Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham faculty member, Dr. P. Ram Manohar, Director, Amrita Centre for Advanced Research in Ayurveda (ACARA), attended the Second International Conference on Integrative Medicine: Role of Yoga and Ayurveda on the theme “Role of Yoga and Ayurveda in Pain and Addiction Management”. The conference was conducted at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Centre, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA on 20^th and 21^st May, 2017. On 20^th May, 2017, the first day of the conference, Dr. Manohar delivered a talk on Chronic Pain Management from the Ayurvedic perspective. He also conducted a workshop on “Research on Pain in Musculoskeletal Diseases and its Ayurvedic Management” on May 21^st.

“In chronic pain, we have to attend to the source of the pain, the danger that caused the pain signal to be turned on. Just blocking the pain pathways or knocking the brain down does not help in the long run. Ayurveda incorporates pain into the very definition of health and disease. Sukhasamñjakamārogyam vikāro duḥkhameva ca and ….. Pain cannot be removed, cannot be isolated from the context of the disease. Ayurveda tackles pain in the context of the disease as a whole, the body calms down when we pay attention to the source of the pain, and we discover that the pain can be conquered without the use of any pain killer,” said Dr. Manohar.

Over 250 policy makers, scholars, scientists, researchers, physicians, nurse practitioners and other health workers, and students from USA, India, Canada, UK, Australia and Japan attended the conference. The conference was inaugurated by the Chief Guest of the event, Minister Shri Shripad Naik, on May 20^th at the Rotunda Hall of the Joseph Martin Conference Center, Harvard Medical School and Mr. Nam Pham, Assistant Secretary for Business Development and International trade, State of Massachusetts. The AYUSH Minister of India, Mr. Shripad Naik, and Chairman of the Advisory Board of International Day of Yoga, Dr. HR Nagendra inaugurated the curtain raiser event at the Joseph Martin Conference Center, Harvard Medical School.