A paediatrician who treated children in Yorkhill for 40 years has written a new book to encourage a healthier lifestyle.

Former Balloch resident Dr Krishna Goel has revisited his early days as a botanist to pen The Plants of the Bible and Their Medicinal Properties.

He told the Reporter that he decided to write the book after many years working with children using orthodox medicine, and based his book on his background in horticulture.

Dr Goel said: “Before going to medical school I did a BSc in Botany, I became interested in flora and fauna.

“As a child, I had a boil and my mother asked someone to bring some bark off a nearby neem tree, she made a paste and put it on – the boil was gone. Another time I had earache, she told someone to get lily leaf, used the extract and that worked, the earache was gone.”

Before moving to Helensburgh two-and-a-half years ago, Dr Goel lived in Balloch.

In 1965, Dr Goel moved to Scotland from India, taking up a post at Yorkhill children’s hospital in Glasgow.

He worked as a consultant paediatrician and honorary senior lecturer of child health for nearly four decades at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. He worked as a general paediatrician with sick children and also specialised in rheumatic disorders in children. He has written a few books on paediatric diseases.

He became a Christian in 1990.

He had been a director of Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS), Ronald MacDonald House Charitable Trust, trustee of Yorkhill Sick Children’s Fund and Eredine Christian Trust.

Following his retirement as a doctor, he decided to take on an IT course at Clydebank college, and has been able to write this book as a result of that.
He also took most of the 100 pictures for the book.

Dr Goel said: “I had this background of horticulture, and working with children in Scotland about orthodox medicine. Plants have been used medicinally for centuries by different cultures all over the world.

“According to the World Health Organisation, 80 per cent of diseases are being treated by herbal medicine.”

Dr Goel said that he read that certain fruits and nuts have high levels of antioxidants which can help battle cancer.

He said: “A lot of these fruit and plants have antioxidants – they eat up cancer particles. The same thing applies to turmeric, it has very powerful anti cancer properties.

“There are 120 plants mentioned in the bible – these plants god gave us have healing properties.

“I would like to educate people or make them aware that their health is very important. Five fruits a day – some people have no conception of what that means. We need to gently make people aware of what their five fruits a day should include.”

Dr Goel said the proceeds from his book – which was printed in Dumbarton by JJR Printers – would be donated to charity.

He added: “I think there is a dual message – those people who are believers in god could be encouraged, those who are not could still be encouraged as there is a health message in the book.”
For more information, email Dr Goel on krishnagoel@SAFe-mail.net.

Source: Dumbarton Reporter