Can Ayurveda initiate a paradigm shift? A response to Patwardhan

Professor Kishor Patwardhan's paper [1] has elicited a great deal of interest as the several comments and criticisms demonstrate. It is clear that he is a highly respected teacher and physician, and my comments as a person who fully believes in the Western system of medicine and has never used Ayurveda are perhaps bordering on insolence. Yet, I feel the need to make them in order to draw attention to some framing aspects of contemporary medicine.