CHICAGO: For the last several years, Dr Navin Shah, co-founder and past president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) has been advocating the teaching of Ayurveda as part of medical syllabus in US universities.

His mission and commitment to the cause led him to New Delhi on many occasions with a request to the Health Ministry to depute two Ayurveda professors to teach a short course in Ayurveda to medical students. The attempts proved successful and the Ministry decided to depute two professors to the US.

Dr H Palep and Dr T Nesari have been selected to visit the US for a period of six weeks. The invitees for the course are medical students, faculty members and practicing physicians. The 12-hour course will be taught under the Complimentary Alternative Medicine (CAM) in various cities and provided without any fees.

The courses began early May and the classes were held in Washington DC on May 5 and 6, in Baltimore on May 12 and 13, in Philadelphia (during the Silver Jubilee of the AAPI) on May 19 and 20. Four more classes will be held on May 25 and 26 and June 2 and 3.

The professors are visiting medical schools to interact with faculty members for both Ayurveda education and research. Dr Navin Shah, who spearheaded the efforts to introduce Ayurveda in US universities, said that India was not able to promote their alternative medicinal system as the Koreans and the Chinese, who have made significant inroads into the US.

"There is keen interest in Ayurveda, just as Yoga, meditation, Panchakarma (process of detoxification) and vegetarianism in the US medical community. This 5000-year old proven medical tradition has already begun making impact benefiting millions. I am confident that our efforts will help include Ayurveda teaching in the US Medical School Curriculum under CAM," Shah said. Shah added, "The only condition we have stipulated is that these experts should be able to scientifically validate that they have been able to cure diseases.

The concept of healing the mind, body and soul is fast gaining popularity and Ayurveda can make a niche for itself in the alternative medicine sector. Alternative medicine has $40-billion market in the US and traditional Chinese and Korean systems have cornered a lion's share."

Ayurveda has been able to capture just $200 million business, which is miniscule compared to its actual potential, he said. The above classes might encourage many American graduates to go to India and learn the craft and thus heralding a great potential clientele for India, he said.

He added that National Health Institute has shown keen interest for a joint Indo-US research on Ayurveda. "They are ready to fund the research," he said with enthusiasm. Ayurveda, the science of longevity, is one of the earliest systems of diagnosing and treating human physical ailments, developed in India for over two millennia. It is based on authoritative treatises written by the sages of great wisdom including Charaka, Susruta, Vagbhata, Nagarjuna and many more.

It also traces its roots to Vedic Samhitas, especially to Atharva Veda one of four Vedas, the sacred scriptures of the Hindus. According to Ayurveda, most physical ailments are the result of imbalances in the three basic elements integral to the human body namely, Vata (air), Pitha (bile) and Kapha (phlegm). Although these three doshas (imbalances) are emphasized, a number of independent external causes are also recognized, including supernatural and psychological traits.