Research on Traditional Medicine: What Has Been Done, the Difficulties, and Possible Solutions

Table 2

Differences between CM and TM.

Areas which differ	Conventional medicine (CM)	Traditional medicine (TM)
(1) Mode of treatment	Primarily through medicine or surgery with additional information about precautions and side effects.	Includes polyherbal and mineral preparations, surgery, and guidelines encompassing the whole lifestyle (diet, mental attitude, physical activity, and even spiritual beliefs).
(2) Standardization	Well standardized so that it can be comprehended all over the world.	TM remains unstandardized. There are differences within a healing method; hence detailed descriptions are essential.
(3) Training of the practitioners	A well-defined system has been developed in each country.	There are differences in training program with respect to their content and duration.
(4) Quality of medicines	The medicines undergo rigorous testing and have to meet predetermined standards for safety which are set in each country.	Some of the codified medical systems, such as Ayurveda, do undergo testing for quality control and component analysis. However this is not rigorous and also it is not uniform within a country.
(5) Involvement of the healer	The healer who would be a trained physician or surgeon would need to know the detailed medical history of the patient and other details relevant to the disease before deciding and completing a course of treatment.	A healer of TM most often has to be involved closely with the patient’s case history including the physical, mental, and even spiritual aspects. Diagnosis also involves interacting with the patient as do the treatments, which require the healer to participate in the treatment.
(6) Involvement of the patient	The patient has to be cooperative in the diagnosis, treatment, and follow up. Most often this involves taking specified medicines at specified times.	The patient actively participates in TM healing systems during the diagnosis, treatment, and follow up. While some TM methods such as massage require passive cooperation of the patient, others, such as yoga practiced as therapy, require the patient’s active participation.
(7) Safety	The safety of CM is based on rigorous drug trials which go through several levels, from trials on experimental animals to final trials after approval on human subjects.	A few systems such as Ayurveda and TCM have had rigorous trials. However most TM preparations are not scrutinized with rigor.
(8) Adverse effects	Adverse effects for all medicines and surgical procedures are reported and made available to the medical community globally.	Adverse effects of TM systems are often not systematically documental or reported. This is an area in which considerable work remains to be done so that TM systems can have adequate legitimacy and be used widely.
(9) Efficacy and dosage	CM has details of the efficacy of the medicines and surgical procedures. Also, the dosages have been worked out taking into account factors such as age, body weight, and liver and kidney functions.	TM systems often decide the type and quantum of treatment based on individual factors. In some cases trying to apply the CM model to TM may reduce the usefulness of the TM system. Nonetheless there has to be a definite description of the factors which could determine TM efficacy and dosage.
(10) Mechanisms of action	The mechanisms of action of many CM methods of treatment are known.	Many TM are effective in healing but little is known about their mechanism of action. Research in this area is often made difficult by the fact that TM systems include subtle concepts such as “spiritual wellbeing,” “energy medicine,” and others which are not described in conventional medicine.