Plants of the genus Bergenia are part of remedies used in Ayurveda medicine. They also play an important part in traditional healing practice in China, India, Mongolia and Russia. Theoretical part of this thesis sums the newest findings and research results concerning three Bergenia species: Bergenia ciliata (Haw.) Sternb., Bergenia crassifolia (L.) Fritsch a Bergenia ornata Stein. The thesis mainly focuses on their current and potential use in medicine and pharmacy. Bergenia extract is traditionally used for dissolving kidney stones, treating respiratory tract illnesses and to stop bleeding. The most important active substances of these plants, their characteristics and main effects are also noted. Bergenia is an important source of arbutin and bergenin. Bergenin has antitussive, antiflogistic and gastroprotective effects. Arbutin is used to treat urinary tract diseases and in cosmetology to lighten the skin. The experimental part of this thesis includes methods of preparation of permanent microscope slides from leaves of chosen Bergenia species. Photographs have been taken from both permanent and native slides. Anatomy of the leaf and leaf epidermis is described including stomatal index. Presence of calcium oxalate crystals in form of druses is also documented. Basic anatomical features were...

Title: Physiotherapy of patients with low back pain of viscerovertebral etiology. Objectives: The objective of this study is to verify the significance of inclusion of procedures of a comprehensive therapeutic approach according to Eastern techniques to classical physiotherapy and to find out whether these Eastern techniques can contribute to the enrichment of standard physiotherapy. Another goal is to develop appropriate regimen measures according to TCM and Ayurveda, to create a yoga regimen suitable for patients who have renal and bladder dysfunction according to TCM and whose main common symptom is chronic non-specific low back pain. The study is based upon a comparison of a four-week physiotherapy program according to the physician's indication and a physiotherapy program enriched with compiled regimen measures and yoga exercises in selected probands. Methods: This diploma thesis is an experimental qualitative pilot study. The theoretical part of the thesis was elaborated on the basis of information from book and electronic sources in the Czech and English language in the form of a research. For the practical part two groups of probands were used - experimental and control group. There were 6 probands in each group. The effect of the four-week therapy, which took place twice a week for 60...

A central concern being addressed in this project is the acknowledged gap between reductionist Western and holistic Eastern approaches to healthcare and the growing global movement aimed at narrowing this gap. In contrast to biomedicine, where the body is understood in terms of the operation of its constituent parts, Eastern medicine is based on recognition of the interconnection of bodily systems and the environment. The Global Holistic Occupational Therapy (GH-OT) course is an intensive program designed for occupational therapy practitioners in India that are interested in expanding their current biomedical based clinical methods by incorporating Eastern medical philosophies and practices. It is comprised of three instructional modules delivered over six days. The teachings of yoga and Ayurveda brought forth by the Bhrigu Yoga BCP Trust, which offers a non-religious method for enhancing human potential, provide the basis for instruction designed to prepare participants to make appropriate use of the ancient wisdom and to integrate an expanded Eastern holistic and inner vision perspective with the customary logical and analytical mindset of clinical reasoning in a way that upholds the theoretical foundations of OT practice. The educational activities include experiential practice of yoga exercises, examination of the current healthcare system and exploration of emerging world trends for promoting health and wellness. The GH-OT course is the beginning of an effort to achieve a transformation in OT education that will be applicable in the future to other regions such as Israel and the United States.

Introduction: Meghalaya is a state in northeast India that has a predominantly indigenous population and an age-old system of tribal medicine. There are practitioners of this system in most villages, who use medicinal plants sourced from the state’s vast forest bio-resources. This project studied the tribal medicine of Meghalaya from three perspectives, the healer, the community and the policy maker. It locates tribal medicine within the government’s policy on medical pluralism and seeks to understand how tribal medicine of a local context fits into the national policy of the Government of India. Methods: A mixed methods study design was employed. Estimates of awareness and use of traditional medicine in the community were obtained from the analysis of a household survey. For the qualitative component tribal healers, policy makers, and influential members of the community were interviewed. A combination of in-depth interviews, observations and focus group discussions was employed in the field with healers, while in-depth interviews were the main source of data from policy actors. Qualitative data was analysed using a thematic content analysis approach that incorporated elements of the grounded theory approach. Results: The community - tribal medicine has wide acceptance across the state, 87% believed it to be efficacious and 46 % reported using it in the 3 months prior to the survey. In comparison only 31% had heard of any of the AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) systems that are being promoted by the state and only 10.5% had ever used it in their lifetime. Healers - tribal healers are a heterogeneous group who treat a wide variety of ailments. Their expertise is well regarded in the community for certain ailments such as musculoskeletal disorders, but often their services were sought when patients were dissatisfied with biomedicine. For physical ailments that are culturally understood their services are often the preferred option. Their expertise niches have evolved through their interactions with, and the perceived needs of the community. 16 Policy actors – although there were some appreciative voices, several biomedical doctors and policy makers in the government department of health derided tribal medicine’s unscientific nature. In comparison other systems like Ayurveda and homeopathy were assumed to have scientific merit mainly because of institutionalisation and government recognition of these systems. The comparison with homeopathy is pertinent as its scientific credentials are being increasingly questioned in scientific literature. In contrast those outside the health department, academics, biomedical doctors and other influential members of the community favoured tribal medicine because of its widely regarded efficacy and its cultural value. Neglect of tribal medicine while promoting the imported AYUSH systems was seen as illogical and disrespectful to their culture by the latter group. Conclusions: the current policy in Meghalaya of mainstreaming AYUSH medicine is not supported by locally relevant evidence. It has led to a disproportionate increase in AYUSH doctors in the public sector. It represents a top down approach to policy formulation that ignores local realities. This study demonstrates the importance of contextualising policy to cultural milieus. It emphasises the importance of research in health system development and questions the generalising of policy in a country as diverse as India. The study illustrates the complexities, but points to the potential benefits of supporting tribal medicine in Meghalaya.

The principle aim of this inquiry is to understand how elderly Hindu Punjabi women utilize and shape Ayurvedic knowledge in the broader context of their lives. Do these precepts constitute a way of knowing in the world as women, as seniors, as immigrants? Ayurveda furnishes a wealth of indigenous categories of understanding, which can function as epistemological tools, providing one means by which these elderly women are able to build more cohesive constructions of their selves and their current realities. While my interest lies in discerning health-related behaviours and beliefs, my research agenda reflects the scope and priorities of the women themselves who include in this domain a broad array of topics, most notably, family relations, food, and religion. So as to examine the continuity of constructions among the elderly subsequent to migration, the sample includes both elderly Punjabi Hindus who have migrated to Greater Vancouver, Canada (n = 10), as well as a comparable sample still residing in northwest India (n = 10). The methodology employed was a reflexive process which entailed a period of initial sensitization to relevant concepts (Hindi language training, participant observation), followed by a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews. While capable of eliciting more specific information on health and healing, this method simultaneously encouraged ‘life story’ constructions. The ‘critical-interpretivist’ stance (Scheper-Hughes and Lock) adopted for this study considers not only how people construct their worlds but the relations of power which constrain their choices. This paradigmatic position is articulated within a ‘three bodies’ framework which delineates the individual body, the social body, and the body politic. Other important theoretical influences include social science perspectives on emotion, selfhood and food. Profiles of two each of the women now living in India and Canada are presented so as to preserve the integrity of the women's stories which are otherwise fragmented by the subsequent analysis wherein all interviews are considered collectively according to common themes. The most predominant themes were (1) the socially-embedded nature of health and well-being which references especially, but not exclusively, relationships within the extended family; (2) the relationships drawn between particular foods, beverages, herbs and spices and one's mental, spiritual and physical health, (3) the all-pervasive idiom of balance; and (4) the complex interrelationships between that which is sacred, detached, and not confined to this life and more temporal concerns such as attachment, pride and so forth which ground people in this world. Evidence of a higher order category which unites all four themes—a recognition of the strong interrelationships between mind, body, and spirit—is apparent in every interview. So, too, however, is the competing ideology of the egocentric self coupled with an allopathic (dualistic) medical paradigm which seeks to separate spirit from mind, mind from body. A fifth theme is thus the accommodation of these two competing ideologies in the women's life-worlds. In sum, Ayurveda provides a rich metaphorical language according to which broadly conceived health concerns which are deemed to originate in familial concerns and other stressors such as loneliness can be readily discussed in terms of food. The ability to utilize this wealth of metaphor is most typically forsaken when religion is no longer integral to their lives in some form or another. The compartmentalization of religion, appears to reflect a more dualist (allopathically influenced) world-view in which holistic conceptions of self and health are marginalized. / Graduate

Every day, India sees the addition of 5,000 new cases of diabetes to its current diabetic population of 65 million people. This number is projected to cross the 100 million mark in 15 years. The emerging pandemic scale of diabetes growth is straining India's already-overburdened public healthcare resources. India is home to several well-established native and adapted foreign traditions of medicine that are widely practiced. These traditions include Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha, and homeopathy. The modern and traditional medicine approaches are extensively used as independent systems. The purpose of this qualitative research case study was to evaluate the use of an integrative approach to address the multiple challenges posed by diabetes in India. The research design for the case study was based on the theoretical framework of participatory action research. The research questions evaluated how the modern and traditional medicine systems can be jointly used to contain the spread, scale, and immensity of diabetes in India and examined the barriers and challenges in combining various systems of medicine. Data were collected from interviews with 30 modern and traditional medical practitioners and 6 policy makers identified through a stratified purposeful sampling process. The transcribed data were coded thematically and objectively analyzed. The trustworthiness of interpretations was bolstered with triangulation through records from notes and observations. In evaluating the feasibility of a synergistic and integrative approach, the study filled a gap in scholarly literature. The study contributes to social change by adding to the existing body of knowledge available to physicians and patients in preventing and containing the diabetes pandemic.

Background: Food allergy affects an estimated 8% of children and 3% of adults in the United States. Food‐allergic individuals increasingly use the web for medical information. We sought to determine the educational quality of food allergy YouTube videos. Methods: We performed a YouTube search using keywords “food allergy” and “food allergies”. The 300 most viewed videos were included and analyzed for characteristics, source, and content. Source was further classified as healthcare provider, alternative medicine provider, patient, company, media, and professional society. A scoring system (FA‐DQS) was created to evaluate quality (−10 to +34 points). Negative points were assigned for misleading information. Eight reviewers scored each video independently. Results: Three hundred videos were analyzed, with a median of 6351.50 views, 19 likes, and 1 dislike. More video presenters were female (54.3%). The most common type of video source was alternative medicine provider (26.3%). Alternative treatments included the following: water fast, juicing, Ayurveda, apple cider, yoga, visualization, and sea moss. Controversial diagnostics included kinesiology, IgG testing, and pulse test. Almost half of the videos depicted a non‐IgE‐mediated reaction (49.0%).Videos by professional societies had the highest FA‐DQS (7.27). Scores for videos by professional societies were significantly different from other sources (P < .001). There was a high degree of agreement among reviewers (ICC = 0.820; P < .001). Conclusion: YouTube videos on food allergy frequently recommend controversial diagnostics and commonly depict non‐IgE‐mediated reactions. There is a need for high‐quality, evidence‐based, educational videos on food allergy.

This dissertation explores women’s health seeking behaviors during reproductive complications in rural Bangladesh drawing on Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice. Based on a year of ethnographic fieldwork in a northern village of the country, where four types of health care services—biomedicine, homeopathy, kabiraji (ayurveda), and folk treatment—are available, it explores how women define illnesses and seek therapies for reproductive health. It shows that women’s health seeking and obtaining health services are influenced by their authoritative knowledge, cultural practices, therapy management groups, kin networks, household economics, education, and gender inequality. In the case of reproductive complications, women first try to understand the nature and causes of the problem based on their cultural knowledge. They categorize illnesses into four categories—osukh, dushi, jadu, and gojob—with the help of their therapy management groups. The women with high economic, cultural, and social capital are more likely to categorize reproductive complications as cases of osukh and lean toward seeking biomedical treatment while the women with low economic, social, and cultural capital are more likely to categorize illnesses as cases of dushi or jadu and lean toward seeking folk healers. When an illness is a case of dushi, jadu, or gojob, women prefer a folk healer for treatment. The women with high economic, cultural, and social capital prefer a folk healer of their same status while the women with low economic, cultural, and social capital prefer a healer who is “reliable” and “accessible”. When an illness is a case of osukh, women can seek biomedicine, homeopathy, or kabiraji for treatment. The women with low economic, social, and cultural capital first pursue cheaper options like kabiraji and homeopathy, and seek biomedicine when these options fail to cure the disease. On the contrary, the use of biomedicine by women with high economic, cultural, and social capital is influenced by their therapy management groups, household priorities, and the social capital of their households. This dissertation contributes to the area of anthropology of women’s health that highlights women’s subjectivity, their gendered access to forms of symbolic capital, and the role of authoritative knowledge in health seeking.

This Ph.D. thesis presents an anthropological perspective on popular and professional concepts of the body in Kolkata (Calcutta), with special reference to ideas about the stomach/belly and the digestive system. By altering the routines and practices of daily life, changes brought about by modernization, globalization and urbanization are often associated with a decline of mental and physical well-being. In this context, the aim of this study is to juxtapose popular practices of self-care with professional views on illness and medicine. How do people in Kolkata perceive their bodies. How do they speak about health problems linked to digestion. What are the perceptions of health and illness among different medical professionals. How does this discourse reflect anxieties about the consequences of modernity in Kolkata. The data of this study are drawn from ethnographic fieldwork carried out between July 1999 and December 2000. Interviews and participant observation were conducted with a cross-section of the Bengali Hindu population in a local area in South-West Kolkata, and in selected other areas of the city. Data collection focused on metaphors around stomach/belly (Bengali: pet), and on popular practices of self-care in relation to bodily well-being. For research on professional medicine, interviews and participant observation were carried out with healers from thee different medical systems: allopathy (biomedicine), homeopathy, and Ayurveda. From each of these systems, fifteen to twenty healers were interviewed on how they perceive their patients, and how these perceptions influence their medical practice.

<p> Every day, India sees the addition of 5,000 new cases of diabetes to its current diabetic population of 65 million people. This number is projected to cross the 100 million mark in 15 years. The emerging pandemic scale of diabetes growth is straining India's already-overburdened public healthcare resources. India is home to several well-established native and adapted foreign traditions of medicine that are widely practiced. These traditions include Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha, and homeopathy. The modern and traditional medicine approaches are extensively used as independent systems. The purpose of this qualitative research case study was to evaluate the use of an integrative approach to address the multiple challenges posed by diabetes in India. The research design for the case study was based on the theoretical framework of participatory action research. The research questions evaluated how the modern and traditional medicine systems can be jointly used to contain the spread, scale, and immensity of diabetes in India and examined the barriers and challenges in combining various systems of medicine. Data were collected from interviews with 30 modern and traditional medical practitioners and 6 policy makers identified through a stratified purposeful sampling process. The transcribed data were coded thematically and objectively analyzed. The trustworthiness of interpretations was bolstered with triangulation through records from notes and observations. In evaluating the feasibility of a synergistic and integrative approach, the study filled a gap in scholarly literature. The study contributes to social change by adding to the existing body of knowledge available to physicians and patients in preventing and containing the diabetes pandemic.</p>