Spurious drugs and practice

The presence of some allopathic drugs like Tadalafil, Diclofenac sodium, Predinisolone etc., in certain Ayurveda products have been reported by Drugs Control Authority some time back. According to Drugs and Cosmetic Act of 1940, all such ISM products are called ‘adulterated’ drugs. Selling of such adulterated drugs is punishable under law not only in India, but world over.

There are several scientific, legal and ethical reasons individually and collectively prohibit the sale of such adulterated ISM products. Further, the health hazards such adulterated products can cause is enormous.

When allopathic drugs were used to fortify some ISM drugs as reported earlier, the likely hood of such ISM products exhibiting therapeutic effect is quite high due to the presence of allopathic drugs. The innocent patients in all likelihood may believe such ISM products to be ‘truly effective’ and only such products have cured or offered relief to them. The chance the innocent patients knowing the product being adulterated with allopathic drugs is remote. Such ‘adulterated products’ would give a ‘false and pseudo image’ to such ISM products especially with reference to their efficacy.

When law prohibits the selling of adulterated drugs, can’t we equate cross-pathy to adulterated medical practice applying the above definition?

When allopathic drugs are prescribed along with ISM products, the chance of allopathic drugs offering relief and or cure is high. Due to the above, the possibility of patients giving credits for the therapeutic benefit entirely to ISM products is also high.

Definitely, the cross-pathy may help to create a ‘pseudo-image’ to ISM products when they are prescribed along with allopathic drugs to the gullible, innocent, poor patients in rural India. This might be the reason why many in ISM authorities do not wants to question cross-pathy and instead, they ask the Government to permit cross-pathy.. This is only one possibility.

The second possibility is that some patients who had received both allopathic drugs along with ISM products are likely to analyze the role of both allopathic drugs and ISM products separately. Once such evaluation is done, the patients would progressively reject the system because of the comparison of ISM products vis-à-vis allopathic drugs prescribed to them by some institutionally qualified ISM private practitioners. Such direct comparison can only prove ISM to be least effective.

The third possibility is that some patients would have asked the institutionally qualified ISM private practitioner as why both allopathic drugs and ISM products are given to them. This situation would have compelled some ISM practitioner to tell the truth that ISM products have only limited value therefore combination therapy is must. Such explanation would certainly raise doubts in some patients to summarily reject the system.

Cross-pathy raises legal, technical and ethical and social issues.

Prima-facie cross pathy and selling of adulterated drugs are one and the same. In the case of adulterated drugs, allopathic drug is mixed in ISM product to fortify its therapeutic effect. In cross pathy, the mixing of allopathic drugs and ISM products happen in human system. Under legal terms, the first one is adulterated drug and the second one is adulterated medical practice.

The technical issue is that, both the adulterated drugs (mixing of allopathic drugs in ISM products) and adulterated medical practice (cross-pathy) would give ‘psedo-image/efficacy’ to the ISM products. Although such ‘pseudo-image’ may help the system to create relevance and believability to some extent, however, it is amounting to cheating, suppression of facts and exploitation of gullibility of poor people.

The systemic issue is that, cross-pathy creates a direct opportunity for the patients to compare the true merits of both allopathic and ISM products separately. The ISM people always argue that the philosophy and science of ISM is different from allopathic system. When such is true, how both can be mixed together? When ISM believes in use of adjuvant and antagonist, while giving treatment, how come they have realized allopathic would go well with ISM products? In fact the ISM had evolved several thousands of years earlier to allopathic system.

Like how the ancient Siddhar and Ayurveda scholars have contributed several sastric products to the system, is cross-pathy, the contribution of modern day ISM (those who engaged in cross-pathy) scholars to our medical world?

The ancient ISM scholars have made positive contributions but the modern day ISM scholars in the name of cross-pathy are destroying the system. Instead of that, the institutionally qualified ISM private practitioners must explain to the Government the truth that ISM does not have curative drugs and the system is not system of medicine. Only through admission of truth, solution can be achieved and not by pretension or false promise.

Dr S Ranganathan