A cardiologist who practices Ayurveda

Dr Warren Ashley was born and raised in Luxembourg, studied medicine in Innsbruck and worked for almost ten years as a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology at the municipal hospital in Munich. During his studies, the doctor came up against the limits of modern Western medicine and became increasingly open to a more holistic approach that combines conventional diagnostic and therapeutic procedures with the knowledge of naturopathy and Indian Ayurveda. He has now been working as a health counsellor in Luxembourg for two years and advocates cooperation rather than separation when it comes to the prevention and treatment of illnesses.

Lëtzebuerger Journal: In the course of your career, you have decided to reorient yourself from a traditional doctor to a health counsellor. How did this decision come about?

Dr Warren Ashley: In medical school and later in everyday life as a doctor, the focus is understandably on the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, and there is hardly any time to deal with the topic of health. The aim of emergency medicine, for example, is of course to literally save lives first, so there is often little room for preventative approaches. However, with some patients you end up going round in circles, for example when someone is hospitalised again with a heart attack after two years, perhaps because their lifestyle and the circumstances that may have contributed to this have not been changed. I came across the subject of Ayurveda through a friend at the beginning of my specialist training. This opened up new perspectives and sustainable approaches for me, which include the patient's own responsibility. Ayurveda focuses a lot on prevention, so that ideally the body is better perceived and warning signals are recognised earlier. Fascinated by this approach, I started taking courses and attended additional training courses at weekends alongside my specialist training. After almost 10 years in the clinic, I decided to take some time out to reflect on how I could combine these different approaches.