Ayurveda must get into clinical research

Ayurveda has to get into clinical research if this ancient system of holistic medicine should get as much global acceptability as western medicine, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said here on Thursday.

“Ayurveda has to build a volume of case studies. It has a history of curing extraordinary cases,” he said after presenting the Param-Anand Award to Managing Director of Arya Vaidya Pharmacy P.R. Krishnakumar and Director K.G. Raveendran. Instituted by the M.P. Pancholia Family, the award was in recognition of their service to society through Ayurveda.

The Minister said Ayurveda’s speciality lay in treating a patient completely and not just a specific ailment in that person.

“Ayurveda is a science that was both old and young. Though an ancient system of medicine, its revival is a phenomenon in the recent years,” he said. It could well be a significant development of the 21st century.

Thousand years ago, sages discovered the secrets of Nature that could cure various diseases. But, the entry of western medicine during colonialisation pushed Ayurveda out of the scene though it was practiced in a few places, especially Kerala.

A few families nurtured Ayurveda though most of the country was dominated by an opinion that only those who had qualified in western medicine could be recognised as medical practitioners.

But, awareness on the limitations of western medicine had increased over the last few years. People realised there were unpleasant side-effects, sometimes even calamitous, the Minister said. This had led to the revival of Ayurveda.

When people in the western countries began to look for holistic medicine, they found it in Ayurveda. “Yoga left the shores of our country many years ago. Now, there is no place in the U.S. where yoga is not practiced. Ayurveda also will rise to this level,” Mr. Tharoor said.

The Minister appreciated the efforts of Mr. Krishnakumar and Mr. Raveendran in documenting the cases Arya Vaidya Pharmacy treated.