Ayurvedic Adventures Coming to an End? Or Just Beginning…
[Four Earlier Reports Linked Below]

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We are getting ready to leave India. Tomorrow we fly from Mangalore (a center of educational excellence, by the way: this year the engineering schools in Mangalore will graduate 20,000 engineering students! They have 5 medical colleges in the City and here about 20 kilometers or 16 miles, away, in sleepy, tiny Moodbidri there are colleges for Homeopathy, Naturopathy and Yoga and Ayurveda as well as a hospital for each plus an allopathic hospital). The first leg of our trip is to Mumbai — the commercial hub of the Subcontinent (called “Bombay” by the British). The next day we’ll head to London where we’ll connect to Madrid and thence to Santiago de Chile. Looks like the old colonial connections are still reflected in the airline routes!
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All of this would never have been possible without years and years and years of frequent flier miles piling up with American Express where the miles never expire. We like that!
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Those miles will benefit you, as well as us, if all goes as planned, based on the meeting we had over breakfast in our cottage here two days ago.
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The esteemed professor and cardiologist who suggested that we come here, Professor B. M. Hegde, MD, the Chairman of the Alva System (which includes those colleges, a College of Arts, another of journalism and more), Dr. Mohan Alva, an Ayurvedic physician, the head of the Naturopathic and Yoga College (yoga is far more than poses and postures: it is actually a profound and very ancient science) were here along with various senior people in the Alva System.
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We agreed to work toward an integrated drug-free medical center here in Moodbidri, Katakarna, India for you and the people you know who want advanced, powerful, effective, drug-free medicine, drawing from multiple disciplines both ancient and truly advanced.
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Alva’s System will provide the infrastructure (we are already talking about a new building right next to where we are staying which will provide therapy rooms and much more built with environmentally sound materials).
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Cost is always a factor for patients since, although some patients do have insurance coverage for Medical Tourism, that is for allopathic treatment exclusively. The therapies and approaches we will use include:
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[1] Frequency Therapy and Biofeedback
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[2] Intensive Nutrition including intravenous nutrition
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[3] Detoxification (Ayurveda is highly skilled in this area as is Naturopathy)
Chelation (which is a part of detoxification but also returns bones to their normal structure and function as well as rejuvenating the brain and more)
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[4] Naturopathy
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[5] Herbal Therapy at a highly sophisticated level (they grow an astonishing variety of medicinal plants here and have their own herbal gardens and pharmacy
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[6] Homeopathy (the head of the Homeopathic College was not at the meeting but when we spoke yesterday, he leaped on the opportunity)
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[7] Ayurveda
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[8] Physiotherapy
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Now put that together with a rich cultural and tourism program, organic food grown here on our own farms and a first rate roster of doctors and you have some idea of what has me so excited on your behalf.
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If you recall, when we embarked on this adventure I wrote that we were exploring possibilities.
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Well, you know that there is always the possibility that things won’t work out (no promises before the fact, of course) but we are willing to put a good deal of effort into this collaboration so that you and everyone else who is interested in high quality integrative care at truly affordable cost, can have this option should you desire it.
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You know that we have been looking hard at how to set up a medical center in Chile for you. It’s hard, very, very hard. For example, we found a perfect, absolutely perfect, site with great transportation, the right kind of gardens, facilities, etc. But the iron clad zoning said that while we could have a laundry or a foundry there in the middle of the lovely residential neighborhood, a motorcycle repair shot or a hotel, we could not have any kind of a health facility.
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Now Chile is a wonderful place but it is bureaucratic to a breath-taking degree and our only options were to purchase the property (that was fine with us!) and then spend a minimum of 2 years trying to get the zoning changed (which was NOT OK with us) or operate illegally (really NOT OK with us!)
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Goodbye perfect facility/location.
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In Chile, medical centers are in office blocks: sterile, limited and very, very expensive. Not what we had in mind.
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So we have been struggling with this issue. There is another issue: cost.
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Last night we had dinner at a simply delightful rooftop restaurant in Mangalore. A new friend who spent the afternoon with us (and invited us to her son’s wedding in May), Gen. Bert, our assistant Naty our driver (you do NOT want to drive in India, I promise you!) and I ate dinner together. We had appetizers, soups, various Indian breads (most of which are not made from wheat, by the way), main courses, side dishes, etc. This elegant dinner cost less than $33 US.
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That’s about $6.50 per person for a sumtuous and delightful meal in a clean and beautiful environment.
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The same dinner in Chile would have cost at least $180. Minimum. Even more in the US of A.
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What does this have to do with you?
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Nothing if you are not coming to India for rejuvenation, restoration or therapy, a lot if, you might.
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The reason that India and Thailand are Medical Tourism hubs is that both have excellent infrastructure, education and very low cost factors so that they can offer what are frequently superior services at cost savings over the bloated and dysfunctional US and European “health care” systems.
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I do not know if I have ever mentioned it, but some years ago when we were in India for the work of the Foundation, Gen. Bert developed pain in his elbow which became more and more severe.
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An MRI was done and it was clear that there was a growth (benign) impinging on a nerve and if it were not operated upon, he would have a paralysed lower arm. He had surgery under general anaesthesia (it was nearly a 4 hour surgery) and then recovered in the hospital for several days.
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He received attentive, efficient and highly appropriate care from doctors, nurses, orderlies and his diet actually met his needs, not even resembling the horror that is generally hospital food.
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Including the advanced studies, surgery, hospital stay, my acommodations and food and everything else involved, the cost was substantially less than $200. Two-hundred-dollars!!! Our stay here in Moodbidri, for five weeks, all therapies and food included, was about a thousand dollars per person.
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Medical Tourism for me? Oh, yes, please, thank you!
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I will keep you posted as we go forward with this exciting opportunity.
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Yours in health and freedom,
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Dr. Rima
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PS – here are the links to the previous Ayurvedic Adventure installments:
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http://drrimatruthreports.com/dr-rimas-ayurvedic-adventures-continue/ (March)
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http://drrimatruthreports.com/dr-rimas-ayurveda-adventures-continue/ (February)
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http://drrimatruthreports.com/continuing-ayurveda-adventures-start-of-week-three/
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http://drrimatruthreports.com/dr-rima-and-gen-bert-on-their-way-to-india/

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