Ayurveda - Ancient Medicine

AYURVEDA

The fundamental aim of Ayurveda is to attain perfect health and well-being. 

The ancients wrote in their texts that a human lifespan should be around 100 years – and that they should all be lived in total health, both physical and mental.

It is the job of the Ayurveda practitioner to balance the body and the mind. To see potential health problems and prevent them before they do any real harm.

Unfortunately Illnesses and shortening of life are caused by many factors:

constant stress

irregular meals

bad body posture

eating the wrong kind of food

breathing polluted air

micro-organisms in the body

taking the wrong medication

injury

unhealthy lifestyle

undigested food

too much sexual activity

Ayurveda is the oldest system of medicine on earth. Its principles are said to have been passed down to humankind from a chain of gods stemming back from Brahma, who is the father of all gods.

It is often called the 'mother of medicine' and is generally accepted to be the forerunner of all the great healing systems of the world.

Texts have been discovered that show that the ayurvedic medicine practised from 1500BC to 500AD was incredibly advanced, with detailed knowledge of..

Paediatrics

Psychiatry

Surgery

Geriatrics

Toxicology

General medicine and more

It is thought that invasions disrupted its teaching and with the British introducing Western medicine to India, resulted in Ayurveda becoming out of fashion and almost disappearing entirely.

It was saved in 1921 when Mahatma Gandhi opened the first new ayurvedic college.

The Ayurvedic philosophy is incredibly intricate and takes years of study to begin to understand.

Put simply it teaches that each atom consists of five elements

Its Weight from EARTH

Its Cohesion from WATER

Its Energy from FIRE

Its Motion from AIR

The space between its particles is composed of ETHER

The body is thought to be made up of these five elements and an excess of one or more of the elements can be the cause of imbalance and hence lead to illness.

THE DOSHAS

A simplified route for working out any imbalances is called – the three doshas (bioenergies) which are made up of a combination of the five elements.

VATA – combination of ETHER AND AIR

PITTA – of FIRE AND WATER

KAPHA – of WATER AND EARTH

In an ideal state all three of these would be in balance, but this is rare. Most of us have one or two which weigh more than the others.

The aim and objective of Ayurvedic medicine is to balance out the doshas and thus restore health.

HOW TO WORK OUT YOUR DOSHA:

We have a predominating Dosha, which is identified by a series of physical and emotional characteristics:

Here is a taster of some of them..

VATA PEOPLE:

Thin, agile, quick-thinking and restless

PITTA PEOPLE:

Medium build, competitive and make good leaders

KAPHA PEOPLE:

Larger framed and are more placid in nature, possessing great reserves of strength and endurance.

A practitioner seeks to coax the body into balance using a combination of:

Lifestyle advice

Diet

Exercise

Marma Therapy (similar to acupressure)

Herbal medicines

Massage

Manipulation

Neurotherapy

Aromatherapy

Sound Therapy

Yoga

Mediation

Deep Breathing

These are mostly gentle and non-invasive treatments, there are some more brutal techniques that can be used such as...

PANCHAKARMA – a deep-cleansing process including,

Therapeutic Vomiting

Enemas

Purging

Nasal Cleansing

and in cases of blood disorders –

Blood letting.

Auurveda can be tough for westerners, as it takes total dedication to following the lifestyle and diet guidance, and most of us are unwilling to get up at 5am or eat our main meal at lunchtime.

WHAT CAN AYURVEDA HELP:

DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS such as stomach ulcers, chronic gastritis, acid indigestion, heartburn, constipation, and flatulence

SKIN COMPLAINTS such as eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis, acne

ALLERGIC CONDITIONS asthma, hay fever, sinus

GYNAECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

Such as menstrual and menopausal difficulties

JOINTS

such as chronic pain, muscle tension, sciatica, rheumatism, arthritis, osteoporosis

WEIGHT PROBLEMS

PSYCHOSOMATIC ILLNESSES, such as sleep disturbances, migraine, tension headaches, depression and anxiety attacks

HEART AND BLOOD CIRCULATION problems

such as angina, palpitations, irregular pulse and angina

CANCER

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

MYALGIC ENCEPHALOMYALITIS (ME)

ADDICTIONS

smoking, drugs, alcohol