A tweet thread on AYUSH.
I think these traditional medicine systems are here to stay. They are of course pure junk, totally unscientific, snake-oil, voodoo medicine.. call it whatever pejorative term you like.. but they are here to stay.
Why are they here to stay?
I think these traditional medicine systems are here to stay. They are of course pure junk, totally unscientific, snake-oil, voodoo medicine.. call it whatever pejorative term you like.. but they are here to stay.
Why are they here to stay?
Well they are here to stay quite simply because many many people have faith in them. The source of this faith and whether it is faith backed by research is debatable but the fact is people have faith in them. Mainly upper caste Hindus when it comes to Ayurveda,
But homeopathy, Unani and Siddha have their own adherents.China is promoting its #TCM - traditional Chinese medicine and the English speaking world has its #AlternativeMedicine movement. On TCM see: economist.com/leaders/2017/0…
#Faith is difficult to dislodge. It is a socio-cultural phenomenon that is ingrained in societies, families and communities. It is akin to #religion and #superstition. At its extremes it can be a pathological obsession but mostly it is a harmless fetish.
#Fengshui in China and #Vaastu shastra in India are good examples of the intersection between faith, superstition, traditional practices and religion. Back then to Ayurveda if it is here to stay what do we need to do to accommodate it? I suggest 3 things
1. Liberate #Ayurved from having to prove their products through RCTs.It is not possible and in the attempt all they do is debase the science and logic of the placebo-controlled RCT. At least there will be fewer junk articles polluting the scientific literature.
2. If the products of Ayurved are worthless placebos then modern medicine should have no qualms or objections to patients taking the stuff along side modern drugs. After all we don't stop people using Haldi in cooking. If people want to spend money on harmless junk.. well...
3. Get our own house in order. The IMA, academic departments of medicine, public health, and clinical pharmacology should really make sure that the practice of modern medicine is scientific and evidence-informed. We should call out #BadPharma and doctors who promote shoddy trials
If we are to have a debate then the "AYUSH v modern medicine" debate is not the one to have. The real debate is Science v Bad science. As in the debate about #Itolizumab #Loinavir/#Ritonavir, #Statins #stents #generics, #overdiagnosis, #overtreatment
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