Dr Ambika P NAYAK responds to ThinkWellness360 questionnaire.
Why and how did you think of becoming a doctor?
Childhood dream; also aspiration.
What made you think of, study and specialise in the system of medicine you now practice?
Ayurveda celebrates holism in health and medicine — this caught my attention, not just fancy. Add to this the challenge of learning a whole new ancient-modern science, and its old, new echelons and horizons, I was fully drawn into it. I’m what I am today, although there is a long way to go, thanks to my enormously passionate doctor ‘gurus’ and inspirational teachers who taught and trained me in the art and science of Ayurveda and helped me to develop a healthy, compassionate attitude, in the process, to all living beings.
What has been your personal and professional experience as a doctor?
There are ups and downs in everything. As for me, things have been fundamentally good. It is challenging, enlivening and gratifying too to be able to bring a smile on faces. Going forward in my profession I’ve realised my passion for healing. Making people feel better is amazingly blissful.
What unique and special skills you think you have that has made the big difference for your patients?
I don’t really know. Maybe, I’m a patient listener and committed to help.
What is your best definition of optimal wellness and why?
Composure is foremost. The mind is one that can make, or break, you.
Your best case?
It was my first case of confidence, or the moment of ‘Yes, I can do it.’ A mother of two, in her mid-30s, was confined to bed due to a chronic back problem — sciatica. She was suggested surgery whenever she visited her doctors. With the time-tested principles of Ayurveda, the complete medicine, and simple oral medicines she walked to my clinic in a matter of just one week — to thank me. Ayurveda answers my inner call — not just as a profession, but also as a way of life in helping my patients.
Your ‘not-so-good’ case?
A young male, in his late-20s, a case of renal calculi [kidney stones] that I misdiagnosed for gastritis due to its nascent presenting complaints. I had to refer him to emergency room [ER] when his symptoms advanced to acute abdominal pain.
What appeals to you the most?
Nature
What annoys you the most?
Being careless about health.
Your favourite book?
What Doctors Don’t Get to Study in Medical School by Dr/Prof B M Hegde.
Your favourite joke?
What do you call a woodpecker that doesn’t have a beak? A head banger.
Your favourite song?
Yeh haseen vadiyan ye khula asman from Roja [S P Balasubrahmanyam/K S Chithra/P K Mishra/A R Rahman].
Your favourite movie?
Despicable Me
Your favourite TV, Netflix show?
House MD
Your other interests, or hobbies?
Travelling; landscape photography.
Your goal in life?
To be able to make a positive difference for people approaching me with their health-related issues, or concerns, and be successful in doing my humble bit to uplift Ayurveda as mainstream medicine — in my own self-effacing way.
