Yoga, traditional medicine can play a role to check NCDs: Naik

Indian traditional medicine system and Yoga can play a prominent role in checking Non- Communicable Diseases (NCDs), Union Minister Shripad Naik said here today.
At a pre-event workshop of World NCD Congress, he said the government has already started an All India Institute of Ayurveda and work on 66 hospitals allover India under AYUSH has begun to promote traditional treatment methods.
Specialty treatment facilities are being created at AYUSH at all levels, the Minister of State for AYUSH said.
NCDs have been the major cause of deaths in the recent years and are posing a big threat. Generally called lifestyle diseases, these have now spreaded in rural areas also, he said.

"Indian traditional medicine system and Yoga can play a prominent role in checking NCDs," Naik said.
Scientists' efforts to check NCDs are commendable but ancient systems like Ayurveda and Yoga have to be adopted as they take a holistic view of health and well being, he said.

"Moreover, these are cost-free and safe," he said.
Naik said the government intends to bring quality and differential changes in the health system in the country.
The AYUSH ministry has developed a Yoga protocol, he said, adding 'Mission Madhumeh' has been launched to provide an effective check to the menace of diabetes which itself is a root cause of many other health problems.

The minister said that the aim is to develop India into a Healthy India (Swasth Bharat).
Earlier, Yoga experts in traditional system of medicine provided an insight to the gathering about the benefits of these systems.