By Saramma Emmanuel
Bhopal: A Catholic priest was conferred on Doctor of Philosophy (Ph D) for his pioneering work on the use of alternative medicines against the background of globalization.
Governor of Madhya Pradesh Om Prakash Kohli conferred the degree on Father Shaji E Stanislaus, a priest of Bhopal Archdiocese, during a convocation held at Bharkatullah University Campus on February 6.
The priest’s thesis titled, “The Role of Alternative Medicines in the Treatment of Patients: A Sociological Study in Bhopal,” is a unique work as he is not from any medical background, says his guide Professor Arvind Chauhan, head of department of sociology in the university.
“Alternative medicines are effective cure for all the diseases including cancer,”,the priest told mattersindia.com adding, “unfortunately, they have not got the much needed support to promote unlike the allopathic medicines.”
“My effort was to reinventing the use of alternative medicines, i.e, our traditional times tested medicines when people face so much of difficulty in getting proper treatment in good allopathic hospitals.
“One of the best parts of alternative medicines is they are available easily and cost effective. They have no side effect unlike in the case of allopathic medicines,” he explains.
“Most cases, people rush to allopathic treatment ignoring readily available alternative medicines for quick relief. Even though, they get quick relief, it is a fact that regular use of allopathic medicines gradually leads to multiple side effects,” he adds.
The priest’s research found that women preferred alternative medicinal practices to allopathic medicinal practices as they are cost effective, easily available and also have no side effect unlike allopathic medicines.”
Alternative medicines go to the root cause of a disease and cure it but take time for healing. Allopathic medicines, on the other hand, treat only the symptoms, he adds.
Globalization, the priest adds, too has adversely affected the use of alternative medicine as there was no sustained effort to promote the use of alternative medicines which used to be the traditional medicines of the country for thousands of years.
Surprisingly, the priest adds, ‘many of the European countries now began to use alternative medicines as complementary alternative medicines (CAM) in their hospitals for effective cure.
There they go for allopathic treatment for emergency cases including operations and then go for further treatment with CAM.
“We need to get back to our roots (alternative medicines) to protect the health of our families and the society”, emphasis the priest.
The priest’s work received overseas acclaim because of its uniqueness. The 18th World Congress of Sociology at Yokohoma in Japan published his papers in 2013 and then at Liverpool in UK the following year.
The same work is to be published in Canada at 19th World Congress of sociology in 2018. In India Universities such as Udaipur, Bangalore, Delhi and Bhubaneswar have also published his work.