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Friday, August 20, 2010

Siddha Health Centre Inauguration

Mrs Sheela rani chunkanth,IAS, Principal secretary and CMD, TIIC ltd inaugurated a “Siddha Health Centre” at Chinnandi kuppam, Injambakkam panchayat, on 20/8/10 and in her address stressed the need for use of ISM drugs, its safety and how effective it could be. This unit is run by of Centre for Traditional Medicine and Research (CTMR), Chennai with the support of Tamilnadu Industrial Investment Corporation and The Catalyst Trust. CTMR is a non governmental organization working for promotion of Traditional medicine and involved in developing cost effective treatment procedures with the objective of health care for all. This centre will provide preventive, curative health care to societies including fishing community of Neelangarai, Vettuvangeni area of kancheepuram district. A model herbal garden was also opened which will be useful to the day today health care of this community. Free saplings will be provided to all interested residents of this region. A series of awareness programmes are also planned on personal hygiene, seasonal regimen, healthy food habits, simple herbal preparations suggested in ISM, in coming months.

Dr. T. Thirunarayanan, secretary of CTMR explaining the objectives of the project, a baseline health survey was conducted to know the present health status of the community. Apart from providing curative healthcare for common ailments, major life style related diseases like hypertension, diabetes mellitus, arthritis, bronchial asthma, and skin diseases will be treated with cleaning therapy and external therapies in this centre. This project is being supported by TIIC Ltd under their ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ and The Catalyst Trust of Chennai which has provided the space.

Ms.Suganthi Gopalakrisnan, Executive director, The Catalyst Trust delivered the presidential address and appealed to the people to utilize the services so that their health expenditure would drastically come down.

Director of CTMR Vaidya S.Usman ali delivered a lecture on “Uses of medicinal plants around you” and highlighted how these plant drugs can help in simple ailments and for ensuring a healthy living. Dr.S. Rajkumar, the Physician in charge of the centre assured that best healthcare would be provided with ISM.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

SIddha Health Centre

Centre for Traditional Medicine and Research
4A, IV Cross Street, Mahalakshmi Nagar,
Adambakkam, Chennai -88

Cordially invites you to grace the inauguration of
“Siddha Health Centre”
for reaching the unreached
(Supported by TIIC and Catalyst Trust)
on 20/8/10 at 10.00 a.m
at Chinnandikuppam community hall.
Vetuvankeni
Chennai- 600041

Sri. R. Desikan,
Chairman, “The Catalyst Trust”
will preside.

Smt. Sheela Rani Chunkath IAS
Principal secretary/
Chairperson and Managing Director, TIIC Ltd.
will inaugurate the Centre

Sri. P. Arulmudi.
Managing Trustee, AMR Charitable Trust
will deliver the felicitation address
Sri. R. Pachamuthu,
President, Injambakkam Panchayat.


Vaidya. S.Usman Ali Dr.T.Thirunarayanan
President Secretary
22533399 9444018158

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

CTMR Objects to AYUSH Practitioners practising allopathy

Favouring the arguments of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the Chennai based Centre for Traditional Medicines and Research (CTMR), a research institute giving guidance and training to Ayush doctors, has now taken a different stand on the issue of practicing allopathic system by ISM doctors.The Centre had categorically said that it favours the IMA in their arguments that the Ayush practitioners are not eligible to practice allopathy or do surgery because the basic understanding and principles of health, diseases and treatment are different for both the system. Further, the approach to treatment is also different.The Centre's secretary, Dr T Thirunarayanan, who is a research guide for practising traditional doctors and engaged in conducting Ayush training programs, has said that only basic medical sciences like anatomy, physiology, clinical microbiology and basics of clinical pathology are taught at undergraduate level of siddha education. This is purely for the purpose of comparative understanding and interpretation of clinical test reports. This does not mean that the siddha graduates can engage in the practice of modern healing system, he asserted.According to him, the materia medica contains plant, animal and herbomineral drugs, and the modality of drug actions is based on five elements and 'tridoshic' principles (three humours) including taste, quality, aftertaste, potency and unique action, which are not similar to pharmacological actions as explained in the modern medicine. Therefore it is wrong to claim that the siddha graduates possess the knowledge of bio-medicine, he said."The bio-medicine terminology is being taught to the siddha students only for the purpose of understanding the surgical conditions. No surgical procedures are taught to them and no practical training is imparted. Only the students of Govt Siddha Medical College, Chennai have the opportunity to learn in the department of obstetrics & gynaecology of the Kilpauk Medical College and none of the students of siddha from other eight colleges has this kind of facility", Thirunarayanan said.Dr Thirunarayanan, who was also a lecturer of siddha previously, commented that Central Council of Indian Medicines was formed by the Act of Indian Constitution which meant only for deciding teaching and regulating ethical practices of Indian systems of medicine. Therefore, it has no mandate to recommend training and allowing practice of modern medicine, and their notification in this regard is erroneous.While sharing his opinion with Pharmabiz, the siddha scholar pointed out that proper orientation was needed to the siddha doctors who strived for permission in practicing modern medicine. He said in remote areas some siddha doctors might have been given permission to provide first aid treatment but that does not allow them to take advantage of the situation. He said the IMA should also insist on the Government to provide adequate funds for Siddha in public health system and encourage siddha doctors in GHs and PHCs and treat them as equal partners who work for the wellbeing of the society. Encouraging cross practice will be a blow to the traditional science as this will be taken as an alternative route for those who do realise the greatness of siddha

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Utility pattern of Siddha Medicine in Fishing hamlet

Findings of the Health Survey and Utility pattern of Siddha Medicine among residents of Chinnandi kuppam. St.Thomas Mount Block, Kanchipuram District
Survey date: 6th August, 2010
Location: The survey location is the fishermen colony –Chinnandikuppam on the beach less than 400 mts from beach front and 600 mts from the East coast road at Vetuvankeni village of Injambakkam panchayat of St. Thomas Mount block of kanchipuram district. This kuppam has well laid internal roads with cement and good road connecting the east coast road.
Survey team:
Four Siddha physicians, five Post-Graduate Students of National Institute of Siddha, two interns and eight students from Sri Sairam Siddha Medical College took part in the survey. They were divided into eight groups each consisting of a Post-graduate and undergraduate student and it was ensured a lady is present in the team so that women members of the families freely interact with them. Five local community leaders helped the volunteers. The objective of the survey, modality was briefed to the survey team by CTMR secretary Dr.T.Thirunarayanan
Interview was conducted with help of the structured questionnaire followed by informal discussion. The date was chosen in consultation with the fishermen community leaders as all residents stay at home on Fridays due to lesser demand for fish. 100 households were covered in the survey.
Occupation of the head of the household: Over 80 % are fishermen, while few work as tailor, vegetable vendor, drivers, street traders, real estate agents. Most women members sell fish in the market.
Average Size of the household: Range from 3-9 with average of 5 members.
House: Most houses are with Reinforced Concrete Construction with 20% with kutcha roof. 80% live in own house. Almost all men involved in fishing own house, while people who work as vegetable vendor, tailor, book packer live in rented houses. Average size of house is 400 Sq.Ft. 70% of the houses have toilets. Kutcha houses do not have toilets.
Educational Status: Majority of the men over 30 years of age have minimal formal education (10th Standard) while at least 10% women are graduates and over 30% have
completed school education. The current generation most children are sent to schools particularly AMM matriculation school and many girls are graduates.
Habits: All are non-vegetarians and incidence of alcoholism is very high (50%) among men while use of Paan parag or smoking is less than 20%
Disease incidence: Acute : Frequent among children and rare in adults. Fever – Flu and Typhoid, Upper respiratory infection, jaundice, injury
Chronic disease: 20% Low back pain, 30% arthritis, 6% Hypertension, 10 % Diabetes 5 % IHD, 9% Br.Asthma, 5% Hemorrhoids. 3% Thyroid disorders 10% anemia among adults.
Two adults have undergone angioplasty in a private hospital.
Medical care used:
Majority use the services of private doctors and a few use Royapettah Govt. Hospital. (14 kms away)
Only 3% of the persons have taken Siddha, Ayurveda treatment
Less than 10% has awareness about traditional medicine- Siddha and Ayurveda
. Even among them there is no knowledge about where to get treated. Some women who are educated have apprehension about safety of the drugs and concomitant administration of drugs.
Medical expenses incurred per month:
The expenses range from Rs 100 to Rs 2000 and the average works out to Rs 500/ mostly for young children and elderly.
Interest in growing medicinal plants:
Plants like Aloe, Tulsi, Cissus, Coleus aromaticus, Cassia alata are already grown and most would like to grow medicinal plants in pots.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

‘Traditional healers of Tamilnadu -Traditional Healing Practices and Ethno Botanical Collection'


CTMR organised this workshop at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Anaikatti, Coimbatore.
Date: 31st July and 1st August, 2010
Venue;
The choice of venue was due to the fact that it is a learning centre of higher consciousness with good ambience and proximity for the healers and infrastructure for accommodating the healers and also to provide them insight into the various traditional medicine related activities of the centre like medicinal plants demonstration garden, medicinal plants value addition unit, organic farming of medicinal plants and conservation of endangered medicinal trees including Saraca asoka apart from the well maintained hospital in the remote tribal area.
Objective:
The key objective of the workshop was to bring together expert traditional healers from different region of the state and exchange the knowledge and health practices. Major themes were Varma chiktsa, Visha vaidyam, Bone setting, Women and Child health apart from ethonobotanical resource and practices of different tribal groups. Communication were sent to over 1000 Siddha physicians both institutionally trained as well as traditional healers by Short messaging Services, E-mail and Snail mail and based on feedback 60 healers were identified and invited as delegates. All most all districts were thus covered. Additionally 30 traditional healers and institutionally trained physicians of Siddha and Ayurveda took part as non-residential delegates. Members of other NGO’s like Isha yoga trust, Coimbatore Tree Growers association also took part. Most of the residential delegates reported one day in advance and arrangements were made for pre-conference informal interaction and visit to Nilgiri Bio-sphere Park. The media release about the workshop created a good awareness and healers from neighborhood districts attended the workshop as observers.
Day-1
Inaugural session.
The Workshop was inaugurated by Swami Shakshatkarananda, the resident acharya of the centre for higher learning. Swamiji explained the importance of traditions and their contribution to Indian society and also stressed that the traditional healing practices had been continuously nurturing the well-being of communities even in inaccessible areas. Swamiji released the workshop souvenir. Dr.T. Thirunarayanan, Secretary, CTMR; said documentation of traditional knowledge was necessary for the revival of the ancient system and also spoke on Siddha system, the folklore associated with it and its importance in health care, affordability, availability and accessibility particularly for primary health care and in chronic disease conditions. Dr D. Narasimhan, Professor in Madras Christian College and a renowned ethno botanist delivered the key note address and explained the richness of the Indian tradition and the need to protect community-based intellectual property.
The Session on Varma had lecture demonstration by Vd.Mohanraj of Munchirai and Vd.Ramaswamy of Ragavendra varma hospital for Spinal disorders Chennai. ‘Hands on training’ on locating varma points of the head region and simple healing techniques was given. Vd.Murugesan of Pulliyarai and Vd.Kanagaraj took part in the discussion that followed.

The Session on ethnobotanical resources was chaired by Vaidya. S.Usman Ali and he presented Ethnobotanical resources used by different ethnic groups of Tamilnadu and explained the scientific research carried out on plants more frequently used by the healers in poison treatment, bone setting and varma. He called upon the healers to continuously upgrade their knowledge by frequent interactions among themselves and with researchers and institutionally trained ISM. Physicians. Five healers from Tirupur, Theni, Thanjavur, Dharmapuri and Tenkasi shared their experience on treating common ailments, skin diseases, renal stones, respiratory illness and gynecological disorders. Vaidya G.Swami of Kabilarmali in Namakkal district an octogenarian spoke about medical ethics. Vaidya Kandasamy spoke about the effectiveness of plant derived salts.

Day-2

Dr.S.Rajkumar made a presentation on the various treatment procedures adopted in treating poison bites and also other types of poisons in the Session on Visha vidyam. Vd. Kuppuswamy and Vd.Vellakamu exhibited the plants used and the rigorous discipline adopted by the healers and the restrictions suggested to the victim. The Scorpion sting, bee sting, wasp sting were readily treatable and in snake bite their nasal and ophthalmic application could provide critical time required for the victim to reach hospitals.
Vd. Venkatraman of Pallipalayam gave a lecture demonstration on treating simple fractures and dislocations and also clearly explained the limitations of adopting these methods in complicated fractures. He suggested the healers to avoid head injury and complicated fracture. He also listed the plants used in fracture healing.

Dr.R.Sudha of Govt. Siddha Medical College, Chennai made a presentation on the preventive care to be adopted by adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating mothers, various gynecological problems, and ways to prevent them and if already diseased safe plant based effective treatment and their scientific validity. This session had many women from public who have come based on news paper report of the inaugural session.

Session on Society and health

Vd .Malaravan spoke on healthy food practices based on tradition and how it helps one to be free from disease. He explained the practical benefits observed while treating people when they sincerely follow Pathyam suggested. Vd.Rajendran enumerated the various plants used in social events and rituals by the tribal and non-tribal people of mettur, kulathur taluk of Salem district. Vd. Somasekaran of Palacode explained about his traditional herbal medicine retail trade and the most commonly used materials by the local community and stressed that the knowledge of traditional medicine is still available with public and healers should take efforts to strengthen the knowledge and make the community use the simple techniques.

The plenary session was chaired by Dr.T.Apparanandam of Siddha Health Foundation and he requested each practitioner to note down their clinical experiences and also adverse effects if any seen. He said the time has come for traditional healers and institutionally trained to enrich their knowledge to provide better healthcare for the people

Visit to Medicinal plant Garden:

All healers were taken to the Medicinal plant demonstration Garden of AIM for SEVA in which over 200 plants are grown and saw the certified organic cultivation of medicinal plants. They also visited the garden were genetic collection from different part of the country of Gymnema, Asparagus, Aegle marmelos, Saraca asoka and Gmelina sp. Vadiyas who have brought seeds of different plants sowed them in the nursery and were in turn provided saplings that they do not have from the nursery. They visited the free hospital run by the trust for the tribal and was surprised by the infrastructure available and also the cleanliness maintained.

Valedictory Session.

Vadiya. S.Usman Ali listed the follow up action to be done by the healers associations and individual healers and assured the support of Centre for Traditional Medicine and Research in providing training in treatment, documentation and IPR related issues. Shri. D.S Raman of Green Kovai assured all assistance to healers in terms of plants, saplings and stressed the need to revive the healing traditions for the benefit of not only the poor marginalized communities living in the remote areas but also to the entire humanity.

Feedback from healers.

The feedback forms were received from all participants and they were very appreciative about the content and the healthy deliberations. They profusely thanked the Department of AYUSH for the funding and CTMR for not only arranging accommodations, travel allowance and also quality content of the presentations. They wanted a workshop on Pulse diagnosis and the ‘Eight tools of diagnosis’ which could be cost effective.

Coverage by media

Both vernacular and English language press covered the event which created wider awareness and Doordarshan Kendra broadcasted the event.