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HEALTH:
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
AYUR
VIVA
A slew
of Indian and foreign firms moves in to cash in on a major worldwide revival
of the ancient system of medicine
By Farah
Baria
Calvin
Klein, who gave us "Obsession" and "Eternity", concocts
a fragrance called "Truth" inspired by the yogic principle of
satya. Jewellers Noel Bohorquez, better known for their pea-sized diamonds,
launch a range of esoteric "chakra cleansing" stones to raise
your serpent power or kundalini. International supermodel Christie Turlington
introduces a skin-care line called "Sundari", with its roots
in the Indian principle of shringar or beauty care. And New York-based
designer Donna Karan, who is deeply into Vedic philosophy, calls a new
clothes line "Pure" in keeping with her new found spirituality.
Their inspiration?
Ayurveda, the 5,000-year-old Indian "science of life" that harmonises
body, mind and spirit with a slew of holistic techniques-diet, herbs,
aroma and colour therapy, massage, mantras, gemology, yoga, breathing
and meditation. Changing lifestyles have unleashed new scourges like stress,
back problems, cancer and asthma on mankind. With allopathic drugs merely
suppressing the problem, an increasing number of people around the world
is seeking succour in ayurveda. Today, due to Deepak Chopra and an estimated
25 exclusive ayurvedic spas around the world, sage Charaka's ancient healing
science is suddenly hip, hot and happening. What's more, it's also a booming
business.
To put it
in perspective, the global turnover in herbal medicines is a huge $12
billion (Rs 55,000 crore). However, Indian companies have barely managed
to get the crumbs of this cake. "While so-called western vaids are
earning millions of dollars by patenting and monopolising ayurvedic herbs
and techniques, India earns next to nothing, thanks to a lack of marketing,"
says Gopi Warrier, chairman of the London-based Ayurvedic Company of Great
Britain. Warrier believes this amounts to pilfering of India's intellectual
property. "Ayurveda belongs to India, just as champagne belongs to
France and scotch to Scotland," he says flatly. "We must reclaim
this ancient legacy."
Now, modern
India is slowly waking up to the commercial implications of this jingoism.
While luxurious ayurvedic centres are mushrooming all over the country,
herbal manufacturers are gearing up to carve out a bigger slice of the
global market. Says Dr P.R. Krishna of the Ayushman Ayurvedic Trust at
Coimbatore: "When I started treating patients in 1973, people thought
I practised witchcraft and black magic." Today 400 students compete
for 20 seats at his Gurukul College every year and Krishna has helped
set up a plush Rs 60-lakh Ayurvedic Centre at the Taj Residency at Kozhikode.
A basic seven-day "detox" programme costs Rs 22,400 a head.
In fact,
ayurveda is becoming very much a part of the upmarket tourist package.
New itineraries include the opulent, six-month-old Ayoma Spa at the sprawling
summer palace of Maharaja Gajanand Singh in Jodhpur. Set up by San Francisco-based
entrepreneur Reenita Malhotra, Ayoma has centres in the UK, Indonesia
and Japan-and has already attracted over 1,000 clients to Rajasthan. Ananda,
a Rs 40-crore joint venture of the Rafael Group Hoteliers and Indian Hotels
at Garhwal in Uttar Pradesh, is also doing brisk business. It is virtually
booked all through the summer despite the steep tariff of Rs 7,225 per
head.
As for Kerala,
the fecund ayurvedic heartland, spas like these are sprouting fast. At
the Somatheeram Ayurvedic Resort at Kovalam you can choose between a "Longevity
Package" (Rs 54,000), a "Sexual Rejuvenation Package" (Rs
29,700)) and a "Slimmers' Package" (Rs 49,500). Clients include
former chief election commissioner T.N. Seshan and actress Shabana Azmi.
Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta are regulars at the Spice Village Ayurvedic
Centre located in Kerala's picturesque Cardamom Hills while the Bachchans
and the Godrejs traditionally opt for Kairali, India's best known ayurvedic
resort at Palakkad. Tariffs range from Rs 3,000 to Rs 8,000 a night, yet
reservations are difficult.
At the bottom
end, scores of small "ayurvedic massage parlours" and panchakarma
centres can be found in every village and hamlet, hawking Charaka's profound
therapies for as little as Rs 150 a massage. Even the crusty old guard
is trying to cash in on the new trend with respectable druids sacrificing
their jealously guarded herbal secrets at the altar of commerce. The Keraleeyam
Ayurvedic Centre at Alleppey is run by SD Pharmacy, a leading herb manufacturer
in Kerala, and at Kollam, another exclusive spa is managed by Dr Shankaran,
a retired principal of the Government Ayurvedic College of Thiruvananthapuram.
The craze
for ayurveda is not limited to soul-searching foreigners. "Indians
are reverting to indigenous medicine because it cures the person completely
and has no side-effects," explains Mumbai-based vaid Dr Pankaj Naram,
who receives over 400 patients a day at his Ayurshakti Centre. He also
trains foreign medical students in ayurvedic techniques, while wife Swati
runs the Swadshakti Fast Food Restaurant that serves satvik rice chapatis,
a special "foreigners thali" and the "panchkarma diet".
"People
are turning to ayurveda because there are several grey areas in allopathy,"
admits Dr Sharadini Dahanukar of KEM Hospital, Mumbai. Cures for modern
diseases like aids, cancer and diabetes remain elusive; moreover, the
treatment is extremely expensive. "This is where cheap, indigenous
medicine can help."
So, even
mainstream medicine is turning to this ancient system. In Delhi, the Body
Mind Centre-a holistic clinic set up by the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital-is
using aromatherapy and ayurvedic massage to treat depression, arthritis,
headaches, asthma and digestive problems. Dr Bimal Chhajer, a former cardiologist
from aiims, Delhi, who quit to set up the Science and Art of Living Centre,
is using ayurveda to treat heart diseases. In one exercise, Chhajer makes
patients visualise a "harmonising" green light penetrating their
arteries to clear cholesterol. It works, he says, thanks to psychoneuroimmunology
(healing through positive thought).
At Delhi's
Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, Dr Peeyush Jain is likewise
using meditation to rehabilitate heart patients. At aiims, cancer patients
taking chemotherapy learn yogic asanas to prevent tumours from spreading.
And at nimhans, Bangalore, pranayama is replacing prozac in the treatment
of neurotic disorders. "The Vedic masters believed that breath is
the basis of all emotions," says Swami Dharmakeerti, a qualified
psychiatrist with the Richmond Fellowship Society of India and a sanyasin
at the Bihar School of Yoga.
This has encouraged a clutch of ayurvedic companies like Dabur, Zandu
and Baidyanath to tailor their classic formulations for 21st century scourges,
from stress and heart disease to diabetes, depression and cancer. "The
challenge today is to tread the fine line between the traditional and
the contemporary," explains Dabur ceo G.C. Burman. Two years ago,
Dabur, which used to market the stress-relieving ashwagandha herb in the
traditional liquid form, introduced the formulation in convenient capsules.
Thanks to aggressive advertising, sales jumped 60 per cent. "Now
even psychiatrists are prescribing it," claims Burman.
Others like
Baidyanath (Nagpur), Zandu (Mumbai) and the Himalaya Drug Company (Bangalore)
are also attempting to package Charaka's hoary prescriptions and home
remedies for the Rs 4,000-crore domestic herbal bazaar. Many of these
firms are also trying to enter the global herbal medicine market. Ranjit
Puranik, ceo of Shree Dhootapapeshwar Ltd, a 150-year-old Mumbai-based
ayurvedic company, believes that exports of herbal products from India
can grow at 200 per cent per annum. But while countries like China and
Japan have successfully marketed their traditional medicine in the West,
Indian formulations have missed the bus. For instance, while ginseng,
the famed Chinese tonic and aphrodisiac which has the same properties
as ashwagandha, accounts for over $800 million (Rs 3,700 crore) of the
international market, all our herbs put together account for less than
$1 million (Rs 4.6 crore)!
There are
several reasons why India has been denied the spoils. To begin with, many
Indian companies do not conform to western standards of clinical trials,
says Vaidya Balendru Prakash, physician to the President of India. As
a result, their products cannot be sold in most western countries. Then
again, standardisation and quality control are virtually non-existent.
Besides,
ayurvedic medicines rarely list contraindications. For instance, unknown
to consumers, many brands of Chyavanprash, India's most popular tonic,
contain as much as 60 per cent of jaggery or sugar that can be dangerous
for diabetics. There is no expiry date on the pack because Indian drug
laws do not require indigenous formulations to carry one. "The idea
is simply to turn classic formulas into money-spinners by cutthroat campaigning,"
says an indignant Prakash who is campaigning for more ethical market practices.
Meanwhile,
the Centre is finally doing its bit to promote this forgotten science.
Union Science and Technology Minister M.M. Joshi has promised 100 per
cent tax exemption for r&d in ayurveda and is encouraging the setting
up of more panchakarma centres in India. But purists are far from happy.
Says Dr V. Franklin, who runs the conservative Panchkarma Institute and
Research Centre near Kovalam: "Ayurveda is not about fancy spas and
popping pills. This is gross commercialisation." But as long as it
continues to rake in the moolah, Charaka's ancient science of healing
is all set to become India's cash cow.
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CII’s
conference on Friday on corporate governance is called Independent Directors:
Why, How and Who. Why Not, How Not and Who Not, would have been better,
says INDIA TODAY Associate Editor, V Shankar Aiyar