Chch doctor recommends Ayurveda

Press, 23 May 1989, Page 2

Chch doctor recommends Ayurveda

By

SUZANNE KEEN

A Christchurch doctor has been offering for several years a treatment similar to that believed to be used by the British Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, to maintain her youth. Dr David Lovell-Smith, a general practitioner in Hillmorton, said there appeared to be only one difference between his form of Ayurveda and that used by Mrs Thatcher — the electrically charged baths she is reported to enjoy. Dr Lovell-Smith said Ayurveda, an ancient Indian system of treatment, comprised diet and lifestyle advice, meditation techniques, herbal supplements and massage. However, he had not heard of electrically charged baths being used as part of the treatment. A special heat treatment called panchakarma, includes steam baths, and Dr Lovell-Smith said this sounded like Mrs Thatcher’s bath treatment, but minus the electric charge. British newspapers have reported that Mrs Thatcher visited an Indian woman practitioner of Ayurveda and that she paid $1640 a session for treatments. An Ayurveda clinic in Britain was featured in a television news item about Mrs Thatcher’s treatment. Dr Lovell-Smith said there were about 22,000 New Zealanders using the Ayurveda meditation technique. Studies had shown that people became physiologically younger when they used the treatment. Ayurveda was so highly considered in the Netherlands that the country’s largest health insurance company offered a 30 per cent discount to patients involved in the treatment. Dr Lovell-Smith said he did not know of any well-known New Zealand people who used Ayurveda. However, he recommended it for people who, like Mrs Thatcher, were under stress.

“I think New Zealand politicians could be pleasantly surprised by it.”