The Tribune

Physician, noted author and public speaker Dr Deepak Chopra prescribed a few simple remedies this past weekend to reduce the amount of chronic illnesses that plague the Bahamas during Atlantic Medical Insurance’s wellness symposium, “A Morning with Deepak Chopra.”

Hundreds turned out to attend the event at Atlantis, Paradise Island, on Saturday to hear from the highly regarded wellness guru, who spoke for an hour and a half on “The Future of Wellbeing.”

Named by TIME magazine as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century and credited as the poet-prophet of alternative medicine, Dr Chopra believes the causes of almost all diseases are within one’s control.

“Ninety-five per cent of health and disease prevention in our bodies is in our control based on proper eating, fitness and sleeping,” Dr Chopra said. “Only about five per cent of cancer causing gene mutations are inherited.”

He spoke about how your moods, emotions, thinking, sleep/wake cycles and social interactions influence the activity of your genes and outlined six simple things for the audience that they can do right away to improve their physical wellbeing – sleep, movement, stress management, emotions (having love compassion and joy), proper nutrition and earthing (walking barefoot on the sand).

Dr Chopra also led the audience in a mediation exercise.

Atlantic Medical’s Executive Vice President and General Manager Lynda Gibson said she was personally surprised at the large turnout Dr Chopra attracted, and that it is an indication that Bahamians want to be educated on wellness, alternative medicine and taking care of their bodies.

“Wellness is very important,” Mrs Gibson said.“We tell employers all the time, educated employees who know about looking after themselves, they will see it in the claims experience – lower claims experience, lower rates. Everyone keeps talking about the cost of healthcare escalating. It’s mainly because there are so many people who wait until they get sick to learn about what’s going on with their bodies. We’re trying to reduce that by finding ways how we can educate our clients about taking care of their bodies in order to prevent themselves from getting serious illness and that’s what Dr Chopra was here to explain.”

Atlantic Medical’s Wellness Coordinator Donovan Ingraham said the company has been placing heavy emphasis on wellness over the last three years.

“Our wellness programme goes from quarter to quarter and there are incentives involved with it, as anyone insured with Atlantic Medical is eligible for our wellness program and the great part about it is that it’s continual. Most insurance companies have some makeshift wellness programmes in place, but our programme is continual,” he said.

The event with the New York Times best-selling author was free of charge to the public as part of the company’s community outreach.

Many of the attendees left the symposium more aware of how they can have a healthy energetic body, a reflective and alert mind and a likeness of spirit.

“I thought the experience was transformative,” said Royanne Dean. “Those few moments of meditation, I feel made a difference for me already. So I’m very happy that I came and I hope that we have more of these types of speakers to come here and for free.”

Kim Miller is a huge fan of Dr Chopra, so much so that she flew from Freeport just to be in attendance for the event.

“I had to come. There was no other place for me to be other than here with him to receive his message in person. He came at the right time, this is the start of the year. This is the time of the year that most people tend to revamp, reboot, and recharge. Thank you to Atlantic Medical for making this moment happen because I came here to invest in me.”