Ayurvedic clinical decision-making methods to predict, prevent and manage childhood allergic disorders.

Allergy is a conundrum lacking satisfactory answers despite its global prevalence. Traditional systems of medicine may contain sustainable and effective solutions for the same. For mainstreaming them, an evaluation based on the system's own methods is inevitable rather than symptom-based correlations. Atopy is a novel entity in Ayurveda, but the methods of tripartite delineation (disease pattern, disease targets and influencing factors) of novel diseases and multifactorial approach to diagnosis and management in Ayurveda can bring about comprehensiveness in collection and categorization of data regarding the entity. This in turn can make the prediction, prevention and management of the same more precise, effective and sustainable. The article provides a template for the application of Ayurvedic biological framework in the diagnosis and management of novel diseases, with special reference to childhood allergic disorders.

Deluded confession: Response to Kishor Patwardhan.

"Confessions of an Ayurveda Professor", by Kishor Patwardhan, published in IJME, has set the stage for heated discussions within and outside the medical circles. It uses primitive philosophical criteria to argue that Ayurvedic principles relating to anatomy and physiology are obsolete, and that they need to be removed from the syllabus. As Ayurveda students, we explore the counterview to this, pointing out the fallacies behind each point raised, and suggest solutions that we find suitable for effective, competency-based Ayurveda education.