Originally Posted:  April 2007 by: Hulet Smith, OTR/L

In April of 2007, I traveled to Pune, India to meet with Dr. Gunvant Oswal and observe the effects of G-Therapy (Gunvant-Therapy) www.g-therapy.org , a pioneering treatment for neurological disorders. G-therapy is a homeopathic supplement made from a unique combination of herbals extracts in potentiated (homeopathic) form. The extracts are administered in small tablets known as "biochemical tissue salts" and are also referred to as "biochemic cell salts."

Dr. Oswal is the Founder and Director of the Center for Life Sciences, Health, & Medicine in Pune, India. He works collaboratively with his daughter [Dr. Pooja Upasani] and son in law [Dr. Shreerang Upasani], both have bachelor's degrees in Homoeopathic Medicine from Pune University.  Dr. Oswal is an Integrated Medical Graduate BAM&S from the University of Pune.

An Invitation to Visit
I contacted Dr.Oswal in November of 2006, when a mother of one of my patients came across the G-Therapy.org website. I joined the Yahoo G-Therapy International Group and started speaking with parents online from the U.K. and from other parts of the world. I became intrigued by some amazing progress reports of children taking G-Therapy and wanted to learn more about it.  In my private practice, I have many patients who are interested in doing more herbal and alternative therapies. Since it's not possible for everyone to travel to India to be evaluated for G-therapy, I thought I could meet with Dr.Oswal, examine his therapy, and possibly become a liaison between Dr. Oswal and patients who would like to obtain the therapy.

Dr. Oswal generously shard his knowledge via phone and email and invited me to visit his Center to observe a sampling of his patients. He sent me various videos and newspaper articles from his trips to the England along with television interviews that aired on a local London news channel. Dr. Oswal is a very humble man, focusing on treating children with brain injury in India. There's not a lot of private therapy there. Parents in India rely extensively on herbal therapies and use home-based sensory integration programs. I found the parents at the Center very eager to learn interventions, which enable them to carry out specific developmental programs for their children.

I also had a very personal reason for making the trip. My five-year-old daughter, Sophia has cerebral palsy and has made remarkable ongoing progress using organic nutritional supplements, herbs, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, suit therapy and an intensive daily sensory diet which we established for her under the guidance of Glen Doman, founder of the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential and an expert in maximizing potential in brain injured children. With Sophia, we focus on stimulating her brain in order to help it become more organized. I believe Sophia has made amazing developmental progress because her mother and I have worked intensively with her.

Today, Sophia is 100 percent medication free and has progressed from a blind, profoundly brain injured child, to a brilliant little girl who reads sight words, is learning to write letters, and has the vocabulary of an 8 year old. Her mother and I have dedicated our lives to helping Sophia achieve all that she can be and to exploring ways to unlock her full potential. Dr. Oswal's invitation to visit and collaborate at his Center for Life Sciences was an opportunity that I just couldn't pass up.

Observable Results
Over a six-day period in April 2007, I reviewed and observed around 100 patients with a variety of diagnoses and recorded my observations at the end of each 12- hour day.  My case study results can be found on Yahoo G-therapy Health Groups at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/g-therapy/ .

The patients I saw ranged in age from one to 22 years; however, Dr. Oswal has treated patients as young as three days old with G-Therapy. All age groups appear to have responded positively to G-Therapy. The typical sustained treatment duration range was a period of two to eight years, but some children have continued the treatment for more than 10 years because they are showing ongoing and continuous progress with motor and cognitive functioning.

From random sampling of 100 patients that I assessed during my stay at Dr. Oswal's center, I estimate that 20 percent of the children appear to have made significant functional gains, 40 percent have made moderate functional gains, and 20 percent have made marginal gains, with the remaining 20 percent having just trace or no improvements in the functional life performance areas of motor, cognition, social, and verbal communication skills. None of the patients or parents reported any side effects or adverse reactions attributed to G-Therapy.

How Does It Work?
According to Dr. Oswal, "G-Therapy medication was developed over 25 years through research in Ayurveda and Homeopathy and when taken stimulates neurotransmitters and acts as a nerve growth factor. The body salts bring about the necessary changes in neurotransmission while the herbal extracts act as a catalyst". The degree of improvements, however, depends upon the brain damage and patient response. Explains Dr. Oswal, "A unique combination of herbal extracts in potentised form and biochemical tissue salts are prescribed all together or, in certain cases, as individual components."

"G-therapy has shown remarkable improvements in the motor and higher cortical functions of the brain in over 10,000 cases with a success rate of minimum 70 percent," Dr. Oswal explained. "The results have been scientifically well-documented by independent medical professionals. The improvements in patients, and parents' and medical experts' opinions, before and after treatment, are video-recorded and documented. There is also significant objective evidence of the efficacy of G-therapy in the form of improvements observed in nerve conduction velocity studies in cases of chronic degenerative or demyelinating neuropathies."  Dr. Oswal is currently collaborating with neuroscientist, Dr. Pali Jeno from Hungary:  they will be studying G-Therapy's effect on neuronal regeneration. 

Dr. Oswal is the first to acknowledge that no one understands the exact mechanisms behind G-Therapy. "It is seen that a wide range of pathologies and physical and cognitive disorders are helped by G-therapy," he noted. G-Therapy has been implemented in patients with a variety of diagnoses that include all types of cerebral palsy, congenital brain anomalies, hydrocephalus, ADHD, kernicterus, metabolic disorders with neurological complications, strokes, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, Down syndrome, Asperger's syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, and many other forms of developmental disabilities.

My experience in India substantiated Dr. Oswal's thinking. The anecdotal clinical evidence that I observed during my time at the Center supports the hypothesis that Dr.Oswal's therapy optimizes the brains ability to stimulate branching and myelination of the axons/dendrites of the neuron. G-Therapy also clinically appears to have the potential to regenerate the axon and stimulate excitability in the neurotransmitters, resulting in the creation of more organized neurotransmission pathways. The clinical manifestation of the neuronal myelination is evident through my observations of improved fine/gross motor function, the gaining of the developmental milestones, improved cognition, improved behavior, improved language, improved circulation, improved bladder/bowel control, and improved self-care skills in the neurologically-impaired child and adolescent.

Dr. Oswal explained that the degree of improvement in any given case cannot be predicted, and depends in part on the degree of initial disability. "G-therapy does not claim that it can make every spastic walk and the mentally retarded to achieve normal IQ," he said. "It should also be noted that there is a definite number of patients who fail to respond positively to G-therapy. [However] G-therapy has shown persistent results...and it is up to the developed countries with modern amenities and electrophysiological studies available, to think, to test, and to verify the efficacy of G-therapy, so it can be made available to all the needy individuals."

Supporting Families
This entire experience has strengthened my commitment to the families I serve. My visit with Dr. Oswal heightened my passion for intervening with children who are severely impaired and coaching their parents to make the difference in their lives. My pediatric therapy practice has a contract with Babies Can't Wait, the early intervention program in Georgia. We serve many of the neurologically impaired children in our region of northeast Georgia, and my message to parents is that we can be your coach and teach you to do the same interventions for your babies that we do as therapists. For those families who have the desire, I assist them with creating a frequent and intense daily sensory stimulation program, which provides structured input at the developmentally appropriate level. The foundation of the home program includes making the floor a way of life. Children should be on the floor in prone as much as possible with parents and caregivers providing range of motion (patterning), visual stimulation, vestibular stimulation, auditory stimulation, or reading to the child. Not everyone has the financial resources for elaborate equipment or supplies, but everyone can carry out these measures once they are properly instructed.

My passion is to assist families in creating a stimulating environment for children using superb natural foods and appropriate nutritional supplements. I recommend that caregivers read child brain development books by Doman, Ayers, and others, and for children with autism spectrum, we support parents and provide resources on nutritional interventions such as the chemical free, gluten free, and casein free diet. A great place to start is at www.feingold.org and at www.gfcfdiet.com.

My job is to coach and guide families in this process of discovery so that we connect children with good food, nutritional supplements, and other interventions, which are specifically targeted to their diagnostic and developmental needs. It's important to encourage all families to provide their child with daily tummy time, frequent targeted sensory stimulation, and helpful nutritional measures, which strengthen the immune system. I feel that occupational therapy has not always considered optimized nutrition as an essential component of the rehabilitation program. Fortunately, for our children who are neurologically impaired, our country is starting to look for more balance with the introduction of these healthy lifestyle choices.

The G-therapy homeopathic supplement gives hope, but it is not a magic pill that allows you to sit the child in the corner and wait for him to improve. The brain is a sensory organ that develops through its sensory pathways. A child with severe to profound impairment child strapped into a wheelchair won't grow and develop unless we offer appropriate sensory integration techniques targeted at the level the child has attained to this point. More children who are severely impaired need to be stimulated frequently and intensely throughout their waking day. We can't expect everything to happen in a 45-minute a week therapy session.

G Therapy Availability and the Pharmaceutical Industry
It has been several months since my visit to India, and I am continuing to work with Dr. Oswal. He has asked me to serve as a liaison between him and U.S. companies or individuals who are interested in studying the efficacy of his homeopathic medicine. Dr. Oswal believes that "it would be a great service to humanity if G-Therapy could reach the many thousands of patients worldwide through a partnership with an established pharmaceutical company." He wants to "think, to test, and to verify the efficacy of G-therapy, so it can be made available to all the needy individuals". Any persons interested in this mission are encouraged to contact either Dr. Oswal or me.

Sophia's Progress on G-Therapy
On a personal note, my daughter, Sophia, began the G-Therapy treatment on April 9th 2007. Sophia has made remarkable progress on G-Therapy. She started walking independently over the last few months and displays much improved gross motor planning and control. She has become confident and gravitationally secure in the standing position and now prefers to walk independently without the use of her walker. Five months ago, creeping on all fours was Sophia's primary means of indoor locomotion. Sophia now ambulates everywhere, both indoors and outdoors, and she can walk distances of up to 100 yards unassisted.  Sophia's legs and lower body movements are moving more fluidly, and her muscle tone is much softer. She just began a regular education public kindergarten program in August 2007. She is getting along well at school and is on par with her peers. My wife, Megan, and I are so grateful to Dr. Oswal for his work with children with brain injury and for the gains that we have seen with Sophia while taking the G-Therapy supplement.

Conclusion
On my last day with Dr. Oswal in India, we took a walk around the colorful tropical garden at his Center and he made a comment that left a lasting impression with me. He concluded:  "Even the ant is a big teacher for us.  Each organism is engaged in the fight to have an active, purposeful, and meaningful life. The past is gone, the future is unknown, but in the moment, we can create potential in every child so they may have a brighter future. So, whatever you observe, just simply take it in and do what is right."