Alok Pandey

By Alok Pandey - Jan 15, 2010

The recent controversy over some unlabelled ingredients from a traditional medicine source has stirred up an old controversy — the validity of ancient healing systems vis-à-vis the modern medical establishment. The advocates of the first believe that allopathy, the child of modern science, is risky and dangerous, that it merely suppresses symptoms rather than cures the illness and that its side-effects are excessive and can even be life-threatening. Those who side with the latter believe that all other systems of healing other than allopathy are unscientific and unproven, that they do not have any effect or perhaps only a minimal one, that it is dangerous to use them for serious illnesses since their non-effectiveness simply leads to a natural worsening, and that whatever cures are claimed are simply the result of natural resolution of the illness rather than an effect of the medicine. Since both sides cling to their beliefs, people are left to decide for themselves and choose whatever system they prefer.