Will Ayurveda be the new face of healthcare?

The recent pandemic brought into perspective the fragility of our existing healthcare ecosystem. While the healthcare industry is seeking answers to make it more holistic, affordable and inclusive, in the post-COVID world, Ayurveda has been playing a major role in shaping the discourse around the new-age healthcare system. The existing crisis is a powerful reminder of the need for us to have more sustainable healthcare solutions, and Ayurveda is the saving force that we’ve all been looking for. Before moving ahead, let’s delve a little deeper into this ancient science of life.

Ayurveda is an age-old Indian science that has prevailed since the pre-Buddhist era. It includes a holistic understanding of health and caters to the whole body-mind-spirit complex. Ayurveda is a life science that throws light upon corrective diet and lifestyle measures, with somatic practices like Yoga and meditation, the use of herbal remedies and medicine, and rejuvenation therapies like panchakarma, self-massages, etc. Ayurveda seeks to remove the root cause of health issues and caters to every individual’s unique body constitution.

COVID-19 crisis and the role of Ayurveda

The physicians of Ayurveda and other traditional medical systems treated diseases effectively for many centuries in India. They still continue to play a significant role in our society became clear during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic devastated the Indian population. However, Ayurvedic physicians handled all categories of coronavirus patients successfully during all the waves of the pandemic. Physicians treated viral illnesses such as chikungunya, swine flu, and dengue year after year.

The Coronavirus is yet another viral disease for which Ayurveda offers an effective cure. However, unfortunately, the details and results of Ayurvedic treatments largely remain unknown except for some articles that appeared in peer-reviewed medical journals. To Ayurvedic physicians who handled COVID-19 patients of mild, moderate, severe and high-risk categories, it is clear that a great opportunity to contain the damage was missed by not making Ayurvedic therapeutic interventions available to our people.

A Missed Opportunity

A few things started becoming clear a couple of months into the pandemic. In the absence of any good medication for COVID-19 in the allopathic system, the condition of several patients with mild and moderate cases gradually deteriorated, and they died. Patients were often rushed to private health facilities in the hope that life-support facilities were available in modern allopathic hospitals. On the other hand, Ayurvedic physicians were able to provide effective prophylactic and curative treatment from the early stage of the disease to prevent it from progressing into the advanced stages. These medicines were used safely for patients of all age groups and also for those with comorbidities.

Although some state governments did not allow Ayurvedic physicians to handle COVID-19 patients, some did not interfere in their treatment. States like Tamil Nadu supported the efforts of Siddha and Ayurveda practitioners.

Opportunities in the market

Ayurveda, the oldest Indian system of medicines that comes from the word ‘Ayurveda’, lies in the hearts of the Indian subcontinent. It comprises plant-based medicines, natural herbs, and spices and is practised as alternative medicine. Around 80% of the population in India adopt traditional medicines, which is a class of Ayurveda systems.

• These therapies are mostly adopted all over the world to cater to the long-term goal of wellness and health.
• The central focus of Ayurvedic products’ is to benefit humans to live longer, be stronger, and be healthier, being independent of any remedies, painful interferences or complicated surgeries.
• The practising countries include Myanmar and, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and it is mostly equivalent to European and Chinese traditional medicine systems. Its core ingredients are majorly applicable in health supplements, cosmetics, Oral Care Products, drugs, and personal care products.