The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Great future' for Unani medicine foreseen

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 11, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Great future' for Unani medicine foreseen

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 10. The Governor of Haryana, A.R. Kidwai, today said a great future awaited Unani medicine and other Indian systems of medicine as there has been 15 to 20 per cent increase in the popularity of traditional medicine in even Europe in recent times.

Speaking on the second day of the International Conference on Unani Medicine at Vigyan Bhavan here, Dr. Kidwai said it was time for Unani researchers to take full advantage of modern technology to promote and validate the system as it was a time-tested one and gradually there was a shift worldwide towards traditional medicine systems.

The shift towards traditional medicines in developed countries was also elucidated by Febrizio Speziala of the Faculty of Medicine of Rome who said Unani medicine fulfils the World Health Organisation definition that "health is a complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being and not merely absence of disease". He said Europeans were moving towards alternative medicine despite all modern medical facilities because these medicines had no side effects.

Noting that in Rome a sizeable section of the population uses these Galenic medicines for many common ailments, he said, while modern theories keep changing all the time, Unani medicine has remained unchanged serving the people with its time tested approach and remedies.

Yet another doctor, Mohammad Salim, from Mohsin Institute in United Kingdom, said that as 80 per cent of western medicines proved ineffective in controlling chronic diseases, Europeans are exploring alternative systems of medicine.

Despite medical facilities being free in Britain, he said about 5 million people availed of alternative medicine last year and utilised the services of around 50,000 registered alternative medical practitioners. As such, now even the Government was actively considering a legislation to regulate alternate medicine, including Unani and Ayurveda.

On greater inclination towards alternative medicine, he said while in the United states about a third of the population made some use of alternative treatment such as herbal medicines, acupuncture, chiropractic and homoeopathy, surveys in European countries showed that 60 per cent of the Dutch and Belgian public was willing to pay extra health insurance for alternative medicine while 74 per cent of the British favoured complementary medicine under the national health service.

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