A man of Science who loved Ayurveda

There is a lot of discussions , no not discussion, mostly derision, on Ayurveda as an alternative medicine. 

Looking back, personally I have relied more on Ayurveda , though I am not against allopathy when the situation demands. Each system has its strengths and weaknesses and I am sure they can complement each other.

It’s a moot point which of these systems should be called the ‘main’ and which one the alternative. But then, where English is the main language and our own languages, however rich, are classified as vernaculars, anything can happen.

I am reminded of a project I was part of, in the early nineties.

I was posted at Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand , a place that had the personal attention of the then Army Chief Gen BC Joshi. Pithoragarh is a military station close to the Chinese borders where huge chunks of land,over 2000 acres, had been acquired by the Ministry of Defence post 1962, for army units.

 

Later , a good part of that land became surplus to the establishment . Gen BC Joshi had great ideas of utilizing these pieces of land for various projects. One such project was Herbal Farms.

The basic idea was to cultivate various herbal plants , with focus on Himalayan flora with guidance from a Defence Agricultural Research laboratory located there. It was part of DRDO  manned and equipped  fot researching on high altitude agriculture and related subjects . The herbal products were to be supplied  to various pharma companies like Humdard and Dabur.

During a visit by the Chief, besides army commander and other senior officers, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister had also been invited. It was none other than our missile man Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

During an informal meeting over breakfast at the DRDO guest house, I had an opportunity to listen to a part of the discussions.

Dr Kalam was quite fascinated with the whole idea. I remember , him talking  excitedly about a herbal cure for cancer based on a plant called taxus buccata. The drug developed by Dabur had recently been cleared by US, (in circa 1993). The name dropped casually by the great man, had got stuck to my memory since then. It’s a different matter that we haven’t heard about it since then.

The discussions meandered along over various native herbs used at various parts of the country. There was also some talk by Dr Kalam of some herbs being used for family planning in the rural areas. 

After Gen BC Joshi’s untimely death the projects he had initiated had also died gradually.

If only we had had the will and a budget to support the idea of a Herbal Farm of that magnitude, it would have resulted in preservation and propagation of many rare medicinal herbs. Just as modern medicines suppress the immunity system of the body, the craze over allopathy has suppressed the native systems of medicine . Indians have simply forgotten to heal themselves.

In a broad sense, allopathy is a means to study and combat diseases ,while ayur veda or Yogasan deals with study of and preservation of health.  

As case of self fulfilling prophecy , the higher budgets world over has led to more research and more advancement in allopathic system. Lack of support has reduced ayurveda to a dubious, alternative system of medicine.

Today, for diagnosis , emergencies, and trauma care , allopathy is definitely  far ahead of any other system. In preventive health care and  non intrusive therapy, Ayurveda scores. Unfortunately , only people who cannot afford the high cost of western system of therapy opt for the native one. 

A point that is very much debatable is the ethical side of the western system. It encourages people to break every rule of healthy living as they believe health can be bought from Hospitals and to a great extent, it is true. Health is bought and sold by Hospitals though the rates are driven by  insurance and pharma companies .

In the next post, I shall write about my own experiences in facing a serious health challenge.