Ayurveda awaits for UoW Approval
University of Washington takes up study on Ayurveda.Inspired by a discarded 20-year-old World Health Organisation-funded study which proved the efficacy of Ayurveda in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, the University of Washington has taken up a similar project in association with the Ayurvedic Trust in Coimbatore.
The University's National Institute of Health-sponsored study 'Ayurvedic and Allopathic Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis' at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu is expected to be over by the end of this year, Dr Krishna Kumar, Managing Director of the Trust said.
The eight-member Indian team of Ayurvedic and Allopathic doctors is headed by Dr Ram Manohar of the Trust and the six-member US team is led by Dr Daniel E Furst of the University of Los Angeles.
In the NIH study, which seeks to ascertain the effectiveness of combining Ayurvedic and Allopathic streams of medicine in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, 45 patients are treated for 36 weeks each, added Krishna Kumar.
"We were able to gain approval from the University of Washington's very stringent Institutional Review Board for this pilot study, on the basis of the findings of the earlier WHO study," he said.
According to Dr Mano Venketaraman of University of Washington, the Programme Director of the present study, "the encouraging results of the WHO study provided the inspiration, preliminary data, and the foundation upon which we could base the rationale for our NIH grant proposal."
The WHO study was the first of its kind on a traditional medical system ever to be sponsored by the international organization. It enrolled 240 patients with rheumatoid arthritis from 1977 to 1984, added Krishna Kumar.
