While criticising the money minded healthcare and pharma industry, Dr Hegde elaborated the importance of alternative medicines and therapies. He said the key to wellness lies in becoming free from negative thoughts, eating natural food in moderation and having adequate sleep

“These days we don’t have doctors. We have specialists who know more and more about nothing,” says Professor Dr BM Hegde, while speaking at a seminar on holistic approach to healthcare and wellness, organised by Moneylife Foundation.
 
Prof Dr Hegde, a Padma Bhusan awardee and prolific writer, spoke in detail about various aspects of wellness and the crises in modern medicine. He emphasised that wellness simply is happiness within the human system and health is enthusiasm.

While criticising the money minded healthcare and pharma industry, Dr Hegde elaborated the importance of alternative medicines and therapies like Pranic healing and Reiki. According to him the key to wellness is by being free from negative thoughts, eating natural food in moderation and having adequate sleep.
 
Disease Mongering
Prof Dr Hegde, explaining how billions of dollars are spent on AIDS and cancer research across the globe, said that we are living in the era where diseases are sold. “All the crises modern medicine is facing is due to money. The lure for money has resulted in diseases mongering. They are sold.”
 
He said doctors today are indulging in disease screaming. “If one goes to a high school and screen all the students with an angiogram, it will be found that 76% of them will have pre-vessel block. If you don’t have a block, you will die before the age of 30. When you have a block, it means protection. This is called pre condition. But doctors, after seeing that you have money to spend and a medical insurance, will suggest all kinds of tests and surgeries for the same blockages.”
 
According to the eminent Professor medical insurance is the biggest curse. Instead people should ensure their health, he said.

Minimum use of medicine and unnecessary treatment
Prof Dr Hegde, often calles as “people’s doctor” believes that way to wellness and healthcare is usage of minimum medicine and avoiding unnecessary treatments or surgeries. He said surgeries should be confined for corrective purposes. “If a child is born is with hole (in heart), then that need to be corrected through surgery,” he said.

He says that people are ensnared to believe that popping a pill gives instant relief. “But one has to remember that behind every ill there is a pill.” He adds, “You have a headache; your blood pressure goes up. Then you go to a doctor for check up, which means you are a patient and you don’t come back. Instead a simple pranayam with five breathing technique can give you faster relief from the headache.”
 
Prof Dr Hegde also spoke on the tactics used by the doctors and medical institutions in making profits. “Audit in few American hospitals showed that majority of their profits comes from deaths that take place in the Intensive Care Units (ICU).

He raised concern over increasing cases of caesarean births. “Natural tear (caused in normal birth) is quickly healed compared to cuts (due to C-sec births). It is also much safer and helps in the development of mind, which is known as perinatal consciousness. But the doctor and hospital will not earn money through normal delivery, and therefore everyone, especially from metros like Mumbai, opts for the C-Section cut,” he said.
 
Alternative medicine
Prof Dr Hegde spoke about the importance of alternative medicines like Ayurveda and Homeopathy. He said, “There are all kinds of tactics are used to suppress Homeopathy as a form of treatment. But it is one of the best medicines. It is much more scientific than modern medicine. Just because one cannot detect the chemical present in the nano particle of the pills, you call it unscientific? This is not fair.”

According to him, modern medicine claims to be based on science but research has found that majority of health problems stem from the mind while modern medicines can offer only a temporary relief. “If one has a happy mind, his body is largely free from diseases.”

Speaking on Ayruveda, Prof Dr Hedge explained that how millions of dollars and many years were spent to find the cause of common cold but nothing was concluded. At the same time Ayurveda, for instance, lists food that has to be consumed during various seasons like eating more spices during winter. “In fact, Lancet (leading medical journal) advised people in Britain to eat to eat curry in Indian restaurants as a cure for common cold during winter.”

Prof Dr BM Hegde also explained the benefits of consuming ginger, garlic and pepper  as cure for many diseases and allergies.
 
Benefits of coconut oil
Prof Dr Hegde says that contrary to the popular believe that coconut oil is seen as poisonous; in reality it has many healthy advantages. “If a doctor says that coconut oil has cholesterol, it means he has not gone to medical schools. It is used for treatment on Alzheimer and severe problems of skin diseases. Even Americans after having done their propaganda against coconut oil has accepted its benefits. Now it forms the basis of their (the US) infant food.”
 
Delete negative thoughts
Prof Dr Hegde said that one who is free from negative thoughts and is compassionate, is bound to live healthy life. He says that, “It is not what you eat that kills you, it is what eats you, kills you.”
 
Concluding his talk, Prof Dr Hegde reminded audience the mentions doctors as brother of Yama’s (god of death according to Hindu mythology).
The text says-
Vaidyarajam namastubhyamm yamarajam sahodaram,
Yamastyu harati pranam vaidyam pranat dhananicha.

This means Vaidya, (doctor) and Yama are both brothers. Yama takes only life, but vaidya takes both, life and money.

Here is what Prof Dr BM Hegde prescribes for wellness and Happyness…
•    One should consume natural food in moderation
•    Sleep in pitch dark room
•    Electronic devices such as Television should be switched off and mobile phones shouldn’t be charged while sleeping. This is to avoid the presence of electromagnetic waves.
•    One should get up before sunrise
•    One should eat the last meal before 7pm