IF YOU’VE lost faith but are still looking for a bona fide Ayurveda centre, apart from those located in five and seven star hotels which are quite beyond the reach of ordinary citizens, you cannot do better than check out the brand new Ayurveda centre of Ayurcare, which opened for serious business on May 1, 2009, in Porvorim in Goa. Healthcare is serious business, be it mainstream Allopathy or any of the other alternate systems of medicine and healing which are fast making a come back in our times, because Allopathy can be quite disillusioning vis-à-vis today’s so called degenerative or lifestyle diseases.

HOMEOPATHY IS not about placebos, but it is an exact holistic science. In the third session of a continuing series organised by Kamaxidevi Homeopathic Medical College & Hospital, the Taleigao Chess Academy and the Goa International Centre on July 12, 2009, various practicing homeopathy doctors defined the fundamentals of homeopathy and how it plays a useful preventive and curative role in treating patients suffering from a wide range of ailments and diseases.

WITH THE onset of the monsoon, people suddenly find themselves inflicted with many illnesses, predominant among them being respiratory tract related illnesses and gastroenteritis. Both can cause mortalities. However, respiratory tract infections, which are caused by viruses, are more frequent and spread quickly, causing disease of epidemic proportions. They are amongst the most common human diseases, accounting for half and more of all acute illnesses.

SINCE MORE and more people are considering and turning to alternate systems of medicine in India and abroad, it makes sense for the practicing fraternity to meet, discuss and have more interaction of the useful and valuable kind, to benefit patients at large. This was the appeal by Principal Dr. Arvind Kothe of The Kamaxi Homeopathic College & Hospital in Shiroda, Goa, and others, at the second of a series of sessions being held on “Different Systems of Medicine & Our Health” organised by The International Centre (Goa) and the Taleigao Chess Academy on June 28, 2009.

IT’S TOUGH to be a baby today! From the time a baby is born it’s the target of an immunisation schedule…for tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertusis, tetanus, polio, measles, hepatitis and now increasingly from the mosquito-bite scourge of malaria, filaria, Japanese encephalitis, dengue, chikungunya and whatever else in store in the near future as mosquitoes continue to proliferate to spread disease, suffering and mercifully a quick death in Goa and in state after state.

FEELING DOWN, blue, wondering why you’re constantly out of sorts? Ask yourself if you’re feeling comfortable with your shape! Is putting on a gross amount of weight part and parcel of your blues? Very often it is. Our sedentary urban lifestyles take a toll on our fitness quotient and subsequent emotional quotient. Any medical person will tell you…while in the countries of the west and the developed countries of the east, they’re becoming more and more fitness crazy (to the point of going to retrogressive extremes) we in India perceive how well we drink and eat as indices of the good life. Any form of hard laborious housework or physical work, however, is embarrassing! Little wonder then that we’re becoming a nation of unhealthy citizens.

WHY DO children get diabetes, diabetes I or juvenile diabetes? Ask Dr. S. S. Srikanta of the very public-friendly Jnana Sanjivini Medical Centre tucked away in a by-lane of suburban J.P. Nagar Phase 2 in Bangalore, and he shrugs, It’s the Lord’s wish, perhaps to test parental love for their special child! But then as you look at seven-month old Mana, who was in an irritable mood in her mother’s arms at the clinic, you realise that love has everything to do with it…

DEBATE OVER the sale of internationally banned drugs in India may soon come to an end. For the first time, a wide network is being created to monitor the adverse effect of suspect drugs: more than 290 medical colleges and all corporate hospitals will together do the job as part of a World Health Organisation (WHO) initiative under the Uppsala Monitor­ing Centre, a global network for intelli­gence on drug benefits and risks.

THE GOVERNMENT has initiated steps to combat swine flu, which has got the World Health Organisation (WHO) on pandemic alert, in the state. Mexico first raised an alert last week when 1600 confirmed cases were reported. Over a 100 people have already died after suffering from this severe variant of the flu.

THE MOMENT I get the Mumbai-based Health Awareness Centre’s annual desk calendar, I’m inspired anew! THAC was founded by my friend Dr. Vijaya Venkat who’s been promoting good health the non-aggressive way for over 20 years now and recently she received the “Best Wellness Teacher of the World Award” at the first World Wellness Women’s Congress held in March 20-22, 2009, in Chennai. Over the years, Vijaya and her Dadar-based centre have been doing pioneering…