Hello, my name is Aziz Merchant. I am a Homeopathic Physician, but that may not have been the case. I always wanted to become a doctor which stemmed from the trauma of seeing my grandfather succumb to cardiac failure as an 8 year old. And when I came at the crossroads of opting either Dentistry or Homeopathy, a very influential person in my life made it very clear to me that my persona and skills would be best put to use in the field of Homeopathy.

In 2005, I successfully completed my 5 ½ year program and internship at the prestigious Motiwala Homeopathic Medical College & Hospital, Nasik upon the completion of an original thesis on “Homeopathic Management of Post-Myocardial Infarction Patients- including active Homeopathic therapeutic management of acute M.I., Congestive Cardiac failure, hemorrhagic stroke”. I’d like to share with you that during my 2nd year of medicine, history was repeating itself- my grandmother’s cardiac function (ejection fraction) was reduced to 25% and she was in cardiac failure. Her cardiologist wrote her a prescription that was 2 pages long and gave her no more than 6 months to live. At that point I asked if I could start her on Homeopathic treatment, to which he agreed. At this point he thought anything to satisfy my eagerness to help and prolong my ailing grandmother’s life expectancy was warranted whether he was convinced of Homeopathy’s potential in this case or not.

What followed was a wonderful journey of health and recovery that reaffirmed my beliefs in the great healing potential that Homeopathy had to offer. My grandmother’s cardiologist (who would become my preceptor during my internship) saw the extent of her recovery, significantly reduced risks for cardio-pulmonary complications and improved quality of life. Highly impressed by the results of Homeopathic intervention, he started referring other complicated cases that displayed poor response to conventional therapy to me and based on my rationale, was willing to wean these patients off of certain pharmaceutical drugs as well. My case studies and thesis became a topic of great interest at the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences and I was given the opportunity to continue this research further, devising Homeopathic protocol in various cardiac conditions in the newly instated ’Inter-pathy Research Cell’. (Now had I become a dentist, it would have been next to impossible to see my grandmother’s ejection fraction jump upwards of 38% and live another 3 years beyond her cardiologist’s estimate!)

My grandmother passed away peacefully, and without any distress. And improving her health  remains to this day one of my most fulfilling experiences. I went on to pursue my post-graduation in Homeopathy from Y.M.T. Research Institute- Kharghar, New Bombay in 2007. Moving to Bombay was a treasure trove of clinical experience. 3 years of teaching undergrad students, doing clinical rotations and the opportunity of being mentored by world class Homeopaths like Dr. Prafull Vijaykar, Dr. Bandish Ambani, Dr. Narendra Mehta Dr. Prafulla Borkar and Dr. Jayesh Shah to name a few. I was also fortunate to liaison with Dr. Paranjpe of the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC), India’s foremost and flagship nuclear physics research center where a team of scientists were studying and observed enthusiastic results of nanopharmacological aspect of Homeopathic medicines.  

I must thank my ophthalmology preceptor and professor, Dr. Sharad Patil MS, FICO from Nasik to have admitted to resorting to uncomplicated cases of cataract and glaucoma to Homeopathy. Using the same principle of mind-body medicine, analyzing each case’s unique diseased portrait and determining their immune response enabled me to employ highly  individualized Constitutional Homeopathic treatment plans for ophthalmological cases that came my way with very promising and often astounding results in ocular allergies, autoimmune disease related ophthalmic complications, blepharitis, chronic conjunctivitis, cataracts, glaucoma, keratitis, initial stages of macular degeneration.

I have been practicing in the Edmonton area since summer of 2010 and quickly gained attention from my peers and have served as an Advisor Committee member for Grant MacEwan University’s Holistic Health Practitioner course. I love talking about how Homeopathy can make a difference in your health, and have lectured at Grant MacEwan and you can find me on the monthly roster of talks at the south side Planet Organic and ASAC (Association of Safe Alternatives in Childbirth, Edmonton).

I am very passionate about sustainability issues and green living (My drawings & plans for our next home to be a net-zero home is almost halfway through!) and am an avid composter and organic urban backyard gardener. I love painting and photography and if I am not pulling my two kids in the chariot in the summers through our city’s beautiful river valley trails, you might find me on the dirt bike trails. I wish I can start penning poetries again, but alas, I do not possess teen angst any more that fueled my previous works. And much to my wife’s dismay, I can be found in our garage even in the dead of winter taking on small woodwork projects hammering and sawing and nailing through reclaimed barn wood and shipping pallets!