Ministry of Health & Family Welfare

How Green is This Medicine?

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Ayurveda, the oldest health system in the world, is going in for a makeover, but is it all for the good? Till now, the biggest innovation had been coloured ayurvedic pills and capsules. But the government’s recent amendment of the 63-year-old Drugs and Cosmetics Act appears to allow a more fundamental change — ayurvedic medicine can now contain anti-oxidants, flavouring agents, preservatives and sweeteners. So is ayurveda about to lose its unique organic wholesomeness?

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Ayurveda practitioners and drug-makers don’t think so. They say the additives, natural or synthetic, must be in permissible quantities in order that the medicine retains its natural properties. “The purpose of allowing the use of anti-oxidants or sweeteners is to increase the shelf life of the ayurvedic medicines,” says Dr S K Sharma, advisor to the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH). The reasoning is that once they last longer, it would be easier to market ayurvedic medicines nationally and internationally.

But Sharma cautions that the changed law is not “purely for commercial reasons. There is a strong need for scientific innovation. It’s time that we tried to improve ayurvedic medicines.” So, the anti-oxidants that are being allowed to use will prevent the medicine from decomposing. The additives, says Sharma, will only help in making ayurvedic medicines more stable than ever before.

Some ayurvedic practitioners admit that there are legitimate concerns about additives. Dr V V Doiphode, dean of Pune University‘s Department of Ayurveda, stresses the importance of testing any product before it is added to an ayurvedic drug. “The onus is on the drug-makers to ensure these (additives) aren’t detrimental to health,” he says. For that they will have to conduct extensive research and lab testing.

There are other ways of ensuring compliance, not least guidelines issued by the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. The IPC sets strict standards for drugs and other pharmaceutical products. Add to this, the wording of the amended Drugs and Cosmetics Act, which allows “only natural colouring agents as permitted under rule 26 of Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules 1955 for ayurveda, siddha and unani drugs.”

But what if someone wanted to market a flavoured chyawanprash, say chocolate, to attract the international market? Would that be more synthetic than traditional chyawanprash? Not really, so long as it retains its original properties, says Ranjit Puranik, CEO of Shree Dootapapeshwar Ltd, ayurvedic drug-maker and exporter.

The loophole, however, is that a product like chyawanprash, which is made of 54 herbs — of which amla (gooseberry) is the main — can be marketed internationally as a dietary supplement rather than a medicine. If it has to be marketed as a medicine, then all the 54 herbs have to go through a standardisation process that will certify that none of the herbs are harmful to health.

The amended act allows synthetic additives in ayurvedic drugs but insists they “carry a statutory warning stating the name and quantity of the artificial sweetener.” Puranik says it’s up to the individual manufacturer to decide how natural he wants the ayurvedic drug to be. And if he uses a large quantity of synthetic additive “he clearly can’t then sell the product as ayurveda”.

That may affect ayurvedic core market, but the holistic health treatment has a long way to go in persuading India and the wider world of the goodness of its old-style organic approach to healing. Industry experts estimate that the global market for ayurveda is worth $120 billion. But India’s ayurveda exports are a paltry Rs 450 crore or $91 million. China and Sri Lanka lead the world in ayurveda manufacture and export.

India is finally trying to close the gap by adding innovation to the ayurveda mix. “These medicines can be tweaked a bit to suit people’s tastes, but the medicinal properties should be maintained. Say for instance, a popular ayurvedic medicine, kashayam, is now available in the form of capsules and tablets. This has been achieved by spray drying but the original properties are not tinkered with.” says V G Udayakumar, president of the Kerala-based Ayurveda Medical Association of India. He believes the same can be applicable to other medicines too.

But there’s some way to go before the humble hajmola becomes the world’s prescribed cure for indigestion.

Sources:The Times Of India

Amanda Teh on NTV7 – Good Morning Tai Tai Discussing Naturopathy

Homeopathy- Key to Ovarian Cysts

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When 40-year-old Nisha felt muscles to the right of her abdomen go into a spasm, she gasped in pain. It recurred over the next two months. An ultras ound scan revealed she had a 30 mm cyst in her right ovary

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An ovarian cyst is a sac filled with fluid, or a semisolid material, that develops on or within the ovary.

-Each time Reena, 50, ate oily food, she suffered shooting pain in her gall bladder. Doctors said she had gallstones. The only solution advised was to remove it.

Such chronic cases are typically treated by allopaths because most people wouldn’t want to hand themselves over to homeopaths. After all, hardly anyone has heard of homeopathy dissolving gall stones and causing cysts to disappear. But it can happen.

Nisha says, “I was told to take birth control pills as these prevent the ovaries from producing eggs during ovulation.” Cysts, incidentally, are formed when a follicle fails to rupture and release an egg, leaving behind fluid which forms a cyst.

Nisha didn’t want to take contraceptive pills. Instead, she took a three-month course of homeopathic pills and pain-relieving tablets. After three months, another scan showed the cyst had disappeared.

Homeopathy’s efficacy in ovarian cysts was corroborated, says Dr C Nayak, director, Central Council for Research in Homeopathy, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, by an article in the British Homeopathic Journal. The article, ‘Homeopathic treatment of ovarian cysts’, cited a study of 40 women with ovarian cysts. “After nine months of homeopathic treatment, the cysts disappeared in 90% cases,” the article said.

Gallstones are another affliction that homeopaths claim they can treat. Incidentally, the Dalai Lama too suffered from it and opted for surgery recently.

The gall bladder stores bile which helps in digestion. When bile contains too much cholesterol, it can harden into stones. In allopathy, the only option is removing the gall bladder. While homeopathic doctors say removal of bladder may lead to irritation in the small intestine, detractors of homeopathy aren’t convinced.

Dr Pradeep Chowbey, laparoscopic and endoscopic surgeon, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, says, “The gall bladder needs to be removed as the actual disease is in the wall of the organ. When its concentration goes down, stones are formed. Cholesterol is another factor. Some 6.9% of these stones can become cancerous. I doubt homeopathy’s efficacy here.”

There is excruciating pain when gallstones move and get lodged in ducts causing inflammation, fever and jaundice. A diet high in fats and low in fibre causes it.

Dr Kalyan Banerjee, a leading homeopath, counters this. “Homeopathy boosts the immune system and dissolves the stones, provided they aren’t too hard,” he says. “Patients should try homeopathic medicines for six months, before opting for surgery. Even after surgery, stones can recur in the bile duct.”

On ovarian cysts, Dr Neerja Batla, additional professor, AIIMS, says cysts less than 50 mm usually regress on their own. “I’m not sure how far homeopathy helps.”

Banerjee says, “Acute benign cysts take about six months to disappear. If it doesn’t work out even then, surgery is advised.” But get the cyst tested for malignancy. “If malignant, the ovaries and uterus are removed,” he says.

Adds Nayak, “Our council conducted a clinical study to ascertain usefulness of a homeopathic medicine, Fel taur, for gallstones. Results showed that out of 267 patients, 262 showed improvement in varying degrees.”

But ovarian cyst-sufferer Nisha has the last word on detractors of homeopathic treatment for her condition. “After the shooting pains I went through even with a 30 mm cyst and the consequent acidity through painkillers, homeopathy has given me a new lease of life.”

Sources: The Times Of India

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