Did you know that the nagging back pain, sleeplessness, exces sleep, giddiness, mucular pain, headache, sciatica, spondylitis, even infertility can be stress induced?

There's good news for people afflicted by these ailments/disorders. Dr. Vijay Sarvotham treats hundreds of patients daily, criss crossing bangalore, curing them of neurological and muscular disorders. For the patients, he is the man with magic fingers.
The human body is made up of some 3,000 pressure points located all along the nervous system, says Dr. Sarvotham. His focuses on some 30-35 "acupoints" in the neck-back region to treat a range of ailments.

Treatment involves sensing the pressure points and releasing accumulated pressure by gently jabbing with his fingers. Acupressure (acu is needle in Latin) is a step ahead of acupuncture, fingers replacing the invasive needle technology. Relief is almost instant and lasting Mrinalini N. name changed) was not conceiving two years after marriage. That was eating into her. With excruciating pain in the left side, particularly the limbs, she consulted an orthopaedician. Xrays and tests followed. The prognosis: spondylitis. Treatment did not help.

In desperation, she tried ayurveda and homeopathy. But the pain  got her all knotted up and immobile. Till, on a doctor's recommendation, she tried acupressure.

A few sittings with Dr. Sarvotham, and she discovered spondylitis was not her problem; her condition was stress-induced. The focus shifted to her irregular menstrual cycles - sometimes delayed by more than 45 days, sometimes continuing for days on end.

UNPARALLED SUCCESS : Acupressure specialist Sarvotham treats a patient in Banglaore.

Treatment included talking to the specialist about herself. It extended for a month and a half. Each session lasted no more than 5-10 minutes. No drugs involved at any stage, simple diet restrictions while treatment lasted, and no carry-home instructions whatsoever, except to keep chin up and smile.

After the first few sessions, Mrinalini felt the difference : the wracking body pain reduced. By the end of the treatment, she was all gung ho about ife, the pain next to nil Believe it or not, a few months later, she conceived. Today, Mrinalini is the mother of a sprightly two and a half year old girl.

For Parveen and Aditya Menon - he a technocrat, she an active social worker, life has been action packed. So, after her second baby, when she was in acute pain with muscle spasms in her back, she was feling out of sorts most of the time. On a gynaecologist's recommendation, Parveen settled for acupressure.

The rest, Parveen believes, is pure magic. Her persisting pain and discomfort have vanished 99 percent.

What stumped her was how, after feeling pressure points down her back, Dr. Sarvotham was bang on target about several things going on within. His finding: she was stressed out. Treatment involved the whole person. Parveen says it was a time of soulsearching for her.

A year ago, Parveen could scarcely stand on her feet due to the pain. These days, she is no her feet long hours, lifting heavy loads, bending, packing - sending off consignments Dr. Vijay to quake hit Gujarat.

More amazing is husband Aditya's case. A killing pain in his back stopped him in his tracks. An MRI scan showed one of his discs had degenerated. Right after his first sitting with Dr. Sarvotham, Aditya, who till then was flat on his back, was walking. After his second session, he was driving his car. Following his ninth sitting, he had flown to Guatemala to play golf!

Dr. Sarvotham, the younger of two sons in a family of acupressuirsts, gives credit to his father.

His father, who has been practicing for the last 25 years, in an ace, he says.
Way back in class IV, Vijay noticed the deftness in his fingers to heal pain. After nurturing and training by the father, coupled with higher acupressure studies in Singapore, the sons are seasoned professionals, with bustling practice like their father's.
Vijay Says acupressure may be catching on as an alternative system of medicine, and there may be acupressurists by the dozen. But he believes, what his family offers is special. "We have specialized in a branch, of acupressure called reflexology, improvising through careful study and practice". Alternative system of medicine have still not found. Complete acceptance with medical practitioners in India, as much as in the West. The Sarvothams have broken down barriers. Today, Vijay practices, shoulder to shoulder, with doctors in a leading city hospital.

The times are changing, but slowly. Dr. Sarvotham dreams of a day when all systems of medicine can dip into each other's wealth, blend practices and theories to benefit patients the most.

Liiie a time when all ailments will have a cure?
Dr. Vijay Sarvotham can be cantacted at his home clinic (Phone : 6562768, 66466820) and an mobile : 9845008089.