Positive Health

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Positive Health Dr. A. S. Paranjpe Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak had said “Swarajya ha maza janma siddha adhikar ahe ani to mi milavnarach” (freedom is my birth right and I will have it). In the present context, I would like to say, health is a birth right of every body, rich and poor. And, good health should cost nothing. As it is, medical expenses are beyond the reach of common people. With increased capitation fee for medical education, they are not going to be any better for obvious reasons. But the fundamental question is, “is it necessary for

good health to take all those medicines and medical treatment?” And, fortunately, the answer is no. I have not heard of anybody who has started taking a particular treatment being cured and living off the medicines, which is what means a cure. This is the case with 95% diseases which are of non pathogenic origin, such as hyper tension and diabetes. It is only 5% of the diseases which are supposed to be of pathogenic origin, which are claimed to be “cured” by anti pathogenic treatment. But we will not dwell upon this at the moment. If any body has money and wants to spend for

getting relief, the treatment is available for them. But, if any body, who has money and wants to live a naturally healthy life, or, people who can not afford expensive medical treatment and still want to live healthy life, are there alternative methods available? This is where the concept of positive health comes in to picture. It exists, is known, only in the present context, needs to be redefined and propagated. The important pillars of this concept are the following: 1 Live a natural life. For this, ahar is the most important factor. Ahar includes intake of every thing such as food, air, water, thoughts, environments etc. Ayurved, naturopathy and homoeopathy have defined the way of life according to seasons and according to the time of the day. But, we have forgotten all those principles. These need to be redefined including

existing knowledge. 2 When the body system becomes weak causing a derangement of the body functions, apply corrective mechanism so that the body function is brought back to normal and one does not have to live. These can be for instance, diet, panchakarma, naturopathy, acupressure, ayurved or triggering mechanisms like homoeo medicines. In order to achieve this aim of propagating positive health, a well defined plan needs to be prepared and implemented. This will evolve around following points 1 Making a Vanaushadhi Udyan which should serve two purposes (i) to educate people to recognise the medicinal plants, the parts of the plants which are useful for retaining good health, how to grow them in their natural habitat so that they are effective and various other related objectives. (ii) to prepare cost effective medicines from these plants. 2

Starting a training centre, with a registration from board of alternative medicines, to train people in various aspects of this training, such as panchakarma, treating people with different alternative treatments and preparation of medicines. Here, a different outlook to the people who should be trained will be taken. In India, we have been training the people under experienced Vaidyas. Ayurvedic texts specifically mention that the Vaidya should not treat people for the material benefits. However, when medical profession becomes lively hood, this can not be avoided. Hence, we aim at training those people who already have a source of income, who have dispatched there duties of the world and have some time to spare for the society and have a keen interest in alternative health care systems. Unfortunately, no such training is available at such an advanced age and which can be taken with out going in to a

formal college. This, as a part of our heritage, we want to establish and spread. 3 Have a health care centre which has the facilities of naturopathy, panchakarma, Ayurvedic and homoeo treatments. 4 Have a research centre in order to give documentary evidence with scientific techniques to demonstrate the efficacy of these methods in treatment of various ailments such as hyper tension, blocks in the circulatory system, kidney, liver, pancreatic, spleenic or any other problems. Scientific proofs can only bring these systems the rightful place they deserve. Having defined the broad aims, now we have to go specifics of implementing them with time bound programmes, economics involved and the methodology to implement these. Broadly, following stages can be envisaged. 1 To make a Vanaushadhi udyan.

Although this may be a continuously evolving process, roughly in about one year’s time, one should be able to identify some minimum herbs which should be planted in the first stage of the project. Emphasis should also be given to make a nursery of plants which can be used for kitchen garden by village ladies. A programme should be chocked out to educate them about primary health care using these herbs. Also, small easy to carry kits should be developed and made available as first aid kits. Training should be given to make these kits. This will be possible with in one year’s time. 2 To develop a broad outline of courses which should be included for the training programme and the targeted group of people. Again, this is a continuously evolving process, so, to start with, a course can be designed for highly professional individuals who have a keen interest in developing the skills of treating people with alternative health care systems. This can also be done in one year's time. 3 Development of Panchakarma Chikitsa Kendra and naturopathy clinic. With bare minimum facilities, they can be started with in two to three months. 4 Getting registration for starting a centre. Will depend upon existing rules and regulations.

5 Research and development centre.(i) Preparation of cost effective medicines. Herbal products that are available in the market are very expensive and so is Ayurvedic treatment. This is one of the major herbals in the spread of Ayurved as an effective health care system. Another shortcoming is the availability of medicinal plants. The amount of material required in the conventional method is so large that we destroy the precious herbs in procuring them. This is especially true for plants which are rare, which

take a long time to mature or those which are not locally available. Our Himalayan flora is being destroyed because of excessive demand. Also, many herbs need to be of a specific age, before they can have the proper medicinal values. And this is compromised when demand is more than supply, leading to deteriorated quality of the product. Farming of medicinal plants can not be effective unless in the soil where one is farming, essential ingredients for the getting the expected effect of the medicine exist. The life of the product also is short lived because of loss of medicinal property with aging. Fortuitously, if one adapts the methodology of homoeopathy in preparing the herbal medicines, all the above shortcoming can be overcome. Hence, it is aimed to do research for developing the medicines based on these principles. (ii) Research, as mentioned above needs to be conducted and should be an ongoing programme along with any of the activities mentioned

above. Dr. Akalpita S. ParanjpeSolid State Physics DivisionBhabha Atomic Research CentreTrombay, Mumbay 400 085

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ARE THE ACCESS TO DRUGS YOUR BIRTHRIGHT

 

UN warns of crystal meth pandemic

 

Wednesday March 1, 2006

A dance and sex drug which is more addictive than

crack cocaine is becoming a global problem, the United

Nations' drug control agency warned today. The

International Narcotics Control Board said it was

concerned about rising use of methamphetamine, or

crystal meth.

The board called on governments across the world to

introduce tougher restrictions on chemicals used in

the manufacture of the drug, which is also known in

varying forms as " ice " , " meth " , " Tina " and " Nazi

crank " .

The drug's use has increased exponentially in the past

decade, particularly in the US where it is considered

to be a major problem. The American singer Rufus

Wainwright is among several celebrities who have

admitted overcoming an addiction to crystal meth,

which allows users to stay awake for days and

increases sexual arousal.The INCB president, Hamid

Ghodse, said the use of methamphetamine was " extremely

worrying " .

" If I want to pick on one major drug problem pandemic

today, it is methamphetamine, " Professor Ghodse said.

" It has not yet affected that much of western European

countries and the UK but, as we know, as drug misuse

occurs in North America, sooner or later it gets

here. "

He added: " We are trying to encourage governments to

focus on the precursor chemicals used in the drug's

manufacture, so that we can try to prevent any wider

abuse of methamphetamine. " Crystal meth was now

regarded as the No 1 problem drug in North America,

Prof Ghodse said. But the extent of its use in Britain

is obscured by the fact that seizures and arrests are

lumped in with amphetamines, meaning no statistics are

collected specifically on crystal meth.

Police chiefs and the government have commissioned

separate studies into methamphetamine to see if the

use of crystal meth is spreading. The home secretary,

Charles Clarke, has ordered that drug deaths be

monitored to see if they are linked to the drug.

Customs will send all seizures of odourless white

powders to forensic labs for analysis and new mental

health patients with drug problems will be tested to

see if they have taken crystal meth.

However, in November, the government's Advisory

Council on Drugs Misuse advised against reclassifying

crystal meth from a class B drug to class A because it

could have the " unintended consequence of engendering

interest among potential users " .

Meth is a synthetic drug that can be snorted, smoked,

injected or eaten, and is relatively simple to make

from household products using a basic school chemistry

set. The highly volatile mix of chemicals has caused

several explosions in the US. Canada recently

introduced life sentences for its manufacture.

The INCB's annual report also said governments should

screen all incoming and outgoing mail to combat " drugs

by post " scams. Drug dealers were increasingly using

the postal system to move the substances across

borders, Prof Ghodse said. Each country should set up

regular and thorough searches of mail - including

private carriers - and limit the points of entry for

parcels, the report said. Meanwhile, a report

commissioned by MPs today raised questions over the

way the government classified illegal drugs.

The study for the all-party science and technology

select committee said that including magic mushrooms

in the same category as heroin and crack cocaine did

not appear to reflect scientific evidence.

It concluded that drugs were not put in class A, B or

C according to the harm they caused; instead varying

criteria had been applied from drug to drug. The

report did not, however, come to any conclusions about

the effectiveness of current drug classifications. In

January, Mr Clarke announced plans for a complete

overhaul of the way illegal drugs were categorised and

prohibited.

Today's report, by consultants Rand Europe, said:

" Classification is not based upon a set of standards

for harm caused by a drug, it varied depending upon

the drug in question. " On magic mushrooms being in the

most serious category, where supplying the drugs

carries life imprisonment, it added: " The positioning

of them in class A does not seem to reflect any

scientific evidence that they are of equivalent harm

to other class A drugs. "

The theory that cannabis use acted as a " gateway " to

more serious drugs had not been proven despite

extensive research, the report added. It supported the

government's decision to downgrade cannabis two years

ago from class B to class C, saying that the evidence

to do so was " conclusive " at the time.