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| March 20, 2000 | ||
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| HOLISTIC
HEALING Cures from the Past Top medical professionals are experimenting with alternative medicines not only to tackle dreaded diseases but also to offer total health to patients By Farah Baria
Quack, quack, quack? Well not quite. At a new state-of-the-art laboratory in Mumbai, three doctors are working on ancient Vedic formulations to tackle the deadliest scourge of the 20th century. And no, they are not your average bunch of quacks. The lab has been set up by ARCON, the Aids Research and Control Centre in Mumbai that is jointly funded by the University of Texas and the Maharashtra Government. Its mission: to test the effect of 22 complex, immuno-modulating ayurvedic drugs on HIV-infected human cells.
It's not exactly a new concept. But while both bona fide Indian doctors and dubious "herbalists" have long advocated the use of alternative medicine in the growing arsenal against aids, ARCON is probably the first aids-management organisation to explore the possibilities under clinical conditions. "We have combined ayurveda with conventional allopathy for maximum benefits," explains Dr Subhash Hira, ARCON director. The verdict: "It's not a cure yet, but the experiment is yielding interesting results." Sceptical? There's more. At the super-speciality Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in Delhi, Dr R.K. Tuli, a well-known cardiac specialist, has recently completed a thesis on reversing heart disease through alternative medicines. "I always felt that my job was to write death certificates," he says wryly. Until Tuli discovered aromatherapy-the use of essential herbal oils that are said to penetrate body tissues and alter mental or emotional states-and started using it on high-risk patients. At the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, doctors are applying pranayama, the ancient science of breath control, to cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. And at NIMHANS in Bangalore, psychiatrists are delving into Patanjali's Yoga Sutras to treat clinical depression. As India gallops uncertainly into the new millennium, leading medical specialists all over the country are looking to the past to tackle the most deadly diseases: HIV, cancer, heart disease and depression. "Actually, it's a worldwide trend," says Dr K.K. Aggarwal, head of the new Body Mind Clinic at the Apollo Hospitals. Last month the who gave its official approval to medical approaches that a decade ago would have been dismissed as sheer quackery. Total health, says the who, is not just the absence of disease, but a state of physical, mental, social and spiritual well being. By combining western medicine with "alternative" oriental systems, holistic healing provides just that. The reason is simple. "Although allopathy has been able to control infectious diseases, that era is more or less over," says Dr Diwan Harish Chand, who opted for a degree in homoeopathy in the UK after completing his MBBS. "Today we are more concerned with lifestyle diseases like depression, cancer and heart trouble caused by faulty nutrition and stress." Because these diseases have a mental or emotional component, there is a growing conviction that allopathy is largely unable to cure them. "All it offers is temporary relief from symptoms," says Dr Bimal Chhajer, a former cardiologist at AIIMS who quit to open a successful holistic-healing centre called Science and Art Of Living (SAAOL) in Delhi. Besides, the cost factor too weighs in favour of indigenous medicines. But before you offer yourself as a voodoo doll to the nearest acupuncturist consider the drawbacks. "The credibility of alternative medicine is always suspect because we simply don't conform to globally accepted research methodology," says Hira. Moreover, chances of unethical practices are high since naturopaths, herbalists, aromatherapists and the like don't require a recognised medical licence to set up shop. Hira intends to change all that. In the past four years, ARCON, along with Dr Harish Singh, a lecturer at Mumbai's Podar AyurCrush a little amla, add some tulsi leaves, garnish with neem. Grind this "holy triumvirate" of the sacred ayurveda into a fine paste, then swallow it with a satvik diet of nuts, jaggery, fresh fruit and ghee. And maybe, just maybe, you have a cure for aids. The results are encouraging. In the first study, all the 15 patients who underwent treatment showed 30-50 per cent increase in CD-4 count after three months (CD-4 cells are the immune system's "fighters", the prime target of the HIV virus). In the second study, when the same formulations were re-administered after a gap of four weeks, the CD-4 count dipped to baseline, then rose again, confirming that the immunity boosting effect was not due to chance factors. But the last study-which sought to establish whether the drugs could actually decrease the viral load-proved disappointing. "Of the 15 patients who underwent treatment, none showed a significant decrease in viral count," admits Dr Prakash Bora, an HIV expert and the third member of ARCON's research team. Now the trio are drawing some cautious conclusions. "While ayurvedic drugs seem to boost the immune system, there is no evidence that they can cure AIDS," says Hira emphatically. What they can do is better the quality of life for HIV patients who are easy prey to secondary infections like tuberculosis, diarrhoea and common cold. Combined with the existing anti-retro viral drugs on the allopathic market, they offer the best of two worlds. "Allopathy attempts to destroy the virus, but it doesn't boost immunity. This is where ayurveda can step in," confirms Singh who has applied this bi-disciplinary approach to over 1,000 patients. There's also a financial benefit. While anti-retro viral drugs cost anything from Rs 11,000 to Rs 25,000 per months, depending on the type of "cocktail" used, their indigenous counterparts come for as little as Rs 300. "And once we hit upon the right formulation, it can be mass marketed for far less," promises Hira. Meanwhile, ayurvedic pharmaceutical companies like Dabur and the Himalyan Drug Company are also getting market-savvy and spending crores of rupees on researching, developing and popularizing over-the-counter remedies. Most of these address modern maladies such as stress, pre-menstrual syndrome, depression and obesity, based on adapted versions of ancient vedic formulas. Recently, the Dalmia Centre for Bio-technology developed an ayurvedic formulation called Learnol, specifically for mentally-challenged children. Clinical trials showed that Learnol actually reduces aggressive behaviour, restlessness, learning disabilities and slurred speech that are characteristic of this congenital condition. Feverish research of this type is, of course, expensive. But thanks to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a self-professed Vedanta buff, indigenous medicine has been promised a "booster dose" and hence funds are not hard to come by. But Vajpayee may do well to remember that thousands of self-made "herbalists" flourishing without a licence is another distinction that few other countries can claim. The bottom line? Holistic healing may well be the new pulse of modern medicine, but it needs to be monitored carefully. |
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Crush
a little Amla, add some tulsi leaves, garnish with neem. Grind this
"holy triumvirate" of the sacred ayurveda into a fine paste,
then swallow it with a satvik diet of nuts, jaggery, fresh fruit and ghee.
And maybe, just maybe, you have a cure for aids.