Ayurvedic Medicine

A report from India on an ayurvedic cure for asthma:

Concocted from a secret herbal recipe and inserted into the mouth of a live murrel fish, the medicine is dropped, wriggling, into the mouth of the patient who must then swallow it, fish and all, whole and alive.

Although thousands swear by its efficacy - 75,000 people turned up to swallow the fish last year - India's medical authorities have now mounted a campaign to persuade the masses it is nothing but a dangerous confidence trick.

The Indian Medical Association has also filed a court application to force its creators either to reveal its contents as required under Indian law or admit that it is not a "medicine".

I must admit, I don’t really see what the problem is. Good medicine is medicine that works, whatever the mumbo jumbo it’s wrapped up in. Standard western treatment for asthma is steroids. This fish:

Today the three surviving Bathini brothers still prepare the "miracle medicine" using the blessed well water.

The rationalists are unconvinced, particularly since laboratory tests on the "wonder-fish" revealed metals, including cadmium and mercury and steroids.

What’s the problem?