Where nature is your doctor

As soon as you enter the premises of Nature Cure Hospital, an inscription on a signboard reads ‘No Hurry, No Worry, No Curry, Nature is God, Nature is the doctor too...!’. Dr M Shivanand Patel, pointing at another signboard assures the patients that nature cures if you live with nature. Unlike other hospitals in the city, this unique natural infirmary has no signs of distinctive odour of medicines or nurses wheeling patients on a stretcher. A few shrubs and various flora in the environs, gives a soothing relief to those who came for treatment.

Shivanand Patel, a naturopath from Gujarat, has been practicing naturopathy since his early childhood. A former resident of Padmarao Nagar had cured people of different ailments with his treatment, constructing a 100-bedded hospital in 2000 at Jodimetla village situated on the way to Ghatkesar. Attributing the threats of various lifestyle diseases, Shivanand Patel briefs about the importance of nature cure. Enlisting various diseases cured by cow urine, 75-year-old says "cow urine has a potential to cure cancer also. Everyone should take 10 ml of cow urine daily to keep all life-threatening diseases at bay."

With a desire to serve people, Shivanand Patel shared his experience of how he cured diseases which were insurmountable even with advanced medicine. "Few years ago we treated a case of a 26-year-old woman from Warangal district who was suffering from HIV. Diabetes can be easily cured, provided that patient should follow instructions on diet and other aspects", says the naturopath.

With spiralling prices of necessary commodities in the market for the last two to three years, the hospital charges a nominal fee from the patients. But, since the hospital was established in the name of service to poor, by Arogya Sadhana Trust, it also serves free of cost to the unaffordable. “People contribute liberally to the trust and thus we manage to run the hospital", says the septuagenarian.

“We provide body massage with olive oil, steam bath, toning and mud bath. All three are essential to cool the body. A specific diet like boiled vegetables, sprouts and rice cooked in mud pots will be served to the patients. Many diseases originates from the intestines so, we need to keep the stomach clean” says Shivanand.