety-five percent of the people who approach Reddy as a patient are not instructed in the Maharishi Transcendental Meditation technique. About half of those patients receive instruction in the technique, up from the 20 to 30 percent five years ago. "More and more people want to learn," says Reddy. Throughout the book the benefits of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation are brought out, along with the scientific research which verifies the benefits. Reddy also makes the point that patients respond to Maharishi Ayur-Veda treatment regardless of whether they are practitioners of Maharishi's TM program. "Maharishi Ayur-Veda is that powerful," she says.
In her book, Reddy cites case studies showing the power she is referencing. She relates inspiring stories of her patients who received relief from chronic diseases such as seasonal allergies, depression, arthritis, and leukemia. But severe symptoms are not the only problems that are given attention. Reddy explains that most people live in a state of moderate health, accepting colds, headaches, and anxiety as a normal part of life. She describes patients who were tired of such discomforts and sought help, resulting in a move from subsistence health to optimum health. "I like to be able to help people," says Reddy. "This is wonderful knowledge."
Reddy has written, "As a physician practicing Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care, I feel that the doctor always gains more than the patient. . . . In my practice, I always feel that I am growing along with my patients." When she worked as an anesthesiologist she knew that at work she would be administering anesthetics. Now, as a Maharishi Ayur-Veda physician, she takes care of families. She interacts with children, teenagers, couples, parents, and those expecting to be parents very soon. She is attracted to the variety and the personal one-on-one connection that she enjoys with her patients. Says Reddy, "After 20 years in crisis-oriented medicine, it's heartwarming to be working as a Maharishi Ayur-Veda physician."
