Ayurveda

Ayurveda is a healing system that treats the whole person – the integration of body, mind, and spirit – rather than simply treating individual symptoms. Ayurvedic medicine uses a variety of products and practices. Ayurvedic products can be made either of herbs only or a combination of herbs, metals, minerals, or other materials in an Ayurvedic practice called rasa shastra.

•The aim of Ayurvedic medicine is to integrate and balance the body, mind, and spirit.
•It is based on theories of health and illness and on ways to prevent, manage, or treat health problems.
•Ayurvedic treatment is tailored to each person’s constitution.
•Ayurvedic treatment goals include eliminating impurities, reducing symptoms, increasing resistance to disease, etc.

Ayurveda

Source: The Chopra Center

Q: What is Ayurveda?
A: Ayurveda is a system of preventive medicine and health care that developed in India more than 5,000 years ago. The word Ayurveda comes from two Sanskrit root words: Ayus, or “life,” and Veda, meaning “knowledge” or “science.” Ayurveda is therefore usually translated as “the science of life.” However, a more precise translation would be “the knowledge of the lifespan.” Ayurveda offers practical tools, insights, and information for living in balance and health, without interference from illness.

Q: Is Ayurveda a form of holistic medicine?
A: Yes. Ayurveda is a healing system that treats the whole person – the integration of body, mind, and spirit – rather than simply treating individual symptoms. For instance, we know that ongoing stress damages our immune system, and when the immune system is weakened, we are more vulnerable to disease and illness. We also know that when our mind experiences pleasure, our brain releases healing chemicals to our entire body, creating feelings of happiness and well-being as well as promoting health.

Ayurveda takes holistic medicine a step further, treating people not as isolated individuals but as an inextricable part of the whole universe. In India’s ancient Vedic tradition, there is an underlying intelligence that flows through and connects everyone and everything in the universe. Ayurveda sees life as the exchange of energy and information between individuals and their extended body – the environment. If our environment is nourishing, we thrive; if our environment is toxic; we may become sick. Therefore, learning how to eliminate toxicity and surround ourselves with a healing environment is the key to health.

Q: How is Ayurveda different from conventional Western medicine?
A: In contrast with conventional medicine, which has devoted a lot of effort to isolating the differences among various diseases, Ayurveda focuses on the unique qualities of individuals, pointing out that diseases differ mainly because people are so different.

Ayurveda teaches that all health-related measures — whether an exercise program, dietary plan or herbal supplement — must be based on an understanding of an individual’s unique mind-body constitution or dosha. By knowing a patient’s dosha, an Ayurvedic doctor can tell which diet, physical activities, and medical therapies are most likely to help, and which might do no good or even cause harm.

In addition, while Western medicine has tended to treat the symptoms of disease, Ayurveda seeks to eliminate illness by treating the underlying cause. For example, for a patient suffering from depression, an allopathic physician would likely prescribe a standard course of antidepressants and, perhaps, therapy.

An Ayurvedic doctor, on the other hand, would seek to understand the root imbalances contributing to the depression. The doctor would look at the patient as a whole, taking into consideration his or lifestyle, activities, diet, recent stressful events, beliefs, and mind-body constitution. The Ayurvedic practitioner would then recommend a treatment plan taking all of these factors into account.

Ayurveda doesn’t reject the use of antidepressants and other prescription medications – in fact, Ayurveda’s central principle is that we should make use of whatever healing modalities will restore health and balance to the body, including herbal remedies, dietary changes, pharmaceutical medications, meditation, exercise, psychotherapy, and so on…continue reading at The Chopra Center


Published Clinical Trials / Studies / Reviews

An Assessment of the Ayurvedic Concept of Cancer and a New Paradigm of Anticancer Treatment in Ayurveda

From Ancient Medicine to Modern Medicine: Ayurvedic Concepts of Health and Their Role in Inflammation and Cancer

Cancer – an ayurvedic perspective

Cancer, Inflammation, and Insights from Ayurveda


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Updated September 2024

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