We need evidence-based traditional medicine
A few individuals do a disservice to the cause of evidence-based medicine by denouncing traditional medical systems wholesale
Traditional medicine system
India has a rich history of traditional system of medicine based upon six systems, out of which Ayurveda stands to be the most ancient, most widely accepted, practiced and flourished indigenous system of medicine.
The other allied systems of medicine in India are Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy, Yoga and Naturopathy.
The case filed by a manufacturer of indigenous drugs against a medical practitioner on the grounds that his social media thread affected their business has become a cause celebrè / cause célèbre definition: an event, such as a famous legal trial, that attracts a lot of public attention
in medical circles.
इस आर्टिकल में हम कुछ प्रश्नों के उत्तर पाने की कोशिश करेंगे .
What is the position of traditional medicine in a modern world?
What is evidence-based medicine?
How does one evaluate a therapy and what steps, if any, should governments take to ensure the health of the population?
Modern medicine
It is important to note here that modern medicine is not allopathy (which means “opposed to symptoms”), a term coined by Hahnemann in the 18th century, and used pejoratively, to differentiate it from his newly invented system, homeopathy.
Modern medicine really became science-based only from
the late 19th century when advances in technology made not only the study of the functioning of the human body in health and disease more accurate, but also led to safe anaesthesia and surgery.
Later, this process led to marvels such as dialysis for kidney failure and the heart-lung machine which made surgery on the heart a daily affair.
The development of scientific thought in the 20th century
including the Popperian idea of falsifiability मिथ्याकरणीयता, led to advances in evaluating medical therapies. Subjected to the methods of modern science, which are continually being refined, many therapies were found to be ineffective and abandoned.
This is the strength of the modern method, the recognition
that science continually advances and self-corrects. Modern medicine is western only geographically and not epistemically. ज्ञानमीमांसा से
Modern medicine, a part of modern science, tests every new therapy and accepts it into the canon if found effective.
Due to the greater scientific capabilities of the West, which are a result of their richer economies and the post-renaissance historical realities, a great part of modern technology has been developed there
The physiological basis of Ayurveda is not sound
1 but that does mean that therapies are not sound either. Like many traditional medical systems everywhere, Ayurveda was constrained in its understanding of how the human body works by the lack of available technology.
2 However, the Ayurveda classics were constant in their emphasis on the need to base diagnoses and therapies on a sound understanding of the human body.
3 A reason-based world view is what differentiates Ayurveda epistemologically ज्ञानमीमांसा की दृष्टि से from the erstwhile faith-based forms of the Atharva Veda.
4 Proponents of Ayurveda who claim that everything was already known to the ancient people do it a great disservice and stultify its growth and development.
One of the greatest triumphs of modern epistemology
1 is its ability to synthesise ideas from across the world to build a coherent system of how the world functions.
2 This is an ongoing process, subject to corrections and improvements as thought and technology improve, building on past knowledge.
3 to isolate the active principle
In modern drug development, the commonly used method is to isolate the active principle.
Thus, most modern medicines are single ingredient and only a few are combinations. Also, the exact amount of the active principle is carefully calculated.
Ayurvedic medicines are commonly combinations and what we should do ?
1 it is uncertain how these combinations interact with each other.
2 It would increase the acceptability of Ayurvedic medicines in the scientific community if they were evaluated by the methods of modern science in a way that does not compromise with the wholeness of Ayurvedic formulations.
2 New investigational methods and trial designs which can evaluate Ayurvedic therapies without undermining the classical bases of administering them must be worked out. The Ministry of AYUSH must facilitate this.
3 The purpose of government policy is to make life better for the people.
We should carry out an evidence-based appraisal of all traditional medical systems,
retain and develop what is useful, and integrate them into one cogent system of medicine available to all.
A disservice
A few individuals do a disservice to the cause of evidence-based medicine by denouncing traditional medical systems wholesale. Science requires open-mindedness disciplined by scepticism.
Denouncing traditional systems in toto would result is a hasty dismissal of valuable medical experience that has undergone repeated, albeit informal, verifications at the hands of generations of practitioners.
Ignoring such time-honoured knowledge bases in the name of science is a disservice to the scientific attitude as also to the cultural achievements of yore.
It must be remembered that the Nobel-winning anti-malarial artemisinin was synthesised thanks to investigators who were open-minded enough to take cues from a 1,600-year-old text of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
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