Medical Student Using Texts 28 Centuries Old

Steven Brock studied medicine in Nepal--but it was a branch of medicine more than 28 centuries old.

Brock, 26, of Plainfield, Vt., went to Nepal to study the science of ayurveda, the world’s first recorded life science. It was codified 28 centuries ago in Sanskrit by scholars who believed they were taught by God’s physicians.

Ayurvedic texts detail an intricate system of treating illness and disease with medicinal plants, including preparations that permanently sterilize women--banned in Nepal--shorter-term birth control, a two-week cure for hepatitis and remedies for common ailments.

Another substance is “given to dying men who won’t let go of life--because of their anguish of leaving, worrying over family, estate--and are scared to enter the other world,” he said. The preparation is also used for extreme pain, shock or depression.

A common preparation is called “ramastak”--a digestive aid containing ginger, pepper, salt, garlic, cumin, sulfur and a tree latex. Brock said that he once made ramastak with his teacher’s father

“Once I made it, he popped one in his mouth to taste it. He told me that one part in 10 was a little off. He was right. It didn’t have enough latex.”