AYUSH industries must wake up fast……..

Time has come for the AYUSH industries to wake up fast to convert all those institutionally qualified AYUSH vaidyas who are engaged in cross pathy back to their respective systems like Siddha, Ayurveda etc. Like how some rich people with lot of black money find Swiss Bank and other places as ‘tax haven’ so are many institutionally qualified AYUSH graduates find practicing allopathic drugs as safe heaven.

The new licensing norms introduced by AYUSH for proprietary and patent AYUSH products mandate clinical trial and preliminary safety data. It means, the industries that go for new proprietary AYUSH formulations must invest good money both at R&D and clinical research. The interesting point is that the clinical trial needs to be done only at pilot level involving small number of patients.

When the industry invest heavily to develop the system and introduce newer and newer AYUSH formulations the institutionally qualified AYUSH vaidyas in private practice are expected to prescribe them for the benefit of the patients than engaged in cross pathy and only then the system would grow. AYUSH vaidyas must prove and present their competency primarily in own system than in allopathy.

In India, the health care needs of significant proportion of people who live both in rural and urban areas are met and fulfilled largely by private practitioners and private clinics/hospitals. Therefore the private practitioners hold the key to send right message and health awareness among people. When large number of institutionally qualified AYUSH vaidyas in private practice prescribe allopathic drugs than own system, naturally such situation will create distrust and disbelief in AYUSH. The likelihood of patients concluding AYUSH as an ineffective obscurant medical system is quite natural.

The distrust formed over the years due to cross pathy only has brought AYUSH to the present doldrums.

It means, cross pathy must end and only then the system can be developed. The effort of Ministry of AYUSH and AYUSH industries besides developing the system also must focus on convincing and converting several institutionally qualified AYUSH vaidyas in private practice to trust own system and prescribe AYUSH products than simply engaged in cross pathy.

AYUSH ministry and CCIM also must recognize the ground truth that AYUSH has moved away from its fundamentals and large number of AYUSH vaidyas have moved away from own system and are openly and or secretly engaged in cross pathy. None of the fundamentals of AYUSH such as principles of Tridosha and other diagnostic procedures, disease descriptions etc., are ever employed by most AYUSH vaidyas and not even such details are taught in the college, said one Siddha expert.

The point to be considered by the industries is that while introducing new proprietary AYUSH products, the claim of such products must be well within the matrix of AYUSH. It means, how the new formulation would correct Tridosha, how the practicing physicians can evaluate such changes, how the patients can recognize such differences etc., must be explained by the industries in simple and lucid style. Juxtaposing modern science is fine but it should be done in such a way that the fundamentals of the traditional system are not crushed by modern science.

Only through promoting the fundamentals of AYUSH in an unadulterated way, we can popularize the system.

Unfortunately we have pushed the AYUSH to fight with scientifically proven allopathic system of medicine by over projecting and assuring all impossible promises out of AYUSH products. AYUSH products were projected as better than allopathic system as they are safe and are in use for several centuries.

Unfortunately we made the AYUSH products to look like ‘drugs’ but they are actually products having several medicinal benefits. The products with medicinal benefits can be used prior to, during and post disease stage. Whereas drugs are meant exclusively for treating diseases and they should be taken strictly under the supervision of a doctor.

The AYUSH products like ginger, pepper, beetle leaf, curcuma, amla, ashwagandha etc., can be procured directly from any street vender and can be taken by anyone. All these products may have several medicinal (health) benefits and can be taken safely.

The products with medicinal (health) values can provide best health benefits to people during normal occasions and not when they are sick. During sickness, we need proven drugs and not products with medicinal values. To keep us healthy and to minimize the disease preponderance, AYUSH products with medicinal values would certainly help.

It means, both AYUSH products and drugs have their definite role in our health care system. But we have unfortunately got confused between products that have medicinal (health) values and drugs and we are promoting AYUSH as medical science; drug and cure based system.

AYUSH industries must correct this historic error. Such correction also would help the AYUSH industries to easily export several AYUSH products as simple commodities, natural products, health supplements etc.

Wellness and preserving health of healthy individuals and decreasing the disease predisposition are also part of our health care needs. As equal to medicine, the paramedical services and paramedical cares are equally important. The paramedical values of AYUSH must be promoted and popularized for home health management. If we continue to promote AYUSH as drug and cure based system like allopathic science, no one would accept them purely due to lack of science and merit.

It means scientifically the institutionally qualified AYUSH vaidyas are more of health and wellness experts.

Health and wellness are far bigger needs of people these days due to life style change and fast moving mechanical life. Most people have started to adopt all necessary prerequisites to remain healthy. They are looking and longing for more valuable recipes and guidelines to follow. The institutionally qualified AYUSH vaidyas can easily fill this ever expanding niche. Now a days people read and learn more about how to remain healthy than where and how to treat their sickness.

The pilot stage clinical trial involving small number of patients for new proprietary and patent AYUSH formulations however may help the industry to bring out new proprietary AYUSH formulations but the true science of such formulations with reference to their long term effect, drug-drug interaction etc., cannot be established through pilot study.

Many allopathic drugs were in human use for several decades are reported to have several side effects and are hence withdrawn or their usages are restricted. All those allopathic drugs before granting license to manufacture and market were subjected to rigorous scientific evaluation, detailed pharmacokinetic studies, pre-clinical to phase 1,2,3,4 clinical trials. But still many such hidden side effects of all those drugs could not be detected initially.

Since the AYUSH products are not drugs as per the scientific definition and may qualify only to be called as products with some medicinal (health) value, pilot clinical trial may be sufficient. This could be the reason why AYUSH has formulated such simple clinical trial guidelines. Further, the principle investigator of the trial should be an AYUSH graduate and not allopathic doctor.

The point therefore the AYUSH industry must remember that the clinical trial findings should not be stretched to define products as drugs but products with some medicinal benefits. All such medicinal benefits must be promoted and claimed well within the fundamentals of AYUSH. The modern science may be used only for language translation and not beyond that.

Taking AYUSH along the line of allopathic science will not help the system because providing or proving unquestionable science from AYUSH will not be possible.

Promoting AYUSH as system for wellness and health and its products for home health management rather than as drug and cure based system will certainly help the humanity to richly benefit from AYUSH.
AYUSH industries must constantly engage in proving the science of AYUSH well within the fundamentals of AYUSH and not to prove the system as medical science like allopathic system. Similarly the industries also must promote the AYUSH products by highlighting how such products would translate the benefits as per the fundamentals of AYUSH. Only through such concerted and well orchestrated effort the system can be taken to the new generation. The institutionally qualified AYUSH vaidyas, instead of engaging in cross pathy must rapidly engage in ‘Ghar Wapsi’ (घर वापसी) (home coming).

If all AYUSH vaidyas in private practice are engaged in practicing own system, identification, elimination and inclusion of several new effective AYUSH products become easy. But moving away from the fundamentals of the system and opting cross pathy for retaining and surviving the practice will only make the system sick and weak.

As a part of corporate social responsibility, every AYUSH industry must engage in converting the AYUSH vaidyas who are engaged in cross pathy to save the rapidly vanishing system – AYUSH.

Ministry of AYUSH, CCIM and other research organizations of AYUSH must address the issue of cross pathy seriously in order to save the system.

Dr S Ranganathan