Doctor or Drug Cures the Disease? Biopsy of AYUSH

When we look at the therapeutic claims and posturing of most AYUSH products and treatment approaches in general, we may wonder how AYUSH can offer treatment and cure mostly to incurable diseases and it cannot treat and cure simple curable diseases?

Treating simple allergic reactions or a headache, no AYUSH product can match anyway near the most common antihistaminic drugs like cetirizine or acetaminophen in the allopathic system. But interestingly AYUSH claims that it has a remedy for a migraine and asthma.

Besides that, AYUSH also claims to have effective drugs for diabetes mellitus, arthritis, cancer, chikungunya, dengue, psoriasis, vitiligo etc. If we ask what these AYUSH products would really do to the patients, the answer would come in the form of quibbling, confusing and sometimes accusing the one who raises such questions.

The overstatement of AYUSH for chronic and incurable diseases has strong psychological reasons than scientific or medical reason. The same finding also reflected in the article “Medicine wars: Questions over science swirl, but AYUSH stands firm” - April 26, 2015, The Hindu.

The patients with a headache, bacterial or fungal infection or allergic reactions or severe inflammatory stage of Psoriasis or rapidly progressing vitiligo etc., can rely on only allopathic drugs and not AYUSH products. No patient can ever find any benefit for the above medical problems from AYUSH in the form of quick relief. The problems like diabetes, arthritis etc., have no cure as on date. With time, most patients who suffer from many incurable diseases would concede the fact that their medical problem cannot be cured and at best it can only be managed.

Once patients reach such point, their focus would naturally shift to how the disease can be managed, what do’s and don’ts' they should follow etc. Due to the known medical reasons, every chronic disease would advance with time. Most such patients always like to discuss their medical problems with everyone they could find to gather a various spectrum of remedies that are available to manage the medical problem.

When such patients visit the allopathic doctor the likelihood of getting disappointed is quite high because the allopathic doctors may not like to offer any unscientific explanations, promises or other medical possibilities. They would simply advise the patient to opt some palliative or placebo treatment to manage the problem until any flare up. The allopathic doctors also won’t entertain the chronic sufferers of most incurable diseases just for academic discussions or would experiment the luck of patients through some unproven and unscientific treatment methods.

The philosophy and working style of most allopathic doctors are largely meant only to diagnose and treat the patients and not to the council or engage in general discussions or giving advice.

Quite contrary to the above, some AYUSH vaidyas always provide long discourses, listens even to the personal problems of the patients, engage in counseling, advising, philosophizing etc. Naturally the patients would find such AYUSH vaidyas as Gods and Demigods and would likely to develop an emotional attachment.

Another reason also plays a major role. AYUSH is strictly a paramedical practice with several products meant for individualized treatment. The AYUSH vaidyas often provide different herbal recipes to the patients to try and experiment. Due to the inherent nature of the disease, the problem may either resolve spontaneously for a short while or may flare up. Interestingly some herbal recipes of AYUSH may also offer hope purely due to the mere coincidence of the above scientific truth of the incurable diseases. If some positive coincidence occurs, that becomes the point of celebration for both the patient and vaidya. Interestingly such patients would not only love to discuss more with the vaidyas who has created such miracle but also likely to act as a missionary of both the system and the vaidya.

The point to be noted here is that more than the AYUSH products; the AYUSH vaidyas are effective in giving hope, confidence and self-cure in many patients. Perhaps they would have used some herbal preparations that might have just placebo effects and nothing else.

The strong psychological need of the patients who suffer from may incurable diseases and the ability of most AYUSH vaidyas to find enough and more time to engage with such patients explaining their problem partially in AYUSH language and partly with the borrowed knowledge from allopathic system, the patients with incurable diseases generally like to flock around the AYUSH vaidya. The AYUSH vaidyas when explains the problem by using Tridosha philosophy, naturally the patients would feel thrilled but in all likelihood understands nothing.

More than the medical needs or the possibility of an assured medical relief, only the psychological needs of the patients compel them to go after AYUSH system. But such flocking got misinterpreted and popularized by the promoters of the system by claiming that AYUSH can offer better relief than an allopathic system for many chronic diseases, said Dr. Abdul Abbas, MD - Siddha.

It is not the AYUSH products that are effective but some AYUSH vaidyas are effective in counseling the patients, advising them and are willing to entertain the patients for any number of hours that makes the difference.

Sometime a few AYUSH products may exhibit some small effects also. Once we recognize the above truth, we can ‘use’ the services of a large number of AYUSH vaidyas in private practice to offer to counsel to every patient to improve their quality of life. All private hospitals can appoint AYUSH vaidyas to provide counseling to patients who suffer from various chronic and incurable diseases.

We need to understand and accept the truth that AYUSH is not a cure and drug-based medical science but an effective paramedical practice. Such acceptance should not be seen as demeaning of the system. Such acceptance alone will help our country to use the system in a more meaningful way. The large number of AYUSH vaidyas instead of treating them as a doctor, Government can utilize their expertise and intelligence to provide ‘patient counseling’, palliative therapy, placebo therapy, mind therapy, massage therapy, YOGA therapy, mantra therapy etc.

We need to create more such opportunities to AYUSH vaidyas to benefit a large number of patients. Since we have left them to serve us as a doctor only has created problem both for AYUSH as well to our society in the form of cross pathy. Recently the Siddha association in Kerala has stated that “Lack of facilities for higher studies forces Siddha graduates in Kerala to opt for non-medical courses, May 20, 2016, PharmaBiz”

According to the above report, most of the BSMS graduates after completing the course are migrating to other fields like LLB, jobs in industries etc., obviously due to lack of scope and opportunity to practice.

The above situation has occurred only because we are promoting AYUSH as medical science. If we produce AYUSH graduates as a doctor, what effective and scientifically proven drug they have in Siddha system to practice and meet the bare minimum expectations of the patients, asked Dr. Abdul Abbas.

The government must do serious introspection to understand the merit in promoting AYUSH as medical science.

The present generation would certainly compare the AYUSH products when promoted as drugs only with the scientifically proven allopathic drugs and their therapeutic effects. No single product of AYUSH can even meet either the definition or the efficacy of any allopathic drug. So the people who have studied AYUSH when wants to practice will certainly find it difficult to succeed in practice or it might take very long time to succeed, no one knows, how long.

If we re-promote AYUSH as paramedical practice, we can easily enhance the role and service of AYUSH and certainly our society also would benefit. Cross pathy will only compound our medical problem, especially in rural India.

Dr. S Ranganathan