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The Journey from Curative to Promotive Care

by Sai Sudha Chebrolu on Aug 25, 2020

The Journey from Curative to Promotive Care

Like many, I have never valued nor appreciated being healthy. Haemoglobin levels coming down to 4 point something after Cesarean section (some 20 years back) made me bedridden for nearly a month. As icing on the cake that led to deep vein thrombosis (which was initially wrongly diagnosed as Filariasis) by an Allopathic doctor. Thankfully my family consulted an Ayurvedic doctor (family doctor) and he did Naadi Pariksha (examination of pulse – though not exactly pulse as translated for convenience). He, in less than five minutes without any other diagnostic tool, concluded that this has happened because of a blood clot near the thigh region, which again was caused by prolonged bed rest.

Of course, to be doubly careful and not to play too much with health we consulted a neurologist and gynaecologist along with prescribed diagnostic reports. And they both said that the pain was because of deep vein thrombosis and there’s no such permanent cure for this problem except for popping in some steroids to control pain.

Now with just Naadi parikhsa if someone could tell what is the problem then logically he will also be having the right medicine! Using this logic, we went back to the Ayurvedic doctor and started his medication. He gave me some medicines (not bad looking nor yucky tasting) and suggested no particular diet restrictions. But one thing he said was after 2-3 months of taking medicines and when swelling and pain subsides I should start doing some simple yoga asanas. I was both surprised and curious. Yoga asanas, why? How will that help me in reducing swelling or pain? And what made him to advice me to slowly start doing physical exercise when I am in such pain.

With patience and smile on his face, he said these medicines will cure me from inside and relieve me from all the visible symptoms (pain and swelling). But if I don’t want this to be repeated ever in my life and want to keep my body in a condition which is not vulnerable to these small ailments then yoga asanas and pranayama are the answers. He said (in Ayurveda) curative care is short term and as the body is a machine/tool we have to learn how to use it well to its entirety. That was a big statement and I did not understand it completely (then). Nevertheless I religiously learned yoga asanas from my husband (simple ones to begin with and slowly graduated to Surya Namaskarams) and started practicing.

Now I am with you all healthy and hearty sharing my fond experiences….

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