AyurVijnana, Vol.7, 2000
The Continuation of the
BADMAEV FAMILY TRADITION
in its 5th Generation
By Vladimir Badmaev, Jr.
Sometimes a question that you ask yourself triggers a change in your life. Such a question may also arise when we intuitively feel that time for change has come. What was the important question, I wonder, that started a ‘change’ in the life of my ancestors that resulted in five subsequent generations, myself being the fifth, becoming involved in a relatively obscure oriental tradition called Tibetan medicine? Strangely enough my ancestral roots are not in Tibet but in a region of Russian Siberia, around Lake Baikal, called Buryatia. The culture of this region has been influenced by and is a remnant of the 8th century Tibetan Empire and its culture. Buryatia is a Buddhist enclave known for its special brand of medical practices called Tibetan medicine, often considered inseparable from Buddhism and its philosophy.1 Ethnically, Buryats are closest to Mongolians, and yet they have a distinct language and culture, which links them to a region a thousand miles away, situated on a plateau of the Himalayas, or at the ‘roof of the world’ – Tibet.
What could have been the motives for a profound change in the life of my ancestral uncle, Sultim Badma, an accomplished Buryat doctor, that would cause him to abandon the comfort of his homeland and travel in the 1850s across seven time zones to settle in Russia’s capital, St. Petersburg? His knowledge of Russian culture and language was very limited when he accepted the invitation to St. Petersburg from the then Governor of Siberia, N. N. Muravyev-Amursky. This invitation was a gesture of recognition from the Governor, grateful to Sultim for saving the life of his wife who had nearly died of typhoid fever. At the time of this meaningful decision the Buryat doctor had past the prime of his life, and was probably in his early sixties. Yet the remaining years of his life were filled out with the energy and passion of a much younger man. It could be that his fateful decision for a one-way trip and a bountiful energy were inspired and instilled by a true belief that his medical art deserved to be known outside of Buryatia.
Regardless of his motives, Sultim Badma, later Dr. Alexander Badmaev, brought to St. Petersburg and to the West a unique art of disease prevention and treatment. [1, 2] I often refer to the time of his arrival in St. Petersburg as the beginning of a Western Odyssey of Tibetan medicine. Indeed, Sultim seemed to be on a self-appointed mission to educate Westerners about Tibetan medicine. In so doing he brought from Buryatia his younger brother and fellow Tibetan doctor, Zham-Saran Badma, later Dr. Pyotr Badmaev. [1, 2] Both Badmaevs provided their own interpretation of Tibetan medicine, which now could be seen as an effort to integrate traditional knowledge with mainstream (allopathic) medicine. Not everybody agreed with their approach to the subject, and they have been at times criticized for providing a too simplified version of Tibetan medical knowledge.
However, there is no denying that they enjoyed a reputation as good doctors. Pyotr was also a successful entrepreneur, establishing a Tibetan clinic at Poklonnaya Gora in St. Petersburg where in-patients and out-patients were seen and treated, and young adepts of Tibetan medicine were trained.
Both Badmaevs emphasised a practical rather than esoteric approach to Tibetan medicine, stressing to their western colleagues and patients alike that this non-conventional medical system is based on logic; thus it can be confirmed by science. [3] Their thought process centred around principles which are touched upon by today’s integrative or complementary medicine:
the majority of diseases are not caused by an abrupt insult but result from long-standing abuse of the organism; the gastrointestinal system is central in the pathogenesis of most diseases; any disease affects all the organs and body systems, despite the obvious manifestation associated with the body organ/system affected most; the role of any treatment is to support but not to replace the organism’s natural defense mechanism against disease.
Uncharacteristically for the Tibetan way of teaching, the Badmaevs did not use a lot of Sanskrit terminology but instead used descriptive language to explain their diagnostic and therapeutic approach. They argued, for example, that since most diseases (according to Tibetan medicine) are regarded as a result of a long-standing pathological process, most treatments in that tradition have been aimed at a correspondingly gradual recovery. To insure that improvement related to therapy is gradual, the treatment with a drug usually starts with one third of the maximum therapeutic dose over a period of weeks. Based on the reaction of the individual patient, the dose may be increased, and after accomplishing the therapeutic goal gradually tapered off. Usually therapy spans from one to three months and is followed by a one month break and re-evaluation. If improvement has not been accomplished the cycle of treatment is repeated. The one month break between cycles was designed not only for re-evaluation of the condition but also to enhance the organism’s own physiological defense mechanisms against the disease.In many ways, design and application of the traditional drugs created and used by the Badmaevs represent a carefully developed form of treatments. Based on a triadic philosophy (with three elements necessary for a complete formula) these formulations, composed of several herbal and/or mineral ingredients, have been arranged into three therapeutic groups of ingredients, which occur in each formula:
1. the main acting ingredients,
2. the ingredients that support the main action, and
3. the ingredients that prevent any untoward effects of the first two groups and increase gastrointestinal absorption and tissue bioavailability of the active principles.This pharmacological design, created some one hundred years ago, seems to be validated by time and clinical research. In fact, the threefold design of these formulae could well be advised for any effective and safe nutritional or pharmaceutical treatment. The well- recognised feature of the Tibetan system of therapy and the formulae (the third group of ingredients) is their emphasis on proper functioning of the digestive tract, specifically digestion, absorption, and bioavailability of food, nutrients, and (when necessary) drugs. Primary care for the digestive tract is approached there by providing a digestive formula to correct the suspected nutritional problem. Secondary care is provided by supplementing various formulae with a digestion and nutrient absorption-enhancing component (see the third group in the three-group design). Importantly, the nutrient for the ‘digestive process’ is understood in Tibetan medicine not only as food that we eat, but also air that we breathe and significantly the ‘food’ that feeds our mental and emotional processes. Thus in the Tibetan system of therapy there are specialised formulae supporting the absorption of specific ‘nutrients’.
While in St. Petersburg, Alexander and Pyotr Badmaev maintained close contacts with their homeland, which was a source of herbs and minerals for their botanical formulae, and more importantly a source of talented and knowledgeable medical students and professionals. Among those Buryats who joined Pyotr in St. Petersburg was my grandfather Jamyan Badma, later known as Dr. Vladimir Nikolayevich Badmaev. [4] His name underwent further phonetic chances to Badmajeff and Badmajew during his Odyseey to the West. Initially, Vladimir attended the monastery of Aga in Buryatia, which served, as has been the Buddhist tradition, as a medical school. In his recollections, the monastery was like a little town situated around the Buddhist temple, with lecture buildings and quarters for the head of the school, teachers (lamas), and students (hurwacs). The mind of a young student in the monastery was molded in a traditional oriental way of education. The student had to memorise a profound knowledge, not easily understandable for him at that time. He was supposed to make use of that knowledge in his mature life. There were lectures of the inductive and deductive ways of thinking, presented in a very imaginative form. For example, the student was taught that when looking at a flower one must not stop with the enjoyment of its beauty and its fragrance. Importantly an observer should reach deeper and become aware of the flower when it did not exist as a bloom but was only a bud. Then the analysis has to go even deeper, to the roots. That was a lesson in contemplating any phenomenon or event to its symbolic roots.
At the age of twelve, around the year 1896, Vladimir was brought by his uncle Pyotr to St. Petersburg, where his education continued at the Tibetan medical complex at Poklonnaya Gora. After graduating from high school, Vladimir entered the Military Medical School in Moscow, where he obtained the diploma of a physician. Following the 1917 Revolution in Russia, an almost 40 year old Badmaev escaped to Poland, where he obtained a license to practise medicine. In his medical practice Dr. Vladimir Badmaev combined both the Western and the Tibetan knowledge of medicine. As a medical professional, he was confronted by the double standards applied by the people to his practice. Officially, his medicine was controversial and even held in contempt by the academicians. On the other hand, the number of patients in his office kept growing and included patients prominent in the public eye.
One of the foundations of therapy in Vladimir’s method was treatment with the family herbal prescriptions. Renowned though they were, he regarded his herbal formulae as auxiliary treatments. Before prescribing any specific formulation to a patient, he wanted to make sure that the patient understood his overall approach to the disease. Following what he learned from Pyotr, he maintained that none of the techniques devised by man against any disease could be as helpful as the body’s own means of fighting the disease. These natural means should be supported, during critical moments, by specific treatments. But, in the first place, the patient should be maintained in good shape by, 1) proper nutrition, 2) good life-habits, 3) proper adjustment to the seasons of the year, and 4) awareness by the individual of his/her psychological and physical predispositions. In order to fulfill these four conditions of well-being a patient should, according to Dr. Badmaev, guide himself with moral values, i.e. awareness, will power and compassion. He used to say that Western medicine does not recognise moral values as a means of treatment because it does not sufficiently know man as a psychic phenomenon. His recommendations, given to patients during office visits, were not only acknowledged but generally well received and understood by his patients. Thus, they acquired a sense of Tibetan medical philosophy and actively helped Vladimir in propagating that philosophy. In addition, Dr. Badmaev managed to preserve his interpretation of Tibetan medical concepts in four books published in the 1930s and two journals, edited by him quarterly (1920s-1930s). [5]
Dr. Vladimir Badmaev died in 1961 in communist Poland where there was little official appreciation for the Tibetan doctor and his work. His son Peter, named after Pyotr A. Badmaev, who graduated from the Medical Academy at Lodz, Poland, became a successful surgeon. Peter faced the dilemma of a physician molded in modern ways, who at the same time has been destined to carry on a family tradition. Although well versed in Tibetan medicine through father-to-son teachings, he was at the same time acutely aware of a spectacular feast of contemporary Western medicine. He pondered, for example, whether a gradually acting herbal formulae could compare with a shot of penicillin in curing bacterial pneumonia, or with the efficacy of a vaccine that can eradicate a deadly Polio virus epidemic? There hardly seemed to be a common denominator for the ancient and the new in those days. This unfavorable situation did not deter Peter, however, from seeking a future for Tibetan medicine. Like his predecessors, he felt that there was time for change and reinvention of his career. And like Alexander A. Badmaev, whose work was recognised a hundred years back by Muravyev-Amursky, so too Peter was discovered by a Swiss businessman, Karl Lutz, who instigated his move in 1964 to Zuerich, Switzerland. In his 1973 tribute to his mentor and teacher Dr. Wladimir Badmajeff Sr., Dr. Konstantin Kowalewski, then Chairman of the Experimental Surgery Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada wrote, “A few years ago a study group of Tibetan medicine — ’Padma, Aktiengesellschaft fuer Tibetische Heilmittel’ — was organised in Zuerich, Switzerland, Badmajeff’s family supplied the information regarding the therapy and revealed the composition of Badmajeff’s prescriptions.” [4] Subsequent to the meeting and agreement between Peter and Karl Lutz, Padma AG (The name ‘Badma’ or ‘Padma’ means ‘Lotus flower’ in the Sanskrit language.) was established in 1969 in Zuerich, Switzerland, to manufacture and market the Badmaev family prescriptions.
From Switzerland, Tibetan medicine was introduced to most of Europe. For the first time, standardised manufacturing processes for the family herbal formulae were applied, and proof of their efficacy has been determined through science. Peter utilised his own experience and combined it with clinical observations of Vladimir, which resulted in the first modern clinical indications for the more than 30 Tibetan formulae practised by the family. Peter also pointed out the fact that although Tibetan formulae have been intended for gradual treatment and long-term therapy, that does not make them slow-acting drugs. For example, formula 28, due to its combined antiseptic and cardiovascular properties, was used before the time of antibiotics in Vladimir’s practice in the treatment of a life-threatening condition, bacterial endocarditis. While in Switzerland, Peter’s interest was drawn to formula 28, which he had used in his practice for cardiovascular conditions, including successful management of congestive heart failure. According to him, this formula increased heart muscle inotropy and reduced circulatory afterload, improving the tissue perfusion and lowering blood pressure. Peter decided that the clinical trials of formula 28 should be done with patients suffering from peripheral vascular disease (PVD). The first clinical trials of formula 28 were conducted by Swiss physician Hurlimann [6] in the late 1970s. Subsequently, four double-blind trials of the formula in PVD have followed. [7-10]
Securing the development of the formulations in Switzerland, Peter moved further West, immigrating from Switzerland to the United States. [11] He eventually established himself in Long Island, New York, where he still practises family medicine. At the beginning of the 1980s, Peter was joined in the U.S. by his son, the author of this article, Vladimir Jr.
My interest in and knowledge of Tibetan medicine did not originate with father-to-son teachings, since my father Peter started his journey West when I was barely a teenager. That brings me to an intriguing point: what really has kept the family tradition going even in the absence of a direct father-to-son input?
My conscientious interest in Tibetan medicine began in the late 1970s, when after obtaining an MD degree I was working on a PhD thesis in the Department of Microbiology of my alma mater, the Medical School at Bialystok, Poland. The focus of my doctoral work was on immunological adjuvants of bacterial origin which were capable of enhancing the humoral and cellular response of the body’s immune system. My attention was caught by emerging scientific proof for efficacy of the formula 28 in treatment of atherosclerosis. The advances in immunology revealed that cardiovascular and immune systems share many interdependent mechanisms. Subsequently I started the in vitro evaluation of the water extract of formula of 28 on the lymphocytes isolated from the peripheral blood of healthy donors and donors with established immunological disorder. While lymphocytes from healthy volunteers did not change their immune response in the presence of the 28 extract, lymphocytes from the immunodeficient patients normalised their biological response significantly with the treatment. These initial results implied that the herbal formula could normalise to some extent the function of impaired lymphocytes, in particular T-lymphocytes, possibly creating conditions for recovery from some diseases classified as immunological disorders. The results of this study, published in the form of an abstract in the International Journal of Immunopharmacology, proved to have a fateful impact on my further professional career. [12]
In 1981, I faced my own question so typical of my predecessors, ‘What next?’ As a result, I followed my father to the U.S., and completed a residency programme in Clinical and Anatomical pathology at Downstate Medical Center and King’s County hospital. [13] I was well on my way to becoming entrenched in Western medicine. However, my brief encounter with the immunological properties of formula 28 kept growing on me. It appeared that these properties could explain a traditionally recognised broad range of clinical indications for that formula, e.g., cardiovascular, bronchial asthma, ulcerative colitis, allergic dermatitis, chronic liver disorders, and multiple sclerosis. The immune system could be seen as one of the most basic and versatile body systems to preserve homeostasis. Therefore formula 28, by improving the immune system, could help restore homeostasis, which in turn could justify its use in the treatment of many diseases clinically diversified. This observation led me to subsequent studies and the definition of a Bioprotectant exemplified by formula 28 – or a biological compound protecting the integrity of a live cell.
In the mid-1980s I had established a research unit - Laboratory of Applied Pharmacology (LAP) - in New York City. The mission was to investigate Tibetan medicine scientifically and to oversee the clinical studies on Tibetan herbal formulae. 14 The research aims were to establish the efficacy of the formula using a tissue culture model, to perform toxicological studies based on a tissue culture system, to identify the active components of the formula, and to determine the mechanism of action of the active components. The experimental work done in the LAP resulted in greater understanding of a Bioprotectant activity of formula 28; another formula, No. 96, was found to have protective effects on the epithelial cells against influenza A infection; the ‘natural aspirin’ formula of No. 155 was tested for the anti-oxidant effects in vitro against acetylsalicylic acid, or aspirin alone, and vitamin C; the gastrointestinal formula No. 179 was tested in a 4 week open field study in Switzerland by four independently working physicians; anti-smoking formula No. 201, in the form of lozenges, was evaluated in an open field clinical study in the U.S., Switzerland and Canada. [15-20]
In the process of studying those incredibly complex formulae many lessons have been learned, including those drawn from interaction with the scientific community. The majority of those who support plant medicines give their support to plant-derived medicines, that is, for example Vinca spp. alkaloids used for chemotherapy, ephedrin of the Ephedra sinensis plant, or reserpine of the Rauwolfia serpentina rhizomes. Only a few supporters of plant medicines argue that the whole plant or combination of plants in the form of an herbal remedy can be utilised as an ultimate drug. The overall education of Western society is analytical in nature and favors single component drugs. But there is an intuitive feeling there that herbal formulations could be advantageous for the treatment of ailments in which known synthetic drugs failed.
In fact, based on cumulative experience, the multi-component Tibetan formulae and synthetic drugs are complementary in the following ways:
safety and efficacy of a synthetic drug can be improved by scientific evaluation and lessons drawn from a three-group design of the formulae; treatment of multi-factorial and chronic diseases requiring long-term treatment is safer and more efficacious with Tibetan formulae; there have been no reported negative interactions among the Tibetan formulae practised by the Badmaevs and commonly used synthetic drugs; expert use of numerous gastrointestinal formulae in the Badmaev tradition with regulatory action upon the exocrine and endocrine functions of the digestive tract to sustain functions which often are compromised with the use of many synthetic drugs.
The research and introduction of Tibetan formulae to the Western armamentarium is far from being completed. In further clinical trials traditional knowledge will be looked upon as a guide for such research. The leading theme will be integration of traditional treatments with the conventional medicines to simply provide a better health care system.As for the future of the Badmaev tradition, I will cite a story involving reincarnation and concerning my grandfather. It was said he had been born originally as the fifth daughter in the family. This child died, and my great grandfather asked the Lama to pray that the next child be a son. The Lama placed a mark on the forearm of the dead girl and explained that the next child would be born a boy, but would have the daughter’s soul and mark on the forearm. The next child was indeed a son – my grandfather – and he had the mark on his left forearm. Thus a symbolic drama always was attached to this family adventure with Tibetan medicine. My quiet hope is that my legacy will take the form of a well-researched and established line of family products that will enter into the lives of the next generation with a sense of deep purpose rather than drama.
References
[1] Berthenson, L. B., “Ueber russische Buddisten und die sogenannte tibetanische Medizin”, Medizinische Wochenschrift, St. Petersburg, 1906, 24, pp. 248-257.
[2] Glatfelter, R. Edward, Badmaev, P. A., In, The Modern Encyclopaedia of Russian and Soviet History, Wieczynski, Joseph L. (ed.). 1976, Vol. 2, pp. 234-237.
[3] Badmaev, P. A., 0 sisteme vrachebnoy nauki Tibeta (On the System of Medical science of Tibet), comprising translation and commentaries on the first two books of the rgyud bzhi, St. Petersburg, 1898, p. 234.
[4] Kowalewski, K., “Vladimir Badmajeff, Tibetan Doctor in Europe”, Journal for the Research in Indian Medicine, New Delhi, 1973, Vol. 8, 2, pp. 101-9.
[5] Rechung Rinpoche, Kunzang, J., Bibliography, in Tibetan Medicine, Berkeley and Los Angeles, Univ. of California Press, 1973, pp. 98-101.
[6] Hurlimann, F., “Eine lamaistische Rezeptformel zur Behandlung der peripheren arteriellen Verschlusskrankheit” (“A lamaistic formula for the treatment of peripheral arterial occlusive disease”). Schweizer Medizinische Rundschau, 1979, 67, pp. 1407-1409.
[7] Schrader, R., Nachbur, B., Mahler, F., “Die Wirkung des tibetanischen Kraeuterpraeparates Padma 28 auf die Claudicatio intermittens” (“The effect of the Tibetan herbal preparation Padma 28 on intermittent claudication”), Schweizer Medizinische Wochenschrift, 1985, 115, pp. 752-756.
[8] Samochowiec, L., et al., “Wirksamkeitspruefung von Padma 28 bei der Behandlung von Patienten mit chronischen arteriellen Durchblutungsstoerungen” (“Potency test of Padma 28 in the treatment of patients with chronic arterial circulatory disturbances”), Polbiopharm Rep., 1985, 21, pp. 3-40, also in Herba Polonica, 1987, 33,
pp. 49-61.
[9] Drabaek, H., et al., “A botanical compound, Padma 28, increases walking distance in stable intermittent claudication.” Angiology. 1993, 44, pp. 863-867.
[10] Smulski, H.S., Wojcicki, J., “Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Trial to Determine the Efficacy of the Tibetan Plant Preparation Padma 28 for Intermittent Claudication”, Alt Ther Health Med, 1995,1 (3), pp. 44-49.
[11] Rockwood. M., “Tibetan Cure”, OMNI 1985, 6, p. 24 and p. 148.
[12] Badmajew, V., et al.,“Padma 28 an immunoregulatory substance in vitro”, Int J Immunopharmacol, 1982, 4, pp. 382.
[13] “Father-son MD team have Tibetan legacy” (Editorial), Med Tribune (USA) 1983, July, Vol. 13, p. 13.
[14] Ross, M., “Tibet: Ancient remedies gain new acceptance as research explore ‘mysterious’ medicines”, The Medical Post (Canada), 1990, July, Vol. 10, p. 14.
[15] Badmaev, V., et al., “The therapeutic effect of an herbal formula Badmaev 28 [Padma 28] on experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in SJL/J mice”, Phytother Res, 1999 May, 13 (3), pp. 218 - 21, PMID: 10353161, UI: 99281427.
[16] Badmaev, V., “An open field multicenter evaluation of traditional gastrointestinal formula TISANAX“, (Shyzed- Dugbo No. 179), Personal communication, 1996.
[17] Badmaev, V., Nowakowski, M., “Protection of epithelial cells against influenza A virus by a plant derived biological response modifier Ledretan-96”, In press - Phytother Res, 1999. (to be published in June 2000).
[18] Badmaev, V., “Open field study. I. Effectiveness of an herbal smoking deterrent lozenge No. 201 tested in volunteers”, Personal communication, 1996.
[19] Badmaev, V., Nowakowski, M., “In vitro evaluation of antioxidant properties of Tri-prin”, Personal communication, 1996.
[20] Badmaev, V., “Tibetan Medicine”, Essentials of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by Wayne B. Jonas and Jeffrey S. Levin, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, May 1999, ISBN: 0-683 30674-X: 604.
Dr. Valdimir Badmaev, Sabinsa Corporation, 121 Ethel Road West,
Unit 6 Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA,
Phone: (001) 732 777-1111, Fax: (001) 732 777-1443, E-mail: veBadmaev at attglobal.net