‘Holistic Medicine has a pill for every ill, it promotes health from womb to tomb’

Rajkumari Sharma Tankha

onsidered to be the Father of Holistic Medicine, Dr (Prof) RK Tuli established the world’s first-ever department of its kind in year1995 at the multi-speciality tertiary care Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals. He is, also, the founder of Society For Holistic Advancement of Medicine SOHAM, which is dedicated to the promotion of positive health and total wellness of ‘body, mind & spirit’, as far as possible, by drug-free natural means and cure all conventionally incurable diseases.

Dr Tuli, has been imploring the health planners for an opportunity through ‘Pilot Projects’ to develop credible scientific evidence in disease treatment through holistic medicine therapy. In a free-wheeling interview with LifeAnd More, he tells us more:

How did a trained allopathic physician turned into an advocate of Holistic Medicine which seems complete break from modern medicine?
I’m the product of very sound medical training by our teachers, at my alma mater the AFMC, who grilled into me the importance of practicing “conservative medicine”. It’s largely because of the lack of this practice by doctors that the world is facing the menace of exploding incidence of lifestyle diseases and drug-resistant microbes.
My evolution with PG training in Aviation and Sports Medicine, respectively, highlighted that you’ve to avoid any form of medication to bring out the best in human endeavour; supporting the universally established fact, “Prevention is the Best Medicine”.
Later, my thesis for MD Medicine at Army Hospital (R&R in 1977-79), revealed that Coronary Artery Disease is highly reversible and sustainable just by controlling the so-called risk factors. This fact is well known to the whole world, but is scantily practiced.
The failure of “Health For All by 2000 A.D.” brought a realisation at the global level that the world can never achieve health by its exclusive dependence on allopathic medicine.
My Eureka moment came in 1995 when Dr Prathap C Reddy, Founder Chairman of Apollo group of hospitals, after hearing all about Holistic Medicine termed it to be the medicine of 21st century and offered me to set up this department at its flagship Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals. It was a great opportunity for me to share the potential of Holistic Medicine with peers across all specialities.

What exactly is Holistic Medicine?
Holistic Medicine extends the benefits of best practices of modern medicine complemented with officially-recognised drug-free modalities of traditional systems of health to extend comprehensive healthcare while minimising dependence on expensive medical interventions.
It’s a board certified specialty in the US since 1997, and an evolution in practice of modern medicine in the best interest of the sick. It works on the concept of restoring harmony of ‘milieu interior’ of the individual, thereby enhancing immunity that enabling prevention from infection, spontaneous healing, eliminate sickness and restore health.

Can corona be treated?
Based on the principle explained above and applying the universally accepted rule that our health is a product of a ‘trilogy’ of factors, i.e., the Human Host, The Environment, and the disease causing Agent (microbe – corona), every disease is a result in disturbance of this harmony letting the agent overtake and cause specific sickness. Restoring the harmony initiates healing, replacing the old sickness with new health. Therefore, even elimination of corona can be simple and highly reproducible.
Unfortunately, it’s beyond the scope of modern healthcare essentially based on the ‘allopathic’ system of medicine.
The health planners in the country need to open up to the concept of all integrative healthcare and initiate the process to establish its scientific credibility. We need to overcome vast deficiencies in practice of modern medicine.

What about ‘long-covid’ cases?
It’s very easy to reverse the after-effects of covid19, including mucormycosis by complementing current medical practices with drug-free holistic medicine therapy. In fact, each of my patients after their recovery from ‘long-covid’ report significant improvement in their health from their pre-covid status!

Why do you stress so much on drug-less therapy.
I promote drugless Holistic Medicine therapy as that alone can ensure ‘Health For All’. The biggest limitation of drugs is that they all come with some short or long-term side-effects and cumulative toxicity. They do not usually cure the sickness, though they appear to give transitory relief. But, their side-effects termed ‘iatrogenesis’ cause immense morbidity. In the USA, it’s statistically the third leading direct cause of death.

Can Holistic Medicine claim complete cure of ailments. Is SOHAM a complete healthcare package ?
Holistic Medicine based healthcare emphasises on promoting health from ‘womb to tomb’ with health awareness at a young age, preventing sickness, early recognition and reversal of diseases; at the same time complement for improving final outcome of every sickness, and thereby minimising morbidity and expenditure on sickness. It shall significantly reduce burden on overloaded secondary and tertiary care services in the country to enable them to serve more efficiently to everyone’s satisfaction. The SOHAM model certainly helps to ameliorate all those suffering from conventionally incurable ailments.

What all ailments you’d like to offer Holistic Medicine therapy?
I’d like drug-free Holistic Medicine to be complemented with all drug-based systems of health. However, to create clinical evidence and establish its credibility, I’d like to do ‘Pilot Projects’ for following five ailments:

♦ Diabetes Mellitus & its complications
♦ Respiratory disorders like bronchial asthma, sleep apnoea & COPD
♦ Failed Fertility (ART)
♦ Cervical & lumber spondylosis & musculoskeletal sisorders
♦ Sports injuries