Ayurved is officially recognised in India. Very illuminating paper has been published in the journal ”Current Science” (www.ias.co.in/currsci/25feb2011/476.pdf) about present state of interaction amongst traditional Ayurvedic practictioners, the Vaids, and modern medicine in India. Current and future trends of such interaction have been very lucidly discussed. After a long period of mutual distrust and acrimony, both sides are gradually coming to appreciate the need of meaningful dialogue. This is a difficult task because of very different conceptual frameworks. However, many modern practitioners of Allopathy as well as Ayurveda have become well versed with both systems and are leading the integrating dialogue between these systems.
April 9, 2011
March 5, 2008
Environmental Pollution And Need Of Ayurveda
Environmental Pollution And Need Of Ayurveda
Ayurveda meaning ‘the science of life’, in itself explains that it is not only a science of medicine and medical cure of disease symptoms only but it balances the total ecosystem of human existence in the best way. With the explosion of modern drugs in the therapy of human disease, the understanding of this holistic medical viewpoint is at the verge of literal collapse. Modern medicine is mostly unable to explain how an externally administered chemical can cure a disease but at the same time could cause unconceivable permanent damage to vital organs including Aeterogenic diseases and in some cases can even be fatal.
The amazing complexity of the psychological, behavioural, cultural and environmental problems associated with human health has forced the practitioners to look towards traditional systems of medicine. Medical science has now started thinking in terms of holistic medical science like Ayurveda. The Ayurved is preventive, curative and restorative. It does not deal only with the cure of symptoms like the modern (allopathic) medicine. Instead, it treats the human being as a whole.
There is growing awareness and interest in Ayurvedic medicinal herbs for human use that is usually innocuous in nature and treats an individual as a whole and not only the disease symptoms. This is particularly true for chronic diseases like Hypertension, Asthma, Diabetes, Arthritis, Carcinoma, Allergy and others where modern medicines have little or only palliative effects.
Environmental Pollution And Human Health
The need of the herbals has become even more pressing for human survival in the present day polluted atmosphere where dangers of slow chemical poisoning are ever present. The whole world is becoming aware of the fact that such slow chemical poisoning due to ever-increasing environmental pollution may bring extinction of human race very soon.. There is a flood of information regarding the dangerous levels of Sulfur dioxide, Hydrocarbons, CFC etc. at dangerous levels throughout the world. However, nothing much is being done to stop the environmental pollution. People are also not much aware as to how exactly such gaseous pollution is going to harm and kill them.
Another far more serious and immediate source of slow chemical poisoning is increasing use of pesticides in agriculture. Developing countries are faced with the acute need of increasing agricultural output to meet the increasing populations. The public awareness in these countries regarding dangers of pesticide pollution is extremely poor.
The modern medicines are ineffective against long-term health problems of human beings caused by such chemical poisoning of the environment and consequently the human body. It is gradually being recognized that only by use of natural herbs and herbal preparations can we deal with these problems.
Before taking up the approaches needed to tackle the problems of illnesses caused by chemical pollution through Ayurvedic herbal medicine, a brief account of the pesticides and their effects on human body is presented.
Health Hazards of Pesticide
Pesticides have become a potential hazard of the manufacturer, consumer and the environment. Air, water and food have become contaminated with pesticides as result of their extensive misuse. The risks to humans may be short-term or long-term, depending on the exposure period to these chemicals. The main groups of pesticides of concern are insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and a few soil fumigants. Agent Orange, a herbicide that is mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T was used extensively as a defoliant in the Vietnam War in the late sixties. People who were residing around the sprayed area at that time and their children still suffer from the adverse health effects. Mothers either have stillbirths or give birth to spastics or babies without limbs.
In India, 147 pesticides are registered for use at present and the tolerance limits of only 50 have been evaluated. Therefore, we are at risk not only from the commonly used pesticides whose tolerance limits are known but also from a wide spectrum of pesticides that enter the market and our food commodities without their maximum permissible limits being known. In the present scenario, a multidisciplinary integrated approach involving toxicology, epidemiology, physiology and behavioral sciences is essential for the proper assessment of human hazards related to pesticides exposure.
Poisoning due to pesticides can be occupational e.g. in case of workers involved in the manufacturing process, sprayers or farmers. It may also be accidental or intentional as in attempted suicide cases. The general population is exposed to small quantities of various types of pesticide, even through the daily diet. In 1958, Kerala had the first reported case of pesticide poisoning where 100 people died due to parathion poisoning. The cases of pesticide poisoning have been reported from the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat. Lack of systematic and authentic data on poisoning is a serious hindrance in assessing the impact of pesticide poisoning.
