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Former BJP General Secretary K.N. Govindacharya was in deep agony. He was suffering from hypertension and diabetes for the past several years. Allopathic doctors advised him to have insulin and anti-hypertension drugs throughout his life. He had given up both salt and sugar. His tea, coffee and fat intake had been considerably trimmed. Yet, nothing seemed to be working for him. Despite being on medication, his blood pressure rose so high one day that he fell unconscious and hurt himself in Chennai, five years ago.

It was then that he turned to alternative treatments. Somebody suggested a Yoga and Naturopathy Centre in Bengaluru. After a three-month intensive course, he was completely cured. Today, he can eats sweets, gorge on puris with malai paneer and have his favourite spicy and tangy rasam too. This is the power of Alternative Therapy (AT). People turn to AT only after finding no respite to their agony in allopathy or when they are advised by Allopaths to go in for extensive and expensive surgeries. But now, even allopathic doctors are turning towards ATs to evolve a new genre called Integrated Medicinal System (IMS).

Dr K.K. Aggarwal, an Allopath and owner of Delhi-based Heart Care Foundation, told TSI, “It’s actually the other way around. Therapies like Ayurveda are much more ancient than Allopathy. Therefore, Ayurveda is the traditional system of Indian medicines while Allopathy should be called the Alternative system of Medicines”. He himself often recommends natural herbs and ayurvedic potions to his patients. Another allopath Dr Pavuluri Krishna Chowdary of Hyderabad agrees with Dr Aggarwal, “Allopathic medicine is the most scientific of all the branches of medicine. It can accurately diagnose and expedite the etio-pathogenesis of most illnesses. However, its curing ability is limited”. A recent WHO report put the share of alternative therapies in the world at 60%. Not surprising, since all all therapies (numbering over 200) except allopathy are categorised as AT. In today's fast-paced lifestyle, there is very little time for people to take care of themselves. Eating junk food and working long hours on the desk is the norm. And the net result is lifestyle diseases, most of which have almost no cure in modern medical system. World Health Organisation (WHO) itself has listed more than 100 diseases like silicosis, AIDS, ankylosing spodilitis, chicken pox, diabetes etc. which are incurable with modern medicines. Allopathic medicines may offer temporary relief for some diseases while in some others, doctors advice going for painful and expensive surgery, which too may not offer permanent relief.

This is why people like Palakkad-based Suresh Unnithan are gradually turning towards what the West describes as alternative medicines. Suffering from the recurring problem of the frozen shoulder, Unnithan was fed up with repeated cycles of physiotherapy, fomentation and daily doses of pain killers. He got in touch with Dr Dileep Kumar, a PhD in Ayurveda at Ernakulam. Two months later, his pain and stiffness has vanished forever. “Allopathy gives you temporary relief while Ayurveda roots out the problem forever”, Dr Kumar told TSI.

In fact, Ayurveda massage has become so popular globally that it is being propped up as major attraction for medical tourism in India with Ayurveda Resorts mushrooming all over Kerala with branches across India. “Massage is a perfect stress buster and different types of medical massage have been designed for different diseases. It can cure chronic cases of sinusitis, arthritis, spondilitis, slip disc, paraplegia, migraine, diabetes and high blood pressure etc.”, claims Dr P. Srinivasa of Kottakal Ayurvedshala, the oldest and most popular school of Kerala Ayurveda.

Ayurveda treatment is not very expensive but Ayurveda massages are priced very steeply at certain centres. Delhi-based Kairali for example, charges Rs 1500 for one massage session. “We are doing good business here. Despite being on the outskirts of Delhi for the past 20 years, we have a regular clientele”, claims its Chhattarpur branch manager, S.K. Bali. But, the question is how many people suffering from arthritis, spondilitis or paraplegia can afford a treatment that would cost them a lakh, or even more. Homeopathy on the other hand, is one of the most inexpensive therapies. It too claims cure for several incurable diseases like AIDS and gall bladder stones – without surgery. Salamati Bibi of Lucknow had been advised surgery for gall bladder stone. One of her family friends suggested a local homeopath Dr Girish Gupta who specialises in treating Gall bladder stones. Salamati’s ultrasound and CT reports show that in the next six months the stone was reduced to less than 10% of its original size. “Homeopathy is not the alternative medicine. It is one of the original systems of medicines. It has cure for almost all diseases including AIDS and epilepsy. We are prepared to undergo any scientific test and prove efficacy of our medicines”, says Gupta. Homeopathy was getting so popular that 10% of India’s population was using it as their only therapy and its market in the UK had grown to approximately 40 million pounds, he said.

Such long strides by ATs have sounded a warning note for Allopathy and the war has started in right earnest. Five years ago, the British government had de-recognised Ayurveda on the grounds that it did not have a standard pharmacopeia and some of its potions contained lead and arsenic in higher quantities than permissible for human consumption. The decision was based on a report of House of Lords Committee on Complimentary and Alternative Medicines. Closer home in India, a big protest was launched against a particular Ayurveda group claiming it was using animal extracts in some of its products. The allegation could never be proved conclusively. Last week, it was the turn of Homeopathy to be on target of British physicians demanding that the National Health Service (NHS) centres should stop prescribing Homeopathic treatment. The Allopathic lobby is agitated at Homeopaths’ claim that they can treat AIDS. Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Dr N.K. Ganguly, too supports such a claim saying that the homeopathy medicine tested at National AIDS Research Institute, Pune has been found to effectively kill the virus. But, British physicians baulk at the claim. “We grant that Homeopathy is a harmless treatment but not when it comes to a killer disease like AIDS. We can’t allow them to play with people’s life”, claims Dr Arthur Clarke of NHS. Any therapy that rocks allopathy’s citadel is labeled unscientific and a tirade is launched against it, alleges Dr C.B. Mishra, former principal of State Ayurvedic College, Lucknow.

However, if two other Indian therapies – Unani and Siddha – have not attracted such allegations it's basically because they are being practised mostly in parts of India and haven’t been so popular to have posed a threat to Allopathy. Siddha is being practised only in Tamil Nadu and of late, is enjoying state patronage as well. This system used herbal medicines but in certain concoctions even metals like gold and mercury are used which after a lengthy process acquire medicinal value. “Siddha has uninterrupted history of almost two millennia with impeccable epistemological structure”, says former Vice-Principal of the Government Siddha Medical College Dr Jayapraksh. “For emergency medical care, allopathic medicines do have an edge over Siddha, but for prolonged ailments people still prefer Siddha medicine”, he further says.

Unani finds its origin in Persia and was brought to India by the Moghuls. Its basic principles are very close to those of Ayurveda and it has been receiving government support as well but hasn’t been so popular. “It did not become popular because of Partition as most of the hakeems migrated to Pakistan but the Pakistan government did not support Unani system of medicine. But, it is very much popular among Muslims in India and is getting adequate support from the government as well,” says Hakeem Hannan, director of Delhi-based Unani Research Centre. There is often a wafer-thin difference between quackery and established therapies. The famous fish therapy being administered free of cost by the Battina family of Hyderabad to cure Asthma, has been so popular that about a lakh people turned up last year and the state government made all the arrangements for smooth conduct of the ritual – on Mrigasira Karti of the Hindu calendar - or the onset of monsoon, for 160 years.

Irrespective of the controversies raging around the authenticity of the medicine, Battina family puts the medicine – a yellow herbal paste, the ingredients of which remains a family secret, into a live three centimetre-long ‘murrel’ fingerling which is then slipped through the throat of the patient. “In 1845, a holy man passed on the formula for the miracle medicine to our great-great-grandfather Veranna Goud, a toddy tapper, on the promise that he would distribute it free of cost,” Bathina Harinath Goud, eldest of the Bathina brothers told TSI. When rationalists and doctors went up in arms against the medicine and on a petition by Jana Vignana Vedika, the rationalists’ society, the Andhra Pradesh High Court refused to stay the administration of the medicine but ruled that the word “fish medicine” be replaced with “fish therapy”. The family heaved a sigh of relief after a getting a testimony from world-renowned specialist of TB and Chest Diseases Dr K.J.R. Murthy and reputed Allopath turned Homeopath Dr Pavuluri Krishna Chowdary. After the two doctors averred that the medicine is curative for allergic asthma, the fish medicine got ‘scientific’ status.

A lot of people believe that stones can cure too. But like fish therapy, there is no scientific basis to stone therapy. Reiki and Shiastu use the energy points or chakras present in the human body to cure a person. The basis of their treatment is that disease is caused by a imbalance in chakras, which, if rectified, can cure a person. Reiki, like Yoga, is for self-practitioners and once a person is trained in the system, can not only cure himself but also others. Home remedies too are a proven system of therapy with little side effects. Indians, for ages, have been relying heavily on local concoctions to treat common ailments like ginger juice with honey for treating cough or rubbing ajwain to treat stomach ache.

And then there are roadside vendors who claim a perfect cure for ailments like impotency and infertility. But, nobody bothers to challenge their claims. Unlike Fish therapy or Ayurveda, not many voices are being raised questioning the scientific basis of such therapies. Probably because they don’t have a significant market and thus are considered too insignificant to pose a threat to the hegemony of Allopathy, “the Scientific System of Therapy”.