I am sharing this to spread awareness about physical/functional manual therapy (FMT) at Vardan Institute. People should not be misled into believing that it can wield magic, heal all possible pain conditions and enable anyone to do any exercise or dance without problems.
I made the mistake of believing that my pain and movement would become better and am paying the price now. I was not advised properly and have landed up with Lumbar spondylosis within 6 months of therapy sessions at Vardan. Each session cost me a big amount - Rs. **2, 500/**-. I am now regretting paying so much money - only to end up with steady deterioration in my spinal structures, that too within 6 months!
*In my opinion, Vardan cannot at all help you "live efficient" - as its logo says. If you do not take care and inform yourself before allowing any therapy, you will end up "living inefficient" for the rest of your life. If you are physically active and want to stay that way, FMT at Vardan is a risky proposition. *
*My experience with Vardan**:
I used to have some strain in my sacroiliac joint. I used to exercise and learn dance also. Then I saw a big writeup in The Times of India about Vardan FMT last year (**See recent Times of India article "For pain-free mobility, hand it to FMT" dated May 25, 2013**). It talked about skilled therapists evaluating your body and activities and giving advice for optimizing performance during any exercise. They also did manual therapy for your muscles and joints, as required. Some experienced American therapists are also there for therapy and mentoring.
So I enrolled in the therapy around Oct 2012. At that time, my spinal structures were a little stressed. My **Jan 2012 x-ray showed marginal osteophytes in the lumbar spine**, but there was no displacement of discs. My therapy moved from muscle activation and exercises to bone and joint mobilization. All this time, I was not advised anything about modifying or stopping dance or resting after the mobilization. My left hip still used to become strained after some weeks of dancing and exercising. **Recently**, the strain got worse and I had to visit a doctor. **My x-ray showed displacement of L5 over S1 disc and lumbar spondylosis.** When I conveyed this to the Vardan therapist, he simply said that it is a common condition and that it must have been there in my earlier x-ray also. He didn’t even bother to check the x-rays before therapy and advise me accordingly. Now I am unable to dance and take up any vigorous exercises like Badminton also.