Motives

Better Prevention and Less Side Effects

The number of people in the population suffering from chronic diseases remains a major concern. According to the WHO, 63% of deaths are due to various forms of chronic disease, including heart disease, heart attacks, cancer, respiratory diseases and diabetes (1). By 2030, according to WHO, cancer cases will have increased by 50%. The rise of mental illness is another cause for serious concern.

The WHO estimates that by the year 2030, mental illness will be the leading cause of work disability.  

Another consideration is the increasing number of deaths due to the use of medication. For example in the United States, where data is available, from 1999 to 2002, deaths increased by 90% (2). And, in 2010, a research found that of all deaths due to overdoses, 58% involved pharmaceuticals (3).  

Health expenditures drain the resources of the countries and can represent 17% -20% of their GDP. In the case of the United States this represents USD 2.8 trillion per year (4).  

 Many chronic diseases are preventable using the methodologies proposed by the International Commission of Ayurvedic Phytotherapy and Maharishi AyurVeda. This Commission, with public and private participation, aims to promote in the world population this area of ??knowledge, which includes the approach of consciousness and meditation, particularly techniques or procedures that have been widely validated scientifically, with the aim of improving prevention, promoting health, and reducing side effects.  

This approach is also of particular importance in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean because its flora is largely similar to that of India, which makes it possible to systematize the use of local flora and to frame its therapeutic use, based on a tradition of thousands of years with proven effectiveness. It is highly unlikely that any system of medicine that is ineffective could withstand the passage of time for thousands of years.  

It should also be noted that the proposed methodology has taken care of the health of approximately 20% of the world’s population for at least the last 100 years, and the WHO recommends its use.  

Better Prevention

For decades, there has been a broad consensus across academia and policy makers that physicians are not sufficiently trained in preventive methods. Different commissions over the years, when analysing public health, have echoed this need. For instance, in the majority of medical schools, the study of the effects of nutrition and lifestyle habits on well being typically amount to just a few days during the entire medical training.  

“Strategies for prevention are not efficient. There is a huge failure in attempts to prevent the disease. Health professionals are not trained to be efficient in the behavioural causes of the disease. There is thus an urgent and widely recognized need to reformulate education and medical practice by emphasizing broader and more effective approaches to disease prevention and health promotion (Pew Health Professions Commission, 1995).”

A report by the United States Bipartisan Policy Commission(4) mentions the fact that in this country only 1 in 4 doctors feel that they have received enough training to guide their patients in the area of  food and exercise, and only 1 in 8 medical visits includes counselling in this area.   Apart from the short time spent, it should also be mentioned that medical schools do not teach physicians procedures for prevention that have been tested and verified over time. Numerous are the theories and diets that exist in the world, but many are not evidence based.  

The methods promoted by Ayurveda Phytotherapy and Maharishi AyurVeda has proven their validity over time, offering a unique framework for prevention, both in the aspects of diet and lifestyle habits as in their other modalities, including the use of flora and the approach of consciousness. As an example, in a study of 2000 people, those over 45 years old who practiced the technique of Transcendental Meditation showed a 75% lower need for medical appointments, 87% less hospitalizations due to heart diseases or diseases of the nervous system, and 55% less hospitalizations due to cancer than the norm in the population (5). Lower mortality is also found in those practicing this technique (6).  

Less Side Effects

The iatrogenic effects of modern medicine are widely recognized to the extent that they have been given the name of “iatroepidemy”. Already in the 1990s, by way of illustration, data published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (7,8,9) on the United States showed that in this country, 225,000 people died each year due to various iatrogenic causes, of which 100,000 were due to the side effects of the medicines. In particular, medical errors produced 3 million diseases, including 12,000 deaths a year due to unnecessary surgery. Hospital infections killed 88,000 people annually. The number of deaths due to medical treatments far exceeded 45,000 due to car accidents and caused more deaths than all other accidents combined. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on a university hospital, it was found that 36% of patients admitted had diseases due to iatrogenic effects (10). There are literally more than 10,000 studies on side effects.

The proposal of the International Commission of Ayurvedic Phytotherapy and Maharishi AyurVeda brings light to this problem. Take, for example, the results of an 11-year study published in the American Journal of Managed Care on 693 subjects who followed during these time-period procedures of Maharishi AyurVeda. In these subjects, medical expenses were reduced by 60% compared to controls. Also, the control group had 11.4 times more cardiovascular problems, 3.3 times more cancer, and 6.7 times more mental health and substance abuse problems. Participants in this program, who were over 45 years of age, had 88% less hospital days (11). Another study published in the American Journal of Health Promotionshowed a 55% decline over a period of 6 years in government payments to Quebec physicians for individuals practicing the mental technique of Maharishi AyurVeda, Transcendental Meditation (12). Other published studies also show the cost-effectiveness in treating hypertension with this mental procedure versus pharmaceutical therapies. The therapeutic results on hypertension are similar, without creating side effects. And its practice is recommended to be used clinically to treat hypertension by the American Heart Association(13).

References

(1)  http://www.who.int/topics/chronic_diseases/es/

(2)  Paulozzi, L. J., Budnitz, D. S., & Xi, Y. (2006). Increasing deaths from opioid analgesics in the United States. Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety, 15, 618-625. doi:10.1002/pds.1276

(3)  Jones, C. M., Mack, K. A., & Paulozzi, L. J. (2013). Pharmaceutical overdose deaths, United States, 2010. Journal of the American Medical Association, 309, 657-659.

(4)  http://bipartisanpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/default/files/Med_Ed_Report.PDF

(5)  Orme-Johnson, Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 49, Issue 5 493-507, 1987

(6)  Schneider RH, et al. Stress reduction in the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease: Randomized controlled trial of Transcendental Meditation and health education in Blacks. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. 5(6):750-8, 2012.

(7)  Journal of the American Medical Association 284 (4):483-485;

(8)  Journal of the American Medical Association 272 (23):1851-1857;

(9)  Journal of the American Medical Association 274 (1):29-24).

(10) New England Journal of Medicine, 304:638-642;

(11) The American Journal of Managed Care 3(1), 135-144, 1997

(12) American Journal of Health Promotion, vol 14(5), 284-293, 2000

(13) Brook RD et al., Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure. A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association. Hypertension, 61:00, April 2013.