Integrative Approaches for Health (eBook)

Biomedical Research, Ayurveda and Yoga

Gururaj Mutalik, Bhushan Patwardhan, Girish Tillu (Autoren)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2015 | 1. Auflage
382 Seiten
Elsevier Science (Verlag)
978-0-12-801434-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Despite spectacular advances, modern medicine faces formidable global challenges in several key areas-notably the persistence of major killer diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, and newer threats including HIV/AIDS, resistant infections, and Ebola. As such, modern medicine has not led to a significant decrease in chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, and other degenerative and autoimmune diseases. The authors believe that modern medicine needs to experience a paradigm shift, an integration of traditions-in particular from the ancient systems like Ayurveda and Yoga. Integrative Approaches for Health: Biomedical Research, Ayurveda and Yoga brings together the basic principles of interdisciplinary systems approach for an evolving construct of future medicine. Such an approach is already emerging at the cutting edge of current research in omics, bioinformatics, computational and systems biology. Several leading institutions of medicine have adopted Yoga and complementary medicine to widen their reach, and deepen effectiveness in therapeutic practices. The amalgam of modern medicine, with its strengths in scientific rigor, blended with the basic principles of life drawn from Ayurveda and Yoga might evolve into a medicine of tomorrow. Integrative approaches are no longer alternative, perhaps taking these approaches is the only possible way to heal our sick planet. This book introduces important trends and tools for biomedical researchers and physicians alike, to innovate the practice of medicine for the better. - Contains a harmonious confluence of ancient and modern concepts, historical perspectives, philosophical underpinnings, and a relevant review of literature supported by worldwide case studies. - Provides a critical analysis of ancient wisdom, pointing to potential areas for future research, which provide food for thought for public debate on integrative health care for the twenty-first century. - Explains Ayurveda knowledge, and its relevance to drug discovery, nutrition, genomics, epigenetics, regenerative biology, longevity and personalized medicine. - Shares Yoga knowledge insights, and explains its relevance to body-mind complex relationships, psychology, neurobiology, immunoendocrinology, bioenergetics, consciousness, and cognitive sciences. - Offers illustrations and logic diagrams for enhanced understanding of the concepts presented.

Bhushan Patwardhan, PhD, received his degrees in biochemistry. He is a professor and the Director of the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India, where he is engaged in research in biomedical sciences, pharmaceutical biology, and evidence-based Ayurveda. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (India), the recipient of many prestigious orations, and founder and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine. He is the author of over one hundred scientific papers, holds eight international patents, and has received four thousand citations. His research on drug discovery and genomics has received high acclaim.

Textauszug

Foreword

As this book is being published, I am celebrating the seventy-sixth year of my close encounter with biomedicine, and Ayurveda and Yoga—as a school boy, student, researcher, practicing physician, chairman of a department of internal medicine, dean of a medical school, and public health administrator. I worked at national and international levels, on three different continents. I have been a patient, and medical doctor at a primary health center in a developing country, and at one of the leading hospitals in the United States. Several valuable experiences and the lessons I learned during this period are the foundation for this book and the major inspiration for my imagining the shape of future health care.

I was born in 1929 into a traditional Indian family, in a small village with no electricity, no piped water, no sanitation, and where every house was constructed with thick mud walls. There were no modern doctors in the village. The only one who provided medical services to the community was my father. My father Vaidyaraj Shrinivasrao taught me Yoga and Sanskrit, enabling me to understand basic tenets of Ayurveda. The intimate exposure I had in childhood to Ayurveda and Yoga left me with a lasting perspective: while the age-old systems lack remedies for acute infections and conditions requiring surgery, they have remedies for common illnesses—remedies which are safe, widely accessible, and effective. Ayurveda and Yoga in addition contain in their core, proven principles of prevention of disease, promotion of health, restoration of vitality—a recipe for fitness and longevity.

Two childhood episodes are firmly rooted in my memory. The first was when I was 9  years old, and my entire village was evacuated because of a raging epidemic of bubonic plague, which in that pre-antibiotic era killed 70% of those who contracted the disease. The WHO estimates that this disease has claimed some 200  million lives in the course of its history! The other experience which left its impression upon me was the cases of smallpox that I would see in my father’s medical practice. Most of those who contracted the disease either succumbed or bore lifelong scars on their faces and elsewhere. This disease, too, is estimated to have killed some 500  million people in the twentieth century alone! It was not until 1978 that smallpox was vanquished in a “military style,” global campaign, using a simple piece of technology like the bifid needle. The vaccine was effective, but the epidemiological strategy of identifying and immunizing all the contacts of each patient was crucial. We have not been so fortunate in dealing with HIV/AIDS, and even less so with the current challenge of Ebola; it is hoped that public health education, an understanding of epidemiology, and breakthrough discoveries in the genomics of the viruses will soon make a difference in these challenges as well.

I was admitted to the medical college in Pune in 1947—the year of India’s independence. In 1949, I contracted typhoid fever. There were no antibiotics available. As a treatment, I received a once-a-day, 200  mL, intravenous injection of glucose solution, which produced exceedingly painful widespread thrombosis of the veins. This was how modern medicine was being practiced in a developing country like India. Finally, my body’s immunity won, spontaneous remission took place, the threat to life was over, and destiny gave me an opportunity to contribute to the health and welfare of society.

I received my MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery—1952) and MD (Doctor of Medicine—1955). In 1956 I married Mukta my classmate I was courting for 5  years—who provided me lifelong love and inspiration to give my best in whatever I undertook. I worked as a medical officer, and experienced the realities of life in rural India. After my work as a medical officer, I became an assistant professor of medicine and 3  years later a professor at Sassoon Hospital, a historic medical institution in Pune. This was a time when modern medicine was developing new arsenals of antibiotics, and drugs to deal with cardiovascular and neurological diseases; and making great advances in surgery and other specialties.

Influence of Johns Hopkins

In 1965, I studied medical genetics under Professor Victor McKusick at the Moore Clinic at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore—a world-renowned center of excellence. I was exposed to basic techniques of human genetics: cytogenetics, biochemical genetics, and population genetics. I returned to India and established a human genetics center at my own institute. This work was modeled on the exemplary studies that Professor McKusick did on the Amish community at Lancaster County, PA. The center offered genetic counseling services and cytogenetic studies, in addition to epidemiological studies on hemoglobinopathies among tribal population in endemic areas. I was instrumental in establishing the Human Genetic Society of India, and served as its first secretary. I organized the first international conference at my institute at Pune. Professor Victor McKusick was the guest of honor, as a visiting scientist. I mention this episode to illustrate how modern medicine, and its specialties, are spread globally by individuals who have the opportunity to receive training at global centers of excellence, and how the influence of such exchanges endures.

I learned much from the grand rounds at Johns Hopkins, especially the value of clinical acumen, which we have discussed in this book. In Baltimore, the School of Medicine, and the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins are separated by Wolf Street. Professor E.A. Murphy, an Irish physician with characteristic Irish humor, once said “… more than a street stretches between the School of Health and the School of Public Health!” This medicine/public health disconnect continues to remain the one of the greatest challenge for us to overcome in the modern world. This divide is similar to that which exists between modern medicine and traditional medicine like Ayurveda and Yoga. It is my belief that the significant move toward these disciplines’ convergence is the beginning of a paradigm shift that augurs well for the betterment of global health. We have discussed these aspects in the book.

Back to India

In 1971, I became dean of the medical school at the Pune University. Among other projects, I established a research unit to study using traditional medicine in the treatment of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. Working with a team of medical doctors and senior Ayurvedic physicians was a great challenge. The medical team insisted on statistical sampling, double-blind trials, and evaluation based on statistical testing. The Ayurvedic team, despite their perseverance, could not comprehend or utilize the methods of the medical team; they worked from empirical evidence, instinct, and the patients’ reporting of subjective feelings of better or worse. This divide in methodologies has yet to be overcome. We have dwelt upon this subject in the book.

Later, I worked as the Director of Health Services and director of medical education of the State of Maharashtra. Here, I witnessed the dichotomy and distance between the medical schools and the health services establishments, including district and subdistrict hospitals and numerous primary health care centers at the village level. It was then, and is now, my belief that this divide is artificial and counterproductive. In an initiative to bring together medical education and public health services, we trained village housewives as primary health workers to work as barefoot doctors, emulating the Chinese experiment. Three years later, such experiments were numerous in India, and similar work was being done in Bangladesh, Thailand, and other South Asian countries. During this period, I was fortunate to be able to participate in the historic International Conference on Primary Health Care, where the Declaration of Alma-Ata was adopted in 1978. I subsequently joined the WHO as a staff member.

At the World Health Organization

I served the WHO for two decades, working at its regional office New Delhi (1975–1980), and then at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland (1980–1985). I was Director of the Office of the WHO at the United Nations, in New York City (1985–1991). During my time with the WHO, I was afforded insight into the gross disparity in health care that exists across the world. Sovereign nations inevitably treated advice from these bodies as mere policy advice—accepting the global mandates at their assemblies, but delaying implementation. In only one instance—during the smallpox eradication campaign—were the governments persuaded to treat the mandates of the WHO as a supranational dictate. The result of this dictate was the eradication of a terrible, historic disease, which killed and maimed millions in many parts of the world. In my position as a state director of health, I did play a small role in this historic saga.

During my tenure at the Southeast Asia office, I contributed to advancing the role of traditional medicine in the global health care system. From the regional office, we supported a research project at an Ayurvedic center in Kerala, which was a clinical trial of Ayurvedic and Yoga therapy for rheumatoid arthritis. This led the global office of the WHO at Geneva to establish a department of traditional medicine to promote traditional systems of medicine in health...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 31.3.2015
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Naturheilkunde
• Themenwelt: Studium ► 1. Studienabschnitt (Vorklinik) ► Physiologie
• Themenwelt: Studium ► Querschnittsbereiche ► Prävention / Gesundheitsförderung
• Themenwelt: Technik
• ISBN-10: 0-12-801434-2 / 0128014342
• ISBN-13: 978-0-12-801434-9 / 9780128014349