Cancer is a serious medical condition and almost every lay-person is well aware that it is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Modern medicine has made immense progress in treating the nearly more than 200 types of cancer seen in day-to-day practice. The standard treatments available are surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and biological immunostimulant treatments; most of the times, a combination of these are judiciously used.
While there is an immediate improvement with these treatments for a vast majority of patients, in the long run, the high cost of treatment and the side effects take a heavy toll. Within a few months or a few years, the disease begins to relapse or recur for an alarmingly high percentage of patients.
Ayurvedic treatment is immensely useful in these scenarios both as a supplementary as well as a stand-alone treatment. Side effects of modern treatment include skin rash, vomiting, loose motions, hair fall, as well as more serious effects such as liver and kidney toxicity. Severe or serious side effects cause a break in the treatment or necessitate a change in the treatment protocol. Concurrent Ayurvedic herbal treatment is usually quite effective in preventing as well as treating all the known side effects of modern medicines, thus allowing the treatment cycle to be completed as planned.
Ayurvedic medicine can also be effectively used in patients who do not respond to modern treatment, or have relapsed in spite of the best available modern treatment. Depending upon the severity of the condition, Ayurvedic treatment can be either given as a stand-alone treatment or in addition to the ongoing modern treatment. Even patients who are on end stage palliative treatment can benefit considerably with the addition of Ayurvedic treatment. One such example is of Ayurvedic treatment of different types of leukemias, where the treatment has cured patients who relapsed in spite of taking several cycles of modern available treatment.
It is the need of the hour to validate and document such Ayurvedic treatment protocols, and make them universally available.
The writer, Dr A A Mundewadi, is available as an Ayurvedic consultant at https://www.mundewadiayurvedicclinic.com and http://www.ayurvedaphysician.com
