Evidence-Based Ayurveda Practices

Dr. Guruprasad Aggithaya, Chief Ayurveda Consultant, Institute of Applied Dermatology, Kasaragod

British Medical Journal has defined integrative medicine (IM) as giving prescriptions to patients, including drugs of both allopathy, and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM also called traditional medicine), based on a correct diagnosis. The Institute of Applied Dermatology (IAD), Kasaragod has successfully practicing IM for 15 years.    Allopathy’s relief measures used to show the effectiveness of integrative medicine. Local disease pathology and other 15 important clinical parameters are precisely elicited before ayurvedic drug selection. Comparable allopathy explanations for each ayurvedic clinical principles described separately. This understanding is essential to integrate both Ayurveda and allopathy medicine. The integrative treatment protocol for lymphoedema treated 5000 patients across the country and successfully implemented in community-based settings also. The integrative diet protocol at IAD includes assessment of body mass index (BMI) and overall nutrition, digestion power (Agni), bowel pattern (Kosta), staple food, quantity of food, aversion and craving. The recommendations will be done based on these factors.

We developed a systematic review protocol, which is intended for Ayurveda doctors who wish to take up systematic reviews along with an expert who has experience in doing such reviews. We have structured these protocols incorporating principles of patient treatment in Ayurveda within the Cochrane framework. A systematic search strategy was developed to retrieve maximum publications.

The randomized controlled trials in procedure-based therapies in Ayurveda was challenging. A pilot trial was conducted comparing two traditional procedure-based treatments, Navarakizhi, a massage of cooked Navara rice in a medicated hot bolus, and pinda sweda, a similar massage made of a different type of rice and described the steps of a double-blind trial in Ayurveda, which was hitherto considered difficult to perform.