truly modern medicine

[Guest guest]

Let us consider Swimming, especially from a non-swimmer.

Swimming is bad. Swimming exposes one to the cold air, and one can catch cold.

Swimming may cause head injuries and paralyze one from the shoulder down.

Swimming can cause other injuries , if one dives from a height.

Swimming can cause death from injuries / drowning.

swimming causes anxiety, if your legs do not touch the ground.

You could die from shark bites, or from pirannhas.

Therefore, Swimming is absolutely bad, and should be banned.

 

This is from a bible of a " bed room swimmer", who has not taken any swimming

lessons, and yes, to him swimming can be bad or even lethal. And he or she has

had bad experiences of

" drowned relatives" or even personal injuries, and is deadly afraid of water.

We all know such people.

 

Our column has become like this remote example above.

 

Allopathy is a name given to non-alternative or mainstream study of medicine,

by other people. No Doctor calls himself / herself an Allopath. You get a degree

in Medicine and Surgery. Not in Allopathy.

 

Until about 150 years ago, all medications were directly from plants, regardless

of the system of Medicine, Ayurveda, Unani, Chinese herbal, Greek or German.

..

By the "traditional" systems of the day, any body could "practice" medicine, if

they had any basic knowledge of biology, chemistry and herbology, and dedicated

themselves as an apprentice to another practitioner of medicine. It is only in

the last 100 years or less that the study was formalized into what is considered

to be "modern medicine". Mostly because

the " traditional medicines" of the day, did not cure everything.

 

Medicines from bread moulds--became Penicillin. Sterilizing techniques---a la

Pasteur, came to become standard, and microscopic and microbial anatomy,

physioloy and pharmacology came to be researched and the advances of the last

century have been essentially because of antibiotics ( people died of gangrene,

cholera, plague, tuberculosis or pneumonia before that ), sterilization

techniques, advances in Anesthesia, and advances in blood transfusion, all of

which resulted in tremendous advances in modern surgical possibility.

Any branch of medicine could have followed these techniques.

 

In the last 25 years, there have been tremendous advances in radiology and Lab

testing, and now ofcourse is in genetic ( treatment or manipulation). If you are

born with a defect, you would want genetic treatment. If you are not, you would

naturally dread the bad results from it.

 

With the advent of microbiology, more and more complex and synthetic compounds

have been discovered that do give a relief to a vast majority of people by way

of curing congestive failure, irregular heart beats or pneumonias.

 

Ofcourse, just as at the turn of the 1800s, there were incurable diseases in the

traditional medicine, now there are incurable diseases of the modern medicine.

There are also several people, who are allergic to these synthetic substances,

or are not cured by these compounds, or their illnesses could become worse (

just as there is no real solution to degenerative arthritis

in Ayurveda either, among other diseases.)

 

We should recognize that there are pitfalls of all systems. That we should

follow Primum non nocere----- At first do no harm ( this is in the oath of

"Modern Medicine" ) , regardless of the system of medicine and try and learn as

much as we can from all systems, and try to help as many people as we can.

 

Is money or lack of it a problem ? Yes, with all systems. Only God cures without

charging. Ayurveda actually calls a Vaidya ( a Physician) , the older brother of

Yama, the God of death. Yama only takes away the Life, while the Physician takes

away money too. These problems are beyond our societal value system, Every ill

person expects the best at least expense, and every physician ( of every system

) expects to be paid for his knowledge. Some are down right into the money thing

and several are just trying to help people but expect a decent remuneration for

all the years spent in studying.

 

Let us then resolve to educate people appropriately about Digestion, and about

Food and Air that we introduce in our bodies. Let us try to use the ayurvedic

principles of diet, based on our Doshas, bit also based on our philosophies (

garlic or not, and meat or not ), with full knowledge that ultimately, it is our

own health and longevity. During this life, there will be occasions to resort to

modern medicine ( for diagnosis, or for treatment of abscesses, or other life

threatening disorders that need Pacemakers and like). Where there is no urgency

of life or limb loss, one can resort to any form of medicine that will either

strengthen the body, increase our immunity, or decrease the level of the "

disease", without throwing stones at any system.

Whatever helps, is my motto.

 

For this, we need adequate knowledge, and trustworthy physicians, who are

trained in more than one system, and are constantly willing to learn. We also

need to do research with double blind studies in our traditional systems of

medicine, and use the traditional medicines in a modern way.

 

Durgesh Mankikar, MD