Skeptical analysis of Ayurveda + Links to other threads on Ayurveda

[arvindiyer]

Use of honey to reverse early-stage cataracts is claimed to be an indigenous Ayurvedic cure in this website. A quick search threw up a Russian study and a survey of the practice in Central American traditional medicine. It would be great if we could get an expert like Dr. Morekar to evaluate these claims.

[manu]

was having a conversation/debate with a person on the net. the same can be extended here

http://sabupaul.wordpress.com/2011/02/15...omment-381

check out the comments section.

manu on January 5, 2012 at 12:26 am said:
i have seen a people with cancer,arthritis being cured by ayurveda. at the same time i have seen my friend’s mother die due to chemo.

…

Reply ↓
sabupaul on January 5, 2012 at 6:16 am said:
To validate a system of medicine properly blinded and controlled studies need to be undertaken. If you know of any such studies published in reputed peer reviewed journal please post them here. Your friend’s mother died because of cancer. Don’t say that chemotherapy killed her.

I am not a big fan of anecdotal evidence. But, here goes. A few of my relatives have arthritis. They have to date spent huge amounts of money on Ayurveda and a lot of other “alternative medicines” and had to put up with endless pain and fluctuating intensity. Finally, they saw a rheumatologist and were put on a low dose Methotrexate course and all of them are doing well and able to lead a normal active life without the need for elaborate treatments. Some of them might have to get their knee joints replaced because they delayed getting proper treatment by sticking to ayurveda.
You are not looking at the big picture and using a few cases that you have heard of to judge a system of medicine. For a more detailed explanation I would like to recommend http://www.quackwatch.org to you.
Thanks for the comment!

Reply ↓
manu on January 5, 2012 at 11:57 am said:
why would you want to base your faith on peer reviewed journals(that too only the reputed ones wjile ignoring the rest) to know about the efficacy of ayurvedic medicines even if there is a statistically significant evidence of its efficacy.
a few reasons for the scarcity of the evidence of ayurvedic medicines in the international peer reviewed journals are:
1) the medicines/system of treatment would lie outside the domain of many of these journals and hence would be unfit for publication.
2) the pharma lobby is very powerful and would like to patent its own versions of many of these formulations. it also wouldn’t like to see stuff published outside the realm of allopathic medicines/system of treatment

funny that you mention arthritis, because it is one area where ayurvedic system scores over the rest. one can always change the ayurvedic doctor if one isn’t observing beneficial results. also chemo is one of the biggest killers of patients throughout the world. wonder why that it is still in use.

regarding anecdotal evidence my father was suffering with fungus on his body for the past 6 years and has visited numerous dermatologists. however after undergoing treatment with ayurvedic oils/medicines for about 2 months his fungus vanished.

regarding peer reviewed papers, even if someone where to present them here, you would say that the evidence is being pushed by the government of india to pursue its own interests or that the efficacy has still not been confirmed. but anyhow here are a few papers and sites

http://www.ijaronline.com/

this journal has a number of papers.(but i’m guessing you may not agree to them since they are from GOI). in fact many of the papers listed are actually very interesting.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/j044088768k48700/
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10....22.10.1.87
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...410500228X
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...0X00003294

here are also some evidences
http://www.girijasanjeevani.com/casestudies.htm
http://www.toxicologycentre.com/English/gallery.html
http://ayurveda-cancer.org/case2.htm

hope you would look at these evidence with an open mind, even if you believe/don’ty believe in ayurveda.

thanks bye.

Reply ↓
manu on January 7, 2012 at 7:15 pm said:
i actually didn’t read the full article when i wrote my previous comments(i just read the title and figured out it would be the similar to the other ramblings that have been floating around on the net). now that i’ve read it there is nothing new in the write up. poorly written and the same rehashing of stuff floating around on the net.

regarding the stuff about heavy metals, i’ve applied a medicine containing heavy metal(copper sulphate aka tutha) on my eyes(along with the intake of medicine triphalaadi churna), and i have been able to reduce the power in my eyes from -1.0 to -.25 after applying for around 2 months. i may even end up with 20/20 vision after a few months. i’ve also taken a powder(navayasa churna) containing 50% by weight iron filing. i haven’t suffered any sort ailments at all nor have i been blinded by the copper sulphate in the medicine. instead i have been blessed with much improved eyesight.


very interesting article. oncology in ayurveda

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19224722/Onclolgy-in-Ayurveda
….

[Captain Mandrake]

An extremely poorly written article offering Ayurveda as a solution to allergies.

https://www.indiacurrents.com/articles/2...-allergies

The author expects mainstream medicine (he calls it western medicine) to answer all possible questions he can think of. For instance he asserts that mainstream medicine can not explain why some people have allergies and others don't? I suspect answers to these questions can be found if one does a rigorous literature search. However it is certainly possible that if you ask a few more why/how questions an answer might not be available. But that is not a knock against mainstream medicine. That is the feature of every legitimate knowledge gathering system. But according to this author since mainstream medicine does not answer these question it can not address the root cause of allergies.

But take Ayurveda, where for allergies (as with every illness) the proposed root cause is the imbalance between your doshas. This is asserted with out providing any evidence for the existence (What exactly are these doshas? Do these have a chemical composition?) of these doshas or an explanation of the mechanism by which the imbalance in the doshas cause allergies. None of that. But Ayurveda supposedly cures allergies (and every disease known to mankind) in a drug less and sustainable manner by asking the patient to keep his doshas in balance by eating right and exercising well. If you ask the author how do we know a patient's doshas are not in balance I suspect he will say that we will know that by observing the patients health.

[Novince]

(01-Aug-2011, 02:07 PM)Ajita Kamal Wrote: This thread serves two broad purposes:

1. Creating a comprehensive resource for Ayurveda on our forums, allowing for a proper scientific analysis of Ayurveda from a skeptical perspective. Here 'skeptical' refers to Scientific Skepticism, not the colloquial sense of the term.
2. Compiling links to the various other threads that deal with Ayurveda on these forums.

There are many different threads on Ayurveda here, many of them overlapping in their content. If you wish to discuss some specific aspect of Ayurveda, please first check to see if it can be covered in any one of the other threads.

1. Absurd claims of Ayurveda
2. NATURAL MEDICINE : Ayurveda helps woman beat a mysterious disease
3. Tata Trust funds 20 crore for Ayurveda "Healthcentre"
4. iitb conducting research on homeopathy & ayurveda
5. Govt. of India promoting Ayurveda, Unani, etc.
6. Apollo hospitals has a Ayurveda section!! *headdesk*

If you wish to discuss Ayurveda in general from a skeptical perspective, please use this thread, adding your comments and arguments.

Sir what ever prior reasons may have been done which caused us to think that Ayurveda is not good. But as the time proceeds some new discoverse has made us to look that Ayurveda has many advantages. It is our bad luck that many of those has been lost due to our ignorance and even we have endangered those plant species. 
Any how these days we can see that Ayurveda is taking front seat. 

[Kanad Kanhere]

(17-May-2015, 11:35 AM)Novince Wrote: But as the time proceeds some new discoverse has made us to look that Ayurveda has many advantages.

Any links to elaborate on these discoveries? Any peer reviewed scientific publications?

(17-May-2015, 11:35 AM)Novince Wrote: Any how these days we can see that Ayurveda is taking front seat. 

Thats only because the right wing conservative group is in power.