Last week a discussion took place within our WhatsApp group on the subject of wellbeing, quite broadly defined. Members shared their views, based on their own knowledge and experience. Overall, the members’ views, when arranged together, took the form of a panel discussion. Needless to say, in a discussion among friends, nobody had a personal axe to grind. Views were shared in the hope that a thoughtful reader may find something useful in them.

It is in that spirit that are we presenting the views here.

Rajeev Saranjame

There appears to be a fundamental difference between the traditional and modern approaches to health, be it of human beings, plants or the soil. The traditional approach is that living entities are capable of healing themselves, and any external intervention should be minimal and directed towards strengthening the self-healing capabilities to promote long-term good health.

The modern approach is to take over the job of healing from living entities by way of continuous external intervention. Recommendations to take supplements regularly, apply pesticides regularly, use external fertilisers regularly and use antibiotics liberally are born out of this approach.

In my opinion, it is far better to adopt the traditional approach, and fall back on modern techniques only in an emergency. An internally strong living entity can thrive without any external intervention, if only we allow that to happen. The modern approach makes living entities weak and dependent.

Arvind Hanmantgad

I have witnessed for over forty years, my wife’s uncle who was a scientist and one of the original fifteen recruits of Dr. Homi Bhabha for BARC. He practiced natural living and never took any medication. He also believed in ‘mechanical correction’ (his term for surgery!) only when required. He lived a very healthy life until his late nineties, and died a healthy death on his feet, working. I don’t have his will, so I do take medication for serious illness, but otherwise none, and live a very healthy life with no ailments. This works if you don’t have inherited life-threatening conditions, and have the will to weather discomforts when you begin. That is easier said than done!

Suman Rao

My father expired a few months before he would have crossed a hundred years of age. He had no health issues until three months before he passed away. He was a vegetarian, went for long walks, and did yogasanas and pranayama every single day. Certain types of pranayama amount to powerful meditation.

Naresh Jotwani

I have heard from a reputed UK doctor that the best two medicines in the world, by far, are (1) a good diet and (2) regular exercise.

Pharma companies which aggressively push their products into the market are distracting people from the right ways to attain good health. Is it right to say that bad health in general means better business for such companies?

Arvind Hanmantgad

Pharma companies are involved i0n the research and production of modern medicines. Medicines need to be approved by FDA, prescribed by medical fraternity and paid for by health care companies. This is the situation here in USA. Pharma companies are trying to gain market share in competition with other pharma companies. Their primary objectives are sales and profits. Each of them operate under the rules and regulations established by the government elected by people. Each justifies their role and objectives by virtue of their investments and right to earn a return in open competition. It is a profound subject that will have supporters on both sides. It will need indefinite time to debate and seek root cause of the present situation. I am for the traditional way. Still I find it difficult to say pharma companies are deliberately distracting people – even though that may be the ultimate outcome of their efforts and the efforts of every one involved!

Ashok Saraf

Preventing and curing diseases through drugs is the objective of pharma companies. Attaining good health is the objective of the wellness industry. Absence of an established wellness industry is restricting access to practices for attaining good health. For example yoga training , wellness services centres, good food production and sales et cetera are far too few, compared to medicine shops, pharma companies and disease repair centres.

Suman Rao

Pharma companies, insurance companies and corporate hospitals do a great deal of good. But this good is profit motivated. When there are profits to be earned, they will not necessarily guide or encourage alternative means to wellness.

Unfortunate medical professionals too are victims of the system. Acquiring admission is difficult. Getting adequate practice is difficult. To add to their kitty, they must toe the line as laid down by pharma companies and specialist doctors. As employees of hospitals, they are told to create a certain amount of revenue. The nett result is that pharma companies, hospitals, insurance companies and doctors appear to be in a well established network.

Whither the Hippocrates oath?

Alternative medicine is often unreliable. The ingredients could include, for example, heavy metals. Let me recount the experience of a person known to my family.

This young lady, aged about 35, suffered from bouts of asthma. An Ayurvedic doctor of repute recommended an ayurvedic remedy of a well-known brand.

The remedy seemed to work, and she consumed it for several years. Suddenly, she began to exhibit strange symptoms on her skin and limbs. No doctor could cure her. She ran from pillar to post and was finally told she had lead toxicity. No one was willing to take her case and she was not expected to live long. A young specialist in an unrelated field agreed to take her case. She was put under extremely painful and expensive procedures to extract the lead from her bones. The lead had also penetrated other organs. She needed more procedures for extraction of lead from these!

Despite many years of treatment, she needed a steel implant in her leg to help her walk. Her doctor has got her to take out a huge insurance policy, for which she pays a huge premium. She has undying faith in her doctor.

Judge for yourself how she has been a victim of the ‘system’.

Ashok Saraf

The system of medicine and wellness are two distinctly different but related sectors. We need to enhance the wellness sector outreach for attaining better health. We often confuse these two and either expect wellness to cure you, or hospitals and pharma to help you attain good health. Wellness industry is in its infancy. In India, we are literally sitting idle on a great wealth of knowledge related to wellness processes. But processes need to be standardized, people need to be trained in relevant knowledge and skills, and availability has to be improved by creating chains of wellness services.

R. Srinivasan

Prevention is different from cure. If you focus on prevention, then there will be fewer illnesses requiring cure. Most of the current illnesses are directly related to our present way of life, for which human body was not designed. Further, there are emotional issues arising from the modern lifestyle which also cause illness requiring cure. There are many illnesses the body is capable of curing, provided the emotional trigger that causing illness is addressed. But there are certain illnesses which are created by external factors like pollution, processed food, lack of physical activities due to workstyle et cetera. These require medication for immediate relief. The natural body mechanism for self-curing is time-consuming, while the western medical system provides faster cure so that a person can go back to work quickly. This topic is very complex, and does not support a simple right or wrong answer.

Prem Rajani

In my view, most businesses nowadays are trying to push their products and services in order to improve their profitability and attract capital investment. Pharma companies spend a lot on research and not all of it results in a success, so it is high-risk spending. One disturbing trend is that, unlike in the past, pharma is now allowed in the US to directly market to consumers, bypassing the physicians in pushing their medicines. The infinite ways to get your message to the consumer has made that very easy. On the positive side, we are seeing some doctors set up Holistic Centres that seem to focus more on wellness initiatives.

Naresh Jotwani

The recent pandemic showed that most so-called ‘public health experts’ are in cahoots with corporate power, government power – and often both. Knowingly or unknowingly, they offer misleading advice to people, bringing the word ‘expertise’ itself into question or even disrepute.

In such an environment, we hope that the views of a few intelligent and experienced friends would be found useful. A range of different viewpoints is represented here, because the subject matter is complex. We hope that the reader would have found something here which shows him a pathway to greater clarity on the subject. Reader feedback in the form of comments would be most welcome!