A mother and daughter vouch for naturopathy
July 2024
by Madie Férère as told to Jamuna Rangachari
My name is Madie Férère. I studied naturopathy principally with Dr. Salila Tewari but also with other Naturopaths referred to me by Dr. Tewari for two years while living in New Delhi. She is my mentor, my source of inspiration with regards to knowing truly what health means and what it takes to preserve it, and I love her dearly. I do not believe in coincidences, our paths crossed because they needed to. I have three short stories to tell about our family’s experience with Dr. Salila Tewari. The first one led me to study and practice naturopathy with greater knowledge.
In 2005, I was diagnosed with Lupus due to an immune system deficiency. It started out as a tiny red pimple on the lower part my left cheek. It felt a bit like a tiny cut. By the time it was at its worst, I had a painful reddish/purplish sore, 4 cm diameter. My Dermatologist, a very well intentioned physician, prescribed cortisone cream, a drug quinine based, and steroids. He told me that I should avoid being exposed to the sun, did a biopsy. I wore total sun block, long sleeves, a hat and sunglasses. Meanwhile my husband and I were educating ourselves on the risks associated with both the disease and the medicine prescribed. Nothing made sense nor was acceptable to us. The ailment was to become debilitating eventually if I survived the side effects of the medicine. After a month worth of treatment my Dermatologist told me we needed to increase the steroid dosage and add another drug. I could not accept that. I did some research to find a naturopath and contacted Dr. Tewari.
I brought her all my tests and my diagnosis. She read them carefully, put them aside, looked at me calmly and said: “Why did you take so long to come to me?” I was not sure what to say, my heart sank I thought I came too late. I explained that though I did not take medicine as a rule, I got scared and turned to what I had grown up with; allopathic medicine. She smiled and said: “ No problem, your body will cure you”. I looked at her and said, half hoping she was right half incredulous, “ You mean, I will be cured, it will go away?” “Of course” she said, “do not worry, I guarantee it”. I followed a stringent treatment of 19 days, 4 hours per day. It took me another month to get back to normal and six months for that scary spot on my face to disappear completely. I returned to my Dermatologist who was so dumbfounded that he had to sit down to hear my tale. I explained to him my treatment, gave him Dr. Tewari’s contact information and asked him to give his patients that natural alternative. He was visibly shaken but deep down I knew that if he did what I asked of him, his lucrative business would suffer. He told me he would contact Dr. Tewari but I know he did not. Dr. Tewari monitored me for six months. I paid more in one month going to the Dermatologist than six months with Dr. Tewari. When I asked her for the cost she said, “ pay me after you are cured “.
In August 2012, I was diagnosed with very high blood pressure, (as high as 203 systolic and 103 diastolic with 100 pulse). It appeared situational because I was very much affected by my youngest daughter living the nest to go to College. It certainly did not make sense because I am athletic, vegetarian since the age of 19, do not drink or smoke and eat or drink organic/bio/wholesome food and I never had HBP before. I was in a quandary because though I did not want to take any medicine, the excessive HB pressure was causing me to see blur and to have tension headaches. We were one week away from traveling to settle our daughter at University. I felt I needed to focus on our daughter. I cut out salt of my diet, did daily enemas, breathing exercises, only eat vegetables and fruits but took a mall dosage of Cozaard, it did not agree with me, than Hyzaard. The Cardiologists I saw prescribed HBP drugs and told me since I had parents with HBP, genetics had caught up with me and that was that. I would have to take drugs for the rest of my life. I called Dr. Tewari again to the rescue.
I weaning myself off Hyzaard, did a few detoxifications and breathing exercises and increased my consumption of water to 3 liters a day. More water is my medicine. My blood pressure is under control.
Our daughter Nehanda, at the age of 11, while we were in India, became very ill with amoebic dysentery. Once the dysentery cleared she showed symptoms of urinary infection, eye infection, swollen joints. She could not keep food in. The whole trauma of trying to decide what she had, trying to cure each infection at a time, and finally hearing the diagnosis, lasted 3 months. She was diagnosed as having rheumatoid arthritis. She was taken to the best Medical facility in Toronto, Canada, “The Children’s Hospital” as well as to the best Rheumatologist in India. The diagnosis was the same and the treatment too. Steroids for life and an altered quality of life with reduced mobility. I flatly refused to give her steroids or any medicine. Sadly, and ironically, during these three months, we met two people who had also been diagnosed with the same condition but who had followed the conventional allopathic treatment. One was a pharmacist who had completely deformed hands and feet. The other was a nurse who was attending Nehanda at the hospital, who could not climb stairs at the age of 25. Dr. Tewari coached me and I spent four hours a day with our daughter for one month. By September she started school on time, healthy though still a bit skinny. In fact after the naturopathic treatment, she grew at an incredible rate. She measures 6 feet now.
My husband, Nehanda and I went back to the Indian Rheumatologist after one month to show her that Nehanda was cured. She was very impressed with the results and thought that they were due to the medicine she had prescribed us. She called in a colleague to witness the “miraculous” recovery of our daughter. Apparently in all her experience no patient had ever shown such drastic change for the better in such a short time. When we told her we gave Nehanda no medicine, she could not believe it. She told us she wanted to run some more tests. We said no. We told her that we came to show her what naturopathy had accomplished and that we knew our daughter was healthy and did not need any other proof. Again I gave Dr. Tewari’s coordinates and asked both physicians to give this alternative to their patients. I told them how as a foreigner, I came to study what richness India possesses with its traditional method of healing and staying healthy. I told them how ironic it was that I, the foreigner, used their method to cure and that they, having embraced allopathy, could not. This is Nehanda today.
Had Nehanda taken medicine, she would have never recovered and would have had a quality of life we cannot even bear to imagine. Both my daughter and I are fine, healthy and cured.
Naturopathy is the science of health. Learn about it and you will never go wrong.