India is a privileged country with cultural and spiritual Âdiversity, empowered with multiple alternatives and Âoptimisations for each need. In healthcare too, India is blessed with Âtraditional and natural systems of medicine. However, modern medicine, powered by science, has progressed much ahead of these systems. The seemingly mystic procedures in Ayurveda and other Indian systems remain less understood and studied, resulting in their suboptimal utilisation. A few factors hamper the task of Âintegrating them in a rational, transparent manner that would benefit society and do Âjustice to their hidden richness. One is the unregulated ease with which they mix modern pharmacopoeia and methods into their practice and adopt the modern title of 바카라˜doctor바카라™ to Âdenote Âthemselves바카라”losing the purity and uniqueness of these Âsystems. This is enabled by a bunch of other factors. The lack of control and regulation of Ayurvedic and other Indian Âpharmacopoeial formulary; the scarcity of much-revered herbal plants (often kept 바카라˜forbidden바카라™ and promoted as secret medicine for selfish interests by the treasured figure of the vaidya); the self-centred, monopolistic corporates that make exaggerated and tall claims; the jack-of-all-trades approach adopted by some traditional physicians and pharma manufacturers바카라”all this has kept India from developing its systems in a way where they could be truly Âcustomised to Âcommunity needs. Indian medicine becoming not a choice committed to healthcare but a chance for people to use is a travesty.
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India has 414 Ayurveda colleges versus 536 colleges for modern medicine, but a study submitted in Parliament shows over 90% of Indians rely on allopathy. We have nearly 7.5 lakh Ayurveda Âgraduates, but only a small percentage of them are committed to pure Ayurvedic practice, dedicating their time to research and Âallowing the system to progress in a manner aligned with Âevidence-based science, even if many of them freely tout those words in advertisements. Setting a low benchmark for earning the title of 바카라˜doctor바카라™바카라”as evidenced by the easy MSR (minimum standard requirement) for starting an Ayurveda college바카라”also hampers Âprogression to specialisations in the curricula, with no Âtextbooks aligned to the modern understanding of disease being created.
At a time of acute crisis brought on by the pandemic, when the government is keen to promote the goodness of Indian systems, what we see is that instead of working hard to contribute with solid scientific evidence, Indian systems resorted to good old rhetoric바카라”making tall, Âunexamined claims about immunity boosting바카라”and corporate players, Âcontentiously Âsupported by the health ministry, sought to hijack the potential market. By contrast, modern medicine faced the brunt of the battle against the Âpandemic바카라”plunging into extensive Âresearch, adopting emerging knowledge, all the while firefighting in an altÂruistic way, losing 760 of its doctors on the frontline. They also played a crucial role in developing an Indian vaccine바카라”Âscientifically proven, approved and Âaccepted by the world. Thus, the tasks of overall prevention, therapeutic control and post-Covid Ârehabilitation were Âsuccessfully studied, conceptualised and implemented by modern medicine. On the other hand, we witnessed 바카라˜Indian medicine바카라™ (and the health minister) choose to promote a 바카라˜wonder drug바카라™ for Covid prevention, cure and for handling its deceptive complications바카라”with a pilot study done on 45 asymptomatic people being brandished as scientific proof. It바카라™s not difficult to see how this lowers the great potential of our traditional Âsystems of medicine.
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I truly wish and hope, in this time of uncertainty, that traditional medicine actually does serious brainstorming on the treasures gleaned from ancient texts, pool their inputs, do acceptable scientific analysis and bring forth novel, cost-effective and community-Âoriented options. Let us strengthen our good old systems from the ground up rather than trying to prune and decorate the top with techniques adopted from modern medicine and boast that we are also doing surgeries. We need to wake up, Ârestore and Âadvance pure practices, bringing them to a contemporary light, and not Âpromote mixopathy.
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(Views expressed are personal.)
The author is president of the Indian Medical Association
