BENGALURU : Dr GG Gangadharan, director of MS Ramaiah Indic Centre for Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, evolved his own research criteria, which not many practitioners do, and studied 300 rheumatoid arthritis patients from 2006 to 2009. He did his seven-and-a-half year Ayurvedacharya course from Madras University. In an interview, he spoke to City Express on the churning out of Ayurvedic practitioners from
state colleges who are devoid of skill, why dropping the bridge course in the National Medical Commission Bill is a good idea and how research parameters set for modern medicine are not
viable for Ayurveda. He believes that Ayurveda should evolve its own research criteria in clinical studies to validate its effectiveness.
Can you tell us about your research ‘Prakruthi and Genomics’?
It was published in Nature journal. So far, Ayurveda was considered a theory practised by few Indians. Its scientific basis was not established. It was the first time we made a concerted effort to establish that each individual has got his or her own basic Prakruth. It is an important basis, where we talk about vata, pitta and kapha.
My PhD was based on Rheumatoid Arthritis, where more than 300 patients were studied, along with outcome of Ayurvedic medicine. My main effort was to prove that Ayurveda is still relevant today and will be more relevant tomorrow. We did many studies to see which medicinal plants are effective in bringing down pitta or kapha. Many institutes, including Indian Institute of Science, were involved. This is the first time modern science was used to study the essence of Ayurveda.
Are using parameters, set for modern medicine for Ayurveda, appropriate for creating evidence-based research?
This is the biggest mistake we are making. We are trying to accommodate Ayurveda into modern scientific tools that is based on the theory of reduction. If you do a clinical study in Ayurveda, you won’t find any molecule. Modern medicine requires the same drug and molecule to work for all patients suffering from one disease. Ayurveda doesn’t work like that.
Take for example a double blind closed study, where the physician is not aware of which patient is being given the medicine. One group gets the placebo. According to Ayurveda, it is not possible to give the same medicine to the entire group. As per your vata or pitta prakruthi, medicines change. This flexibility is not available in research. We treat Rheumatoid Arthritis as three different conditions, which is treated as one condition by modern medicine. One drug and one formula never work for us. There are 15 formulations instead of one. It is up to you, on how you want to measure it.
What is your view on the draft National Medical Commission Bill?
I think it was a good move. Why do you need a back door entry to
allopathic medicine? If you want to save Ayurveda in India, you should close down the Ayurvedic colleges for 10 years. Not a single student I have seen understands the basics or treats simple conditions. They lack knowledge because the syllabus is 60 per cent modern medicine and 40 per cent Ayurveda. We are trying to copy the modern medicine course structure, and not devising our own. There are only few colleges, such as SJM, which do service to the field. In Kerala, there is no cross practice. Every village has an Ayurvedic centre.
How should Ayurveda be taught?
First you should learn basic darshanas philosophy and worldview of Ayurveda. Pick up any classical text such as Ashtanga Samhita, and learn each para to let your mind get accustomed to Ayurveda. Today, only pieces of the text are taught. I don’t touch BAMS textbooks. I refer to only classical texts, because the textbooks are all sub-standard. If you graduate from a college in Kerala, for, you will find many vaidyas on the street from whom you can learn Ayurveda.