Opportunities and Challenges of Integrating Traditional Medicine With Modern Healthcare

Introduction

Traditional medicine is the oldest form of the health care delivery system and is successful in treating various mental and physical health issues. Since time immemorial, traditional medicine, with its healing power, has tackled many chronic ailments. Although modern medicine has evolved continuously with newer techniques and approaches to treat many chronic diseases, it has not become successful in completely combating the disease due to certain limitations. Hence, by integrating the healing power of traditional medicine and newer advances in modern medicine, a holistic approach can be made to deal with adamant health issues in a more affordable way.

What Is Traditional Medicine?

Traditional medicine is the oldest form of the health care delivery system and is successful in treating various mental and physical health issues.

What Is the Scope of Traditional Medicine?

• Mankind has made use of natural elements like plants, animals, and microorganisms as a source of medicine to treat various diseases since ancient times and practiced traditional medicine.

• Traditional medicine practices in various parts of the world include traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Ayurveda, Kampo, traditional Korean medicine (TKM), and Unani (Greek origin). They rely on natural resources to treat or cure diseases and are still, in practice, delivering healthcare.

• The main advantage of natural products used in the practice of traditional medicine is that these natural components act as biological function modifiers in the human body, which is of great importance in eliminating the root cause of the disease.

• Artemisinin and its analogs are the derivatives of Artemisia annua L, a Chinese plant that is popularly used to treat malaria.

• Artemisinin is the drug of choice for treating other forms of malaria-like falciparum and cerebral malaria, which are usually resistant to the action of Chloroquine and have a different mechanism of action when compared to conventional drugs used against malaria.

• Similarly, Vinca alkaloids and Terpene paclitaxel, which are used as anti-cancer drugs, are derived from the plant Catharanthus roseus and Taxus baccata.

• The majority of antihypertensive drugs (around 64 percent) used to treat hypertension have been found to be derived from natural product extracts.

How Does the Integrative Approach Benefit the Health Care Delivery System?

• The integrative healthcare approach in India is gradually seeing an exponential increase and has witnessed a lot of scope as India is a land of ancient healing backed with art and science and is richly equipped with herbal resources.

• Recent times have witnessed an equal opportunity for practicing modern and traditional medicine whose integrative services can provide a holistic and affordable healthcare service and can potentially aid in preventing various chronic diseases.

• According to a recent survey, India has become the diabetic capital with very high incidence rates of diabetes and coronary artery disease.

• A study conducted by the International Diabetes Federation found around 65 million diabetics and an equal number of pre-diabetics in India, owing to having the world’s largest number of diabetics.

• These statistics reveal that though modern medicine has evolved to a greater extent in recent times, it has failed in its role of preventing chronic diseases.

• A lot of studies were carried out in this regard and finally concluded that an integrated approach of incorporating traditional medicine into modern health care services has better answers to this complex problem as traditional medicine focuses on the way of life and wellness along with targeting the underlying cause, whereas the modern medicine is oriented only towards illness and sick care, giving symptomatic relief rather than eliminating the root cause of the disease.

What Are the Challenges Encountered in Integrating Traditional Medicine with Modern Healthcare?

• The main challenge faced by traditional medicine, according to the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS-AYUSH) Government of India, is the lack of scientific validation data on the safety and efficacy of traditional medicine drug formulations.

• Moreover, the growing trends in traditional medicine have led to the overharvesting of medicinal plants and increased usage of body parts of endangered animal species, resulting in destroying the balance in the ecosystem and harming biodiversity.

• Traditional practitioners have left behind a vast knowledge and experience concerning the practice, whereas modern medicine research does not disclose the scientific facts and is associated with the patenting system to protect the knowledge about the discovery of various drugs.

• The demand for the invention of new drugs by utilizing the knowledge of traditional medicine has led to the act of biopiracy, which involves plundering the resources to come up with newer drugs to treat diseases, preventing the practices of traditional medicine from gaining widespread acceptance.

• A lack of regulation and rules governing the practices of traditional medicine is one of the leading causes of its rejection to be accepted in the market.

• A lack of regulation depicts false remedies practiced by fake practitioners and can end up in fatal outcomes.

• When modern drugs are invented, they undergo a series of tests and clinical trials before getting introduced to the market, whereas traditional medicine practice lacks this facility; hence, the safety and efficacy of the drug remain questionable and make it unfit to be introduced into the market and the physicians practicing traditional medicine science at times are not certified or licensed.

• Hence, more research is required to accept the practices of traditional medicine and combine them with modern healthcare in treating the disease.

Conclusion

Integrating traditional medicine practices into modern medicine trends is quite challenging as the safety, potency, and efficacy of the drug are often questioned. However, many countries and institutions worldwide are working seriously to blend the essence of traditional medicine and the newer advances of modern medicine, creating a robust approach to treating and preventing many chronic diseases in a holistic way. This approach is very much required to come up with newer drug inventions and mark the revival of global healthcare and research.