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CT scan and MRI scan for Tridosha diagnosis? When AYUSH leaps, poor people fall
Highlights
Why most of the institutionally qualified Siddha healers seldom use Siddha diagnostic procedures these days to diagnose Tridosha than using Stethoscope, BP apparatus, referring patients to scan centres, ask for laboratory diagnosis etc?
Why most of the institutionally qualified Siddha healers seldom use Siddha diagnostic procedures these days to diagnose Tridosha than using Stethoscope, BP apparatus, referring patients to scan centres, ask for laboratory diagnosis etc?
What is wrong in Siddha healers sending the patients to various diagnostic centres and using advanced gadgets for accurate diagnosis of the diseases? In fact, nothing wrong and no one would or can object to it.
The question is different. Assume the report of chest X ray or CT scan or angiogram when the patient submits to a Siddha healer for review, how the Siddha healer would interpret and correlate such report with Vata or Pita or Kapha disorder, at what proportion they are present, how long such imbalanced proportion was in existence etc?
After Siddha products are given to the patients for the required period of time based on the above diagnosis, will the Siddha healers again ask the patient to do CT scan, MRI or X ray? Can the Siddha healer accurately say the tridosha has been corrected by Siddha product based on such scientific diagnostic tools? Siddha diagnosis is skill based. The skill largely each vaidya develop based on the locality where they live. When they see patients with set of problem, they develop some level of understanding. This is how the system has evolved, said one Siddha prost graduate.
If it is done for academic purpose, are they not putting unnecessary financial burden on poor patients in rural India? How do Siddha healers diagnose the tridosha with the help of stethoscope or CT scan or angiogram or laboratory tests like antigen, antibody levels, Bilirubin, blood culture, BUN, CRP etc?
It means, neither the diagnostic procedures of Siddha system are relevant and useful for proper and accurate diagnosis nor do they can correlate the disease symptoms based on Siddha methods. That is why they relay upon the findings obtained with CT or MR scan etc.
The question that rock and echo the scientific world is that how the Siddha healers correct the Tridosha based on modern diagnosis? All the products of Siddha system are meant for correcting Tridosha and not meant for curing the diseases. That is why none of the Siddha products in particular and AYUSH products in general qualifies to be called as drugs by bare minimum standards of science.
The other genuine question is why they put such unnecessary financial burden on poor patients? Are they doing so just to prove to the poor patients that they are so meticulous and methodical in diagnosing the disease, doubted one Siddha expert?
If we look into some of the diagnostic procedures mentioned in Siddha curriculum, we can easily map the competency of Siddha healers in understanding the findings of modern scientifically proven gadgets based diagnosis vis-à-vis Tridosha concept. The BSMS curriculum will prove the above truth.
Siddha system and ISM largely follow subjective methods and associate the likely tridosha imbalances as the cause. Such subjective diagnostic methods followed in Siddha system are as follows
1. Examination of Tongue – Siddha system considers tongue is an important indicator of the health problem.
If the tongue appear in black or blue colour, it indicates Vatham disease; if red, Pitham disease; and if white, Kapha disease. Can we relay either the colour based diagnosis of tongue or role of Tridosha? Can we find any science here?
2. Skin colour – Siddha healers believe that the colour of tongue will reflect the same way in the skin as well. It means, all the colour manifestations seen in tongue will reflect in skin as well. Then why tongue based examination. The skin colour based diagnosis itself is sufficient.
In HIV patients and those who suffer from immune suppression, signs of candiadisis would appear in tongue and mouth but the sign of candidiasis in skin may not and need not appear. That is science.
3. Speech - The Speech is another important element in diagnosis. The tone, voice and clarity indicate the type of problem. Naturally tone of every patient will be filled with tension. What diagnosis can be made out of tension of the patient? Clarity of speech will be vague when we suddenly wake up from deep sleep, does it mean, during sleep, people fall into some Tridosha imbalance?
3. Colour of the Eye - Eye discoloration is a critical indicator. Again the colour indications in the eye are consider as same as that of skin and tongue. Does it not look bizarre and psychic than scientific?
4. Body heat and sweat pattern – Look at the funny correlation between sweating in forehead and constipation. Sweating indicates vatham. When someone is attending an interview or expecting examination result, would sweat profusely, does it mean they have developed vatham disorder? During summer, people tends to sweat a lot, does it means the incidence of Vatha disorder is high during summer months especially in tropical countries? All mammals sweat, it means by evolution, mammals are highly susceptible to vatha disorder? What is the science of it?
5. Urine Examination – According to AYUSH, urine is very important not only for diagnosis of Tridosha, but also for treating Tridosha diseases. That is why the urine of several animals are used in ISM as drugs.
The straw coloured indicates indigestion; reddish-yellow indicates excessive heat; rose tinge in urine indicates blood pressure etc. Just with the colour of urine, when blood pressure can be diagnosed, why the modern day institutionally qualified Siddha vaidyas need BP apparatus? Why such simple diagnostic tool the modern day institutionally qualified Siddha vaidyas are not using?
6. Oil in Urine Examination – The urine is also for detailed diagnosis (confirmatory test). They keep the urine in a tray under sunlight and then a drop of oil is placed gently on it and the movement of oil is examined.
If the oil spreads like a snake, it indicates Vatham. If it appears as ring, it indicates Pitha; if it floats like a pearl, Kapha disorder.
7. Pulse examination – Examination of pulse is important in AYUSH. But the question is how stethoscope would help to read Tridosha?
The above narratives clearly reveal the following
1. The diagnostic methods of Siddha are irrelevant and useless
2. None of the Siddha products worth the definition of drugs
3. None of the Siddha products have curative values
But the Siddha system ironically enjoys the status of system of medicine. Why don’t the Government re-position entire AYUSH as paramedical wellness based practice than promoting it as system of medicine?
Imagine, the Siddha graduates who have studied such system are allowed to engage in cross pathy in rural India, what will the consequence?
If AYUSH is re-positioned as paramedical wellness system, spontaneous reduction in the incidence and prevalence of many tropical diseases can be easily achieved.
In the name of medical pluralism, we should not affect our health care system and should not subject rural India to suffer.
S Ranganathan
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