Key Points
- About half of Indians use AYUSH or home remedies[1]; WHO estimates about 80% of the world's population uses traditional medicine[2].
- India hosts WHO's Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar[2]; China runs TCM services in almost every community health centre[3].
- The evidence differs by system and product. Australia's national review found no reliable evidence that homeopathy works for any condition[4]; some metal-based Ayurvedic products carry real risk[5].
- Whatever a doctor thinks of these systems, the patient is taking them. The doctor needs to know.
Who Uses Traditional Medicine?
46–53%Indians who used AYUSH or a home remedy in the past year (46.3% rural, 52.9% urban), 2022–23NSS 79th round[1]
India has 7.52 lakh registered AYUSH practitioners[6]. In 2022 India and WHO established the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar, with a $250 million Indian investment[2].
How Other Countries Handle It
| Country | Approach |
|---|---|
| China | Integrates traditional Chinese medicine into the public system: 65,809 TCM institutions at the end of 2019, 1.16 billion TCM visits that year, and TCM available at 98.3% of community health centres and 97.1% of township health centres[3] |
| United Kingdom | NHS England told GPs in 2017 to stop prescribing homeopathy and herbal treatments, judging them of low clinical value[7] |
| Australia | The national medical research council reviewed more than 1,800 papers on homeopathy, kept 225 that met its standards, and found no reliable evidence of benefit for any health condition (2015)[4] |
| India | A separate Ministry of AYUSH; regulated colleges and practitioners; AYUSH medicines licensed under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act; a pharmacovigilance programme for AYUSH medicines[8] |
Safety: What Is Known
~1 in 5Of about 200 Ayurvedic products bought online in the US contained detectable lead, mercury or arsenic: 40% of metal-based (rasa shastra) products, 17% of herbal-onlyJAMA, 2008[5]
3 of 8Patients with liver injury from single-ingredient ashwagandha in an Indian case series died; all had underlying liver diseaseHepatology Communications, 2023[9]
3,000+Adverse reactions to AYUSH medicines recorded by India's pharmacovigilance programme since 2018, none fatal according to the AYUSH SecretaryThePrint, March 2026[8]
65,000+Misleading AYUSH advertisements flagged in eight years under the Drugs and Magic Remedies ActThePrint, March 2026[8]
A small number of recorded reactions does not mean reactions are rare; it can mean they are rarely reported, especially when doctors do not know the patient takes the product.
How to Read the Evidence
- Systems are not single treatments. "Ayurveda" covers thousands of preparations, from turmeric to metal-based bhasmas. Each needs its own evidence.
- Natural is not the same as safe. Many modern drugs come from plants; so do some toxins.
- Interactions matter more than ideology. A patient on blood thinners, diabetes medicines or chemotherapy who also takes a herbal product may be at risk regardless of whether the herb "works".
What This Means for 1Heath
1Heath takes no side between systems of medicine. It records what each patient takes, from every system, in the patient's own words, with official ingredients where the pharmacopoeia lists them and a flag for metal-containing preparations, so the treating doctor can decide. How 1Heath handles every system of medicine.
Sources
- Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Press note: Survey on Ayush, NSS 79th round (July 2022 to June 2023), 13 June 2024. mospi.gov.in
- World Health Organization. WHO establishes the Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India, 25 March 2022. who.int
- National Health Commission of China. China has over 65,000 TCM medical institutions, October 2020. en.nhc.gov.cn
- Australian NHMRC review of homeopathy, 2015, as reported by The Week. theweek.com
- Saper RB, et al. Lead, mercury, and arsenic in US- and Indian-manufactured Ayurvedic medicines sold via the Internet. JAMA, 2008 (Boston University). bu.edu
- Union Health Minister, written reply in the Rajya Sabha, 2 December 2025, as reported by Deccan Herald. deccanherald.com
- PharmaTimes. NHS England confirms cull of low-value treatments, December 2017. pharmatimes.com
- ThePrint. 65,000 misleading ads flagged, 3,000 adverse reactions recorded since 2018, says Ayush Secretary, 9 March 2026. theprint.in
- Ashwagandha-induced liver injury: a case series from India and literature review. Hepatology Communications, 2023;7(10). pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov