Dr. Ortrud Lindemann Interview

Dr. Ortrud Lindemann

Ortrud Lindemann studied medicine in Germany and has worked as a homeopath in Barcelona, Spain, where 16 years ago she cofounded Marenostrum, a multi professional health center for family health. She has also published books and numerous articles on homeopathy and has taught doctors and midwives for the last 25 years. She Cofounded Bhaktapur International Homeopathic Clinic and thus helped to establish homeopathy in Nepal, on both a teaching and treatment level. For the first time homeopathy is fully recognized by the Nepali government. In August 2014 she responded to the Liga call for Ebola Relief Action in Liberia. Dr. Lindemann is currently developing a Casa de Paso for the terminally ill in Spain.

AS: Can you tell us how you came to study medicine and then natural healing and homeopathy?

OL: I used to help the disabled children on weekends during my last school years. The only way I saw to make a change to their lives was to study medicine. In my second year of studies I fell seriously ill and after conventional medicine failed, I opted for homeopathy which saved me from merely surviving to living!

AS: What is your particular focus in medicine? What is wrong with current practices?

OL: My focus is actually health, saneness. The health of women is fundamental because we need a strong, healthy and warm way to re-create humanity. Women’s health has historically been managed by male interests and their priorities. The focus needs to be holistic in all sorts of subtle ways. Applying conventional medicine and polluted food to the human and especially women has led to a lot of imbalances that you can find represented in an incredible rise in women’s hormonal disease like cancers, infertility, complicated pregnancy and birth.

Together with some international colleagues ( Friedrich Graf, Resie Moonen, Arianna Bonato, Ruth Dörfel etc. ) we have been working on women’s health in order to create a solid base for another way, less invasive, less surgical, less vaccinated and less functional for women. We are constantly teaching midwives, pediatricians and general physicians and create a solid link for all the professionals working around birthing and making a change to the world in personal, social, economic and spiritual ways from our point of view. Togetherness. Teamwork. Less cesarians, less conisations, less necessity for surgical interventions. Less chemotherapy and more preventative medicine. More knowledge of alternatives to birth control. More information about alternatives to vaccinations like HPV to adolescents, whooping cough and tetanus in healthy pregnant women to avoid so many deaths and serious health consequences of innocent and healthy young girls and women.

And !!! no less important: the imprint on fetuses and children for our common future. More breast feeding for the sake of children’s health especially with regards to allergies and more complicated immunity issues and the sake of women’s breast health. Less separations of young couples by preparation to the changes taking place after the arrival of a new family member etc. Making a change to the food chain by less hormonal treatments and thus pollution of water (fish etc).

AS: What is wrong with the conventional medical approach to menopause? What problems arise from that? What more enlightened approaches would you like to see?

OL: Menopause is a complex change of life and change of hormones among many other things. It is not a disease, but rather a phase of life. It is best accompanied by a change of rhythm, change of diet, change of life habits (exercise, rest phases) and change of life setting in general. To medicate menopause may take the symptom away but at a very high price. To accommodate it by natural means like homeopathy, counseling, especially about subjects like local care and sexuality and by creating women’s circles, are approaches that can increase health and levels of consciousness, and thus quality of life!

AS: What kinds of birth trauma occur nowadays? What are safer options?

OL: The percentage of complicated pregnancies and deliveries (high risk, premature contractions, gestosis, birth complications etc) are on the rise. So, we are facing more premature, induced, instrumentalized, medicated (oxytocin, prostaglandins, antibiotics, vaccines, anesthetics…) and thus imprinted babies. Another trauma occurs through a more and more technicalized birth, not always leading to an optimal bonding process between mothers and children. Researchers found that babies after cesarians are less stress and frustration tolerant. Another group in Sweden linked the use of anesthesia to later drug addiction. Oxytocin brings about another set of sequelae. Michel Odent in his Primal Health Research gives you all the necessary background information and research details. Homeopathy and natural birth can help most of these babies to have a more human start in life. Vaccines have yet to be understood and carefully investigated for their short and long term effects. Homeopathy is effective in improving immunity, overcoming birth traumas and adapting faster to our world. Home deliveries have next to no risk of infections and allow a more natural bonding process.

AS: You have a passion for promoting homeopathy around the world. You were a co-founder of Bhaktapur International Homeopathic Clinic (Nepal) in 1994. Why was homeopathy important for Nepal? How did that clinic come about? What has been accomplished there?

OL: It is simple. Homeopathy has saved my life and opened new horizons. So, I dedicated my life to homeopathy. When I was the responsible doctor for a conference of all the victims of Nuclear waste in 1991 in Salzburg , the accompanying minister of Social Affairs from India asked me to help the people of Sikkim. Together with a colleague from Belgium who had just founded HSF in Belgium and was looking for a project, we looked into it. Sikkim was impossible but Nepal asked us to open a clinic in Bhaktapur. All the doors opened one after another and it seemed the right thing to do at the right time.

When we were about to start, the Belgian colleague and father dropped out for personal reasons and I was left with a whole group of interested doctors from all over Europe. Together with two Germans women colleagues we created an NGO. Our Nepali counterpart supported us to make it a medium or long term project. The milestones were set: first open a clinic (and it happened to be the same place that for 15 years it had already served as a homeopathic clinic), then look for students with a basic training in medicine (nurses, health assistants etc) since Nepal at that time only trained 24 doctors per academic year for millions of Nepali citizens, then start Bhaktapur International Homeopathic Clinic with a five year course of Classical Homeopathy including theoretical and practical teaching.

This was the first time in the history of Nepal that homeopathic training was conducted in Nepal itself! Later, important colleagues like Tinus Smits, Resie Moonen and Harry van der Zee joined the project and helped to establish homeopathic education at the Undergraduate Level (for the moment). In 2005,   Dr Bharati Devkota was the first Nepali Homeopathic Physician to present in a LIGA congress in Berlin. Since then, Dr Ambika Gyawali and quite a few others followed. The links to Indian Homeopaths and Colleges are established and firm.

Homeopathy represents an important branch within the medical field since it is effective, harmless, cost effective and eco sustainable. Especially for the poorest of our world’s community, it represents an active contribution to help the fight against poverty and dependency from so called rich countries. For all of us collaborating homeopathic physicians it meant a mentally, spiritually and emotionally enriching experience apart from the economic and physical input. We learnt sooo much from our Nepali hosts and keep a tight bond. As a team there was much to be learnt by each of us.

We all hope that homeopathic societies all over the world carry on to embrace Nepal and its representatives in all important convents. Each one can make it happen, that in homeopathy we make a difference to the world. We keep working to elevate homeopathy to a recognized university program to have competent homeopathic colleagues for the well being of our brothers and sisters in Nepal.

AS: Thank you for sharing with us today and all the work you do around the world.

Marenstrom

Bhaktapur International Homeopathic Clinic

http://www.homeopathynepal.com/contact.html