Ayurveda Article from a 1997 Web Archive

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India Going Back to Traditional Ayurvedic Herbal Medicine

 

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, (Jan. 22) IPS - This south Indian state is setting the pace for a new national policy co-opting Ayurveda, the ancient system of healing, into a "barefoot doctor" scheme to aid an ailing public health delivery system.

Officially acknowledging last year that India's public health delivery

system had failed, former health minister A.R. Antulay announced a series of

policy measures to formally harness the services of India's 550,000-odd

registered practitioners of Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine.

 

The policy quickly took off in Kerala state where, undisturbed by foreign

medicines, Ayurveda has been a continuing tradition of vaidyans (master

physicians) training students and treating patients in sylvan retreats called

"ashrams."

At the Santhigiri Ashram, patients suffering from diseases considered

chronic by allopathic doctors are routinely cured by ayurvedic physicians,

under the supervision of their 70-year-old master Guru Karunakaran.

In the best tradition of Ayurveda, Guru Karunakaran looks for underlying

spiritual causes for diseases such as rheumatism, diabetes, epilepsy or heart

conditions, and may prescribe psychic treatments which would seem irrational in

allopathy.

Although the ashram is famous for its past life therapy (PLT), which is

free, cures are mainly effected through a wide range of herbal palliatives, oil

massages, fomentations and steam baths, at a nominal cost.

When Saraswati Amma, a 50-year-old diabetic, was told that her festering

foot would have to be amputated by specialists at the prestigious Trivandrum

Medical College Hospital she decided to go to Santhigiri Ashram for a second

opinion.

"In fact I was encouraged to try out the Ashram's ayurvedic hospital by the

allopathic doctors and I am glad I did," Amma said. Not only did she save her

foot, but the herbal cures helped control her blood sugar levels permanently.

For diabetes, the main drug prescribed by physicians at the Ashram is

"Panchamridwekarasa," a pancreatic rejuvenant, the ingredients of which are

carefully grown and tended at a herbal farm nearby.

Although medicines produced at the Santhigiri Ashram include rare and

valuable herbs, they are cheaply priced because they enjoy tax exemptions, says

Anantha Rama Iyer who manages the ashram's nation-wide distribution network.

In Kerala itself, the state government as a special gesture, fully reimburses its employees for medicines from Santhigiri Ashram sold against

prescriptions, Iyer said.

After the central government announced support for the formal entry of

Ayurveda into primary health care especially in the poverty-ridden rural areas,

Santhigiri Ashram set up a model project in Kerala's hilly district of

Palakkad.

Palakkad, typically, had allopathic doctors and fine diagnostic facilities

concentrated in the urban areas while people in the remote villages were left

to fend for themselves.

With central government funding, the 15 million rupee basic health project

emphasizing women and child care, consists of a 20-bed base hospital servicing

six satellite clinics and 33 out-reach centers covering 50,000 people in a 120

square kilometer swath.

The strength of the project is the ayurvedic cures for childhood elements

and for antenatal, natal and post natal care based on ancient formulas which

are popular with well-to-do city folk as well.

According to chief physician Dr. K.N. Shyam Prasad, the herbal preparations

include "Balasarvangam," a pediatric nerve medicine which not only works as a

prophylactic against poliomyelitis, but also cures it in the early stages.

"It also works well against tetanus and convulsions and as a respiratory

relaxant in asthma and whooping cough," adds Dr. Prasad, a qualified specialist

in allopathic eurology.

The child care plan or "balachikitsa" begins with tests on the mothers milk

and correctives given to her orally to prevent colic and induce immunity to

various diseases in the child, Project Director R. Gopalakrishnan said.

Oral rehydration therapy (ORT), promoted vigorously by the UNICEF and World

Health Organization (WHO) as a life-saver in childhood diarrhea, is in fact

described in ancient ayurvedic texts using unrefined sugar and rock salt or

alternatively thin rice gruel, Gopalakrishnan said.

Care for the new mother includes a three-month period of herbal oil

massages, compresses and tonics to restore correct body weight and muscle tone.

There also are herbs to deal with complications such as premature and septic

abortions.

Although urban Kerala is better served with allopathic doctors and health

facilities than anywhere else in India, there is a strong movement in the state

favoring revival of ayurveda because of its effectiveness and lack of side

effects.

The Santhigiri Ashram also has a line of safe herbal medicines for reproductive health and regulation of fertility which fits well into the

national family planning program.

"These herbs have long proved effective for regulating fertility as well as

for achieving permanent sterility in women without the complications of

hormone-based pills or surgery," Gopalakrishnan said.

Palakkad's forested and hilly terrain deters allopathic doctors and

development activities, but are an advantage for the Santhigiri Ashram project

because of the wealth of rare and vanishing herbs which flourish there.

Ayurvedic health farms already do brisk business and its rejuvenating herbal

oil massages and saunas are popular with the rich and tourists visiting Kerala.

 

For the central government, Ayurveda appears a ready-made solution to new

disparities created by market reforms, which are making allopathic medicines

inaccessible to the vast majority of Indians.

"We are rediscovering the merits of Ayurveda and its popularity with the

people," Union Health Minister Salim Shervani told a meeting of state health

ministers and secretaries this month and pledged massive budgetary support to

revive the system in the country's ninth five-year-old plan, starting this

year.

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