Yoga's at 6:30!

This week we started our last rotation at Bapu Nature Cure Hospital and Yogashram. Sound familiar? That's because I've mentioned Bapu before; we stayed here our first week. But we didn't know what went on in all those consultation chambers. Now we do!

As the title tells you, the day starts with a 6:30 am yoga session, which is tough for those of us who can't seem to sleep before 1 am due to varied and loud distractions. But once we make the 10 minute trek to Bapu from Manu Apartments (where all 10 of us are staying in, ummm, three rooms and two bathrooms), it's worth it. The yoga's elementary, but it feels so good to stretch and we have been hearing from EVERYONE, from doctors, to HIV peer counselors to people on the street, how yoga heals everything. And there is something about it...the breathing, the meditation, the holding of poses, the "tourniquet effect" of blood being held in one place and then rushing to the limbs. There's gotta be something to it.

The official day starts at 9 am, Indian time. So around 11:30 we start doing outpatient department rounds (OPD), with the naturopath, physiologist, acupressurist and ayurvedic doctor. Today, we'll meet an acupuncturist too (although acupuncture is officially Chinese, so the Indian government doesn't recognize it as part of Ayush, the Indian medical system).

After OPD, we have lunch (ahhh, Bapu...it's always grams, rice, squash, and chapatis) and then a lecture by one of the doctors from the OPD. Yesterday Dr. Rukhamani Nair gave us a lecture on the basic tenets of naturopathy and ayurveda. It was pretty interesting. She seemed very aware she was speaking to (largely) allopathic people (although Emma is pretty alternative). She made sure to explain that the way ayurveda explains health and disease are simply explanations...they are not meant to overtake modern medicine. However, the naturopathic doctor we met, who chose to get a bachelors in naturopathy after getting low marks and failing to get a seat in medical school (sound familiar??), seemed to think that for chronic degenerative diseases, the natural approach is superior. And for the most part, I can't disagree.

I did rounds with Emma yesterday, and uor first noe was with a physiotherapy doctor, Shikha. She did her bachelors in physiotherapy (apparently, you don't have to have a masters degree to call yourself a doctor, and Shikha says the government now recognizes people like her as official doctors). Her patients mostly suffer from periarthritis. They are over 60 years old, for the most part. We watched her do some manipulations, and stretch a young girl's neck because it was bending over due to some kind of fibrosis. It was interesting to see that a lot of women had something they call "frozen shoulder" in their right arm, due to untreated tendonitis that eventually became periarthritis (a soft tissue disease). It appears that these women suffer from repetitive use of their arms...we've all seen women sweeping, scrubbing clothes, pots, pans, and floors. They also stoop with their backs instead of bending their legs, as Emma pointed out the other day. But Indian women don't complain.

Our next rotation was with Dr. Usha, an acupressurist with killer hands. She did some acupressure on Emma and me and it was awesome...very forceful. She taught us all about the soles of the feet and the palms of the hands...each part corresponds to some part of your body. Applying pressure to, say, the tip of the finger, is good for healing the sinuses. The back of yuor right toe also connects to the head...Dr. Usha got so specific as to say it affected the pituitary gland. In between the second and third toes is the eye point. And so on and so on. There's a point for every part of the body on your soles and palms, and by kneading these points, you can heal many complaints. The patient we observed had come in because his allopathic doctor told him he needed to have a tonsillectomy. He doesn't like modern medicine, and wants to avoid it at all costs. So he decided to come to Dr. Usha, who's been treating him for two or three months. Now, he says he's totally fit without any medicines or surgery. Hmmm.

The aforementioned naturopathic doctor was our next rotation. He describes his field as a drugless therapy, where water, mud, and diet are manipulated to treat ailments. Mud has a cold effect, so it helps with skin disorders, constipation, and abdominal organs. You don't just use any soil, but the black or yellow kind. Water therapy is, as we all know, hydrotherapy. He had a massive book the size of Gray's Anatomy, all on hydrotherapeutic techniques. One thing I respected a lot about this doctor's ideology is his belief that if you work on the patient's mind, you'll see positive results. Behavioral change is the biggest challenge, so patients need a lot of encouragement and hope. This doctor took that task upon himself, which I think is totally appropriate. And while the results from drugless therapy come much slower, you DO see results. And they are more lasting.

One of the things that bothered me about Bapu is that when I asked about the socioeconomic status of the patients that come to the OPD (and who come to stay at the hospital, for that matter), I was informed that they are mostly upper middle class. The poor can't invest the money for long-term therapy, which is what nature cure entails. It's an investment. I asked if they do charity cases too, and they do. Today I will ask about outreach efforts. There is so much filth around Bapu, in the Padpadganj area. There are children sloshing around in the foul water that has pooled due to yesterday's heavy rains. Who knows what microorganisms are in there?? Cholera? Typhoid? Giardia?

There's more to tell, but I have to go learn more stuff now!