This video was produced in 2007 but has been making the rounds on Ayurvedic and natural health Facebook sites this week, and I finally got around to watching it last night. I only wish it were longer and that it could have ventured even deeper into the Ayurvedic treatments the reporter received (and I'd also love to see the food being prepared at the Arya Vaidya Clinic)!
Here is some background information from the PBS website where you can read more about the video and this project. T.R. Reid's book, The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care was published in August of 2010 after the author's "global quest to find a prescription for American health care."
A commentator on Japan for NPR and former Washington Post bureau chief in London and Tokyo, T.R. Reid has spent a lot of time abroad studying foreign cultures. But Ayurveda was still an unfamiliar option to him when he was considering shoulder replacement surgery. It fit nicely, though, with a larger book project he is working on, exploring various health care systems around the world, part of which will be featured as a FRONTLINE documentary next year. So he decided to give it a shot.
...skeptical to begin with, Reid is now convinced that Ayurveda is "on to something," though it may be hard to prove by Western standards.
Back home, in a brief epilogue, Reid admits that whatever gains he made in India have faded away. His shoulder is as stiff as ever. "But that's not the fault of Ayurvedic medicine; let's be fair here,” says Reid. "It’s because I haven't done a darned thing about my arm since I left India." Still, he has decided to skip the surgery that would have implanted a titanium rod in his arm.
"I'm certain that if I did the kind of massage or any kind of exercise like they gave me, even if I took those awful herbal medicines regularly, that my arm would be making significant progress, because we sure did when I was in India,” declares Reid, "and for that I'm grateful to Ayurveda."
3 comments:
Fascinating... We certainly need a more holistic view of medicine. I actually thought we were headed in that direction at one point, but unfortunately "holistic medicine" in the west has become medicine for the wealthy. Two years ago my doctor decided not to participate in insurance carrier plans anymore and branched out into his version of holistic medicine, which is nothing like Ayurveda, and wanted $1500 dollars up front/year, plus you paid your own lab costs. I could not participate in *his* plan :) It's called VIP medicine actually. and caters to - well - padding the pockets of the doctors. :)
I did notice there is a part 2 and part 3 to this video. They pop up when the video stops.
Thanks for the "second opinion" :)
Yay, thank you, I did not see there was more to it! Whoo!
No doubt he is drinking some lovely Triphala in some of those cups, lol. It tastes horrendous.
Post a Comment