Cardiac diseases and Siddha management; Scope & Constraints

The area of cardiac disorders and its management in Siddha is not being highlighted and popularised so far due to different reasons. Deficiency of emergency medicines for critical care and lack of scientific validation of available Siddha medicines are found to be the key reasons for this impediment. In spite of this, a few of the practitioners are showing intense interest in this area based on their experience and acquired traditional knowledge. However they are not properly documented on par with international standards. Some practitioners are hesitating to transfer such knowledge to others. Increasing incidence of cardiac problems and proportionately increasing mortality rate are upsetting human community worldwide. Except allopathic system, no obvious contribution is noticed from CAM sector in cardiac disease management. Return to nature is inevitable at the present scenario and for this reason creating awareness among institutionally trained doctors on cardiac disorders and its management and staying up-to-date with the current knowledge are necessary. Cardiac disease in Siddha is termed as Marbu noi and Thamaraga noi. There are five varieties of cardiac disorders have been described in Siddha literatures based on three humoural concepts. Disturbance of vatham plays a major role in the onset of cardiac problems. Line of treatment in Siddha starts with mild purgatives to normalize impaired vatham and consequently patients are given specific medicines, cardiac tonics, general tonics, haematinics and mind monitors etc according to the nature and extent of the disease. Cardiac diseases in modern system are grouped under the entities like Disorders of heart rate, rhythm and conduction, Atherosclerosis, Coronary Heart Disease, Vascular diseases, Diseases of the valves, Congenital Heart Disease, Diseases of Myocardium and Pericardium and Heart Failure for the proper understanding. Siddha is also having scope to greater extent in the management of problems like Atherosclerosis, Coronary Heart Disease, Rheumatic Heart Disease, Hypertension, Peripheral Vascular Disease, Heart Failure etc. It is the responsibility of the doctors and scientists of this area to explore the value of Siddha medicines by means of proper documentation and active research programmes. Scientific validation of classical preparations, development of new evidence based formulations and formatting disease specific treatment protocols with the support of all allied fields of medical system is indispensible for the promotion of Siddha and to gain public faith.