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Diabetes Does Damage The Liver Protect It With Phytomedicines

Adults with newly diagnosed diabetes are at increased risk for advanced liver disease, known as diabetic hepatopathy, according to the results of a population-base....

Man to Mouse, not Mouse to Man Experts...

It may sound like asking Shakespeare to appear for BA examination in English, but such are the ways of the world. Ayurveda is well known to work. And it works very....

Sexual Fantasies: Your Private X-Rated Cinema

Many people get extremely anxious and feel very guilty if they have thoughts which they think are “bad”. But then why do we suffer so much anxiety, guilt and confusion because of our sexual fantasies?....

Monday 30 April 2012

Man to Mouse, not Mouse to Man Experts Laud Reverse Pharmacology of Ayurveda

It may sound like asking Shakespeare to appear for BA examination in English, but such are the ways of the world. Ayurveda is well known to work. And it works very well too, especially in chronic disorders where many modern systems of medicine bite the dust. But for reasons of regulatory compliance, the powers that be often ask for data in black and white. Not just in animals but in patients as well. And such demands come from practicing doctors too, who are not exactly Doubting Thomases but need reassurance on herbal medicines from time to time. So it is time for time-tested Ayurveda to subject itself to an examination that it had already passed with flying color millennia ago. That is the time for reverse pharmacology (RP).

While drug discovery around the world is focused on moving drugs from test tubes to mice to men, the process of reverse pharmacology, as the name suggests, takes the reverse route. "The drugs are studied in this technology through a total shift in paradigm where the effects of drugs or natural products in humans are considered supremely important," says Dr Ashok D B Vaidya, well known expert in Ayurveda as well as allopathy.

While the conventional path of Ayurvedic Medicines starts with a hypothesis, there is no idea about how the humans will react or respond to a particular drug. That is one reason why it starts from molecules to mice and finally goes on to men. But in contrast to that, RP starts with the known clinical drug effect and safety. "RP is beneficial because you already have a starting point through which you know that the molecule is non-toxic and has some effect on humans," says Dr Rama Mukherjee, a leading figure in drug research in India.

The RP avenue offers the benefit of conducting limited trials and simultaneously demonstrating safety and efficacy in clinical and pre-clinical studies. Besides, efficacy criteria can be modulated as per clinical needs. The RP route is thus faster and more cost-effective. In contrast, the conventional drug discovery approach of screening tens of thousands of molecules and their biological targets is time-consuming, and expensive. According to Vaidya, the success rate through RP is one in ten, whereas the current success rate through conventional method of R&D is one in 50,000.

Some hot pursuit trails in reverse pharmacology are given below:
•    Tinospora cordifolia for cancer
•    Curcuma longa for precancerous mouth lesions
•    Commiphora wightii and Withania somnifera for arthritis
•    Terminalia arjuna for coronary heart disease
•    Picrorrhiza kurroa as hepatoprotective
•    Saraca asoca for menorrhagia

A blue-blooded pharmacology baptized in allopathic faith may frown on reverse pharmacology. Our medical colleges too may turn a blind eye and not bother to include it in their syllabus. But reverse pharmacology has arrived in style. And it is here to stay. Much to the relief of millions of practitioners of traditional Ayurvedic Products and the delight of the faithful.

(Source: Express Pharma 16th - 31st Jan 2007, Pharmacology on a reverse trail by Sushmi Dey)

Friday 6 April 2012

Sexual Fantasies: Your Private X-Rated Cinema

Many people get extremely anxious & feel very guilty if they have thoughts which they think are “bad”.

But then why do we suffer so much anxiety, guilt and confusion because of our sexual fantasies? Why do we often worry that our fantasies may be used to prove us “abnormal” or “perverse”?

Anxiety Disorder

In fantasy, all the patterns, all the rules, all the conventions can be overturned. We may fantasize ourselves acting in ways that would be unacceptable or disastrous in daily life. In our fantasies, we frequently perform action that we would never dream of doing in the real life.  

We should keep in mind that there is a profound difference between thinking about doing something and wanting to carry it through to behavior. 

The fact is that the worst danger of anti-social fantasies is not that they will be acted out, but rather the guilt feelings they will be acted out, but rather the guilt feelings they usually engender. Guilt is a powerful and dangerous emotion.

Sexual Fantasies

Two of the most common fantasies a man may have when he sees a sexually attractive women are to imagine what she would look like naked and what it would be like to have intercourse with her. Mentally undressing a woman and fantasizing intercourse with her may substitute for the actual behaviour, which may be socially inappropriate in the circumstances. Many men experience a degree of conflict between their professed attitudes of respect for women and the content of their fantasies, but if the distinction between enjoying a fantasy about doing something and actually wanting to do it is kept firmly in mind, then the fantasy can be enjoyed without any accompanying guilt or anxiety.

The important thing is to keep in mind is that whatever erotic entertainment we invent, the vast majority of us are in no danger whatever of wandering outside the bonds of normalcy. There is no such thing as unhealthy sexual fantasy as long as it remains a fantasy and doesn’t become obsessive.

- Dr. Mahinder C. Watsa
Sexuality Educator, Counselor & Therapist.