Every medical student is given loads of textbooks to learn from. They are required to attend clinical studies with doctors to get practical insight into illnesses. That’s wonderful. However, there is one aspect that a doctor’s textbook is missing these days.
Inclusiveness
Medicine is like a river, cleansing everything that it touches. More importantly, it is inclusive in nature. It lets other tributaries join it.
The river Ganga is joined by many rivers from the Himalayas such as Yamuna, Ghaghara, Gandak, and the Kosi rivers. It is joined by many tributaries such as Alakananda, Ramganga, Kali, Gomti, Chambal, Betwa and others.
A doctor does not find it in his/her textbook that medicine should be inclusive, meaning that practitioners must work with other streams of medicine in treating the patient’s illness. It could be that the economic condition of other medical streams such as Homeopathy, Ayurvedic, Naturopathy does not allow for extensive tests and studies to prove that something works. However, one must not ASSUME that there is only one way to treat a patient.
Diagnose and Determine
Allow yourself to diagnose and then determine what is the best way to treat the illness without affecting any other system in the body. If it is allopathy medicine, prescribe it. If it is ayurvedic, prescribe it. If it is something else, prescribe that. If you are unsure, have a mechanism to interact with other doctors of other medical streams to share knowledge. Integrative medicine that demands inclusive nature is the need of the hour.
There could be a scenario where a specific medicine is prescribed to treat the person, but it affects other healthy organs of the person. Therefore, you must keep the doors open for other streams of medicine because sa:sthra defines a medicine to have four characteristics, otherwise it should not be given. You must be able to diagnose and see which medical technique or stream fits in all the four characteristics and prescribe it.
Charaka Samhitha states that medicine is that which is…
bahukalpam
available in different forms and be useful for multiple uses; not one medicine for one ailment
yogyatha
effective
bahutha
available in large quantity
sampath
rich in potency with no side effects
The textbooks may speak about many specifics of one medical stream. However, if you can spread its wings to include and welcome all streams, medicine can then succeed without any compromise. Don’t say, ‘It does not fit my textbook’. Say, ‘If it fits the purpose of relieving one’s pain, I respect and welcome any medicine’.
– From the discourse of HH Sri ChinnaJeeyar Swamiji
– 2nd Annual International Conference
– Bronchus 2021 by Yashoda Hospitals
– HICC – Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Novotel,
