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I was dressing a wound of my patient in the clinic. She had undergone a major surgery.A few months back I was introduced to a new medicine that was made up from silver nano particles. I was using that medicine( ointment) for the dressing and wound was healing very fast.
We all know that every material is made up of particles. When the particles are further broken into super minute size they are called as nano particles. These nano particles have completely different properties than the original material. The nano particles of silver are supposed to have anti septic and anti bacterial properties. Thus when used in the wound they provide anti bacterial properties and help healing!
A metal like silver is considered as “heavy metal”. Ingestion or absorption of this metal in the body is considered as toxic. It blocks the kidneys and leads to failure of kidney function. In fact many Ayurvedic medicines contain heavy metals such as silver, gold, lead, mercury. For years together allopathic doctors have been warning patients against the use of Ayurvedic medicines for the same reason. I mean… medical students of allopathic stream have been taught in this way for years together. So this new formulation in allopathic medicine … containing silver seemed to be interesting…. perhaps more interesting. It raised a question: Is the science taking a complete U turn?
I called up few of my doctor -friends who are practicing Ayurvedic stream. I wanted to find out more about the ayurvedic medicines that contain these heavy metals. Dr Sanjay actually came down to my clinic to give me some insights. Dr Sanjay Talgaonkar and Dr Shailesh Vaidya both spoke passionately about it. They strongly claimed that they have been prescribing and consuming ayurvedic preparations made up from these “so called toxic metals”. One of them stated that he has been consuming one such preparation made up from mercury and sulphur for years together! This was baffling!!
Two diagonally opposite views of two “pathies”…. Then what is the truth? Dr Sanjay said “ Nasti yojakastatr durlabhah” It is the “yojak”, the man who prepares the medicine Thus do not blame the science , blame the practitioner, he said. He claimed that the making “Bhasm” out of the metals is not same as that of mere oxidization. The modern science wrongly understood it. In Ayurveda it is not just burning but treating the metal. in depth analysis of drug preparation is discussed in the science of “ Ras shastra”. He also added that when the correct procedure and quality control is not observed the results will be disastrous. I think in India this is a real fear about food or medicines.
One another interesting issue came up during discussion. It was claimed that the way these metals are “treated” is very peculiar. The metals were treated with herbs and spices apart from other procedures. It seems that the process converted the metals into nano particles! This came as a big surprise. It seems that there is a lot of research going on this topic in the world. May be it is true… May be that these nano particles, albeit derived from heavy metals have different properties. That is why these proved beneficial and not harmful to kidneys?
I think we will have to wait and see what results say. If this claim is proved beyond doubt then different sector of medicines will open up. The “pathies” may collate at some point of time in future. And ultimately it may benefit the mankind. The silver nano particles in allopathic ointment may only be the beginning of this revolution.