Vivian A. DSouza <[email protected]> wrote: Santosh, while Ayurveda may not have been tested according to modern Western medicine, from a personal perspective I can vouch for the efficacy of Ayurveda treatments for some medical problems. Psychological or Psychosomatic ? I dont know. All I know is that it worked where Western or Allopathic medicine did not.
Comment: There are two different perspectives in play here:- one of the individual (patient), the other of the person who recommends (physician). As far as the patient is concerned: Anything which works, works. As far as the physician is concerned: He surely must weigh the following information before recommending it to his patient:- What ingredients does this 'medicine' contain? Does the patient have any allergies to any of the ingredients? Is he taking any other medicines? Will there be any cross-reactions? How does this medicine work? Are there any side-effects? How is this medicine removed from the body (liver, kidney or GI tract)? Does it damage any of these organs (+ the brain or the bone marrow) on the way out? This is where testing and scientific research comes into play. The above is not to suggest that 'allopathic' medicine is always safe - It is not. That is why it needs to be tested and studied (having noted that big-pharma does push ....... at times, quite unethically). Here is an example I have used when teaching the basics of medical research: There are three patients; John, Jani and Janardhan. They all had the 'flu' Janardhan drank a tea made out of Karela Leaves - half a cup twice a day for 5 days Jani took one capsule of Augmentin twice a day for 5 days John drank a full bottle of Guiness twice a day for 5 days All recovered from the flu. Which was the effective treatment for the ailment? Answer: Anecdotes are great but they do not help the next patient (whose 'flu' might not be the flu). post script: Those who prescribe medicines to others, have a duty of care to know (and evaluate) the effects, side-effects and cross-reactions of the medicines before they prescribe the medicines. There can be no doubt that Ayurvedic medications or Guiness might be / are useful. They might even be better than some or all of the allopathic drugs we know. But .... for physicians to ethically prescribe them to their patients, their effects, side-effects, benefits and/or side-effects must be studied, and their use justified.. Unless ....they have serious medical-practice insurances, savvy lawyers and /or a turbid conscience. jc
