Unani medicine termed a holistic system of treatment

Unani medicine is a holistic system of treatment which fully treats persons suffering from his mental and physical ailments rather than just the symptoms. This system of treatment has a treasure of effective medicines – the only thing is quacks have spoiled its image.

This was stated on Tuesday by Hakim Rizwan Hafeez Malik, former president of the National Council for Tibb, in his address as chief guest at the concluding session of a two-day symposium, organised by the Faculty of Eastern Medicine, Hamdard University, on the theme ‘Challenges and opportunities for Unani Medicine in Contemporary World’, at the Bait al-Hikmah auditorium, Madinat al-Hikmah, Karachi.

He further said nothing was done in the country to improve Unani medicine and “the result is now before us”. However, by taking inspiration from Hakim Said’s vision to move forward, a difference could be made, he added.

Dr Navaid ul Zafar, trustee, Hamdard (Waqf) Pakistan, said that shunning differences, “if we jointly made efforts to create new knowledge in Unani medicine, as Hakim Said wanted to, then we would be successful” in earning it its due place in the world of medical science.

He urged the students and physicians of Unani medicine to share their experiments and knowledge with others in this symposium to promote their system of medicine which was under pressure due to the Drug Regulatory Act (DRA), which was a challenge and opportunity as well.

Prof Dr Shabeebul Hasan, vice chancellor, Hamdard University, while offering the vote of thanks, called for keeping alive the vision of Hakim Said, which was a great source of inspiration for the people. Earlier, in scientific sessions, participants of the symposium read their informative papers.

Prof Dr Ahsana Dar emphasised the “need of Unani medicine to be evidence-based”. Dr Sumaira Ishaq spoke on ‘Potential of natural remedies in feminine disorder’. Prof Dr Raheela Najam spoke on ‘Analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of beetroot juice’ and Dr Huma shed light on ‘Quality attributes of herbs and herbal products as per WHO guidelines’.

Prof Dr Ghazala Hafeez Rizwani, while presenting her paper on ‘A future challenge: Drug interaction with Herbal Medicine’, said that Unani medicine had their reaction and if there was be no action there would be no cure.

Highlighting the curing power of some daily-use herbs, she said they were medicines and foods as well and our kitchen was a pharmaceutical industry; we should utilise it to keep ourselves healthy and smart.

Dr Hakim Asif Iqbal, while presenting his paper on ‘Treatment of Psoriasis with Unani Medicine (Natural Products)’, said the disease of psoriasis started from foot and spread to the entire body and no final treatment of this disease had been invented yet.

However, Unani medicine had some treatment as Roghan-i-Neem and Laboob-i-Saqhir gave some relief, he added. Hakim Abdul Bari, throwing light on the Drug Regulatory Act Pakistan (DRAP), said that this law would give benefit to Unani medicine as it would strengthen its identity, regulate its medicine and rid this system of quacks who damaged its image and name.

He informed the new physicians of Unani medicine that they would get more opportunities to go up in the near future and they should take advantage of those chances. Psychologist Hakim Faisal Siddiqui, in his paper on ‘Broken Brain Waiting: Unani Medicine is the Solution for Mental Health’, said the importance of Unani medicine was evident from this fact that 423 herbal medicines ware being made in the US.

The treatment of depression, insomnia and anxiety were available in Unani medicine and now the brain would be cured by the old system of treatment. But we should have to select separate compound of medicines for a separate patient and Unani medicine had wide space for this purpose, he said.

“I have cured many patients by the use of Hamdard’s medicines; how can I accept this wrong notion that Hamdard’s medicines are not effective,” he said and showed a book of allopathic to the participants of the symposium and told them that the book was published in 1885 and contained many prescriptions based on Unani medicines.

Dr Maria Khan, in his paper on ‘Herbal drugs in Diabetes: A major crippling disease in low income people’, said diabetes was no more a disease of the rich as the more poor people were becoming victims of this disease, and if the situation continued the number of diabetics would be double by 2035 in Pakistan.