Ayurveda in law: WHO recognizes the value of traditional medicine

Rolled, rolled – and rolled. India hosted the first ever WHO Global Summit on Traditional (i.e. Alternative) Medicine. Now homeopaths, chiropractors, herbalists, acupuncturists, etc. will be officially supported and promoted by the World Health Organization.

The global summit was co-hosted by WHO and the Government of India, which will chair the G20 in 2023. And was held, respectively, in the Indian city of Gandhinagar, and simultaneously with the G20 ministerial meeting on health issues “to mobilize political commitment and take evidence-based action on traditional medicine, which is for millions of people around the world the first means of meeting their health needs. and prosperity.”

The summit brought together representatives of alternative medicine, its fans and patients, as well as politicians, scientists and members of the public. According to the WHO press service, they had the opportunity to exchange “best practices and key facts, data and innovations about the contribution of traditional medicine to health and sustainable development.” During the event, they discussed methods such as Ayurveda, Siddha, Yoga, as well as homeopathy, naturopathy and Unani.

In India itself, in the absence of best practices, alternative medicine is at a premium: the legal turnover in this industry in the country reaches more than 18 billion dollars. And now, following the developing countries, WHO representatives note that for many centuries traditional medicine has been “an indispensable resource for health in families and communities”: “It has been at the forefront of medicine and science, laying the foundation for traditional medical methods. About 40% of pharmaceuticals today are natural-based, and iconic medicines come from traditional medicine, including aspirin, artemisinin, and childhood cancer treatments. New research is emerging in this area, including in the fields of genomics and artificial intelligence, and the industry of herbal medicines, natural products, health, wellness and related travel is growing.”

It mentions that today 170 Member States have submitted reports to WHO on the use of traditional medicine and have requested evidence to inform policies, standards and regulations for its safe, cost-effective and equitable use. In response, back in March 2022, WHO was honored to create the WHO Global Center for Traditional Medicine – as they say, a knowledge center “designed to catalyze ancient wisdom and modern science for the health and well-being of people and the planet and ensure the optimal contribution of traditional medicine to the protection health around the world.” In addition, the organization opened a whole department for traditional and complementary medicine.

…Russian doctors from such news are in a slight shock. After all, the official recognition by WHO of various alternatives and even the desire to integrate them into the rest of medicine will completely untie their hands. They will be able to act under the “protection of WHO” and boldly monetize their services as recognized specialists.

Professor Vasily Vlasov of the Department of Health Management and Economics of the Department of Politics and Management of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Professor Vasily Vlasov, says on his social network that such a decision by the World Health Organization is not yet a reason to leave the WHO, but it is necessary to avoid stupid things: medicine. Studied with Indian money. Reason: 88% of the countries in the world use some kind of traditional practice. (Compare: rape is practiced in 100% of countries.) Naturally, this department began to produce fantastic texts, and now – the biggest bubble – they held a global summit. Sorry, damn sorry.”

In addition, our experts do not tire of repeating that the “centuries” of a number of alternative methods is greatly exaggerated: for example, Chinese “traditional medicine” is not centuries old – it appeared after the Second World War in order to attract tourists to the country.

“Traditional medicine, according to the definition of the same WHO, is based on such unverifiable things as beliefs,” says the therapist, military doctor Alexei Vodovozov. – “Century traditions” and “folk wisdom” have not yet cured or saved anyone. WHO refers to traditional medicine homeopathy, osteopathy and naturopathy. All this is based solely on beliefs, but each of these alternative currents has a specific author who made an epic mistake in his time and created a whole doctrine based on this mistake. Just as wrong. But now the WHO is taking them under its wing. Well, what, there will be evidence-based homeopathy. But what about science? Apparently, not until science now. Under RCTs (randomized clinical trials. — Auth.) for traditional medicine, gigantic funds will now be allocated, well, guess what results they will have, with such and such initial ones.

Vodovozov suspects that the main goal of the summit is to give Ayurveda roughly the same status as “traditional Chinese medicine,” a 1950s remake that received its own codes in the ICD-11 (International Classification of Diseases, latest edition): “I suspect that about other traditional medicines are now being riveted on the same scheme, since WHO has already robbed $250 million for the Global Center for Traditional Medicine in India. But the “age-old traditions” and “folk wisdom” did not give a single drug in the end.”

In Russia, in connection with the latest news, little will change. We traditionally have a high percentage of the population who believes in traditional methods of treatment: a recent poll by VCIOM showed that more than 50% of them do.