America, turns to the integrative realm of ayurvedic medicine for healing and wellness. The 5,000-year-old Indian healing tradition incorporates lifestyle changes, yoga and meditation, detoxification, herbs, massage and various other individually targeted healing modalities, depending on the patient’s diagnosis and recommended treatment plan.
Customized Team “Wellness is a team effort,” advises integrative medicine specialist Dr. Vijay Jain, medical director at Amrit Ayurveda for Total Wellbeing, in Salt Springs, Florida. It’s not only a matter of knowing what needs the practitioners will address at specific times, it’s also knowing who can help when the going gets tough. “Modern medicine has the edge for early detection of disease,” Jain notes. “However, Ayurveda is excellent in determining the earliest imbalances in the mind and body that eventually lead to disease.” Most experts consulted agree that a personal wellness
program should include a practitioner that acts as a gatekeeper and coordinates a care plan to meet individual needs. Jain recommends that the foundation of the team be a licensed medical professional such as an integrative physician (MD), osteopathic doctor (DO) or chiropractor (DC). In most states, any of these professionals can function as a primary care doctor, authorized to order and read laboratory tests, prescribe drugs and access hospital services. In some states, a naturopathic physician (ND) can perform the functions of a primary care doctor in ordering and reading laboratory tests. As part of a personal wellness team, consider a functional
medicine or integrative physician, chiropractor, osteopath, doctor of naturopathy, ayurvedic practitioner, nutritionist, Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor/acupuncturist, herbalist, craniosacral therapist, massage therapist and energy practitioner (such as in Reiki, medical qigong or polarity therapy). It’s not necessary to see all of them, sources say.
Sometimes, one practitioner will be skilled in practicing several modalities, a bonus for patients. Other complementary practitioners may form a supporting team that works with the primary care team, depending on the challenges a patient faces. They will be identified as treatment unfolds and the team evolves over time.
Contributing Specialists An ayurvedic practitioner likely will begin by helping to define healthful lifestyle changes, depending on one’s dosha, or energetic temperament. Yoga and meditation would be a likely recommendation, plus specific herbs and perhaps detoxification, says Annambhotla. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and acupuncture often
go hand-in hand with Ayurveda in accordance with the view that illness and disease are caused by imbalances in the body’s energetic flow. Diagnostic techniques employ intuition and pulses to assess and smooth blocks in energy circulation. Craniosacral therapy is another way to unlock energetic
blockages caused by lifestyle stress and other factors that restrict and congest the body’s innate ability to self-correct and remain healthy, says Joyce Harader, a registered craniosacral therapist in Cave Creek, Arizona, and secretary of the board of the Biodynamic Cranial Sacral Therapy Association of North America.
NaturalAwakeningsSA.com January 2014 13
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