Book Review Integrative Approaches for Health: Biomedical Research, Ayurveda and Yoga

W h i l e advocating the need for integration of modern with traditional health care strategies, the chapter 1 elaborates evolution of health care system in human societies, the current diversity of health related challenges in different countries/ societies, the remarkable advances in biomedical sciences in recent times, the traditional and complementary medicine systems in different parts of world and the need for integration of modern medicine, Ayurveda and Yoga. It brings out the maladies of “medicalization of society” by the pharmaceutical industry driven market forces. The health care systems have evolved with time but unlike the European Greek and Latin medical care traditions which have been replaced by scientific evidencebased modern medicine, the traditional Indian Ayurveda and Yoga have largely remained unchanged and untested for centuries, thus remaining neither proven nor disproven. It is suggested that the traditional and complementary systems (T&CM) are “Experience-based medicine” in contrast to the modern “Evidence based medicine”. Authors advocate that there is need for an “inclusive system Authors of this book, as noted in the authors’ introduction, “represent the three generations of scientific progress” and “bring a unique blend of domain expertise in each of the three components of this book Biomedical Research, Ayurveda and Yoga”. This book’s main thesis is that the traditional knowledge based systems of health-care need to be, and can be, integrated with the modern experimental research-based medical system so that populations receive holistic “health care” rather than only “medical care”. As indicated by title of the book, authors believe that integration of the traditional health care system of India, encompassing Ayurveda and Yoga, with contemporary bio-medical science would provide the much needed holistic health care for improving individual and population health.