We all know the importance of homemade medicines. The common cold in the earlier days never needed the opinion of the doctor. Many of the common ailments were never discussed in the homes - a herb here and a leaf paste there would in all probability set the matter right. This has changed now and the over cautious generation of today is blurring the lines between caution and hypochondria.

We in India at present believe allopathy to be the mainstay of medicine whereas the pre-British India always had Ayurveda as the mainstay of medicine. It is well known fact that it is not a loose collection of medical facts that someone has managed to collect and put it in a book like the “charak samhita”. It is the wisdom of millennia that has trickled down to this day. It is flourishing because it has healing power and minimal use of invasive surgery.

The natural way of healing is the basic premise in most of the Indian medical systems that have evolved today, and in most of the ancient forms of medicine all over the globe. The name alternative medicine is at most a convenience of the modern world. It is in fact a misnomer.

The reason for this is that the so-called “alternative” forms of medicines have cures where modern medicine is not of much help. Diseases such as jaundice which still do not a have a definitive medicine in conventional medicine has been treated effectively in Ayurveda. This is not to show that one form of medicine is better than the other but if used as complementary medicine rather than alternative it would improve not only our health but also the quality of life.