Ayurveda as an alternative?

Ayurveda as an alternative?

Today, Indian Government wants to promote Ayurveda as an independent alternative treatment because, many of us assume that, in ancient days we are far more advanced in terms of treatment and medicine compared to modern or conventional medicine.

I personally feel it's a great idea, of course, we must certainly welcome to have a good, reliable alternative medicine. In the modern era of disease and its treatment, we have many challenges to solve. If Ayurveda can solve these issues, it will be a great accomplishment in the interest of mankind. We are always are in a state of confusion, and why shouldn't we encourage our indigenous technologies rather than following the western world? Should look for Alternative therapy.

Why should we think about it? What is the need for it? What are the characteristics of an ideal medicine should have? These are some of the questions which arise consistently when we think of Alternative Medicine.

An ideal medicine, firstly it should have the capacity to cure illness or the capacity to control the imbalance. Secondly,  it shouldn't have side effects or unwanted effects. And the third one, It should be affordable.

The capacity to cure or control the illness is called - Efficacy. Ease of administration and patient comfort is called as - Tolerability. These two important parameters along with safety should be considered while choosing medicine for any illness.

So, now the question is how can we come to a conclusion whether the choice of treatment is efficacious, tolerable and safe? Conventional medicine has a standard procedure to measure these parameters. If we put Ayurvedic medicines on that measuring scale, many of them fail. There aren’t enough well-controlled clinical trials and systematic research reviews, which are considered to be the gold standard for Western medical research to prove that the approaches are beneficial.

Safety is a big question mark. There is a Myth stating that Ayurvedic medicines are herbal products and hence they are safe. In fact, Many Ayurvedic products contain other than herbs such as heavy metals, minerals as ingredients. Many plants are toxic in nature, can cause allergic reactions and other illnesses, some times which leads to mortality.

So I would like to make a few points here to conclude -

1. Ayurveda's main objective is to promote good health and wellbeing not fight the disease. So, it will never evolve as a treatment option for any disease except for one or two.

2. Ayurveda is designed based on the belied - maintaining balance among Vata, Pitta & Kapha. Any medicine should be based on evidence, not on belief.

3. Ayurvedic medicines fail to prove their efficiency, tolerability and safety. They also don't have enough pieces of evidence to show their beneficial effects.

4. Safety is the biggest concern for Ayurvedic medicine. USFDA warned that every 1 in 5 Ayurvedic medicines contains toxic metals, like lead, mercury, and arsenic. These sometimes may result in substantial no of causality and death.

5. An Ayurvedic practitioner not required any license to prepare his own medicine to dispense his own patient as per the Indian Law. So we don't have a tangible regulatory authority on manufacturing quality and safety of particular medicine.

-  Viswanadh Jayanthi