Holistic Primary Care is happy to report that our friend and ally,  Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharya, is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship enabling her to extend her research and clinical work in the field of Ayurveda.

Dr. Bhattacharya, who recently relocated from New York City to Varanasi, India, has been one of the true bride-builders between conventional allopathic medicine and India’s ancient “knowledge of life”—the approximate translation of the Sanskrit term, Ayurveda.

Through the DINacharya Institute, which she founded, she has been bringing venerated Ayurvedic practitioners from India to teach American clinicians, and also bringing US practitioners to study in India, with the ultimate objective of bringing the core principles and practices of this 4,000 year-old medical tradition to more communities throughout the US and the world.

The Fulbright scholarship enables Dr. Bhattacharya to serve as a research and teaching scholar at Banaras Hindu University throughout 2013-14. Her particular focus will be the Ayurvedic concept of Ojas, which translates approximately to immune function. She will also be studying pedagogical methods to improve curriculum design and teaching processes in the clinical profession of Ayurveda.

Dr. Bhattacharya earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s in pharmacology with a concentration in neuroscience at Columbia University and master’s in international public healthy at the Harvard School of Public Health. She later earned an MD at Rush Medical College in Chicago.

For most of her career, she has been focused on holistic medicine, including nutrition, homeopathy, botanical medicine, energy work, mind-body medicine, yoga, in addition to her in-depth work in Ayurveda.

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