India's Ayush, herbal export grows from Rs.617-cr in 2005-06 to Rs.1335-cr in 2009-10

The Indian Ayush (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) and herbal industry has grown by leaps and bounds during the last few years with the export of these products taking a jump from Rs.617.87 crore in 2005-06 to Rs.1335.01 crore in the year 2009-10. 

According to experts in the field, one of the major reasons for this export growth is the fact that several countries in the world have started looking towards the Indian traditional products for treating various ailments and chronic diseases. They have identified the importance of natural healing with Ayush products on par with the allopathic medicines. According to data available with the DGCIS and Pharmexcil, there has been a significant growth of Ayush and herbal products exports over the past few years. The exports of Ayush products alone have increased to Rs.764.25 crore in the year 2009-10 from Rs.311.57 crore in 2005-06. Dr P V Appaji, executive director, Pharmexcil said, “In just two years, the demand for herbal products from India has increased from Rs.375.60 crore in 2006-07 toRs.594.87 crore in 2008-09. For the next year 2009-10 the demand has slightly slipped due to recession and earned only Rs.570.76 crore which is a decrease of Rs.24.11 crore from the previous year.” Some of the significant herbal and Ayush products according to 2009-10 lists of India’s 30 top exports include medicaments of ayurvedic systems, psyllium husk (isobgul husk), saps and extracts, senna leaves and pads, other plants and parts of plants used in pharmacy, insecticdl/fungicdl purpose. medicants of homoeopathic systems, Lacts and lacts syrup containing 99 per cent or more lacts, Vinca rosea (herbs), Zedovary roots, Cascara sagrada bark, kuth root, sarsaparilla, Tukmaria and Medicants of bio-chemic systems are some of the important exports ayurvedic and homoeopathic items from the country. Among the top 10 destinations of India’s herbal products, USA leads the list. USA has imported herbal products worth Rs.202 crore every year since 2007-08. Pakistan, Japan, Germany, Ireland, UK, Australia, Bangladesh, Viet Nam and Malaysia are the other important importers of herbal products from India with an aggregate income of Rs.367.06 crore for the nation. According to a report from Pharmexcil for the year 2009, Canada tops list of top 10 exporters of medicinal herbs with a gain of US$ 224.73 million. China holds the second place with US$ 193.33 millions and India in the third place with exports gains of US$ 105.91 million. Significant point to be noted is that china is slowly loosing its export ground and has decreased its exports from US$ 344.12 millions in 2005 to US$ 193.33 million in the year 2009, while India and Canada are steadily increasing their export gains from just US$ 38.87 million and US$ 32.65 million in 2005 to US$ 105.91 million and US$ 224.73 million respectively.

Dispur thrust for AYUSH

WASIM RAHMAN

Herbal healing Jorhat, Aug. 19: The Assam government has given a special thrust to popularise alternative medicine and treatment and pushed for prescribing AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha and homoeopathy) medicines in government hospitals. In a directive to all the district joint directors of health services recently, the mission director of the state unit of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), J.B. Ekka, asked them to ensure that AYUSH medicines were prescribed by doctors. Allopathic and AYUSH drugs supplied under the mission are supplied free of cost to patients in government hospitals, dispensaries and public health centres. The letter said mainstreaming of AYUSH was one of the main components of the rural health mission. The national mission had appointed 267 ayurvedic and 50 homoeopathic doctors recently, apart from the doctors recruited by the state government, to provide medical services under AYUSH. While reviewing the utilisation of AYUSH drugs across the state, it was found that the patients were not being prescribed such medicines. The directive said AYUSH doctors from different parts of the state had earlier complained that they had not been able to practice what they had studied because of the non-availability of medicines where they were posted. However, since 2009-2010, AYUSH medicines and required medical kits were supplied to hospitals, dispensaries and PHCs where the doctors were posted. The mission director asked the joint directors of health services in the districts to take up the matter with the doctors. The letter said if AYUSH drugs were not prescribed, the mission might stop supplying the medicines in future. Following the NRHM directive, the state programme officer for AYUSH, who is also the deputy director of health services, H.H. Islam, last month had asked the districts to furnish details of utilisation and current stock position of ayurvedic and homoeopathic drugs. Islam also asked for information on the requirement of the drugs. Joint director health services (Jorhat), Mintu Gogoi, said following the directive, he had reviewed the matter with the doctors posted in the hospitals, dispensaries and PHCs. Gogoi said there was sufficient stock of AYUSH medicines in the district. The NRHM move comes after the state government issued a notification regarding the setting up of a separate directorate for AYUSH under the health department earlier this year. The directorate was being set up to accord special attention to medical education, planning, training and research for the branches of medicine falling under AYUSH. All the three government homoeopathy colleges and hospitals and the only government ayurveda college in the state will come under the administrative control of the new directorate. The homeopathy colleges and hospitals are in Jorhat, Nagaon and Guwahati, while the ayurvedic one is in Guwahati. There will be a separate wing of AYUSH in all the civil hospitals of the districts and subdivisions, upto the sub-centre level. The directorate will promote indigenous, traditional and community medicine research in the state and co-ordinate with various councils of alternative medicines under the AYUSH sector

Varsity pulls allopathy out of Indian medicine

Central Council of Indian Medicine warns medical varsity

CHENNAI: The allopathy versus traditional medicine crossfire in Tamil Nadu has intensified, with the MGR Medical University pulling out the allopathy content from the traditional medicine syllabus and the Central Council for Indian Medicine(CCIM) threatening to withdraw recognition for such courses.

Caught in melee are 1,200-odd students of siddha, unani, ayurveda and homeopathy courses under theMGR university . The university had deleted allopathy portions from the undergraduate syllabus of traditional medicine courses this year as it wanted to curb traditional medicine practitioners from prescribing allopathic drugs.


CCIM, which prescribes the curriculum and syllabus for courses, is not too pleased. "If the university changes the syllabus , it would be a clear violation of the provisions of the Indian Medicine Central Council Act 1970," CCIM secretary P R Sharma said.
CCIM has demanded that the university reintroduce the removed syllabus within 30 days failing which it will withdraw recognition and the state council will be asked not to register students passing out of the university . University officials confirmed the revision in syllabus.

University vice-chancellor Dr Mayil Vahanan Natarajan said the decision to prune the syllabus 
was taken on the basis of inputs from six senior allopathic doctors. "We have reduced syllabus for MBBS by 20% because we found that students face an overload of information . In Indian 

medicine stream, we cut down on the syllabus because we thought there were too many irrelevant things," he said.
Dr Natarajan said the varsity is planning to change the nomenclature of the degrees it awarded to Indian medicine graduates.

Now, an undergraduate in Ayurveda will no more be Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) but only Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine (BAM). "Why should they be called surgeons when they don't do any surgery?," he said.

Tamil Nadu State Medical Council president Dr M Prakasam welcomed the university decision. "I am glad the purity of Indian medicine is restored . Allowing non-allopathic doctors to prescribe modern medicines and conduct surgery amounts to state-sponsored quackery," he said

Med students on warpath after univ alters syllabus

CHENNAI: More than 1,100 students of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani courses of Tamil Nadu Dr MGR 

Medical University are planning to boycott classes from Monday as they fear their courses will soon become invalid after portions pertaining to allopathic medicine were removed from their syllabus. The Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM), a regulatory body for the Indian medicine doctors has threatened to withdraw recognition to the state medical university, which removed allopathic content from their syllabus for traditional medicine. The council's one month deadline to withdraw its decision on syllabus revision ends September 17.

Students from Government Siddha College in Palayamkottai, who went on a token fast last week, have threatened to boycott class indefinitely. They argue that the council had allowed students of Indian medicine to also study parts of modern medicine to enable them to become better doctors. The university has deleted surgery, pharmacology and large sections of orthopeadics and ophthalmology

Warning to MGR University

CHENNAI: The Standing Academic Board (Ayush) and the Indian Siddha Medical Graduates Association, on Sunday asked the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University not to go ahead with its proposed revision of syllabus for courses in Indian medicine. Earlier, the Central Council of Indian Medicine had warned the varsity against the move as it was against rules.

The Central Council of Indian Medicine had warned the university management that if it failed to reverse its decision, its recognition would be revoked. Meanwhile, the SAB (Ayush) and the ISMGA have called for the move to be dropped.

Which is better - Standing or Sitting ?

Many us us spend most of our waking life, sitting. We wake up, sit down to eat breakfast, sit down in our cars, get to work, sit continuously for 9 hours, sit in our cars, come home, get one hour of a workout in if we’re lucky, sit for dinner, sit in front of the tv, and then go to bed. The way we approach sitting is harmful to our health. The occasional dalliance with a straight-backed office chair probably isn’t a problem, but when we spend most of our waking life sitting (or, even worse, slumping over) in a chair, we invite disaster.

 Such sedentary living is a real problem. Here are some studies that have researched the health hazards of spending too much time sitting. A New Zealand study found that workers who spent an inordinate amount of time sitting at their desks were at a higher risk of developing deep vein thombrosis (DVT). Workers who used computers while sitting were at an even high risk. Metabolic syndrome may also be exacerbated by ‘too little exercise and too much sitting’. An NY Times article reported the harmful effects of sitting in the unnatural postures that we employ. Acutely, sitting weakens our muscles, especially in the legs and the hips. When you sit, your glutes are totally inactive. They aren’t being used. They’re stretched out. It’s just one big static stretch, all day long, which weakens them. Strong, engaged glutes are required for effective, natural movement. Running, walking, lifting weights – if you’re doing any of this with weak,

 inactive glutes from excessive sitting, you’re an injury waiting to happen. Standing workstations make an entrance in the US. Many people are opting to have their desks at standing levels so that they can work while standing. Try propping some books under your laptop when you get tired of all that sitting. Other than working while standing (or standing on one foot while you rest the other) there are several things that a sedentary worker can do to get more activity into his or her day. Employ simple solutions like fetching your own water, walking over to a co-worker’s desk rather than emailing or calling, and using the office building’s staircase for brief bouts of activity to counter the ill-effects of sitting for long stretches of time.

Protesting Ayush doctors seek equality with allopathy docs

Over 200 doctors from the Karnataka Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (Ayush) Medical Officers' Welfare Forum are protesting against the alleged discrimination between allopathy doctors and Ayush doctors.
The protestors, who have been camping at Freedom Park since Sunday morning, have put forward 22 demands, emphasising treatment on parity with allopathy doctors.
Renamed in 2003 from Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy, the department was established in order to encourage education, research and development and to popularise the use of the Ayush system. "Ayush system of medicines focus not only on the curative aspect, but also the general health and try to prevent a disease before it occurs," said Dr Sangamesh Thallevad, president of the welfare association. "Even though it is popular, especially among the rural population, affordable and is prepared locally using available resources, we are still discriminated against," he said.
The demands put forth by the association, emphasises equality between the two areas of medicine. "Where an allopathy doctor gets upto `32,000 as salary, an Ayush doctor of the same level does not even get half of that. We want to be treated the same as allopathy doctors and be given the same facilities as them, including salary and other facilities," he said.
Some of the demands include the creation of the post of Ayush medical officer in the department of health and family welfare, medico-legal rights to conduct post-mortems and issue medical certificates, making discrimination against doctors a punishable offence under the law, consideration of doctors to state awards and prizes, supply of quality products in pharmacies, recognise services done while on contract, when the doctor is made permanent and promotion of Ayush medicine and practice and the benefits of these at the taluk, district and state levels.