Piku's poop is a real trouble.

Disclaimer : shitty post ahead! 

Shoojit Sircar must be experiencing constipation within or around him to direct a movie so close to our bowels and guts. And I will not restraint myself from
assuming that the credit for Piku being such a massive hit lies in the fact that somewhere we too
have our 'motions and emotions intimately linked'! 

Who can afterall disagree that a gut freed morning is indeed a good morning! 

Movies have the power to grab our sentiments and put forth a coloured reality of what we tend to ignore in everyday lives. Be it the plight of dyslexic kid in Taare zameen par or schizophrenic mathematician in A beautiful mind. This time its Piku. 
Kudos to the entire team for making us realise how much of a problem constipation has become in the world of today.

 www.wholeapproach.com has called constipation as a modern epidemic.

Roughly 12-19% population in United States, as many as 63 million people suffer from it another source says. 

India too is not far behind to make a way in the list of constipated countries. 

Last month I joined in a medical college as an intern and its surprising and alarming at the same time that 4 out of every 10 patients I see each day are not just constipated but suffering acutely because if it.

They come to me and have a similar plea to put forward 'please help us get rid of it, linking all their health issues directly or indirectly to it.' And believe me they are as much in distress as our beloved 'Bhashkor' in Piku. 

This problem of abnormal stool is equally common in both youngsters and elders.

Sparing no age of its occurrence.

While most of the people overlook it initially, they later are either shy or ashamed of accepting the gut tantrums. 

It is understandable given the fact that our shit is as intimate and personal as our sex lives. 

But is constipation slowly becoming a silent killer? The epidemiological stats of various countries certainly point towards a crumbling hard truth.

The funny part is, constipation is a relatively simple problem to deal with just like obesity and majority of the other lifestyle disorder we face today. Infact, simpler than all of them. 

A little tweak in our diet can not just improve our bowel health but also help us get rid of other health troubles like weight gain, bloating, high cholesterol levels and haemorrhoids etc. all of which are extremely closely and directly related to constipation. 

In my 4 years of medical studies I have realised that the so called lifestyle disorders are all so intimately related, almost like parasitic relation. If you can manage to root out even one, chances are you will weaken the others too.

Starting with constipation might be an easy way out of the vicious circle of health menace.Here's how to do it:

1) Water is the transporter of waste in our body.  So we need it in adequate amounts to keep the transportation going on. Drink at least 7-8 glasses of water everyday.

2) Leafy veggies and fruits, the coarser the better. Green makes our intestines active. So go ahead, throw up some work for your intestines. 

3)All processed foods and junks make you and your intestines sluggish and slow. So by dumping them you are saving yourself from the dumping syndrome. 

4)Make fibres your friends. Be it dalia or chana or chokar, they all have high amount of fibre which basically helps to increase the intestinal motility and bulk of our food. 

5) Our gut and mind are deeply connected. More than the mind and heart. That's why we feel 'butterflies in our stomach' when we fall in love and 'pangs of anxiety in the gut' when we are nervous or afraid.

So if you are stressed out, the stomach too gets upset causing you constipation.

Ok! Time to wind up the shitty talk. But make sure you keep a check on your bowel habits as goes Piku's tagline 'motion se hi emotion'!

The 'alternate' doctor!

We humans are functionally and fundamentally a complex combination of tendencies, instincts and inclinations. A very marked one, out of these, is to be a 'priority'. To never be an option or an alternative. Athough we are quick to chalk out our own choices and priorities, no one wants to be listed as secondary in someone else's list of importants.

The irony of today's time however is that we live in a world of ever increasing alternatives. Whatever displeases our sense of perfection even by Nano-inch is automatically replaced by something new. Which is why being an alternative is getting even more scarier in this extremely competitive and perfection demanding era of today. 

Having said all that, here I stand, a doctor pursuing an 'alternative' system of medicine. Yes, this very word alternative would make a majority of the world either pay no attention to it or neglect it ever so brutally. Many of you might question, why have an alternative system after all when the mainstream system of medicine is flourishing. Backed up by the greatest pharmaceutical giants it is now no more an orthodox system of medicine. The doctors of allopathic system are met with this dignity and respect, no matter what actually goes beneath the teachings of the coveted white aprons.

Oh no! Before you get me wrong or pity me or presume this to be one of those 'whining with a glass of wine' post, let me tell you then I plan not dirt slinging but of whining, well, I'm not very certain.

So anyways, having completed my BHMS this month (for those of you who don't know, BHMS stands for Bachelor of homoeopathic medicine and surgery) it scares me an awful lot to be labelled and reckoned as an alternate, a second choice or maybe the last of all. 

No matter the effort I have put in, the knowledge I acquired, the compassion in my bosom to treat and cure, the will to heal are suffering humanity-I will, most probably be unable to prescribe off this ailment of being labelled as secondary.

For many of you reading this, it may not seem to be a big deal but if you think of it all in terms of your health it might ring a bell somewhere near you. If you as a patient, come to visit the doctor with a biased mind, of him being an alternate how can there ever develop a primary doctor-patient relationship? How do you expect me, the doctor, to give you my best when I am just a secondary substitute?

How wise is it to label a doctor as a substitute or an alternate just because he practices a pathy that is an alternate system of medicine in the country? Haven't we, because of our ignorance, misinterpreted and mis-designated the doctors of today? The reason why the word alternate was attached to different systems of medicine was because they moved parallely with the modern system and in many cases worked much better than allopathy. Their principles and foundations being much stronger and older than the modern system. But as it happens in all civilisations, people judge rather misjudge the reasons and formulate new ones, the alternate system stooped down to the level of being a last resort and the doctors being called as quacks.

We, the doctors of alternate pathy may not be able to fight with the moneymaking pharmaceutical companies out there or with those who leave no stone unturned to prove us to be nothing more than a placebo. But we surely have hope. And our hope is our patients. The faith of our patients is what has kept our pathy consistently rising above all hurdles and proving that we can do miracles. 

I have no qualms in being labelled as an alternate if I am a priority for my patients. If they consider me something more, something above and beyond the last and final resort/try and error method. I sincerely wish that come soon the day we, the homoeopaths are able to prove what a wonder our pathy is. Giving homeopathy the place it truly deserves. 

Signing off, me, the alternate doctor trying my best to reach and help you with this extraordinary pathy! 

Homoeopathy - Lets dwell deeper!

Sir William Ostler (Father of Modern Medicine) has said - 

 

"No individual has done more good to the medical profession than Samuel Hahnemann (the father of Homeopathy)".

Homoeopathy has been derived from a Greek word 'homeos' meaning similar ( not same) and 'pathos' meaning suffering. So, it is basically treatment on the principle of 'like cures like'.

The root of this principle dates back to Vedic literature and writings of Hippocrates ( who is the father of medicine). 

But, it was after many years that Samuel Hanhemann, a German physician while translating a book called 'Cullen's Materia Medica' discovered its efficacy.

Hanhemann read in the Materia Medica that 'cinchona bark could cure intermittent (malaria- like) fevers'. This particular sentence did not convince him much and he did something extraordinary. He took the extract of the medicine himself as a part of experimentation! And to his surprise, within a few days he developed malaria-like symptoms. 

This experiment of Hanhemann lead to the birth of homoeopathy. He realized that the same cinchona bark which caused symptoms of malaria in a healthy human ( himself) was responsible for curing it too.

So the popular believes that many people have today that Homoepathy is nothing but a 'magic potion' of sweet pills and stands on 'no scientific principle' is completely wrong.

Time and again when human provings of over 2000 homoeopathic drugs are carried out results are observed and registered.

All over the world, homeopathic clinics and hospitals are curing all kinds of cases. From a simple fever to complex diseases. I do not debate on the fact that homoepathy is the 'quickest' remedy or has 'cure for everything' on earth. That is NOT true. Like any other medical science it too has its limitations and short-comings.

But if prescribed correctly and taken with faith and correct guidance Homoeopathy DOES POSSESS THE POWER TO CURE, by cure I mean ACTUAL CURE and not simply SUPPRESSING A COMPLAINT TO SEE IT RETURNING BACK after a week, a month or an year.

For all those, still in doubt I advice you to - TRY IT ONCE :)

 

 

Samuel Hahnemann Memorial at Scott Circle in Washington, D.C. The memorial is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

PS : You can read the introductory post HERE .
 

HOMOEOPATHY

Being a BHMS student, the course of usual conversation with relatives, acquaintances and at times random strangers is some what like this :

They – What are you doing? 

ME – BHMS

They – BHMS? Now whats that?

Me – Its bachelor of homoeopathic medicine and surgery

They – (utterly astonished) homoeopathy? ( As if I told them I sold fruits in the nearest market)

Why did u choose homoeopathy? :-/

Will you be even recognized as a doctor? What is the duration of the course, 2 yrs? (Did I even answer that?)

Why didn’t you opt for Dental or Ayurveda instead? (Like it would have made any difference to their life!)


And an endless string of (pointless) questions bombard on me till the topic of our conversation somehow feels guilty of its birth and attempts suicide or is lets say, murdered!

What surprises me is when these so- called well wishers of mine don’t even know what BHMS stands for, the duration of the course ( leave aside the amount of hard work a qualified homoeopath puts in), nearly half of them have never tried a single homoeopathic remedy. Who on earth gave them the right to demoralize or look down upon the system I proudly plan to practice?

Their 'sympathetic minds' are too stubborn to accept that homeopathy is much more that 'peddling white pills' and false claims like there exists no scientific proof of this system of medicine is totally baseless.

I wish I could explain their 'reason gifted' minds that the white pills are simply a medium to carry the medicine which is usually a liquid proved on healthy humans, and not just once but the efficacy of it has been established by proving it a dozens of times. Making homeopathy a science so unique and advanced.

Also bring to their knowledge that a 200 year old system couldn’t have survived so long simply on sugar pills. What homoeopathy talked of 200 years ago, the modern medical science struggles to prove today.


From nanotechnology to molecular injections, we are coming to the era of micro dilutions which is precisely the underlying idea of homoeopathy.

As Arthur Schopenhauer has said:

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident".

Its been aeon's that homeopathy has continued to be ridiculed and violently opposed. But we hope that now is the time. Until then homeopaths all over the world would continue to heal and cure.

After all ‘The physician’s high and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure, as it is termed’. (aphorism 1- Book of Organon, written by Dr. Samuel Hanhemann, founder of homoeopathy) .


PS : This article has originally been written by me for my college magazine.
 PPS: This is also the 1st post of the series I will be writing on my blog to create awareness about HOMOEOPATHY for the 'ignorants and freelancer conjectures'  !!
your support will be highly appreciated and your queries are welcomed :)

Read more - HERE