The future of research in Ayurveda

Contrary to what is believed or said in the medical field, a lot of research is being conducted in Ayurveda, but there is an Amalgamation of both good and bad research going on.

Research is conducted at institute level and also through funding agencies, such as Ministry of AYUSH , CCRAS, DST, DBT, ICMR to name  a few. In this day and age, the Ayurvedic Academic institutions and  also practicing doctors have a knowledge about the significance of what research  stands for Ayurved .Hence many of the research institutes and academic institutions support research in Ayurved through post graduation,post doctoral fellowship,Phd, etc.

 Though ,in many of the institutes, the guides and the PG students are not updated in research methodology, CCRAS (Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha medicine) conducts various workshops in research methodology and scientific writing for Pg guides and also Pg students.Hence there is a vast scope for teachers and students to update themselves in both these areas.

One resounding block, what we see is that even today, there are many successful Ayurvedic doctors who preach against the conduction of research. According to them Ayurveda is a science which is already proven and hence it  needn’t be proven again using contemporary investigative tools.This causes a lot of confusion in the minds of young students . They are torn between whether research is necessary for Ayurveda or to just follow the ancient scriptures of Ayurveda and practice it as it is without testing it.( Iam specifically mentioning testing and not proving. As I have recently learnt there is a significant difference between testing and proving in research,courtesy Dr Kishor Patwardhan,Prof, IMS,BHU.

When such confusion is present, it is difficult to have one single goal in undertaking research. There fore one common question which resides in the young minds is -

Is research required for Ayurveda?

The answer is definitely yes. Ayurveda was written about 5000 years ago. The Sharira Kriya, Sharira Rachana,Basic concepts of Ayurveda, diseases it’s management etc was explained on the basis of the tools which were available to the Vaidya’s I.e Darshana( inspection) sparshana( palpation) Prashna( interrogation) and apta  vachana.After many centuries , human beings have evolved, diseases have modified, and new diseases have been investigated. Hence there is a need to test the drugs and formulations again in various diseases. There are many thrust areas of research in Ayurveda such as to study the mode of action of  Ayurvedic formulations, their efficacy in various Srotas dusti or various systems of the body , adverse event related to  inappropriate use or excess use of drugs,appropriate drug dose for different formulations , etc.

 Research in Balrog:( Ayurvedic Pediatrics) 

Since the literature related to Balrog is sparse and incomplete, Ayurvedic physicians heavily rely on adult formulation and dosage. The adult dose is then converted  to pediatric dose using established dose calculation formulas of modern medicine. There is a major pitfall to this method. Since our herbal formulations contain multiple herbs and 

there are herbal mineral formulations also,there can be herb interactions and also herb- mineral interaction in the child’s body. Unless rigorous clinical trials are conducted we won’t be in a position to confidently say whether a formulation is completely safe for a child.

Thrust areas  of research in Balrog( Ayurvedic Pediatrics)

• Pediatric dose calculation method and drug safety.
• Standardisation of pediatric dose for various ayurvedic formulation
• Study on half life of drugs and duration of treatment required for various pediatric diseases
• Herb interaction , herb mineral interaction and herb food interaction in children.
• Acute and chronic toxicity preclinjcal studies to correlate the effects in children
• Mode of action of various formulations 
• Effect of certain thikshna drugs like vatsanabha, guggulu , parada, gandhaka and other minerals in a child.any untoward side effects should be documented.
• Effect of various formulations at srotas level for various disease conditions 
• Recording adverse event if any during clinical studies

Solution: Research work is being carried out at PG and PhD level In post-graduate institutes .A solution lies here itself, amongst us teachers. The clinical studies conducted by students should follow a rigorous methodology following the international guidelines for various study designs. These studies should then be published in indexed journals. This will place Ayurveda in the global map and will be a convenient way to get accepted by contemporary system of medicines.

Now coming to the main question, which is the title of this blog, that is, what is the future of Research in Ayurved. This can be classified under two headings 

A. Research in adults 

B Research in children 

A.Research in adults is not just studying the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of a drug in a particular disease, but it should focus on studying the mode of action, the OMICS pathways of the formulation and how each ingredient of the drug acts at the cellular level. 

B. Research in children 

As mentioned above in the thrust areas of research in Balrog,  the focus should be on Basic drug research such as pediatric dose, half life, toxicity and adverse events. Along with this research should be conducted on mode of action of drugs, herb interactions etc (please refer the above paragraph -thrust areas of research in Balrog) 

So, even though we know the indication of a drug for a disease we need to do Research at cellular level and understand the pathways and the mode of action.  It is important to know the Omics  pathway to take  Ayurved at an international level  at par with the allopathic system of medicine.