Ayurvedic healers race to protect traditional therapies from Western raiders
Ancient Secrets
India may be the original “pharmaceutical” giant.
Over the course of several thousand years, generations of Ayurvedic Indian healers have passed along a wide variety of botanical therapies.
Of course, the modern medical community dismisses virtually all of these therapies because they haven’t undergone the “gold standard” testing of placebo-controlled trials.
So why do you suppose Western drug companies have been so aggressive in claiming exclusive patents on thousands of these “unproven” therapies?
But there’s a more pressing question for the current generation of Indian healers: How can they protect their tradition from Western raiders?
Up for grabs
In a 2004 issue of the HSI Members Alert we examined the basic philosophy behind Ayurvedic medicine, which can be summed up in the concept of the three “doshas”, or sources of energy:
- Vata (from ether and air)
- Pitta (from fire and water)
- Kapha (from water and earth)
According to Ayurvedic doctrine, a deficiency or excess in vata, pitta, or kapha creates a metabolic imbalance in the body. Good health can be restored by eliminating toxins and rebalancing the doshas.
This doctrine may conjure images of bearded shamans crushing herbs with handmade mortars and pestles, and that image may still be a reality in some parts of India. But the current caretakers of Ayurvedic medicine are using 21st Century tools to protect the hard-won knowledge and expertise of their ancestors.
According to a report in the UK newspaper The Independent, there have been thousands of U.S. patents granted to products based on Indian medicinal plants, even though in many cases there were no changes made to the Ayurvedic botanicals or formulas. Once the patents are granted, they’re very difficult to repeal, which is why scores of Ayurvedic practitioners have spent several years compiling a massive database called the Traditional Knowledge Data Library.
This database – currently more than 30 million pages – is partly intended to put the West and the rest of the world on notice that the Ayurvedic tradition is finally being recorded, and that tradition is not up for grabs.
Point of view
The Independent report notes that scientific, peer-reviewed evidence for the effectiveness of Ayurvedic techniques is scarce. In fact, a 2005 investigation of alternative medicine by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee described Ayurvedic medicine as generally “not proven.” And Max Pittler, M.D., of the department of complementary medicine at Exeter University, told The Independent that there is no good evidence that specific Ayurvedic formulas are beneficial.
Maybe Dr. Pittler and the House of Lords just need to dig a little deeper for their evidence.
For instance, in the August 2002 HSI Members Alert, Linda Strowbridge reported on UriCare, an Ayurvedic herbal therapy that treats urinary problems with a formula that includes Indian madder root and prickly chaff flower seed. In her research, Linda found 19 clinical trials that tested UriCare on more than 1,500 subjects.
Linda: “Those clinical trials documented hundreds of cases in which UriCare was able to ease and prevent two horribly uncomfortable conditions: urinary tract infections and kidney stones. In many cases, it provided faster relief, fewer side effects, and cheaper treatment than leading pharmaceuticals. In some cases, it augmented the effect of those drugs.”
Source:
“The Battle for Ayurveda: India is Racing to Record the Details of its Traditional Medicine” Andrew Buncombe, The Independent, 12/3/07, news.independent.co.uk
