IHFC Executive Council Member
David Sands, MD
David Sands, MD
| © 2008 Iowa Health Freedom Coalition. All rights Reserved. |
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Iowa Health Freedom Coalition
Dr. David Sands, a retired pediatrician, integrated Maharishi Consciousness-Based healthcare with
his clinical practice in Fairfield for 15 years. Dr. Sands was an Associate Professor of Physiology and Health
at Maharishi University of Management and was involved in several research projects on Maharishi
Consciousness-Based approaches to health. Now retired from academic activities and clinical practice, he
continues to advise the IHFC. Dr. Sands is a native of Des Moines and currently lives in Fairfield.
I got interested in natural approaches to health care when in my medical practice I found that I could neither
predict or prevent disease. Patients had symptoms I could not explain, nor cure. All I could do was mask
their symptoms. I realized that I knew nothing about why people become ill, how
the body heals itself, or how I could really augment that process. Eventually, I had the opportunity to train in
Maharishi’s Consciousness-Based approaches to health.
I was fortunate to be able to move to Fairfield and join the faculty of Maharishi University of Management,
where I served as the Medical Director of the College of Maharishi Vedic Medicine Health Center and
trained students in the application of Consciousness-Based approaches to health. I also participated in
research to evaluate the efficacy and safety of these approaches. Our most recent research found that long-
time practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhis program are very much healthier than
average Iowans. They have lower blood pressure, lower weight, and less atherosclerosis than typical Iowans.
I became interested in health freedom when I realized that the graduates of our consultant training program
could not practice legally in Iowa. I started by attending meetings of the Heartland Holistic Resource
Network, where I seem to have shocked unlicensed practitioners of natural health care
by informing them that the services they provided were technically practice of medicine and therefore illegal.
It has been an interesting experience learning about health freedom issues and the reasons why we need to
reclaim our freedom to use whatever health care services we prefer.
his clinical practice in Fairfield for 15 years. Dr. Sands was an Associate Professor of Physiology and Health
at Maharishi University of Management and was involved in several research projects on Maharishi
Consciousness-Based approaches to health. Now retired from academic activities and clinical practice, he
continues to advise the IHFC. Dr. Sands is a native of Des Moines and currently lives in Fairfield.
I got interested in natural approaches to health care when in my medical practice I found that I could neither
predict or prevent disease. Patients had symptoms I could not explain, nor cure. All I could do was mask
their symptoms. I realized that I knew nothing about why people become ill, how
the body heals itself, or how I could really augment that process. Eventually, I had the opportunity to train in
Maharishi’s Consciousness-Based approaches to health.
I was fortunate to be able to move to Fairfield and join the faculty of Maharishi University of Management,
where I served as the Medical Director of the College of Maharishi Vedic Medicine Health Center and
trained students in the application of Consciousness-Based approaches to health. I also participated in
research to evaluate the efficacy and safety of these approaches. Our most recent research found that long-
time practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhis program are very much healthier than
average Iowans. They have lower blood pressure, lower weight, and less atherosclerosis than typical Iowans.
I became interested in health freedom when I realized that the graduates of our consultant training program
could not practice legally in Iowa. I started by attending meetings of the Heartland Holistic Resource
Network, where I seem to have shocked unlicensed practitioners of natural health care
by informing them that the services they provided were technically practice of medicine and therefore illegal.
It has been an interesting experience learning about health freedom issues and the reasons why we need to
reclaim our freedom to use whatever health care services we prefer.