Integrated Medicine Requires More Studies, Collaborations: WAC

PANAJI:
The country’s health sector merits prolific studies on integrated medicine boosted by inter-sectoral collaborations to cater to global needs, experts said at the World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) today.

Dr S.R. Narahari, who heads the Institute of Applied Dermatology in Kerala’s Kasaragod, noted that Ayurveda prescribes drugs based on a selection method that is different from allopathy. “Yet, Ayurveda practitioners require sufficient knowledge of allopathy, while they should also carry out more studies so as to get into collaborative projects,” he told a WHO Conclave on Traditional Medicine in South-East Asia Region as part of the 9th WAC.

Noting that the patent-centric integrated medicine must be sustainable to meet the global health market, Dr Narahiri further stressed the need for knowledge on the linguistic aspects of Ayurveda. “The equivalents of certain words in Ayurveda are used in a different context in clinical medicine. We need sufficient literacy to know why it is so,” he added, calling for analysis of the data collected so far for the benefit of the common people.

Dr Sumeet Goel of the Ministry of Ayush, sharing the results of AYUSH in tackling the recent pandemic, recalled that authorities provided Ayurveda kits to Delhi’s 80,000 police personnel to counter Covid-19. “We found them to have better preventive care compared to any other forms of medicine. The beneficiaries reported far lower incidents of falling prey to the coronavirus compared to the general public,” added the speaker, who is OSD (Technical) with the Ministry.

Giving another example, he recalled that ITBP created a large facility at Delhi’s Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre, providing integrated treatment. “They provided Kadha concoction along with naturopathy intervention and yoga. The results were encouraging,” he recalled. “Also, a study is being conducted on Ashwagandha, co-administered with Covishield, to assist the immunogenicity of Covid 19 vaccine and protection. It is being done in over 1200 samples.”

Dr Manisha Shridhar, Technical Officer (Intellectual Property Rights) with WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, spoke on the need for mutual learning between branches of medical practices. “International cooperation is essential for achieving common goals,” she added.

Prof Rabinarayan Acharya, Director-General of Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, said the government was working further towards integration of systems of medicines. “The government is raising its budget outlays for such activities,” he added.

Dr A.H.N Sangyoung, Technical Officer (Traditional) with WHO’s Complementary and Integrative Medicine, spoke on the world body’s publications, clinical practices, guidelines and research undertaken along with their results.

The December 8-11 WAC chiefly seeks to chart out a roadmap leading to globalisation of Ayurveda and harness its potential as a scientific and prevention-oriented healthcare system.