Oncologists and scientists engaged in the research of cancer treatments should conduct a comprehensive study on the efficacy of mercury which is being used as an anti-cancer drug in the age old Siddha system, said Dr Arul Amuthan, Lecturer, department of pharmacology, Melaka Manipal Medical College in Karnataka.
Dr Amuthan, who claims to be the first ethno-pharmacologist from Indian traditional medicine sector, has told Pharmabiz that if the modern medical science in India does not recognise the metal (mercury) as a drug to treat cancer, the country will have to fight for its patent rights from the Europeans in the near future.
He said his three years of research has shown that metal (mercury, arsenic and copper) based Siddha drug is a safe alternative for cisplatin therapy or arsenic trioxide in selected cases of cancer treatments wherein the patients cannot bear the adverse effects. He found that mice treated with Siddha drugs showed better health than what did in cisplatin therapy in terms of appetite, haemoglobin, red blood cells and white blood cells. He observed that the oncologists could develop an integrative medicine approach for treating cancer by combining allopathy and the proven methods of traditional systems.
Siddha System of Medicine is the authentic ancient Indian traditional medicine dealing metal-mineral based drugs along with herbals for cancer treatment. Ayurveda acquired this knowledge from Siddha system from Siddhar Nagarjuna during his period. Siddha literatures mention cancer disease as ‘putrunoi’ which means the disease of growth like termite mount. Indian yogis suggested use of copper, gold, arsenic and mercury for cancer therapy. Such drugs have been administered to cancer patients for 3 to 7 days depend on the severity. After a gap of 7 days the drug was again given for 3-7 days. This cycle repeated until the cancer was controlled.”
“In developed countries a new approach, ‘integrative medicine approach’, which is a combination of modern and ancient methods of treatments, has received attention among oncologists to treat cancer. In India, even though the cancer patients have the rights to choose the traditional medicine therapy, such integrative medicine approach is not in the front line. This is because there is no attempt made to provide integrative health care using Indian traditional medicines along with existing allopathy drug therapy. We don’t even have a registry to find out how many patients are following integrative medicine approach”, said Dr Amuthan.
He said government Siddha medical college working at Palayamkottai in Tamil Nadu has a separate outpatient department (OPD) to provide Siddha treatments for cancer patients who visit the OPD while taking chemotherapy from the nearby Thirunelveli medical college. But, so far no effort has been made to find out the efficacy part of the Siddha drugs or the additional benefits the patients derive from administering the traditional medicines, he alleged. Dr Amuthan, who takes forward the research on Siddha drugs in curing cancer disease, said each Siddha OPD should be established in all the cancer hospitals so that the patients will have the accessibility for integrative medicine for cancer.
Cancer is being treated by chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. Arsenic (Arsenic trioxide) and platinum (cisplatin, carboplatin, oxaliplatin) are the well proven anticancer drugs which are part of the chemotherapy regimen for cancer treatment. Certain herbal derived chemicals such as vincristine, vinblastine, vinorelbine, and paclitaxel also play important role in the treatment of cancers. Most of the time, the terminal days of the patient undergoing these therapies would end up with terrible adverse effects caused by the drug therapy, he added.
Source :
0 Comments