Life in Balance: Amit D. Chaudhary’s Blog
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There has been news recently of a Ayurveda pharmacy in India selling products containing human and animal bones. There are the health implications and then faith ones for many Indians tend to be non-meat eaters. These are about Divya Pharmacy in Hardwar, run by Baba Ramdev’s Divya Yog Mandir Trust.

Links:

Ramdev’s samples contained human, animal extracts: Ramdoss
Some testimonials from ex-employees, whistle blowers
In the same article,

Extending support to Yoga Guru Swami Ramdev, Shiv Sena Saturday came down heavily on the CPI-M, accusing it of raking up the medicine issue in the interest of multi-national drug companies.

BJP says doing such investigation hurting faith of Indians in Yoga

Interestingly, Baba ramdev’s website claims Pranayama cures cancer and many other diseases

Here is the link to their pricelist for basham(ashes) and other medicines.
And donations request from Rs 11,000 to 500,000 for the next asharam.

My thoughts:

-If someone claims a method cures something, they should provide a scientific study by a neutral body done over multiple years.

-It is improbably that ashes (or any substance destroyed by fire) can cure anything including health issues like illness. This falls under superstition and blind faith category.

-Direct solicitation for money should not be a spiritual organization’s goal.

-One good thing is that He is making yoga more popular, introducing some exercise into the larger Indian population. Is the price worth it?

Quackwatch article A Few Thoughts on Ayurvedic Mumbo-Jumbo by Stephen Barrett, M.D.
Takeaways from above article:

1. 1 out of 5 Ayurveda medicines (herb products) have been known to contain heavy metals including mercury and lead in larger than safe quantities.

2. Deepak Chopra claimed to levitate, uses marketing\new age language with psuedo science to sell his stuff.

3. There appears to have been no clinical trials of any ayurveda treatment.

Personally, it is reinforces the fact that one has to keep an eye open for benefits and also be aware of the placebo effect.
More so, the same Panchkarma treatment includes blood letting which makes it dubious to me.

On the good side. Part of what was there in the book, Ayurveda and Yoga, particularly on Gunas is a way of seeing where you are in life, kind of a self-improvement tool.

My view tends to fall in similar lines as Alan Little

In particular I think the Ayurvedic approach of looking broadly at diet and health as whole has a lot to commend it compared to western medicine’s tendency to look for technological quick fixes for individual problems and ignore the bigger picture.

Quack Watch: Organic Food Certification Does Not Protect Consumers
Excerpt:

In 1997, Consumer Reports purchased about a thousand pounds of tomatoes, peaches, green bell peppers, and apples in five cities and tested them for more than 300 synthetic pesticides. Traces were detected in 77% of conventional foods and 25% of organically labeled foods, but only one sample of each exceeded the federal limit [14].

and

From now on, if you want to pay extra for your food, the U.S. Government will help you do so. Violators of the rules can be fined up to $10,000 per violation. But organic “certification,” no matter what the rules, will not protect consumers. Foods certified as “organic” will neither be safer nor more nutritious than “regular” foods. They will just cost more and may lessen public confidence in the safety of “ordinary” foods. Instead of legitimizing health nonsense, our government should do more to attack its spread.

My take:

• With GMO(Genetically Modified Foods), Genes of various fruits and vegetables are being mixed to create ‘better’ variations. It might be years before it’s effects are known.
• The practice of feeding animals back to animals have resulted in newer diseases like Mad Cow.
• The the effects of pesticides and growth hormones are well known including many pesticides being now banned due to their cancer causing effects.
• It is prudent to choose and eat the right food. And Organic is often the way to go.
• Consider eating fruits and vegetables that are in season (Hint: They will be available in a local Farmer’s market)

All this in turn makes me wonder how neutral is QuackWatch? And how scientific is it really?