There must be a greater appreciation of the alternative sources of medicine that exist. Over-reliance on Allopathy is unwise
Allopathy has provided medicines that have enhanced people's life-spans and capacity for work in many parts of the world —thus changing population patterns and accelerating the rate of civilisational progress through the harnessing of enhanced quality and quantum of work.
Two aspects, however, need mentioning. Some allopathic medicines have had disastrous side effects like blindness, impaired liver and kidney functioning, skin rashes, fatigue and a tendency to develop blood clots causing strokes or myocardial infarctions. Some have had severe adverse effects on foetuses. Thus, taken during pregnancy, the drug Thalidomide, first sold in Germany in 1957, caused the birth of about 10,000 babies worldwide with malformed limbs, deformed eyes, hearts, alimentary and urinary tracts, blindness and deafness. Only 50 per cent of them survived. The consequent uproar compelled the German company originally manufacturing the drug and some of its foreign subsidiaries to pay compensation to the victims. Unfortunately, that gave them back neither their lost or malformed limbs nor their lost sight and hearing.
The second unfortunate aspect of allopathy is the eclipsing of the systems of traditional medicines. Hence, the importance of Mind and Body in Health and Harmony in the Asian Systems of Medicine, edited by Ranjit Roy Choudhury and Kapila Vatsayayan and published in 2017 by Primus Books on behalf of the India International Centre. It is a collection of papers by specialists in Ayurveda, Unani, Homoeopathy, Sowa Rigpa, Naturopathy, Acupuncture and the traditional systems of Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri lanka, presented at a conference organised by the IIC-Asia Project in Delhi in December 2012.
The importance of traditional systems of medicine becomes clear on recalling that many outstanding practioneers of allopathy are now turning to these in treating afflictions like cancer, heart diseases, diabetes, arthritis and bronchial asthma. Besides, like most of these, Ayurveda is an ancient system. Yet, as CR Agnives states in his paper, ‘Mind-Body relation in Ayurveda', “Psycho-somatic and somato-psychic relation is well-understood in Ayurveda. It is stated that the ailments of the mind will pass on the body and vice-versa.” In sharp contrast, the concept of psycho-somatic illness has been gaining salience in allopathy only from the beginning of the 20th century.
There is increasing recognition that things like stress and anxiety, arising from one's life-style, cause or aggravate certain illnesses like cancer, heart diseases and diabetes. One's way of living, however, is a result of one's belief or lack of it in certain values rooted in spirituality and, in an overwhelming majority of cases, religion. Most traditional systems of medicine take the holistic view that the spirit, mind and body act on one another and impact on health.
Dr KMY Amin underlines this clearly in his paper, ‘The Supra-Physical Anatomy of Unani Medicine is the Basis of its Past and Present Holism'. He writes, “Unani anatomy, like the anatomy of all traditional medicines, describes not only the body-structure, which is the entirety of modern medicine, but also the supra-physical dimensions of the human being. This is because traditional medicines have a vision of the entirety of the being, of which the physical part is only a tiny fragment, like the proverbial tip of the iceberg showing above the surface of the water.” Dr CR Agnives states in his paper, “In Ayurveda, the living being, be it man, animal or a plant, is an integral whole. Division of this whole into parts such as the body and the mind is only for academic purposes, as none of these components can operate separately.”
Strictly speaking, Homoeopathy is not an Asian system of medicine. It, however, shares the broad approach of such systems. It takes into account not only a person's body and mind, but, as Dr Mohammad Qasim points out in his paper, ‘Homoeopathy: Diagnosis and Imbalances, “is deeply in touch with the spirit of nature and the nature of the human spirit because human beings are part of nature and respond to changes in the environment”.
The anthology provides important glimpses into systems of healing whose full potential needs to be harnessed. It deserves to be read widely. The papers are by tall eminences. Of the two editors, Dr Ranjit Roy Chowdhury, to whose memory the publication is dedicated, was an outstanding authority on medicine. Kapila Vatsyayan is deeply versed in the philosophies that are umbilically linked to several of the systems discussed.
(The writer is Consultant Editor, The Pioneer, and an author)