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Sleep
Published in Carolyn Torkelson, Catherine Marienau, Beyond Menopause, 2023
Carolyn Torkelson, Catherine Marienau
While the three doshas of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha are present in everyone, each person has a dominant dosha or a combination of two doshas. When you understand how to balance your doshas, you can dramatically improve your quality of life and ease chronic health problems, especially insomnia. Understanding your constitution, or dosha, and matching your lifestyle accordingly are essential in the Ayurvedic tradition. Consulting with an Ayurvedic practitioner is often the best approach to better understand and benefit from the healing power of Ayurvedic medicine.
Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum)
Published in Dilip Ghosh, Prasad Thakurdesai, Fenugreek, 2022
In Ayurveda, fenugreek has been demonstrated for ameliorating Kapha, and in low quantities for Vata; however, fenugreek boosts Pitta [1, 2]. Ayurvedic therapeutics mainly focuses on maintaining ideal health besides the treatment of a disease and with the belief that a human body is composed of five elements: ether, water, air, fire, and earth. Ayurvedic therapeutics greatly depends on these three doshas, namely, (1) Kapha, constituted of air and water; (2) Vata, dependent on the elements of fire and ether; while (3) Pitta is composed of water and fire. Ayurvedic therapeutics largely depends on these three doshas for maintaining ideal health and curing disease [1, 2, 4].
Medicinal Plants in Natural Health Care as Phytopharmaceuticals
Published in Anil K. Sharma, Raj K. Keservani, Surya Prakash Gautam, Herbal Product Development, 2020
The seeds are bitter, acrid, thermogenic, anodyne, digestive, carminative, antihelmintic, aperient sudorific and tonic. They are useful in the vitiated conditions of vata (vata dosha is light, dry, mobile, cold, hard, rough, sharp, subtle, flowing, and clear) and kapha (kapha dosha is responsible for the structure of the body), dengue fever, intestinal worms, flatulence, anorexia, dyspepsia, inflammations, morbid state of the cerebrospinal system, skin diaeases, splenomegaly and persistent vomiting. It is also used in large doses as an emetic in cases of poisoning, and it will cause hyperdypsia, burning sensation and other disorders of pitta (pitta dosha combines the fire and water elements, from which the bile is formed.) (Cavallos-Casals and Cisneros-Zevallos, 2010).
Where lies the future of Ayurveda-inspired drug discovery?
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2023
Ayurveda, literally meaning knowledge/science of life in Sanskrit, is an ancient Indian system of medicine. It primarily focuses on health promotion, disease prevention, and diagnosis with detailed guidance about food, nutrition, and lifestyle based on the individual constitution. Ayurveda therapeutics is integrative and personalized that uses dietary and lifestyle modification along with multi-targeted rational synergistic herbo mineral formulations. Ayurveda approach is toward maintenance of homeostasis and regaining natural balance of three humors known as Dosha (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha) also known as Prakriti types. A study on the genetic basis of Dosha Prakriti (pharmaco-phenotype) has emerged as a new discipline known as AyuGenomics® [6]. Synergistic formulation discovery guided by the Prakriti type can address individual variations in therapeutic response and may be more efficient than typical genomic approach.
Next-Gen Therapeutics for Skin Cancer: Nutraceuticals
Published in Nutrition and Cancer, 2018
Annapoorna Sreedhar, Jun Li, Yunfeng Zhao
Ayurveda, the oldest known system of medicine that was developed between 2500 and 500 BC, offers treatment methods to cure many illnesses and allergies, using plant-based herbal remedies (44,45). The Sanskrit word Ayurveda literally means “science of life,” is derived from the root word “ayuh” which means life and “veda” meaning science or knowledge. In Ayurveda, nutrition and diet play import roles for healthy living. As per the Ayurvedic understanding of disease etiology, diseases arise because of an imbalance between three fundamental bio-elements or the doshas called Vata (airy element), Pitta (fiery element), and Kapha (watery element) (44–46). These three doshas form the heart of the Ayurvedic lifestyle, which states that each one of us is made up of unique combinations of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Therefore, a balance between these three forces that create a physical body is necessary to maintain a healthy equilibrium (44). Moreover, Ayurveda also believes that plants and plant products can have a strong impact on physical and mental states of well-being (43). In addition to plant-based diet, Ayurveda believes that spices in our diet can help bring balance to our doshas. Hence, Ayurveda preaches that plant-based products and spices should constitute the major portion of our diet (45,46). Not surprisingly, in India, even to this day, a major section of the population depends on the traditional vegetarian diet wherein spices form the heart of Indian cooking.
Potential clinical applications of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) in medicine and neuropsychiatry
Published in Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 2022
Migita D’Cruz, Chittaranjan Andrade
In Ayurveda, the use of herbal compounds is one of the approaches used to treat ill-health, believed to be caused by an imbalance between the doshas. The doshas are believed to be different forms of energies or humors essential to life. They are threefold – Vata, Pitta, and Kapha (called the Tridosha) in unison – formed by the combination of five elements or Mahabhutas (Akasa, Vayu, Tejas, Ap, and Prithvi) that make up the constitution of earth and man. Other treatment approaches in Ayurveda include dietary modulation, regulation of the daily routine, physical exercise, yoga, meditation, massage, and surgery, which describe the holistic or whole body-based approach to healing.