Question:
Does Chinese or Ayurveda (Indian) medicine work for manic depression?
How has it helped?
Can anyone recommend such a practitioner in the Toronto area?
Answer:
Actually - I have a lot of experience with both acupunture and ayurveda
with the treatment of depression and bi-polar II - so this will be long
winded. Both types of medicine use pulse diagnositics and are concerned with
balancing the body to achieve "perfect health". The treatments
acupunture and ayurvedic massage are very relaxing and soothing; touch
is a very healing thing. The herbs help to restore the balance in the
body - as many of us have run down our bodies from stress, poor diet,
lack of sleep - and rid the body of toxins. Ayurveda gives a lot of
information on diet to balance your body type (dosha) and life style.
I find alternative medicine much more "helpful" in giving some sort of
immediate relief from chronic symptoms (aches, pains, fatigue) than
anything a western Doc can do. My first bout with depression - my
acupuntrist was the only health care provider who realized how close to
the edge I was and confronted me about "checking out". My old PDOC use
to have me fill out a form every week about if I felt suicidal (rate
1-10); I answered 9 several times w\o a peep from the @$$hole.
I just recently spent about 6 days doing panchakarma treatments and
meditation courses at Deepak Chopra's Center for Well Being. I've also
been going to acupunture 1x week (a lot of the meds cause toxicity in
the liver). Both of the treatments are beneficial BUT I do not
recommend them to REPLACE traditional meds - and ONLY if you can afford
it. I saw Dr. Harold Bloomfield (the PDOC who wrote "How to Heal
Depression", "How Heal Anxiety w\ Herbs", "Hypericum and Depression" -
he immediately questioned me on why could I afford to go to the Chopra
Center and to come to see him - I had to admitt I'd spent all my money
in true bipolar fashion and it had caused a lot of problems w\ my
family. Dr. Bloomfield is a pal of Deepak and actually trained him in
wholistic health years ago - anyway, Dr. Bloomfield told me to spend my
money on "less esoteric" medical care for the time being.
Ayurvedic panchakarma treatments are very expensive; if you go to a
clinic expect to pay $500\day in the US. If money isn't an object, you
can check out The RAJ in Iowa or the Chopra Center in San Diego. You'll
want to go for at least 5 days and maybe 7.
A good basic book on Ayurveda is Perfect Health by Deepak Chopra. You
can determine your body type\dosha and start trying to follow the diet
for your dosha. His website is www.chopra.com. The staff is wonderful
and the clinic is very healing; they do not have life in accomodations.
The Raj's website is www.theraj.com and does have accomodation and is
located out in the country side. Ayurveda give you a lot of tools to
work with: diet, food for thought, meditation techniques, wonderful
massage AND Bastis (herbal enemas)
I just wanted to say that a friend a mine, a very inspired and
forward-thinking college librarian was a great believer in Deepak
Chopra's philosophy. My friend, this brave soul, was not only a polio
survivor but fought off cancer for many years with panchkarma
treatments and meditation. Although she died a year ago, she outlived
doctor's predictions of her death by many years because of her belief
in ayuveda and Deepak Chopra's philosophy in fighting illness. It was
her belief that when the east met the west, incredible things would
happen.
