Hon’ble Chief Guest Speaker
Dr Dinesh K. S. (M.D. [Ayu.])
He is currently working as Professor and Head in the Department of Koumarabhrthya, at Vaidyaratnam P. S. Varier Ayurveda College, Kottakal, Kerala. He has got about 17 years of teaching & 21 years of clinical experience in the pediatric field. He is the founder of CIMCD (Centre for integrated management of children with differential abilities) and is also the founder of AyuCALM (Ayurveda centre for autism and learning disability management). He is conducting several types of research under the Government of India and other NGOs. Sir has done more than 250 presentations in different national and international seminars and conferences. Academically, he owns 12 important publications in the form of scientific articles and books.
What is Ayurveda?
Ayurveda is knowledge, not only lifestyle or any food or exercise. It deals with the entire knowledge related to humans and their environment. So obviously allopathy, naturopathy, homoeopathy everything comes under Ayurveda. Ayurveda can be developed from our home, from our lifestyle, from our day to day activities. In every area, we are discriminating what is good and bad. This discrimination of knowledge is known as Ayurveda. Whatever Ayurveda we have seen from granthas, from academics, apart from that Ayurveda is an inside culture which should be developed from our inner self.
Development of Dinesh Sir’s academic and clinical career
I was born and brought up in a small village in Kerala as the son of a traditional Vaidya. After completing BAMS, I went to IPGTRA Jamnagar and passed out from there with the gold medal in M.D Koumarabhrthya (Pediatrics). Then I joined Kerala government services as a medical officer but the quest for knowledge was not getting satisfied well enough. Hence, I resigned from there and joined Vaidyaratnam P S Varier Ayurveda College Kottakal as an assistant professor and from there my academic life got started. Now working as Professor and along with that serving as a physician in 5 different Ayurveda hospitals. We are also doing Researches in collaboration with the Ministry of AYUSH as well as AIIMS New Delhi in 3 different pediatric areas
Mentally retarded child is not a curse – it’s a Gift from God
A mentally retarded child is never a curse. They can be termed to be as a special child. When they get diagnoses so, parents will be facing many thoughts and their minds will be complex. Some may accept the fact, and some may go into depression. But in actuality, it was the selection of God that they got a great opportunity and god knows that they are capable enough to handle such a special child. Nowadays many facilities are available to treat them. so, it is important to diagnose the condition at the earliest whether it be down’s syndrome or cerebral palsy or ADHD. My advice to such parents is that; arrange all the available treatments for them to improve their quality of life whether it is from Ayurveda, speech therapy or even modern medicine too.
Major treatments are available for a special child
We are having 3 projects for the treatment of differently-abled children. First is CIMCD, in that we are integrating treatment with modern medicine, Ayurveda and speech therapy. Apart from that many projects are also been running with the Government of India specially AYUCALM, in which we mainly focus on immunity development and also for autistic children. Agasthya is another program exclusively for autism in which we offer training for parents and also we teach them to do therapies in their autistic children especially we train them to do speech therapy, Ayurveda therapies etc. We are also conducting genome research in collaboration with the government of India. In that, we developed Gut Therapy Protocol in the management of autism and the results are yet to be published. We are offering 7 days of free training to parents of autistic children.
What is autism?
Autism is a way of thought developed in a child’s mind. It’s just opposite to that of socialism. An autistic child will be in their own world, without having any connections with the social world and it’s curable by medicines and therapy. Many times, it’s hard to diagnose the condition. Up to 2.5 yrs, it will be very difficult to diagnose the condition. The child won’t speak much, doesn’t interact with anyone, and will always be busy in their own world created by them. When the parents get noticed with this, it is important to get advice from a clinical Psychologist.
ADHD–Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Syndrome
Attention Deficit Disorder is a hype created by over caring parents. An overactive kid should not be that much disciplined to his parents they may ask questions, they may be disobedient as every child is different, but the parents may consider the child as attention-seeking. But when this defence gets increased, it becomes unmanageable and it can be diagnosed as ADHD. In this condition, a doctor not only has to give Ayurveda medicines but also, has to manage the child’s parents, his environment and then only we can develop a better quality of life for them. Usually, ADHD will get diagnosed in 4-5 years. If the parents are supportive then it can be treated by the next 4 years.
Music therapy in Childcare
Music therapy is a complicated system of treatment based on chakras. We have to set ragas according to the chakras. So we just simplified this complex therapy. Music is a sound, which varies from the mood and situation. Sound from a factory can create irritation whereas a lullaby makes a person sleep. The same thing we are doing here, for example, an ADHD child, any type of soft music with lullabies were preferable not any disco type of songs. We can classify music into two, one is vatapitta samana which can be given for ADHD conditions and another is vatakapha samana which can be given for mental retardation, intellectual development disability like conditions.
Importance of Pre-conception Care
Western culture is not a thing to be blamed for developmental disorders in children. Every country has got different cultures. It’s not necessary to blame any particular culture of a country. It depends on satmya (adaptability). When we are adapting to any other culture which is not adaptable to us, then it results in diseases. Another thing is that when we are planning for a baby we are not doing any purification or preparation of our body which is so essential to do. This way of preparing the body is termed to be as preconception care. In Ayurveda, we are customizing preconception care according to the individualized need of couples and depending on their body conditions.
Effect of COVID in kids
We are having one project – Vengara model for covid. An unnecessary hype has been created in covid. Compared to the crude death rates of previous years, in actual the death rates has been reduced this year. Like any other disease, covid is also infectious. To prevent that, it is not necessary to confine ourselves. Just we need to improve our immunity by good food, good thoughts, meditation etc. For social hygiene, we can practice handwashing, wearing masks etc.
Golden words from an Apoorva Vaidya – a message note to students.
Ayurveda is heavily loaded with knowledge and students are a bit confused with the right pathway to choose. It’s not about the pathway we are taking, its matters about the development we achieved from that pathway. So it’s my advice to them that choose a systematic way of research and publish Ayurveda globally. It’s not a chance, but a surety, that each Ayurveda doctor is capable of getting a Nobel prize in future.
