If you asked me when I first displayed passion for natural healing, I would say it started when I was nine years old when I was the “unofficial massage therapist” for my family. If a family member had pain, I wanted to alleviate their pain with my hands. Later, as a teenager, I dabbled in meditation to mitigate pain and enhance athletic and academic performance. However, it was being diagnosed with asthma during my sophomore year at UC Davis that sparked my interest in natural health. 

  For several months, my asthmatic symptoms were managed well with medications and for the most part, I was able to enjoy a physically active lifestyle.  But, several months later, while playing a pick-up game of soccer, I had my first asthma attack on the soccer field. I immediately collapsed to the ground on my knees and grasped my throat. It felt like someone was closing off my windpipe with a choker chain. The chest tightness felt like this unbearable, searing pain. Gasping for air just made the chest tightness worse. The only way I could breathe was to engage in pursed-lip breathing: inhaling  slowly through my nose and breathing out by puckering my lips as if I would whistle. I did this automatically, but later I learned that this pursed-lip breathing is helpful to manage asthmatic symptoms; and boy, did it work! After about 45 minutes of pursed-lip breathing, my asthmatic symptoms slowly receded.

DISCOVERING A NEW APPROACH

At this point, I started to rethink if I should be taking asthma medicine for the rest of my life.  As an environmental toxicology student, I studied environmental toxins and manufactured toxins, including side effects of pharmaceuticals. So, when I read about the side effects of the asthma medications, I was shocked by what I had discovered. Even though the asthma medicines provided short-term breathing relief, the long-term side effects included CHEST PAIN, THROAT SWELLING, and DIFFICULTY BREATHING: my current symptoms !!!   I started to question why I would take a drug that could worsen my breathing in the long term and exacerbate my current asthma symptoms.

 I wanted to understand what factors led to developing asthma in the first place and what I could do naturally to strengthen my lung function. It is this line of inquiry that started me on a path toward natural medicine.  One day, I went to the local co-op, and came across a magazine called Delicious which aimed to educate the public on various non-drug methods to promote health. Many of the articles were written by N.D.’s which I came to learn stood for Naturopathic Doctor. I learned that ND’s acknowledged conventional medicine, but they also believed in promoting health through multiple non-drug methods: diet, dietary supplements, herbs, physical therapy, and mind-body practices.  ND’s were truly pioneers in holistic health and their approach to health promotion is one that i truly resonated with.

Under the lens of naturopathic medicine, I began to explore the various factors that could be potentially causing my asthma. Through this exploration, I began to see my diet was lacking critical nutrients that could be contributing to my asthma. I read about how the impact of emotional stress can aggravate asthmatic symptoms.  It was through adopting diet changes and stress management techniques that my asthma symptoms improved.  Eventually, I also explored acupuncture and when this was combined with the diet and lifestyle changes, my asthma symptoms continued to subside substantially. Within one year, I no longer needed asthma medications, and the proof of the pudding was when I tried out for the track team. I was able to run a mile in 4 min 40 seconds without any wheezing symptoms, and no longer on asthma medications! I got my life back, and I felt terrific and revitalized.!!

Still, after I graduated from UC Davis, I spent some time working in the pharmaceutical industry, ironically of all places, manufacturing the same asthma medicines that I used to take! But I couldn’t shake the idea of my love for natural medicine. I would spend my free time reading all I can about natural medicines. It just made sense to me that if I loved all these natural healing modalities, I should enter a field where I could become an expert in learning them and help others improve their health. While I could continue working in the pharmaceutical industry, what lit my fire was my passion for natural medicine. If there was a side-effect-free approach for a chronic condition, I wanted to learn about it and share it with the world. I knew entering the natural medicine field would satisfy my burning passion to help people seek out natural health options for their chronic ailments. So, this is when I decided to become a Naturopathic Doctor.

You are the CEO of your body. You owe it to yourself to keep your body in shape and live life to the fullest. Your body has an incredible capacity to heal many ailments. In ND medicine, we call this healing power of nature, the “VIS MEDICATRIX NATURAE” or the “VIS” for short. I love learning and coaching people about different ways to stimulate their VIS.  IT NEVER CEASES to AMAZE me.

To your health,

Aroop

Aroop Banerji is a naturopathic doctor licensed acupuncturist and nutritionist. He earned his Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine and Master of Science of Acupuncture from Bastyr University in Kenmore , Washington.

He is passionate about help men and women suffering from chronic pain such as joint, nerve and cancer pain to be pain free through a personalized, drug – free health plan, so they can get back in the driver’s seat and live life to the fullest on their terms.

He is also interested in natural cancer side effect managment and maximizing healthy aging.