Ayurveda and metals. What's the reality?

[Guest guest]

Dear Group members,

I am sure you must have read the message posted by Vd. Mandhane

regarding the allegations made against him in particular and about

ayurvedic medicines in general (message no. 2507). This post was one

of the most difficult to approve among the messages posted in the

last 3 years as it involves a very serious issue faced by almost all

vaidyas who are bold enough to use rasashastra medicines. We had to

take due care that only one side of the case was not presented as

was done by Mr. Sheth and the thousands who mindlessly forwarded his

message. I expect a fair amount of discussion and awareness to be

generated by this message. There are a lot of ayurvedic doctors on

this group. I appeal to them to speak out. If they feel Vd. Mandhane

is wrong speak out against him but do not remain silent. I myself

posted some queries to Vd. Mandhane to which he has replied. I am

posting my queries and his answers as a starting point of discussion.

 

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Dear Cybervaidya,

 

I am replying to your queries...

 

Question 1) Is Mr. Sheth's e-mail address mentioned in the original

e-mail. Considering the message was spread over the internet we

could include his e-mail in the message. I have decided not to

include his postal address or phone number's in the posting.

Answer :- No. His e-mail address was not mentioned in his message.

 

Question 2) Mr. Sheth cliams the medicines were for Tonsillitis and

Constipation. You say that he was given two months

course of three - Arogyavardhini, Lavan Bhaskar Churna and Gandharva

Haritaki Churna and later Agnitundi Vati in his second course (which

he didn't consume). With my little knowledge of ayurveda I fail to

understand why a two month course should be suggested for

Tonsillitis. The first three medicines seem to be for constipation

while Arogyavardhini may be used for

Tonsillitis though it would not be the drug of choice. Also why was

agnitundi added later? Why didn't he consume it? This suggests that

you had a different diagnosis for his condition. What your diagnosis

was should be clear in your reply. Otherwise the impression would be

that you gave the said medicines for 2 months for Tonsillitis and

Constipation. Even

considering that the extended time period was only for constipation

the question remains what was given for

Tonsillitis?

Answer :- I must clarify this in detail. See, when patient came to

me in June 2002, he was badly costipated since quite some time. He

was not having acute tonsilitis at that time. He used to get

recurrent attacks of tonsilitis. I said him that if hecould get rid

of constipation, automatically his bouts of tonsilitis will

disappear. So the same medicine will help to prevent his recurrent

tonsilitis. The medicines given at that time were solely for

improving his Agni and relieve constipation.Patient was supposed to

contact me after that course i. e. after two months and I would have

changed the medicines. But patient didn't contact.

Now, about the second course of the medicines...

When they asked for the medicines in Aug 2003, patient was already

in ICU due to his renal failure. Doctors suspected about the

ayurvedic medicines he had taken before and wanted to know more

about it. But as the medicines were consumed by the patients almost

before a year, relatives didn't had it. Then they sent a person at

Mahabaleshwar and that person asked for the SAME medicines. I said

we can't give the same medicines to him after such a long time as

there would be lot of changes in this period. I said, let me talk

with the patient first and discuss his problem..how he felt with the

previous medicines etc. So I called Mr. Ketu on his cell phone. The

call was attended by his wife. She said,

Mr. Ketu had gone to some foreign country and recently he is

suffering from the same problem as a year back. He felt very good

with your last course and he had asked me to get that course again

so that he can start it as soon as he returns from abroad. I asked

few questions to her regarding his health and then prepared the

course and sent it at our Mumbai office from where thay collected it.

Please note that they asked for the second course only for analysing

it and not for consumption...Actually the patient died on very next

day they recieved our medicines .(that we came to know later. We

were completely unaware of all these facts till that message started

spreading.)

Agnitundi Vati added in second course to improve his intestinal tone

as the main ingredient of it, "Kuchala" is known for that. There was

no dialemma in the diagnosis. As the 2nd course was ordered only for

its analysis there is no question why patient didn't consume it.

 

Question 3) The fact that Mr. Sheth did not inform you about the

actual condition of his son before ordering the medicine from you

the second time can be a strong point for you. This indicates that

he might have been untruthful before coming to you in the first

place and might have had a pre-existing kidney condition. Was this

considered by you before giving the first course?

Answer :- There was no any specific complaint by the patient which

could have attrcted my attention towards his kidneys. His urinary

function was quite normal. And he didn't mention anything about it.

I am not sure whether he had it before or not.

 

I believe I had answered all questions to your satisfaction.

 

At the root of all this controversy these are the facts....

 

1. Sheth Family did not ask us anything about our medicines. When

they "found" that the medicines contained dangerous metals, they

should have contacted me first and should have asked the

explaination. Had they did this, we could have explained the facts.

2. Those people were guided only by their Neprologists. It seems

that they didn't discuss this matter with any person in the field of

ayurved before reaching to their conclusions.

3. Thogh we couldn't see their reports, it is obvious that their

reports are also NORMAL. They are just horrified by the values of

metals which are described in "PPM". How a improper understanding of

the term PPM leads to confusion is explained in my reply. The

reference of "permissible" limits of metals in their message is for

raw metals in daily consumption of food and water. Had they checked

the permissible limits of metals for ayurvedic medicines decided by

the Govt, they must not have reached to their wrong conclusions.

 

At last, I will like to draw your attention towards one most

important point. This mail is being circulated over internet since a

year. Still this is going on. So many ayurvedic doctors in

Maharashtra and India came across this. There was my name mentioned

in that message along with my address. BUT NO ONE FROM THE AYURVEDIC

FIELD TRIED TO CONTACT ME and KNOW THE REAL FACTS.

Recently I had been invited in a conference on "Metals in Ayurvedic

Medicines". (I myself contacted them and wished to present my

experience there.) There I came to know that almost 50 Vaidyas in

the audience had recieved this infamous message. There were owners

of some of the big ayurvedic pharmacies. Everyone shown sympathy

towards me. But before that no one had shown any interest in knowing

the REALITY.

 

This apathy was really painful and needs to be addressed.

 

I will reply the queries from the group if they arise.

But please take care that this whole thing should not invite any

fresh headache for me.

Me and my family suffered a lot...still we are suffering..our

practise and future is badly affected due to this propoganda.

And there was nothing wrong from my side ..it was just a

MISUNDERSTANDING.

Whatever damage had occured to me can not be compensated by these

type of replies.

I am presenting my side just to let the ayurvedic doctors know the

type of problems one may have to face in the practice.

I wish that no any other vaidya should suffer again like this.

Dr. Anand Mandhane.

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Even members of the group who are not ayurvedic doctors are

requested to post their queries with regards to this and the

previous message and if you have even accidentaly forwarded the

message spread by Mr. Sheth please be kind enough to spread this

explanation.

 

Cybervaidya.