Expert delivers a lecture at Andhra Loyola College
 Traditional medicinal systems such as ayurveda, which see ‘health as a state in which the individual is in a state of physical, mental, and spiritual equilibrium', are making a comeback, IMIS Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd joint managing director V. Nagalakshmi has said. She has a doctorate in pharmacology.

 Delivering a lecture on ‘traditional medicinal systems' to botany and microbiology students of Andhra Loyola College here on Friday she said that a look at the history of medicine showed that experts were recommending people to get closer to nature for a healthy life.

Listing milestones in the history of health care, she said about 4,000 years ago the first physicians prescribed roots for different ailments. A thousand years after that roots were considered heresy and prayers were offered to cure people. With the development of different types of remedies in 1850 AD, prayers were dismissed as superstition and various potions were administered as medicine.

Definition of Health

             In 1940 potions were dubbed as ‘snake oil' and the medical community shifted to ‘pills' and later in 1985 pills were set aside because they were ‘ineffective' and antibiotics became popular. Since 2000 AD the antibiotics were being discouraged because they were artificial. After 4,000 years roots were again in vogue because they were natural, Ms. Nagalaksmi said.

              The definition of health according to World Health Organisation was “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease of infirmity,” she said.
                    Listing homeopathy, naturopathy, unani, siddha, varmakalai and ayurveda as the important traditional medicinal system that were popular in the country, she said that the rich diversity in the systems was a sign of progressiveness. Different systems were effective to different people based on their general constitution. Most of the traditional medicinal systems used raw material from natural sources unlike modern medicine, she said. 

 Rev.Fr.Dr.A.Francis Xavier principal of A.L.C Botany H.O.D Mrs.B. Siva Kumari and Microbiology H. O. D  Mr. K. Bala  Chandra were present.