Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Ayurveda and homeopathy experts whom Free Press talked to have expressed faith in preventive measures and immunity boosting measures offered by AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) ministry in combating Omicron wave that has made headway in the country.
They said the measures that were offered during the first and second wave had prevented many people from getting infected and helped them to recover fast after they were infected.
They, however, said the ministry or practitioners never claimed to have developed any vaccine or any specific medicine to cure coronavirus infection.
Dr Umesh Shukla, principal of Government (Autonomous) Ayurveda College, said, “Ayurveda has always offered preventive medicine and immunity boosters, never a cure for infection. Many patients have used Ayurveda medicines to boost immunity, which kept Covid-19 at bay.”
Rakesh Pandey, the national spokesperson of AYUSH medical association, said, “When Patanjali launched Coronil, Ayurveda practitioners did not approve of it as a cure. The Ministry did not endorse it as a treatment. We have offered either home remedies or Ayurveda herbs to boost immunity and to consume as preventive medicine. Even the Coronil tablets were proven to have preventive herbs not curing ones in the research that was carried out later after controversy.”
“The Ministry has issued guidelines for the parents and guardians of children, in view of Omicron scare, that includes Abhyanga (oil massage) and Nasya (nasal application of oil). Oil massage can be done with plain sesame, coconut, mustard oil followed by a warm bath and plain oil (coconut or sesame) or medicated oil (Anu Taila) or cow ghee can be used for Nasya,” said Pandey.
The Indian Ministry of AYUSH had advised the use of homeopathic medicinal product Arsenicum album, during the first wave of Covid. Later, many fact checks came to a conclusion that the medicine provided no cure to the infection.
Homeopathy professor and practitioner Dr Sangeeta Tank said, “When the ministry had advised the use of homeopathy medicine, there was no conventional treatment of Covid-19. We were looking for preventive medicines till the cure was found. The medicine in limited amounts did help in keeping a person immune and ensuring that infection did not become fatal.”
Tank pointed at a research report by US National Centre for Biotechnology Information on the efficacy of homeopathy medicine in treatment of Covid-19. The report suggested that adjunctive homeopathic treatment may be helpful to treat patients with confirmed COVID-19 even in high-risk patients especially since there was no conventional treatment of Covid available back then.
