Hadeel Al-Shalchi discovers that the holistic way of health is drawing an increasing number of enthusiasts The air, thick with a mixture of thyme, rosemary and unidentifiable spices, tickles the nostrils as one passes through the door of the Pharmacy and Herbal Medicine shop in Giza. The scent lingers on past rows of round, dusty jars holding colourful powders, dried flowers and stems of plants. At the end of a short corridor is a narrow set of stairs leading to a landing with counters of more jars; they are full of honey and oils. On this second floor, a crowded little room, with a window overlooking the busy street outside, is the office of the owner, pharmacist and herbal specialist, Sherif Al-Gabry. He sits, in the large, leather chair where he receives his patients, behind a heavy desk littered with papers and medical books, Most of them usually come with complaints of headaches, digestive discomforts, breathing problems and skin diseases. On pieces of letterhead paper, Al-Gabry, writes his herbal remedies for each of those ailments: fennel, thyme, black seed oil and chamomile. According to Al-Gabry, people who adopt a "back to nature" attitude about their health and treat ailments are on the rise. From his part, Tony Moros, director of the Spiros Moros Foundation, agrees. Though born to Greek immigrants to Egypt, and raised in Cairo, Moros speaks Arabic with a Greek lilt. He is a delicate, thin man who easily gets lost in his large leather chair. Moros tells Al-Ahram Weekly that their organisation, named after his brother who died of cancer, aims at spreading the message of holistic health and choosing nature as a cure as opposed to drugs. He believes that it is about time for people to restore the imbalance created in their lives because of those unhealthy habits, dependence on chemical drugs and an ignorance of how our bodies are connected to the nature around us. "It's in the education, in the approach, and it's in habit." In 1995, Moros's brother, Spiros, was inflicted with melanoma, and fought the cancer with a recipe he found in the books of a priest from Jerusalem. The priest found that three spoonfuls a day of a mixture of aloe, honey in 15 millilitres of whiskey or cognac cured a man he was visiting in the hospital from melanoma. Spiros eventually was the victim of another type of cancer inflicted by a genetically modified vaccine he was made to try, by his family and doctors. However, Tony Moros has a similar story to tell. After the death of his brother, he was inflicted with melanoma. Using the same recipe his brother used to treat his cancer, Moros found himself getting better. "I got the courage, thanks to Spiros. So I did like him," says Moros. A picture of a young, bearded Spiros hangs to his brother's left. He looks like an ancient Greek god or priest with a full reddish beard and pensive eyes. "I didn't panic," continues Moros, his finger tips nervously scratching his chin. "You have to manage your fears, your mental state, and the first thing you have to do is not to be scared. If you are scared then things will go wrong." It is very important for people to understand that we are in crisis, adds Moros. "People should change their habits, they must find their happiness in these changes." This crisis that Moros alludes to is the rising levels of patients who are inflicted with cancer, globally. According to the National Cancer Institute in the United States, deaths because of lung cancer in men and women are also on the rise, as well as the persistence of unexplained cancer- related health problems. Nevertheless, don't call this more holistic method of treatment "alternative medicine" when you talk to Al-Gabry. "There's no such thing," he says, shaking his head. "It's called 'complimentary medicine'. Chemical drugs are very important. You can't say there's no need for anesthetic, for instance, but herbal medicine compliments drugs, as part of a more complete treatment." Al-Gabry is convinced that people are tired of the side- effects resulting from prescribed chemical drugs. He gives an example of the arthritis and pain drug Vioxx, which was pulled off shelves in North America three years ago. Studies found an increased risk of heart attacks and doctors were being called to stop using the medicine, and to even return unsold stocks. Maha El-Mahgary, Germany-educated pharmacist and London-trained homeopath, agrees that "there are no side effects at all in homeopathy treatments." If the energy of the remedy taken by a patient is balanced with his complaint, then it will work. Otherwise, El-Mahgary continues, "it will not do anything. You can't toxify yourself with it, you can't do something wrong with it, therefore, in Europe one just buys it without a prescription." According to El-Mahgary, the most characteristic principle of homeopathy is that the potency of a remedy can be enhanced by dilution, in a procedure known as dynamisation. Liquids are progressively diluted (with water or alcohol) and shaken by ten hard strikes against an elastic body, in a procedure known as succession. If a person suffers from chronic headaches, for instance, they will be given a pellet of headache-inducing treatment to balance the symptoms. El-Mahgary got interested in homeopathy after a very personal accident. While on holiday with her children in Germany, her son accidentally shut the car door on his fingers as he hurried to join his cousins in a fun fair. Her sister-in-law, a doctor, had already activated the locks, so El-Mahgary's son's fingers were in the door for a few minutes before they were freed. She remembers her son howling with pain. Her sister-in-law grabbed a kit from her car and gave El-Mahgary's son a small pellet with arnica extract. "My son stopped crying about three minutes later, and ran off to play with his cousins," she recalls. Upon inspection 20 minutes later, El-Mahgary was astounded to see that her son's hand was only faintly blue with a slight bruise, and that he was not in pain at all. "I was so impressed with the power of this natural healer that I decided to take it up." During their first appointment with a homeopath, El-Mahgary explains, patients are usually surprised with the kinds at the sort of response that they are required to give.This includes answering questions related to their personality, childhood, fears, and, even, which side the patient sleeps on. "During the interview, patients become aware of their entire emotional and psychosomatic health," she adds. Therefore, instead of just taking the remedies, patients learns to treat themselves in a more holistic manner -- body, mind and soul. Although many Egyptians have faith in the power of homeopathy at the time that they cannot afford regular drugs, El-Mahgary is not allowed to apply the discipline inside Egypt, "Homeopathy is not yet acknowledged as a viable practice here, in contrast with most countries in Europe and Asia, as well as North America," she explains. "I'm only allowed to act as a health consultant for people coming to Egypt, who already possess a homeopathic kit that they bought from another country." Moros says that his foundation is currently financing a scientific research project, based on the recipe that saved his brother and many others from cancer. It will be undertaken at the faculty of medicine of Finland's University of Kuopio "Our message is that everyone has an active role in his or her health and life," says Moros. "People need to understand that they, and not just doctors, have a role to play in their own healing."
