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Dinesh C. Sharma

What Dr Partap Chauhan in Faridabad started as online consultation has grown into a thriving e-commerce Web site, boasting patients in nearly 100 countries.

Medical transcription and telemedicine might be old hat in the World Wide Web. Many a Web site offers health information, and doctors even offer online consultations at the click of a mouse. But for an ayurvedic physician in a non-descript locality in Faridabad, Haryana, treating patients in California, New York, Toronto, Amsterdam, London, Doha and Moscow through his online clinic and pharmacy for the past ten years, is indeed an amazing feat.

What Dr Partap Chauhan started as online consultation has, today, become a thriving e-commerce Web site, boasting patients from nearly 100 countries. www.ayurvedic.org handles over 600 consultations each month, and receives an even greater number of visitors.

"Most of the available ayurvedic treatments offer generic remedies for the physical symptoms, not the root cause of the disease," says Dr Chauhan. "Authentic ayurveda is not about off-the-shelf remedies; it's about providing holistic, individualised care to ensure mental, physical and spiritual wellness." Ayunique, a personalised treatment methodology, was launched by Dr Chauhan and his team at Jiva Ayurveda Institute.

The Ayunique method promises customised diagnosis and treatment as well as dietary and lifestyle changes to ensure permanent cure. Each package is based on the detailed information that the patient provides online. While consultation is free, patients pay for the treatment and shipping charges of medicines, when required. Typically, the medicines are specially prepared churnas or powders, and herbal tablets. The patient can even `chat' online with the doctors. Usually, a six-month dietary regimen is prescribed. "If there are five patients suffering from joint pain, chances are each will get a different medicine based on one's constitution and other factors," says Dr Chauhan.

The treatment kits are prepared at the Jiva Pharmacy, run by Dr Chauhan's brother, Rishi Pal Chauhan. "We follow what our ancient texts prescribe, and do not compromise on the method of preparation by replacing ancient methods with modern technology," says Rishi Pal. "If something has to be cooked over gobar (cow dung) fire, we adhere to that, as gobar gas has certain properties essential to the preparation of that medicine. With modern cooking methods, the end result would be very different."

Dr Chauhan's treatment is based on the dosha system of vata, pitta and kapha, which states that all diseases are caused by an imbalance of the three doshas. Such imbalances are typically caused by diet, lifestyle, etc. Dr Chauhan also teaches stress management through simple meditation and yoga techniques. Most of Dr Chauhan's patients are from North America and Europe. "Many people are fed up with modern medicines and their side effects. They are now attracted to holistic treatments like ayurveda," he says. He even delivers lectures and conducts short training programmes on everyday ayurveda in many foreign countries.

However, recently a research paper published by the Journal of American Medical Association reported the presence of heavy metals in certain ayurvedic formulations and this caused considerable panic among his patients abroad. Dr Chauhan explains that metals like gold, lead, arsenic, mercury and zinc find use in ayurvedic formulations only after the processes of shodhan (purification) and maran (killing their toxicity), and in minute quantities. He argues that the permissible limits for heavy metals are different for medicines and food. However, he cautions that there could be "complications when such metallic preparations are labelled `herbal medicines' or supplements, and sold through grocery stores or prescribed by unqualified practitioners. These medicines should always be taken under the guidance of an expert."

Illustration by K. Raja

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