Ayurveda practitioners push for blend of traditional and modern medicines to treat Covid

Nagpur: There was a time when hydroxychloroquine, a tablet used in malaria treatment, was high in demand after the Covid-19 pandemic struck last year. Even the then USA President Donald Trump demanded the medicine from India for treatment of Covid-19. Today, hydroxychloroquine is nowhere. Experts have declared it does not have clinical benefits in Covid-19.
The same has happened with ivermectin, azithromycin and many other medicines.
Experts have also recommended against the use of Remdesivir, and Tocilizumab injection has failed in the Phase 3 trial for Covid-19 conducted by its developer Roche.
Very recently, the ICMR removed the much-hyped ‘Plasma Therapy’ from Covid treatment protocol.
These instances are enough to show that the modern school of medicine is following the ‘trial and error’ method and doctors are trying the treatment that proves beneficial for their set of patients.
Leading ayurveda practitioners in the state are now asking why not recognize traditional medicines and therapies which are proving “highly beneficial” and have the “least side-effects”?
According to ayurveda practitioners, a balanced mix of traditional medicines along with recognized modern medicines will save patients not only from the virus but also post-Covid complications. On the other hand, associations of modern doctors, including the IMA, have launched scathing attacks against ayurveda in the past.
“The present scene is that doctors are conducting experiments and patients have become guinea pigs,” said Dr Nitin Awasthi, ayurveda consultant, and centre head, Baidyanath Life Sciences.
Citing example of steroids, he said their efficacy in Covid-19 treatment is still not confirmed but side-effects are already here in the form of mucormycosis. “Our medicines are at least safe. They don’t have such deadly side-effects,” he said.
On arguments that ayurveda therapies have no scientific data, Dr Awasthi presented his own paper published in the World Journal of Pharmaceutical Research (USA). “Baidyanath’s Covid kit cured 70% of the patients within 3 to 5 days. This research was based on experiences. But doctors of modern medicine do not consider it. At the same time, they continue to prescribe Remdesivir and plasma therapy just on the basis of patient experiences,” he said.
For Dr Mohan Yende of the National Integrated Medical Association (NIMA), the scientific method of controlled randomized trials should be made available for ayurveda medicines. “We (ayurveda vaidyas) have been portrayed as people who give only herbs and kadhas. Ayurveda has mineral preparations too. We have proper medicines, ras aushadhis, bhasmas and even heavy metals. Unfortunately, only their chronic side-effects are highlighted a lot. But no one will speak about side-effects of drugs like Tocilizumab,” he said.
Ayurveda practitioner Vaidya Swanand Joshi said that since traditional medicine is better in treating chronic conditions doesn’t mean it is useless in acute conditions. “Lack of government support to ayurveda and blame-game by modern medicine practitioners certainly have caused more sufferings to Covid patients. Most of the believers who took balanced/mixed medication recovered from the disease as well as post-Covid weakness without experiencing any adverse reactions,” said Vaidya Joshi.
Ayurveda doctors are confident about their medicines and eager to get them tested on allopathic parameters, but the proposal hasn’t got any attention from modern medicine practitoners.
Infectious disease specialist Dr Nitin Shinde, who has been treating Covid-19 patients using modern medicines only, said that Covid-19 is a new disease and newer treatment modalities are being tried. “Modern medicines have at least some data based on which we form our opinion. Many lives are being saved all over the world due to modern medicines,” he said.
Dr Shinde asked how many ayurveda doctors in the country really practice it. “Ayurveda is a fancy stuff used in non-critical patients where the outcome doesn’t matter much. Modern allopathic medicines are used in critical patients to save lives,” he said.