There is nothing hundred percent certain in biology

Allopathy V/s  Ayurveda is on. Dr S G Kabra says  there is nothing hundred percent in biology. All claims of hundred percent accuracy, success or cure, or hundred percent of all diseases , is patently so wild, that no person will accept it – so why controvert it.There are two main spectrum of diseases-  Life threatening diseases and  Life limiting diseases . Each pathy has its own role. Then, why the controversy ? Asks, Dr S G Kabra .

Acute life threatening diseases such as Acute Fulminating Viral Hepatitis, Acute Renal Failure, Encephalitis, Acute Intestinal Obstruction etc etc.
In same class as above are chronic life limiting disease, progressing or degenerating into an acute life-threatening disease, such as a patient with diabetes developing acute kidney failure due to diabetic kidney involvement or a chronic hypertension patient developing a cerebral stroke or a chronic alcoholic hepatitis patient sliding into an acute liver failure etc. In all these cases the patient presents with a life threatening episode. The condition, at that moment, is Life-threatening.

In contrast, there is a wider spectrum of chronic life limiting diseases as diabetes, hypertension, chronic viral hepatitis, coronary artery disease, chronic bronchitis, asthma, ulcerative colitis etc. All these diseases have an unpredictable fluctuant course. They are prone to intermittent complications and long term sequel (end result). For instance an asthmatic patient developing bronchopneumonia or developing right heart failure. Or a patient of chronic urinary tract obstruction complicated with urinary tract infection or ending in renal failure.
Whether treatment is effective or not is immediately ascertainable in acute life threatening diseases or situations. No one can claim assured cure, as fatality is a real probability in these cases. Modern medicine is best, or to a large extent only, system of medicine to manage all life threatening conditions. The modern medicine is best equipped to monitor, in real time situation, the functioning of failing organs of body – the heart, the circulatory system, the lung, the liver and the nervous system. The organ specific accurate and quantitative functional parameters are the main stay to guide and manage the critical situation. Effective corrective treatment modalities, including, advanced interventional surgical procedures, to tide over the failing functions, are available in modern medicine, with no parallel. Aortic balloon pump to manage severe circulatory failure, cardiac pacemakers to correct life threatening heart rhythms, mechanical ventilation for respiratory failure, dialysis for failing kidney, are few such management modalities. The modern medicine, in this respect, enjoys universal acceptance.

Management of chronic, life limiting diseases, is all together a different proposition. The patient learns to live with the ailment for the span of his life. The natural course of the disease is uncertain. Remission, amelioration and aggravations are unpredictable, and part of the natural course of the disease. All medical disciplines, ancient, modern, traditional or home remedies, claim availability of successful remedies for these diseases. What the patient feels and reports, is a normal and valid basis of efficacy of the treatment. But since they are lifelong diseases, how a particular treatment has altered the natural life limiting course of the disease, is very difficult to assess or evaluate. Short term success claims have to be accepted at its face value.
However, there is nothing hundred percent in biology. All claims of hundred percent accuracy, success or cure, or hundred percent of all diseases or all cancers, is patently so wild, that no person will accept it – so why controvert it.

Dr S G Kabra is senior surgeon and medico legal expert. 

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