|
|
|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
|
|
Feature
Nutraceuticals -- shift of focus from illness to wellness
|
|
Monday, 01 February, 2010, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
|
|
By K C Raghu
|
Nutraceuticals, functional foods, pharma foods , dietary supplements for special needs. Names galore. Both specialist and generalist do not seem to be having a clear idea with regard to the definitions and differentiations of the segment. The fog remains uncleared scuttling the takeoff of the segment. It is but natural that the general public is sceptical and cynical as to what they hold for us. Do they contain real stuff and substance? Or is it another game of 4’p’s and 4’c’s.It could also be just capital “P” (read Profit). Deft definition for GM engineering is put forth as “DNA makes RNA , RNA makes protein, and protein makes money.” Same could be true for nutraceuticals too. Promises are plenty from the segment. The domain ranges from arthritis to aphrodisiac.
On the other hand is it really a paradigm shift of healthcare focus from illness to wellness, disease treatment to prevention, sickness seeking to health promotion? A kind of demedicalisation of health. Health being a ecosystem function needs harmonious nurturing on daily basis. Bleeding is worse than bloody. Thomas Alva Edison opined long back that the future doctors must focus on how not to fall sick. From the beginning of revolution of modern medical science and technology there has been an emphasis on diseases. If you look around you will see plenty of disease control organisations, departments and hospitals. Most of them are centralised and concentrating on disease control. It is more of a fire-fighting job. But the fire does not seem quenched, appears to be engulfing health and well-being into its belly.
As an indirectly forced and imposed situation, American citizens, for whom healthcare system is unaffordable, cling to nutraceutical formulations as a solace. Nearly 5% of Americans do this. The HMO system (Health Maintenance Organisation) has made them fallen out of healthcare system. Obama’s new healthcare policy could undo this a little.
Socially and demographically nutraceutical relevance is gaining ground on account of shift in the knowledge base. Nuclear families replace joint families. More DISK (Double Income Single Kid), DINK (Double Income No Kid) seem to be the flavour of the season. The disjoint and disconnect between the traditional life style and living to the new is ever increasing. Houses are coming up without kitchen. Individual responsibilities are getting shifted to institutions even though institutional solutions and doled out is no substitute for individually empowered endowed and entitled system. But the knowledge of healthcare system from tradition, community and common sense needs to be made relevant of the times and the pot must be kept boiling.
The search for it is exotic, at times quixotic solutions are keenly sought from time immemorial. Kings and commoners have tried to extend health, vitality, youth and age. But success more often than not remains in fables and fairytales.
However, there are umpteen number of nutraceutical ingredient as a part of our traditional knowledge, grandma recipes and community knowledge. For example as a traditional knowledge every other Tamil household makes oil-less pickle out of citron, commonly known as “Narthangai”. It’s a real panacea for all commonly occurring diarrhoea and digestive disorders. It always remains a part of itineraries for tours and travels. Such beneath the nose solutions are innumerable. We seem to be carried away by high sounding scientific and technological solutions doled out by labs and scientific institutions. We are over-obsessed with “NASA TECHNOLOGY” for our daily bread.
It is very pertinent here to mention that when community knowledge is used and must be used for the common good. What kind of social contract system must be built to ensure that it does not lead to robbery of knowledge from common pool and create better bottom line for commercial organisation. It is also unclear as to how the nutraceutical segment will have a separate entity of knowledge to stand on its own which does not encroach and encumber traditionally well established preventive and proactive healthcare systems like Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha.
(The author is a managing director of Pristine Organics Pvt. Ltd)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|