Ayurvedic Trust (AVT), a charitable trust of The Arya Vaidya Pharmacy of Coimbatore and University of Washington have jointly taken up a study that has potential for widening the scope of Ayurveda as a global system of medicine. The pilot study includes establishing a research methodology for conducting clinical trials and rheumatoid arthritis has been taken as the current study case.

Dr Daniel Furst, renowned rheumatolagist, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will be leading the US team of doctors in this venture as a part of their collaboration with University of Washington.

Delving into the details Dr Ram Manohar, director of Research AVT and project principal investigator of this joint project stated that this is a four-point programme. Firstly the setting up of research methodology, secondly providing a platform for doctors, thirdly creating an IT back bone, and finally the process of drug standardisation. The IT system will computerise the whole documented data thereby ensuring its effective management. The standardisation will ensure that the medicine is of the highest quality and thus gain recognition and acceptability.

Elaborating the developments Dr Manohar said, "This is the first time a study of this nature is being conducted in India. This is on a planning grant received from National Institute of Health (NIH) through University of Washington to foster long-time relationship between US scientists and Ayurvedic doctors in India and in the long run this will function as an effective platform for exchanging views and talks. The NIH has twenty-seven branches of which National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is turning its focus on Ayurveda in totality and this in itself is a remarkable development. "

Looking back he cited an earlier proposal that had been turned down for lack of homogeneity and fallible data that had been submitted earlier for securing a grant. Hence this opportunity comes amidst various efforts that had been unsuccessful till now to present a case for ayurvedic medicine.

Dr Manohar notified that the study aims at ascertaining the improvement in the patient's condition in the sense that it is system oriented cure and not drug oriented one. This is the uniqueness of this project. It will conclude whether the ailment is cured completely. As of now 45 patients are being given medicine over a period of nine months in three-modules. Each module will have fifteen patients. One will be given allopathic medicines, the other will be treated using ayurvedic preparations and the third will include both. Over 150 medicines will be tested in this exercise.

Till now everything is going smoothly and if the result is optimum the scope will be widened and more trials will be carried out, he added. Answering about the success of the study, the doctor informed that the results can be tricky. The study may indicate a fine result but the key lies in analysing data carefully over the two different systems of treatment whose principles vary vastly. Hence it is dependent on the correct reading of the statistics.

Placebo will be introduced in this study. Those undergoing ayurvedic treatment will be given a placebo and the ones undergoing allopathic treatment will be given medicines that are the ayurvedic equivalent of placebo.

Dr Manohar also outlined the major hurdles that are posing a real challenge. He opined that "The system of treatment differs and hence the combination of both poses many difficult choices. Allopathic is based on pharma dynamism while Ayurveda delves into biological dynamism and how the human body responds to treatment. Allopathic is a controlled exercise while that in Ayurveda the treatment differs from individual to individual depending upon the response to treatment."

He dismissed the fears of any type of metal contamination by the heavy metals used in ayurvedic medicines that had been raised by Robert Saper in a report in the Journal of American Medical Association. He stated that, the good quality manufacturing practices ensured the safety usually and now the Trust is looking forward to extend the shelf life and further stability for its medicines and studies are underway to ensure the same.

When asked about this sudden interest shown by the US, Dr Manohar replied that alternate system of medicine has gained public acceptance in America and it's their interest that paved the way for Dr Mano Venkatraman of University of Washington to join the Ayurveda Trust. She had submitted an application thus kick-starting this process and a grant was secured from the university. Also the WHO funded study about the efficacy of Ayurveda in treating rheumatoid arthritis proved to be a factor, he added.