Title : Role of traditional tibetan medicine sowa rigpa in the prevention and treatment of Covid 19 in India where western medicine is not accessible a narrative review
Abstract:
Background
Traditional Tibetan Medicine has always provided primary care needs to the underserved populations of India and serves a global health function by attending to care where western medicine is not accessible. The new Indian healthcare policies, implemented shortly prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, vowed to integrate traditional and complementary medicine. This includes Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy and Sowa Rigpa. Throughout 2020, the Ministry of health for traditional medicine (AYUSH) integrated preparations of Ayurveda medicine, such as Kadha, as a preventive measure and immune booster against SARS COV-2 , Unani medicine, to mitigate the transmission of the virus, and also monitored the delivery of traditional medicine through the MoA app to document the accessibility of Sowa Rigpa across India .
Methods
We decided to conduct a structured narrative review and identified 41 relevant articles.Thus far, there is very limited clinical evidence on the efficacy of Sowa Rigpa in preventing and treating COVID-19. We searched Pubmed, Medline for articles published between 2020 and 2021. Articles that were included discussed either 1) availability and accessibility to prevention and treatment of COVID-19 with Traditional Primary Care-Sowa Rigpa- in territories where geographical and socioeconomic obstacles prevent access to western medicine 2) accessibility of MoA app across India which allowed for monitoring of symptoms and current use of AYUSH medicine.
Results
One of the major findings from the literature searched reveals that during the COVID-19 pandemic a large number of MoA app users relied on AYUSH medicine for the immune boosting preparations and health maintenance and have reported benefiting from the general use of Traditional Medicine. Another major finding was the expansion of AYUSH treatment through Ayurvedic intervention and also providing traditional rehabilitation in AYUR RAKSHA clinics for patients recovering from COVID-19.
Discussion/Conclusion
Based on this narrative review we deduce that further evidence is needed to understand the degree to which the implementation of traditional medicine can prevent and monitor COVID-19 and quality data are also needed from clinical trials testing traditional agents against SARS COV-2.
