Ayurvedic medicine uses foods, spices, flowers, and other remedies found in nature to both prevent and heal. Compared with Western medicine, which has a virtual monopoly on deciding what is "scientific" and what is not, the ancient healing art of the Indian subcontinent is undervalued although according to the World Health Organization, 65% of the population in rural areas in India use Ayurveda and medicinal plants to help meet their primary health care needs.
Image credit: Hans Mueller
Ayurveda certainly is more gentle in its approach to health and illness than the chemical pharmaceutical paradigm of the West. The question is - is it also more effective - are natural biomolecules as used in traditional medicine preferable to our often toxic chemical drugs?
We don't have a clear answer to that question quite yet, but Beldeu Singh makes the case for the use of non-toxic natural remedies according to our knowledge about celluar mechanisms and biological pathways. Perhaps we should indeed question the validity of our toxic treatment paradigm...
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Flowers and Spices: Ayurveda or Toxic Chemotherapy?
Ayurveda is the Vedic system of health care that developed in India over 5000 years ago and this ancient science is about restoring health and healthy functioning of the body and there are formulations that address certain disease conditions. One such formulation involves spices and coconut oil and petals of a flower for diabetic patients and that basic formula can be altered to treat cancer patients or diabetics with cancer etc. I have noted even cobra snake bites being treated with plant "juices" in North India and it is entirely possible to think of a herbal antivenom.
Ayurveda is a life science of a past civilization and it is practiced even today. Ayur means life or life-giving and veda means knowledge. It embodies the phyto-pharmaceutical knowledge of ancient India that attempts to treat patients with plants (natural biomolecules) and bioavailable minerals. It is life-giving because it aims to restore the biochemical pathways in the human body in accordance with its natural or cellular biochemistry in contrast with drugs as used in allopathic medicine.
Ayurveda does not treat people or disease conditions with drugs but there are instances of the use of mildly toxic natural biomolecules that occur naturally in combination with natural antioxidants that are applied by some ayurvedic doctors in treating diarrhoea or food poisoning and infections in village areas.
Dr. Rebecca Liu from the University of Michigan is reported to have shown that ginger can kill ovarian cancer cells (NST, Thursday 6 April, 2006, p36; Using spices to fight cancer) and such reports become news in the global media as a thing in the celebration of life but it is nothing new to the experienced ayurvedic doctor or researcher. Ayurvedic doctors have been using spices and certain flowers and other plant extracts for restoring health as well as treating disease conditions.
Ginger is commonly used in India for a host of medical problems. Sometimes it is used in combination with black pepper and honey for swellings or for treating a persistent cough. Citrus fruits, too are important in certain ayurveda formulations, not to mention onions which provide the citrate and ascorbate radicals.