In a world that observes countless health awareness days, World Diabetes Day on November 14 highlights the growing impact of lifestyle diseases. But as Dr Ludmila Vassilieva, MD, GP, Ph.D. in Cardiology, Homeopath, and Founder of Holistic Healing Medical Center in Dubai, suggests, it’s time we shift our focus. “Is celebrating diabetes the answer?” she asks. “Or should we focus on celebrating life and health instead?”
While many patients are encouraged to manage diabetes with diet and medication, holistic health advocates believe that managing alone is insufficient. “Modern medicine teaches us how to manage stress and disease; but stress and disease are not meant to be managed. They are supposed to be released, eliminated,” Dr Vassilieva explains.
The winner of the Sheikh Zayed International Award for Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicine argues that our mindset toward health needs a transformation. “Diabetes, especially Type 2, is not a random occurrence; it results from our lifestyle choices. Yet most people are taught to focus only on food, which is just 12 per cent of [the issue],” she says. “If you focus only on this 12 per cent while leaving 88 per cent in chaos, you’ll be dealing with health problems your entire life. Rather than merely managing the symptoms, we should be transforming our lifestyle to address its root causes.”
Dr Vassilieva, who arrived in the UAE in 1994, has treated conditions ranging from diabetes, Crohn’s disease, and IBS to Multiple Sclerosis, allergies, and asthma, improving her patients’ lives tremendously. Alongside her qualifications as a GP, she is also a certified acupuncturist and iridologist, specializing in diagnoses through eye examination.
“Holistic healing doesn’t focus on managing diseases like diabetes or heart disease; it transforms you from a life full of stress and illness to one of health, happiness, and success. It’s about caring for the whole body and life, restoring life force, and achieving energy balance,” explains Dr Vassilieva, who was the first practitioner licensed by the UAE Ministry of Health to practice Homeopathy.
Dr Vassilieva advocates for shifting the focus in medicine from sickness to life force and energy. “Talking non-stop about sickness doesn’t lead to a better life; it’s about life force moving through blockages in the body. Pain or sickness occurs when there isn’t enough blood or electromagnetic energy moving through the body’s channels. Well-being is more than just the absence of symptoms. Without happiness, life isn’t optimal,” she says.
“The key is to care about health, not just to push people toward awareness of sickness. When you support life, life knows how to take care of health. But when you focus on illness, you’re focusing on fear.”
Although World Diabetes Day aims to raise awareness, Dr Vassilieva believes that too much focus on the disease can be counterproductive. “If you constantly pay attention to disease, you’re inviting it into your life,” she says. “Health is about balance, and our bodies naturally know how to balance sugar and energy if we’re aligned with a healthy lifestyle.”
For Dr Vassilieva, a holistic approach means more than just managing blood sugar; it’s about achieving harmony in the body’s energy flow. Ancient practices like acupuncture and Ayurveda, she explains, center on this energy flow to enhance wellness. “When we understand our bodies’ rhythms, live with right intention, and create a holistic lifestyle, we move beyond disease. Diabetes doesn’t need to be managed; it needs to be prevented and ultimately eliminated from our lives.”
Dr Vassilieva encourages everyone to embrace a conscious, holistic lifestyle. “When you live holistically, life itself cares for your health. Holistic approaches can transform people from stress, suffering, and sickness to health, happiness, and success,” she says.
Dr Ludmila Vassilieva has developed a special program as part of holistic healing that helps detect diabetes in patients and eliminate the condition from the system. The program is available at Holistic Healing Medical Center in Dubai.
