Chopra Arvind, Saluja Manjit, Tillu Girish
Center for Rheumatic Diseases, Pune, India.
J Ayurveda Integr Med. 2010 Jul;1(3):190-8. doi: 10.4103/0975-9476.72620.
The potential of Ayurvedic philosophy and medicines needs to be recognized and converted into real life treatment paradigm. This article describes a comprehensive therapeutic approach used in Ayurveda and modern medicine to treat arthritis. We present concise summary of various controlled drug trials carried out by us to validate standardized Ayurvedic drugs using modern medicine protocol to treat Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis knees. Several of the latter are published. The trials consistently demonstrate excellent safety of Ayurvedic medicines but often fail to unequivocally show superior efficacy. Some key findings of a recently unpublished trial in OA knees are also presented to show equivalence between Ayurvedic medicine and celecoxib and glucosamine, and we speculate that equivalence trials may be a way forward. The data from the trials also supports the Ayurvedic 'Rasayana' concept of immune-modulation and healing. We need to interpret logic of Ayurveda when, adopting modern science tools in drug development and validation and much research is required. Validation of Ayurvedic medicines using the latter approach may lead to an evidence based Ayurveda - Modern Medicine interface. Also, in pursuit of finding better treatment solutions, we ought to step beyond the realm of only drugs and attempt validation of comprehensive specific treatment package as per classical Ayurveda. Finally, validation of a combined (Ayurveda and modern medicine) therapeutic approach with superior efficacy and safety is likely to be a major leap in overcoming some of the current frustrations to treat difficult disorders like arthritis using only modern medicines.
阿育吠陀哲学和药物的潜力需要得到认可，并转化为现实生活中的治疗模式。本文描述了阿育吠陀医学和现代医学用于治疗关节炎的综合治疗方法。我们简要总结了我们进行的各种对照药物试验，这些试验使用现代医学方案来验证标准化的阿育吠陀药物治疗类风湿性关节炎和膝骨关节炎的效果。其中一些试验已经发表。这些试验一致证明了阿育吠陀药物具有出色的安全性，但往往未能明确显示出卓越的疗效。我们还展示了一项最近未发表的膝骨关节炎试验的一些关键发现，以表明阿育吠陀药物与塞来昔布和氨基葡萄糖之间的等效性，并且我们推测等效性试验可能是前进的方向。试验数据也支持了阿育吠陀医学中“rasayana”的免疫调节和愈合概念。在药物研发和验证中采用现代科学工具时，我们需要解读阿育吠陀医学的逻辑，这需要大量的研究。使用后一种方法验证阿育吠陀药物可能会形成基于证据的阿育吠陀医学与现代医学的结合。此外，为了寻求更好的治疗方案，我们应该超越仅关注药物的范畴，尝试按照经典阿育吠陀医学验证全面的特定治疗方案。最后，验证一种具有卓越疗效和安全性的联合（阿育吠陀医学和现代医学）治疗方法，可能是克服目前仅使用现代药物治疗像关节炎这样的疑难病症时所面临的一些挫折的重大飞跃。
