City doc takes ayurveda to medical schools in the US

Madonna has already made yoga famous in the west, and now ayurveda may follow suit, thanks to the efforts of a city-based obstetrician and gynaecologist who has come back from a trip to 16 top medical schools in the US.

In April 2007, Dr HS Palep, founder of Dr Palep’s Medical Research Foundation, Dadar, was first officially sent by the Ayush department of the government of India and the Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) to conduct workshops on ayurveda in US medical schools.

The interest his workshops generated compelled Dr Palep to revisit the universities and medical schools this year, including Boston University Medical School, Johns Hopkins, Loyola Stritch Medical School, Chicago, New York School of Medicine and Mount Sinai School of Medicine, among others.

This is the first time that an elective in ayurveda has been taught at any US medical school, and many of these universities have shown an interest in taking up the subject.
“In the US, mainstream medical colleges allow their students to study alternative systems of medicine during the second and fourth year of study. A number of US universities are now considering recognising ayurveda as an accredited alternative system of medicine,” said Dr Palep. So far these subjects included traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, he added.

“The Indian government had earlier proposed to create an ayurveda chair at any of the top universities. However, this needs an endowment of $3.5 million, and funding is a problem,” Dr Palep said.