Sudhir Ahluwalia's Blog, page 30

What is the future of herbal medicine?

Herbal medicines are a repository of human knowledge aggregated over at least 5000 years of human history. They have inspired scientists to look at constituent herbs, identify bioactive molecules in them and conduct experiments to study their efficacy.
Most modern medicines are of herbal origin. Once the efficacy of a molecule gets established with the help of multiple clinical trials, these molecules, chemical alternatives are identified, and mass production of drugs becomes possible.
Herbal medicines are generally polyherbal combinations. The synergistic action of multiple molecules in constituent plants makes these medicines effective.
Cocktail drugs in modern medicine are just emerging. The starting point of research in these cases again is herbal medicine combinations. The research of multiple herb combinations is n-fold more complex than single plant herbs. Scientific protocols and procedures on multiherbal research combinations are in the process of evolution.
The world of plants is huge. The medicinal properties of plants are myriad. Hartwell estimates that at least 3000 plants possess cancer healing properties. The entire herbal medicine knowledge database across all herbal medicine systems from the Northern and Southern Hemisphere may not exceed 5000-6000 plants. It took humans 5000 years to discover the existing herbal medicine combinations. We are still learning the value of these herbal combinations.
Humanity still has miles to go and a lot of exploring. The starting point will continue to be herbal medicine.

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I want to set up a soy manufacturing business. Is that feasible?

Let me share with you a brief guide that you can use:
Begin by doing an industry analysis of soy food manufacturing in your State.
You can do that by asking the following questions:
1. Who are the customers for soy food?
2. Who are the main manufacturers who could be potential competitors?
3. At what price are they selling their products in the market?
4. Do competitors sell the products over an online platform like Amazon, or are do they place them on retailer shelves?
5. What is the net revenue you would get after deducting taxes, logistics costs, commissions to retailers -online or otherwise, cost of servicing the loan?
6. Will the net revenue cover your manufacturing costs and leave you with a decent margin?
7. What are the regulatory controls in your State, and does your State offer incentives to manufacturers?
8. Do you observe seasonal variations of demand for soy food, or is it steady?
9. Do you see any growth in the demand for soy food?
If, at the end of this exercise, you find that your soy food manufacturing will give you profit and help achieve your business objective, go ahead and start the implementation process. Otherwise, junk it, look for a new idea, and repeat the exercise for the new idea? Keep doing this till you find the one idea that works best for you.
All the best.

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Herbal solutions for cancer treatment and management?

The world of plants and their healing properties is huge. Let me still provide you with a preview of the cancer healing properties of herbs.

Hartwell (1969, 1970, 1971) surveyed and collected data on about 3000 plants known to possess anticancer properties. Half of all the anticancer drugs approved globally are based on or derived from natural products.

Over 60% of currently used anticancer agents are derived from natural sources such as plants, marine organisms, and microorganisms (Newman et al., 2003). Vinca (Catharanthus roseus or Vinca rosea, the Madagascar periwinkle) is one of the earliest vinca alkaloids, vinblastine, and vincristine sources. These molecules are used in chemotherapy. Semisynthetic derivatives of these alkaloids have since been developed.

Camptotheca acuminata, Ophiorrhiza pumila syn Mapia foetida are a source of colorectal cancer drugs. Semisynthetic analogs of this medicine have also been prepared. Taxanes derived from Yew trees (Taxus bacata) are used to manufacture taxanes (e.g., paclitaxel, docetaxel) used in chemotherapy.

There is ongoing research to identify herbs that could be effective in cancer treatment. Curcumin isolated from the common spice turmeric, for instance, has been shown to possess a lot of promise as a medicine for treating cancers.

Additional reading:

Natural Solutions for Cancer

Natural Solutions – tri-series

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Has the time come to stress on sustainable operational management of startups?

Sustainability will have to be integral to startup strategy and operations because, without that organization, demise chances are very high.
Climate change is a reality. The energy mix is changing rapidly. The move away from carbon-rich fossil-based energy is gaining momentum. It is leading to a massive churn. Investors understand that businesses dependent on carbon-based energy will have to transform and move to renewables for survival. Green thinking has to be integrated into corporate culture and planning.
Internet penetration worldwide has led to an explosion of information availability. Customers, clients, investors, and stakeholders have ready access to information and knowledge derived from that. Social media has exponentially increased communication and speeded up information exchange at a pace never before.
Gone are the days when organization decisions and strategies were the sole preserve of Founders and their boards. They are today always in the spotlight. Transparency is a requirement.
I have provided an overview of the necessity of ESG practices in strategy, business models, and future business operations. Startups are the industry’s future and must be mindful of this reality.

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How is it that onions and garlic are such widespread ingredients?

Human beings have experimented and identified foods with multiple health-giving properties over the millennium.

In traditional Chinese medicine, onions are said to enhance chi or energy. They induce urination and perspiration. It is recommended for consumption when the weather is cold. Onion ameliorates respiratory stress caused by cold weather.

Herbal medicine systems of both China and India regard onion as beneficial to the cardiovascular system. It helps reduce blood platelet aggregation and cholesterol levels. Onion, both ripe and green, are said to help improve digestion. They also keep oral bacteria under check.

Onions are also anti-inflammatory and can help reduce arthritic and associated pains in bones and joints.

Both Chinese and traditional Indian herbal medicine systems claim that onion and its seed enhance libido. Hot water extract of onion is an aphrodisiac for both men and women.

Onion was used to treating colds, improve digestion, heart ailments, blisters, boils, and topical scars.

Fresh onion is consumed to lessen amenorrhea, menstrual, and uterine pains. Mixed with Adhatoda vasica and honey, onion is recommended to treat tuberculosis. Unani and Ayurveda doctors use onion in dried, roasted, fresh, and juice forms to treat respiratory, gastric, eye diseases, and diabetes.

Garlic’s initial use was probably as a food preservative. The strong garlic flavor would have helped mask foul odor emanating from food stored for extended periods. To fresh food, it added flavor and taste. Garlic, over time, has become part of the daily human diet across the globe.

There are extensive references to its medicinal properties in the Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita, ancient Indian medical texts. Both Indians and Chinese regard garlic as an aphrodisiac. It aids digestion, improves respiration, and gets rid of intestinal worm infestation (Woodward, 1996). It helps in enhancing qi—life energy. Charaka Samhita recommends using garlic to treat heart disease and arthritis. Garlic’s effect is also said to be diuretic.

Additional reading:

Asian herbs and their wondrous health-giving properties

Holy Herbs: Modern Connections to Ancient Plants Similar Posts:

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Why is regularly making improvements vital to maintaining and growing a successful small business?

Incremental improvements in a business are generally non-disruptive. These are easy for the organization to adapt. Customers, too, are also able to accept incremental improvements easily.
Over time these measures help improve operational efficiency and increase competitive advantage. When competitors can quickly copy incremental changes, the business will face the threat of strategic convergence.
Strategic convergence is a condition in which there is little differentiation between your business and your competitor. In such situations, the customer base gets divided and erodes to competitors over time.
It is time then to look at your business strategy and model. A new strategic plan and business models will help you bring about transformational change, increase customers’ willingness to pay, and once again achieve a competitive advantage over competitors.
The phenomenon described above keeps repeatedly happening to businesses. Founders and smart and perceptible boards can spot the emergence of strategic convergence, erosion of customers’ willingness to pay, and get disrupted.
For this reason, keeping an eye on your business strategy and business model is critical for business health.

Credentials:

Professional Certification on business models

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How do I prevent acquiring diabetes even with a family history?

Genetic inheritance only increases the chances of contracting the disease. It is not a certainty. There is now a ton of scientific evidence that proves that epigenetic factors play a major role in human health and disease control and management.

With this scientific overview, all lifestyle diseases, including diabetes, can be prevented by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. We are all familiar with commonly known and understood healthy lifestyle principles. These are:

Regular exerciseEating healthy foodKeeping stress down to the extent possible.

Sleep has emerged as a major factor in disease prevention. Eight hours of sleep in a day are known to keep a person healthy. The trick is to maintain a balance and not oversleep or get sleep-deprived.

Yoga, meditation, tai chi, and qi gong are also known to help keep diabetes away. Here are a few summaries of scientific work that support the role of Yoga, for instance.

A systematic review of articles and studies on the health impact of Yoga shows that its’ practice helps in weight control, reduction of blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood sugar. (Yang, K., 2007; Youngwanichsetha, S. et al., 2014)

Yoga and standard physical training exercises both positively impact individuals who have diabetes. It helps reduce oxidative stress and bring about improvements in antioxidant profiles. (Gordon, L.A., et al., 2008)

Diabetic individuals who performed pranayama felt a sense of well-being in 7 to 10 days of practice. Demand for insulin, other diabetes control medicine dropped. In this trial, four types of pranayama were practiced for 30 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of resting yoga posture called Shavasana (a dead person pose posture). (Sahay, B.K., 2007)

Remember, the key to lifestyle disease prevention lies in your hand. It is epigenetic that can override genetic predilection.

References:

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How does product design contribute to the success of a company?

Take a look at Apple. At the core of its business strategy lies product design.
Steve Jobs’s emphasis on design is well documented. His attention to detail is legendary. Other aspects like marketing, supply chain, manufacturing, and human resources were also relevant to that strategy. Apple continues to be a product design-led organization even today.
On the other hand, Elon Musk’s companies, SpaceX or Tesla, are agile, and this thinking permeates these organizations.
Microsoft, Metaverse, and Google are marketing-led organizations.
It is all about the vision and thinking of the Founders. Business strategies and business models flow from the core thinking of the organizations. But the idea alone is not enough for success. It has to be backed by a great business strategy and model. People bring life to the organization, with the business process providing the skeleton and circuit on which the company runs.
All this is generic stuff. Each company is different. It is built around a unique idea, well-crafted business strategy, a great business model that provides value to itself and its customers.

About the author:

Certified in business strategy 

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What are the strategies that make Starbucks a market leader?

Starbucks is a textbook case of a company that has successfully secured a competitive advantage over its competitors. Companies tend to copy the best practices of their competitors. In a coffee enterprise, the value chain would be – sourcing ingredients, making coffee, customer service, maintaining health and hygiene in outlets, store design, branding, marketing, logistics, and distribution.
Each component in the value chain has a set of activities. Competitors seek to copy the activities and operational processes of the market leader. As they copy the gap between them and the leader starts disappearance. A time comes when there is no difference in competitors’ activities and operational processes. This state is called strategic convergence.
Competitive advantage is secured when a company has activities that cannot be easily copied by competition. While the value chains of Starbucks and its competitors may be similar, activities and their inter-relationships are different. Starbucks continues to stay ahead in strengthening and building upon its value chain and activities, making it difficult for competitors to replicate their activities.
All those companies who have succeeded in building an activity network that competitors find difficult to copy will continue to stay ahead. Therefore, it is important for corporate success, to develop their unique value chain and activities that others find difficult to replicate. As long as they succeed in achieving this, they will remain competitive. Starbucks, Airbnb, Walmart, Southwest Airlines, Amazon, Google, Facebook, have all succeeded in achieving this. It is for this reason these companies are market leaders.

About the author:

Professionally certified in business strategy

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Why is a diet rich in antioxidants associated with lower cancer risk?

Oxidants are the most common of the cell damage-causing molecules. Oxidants are produced during healthy cellular metabolism. These normally help modulate inflammation, kill bacteria, detoxify toxins, and maintain a good tone of vascular (blood vessel). Excess unutilized oxidants damage cell membranes, lipids, and DNA. This damage gets repaired by antioxidants obtained from food.
We get exposed to oxidants from external sources too. Smoking, alcohol, certain drugs, deep-fried and fatty foods are other sources. We get exposed to oxidants through radiation, UV light, heat shock, and strong sunlight too. Other oxidant sources are air fresheners as well as vehicular and industrial pollutants. Oxidants interact with antioxidants, destroying these. Diet will need to have enough surplus antioxidants to counterbalance the loss from oxidants.
Free oxidants that are not neutralized by antioxidants can cause degenerative diseases. These include atherosclerotic heart disease, diabetes, skin ailments, arthritis, neurodegenerative disorders, cancers, etc.
Plant-based phytochemical-rich foods help regulate estrogen, slow cancer cell growth and block inflammation.
Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, related vegetables, lycopene found in tomato products, pink grapefruit, watermelon, and apricots protect several types of cancers.
No single antioxidant molecule has been found to replace the health benefits generated by a combination of natural phytochemicals found in fruits and vegetables. Consumers need to eat 5–10 servings of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables daily to mitigate the risk of chronic diseases and to meet nutrient requirements essential for optimum health (Liu, 2004).
Dietary phytochemicals act as modulators of cellular signals that trigger proteins that make cells turn cancerous (Lee et al., 2001). In both preclinical animal models and human studies, dietary phytochemicals were cancer-preventive (Lee et al., 2013).

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