The role of modern science in Tibetan medicine

Today, as centuries ago, the Gyushi is the standard work of Tibetan medicine. In the comprehensive training of Tibetan doctors, the knowledge contained in these work forms the foundation of the teaching.

The scientific research into the Tibetan formulas that have been passed down to us mainly serves to assist the translation, because the Tibetan way of describing the effects of plants and remedies is very different from our way. We are accustomed to describing the chemical structure of the constituents, the biochemical and pharmacological activity of the remedies and their clinical effects. Western science has developed special terms for this purpose.

The multilayered structure of the Tibetan recipes shows that their effect can be suitably described only through the collaboration of many different specialists. In conventional pharmaceutical science, individual active substances are isolated and then researched separately. In conventional therapy individual, so-called causally effective, active substances are also used.

Chronic diseases are caused by multifactorial triggering agents. Can Tibetan medicine and its various formulas, consisting of very many selected herbs, provide a solution here? In order to answer this question, PADMA AG drew up a comprehensive programme to investigate the effect of PADMA 28.

The Tibetan doctors describe the taste and the qualities of a plant or formula, the effect on the three principles and the effect on different diseases, according to their own diagnostic system. Now, after PADMA 28 has also been investigated according to scientific criteria, certain equivalents are evident in the two different ways of describing it:

Tibetan description	Possible scientific translation
Astringent, hot taste	Tannins, essential oils, camphor (chemical components)
Increases the "Lung" principle in the body (stands for movement in general)	Promotes the blood circulation (pharmacological effect)
Reduces the "Tipa" principle in the body, cooling nature	Reference to the anti-inflammatory effect and the antioxidative potential (pharmacological activity)
Acts against "deep, hidden fever"	Chronic inflammatory processes. They are the underlying cause of circulatory disorders, for example, that are due to arteriosclerosis. (Clinical effect).

As a result of the translation work we have a better understanding of the active properties and the possible application of our remedy (the early stages of circulatory disorders with symptoms such as tingling, formication, calf cramps), which are described for us in understandable terms.