♦ Home

Part I: Ayurveda

♦ Introduction & History

♦ Indian Cosmology

♦ The Human Body

♦ Health & Sickness

Part II: Ayurvedic Herbalism

♦ Humans & Plants

♦ Food Energies

♦ Plant Classification

♦ Herbal Preparations

♦ Herbal Usage

♦ Common Herbs

Part III: Future of Ayurveda

♦ Limits to Ayurveda

♦ Ayurveda-Western Medicine Comparison

♦ Ayurveda as CAM

♦ Conclusion


Health & Sickness: An Ayurvedic Perspective

Uniqueness of Individuals
Ayurveda recognizes that every individual has a unique constitution; a unique set of conditions, characteristics, and life circumstances. Therefore, Ayurvedic treatments must properly address this unique constitution to maximize the benefits of the treatment in the prevention or cure of disease. This view of a unique constitution is parallel to the modern science concept of DNA (1).

Because all of us have a unique constitution, treatment must be completely individualized. Medicine has to be unique for each individual. This is in sharp contrast to Western medicine in which medicine targets the disease the same way for every person. In Ayurvedic practice, the same disease can have three different treatments for three different people because Ayurvedic medicine treats the person, not the disease.
What is health?
In Ayurveda, a person is perfectly healthy if the whole person (body, mind, emotion, and soul) are in perfect alignment with the universe; the Cosmic Intelligence. It is a spiritual wisdom of Ayurveda that if we take actions and eat foods that allow our being to exist in balance and harmony with the life force of the universe, we will never get sick. In other words, if the three doshas in our body are in balance with each other, then the person is healthy. Ayurveda recognizes that the interactions of all three doshas with each other must be balanced and in their natural state for the person to be healthy. It does not mean that all three doshas must be of equal strength in the person. As explained in the previous section, every individual has a unique constitution in which one or two doshas will be dominant and the other(s) secondary. A balanced tridosha (three doshas) only means that the interactions of the doshas are balanced and natural.
What is disease?
Thus, disease is what results from obtaining an imbalance in our being; in our three doshas. The imbalance can stem from the body, mind, emotion, or soul. Ayurveda does not only recognize physical disease such as flu, cancer, and heart problems. It also recognizes mental disease such as anxiety, depression and restlessness; emotional problems such as prolonged grief, attachment, and apathy; and spiritual problems such as loss of sense of self, loss of connection with natural world and spiritual self-alienation (2).

Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual problems are not separate from each other but are interlinked in Ayurveda. A physical disease, such as cancer, can be caused from emotional problems such as pain from repressed memories (3) or spiritual problems like a loss of connection with others. An imbalance in one aspect of a person can cause imbalances in other aspects.

Illnesses are either Vata-based, Pitta-based, or Kapha-based.

Vata illnesses are airy in nature. They include insomnia, addiction, constipation, excess gas, headaches, anxiety and agitation. Because these are Vata illnesses, Vata-based stressors will aggravate and enhance theses illnesses. Vata stressors include physical pain, noise, bright lights, unfamiliar situations, and dry, astringent Vata foods.

Pitta illnesses are fiery in nature. They include fevers, ulcers, diarrhea, inflammation, heart attacks, and stomachaches. Pitta stressors such as extreme heat, physical activities, and hot, spicy Pitta foods can aggravate Pitta illnesses.

Kapha illnesses are watery and earthy in nature. They include obesity, lethargy, gluttony, arthritis, asthma, tumors, and excess phlegm. Kapha stressors include damp atmosphere, wet coldness, excessive water retained in the body and wet, earth foods.

Western, modern medical system approaches disease as being caused by biological or chemical pathogens such as bacteria, virus, or toxins. Consequently, its method of treatment is to eliminate the specific agent of disease. But Ayurveda is a preventative as well as a curative medicine. So its method of treatment is not only to correct the imbalance so that the body can flush out the cause of disease itself but also to help the body from ever obtaining another imbalance again (4).
Ayurvedic Approach to Healing
The central principle underpinning all of Ayurvedic practice is that the human body has an inherent ability to heal itself. This ability can be observed by the physical growth of the body throughout time, the healing of wounds and the eventual recuperation of a sick person. This is because the human being, being an expression of the Cosmic Intelligence, is a microcosm of that Intelligence, and thus has infinite wisdom and natural knowledge, including the knowledge of healing. Ayurvedic treatments are based on the fact that the body has all the knowledge and tools given by nature to keep itself healthy and balanced (5). The body is exposed to all kinds of pathogens everyday, but if all of its systems are in balance, the body can fight off disease and remain healthy.

“Health is a natural state. Disease is unnatural” (6). What this means is that Ayurvedic treatments rarely ever “cure” the disease. Its main goal is to provide the means for the body to get rid of the disease itself. Basically, Ayurveda aims to enhance and maximize the body’s natural capacity for healing.

Ayurvedic treatments are entirely based on food, medicine, and right action. Action does not only include physical exercise, but also emotional actions such as expressing grief or releasing anger, and spiritual actions such as reconnecting with friends or meditating. Ayurvedic treatments depend heavily on herbs in the form of food (as preventative effort) and medicine (as curative effort). Herbs are believed to have certain healing energies that are beneficial to human body. Herbs are the focus of this website.

Ayurveda seeks to restore health by restoring the balance in our three doshas. The approach is this: if one dosha is aggravated, its effects are canceled out the increasing the other two doshas; if one dosha is under-sufficient, it will be directly aggravated to restore it to its proper level. For example, if a person has too much Pitta energy and has a stomachache, his or her illness will be treated by giving Vata or Kapha treatment such as eating sweet (Vata) or heavy (Kapha) foods to negate the Pitta energy.


References:

1. Holistic-Online.com. “Basis for Ayurvedic Philsophy”. http://www.holistic-online.com/ayurveda/ayv-basis-uniqueness.htm. 2006. (Accessed: November 20, 2006).
2. Tiwari, Maya. Ayurveda: A Life of Balance. Healing Arts Press: Rochester, Vermont. 1995. Pg. 8.
3. Maya Tiwari, author of Ayurveda: A Life of Balance, is a survivor of cancer who used Ayurveda to cure herself from a spiritual illness that was causing her cancer.
4. Holistic-Online.com. “Basis for Ayurvedic Philosophy”. http://www.holistic-online.com/ayurveda/ayv-basis-how-do-we-get-sick.htm. 2006. (Accessed: November 20, 2006).
5. Holistic-Online.com. “Basis for Ayurvedic Philosophy”. http://www.holistic-online.com/ayurveda/ayv-basis-self-correcting.htm. 2006. (Accessed: November 20, 2006).
6. Ibid.



This website was created by Daniel Lim as a research project for:
HCOL 195-C: Ethnobotany- An Ecological Economics Perspective, Fall 2006
Professor Marta Ceroni
University of Vermont