The 9th World Ayurveda Congress and Expo recently took place in India, and a top official from the Union Ministry of Ayush revealed that among the 65,000 covid patients there who were treated with Ayurveda throughout the pandemic, not a single one ended up dying from the virus.
Only 300 people who received Ayurvedic medicine had to be hospitalized for the disease, Rajesh Kotecha, the union minister, explained, further noting that the other 64,700 patients experienced only mild symptoms and recovered relatively quickly.
All of this was uncovered by Seva Bharathi, the Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS), and various universities that conducted research into the matter over the past several years.
“Out of these patients, 65,000 people were in home isolation, and only 300 of them required hospitalization,” Kotecha said about the work of his ministry. “This is less than half a percent whereas the hospitalization rate at the time was 7-10 per cent.”
AYUSH, by the way, stands for Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy. It is a system of healing that many hope will be amplified by this latest revelation about ayurveda and covid.
Kotecha revealed that AYUSH is only conducted by the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN), CCRS, and Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCMRUM). More needs to be done, he added, to incorporate these latest findings into that system.
“There is a great mismatching of skilling in the sector and all stakeholders must act together to find a solution,” he said. “We need to find a mechanism that will open up possibilities for the sector, country as well as the globe as there are lots of unanswered questions to be answered.”
Indian doctors are strategizing about how to incorporate more Ayurveda into mainstream medicine
Dr. Nandini Kumar, a former deputy director general at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), also gave a speech at the event about ayurveda and covid. In it, she stressed the importance of working together in an interdisciplinary and interprofessional capacity to figure out how to approach the ethics committee about this discovery.
Dr. K. Madangopal, a senior consultant with NITI Aayog, expanded upon this by stating that patients need a supportive system based on research data from the AYUSH industry.
Dr. Ram Manohar, director of the Amrita Centre for Advanced Research in Ayurveda (ACARA), Amritapuri, added to this that there needs to be a dramatic change in the way Ayurveda research and practice takes place across India.
Appearances at the expo were also made by Dr. Avind Chopra from Pune and Dr. Kishore Kumar Ramkrishnan, a professor at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS).
The following five Ayurvedic remedies can help you to naturally boost your immune system, which is especially important during the cold winter months:
1) Kadha or herbal tea possesses strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It often contains Tulsi (holy basil), kalimirch (black pepper), dalchini (cinnamon), shunthi (dry ginger), and munakka (raisin), as well as jaggery and lemon juice for flavor.
2) Golden milk or turmeric tea is just what it sounds like: milk or hot tea containing turmeric.
3) Nasya involves the application of oil (i.e., ghee, sesame, or coconut) in the nostrils using a Neti pot.
4) Chyawanprash is a blend of Amla and thirty other herbs with jaggery that is consumed.
5) Oil pulling with sesame or coconut oil.
