The Union Ministry of Ayush’s ambitious plan to integrate allopathy with ayurveda to see types of diseases that can be treated with both in integration has got a major push with Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently asking the Government to explore the potential of the alternative medicine systems in treating tuberculosis (TB) and share the results with other countries.
Officials in the Union Ayush Ministry said that the Prime Minister’s suggestion to work on herbal drugs for treatment of deadly diseases like tuberculosis will go a long way in promoting the, so-far neglected, alternative medicine systems in the country.
Union Ayush Secretary Dr Rajesh Kotecha said that, in fact, the Government is serious about promoting a model where experts in different domains contribute to the health science and some migration of knowledge occurs between each stream for the welfare of patients.
He said that in this regard a nationwide AYUSH grid is being set up to network all hospitals and research labs to record cases to gather evidences and analyse the efficacy of the alternative medicine systems. He pointed out that the integration of Ayurveda with Allopathy has been widely discussed in the country but not put into practice. “This is the first time that the integrative approach is being attempted and some of main diseases being looked at are cancer, diabetes, and arthritis,” the official added.
Herbal drugs are already finding acceptance among patients. For instance, for managing Type-2 diabetes mellitus diabetes, a lifestyle disease, there are herbal drugs like BGR-34 developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It is being sold by the Delhi-based AIMIl Pharma, said Minister of AYUSH Shripad Naiak in the Rajya Sabha recently, indicating that the efficacy of the well-researched ayurveda drugs cannot be negated. The Minister also informed that the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) has developed herbal drug, AYUSH SG, an anti-rheumatoid arthritis preparation.
Urging the Union Health Ministry to increase the research work being done in ayurveda for finding cure for tuberculosis, the Prime Minister at a recently held ‘END TB’ summit had said: “India will support all countries needing first line drugs, commodities and technical support to fight TB”.
Experts too favours a national policy on the integration of Ayurveda with allopathy so that India can take its rightful place as the global leader in integrative medicine.
The Director of Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine at Amrita University, Prof Shantikumar Nair said, “Integrating Ayurveda with evidence-based modern medicine has the potential to revolutionise world healthcare. Integrative medicine is becoming a popular specialty among clinicians in Western countries because of the many ways in which it can benefit patients.”