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September 14 Event Expected to Draw 1500 Health Seekers

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.,  — New Earth, a 501(c)(3) charity, announced today its annual all-day health and wellness immersion Good Medicine will feature a keynote speech by bestselling author Byron Katie, and special musical guest, award-winning composer/recording artist Steven Halpern.

Good Medicine will be held Sunday, September 14, from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. at The Music Box @ Fonda (Henry Fonda Theater), 6126 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood, Calif. The expanded space will hold 100-plus licensed and accredited practitioners administering more than a dozen natural healing modalities, educational sessions in integrative medicine led by experts in the field, sound healing, and merchandise from dozens of natural products and services vendors so attendees can go green, local and pure to make their dollar count.

“Addressing the causes of suffering in our bodies and minds requires awareness, and events like Good Medicine 2008 provide a wonderful opportunity for people to find clarity about their physical and emotional suffering, learn, and grow in a supportive and nurturing environment,” said Katie.

Health and wellness therapies represented at Good Medicine include acupuncture, yoga, massage, reiki, Qigong, Tai-Chi, sound healing, nutrition, Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, guided meditation, hypnotherapy, and holistic health. So that undeserved communities throughout Southern California can experience these techniques, Good Medicine attendees will receive hands-on treatments from licensed/certified and insured practitioners as part of their admission to the event - far less than going to the practitioners’ offices.
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Zen Resort Bali Surya Meditation and Ayurveda Retreat: Inner Peace and Divine Healing Power with Swathimaa and Raymond Prohs

Zen Resort situated in a serene and peaceful environment in north Bali, surrounded by rice fields, vineyards and natural forest, is the venue of this September 2008 Bali Surya meditation and Ayurveda retreat with international healers and renowned teachers Swathimaa and Raymond Prohs, both senior students of the Indian Saint Sri Kaleshwar who is the first to reveal the actual spiritual practices of India’s saints to Western students.

Zen resorts’ secluded location and pristine nature is idyllic to appreciate and connect with the nature’s elemental forces, the sky, earth, air, water and fire, which according to Vedic understanding account for all Creation and provide the hidden natural powers to balance our energy and mobilize the natural processes to heal ourselves and achieve inner peace, realize contentment in life and living and thus experience the Divine.

The Bali Surya retreat is designed to relax, heal and rejuvenate the body, mind, heart and soul. Through out the day, the resorts’ soothing and inspiring music and Sanskrit chants will help you to gently detach from your personal concerns and worries.

The daily retreat program begins with sunrise Surya meditation and a morning of yoga and time for eco-forest walks, rice field trekking, along a secluded beach or simply slumbering in a hammock or on a sun-bed getting a tan while reading and thinking of personal resolutions to change course for a more sustainable and satisfying life style and living.

At noon there is an hour of Surya meditation and water exercises in the infinity pool merging with the rice field terraces and the sea horizon beyond. The early afternoon is devoted to satsangs and seminar discussions as well as personal Sai Shakti healing consultations with Swathimaa and Raymond. In the late afternoon it is time for Ayuvredic consultation and treatments designed according to each individual’s personal constitution and health assessment. Following dinner under the stars, the retreat group gathers around a cozy fire for an evening of singing and chanting to relax for a night of deep sleep.
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Mumbai (PTI): Aiming to provide affordable medicines in rural areas and to combat chronic diseases in the country, Pharma major Piramal Group in collaboration with ASSOCHAM and various NGOs launched a project here on Saturday.

The Programme ‘help-your-body’, inaugurated by former President APJ Abdul Kalam, will emphasis on imparting knowledge on healthy food for healthy body and target each and every individual.

“Genetic causes, obesity, stress, inappropriate dietary habits and lack of exercise play a major role in causing chronic ailments,” Swati Piramal, Piramal Group’s Director said.

According to a WHO report, 38.8 core people will die in the next ten years due to chronic diseases and a significant proportion would be from India.

“India is expected to be the chronic disease capital with over 70 million diabetics, 213 million hypertensive patients and 60 million with arthritis by 2025. We feel the government, the private sector, the medical fraternity, NGOs should come together against the onslaught of chronic diseases,” Piramal said.

Kalam suggested that the group should integrate various systems of medicine such as Allopathy, Ayurveda, homeopathy, Unani, Siddha and yoga available in the country to fight chronic ailments at an affordable cost.
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Emami Limited, the Rs. 600 crore FMCG major, to give a boost to its over-the-counter (OTC) product range, plans to launch them nationally.

Emami has already made its foray into the OTC segment in 2006 by launching a range of products, including blood and skin purifier Lalima, cough syrup Sardija, laxative churna Good Morning, tooth powder Nirog Dant Powder Lal, memory tonic Memo Plus and Ayurveda tonic Femi Plus in eight states namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal.

Following the successful test launch of this OTC range, Emami has identified some of the key products, which will be launched nationally. “We have reached a stage where some of the products like Sardija and Lalima, to begin with, will be launched nationally very soon. We have appointed JWT to give the packaging an attractive and innovative look,” said Mr. Aditya Agarwal, Director, Emami Limited.

Even though the India OTC market is at a nascent stage, the company finds a great deal of potential in the same and aims to explore and increase the contribution of the OTC range to the overall turnover of the Group.

These OTC product range has been formulated after extensive research carried out at Himani Ayurveda Science Foundation (HASF). The world-class quality control methods and processes maintained by HASF ensure optimum goodness of each ingredient and herb used, along with constant innovations and Pharmaceutical enhancements.

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Delhi, India, July 23, 2008 –(PR.com)– RNCOS has recently added a new Market Research Report titled, “Booming Medical Tourism in India” to its report gallery. The report provides a complete insight into the Indian medical tourism market. It evaluates the past, present and future scenario of the Indian medical tourism market and discusses the key factors which are making India a favorable medical tourism destination. Both statistics and trends regarding market size, tourist arrivals, infrastructure, accreditations, drivers and restraints have been thoroughly discussed in the report.

The research has found that India represents the most potential medical tourism market in the world. Factors such as low cost, scale and range of treatments provided by India differentiate it from other medical tourism destinations. The growth in India’s medical tourism market is expected to serve as a boon for several associated industries also, including hotel industry, medical equipment industry and pharmaceutical industry.

Key Findings

- India offers vast range of medical treatments - from simple dental procedures to the complex cardiac surgeries. Patients can save 60%-95% of their treatment costs by undergoing treatment in India.

- Wellness tourism, comprising of spa, yoga and Ayurveda, has a very bright future in India as foreigners are increasingly flocking to India to seek physical and mental healing.

- In 2007, around 272,000 medical tourists visited India for medical tourism and together, they brought US$ 656 Million in revenues.

- Lack of proper hospital accreditation system and inefficient laws against malpractice can be the biggest factor limiting the growth of India’s medical tourism Industry.

- India enjoys a considerable superiority over both Singapore and Thailand as preferred medical destination.

- Both foreign employers and insurance firms are expected to outsource large share of medical treatments to India.

- The Indian medical tourism market is expected to generate over US$ 2.5 Billion in revenues by 2012.

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Bangalore-based Himalaya Drug Company, which has pioneered the contemporization of Ayurveda through the use of scientific research, recently signed an MoU with the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (UAS, B) to facilitate collaborative research on medicinal herbs and plants with a view to discovering new therapeutic drugs, building a corpus of knowledge on herbs and preserving endangered herbs and plants.

Himalaya will study herbs and plants in specific regions to understand therapeutic benefits and differences in therapeutic properties of herbs across regions; prepare joint research projects; while UAS will assist in training of farmers to promote better agricultural practices, study and documentation of rare, endangered herbs; facilitate joint research projects on tissue culture of rare and endangered herbs and assist Himalaya in setting up a herb garden that will be a centre for national and international research activities.

In addition, UAS will provide training to farmers under Himalaya’s contract farming Programme, assist Himalaya in setting up a botanical garden which would serve as a centre for national and international research activities and provide technical assistance and education to Himalaya scientists as the company moves towards its process of organic certification.

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Enters into a JV with Nagarjuna Ayurvedic Treatment Services, Kochi

Travel Org has entered into a Joint Venture (JV) with Nagarjuna Ayurvedic Treatment Services (NATS) in Kochi to tap the wellness segment, especially those seeking Ayurveda treatments in India, US, UK and Dubai. Travel org has announced that it will soon launch Crest Ayurveda, a new division of its medical services to cater to the Wellness Tourism segment. Crest Ayurveda will offer services and treatments at five and four-star hotels and resorts. In India the division will focus on Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and other major cities.

Commenting on the Joint Venture, Venkatesh K, CEO, and Travel Org offered, “Through this JV, we will handle the marketing of Crest Ayurveda and infrastructure aspect, while NATS will provide for the medical treatment services. We have been convinced that Nagarjuna Ayurveda serves to propagate and popularize Ayurveda with keen focus on authentic Ayurveda treatments thereby incorporating modern research and technology to answer current health problems with world class standards.”

Travel Org’s subsidiary - The Signature Crest, a leading chain of fully furnished serviced apartments is also expanding internationally. According to Venkatesh, a six-room villa started operations recently in London and plans are afoot to set-up luxurious service apartments in Singapore, Dubai, Colombo and Kandy. The properties will target the corporate segment offering them all services with an Indian touch.

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New Delhi: Sting discovered it first; Madonna ushered it into the Celebrity Hall of Fame and now the ministry of tourism wants to ensure that there are enough trainers to get ordinary tourists enthusiastic on to its miraculous powers of well being.

The ministry plans to promote institutes to develop skills in yoga and traditional systems of medicine to position India as the global destination for wellness.

The first institute of this kind will come up in Sikkim. The institution is a partnership between the state government, ministry of tourism and the ministry of health.

“We are in dialogue with the department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (Ayush) to draw up plans to produce the content for trainers,” a senior official of the ministry said. “Sikkim has taken the lead, but we hope more such institutes will come up in the future.” “These institutes will provide an opportunity to learn from a place that is recognized by the government. This way we can even guarantee the quality of people in the business.”

This institute will not only impart skills on essential asanas, but the healing touch of Indian medicines. “The focus will be not only on Ayurveda,” the official said.
“There are other kinds of medicines too and the idea is that we want to promote different Indian ways of healing.” China has already cashed in on its healing-products market and a recent white paper claimed that the industrial output value of traditional Chinese medicine touched $25.98 billion last year.

Yoga — which Jennifer Aniston has claimed to have saved her after her split with Brad Pitt— has been one of India’s most successful exports to the US, but its effectiveness has caught the imagination even in South Africa. On popular demand, the ministry of tourism is organizing a food festival with a yoga practitioner thrown in.

“Ayush has concentrated only on very theoretical knowledge so far,” the official said. “In these institutes, we will focus on developing core competency to look at India as a wellness destination to cater to a market.” While the ministry of tourism so far has only been promoting destinations in India that specialize in rejuvenation skills, this is for the first time that it is planning to get involved in manpower training.

“The ministry of tourism is also in talks with the private sector so that the students that come out of this institute get fascinated,”’ a senior official said. With healing the new exhortation even in India as countless spas springing up across metropolitan cities, the ministry hopes that its trained Indian healing practitioners will get employment.

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The four-day global convention on Ayurveda, beginning at Coimbatore on August 21, will evolve strategies for integrating Ayurveda in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and prepare a mission document for globalization of the ancient science. Efforts were on to formulate guidelines to offer Ayurveda treatment in its purest form and come out with strategies for integrating Ayurveda in the NRHM, Dr P Ram Manohar, secretary general of the scientific session of the conference told a press meet in Kochi.

World over the population of the aged is on the rise and the department of Ayush under the Health Ministry has identified geriatrics as a priority area, he said.

The conference, to be inaugurated by former president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, also aims at coming out with a blueprint for setting up a national centre for geriatrics. The centre is to be set up at the national institute of Ayurveda at Jaipur. The Arya Vaidya Pharmacy ltd (AVP)’s geriatrics unit at Coimbatore would be upgraded to collaborate with the Jaipur institute.

Metabolic disorders and nutrition are the other two areas which the conference will focus on, he said. The deliberations will address the relevance of Ayurveda in addressing these critical areas of health care, Dr K G Ravindran, medical director avp, Coimbatore, said.

The conference is being held as a culmination of the year long centenary celebrations of renowned Ayurveda physician and founder of Coimbatore A.V.P. Arya Vaidyan P V Rama Varier. The conference will also prepare a vision document for globalization of Ayurveda. Around 110 scholars from India and abroad will address the sessions in which about 2500 delegates, including 300 from abroad are expected to participate.

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Kochi: Kerala’s Rs600 crore organized Ayurveda industry is embarking on an expansion and quality improvement drive as it braces to compete with retail giants moving into its turf. After a joint venture with state agencies to ensure uniform testing and manufacturing facilities, the industry wants to set up an Ayurveda export promotion council to boost exports.

The impulsion for the drive comes from the entry of firms such as Reliance Retail, through its Reliance Wellness unit, Hindustan Unilever Ltd’s (HUL’s) Ayush and Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd’s Tulsi brand of Ayurveda drugs and health centres.

Their entry into the ancient Indian system of health care is a sign of “the appeal Ayurveda holds for consumers”, says P.R. Krishna Kumar, head of the Confederation for Ayurvedic Renaissance Keralam Pvt. Ltd (CARe-Keralam), a group of 15 Ayurveda firms that are trying to reinforce the strength of their traditional knowledge of the “science of life” with marketing muscle.

Vaidyaratnam Oushadasala, which makes and markets Ayurvedic drugs and runs a nursing home, plans to set up 500 retail outlets across the country in two years, taking the total to 1,500, said managing partner E.T. Neelakandhan Mooss. The outlets will have a qualified Ayurveda doctor to attract patients. The firm has two manufacturing units, and will set up a third at Pollachi in Tamil Nadu to take advantage of the availability of herbs and cheap labour there. Vaidyaratnam also proposes to double the bed capacity of its nursing home at Thrissur in Kerala to 200.

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