RASHEEQA AHMAD at the marshes in Walthamstow where she lives. You can see the small yarrow flowers, one of the abundant wild medicinal plants growing here., spotlights the tenacity of one Christopher McCandless who leaves behind the material world to live in the wilderness. In a chilling scene towards the end, we find the protagonist attempting to regurgitate the seeds that he is shown to have erroneously picked and eaten.
Her immigrant parents would often bring their children to India. To Delhi, Calcutta and also Moradabad, where her father is from. “His grandfather, who was a hakim, had set up a Unani medicine house, and most of the family has spent time making medicine and serving the public there to some degree. So, it’s interesting that my father then decided to study ‘regular’ medicine and became a cardiothoracic surgeon.
Ahmad is a study in contrasts. She is candid but gentle. She approaches every question scientifically — a reflection of her analytical bent of mind — while also recognising the value of being even-handed. Then again, she is Promethean in a certain sense. “Because my father grew up in the Unani medicine environment, he’s somewhat open to alternative medicine. But he prefers the sledgehammer approach of biomedicine, which is evidence-based and where you can see immediate results.
Ahmad works out of her home rather than a rented space in the high street. And “in the style of a regular doctor”, she consults with patients. “If you visit the NHS doctor in your local surgery, you will have up to 10 minutes to tell them what’s wrong. With a herbalist, the first consultation can take up a couple of hours. We get into the depths of the patient’s health history. Then, we prescribe herbs for a specific period that could range from a few days to a few weeks.
Recently, she has increasingly been seeing women coming in with menstrual health disruption, including premenstrual syndrome and endometriosis, a condition where the tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus grows outside of it. The latter is accompanied by heavy bleeding and pain around the menstrual cycle. “It’s very difficult to diagnose.