TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

Subject : Health

Context :The World Health Organisation announced on Friday that it will set up a Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India.

Concept :

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed confidence that just like the country has emerged as the ‘pharmacy of the world’, the WHO institution will become the centre for global wellness.
• Traditional Medicine (TM): The sum-total of the knowledge, skill and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.
• Complementary Medicine (CM) or Alternative Medicine (AM): A broad set of healthcare practices that are not part of that country’s own tradition or conventional medicine and area not fully integrated into the dominant healthcare system.

Different Types Of Alternative and Traditional Medicine System:

• Ayurveda: The Ayurvedic System of Medicine evolved nearly 5000 years ago (3000 BC). The word Ayurveda means ‘Science of Life’ and employs treatment modalities, such as purification, palliation, prescription of various diets, exercises and the avoidance of disease causing factors.
• Unani Medicine: Unani Medicine originated in the Arab world. Unani medicine treats a patient with diet, pharmacotherapy, exercise, massages and surgery. It was introduced in India around the 10th century AD.
• Homeopathy: The word ‘Homeopathy’ is derived from the Greek words, ‘Homois’ meaning ‘similar’ and ‘pathos’ means ‘suffering’. It originated in Germany and was introduced in India around1810-1839.

Homeopathy is based on the law of healing- “similia Similibus Curantur’ which means ‘likes are cured by likes’. It uses highly individualized remedies selected to address specific symptoms or symptom profiles.

• Siddha: This system has originated in India and is amongst the oldest systesof medicine in the country. It takes into account the patient, his/her surroundings, age, sex, race, habitat, diet, appetite, physical condition etc. to arrive at the diagnosis.

Siddha System uses minerals, metals and alloys and drugs and inorganic compounds to treat the patients. Unlike most T&CM, this system is largely therapeutic in nature. Siddha literature is in Tamilnadu.

• Sowa-Ripa: The word combination means the ‘science of healing’ and its considered one of the oldest living and well-documented medical traditions of the world. It originated from Tibet and is widely practiced in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia and Russia.
• Yo; ga & Naturopathy: The concepts and practices of Yoga are reported to have originated in India. Naturopathy or the naturophatic medicine is a drugless, non-invasive system of medicine imparting treatments with natural elements based on the theories of vitality, toxemia and the self-healing capacity of the body as well as the principles of healthy living.

The common naturopathy modalities include counseling, diet and fasting therapy, mud theory, hydrotherapy, massage therapy, acupressure, acupuncture, magnet therapy and yoga therapy.