Shifts in Global Healthcare
Dilip Ghosh, Pulok K. Mukherjee in Natural Medicines, 2019
Ayurveda is considered an Upaveda (accessory Veda) of Atharva Veda, which is known to be the first Hindu literature on medicine. Ayurveda as a system of medicine has historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. Beyond India, Ayurveda have been known as an alternative therapy and is integrated in general wellness applications. Ayurveda emphasising Dosha balance and suppressing natural urges is considered unhealthy and is claimed to lead to illness. In Ayurveda, three elemental Doshas – namely Vata, Pitta and Kapha – are given importance. It is stated that, the equality (samyatva) of these Doshas results in health, while inequality (visamatva) results in disease.
The Ayurvedic Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases
Anne George, K. S. Joshy, Mathew Sebastian, Oluwatobi Samuel Oluwafemi, Sabu Thomas in Holistic Approaches to Infectious Diseases, 2017
Ayurveda is the ultimate holistic medical wisdom and literally means the ‘wisdom of life’ (ayus = life; veda = wisdom). It considers the body, mind and spirit to be a seamless system between which proper homeostasis and harmony is required to instill perfect health and a clear path to enlightenment. Health in Ayurveda means not only physical health but, more importantly, mental clarity. Health in Sanskrit is svastha which, when broken down means ‘sva’ self and ‘stha’ established. This self is purposely ambiguous in that it means both the physical ‘self’ connected to the ego and the higher, spiritual ‘Self’ that is connected with God. So ‘health’ in Ayurveda is defined as a proper establishment of self both physically (proper physical health) and mentally (mastery over indulgence, sensory cravings and separation from God). The ultimately goal of Ayurveda is to achieve optimal physical health in order to have a clear path to God and enlightenment.Ayurveda scrutinizes the subtle process of life, studies its nature, ways and conditions of development and deduces there-from a universal course of conduct for man’s guidance in life.—Ananthacharya (1939)
Ayurveda and Yoga Therapy for Allergy and Asthma
Pudupakkam K Vedanthan, Harold S Nelson, Shripad N Agashe, PA Mahesh, Rohit Katial in Textbook of Allergy for the Clinician, 2021
Recently, Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAMs) such as Ayurveda and Yoga have drawn the attention of the healthcare system due their health benefiting effects. Ayurveda is among the most ancient health care systems on Earth. Ayurveda provides a guideline for a healthy lifestyle to prevent diseases and promote health. Further, Ayurveda has mentioned the various kinds of lifestyle related disorders including allergies and asthma and their management. Yoga is also an ancient science with its roots in India; yoga helps the growth of physical, mental, spiritual aspects of an individual. Yoga emphasizes the mind which determines our lifestyle as a fundamental factor that leads to a healthy or unhealthy lifestyle. The ‘adhi’ the negative emotions, ignorance and addictions in the mind provokes the person for an unhealthy lifestyle and yoga helps to eliminate the adhi. Both Ayurveda and Yoga propose that the physical body is governed by three biological forces called vata (responsible for movements), pitta (responsible for metabolism) and kapha (responsible for growth and nourishment) and disease is the result of imbalance in one or more of these energies. Ayurveda recognizes asthma as Tamak shwasa (Rajnik and Varsakiya 2018). According to Ayurveda tamaka swas (asthma) is the result of imbalance in kapha and vata doshas in the respiratory system (pranvaha srotas) (Hemlatha 2006).
Correlation of body composition parameters and anthropometric somatotypes with Prakriti body types among the Meitei adults of Manipur, India
Published in Annals of Human Biology, 2021
Henry Konjengbam, Yumnam Leona Devi, Sanjenbam Yaiphaba Meitei
Ayurveda is a traditional medicine system of India that developed between 2500 and 500 BC (Subhose et al. 2005). It emphasises maintaining health and treating illness or disease, including lifestyle-related disorders, with its doctrine centres on the concept of tridosha (three basic principles of energy or biological humour), which forms Prakriti (Svoboda 2005; Uniyal et al. 2005). Prakriti is influenced by the environment of the mother’s womb, dietary factors, and lifestyle from time-to-time, depending on the predominant dosha. It is believed to be determined at the time of conception (Bhalerao et al. 2012). It is the totality of the physical, physiological, and psychological make-up of an individual (Singh et al. 2019) and explains the unique traits of an individual.
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.
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