New Delhi: The Ministry of AYUSH plans to conduct a study on 50 lakh people to find “evidence” about the efficacy of alternative medicines to fight Covid-19, ThePrint has learnt.
To design the format of the study, the AYUSH ministry has formed a working group, consisting of eight officers that is led by P.K. Pathak, additional secretary of the ministry.
The committee was formed after the ministry held an internal meeting on 17 April.
“We are planning to conduct a population-based study on huge number of people to collect evidences and strengthen the use of AYUSH interventions,” Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, secretary, AYUSH ministry, told ThePrint, adding that “the proposed size of the study is 50 lakh”.
The working group will consult the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide training to its researchers for the study.
“… The study will be divided into three parts — general public, frontline workers and Covid-19-positive patients,” said a senior official from the ministry, who didn’t want to be named.
“We have already received the approval of 1,80,000 people for participation through state governments. Many more nominations are coming,” he added.
The design of the study, the official said, has been made in consultation with various epidemiologists and health experts, including from the Indian Council of Medical Research, Public Health Foundation of India and National Institute of Epidemiology.
Besides the study, the ministry also plans to conduct clinical trials on traditional herbs ashwagandha, guduchi, mulethi to find out if they can prevent Covid-19.
The Ministry of AYUSH — which stands for ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha, sowa rigpa and homeopathy — has faced repeated criticism for propounding pseudoscientific medicines as alternative medicines.
Also read: After Modi’s appeal, AYUSH ministry gets over 2,000 proposals to tackle Covid-19 pandemic
Medical staff, police officials to be part of study
The study will focus on the preventive usage of alternative medicines, as well as its usage for treatment as standalone and add-on with modern medicines.
For the study on the general public, the government will survey common people to check if they have followed the advisory issued in March by the ministry about using home remedies to boost immunity against Covid-19.
The advisory asked people to frequently sip water boiled with tulsi (basil) leaves, crushed ginger and turmeric, sleep on time, eat freshly cooked food and practise yoga under the guidance of qualified instructors.
The advisory was also endorsed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation last month where he asked people to follow home remedies for Covid-19 suggested by the ministry.
“The ministry will conduct the survey through our mobile application ‘Sanjivani’ and also go door-to-door to understand how people use alternative medicines in their daily lives and what differences do they find,” the official added.
Study on frontline workers and Covid-19 patients
The official quoted above said the study on frontline workers will include “all quarantined police officials, officers deputed in containment zones, quarantine zones and those working in the field”.
“Delhi Police has already enrolled 80,000 of its personnel under the study. Ayurvedic immunity boosting measures will be studied like chaywanprasha, Anu Talia (herbal oil) and Sanshamani Vati (ayurvedic herbal formulation),” he added.
Police officials and health workers will be given these ayurvedic formulations along with other ayurvedic medicines as part of the study.
For the study on Covid-19 patients, the ministry will give them exclusive AYUSH-based treatment along with modern medicines.
For instance, The Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia College in New Delhi is presently treating 30 Covid-19 positive patients and Chaudhary Brahm Prakash Ayurved Charak Sansthan, also in the national capital, has around 80 patients. These hospitals are treating patients, exclusively through alternative medicines, the official added.
However, in Medanta, a super-specialty hospital, the ministry is running a trial where patients are being given AYUSH treatment along with modern medicines, the official said.
“The ministry is planning to launch such kind of studies in various hospitals across the country,” the official added.
Also read: Alternate medicine manufacturers claiming Covid-19 cure could face year in jail
To my belief the lockdown hasn’t served its purpose. It has just postponed deaths and toppled the economy. If COVID-19 is a contagious disease as it is advertised it would’ve spread exponentially before we’ve attempted to do anything about it.
OK, the government will do a large study on what is generally considered a pseudoscience by scientists.
If they can’t prove that something works after testing on a large group of people, will they finally admit that it is ineffective? Or will they just act like that never happened and keep pushing that as still valid alternative treatment? In other words, is there any situation where they actually admit that anything does not work? So far I have never seen AYUSH ever admit that anything was ineffective. So I don’t believe they are honest.
If they say something works after testing on a large group of people and people from other countries find that interesting and test it as well and find that it actually does not work like we said, will that show that we are not good at doing studies?
Either way, this should be fun.
If scientists keep looking for a cure for a viral infection from the perspective that it is just a virus, they can’t. A virus is more capable than a bacteria and fungus. My belief is that a virus can be fooled and killed by altering a fungal medicine than a bacterial medicine. Fooling a virus isn’t a new concept. It is a proven concept with HIV.
If scientists keep looking for a cure for a viral infection from the perspective that it is just a virus, they can’t. A virus is more capable than a bacteria and fungus. My belief is that a virus can be fooled and killed by altering a fungal medicine than a bacterial medicine. Fooling a virus isn’t a new concept. It is a proven concept with HIV.
Had Ayurveda been practised and advised by Western countries, then nobody would never have questioned. But it has become a practice to blindly follow the west since 1700. Let us try our own system of medicine, but let us not ignore the western system of treatment. The deadly cholera in Koraput dist was treated with herbs being given by an IPS(Laxman Mishra) in past and saved lives miraculously than compared to available allopathic treatments then. Let us combine all the available treatment alternatives to fight the virus. And it is a reminder from mother nature that we humans do not have free ride violating all norms, destroying nature, killing animals for palate and stock piling nukes. The thing which grows fast, ends fast too.
Nigamananda Mohapatra, you don’t understand the history of medicine at all.
Everyone had their own “Ayurveda”, especially the West. This was what was called Allopathy by Homeopaths, not Today’s medicine. Scientific medicine came later and disproved all of them.
Your Cholera cures are stories. It is highly unlikely there is any truth to them. The epidemic might have stopped, but it is impossible to say it was because of some herbs given by someone because no careful study was conducted back then.
According to Ayurveda, Cholera was air borne, not water borne. Even such basic things were not understood by Ayurveda.
Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Western medicine all turned out to be very stupid when the true causes of disease were discovered.
Oh really? Hope the govt. could sense the public sentiments after months that we should not ape what WHO says when we promote ‘Make In India’. A thing that should have been tried months before is coming so late. Shouldn’t the govt be punished for such wrong delayed decisions? All these time it was busy deleting videos of anybody who suported alternative medicines. Shame!
Homoeopathy can treat covid19 patient successfully
No it can’t. This is even according to the government. Homeopaths just say they can treat everything. Their words have little value.
Very good attempt.
What happens if u give a chance to other alternative medicine too….if homeopathy and other alternative medicines really trash means…how come some people believe on them..Nd they experience cure too…so… believe for good first..
Because our schools are trash, so trash beliefs, no capacity no understand facts and science.
What happens if u give a chance to other alternative medicine too….if homeopathy nd other alternative medicines really trash means…how come some people believe on them..Nd they experience cure too…so… believe fr good first..
I m surprised,u being an indian doctor saying ur medicine trash.i m also an allopathy doctor but have seen various ailments getting cured by ayurvedic and homeopathic medicines.in all hospitals in China,they practice their oriental medicine.but in our country egoistic allopathy doctors ignore our traditional medicine system
Chinese are promoting unproven traditional medicines. Ayurveda and Homeopathy are also unproven.
No properly educated doctor prescribes whatever he feels like when studies don’t support it.
Are you sure you went to a real medical college? Are all your classmates like this?
China is promoting coronavirus treatments based on unproven traditional medicines
“The Chinese government is heavily promoting traditional medicines as treatments for COVID-19. The remedies, a major part of China’s health-care system, are even being sent to countries including Iran and Italy as international aid. But scientists outside China say it is dangerous to support therapies that have yet to be proved safe and effective.”
The above article is from the prestigious Nature.
And what if many Modern research which are ongoing became fail. They should also be punished or Not
Modern research never says they have treatment for everything even when they don’t. They are very careful before they say anything.
Only these unscientific systems which still can’t accept microbiology do. They keep repeating they have cures for everything even though studies always prove them wrong.
Also governments give Homoeopathy a chance to treat & cure patients, within few weeks this crisis will be over, as it was seen in 1918-20 deadly Spanish flu where more population was saved by this alternative treatment alone
That homeopathy saved people in the Spanish Flu is a myth promoted by homeopaths.
“What homeopaths offer is magical thinking and anecdotal evidence. They claim that during the 1918 flu epidemic the mortality rate was 28% if conventionally treated and only 1% when homeopathy was used. There is absolutely no evidence for this claim.”
This is from McGill University.
We are following naturopathy for the last 55 years. Nature never failed us. We are leading our lives without consuming modern medicines and visiting hospitals. I can say that a person who eat vegetarian Spartan food only once in a day will be endowed with enormous immunity power.
I want to ask this stupid Arun Roy that in allopathy even for a small operation they take an undertakingbthat if some thing untoward happens the doctor is not responsible. Also by law no doctor can be prosecuted on account of drug reaction and patient death. But u want punishment on alternate therapy practitioners. What double standards. In fact science does not mean only reductionist science of allopathy. It has its own place and utility in emergency. It takes more than 8 years for a kidney to get damaged. The so called allopathy can never find but on one fine day says ur kidney is damaged, pls go for replacement. This is called technology and not evidence. Science is preventing kidney damage and curing kidney problems if any. That is what Ayurveda, siddam, pancha hava does. Evidence and experimental based science is also a science. As an example since more than 10 years i take a KADA similar to AYUSH ministry suggestion and till date i hardly get cold or cough. After COVED came in March we follow another simple technique of taking 1 or 2 gms of pepper powder with honey twice a day, preferably with bilwa leaf. U will never get throat infection. No throat infection no corona. This is also mentioned in nature cure and sidda as a cure for all kinds of throat infections. Thalassemia is an incurable disease as per modern science. The panchagavya research center at Kanchi has already cured thee persons and they have all the records. If 8nterested pls go and check urself
Yes sir you are right.
Only synthetic chemical pills? medical science is harmful to the mankind
And you passed Pharmaceutical Chemistry? Difficult to believe.
Please promote rasayana therapy it’s part of ayurveda
That would be like promoting Alchemy over Chemistry.
The mainstream medical community says it has no cure for Covid 19 patients. Still they have been given free hand in treating the patients. So why Ayush doctors should not test the ancient wisdom of age old medicines for treating people and boosting their immunity.
As regards critical patients, they are being put on ventilators to manage. But ventilators are not medicines. They are ways to manage.
So an integrated approach should be adopted to use the modern facilities along with Ayush treatment. In fact the science of surgery should also be used in conjunction with Ayush medicines. Surgery should be a separate stream of speciality and it should be open to use Ayush meditcinesm
Quite a waste of time and money! Both for government and the patients
Whole of AYUSH has been a waste of money.
I don’t know a single scientific thing they discovered so far.
Only they think they discovered things. No one else actually trusts them.
If u want to stand with only one pathy then in future u r going to hell soon as every pathy has its own advantages and disadvantages…let us take the benefit of alternate pathy
I can treat ,RNA viral load negative by siddha medicine. I’m dr.simbu from Chennai
The best you do the best you get it.start fast Ayurveda is the mother of All medicines.u believe whatever our sir prime minister takes action is worth full .sir carry on we are with you.
Contagious diseases cannot be contained like the prevailing lockdown. Rain, water bodies, slums, etc would help Corona to spread easily. If the Corona Virus attacks the same cells like HIV it is very difficult to find a cure. If someone finds a cure, then it would definitely help finding a cure for HIV infections. Homeopathic medicine combination of Arsenic Alb and Thuja would help fighting Corona Virus, for those who have the immunity to fight diseases. The same is with Ayurvedic medicine Aswagandha.
Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa met famous Ayurveda doctor Giridhara Kaje at his house to discuss the possibility of experimenting with the ancient Indian medicine to serve as a potential cure against coronavirus.
The above news received long back. Whether any trial done? Permission given?.
All persons living with HIV infection or with AIDS are advised by Doctors to be cautious with the food they take because they are less immune to infections. Even an ordinary FLU may be fatal to any HIV infected patient. The official name of Corona virus is SARS-COVID 2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) which is nothing but an advanced respiratory disorder. Any normal person affected with Corona can be cured with ordinary antibiotics like AMOXYCILLIN. But, it is not the case with HIV infected persons because COVID-19 is more advanced and stronger than ordinary FLU. Those people die around the globe are HIV infected persons because they are less immune to any/all diseases. As per statistics more than 50 percent of the population around the globe are affected with HIV and hence the lockdown. People who are cured from COVID-19 are those who had the capability to fight COVID-19 or in other words who have the immunity to fight COVID-19. If the lockdown is released most of the HIV infected people around the globe would die because it paves way for COVID-19 to spread easily.
As per statistics, the states, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and some other states accounts for the highest number of HIV infections and which accounts for higher number of deaths from COVID-19. The same is the case with USA and ITALY. In India more than 150000 children below the age of 15 are affected with HIV and the counts increase by 25000 each year (from old statistics). To justify my claim, why the Indian Government failed to express their gratitude to the Doctor XYZ, MD died from COVID-19 (who helped many COVID-19 patients) by an obituary in any news daily. Is it because his name would be tampered, when in future the world comes to know that CORONA kills only HIV/ AIDS patients.
What a crazy man you are. 50% of the globe is infected with HIV? Are you mad? If not, you are lying about statistics.
No virus is cured by antibiotics. You don’t even have any understanding of what a virus is.
Amoxycillin acts on bacterial cell wall. A virus has no cell wall and is not even a cell. It just takes over yours.
Look, when you don’t know anything, it is best to not say anything.
Do u know one of the ayurvedic herbs can cure Hepatitis C in just 25 days whereas allopathy medicine takes 90-180days. And hep c medicine is being used to treat covid 19 in foreign countries. If this Ayurvedic medicine is used to treat covid19 then the results will be much better compare to allopathy.
What is the name of that herb or medicine?
Dear Dalip Manhas,
Could you please help with the name of that herbal treatment for Hepatitis C,,,,,,
I know a patient who is affected by it,,,
Regards,
PP
Bhoomi Amla
*Covid19 vs Copper*
Drinking water in copper vessels is timely and most relevant. In the past this was the practice among rural folk.
Professor Bill Keevis, Chair in Environmental Health care at the University of Southampton while explaining their research work, shows that copper targeting various cellular sites not only kills viral pathogens but also rapidly destroys their nucleic acid genetic material effectively preventing mutation. So nothing passes on to other microbes, a process called horizontal gene transfer. Consequently this helps to prevent breeding of next generation superbugs.
Human corona virus 229 E is the common cause of cold with upper respiratory tract infection while Covid 19 lodges in the lungs and destroys it as in SARS and MERS. It is proved that copper can swiftly and effectively (University of Southampton) help to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses which are linked to SARS and MERS.
For many centuries Ayurveda has been using Copper (Cu) as medicine named ‘Thamra Bhasma’. Tablets such as Arogya vardhini, Sutshekhar Ras with gold and Hridayarnava Ras,Jaymangal Ras etc. contain copper as main ingredient.
? It is unfortunate that even when thousands are afflicted by Covid 19 nobody is willing to try and explore the efficacy of these medicines.
✅ Using a copper sheet inside the mask of an affected guy will be highly useful to prevent the virus, as per the research.
✅ Certain Ayurvedic medicines containing copper can also be administered orally.
Dr.M.P.Mithra,Former President, Kerala State Govt. Ayurveda Medical Officers’Association
Kottayam
Mob.94470 58458
The 2percent that are dying are dying because they have been using western medicine all their life and getting diagnosed with diseases that are curable and do not exist.
It is really astonishing to see your mind set .people like you always disregard there own wealth and if the same resource will cone from West after changed nomenclature you accept it like anything .
I will give you a sincere advice to plz boost morale of such people who have shown gutts to do something amid risk of life to there and there family
I agree with you Dr sahab . We should try our system of medicine which is thousands of uear old and time tested. It will proves it’s efficacy against such kind infectious disease moreover it will strengthen our faith in it also.
It will also provide an opportunity to make if a universally acceptable system of medicine.
Thousands of years old does not mean time tested.
People thought for thousands of years that earth was flat or that gods created earth.
Science is something that disproves things people believed for thousands of years.
Faith means there are no facts supporting it. Faith is regional, not universal.
I have experienced fast effect of Homeopathic Combinations at the Free Dispensary of Cancer Aid Society including influenza and dozens of cases of chonic pain. Seeing is believing so please contact us if you are in pain.
As it is Allopathic Medicines can not be taken for long due to side effects and misuse of antibiotics has resulted in superbug which can play havoc like COVID hence we have invest in research of AYUSH as it has been ignored since long.
Basically human body has natural healing power provided we maintain the internal environment clean and balanced. We should not allow the.toxins load inside the body and we need to increase our vitality . Yoga and naturopathy system of medicine helps to improve the vitality by removing the toxins and enhance the healing power of the body yoga and naturopathy doctors are helping to prevent and manage the covid 19 in tamil nadu along with allopathic protocol in all the medical college hospitals in tamil nadu and the GOVT. has issued guidelines hence yoga and naturopathy integrating with allopathic has given good results by improving overall health without any harm tamil nadu has 10 medical colleges conducting five and half years medical degree course in yoga and naturopathy system of medicine. People should approach correct qualified yoga doctors rather than approaching quacks let of evidence based publications are available at present more than 20 medical college hospitals, the intervention are being done through GOVT.yoga and naturopathy medical college and lifestyle clinics
this is d best oppetunity to prove ayurved. conduct various types of trials n come to d conclusion at earliest…
Modiji and Ayush dept is having so much confident then y they r giving Ayush medicines with other allopathy medicines. Let them only give Ayush medicines on only few agreed patient and try. Pl Infirm patient before that they trying Ayush medicines treatment on them for covid19 problem, if they yes then only u try. Pl don’t force govt official for research of Ayush treatment on them. FIR God sake don’t force to take these ayurvedic midicines without any proper research.
Even in American hospitals, a cocktail of drugs are used. In China too, traditional medicines have been used along with modern medicines. The idea is not to find whether the traditional medicines alone are helpful. It is to find out whether their addition results in any significant benefit or not.
Also, many medicines are found to be much effective for mild to moderate cases but have reduced effectiveness when the disease becomes severe. Even the much touted Remdesvir is being declared as more effective on mild and moderate cases than on severe cases. That doesn’t mean it is useless. It means it has to be used early.
Yes, the effectiveness of traditional medicines on their own are to be tested double or triple blinded and the findings are to be peer reviewed to weed out bogus claims. But, I don’t believe that this is not the time for that. Now, we have lives to save and a Country to restart.
Best initiative, homoeopathy medicine also should be given during the treatment
Did u try no ham First u try first, check results and then recommend ok
Its a good decision to incorporate Alternative medicines but measure must have been taken little earlier
who is Arun ROY came after my name ?pl.enquire it.
my request is that why not researching on NEEM -the great antivirous in our country past india when attacked by pox -neem leaf and its bed
on which patient was lying and many person was got relief.
Dear organizer,
I am a researcher and author (mainly focusing on creativity, imagination, intelligence, and energy). Now I have written a book which informs herbal medicines and practices to beat Covid-19. And also in the book, there are several innovative ideas to develop vaccines. The details of the book are recommended by Innatura Scientific Pvt LTD. Moreover, I am ready to support any research center as well as individual researchers that focus on inventing medicines and vaccines to beat Covid-19. For an immediate action, if you approve the book and share it to any media, several lives can be saved.
The book is available free of cost at
authorsakader.blogspot.com
http://www.inaturas.com/news
Expecting your kind consideration
Regards
S A Kader
So basically you just started calling yourself a researcher even though you don’t know what research is.
What research classes did you take at this Annamalai university?
I saw a few pages from your book on Amazon.
It looked like you just Googled pseudoscience and called it research.
Is Googling indiscriminately what Annamalai University teaches as research?
Seems, Arun Roy is not a medical professional and is not an expert in Research Methodology.
Whats the point of giving Ayush along with modern medicine. If Ayush is so much effective let them use it as a standalone medicine on critical paitents. Corona has deathrate of only 2% so experiments should be carried out on critical paitents instead of low risk trails to test efficacy to prevent any anecdotal evidence. Also research papers with double blind or triple blind experiments should be published and peer reviewed. And if found ineffective every person involved should be severely punished for propagation of false claims specially since it’s a matter concerning public health at large.
Conduct on hospitalised patients in 10 s of thousand beds under Ayush sysyem.Admit severe patients and do your reseach there.
These Mode of therapies are not harmful as your chemical therapy is , so what is wrong in bringing sort of patients and people even those who r in higher risks. But aren’t they late now this could have started much earlier, kerala and Gujarat are doing it why not All states
आयुर्वेद मरीज को गम्भीर स्थिति मे पहुंचने ही नही देगा ।अगर मरीज गम्भीर स्थिति मे जाने से पहले ही ठीक हो जाये तो इसमे दिक्कत क्या है ? आप क्यू चाहते है की मरीज को गम्भीर हालत मे पहुचाया जाये । hydrochloroquine मरीज की immunity कम करती है ।एक आयुर्वेद चिकित्सक होने के नाते मुझे 101%यकीन है की आयुर्वेद corona के लिये सबसे बडी चिकित्सा है । ऐसे पता नही कितनी महामारियों को झेलने के बाद ही आयुर्वेद का निर्माण हुआ है ।
If study founds effective what happens? WHAT ABOUT HCQ?
I agree with you Dr sahab . We should try our system of medicine which is thousands of uear old and time tested. It will proves it’s efficacy against such kind infectious disease moreover it will strengthen our faith in it also.
It will also provide an opportunity to make if a universally acceptable system of medicine.