Over the last ten years, Ayurvedic medicine has been growing in popularity in North America, due in part to the work of Deepak Chopra, M.D., an Indian doctor, writer, and speaker who has both promoted its abilities, and influenced its use alongside modern-day medicines to help cure cancer. However, most people have not even heard of Ayurvedic medicine, let alone actually used it.
What is Ayurvedic medicine?
Originating from India, Ayurvedic medicine (Ayurveda) has been around for over 5,000 years. It emphasizes on re-establishing the body’s balance through diet, life-style, exercise, and body cleansing; together with the health of the mind, body and spirit – and similar to Chinese medicine, it is a “whole medicine system.” That is to say – it is based on both the theories and methods of preventing and treating health and illness.
How is Ayurvedic medicine prescribed?
In Ayurvedic medicine; it is believed that the tongue may offer certain clues to the areas of the body that may be out of balance (also the skin, lips, nails, and eyes are observed). This will allow for a practitioner to determine a person’s balance of doshas (a person’s individual differences [vata = space and air, kapha = water and earth, and pitta = fire and water]) or metabolic types.
Also the patient’s prakuti (the constitution and essential nature of an individual) is determined to allow focus on restoring the balance of an imbalanced dosha (an imbalanced dosha is believed to interrupt the natural flow of an individual’s prana [vital energy] caused by an impaired digestion due to a build-up of body waste). A method that has been successfully used to cure illnesses for an awful long time.
How is Ayurvedic medicine used to cure cancer?
Today, Ayurvedic medicine is being used to help treat cancer (specifically cervical cancer), where it aims at not just treating the cancer, but also treating its symptoms; together with preventing its spread, and reducing the side-effects that are commonly seen with modern-day medicines.
Different Ayurvedic medicines tackle different areas of an illness. For example: Arogya-Vardhini, Kanchnar-Guggulu, Mahamanjishthadi-Qadha, Punarnavadi-Guggulu, and Triphala-Guggulu, etc., are used to treat local tumors; whereas a type of medicated douche containing Triphala (3-fruits) and Yashtimadkuk (Glycerrhina glabra) is used to treat local ulcerations.
Other medicines that act on the rasa, rakta, and mansa dhatus ([tissues] three of the seven tissues that form different organs and body systems) include: Kutk (Picrorrhiza kurroa) and Indrayav (Holharrhina indica), etc., and are used to help prevent the metastases (spread) of cancer to other parts of the body.
Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), Bala (Sida cordifolia), Nagbala (Sida humilis), and Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus), etc., are used to help improve the immunity of the body; whereas Ashwagandha, Shatavari, Kamadudha-Ras, Shankh-Vati, Laghu-Sutshekhar-Ras, and Vishwa (Zinziber officinale) are used to help either prevent or reduce the side-effects of modern-day medicines.
What success has Ayurvedic medicine had on cervical cancer?
The direct aim of Ayurvedic medicine is to treat the primary cervical tumor, and to prevent any metastases (also to treat metastases that has already taken place [if any]). Patients are administered medicines (some which have specific actions on the uterine and cervix) in high doses to attack the tumor and to act on the lymph and blood tissues which help prevent the metastases.
This high dosage, aggressive, and prolonged treatment (6 – 9 months) does seem to pull many cervical cancer sufferers into a state of remission (the treatment course has been successfully carried out [not meaning the cancer patient is no longer at risk from a recurrence of the disease, or has been cured]) where a noticeable quality of life and an improved survival rate has been documented.
However, there may actually be a certain amount of doubt as to whether Ayurvedic medicine can actually cure cervical cancer completely; although, there are positive indications to show it has a certain amount of ability to cure. As yet, there is still insufficient evidence to either confirm or deny Ayurvedic medicine’s ability to be a suitable contender in the fight against cervical cancer.