Friday, October 26, 2012

NEWS: 'Traditional, modern therapies together can help treat chronic ailments'


An article from The Times of India

NAGPUR: Practitioners of alternative medicine believe that using their services along with modern medicine can improve treatment of many chronic ailments. At the same time these medicos lament that due to prevailing scenario, they have been compelled to practice at modern medical facilities and prescribe allopathic drugs.

Practitioners of traditional therapies like ayurveda, unani, homeopathy and naturopathy came under one roof at Reshimbagh for an expo and seminar 'Ayushyaman Bhava'. Not only Nagpur Municipal Corporation, but several medical organizations like Ayurveda Vyaspeeth, All India Unani Tibbi Congress, International Naturopathy Organisation and Homoeopathic Integrated Medical Practitioners Association of Maharashtra supported this event. Concurrent seminars were held during the four-day exhibition to highlight basics of all the therapies. Yoga sessions were organized for the elderly and children on ailments like diabetes and asthma.

Explaining the reason behind holding this exhibition, chief organizer Jayant Dikshit said, "I visited Uttarakhand sometime ago and observed that herbal medication was a phenomenon there. I also remember how my mother would treat us for small illnesses using 'gharelu nuskhe' (home remedies) which are based on principles of ayurveda. I thought it necessary to make people aware of the alternatives to popping pills for every small discomfort."

Renowned pulse expert and a member of central government's department of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yog and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) Dr Bhandarkar said that we are failing to utilize ayurveda and other traditional therapies, which are storehouses of knowledge. "Countries like China and Japan are promoting their traditional medicines aggressively to the world but we are not doing it even in our own country. Even the primary health centres have no posts for traditional medical practitioners," he said, adding, "Things have started to change in the past few years, though."

"Many therapies like acupressure have not developed properly because 95 per cent of their practitioners are non-medicos. If people with MBBS, BAMS or BHMS degrees were to learn a bit of these therapies, they could help their patients better as every mode of treatment has its limitations," said naturopath Parag Kulkarni, who is an acupressure specialist.

Kulkarni stated this approach could help in fast recovery and an improved quality of life for the patients. "Instead of competing against each other's therapies, all healers must aim to fight diseases together," he added.


No comments:

Post a Comment