{"id":117697,"date":"2021-08-31T16:09:04","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T23:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=117697"},"modified":"2021-08-31T16:09:04","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T23:09:04","slug":"sri-lankan-traditional-sinhala-wedakama-treatment-to-counter-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/08\/31\/sri-lankan-traditional-sinhala-wedakama-treatment-to-counter-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan traditional Sinhala Wedakama (treatment) to counter COVID?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

A\nmedical heritage of a country could be cited as one of its best treasures and\nmost powerful weapons. Sri Lanka has proven that its medical legacy was\nprotected by ancient kings as part of governance policy and aspects, such as\nagriculture, belief system\/spirituality and diet encompassing the concept of\nhealth. In this regard, a Sinhala Wedakama developed by Dr Laxman Embuldeniya\nwarrants serious attention and consideration.  <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka Daily Mirror newspaper of 31st<\/sup>\nAugust, says\nthat Sri\nLanka\u2019s health officials have gone on alert over a new COVID-19 variant\ndetected in South Africa and several other countries, which global health\nexperts say may be the most mutated version of the virus found so far and may\nhave the ability to evade COVID-19 vaccines which are currently available <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news items titled Most mutated\u2019 COVID\nvariant\u201d by Jamila Husain sounds an ominous warning that in addition to South Africa,\nthe presence of C.1.2 has also been confirmed in other countries like China,\nEngland, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, the Democratic Republic of the\nCongo and Mauritius  according to a new\nstudy that awaits peer review, the C.1.2 variant, detected first in South\nAfrica, may be more infectious than all other COVID variants found so far and\nmay have the ability to evade COVID-19 vaccines which are currently available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\ncontext of these possible developments, the following two news reports in the same\nissue of Daily Mirror provides some relevancy to the need for the government to\nexplore avenues that maybe available to employ Sri Lanka\u2019s Ayurveda medical\nheritage to counter COVID and its variants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\nnews report by Ajith\nSiriwardana<\/strong> states that 5,858 Covid patients treated in 13 Ayurveda\nHospitals; 4,720 have fully recovered and that more Ayurveda Hospitals will be opened\nfor Covid treatment this week. Reportedly, 299 Covid patients who were under\ntreatment in Ayurveda Hospitals had developed complications and required\ntreatment at western medical hospitals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsecond news report states that t<\/strong>he Government has planned to implement\na program to provide indigenous immune strengthening medicines and immune\nstrengthening porridge to all families in the country with the aim of\ncontrolling the current Covid 19 pandemic. It states that the Cabinet of\nMinisters has approved the proposal tabled by the Minister of Health to provide\na medicine box approved by the Formula Committee of the Department of Ayurveda\nto every family in the island. It has been decided to provide the medicine box\nfor 25 lakhs of families who lost their income during the quarantine curfew\nperiod in the first phase of the proposed program and provide for the remaining\nfamilies in the second phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country had experienced a debacle with a concoction (a\npeniya), the formula for which had been given by the Goddess Kali to a local Ayurveda\nperson, who with a lot of fanfare and fans, including the former Minister for\nHealth, introduced the supposed medication. The Peniya has disappeared from the\nhorizon although suspicion has arisen as to how this concoction managed to gain\nso much prominence, so soon and how it has since disappeared as fast as it\nappeared. Questions are being asked whether the entire episode was stage\nmanaged to discredit the Ayurveda treatment option, which if genuine and\nsuccessful, would have been a serious blow to the vaccine industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this regard, excerpts from an article published in the\nSunday Observer and reproduced in the Australian web journal eLanka on the 17th<\/sup>\nof January 2021 is noted here. The article was titled Sinhala\nWedakam physician achieves international fame (https:\/\/www.elanka.com.au\/sinhala-wedakam-physician-achieves-international-fame-by-laxman-j-embuldeniya\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article quotes the Ayurveda physician who has\ndeveloped a course of treatment for COVID, Dr Laxman Embuldeniya, stating We\ncan only imagine that if there was a \u2018Ministry of Health\u2019 as we have today, in\nancient times, how it would have been integrated to ensure the optimum health\nof its citizens; through what we cultivate, how we cultivate it, through\nhydraulic sustainability to prevent hunger, disease and being indebted to other\ncountries for essentials, such as medicine and food.\nTo talk of the pre-Ayurveda Deshiya Chikitsa (Sinhala Wedakama)\nmedical heritage of Sri Lanka is to talk of a wisdom driven medical tradition\nnurtured for centuries. Robert\nKnox, if he were alive, would have been able to explain to us what he wrote in\nhis book, An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon where he detailed the\nmedical expertise of the country and stated that this knowledge was with all\ncitizens who were physicians in their own right. Today\nthis knowledge, even the use of basic herbs and indigenous plants, may have been\nerased from the minds of the public, because we have not realised as a nation\nthe value of safeguarding it through an education system accessible to all\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditional\nknowledge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laxman\nJ. Embuldeniya, 56, at Elwela, Matale, who had qualified in the 1980s in\nSystems Engineering from the British Computer Society, having worked abroad\npertaining to technology, maintains that his father and grandparents from his\nmother as well as father\u2019s side had functioned as physicians and held a\nrepository of ancient knowledge in the form of books and pamphlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nthe past 25 years, he states that he has been researching Deshiya Chikitsa\n(Sinhala Wedakam) techniques passed on by his father and grandparents, using\nsome rare knowledge in Sri Lanka\u2019s medical tradition, for diseases, such as\nDengue, Diabetes and conditions, such as Autism and neurological disorders,\nsuch as Epilepsy. He is confident that the branch of Sinhala Wedakama he uses\ncan cure Autism. He said he has records to prove he has done it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article says that a letter, dated July 26, 2017\nsigned by the Private Secretary to the then Minister of Health introduced him\nas follows to the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA):\nBearer Indigenous Medical practitioner, Dr. Laxman J.\nEmbuldeniya, has developed an herbal medicine apparently effective for treating\nall conditions of Dengue Haemorrhagic fever and has demonstrated its efficacy\non several patients in Kalutara and Matale. The letter said that he has\npresented his medical experiments for Dengue to the then President, Maithripala\nSirisena and requested an expert committee <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since\nthen, he states he has developed a treatment for COVID and he is reportedly receiving\nlocal and international recognition for developing what could be described as a\nvaccine equivalent for Covid-19; in liquid form, which needs only two yoghurt\nspoonful quantities to be taken \u2013 just once and administered on to the tongue,\nprior to sleep. Asked if it is once in a\nlifetime treatment like a vaccine is supposed to be, he does not insist that\nthis is so, but said that this is how he has designed the medicine, made from\nherbal components. He said he has received queries\nfrom foreign doctors, officials as well as Sri Lankans from countries, such as\nItaly, New Zealand, Switzerland, Israel, Bangladesh and Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covid-19\ntreatment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto him, around 15,000 persons, mainly in Sri Lanka, have taken his Covid-19\ncurative and preventive treatment, out of which from feedback, at least 100 \u2013\n200 were Covid-19 positive patients who have recovered. He\nsaid that the strength of the herb composition of the medicine ensures that\nrecovery is successful within hours, using the minimalistic quantity rationale\nas used in the Rasa Wedakam tradition of ancient Sri Lanka.\nIn the local pandemic scenario, he considers one of his main\ncontributions to be the prevention of the Dambulla market Covid-19 incidence.\nHe said that following a media intervention by a provincial journalist\nfamiliar with the efficacy of his medicine, many vendors in the Dambulla\nmarket, who had been exposed to those who had contracted the virus, had taken\ntreatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feedbacks\nfrom patients<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndo not advertise and there is no board where I make my medicines. I have\ndeclined many media interviews. Somehow word spreads. We courier the medicines\nwell sealed within Aluminium foil. This has to be refrigerated.\nWe are daily couriering \u2013 many dozens of packs \u2013 and several\ngovernment officials and the private sector as well as military officials have\ntaken this treatment. We\ncollect the different reactions of those who take the treatment, mostly as a\nprotective mechanism. We have\nnot had a single reaction of the medicines failing. Many persons are reporting\nthat their cholesterol, diabetes and other ailments have disappeared,\u201d\nEmbuldeniya said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-toxic\nherbal components<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto Sinhala Wedakama, there is information of diverse \u2018families\u2019 or \u2018categories\u2019\nof viruses and whatever the new viruses emerging in the world are within those\ncategories. He said that the Covid-19 treatment he\nfinalised is administered on the tongue for signalling the brain.\nThis treatment is aimed at allowing the brain to respond to the\nRNA of the Covid-19 virus and destroy it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His\nappeal is for Sri Lankan authorities to look at Sri Lanka\u2019s traditional\nmedicine with honour and respect, especially during the time of global health\nchallenge. The way science was understood in ancient\ntimes in the country through which we developed many world marvels and the way\nit is understood now has to be contemplated upon. As\nsomeone qualified in systems engineering, I am well aware that what I am doing\nusing our age old traditional medical science is another method of programming;\nre-programming the human body,\u201d Embuldeniya said. He\ndoes not see a difference on the basis of knowledge in modern computer\ntechnology \u2013 systems engineering and the ancient knowledge of Sinhala Wedakama\nwhich draws on a vast body of universal knowledge that is not visible to the\nhuman eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nholds the view that Sinhala Wedakama can stand alone as a distinct body of\nmedical expertise within the Sinhala tradition that could be separated on many\naspects from Ayurveda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nCOVID treatment methodology reportedly developed by Dr Embuldeniya, its safety\nand its effectiveness needs to be ascertained, soon. It is suggested that the\nMinister of Health with the approval of President Rajapaksa, undertakes such an\nexercise as a matter of priority considering the current state of the pandemic,\nand the potential state as mentioned in the Daily Mirror, comes to pass in Sri\nLanka. While the governments vaccination program is reported to be proceeding\nat a furious pace, the number of COVID positive cases and deaths is also rising\neven more furiously. <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale A medical heritage of a country could be cited as one of its best treasures and most powerful weapons. Sri Lanka has proven that its medical legacy was protected by ancient kings as part of governance policy and aspects, such as agriculture, belief system\/spirituality and diet encompassing the concept of health. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-raj-gonsalkorale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}