health Patients can indeed discuss with their GP or specialist what alternative therapy may help their condition, and usually they will be directed to the one(s) most suitable to their medical case. Once the treatment has run its course, health becomes a lifestyle issue: “Alternative medicine is about realising or restoring your full potential and making you enjoy life to the fullest with high levels of energy and positivity.” Dr Rawal attributes the allegations of hippy nonsense, witchcraft or downright quackery thrown at alternative medicine, not just by the man in the street but also by the mainstream medical community, to the fact that science progresses mostly on clinical evidence, while conclusive evidence is trickier to obtain with alternative medicine. “Often, we witness a treatment work, we know that it works, but we cannot put our finger on why and how exactly “Alternative it does. A quick example: when medicine is testing new medication, the usual procedure is administering it to about realising patients without telling them or restoring your whether it’s an actual drug they’re full potential” taking or just candy: that way, suggestion will not play a part in the bility remains its cost as a private practice. actual result. In fact, the ‘placebo effect’ itself is a powerful healer, and if you are “Look at it as an investment into a bettold by a medical authority you are getting ter quality of life,” Dr Rawal points out. better, you will. In cases like acupuncture, “No different from spending hundreds of for instance, we cannot experiment on pounds in the latest technology gadget unaware patients to prove how effective or a fancy restaurant. It’s another way to it is, because we cannot make anyone fail nourish your soul for the long period.” to notice they are being turned into a pin cushion, claiming it is for their own good.” Dr Rawal discovered its advantages and benefits during his fifteen-year stint in Hence the understandable scepticism in the military. “My patients were young, fit the scientific community and alas, the and active subjects who expected a full scanty financial support to research in recovery in a few days, to be able to get complementary medicine. Nevertheless, back to work in a demanding environment. it is growing in popularity and little by I noticed that painkillers and physio often little it is gaining the interest and respect weren’t enough to get them back to their of western medicine, which in the past full potential, and on the other hand there 20-30 years has evolved tremendously was a lot of pressure on GPs to miniand explored other philosophies. Currently mise the troops’ sick leave. So, I started however, the main obstacle to its accessibelieving that western medicine is not the
panacea, and if Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine have been successfully around for centuries, even millennia, there must be a valid reason for it, although they may lack the scientific evidence based on western criteria. I enrolled in the London School of Homeopathic Medicine and trained in acupuncture to relieve musculoskeletal issues, which proved handy with soldiers dealing with back pain and knee injuries.” He came to Gibraltar in 2001 with the Royal Navy and was posted back to the UK in 2008. Upon leaving the military in 2012, his family decided to make Gibraltar their permanent home and he became an A&E doctor at Saint Bernard’s Hospital and later a GP at the Primary Care Centre. “I have travelled all over the world with the military and Gibraltar has to be one of the most welcoming places I have ever been.”
“Look at it as an investment into a better quality of life.”
Dr Krishna Rawal
“Doctors make you well, therapists keep you well.” GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE JANUARY 2016
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