University of Washington takes up study on Ayurveda

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University of Washington takes up study on Ayurveda

 

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/mar/05ayur.htm

 

    Inspired by a " discarded " 20-year-old World Health

Organisation-funded study which proved the efficacy of Ayurveda in

treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, the University of Washington has

taken up a similar project in association with the Ayurvedic Trust in

Coimbatore. The University's National Institute of Health-sponsored

study 'Ayurvedic and Allopathic Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis' at

Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu is expected to be over by the end of this year,

Dr Krishna Kumar, managing director of the trust, told PTI. The

eight-member Indian team of Ayurvedic and Allopathic doctors is headed

by Dr Ram Manohar of the trust and the six-member US team is led by Dr

Daniel E Furst of the University of Los Angeles. In the NIH study, which

seeks to ascertain the effectiveness of combining Ayurvedic and

Allopathic streams of medicine in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis,

45 patients are treated for 36 weeks each, added Krishna Kumar. " We were

able to gain approval from the University of Washington's very stringent

Institutional Review Board for this pilot study, on the basis of the

findings of the earlier WHO study, " he said. According to Dr Mano

Venkataraman of University of Washington, the programme director of the

present study, " The encouraging results of the WHO study provided the

inspiration, preliminary data, and the foundation upon which we could

base the rationale for our NIH grant proposal. " The WHO study was the

first of its kind on a traditional medical system ever to be sponsored

by the international organisation.

 

    It enrolled 240 patients with rheumatoid arthritis from 1977

to 1984, added Krishna Kumar. The WHO study had an allopathic panel --

comprising leading doctors from the All India Institute of Medical

Sciences, New Delhi, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and

Research, Chandigarh, and Madras Medical College, Chennai -- which

diagnosed and chose the subjects for the study and also supervised the

progress. The Indian Council for Medical Research was involved in the

evaluation of the study. According to S Radhakrishna, retired director

of the ICMR institute in Chennai, statistically significant and

clinically-substantial improvements were seen in signs and symptoms in

most patients. Physicians noted reduction of swelling within the first

month, and 80 per cent of the subjects reported relief from pain. In

general, subjects evaluated their condition at discharge more favourably

than did the allopathic physicians, said Dr C Madhusoodanan, who was a

member of late Dr K S Varier-led treatment panel. The Ayurvedic team

felt that the treatment had been effective without any harmful side

effects. Even though a large proportion of patients were in advanced

stages of RA, they improved significantly.

 

But the Allopathic panel felt that since there was no control group, the

possiblity cannot be ruled out that the improvement in the condition of

the patients was a matter of chance, said Radhakrishna. The WHO study

was virtually dumped even without publishing the findings, said Dr

Madhusoodanan. Retd director general of ICMR G V Sathyavathi also felt

that further studies should have been conducted to identify the

effective drugs in the Ayurvedic package as the treatment was " quite

effective " in the first two stages of the ailment. Venkataraman, during

one of her visits to the trust, found the discarded study papers. " I was

greatly impressed and fascinated by the quality of the work and the huge

amount of effort that had gone into the longitudinal study. It is such a

pity that the results of this study were not published, " she said. It

was upon her initiative that the project report for the NIH pilot study

was prepared, said Krishna Kumar.

 

Venkataraman said the collaboration with the trust will continue to

build up this line of research after the pilot study, which started in

April 2005. This study will pave the way for researches on other

ailments as well. Internationally, after the NIH study, there will be

more understanding about and interest in Ayurveda. Having Dr Furst

involved in this research programme will lend greater credibility to

Ayurveda at a global level, she said.