The city of Bangalore will host the Global Holistic Health Summit in November next year. The summit is being organised by the Bangalore Holistic Medical Centre or Wellness Clinic, as it is also known, headed by Dr. Issac Mathai.

The six-day event is scheduled to be held from November 11-16, 2001.

The international summit is essentially a platform for a series of pre- and post-lectures on related areas of holistic healing. There needs to be a continuous awareness and exchange of holistic and integrated medicine of the 21st century, Dr. Mathai told pharmabiz.com.

Dr Mathai is the medical director of the Wellness Clinic and a consultant at the Hale Clinic, London, Waverly Clinic, New York and Baltimore Holistic Health Centre, USA. "Our effort is to put into practice the lesser known healing systems and help incorporate this holistic-integrated medical training/education into modern medical education, Dr. Mathai added.

The Global Holistic Summit will have more than 1,000 delegates from 60 countries. "It is our sincere bid to further the scope of holistic health care systems such as ayurveda, homeopathy, unani and siddha which are complemented with acupressure, acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, Reiki to name a few," informed Dr. Mathai.

Bangalore-based Wellness Clinic, which has been the world's first medical center to put into practice holistic medicine, has patients from all over India and abroad seeking medical aid for various diseases and disorders. "The concept of holistic treatment is essentially to tackle the mind, body and soul. It is a method where the social, psychological and spiritual aspects of health are analysed. We see patients as a whole, their state of health and then analyse what sort of treatment is needed," said Dr. Mathai.

On why Bangalore was short-listed as the venue for this symposium, Dr. Mathai said he is convinced that the city has had a high-level of awareness for this form of treatment since 1989 after the response from the international conference on Holistic Health and Medicine, which was held here then.

Holistic treatment is the healing process of the 21st century, according to Dr. Mathai. "It is an area where the advanced countries cannot compete with India in terms of knowledge and exposure," he said. In order to capitalise the opportunity, Dr. Mathai too came down to India giving up his practice in the US and UK to offer holistic form of treatment in India right from 'ingredients to information.' "Our country is a base for different forms of medical systems. So when everything has emerged from India, it is disheartening to note that we are not doing enough here to keep the tradition alive," averred Dr. Mathai.

The Wellness Clinic is also in the process of setting up an International Holistic Health Centre (IHHC) at Whitefield, 16 km from Bangalore. The 150-bed facility will have all the systems of medicine under one roof.