Digest Number 830

[Guest guest]

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 08:01:02 -0000

"jagchat01"

Re: Modern medicine vis-a- vis Alternate medicine

Thank you for the appreciation. Actually if you are confident that

you are right, you have the zeal to fight for a just cause, you

immerse yourself with your heart and soul into the issue, if you are

fighting without any selfish motive, and if you have belief in

yourself and are not afraid of opposition then everything is possible.

 

And also you should be willing to develop a (very) thick skin !!

 

 

Actually, the last statement says it all. Thick skin, whether one is right or

not.

 

Goebbels, Hitler's Advertizing Guru, said that if you speak loudly, and often,

then people believe all the Untruths as if they actually happened....as we just

learnt in the last post about Hitler's vegetarianism !!!

 

The Pharmaceutical industry of modern meds is as bad as some of us, who see

everything only through biased eyes. We have to learn to desist it. As Mahatma

Gandhi said---Be the change that you want to bring about.

 

Inspite of "educating" us, that allopathy is use of opposites to cure a disease,

some of us still label modern meds as "allopathy" and go on a tirade against it.

ALLOPATHY INCLUDES AYURVEDA !!! And Ayurvedic manufacturers are also another

pharmaceutical industry, which is also looking at their own profits, albeit to

survive and prosper.

 

We should look at why there was an increased dosage of dangerous metals. Was it

because of " storage" in warehouses , where other substances were stored ? Is it

because of transportation problem ? Were the herbs transported in carriers, in

which other heavy metals were transported ? Is it because of manufacturing

defect and contaminaton ? Or just poor quality control ? Or all of the above ?

 

As much as we would like to blame "allopathy--the big bad wolf !!", let us look

within ourselves if there are indefensible practices within our system that need

to be "changed ". It is also not true that these are totally "harmless". The

American Association of Physicians from India's Ayurveda task force on the

alleged heavy metals contamination ( we are trying our best to defend it, mind

you ), found out cases of "Indian American" children manifesting symptoms of

heavy metal toxicity. These are not just allegations from FDA, or Codex or any

such organizations stemming from our paranoid feelings. These kids were exposed

to only Ayurvedic asavas or other compounds, given to them by well meaning

parents / grand parents.

No other modern meds were given.

 

By the way, not all artificial Vitamins are good. Just as in everything else,

this is a "Me-too" industry that obviously needs regulations in manufacturing.

 

there is absolutely no harm in doing double blind studies in India itself, and

showing that these are either harmless combinations, or effective remedies. In a

science that has lasted atleast 3,000 years ( and perhaps more of unrecorded

history ), a few more years will only add to its authenticity. We might even

discover that Dosage A is better or worse than Dosage B. Or that Combination A

is better in controlling Blood Pressure or whatever. That itself will lead to

its widespread use. Right now, lot of people are quite sceptical of the "

unscientific" use of herbal compounds., especially since we did not "do" any

research in the last 250 years. ( From whatever reason ).

Durgesh Mankikar,MD

[Guest guest]

> We should look at why there was an increased dosage of dangerous metals.

> Was it because of " storage" in warehouses , where other substances were

> stored ? Is it because of transportation problem ? Were the herbs

> transported in carriers, in which other heavy metals were transported ? Is

> it because of manufacturing defect and contaminaton ? Or just poor quality

> control ? Or all of the above ?

 

This part of your post is very interesting. The thought of heavy

metals getting into the ayurvedic pharmacopeia by accident and then

staying there for one reason or the other is not that far-fetched.

That is how many of the modern psychotropic drugs came about--they

were side effects from drugs to treat tuberculosis and other kinds of

diseases. A little unbiased research never hurt anyone. If the drug is

doing what it is supposed to do, that should show up eventually,

unless the effect is very subtle and requires a long time to act. Many

of the ayurvedic herbs are being researched as we speak: you can

google them by name and come up with published double-blind studies on

many of them. I have done that in the past before taking gugglu for

example. It is hard to blindly trust any doctor in any country. I have

seen doctors make many mistakes and have gotten into the habit of

double checking my medications whenever I can.

 

My great fear with the research is that the drug companies will

undertake such in order to gain some sort of proprietary interest in

the herbs and then they people who need them will have to pay through

the nose to get them.