What is Ayurveda?  If you have heard of it it’s very likely that you may think its some sort of Indian herbal medicine.  In fact Ayurveda is so much more than that.  Too often the explanation is that Ayurveda means “science of life”, which is a bit like trying to  explain what yoga is by saying yoga means “union” –  not particularly helpful and a bit too simplistic.  And in the same way that Yoga has often been corrupted in the west and reduced to a physical exercise regime,  Ayurveda is in danger of being translated for western consumption as merely a system of Indian herbal medicine. Even the heavyweight yoga magazine Yoga International regularly features articles supposedly on Ayurveda which tend to focus on beauty treatments.

Ayurveda is a complete holistic health system which, unlike western medicine or the western approach to disease, focuses primarily on the maintenance of good health and the prevention of disease.  Ayurveda is complex and encompasses diet, physical fitness, mental attitude and awareness and it involves, amongst other things, yoga, meditation, jyotish (Vedic astrology) and vaastu shastra (similar to feng shui).  Ayurveda considers human beings only a small part of their larger environment and of nature as a whole.  Therefore in order to be completely healthy and disease free, you must remain in harmony within yourself AND the world around you.

Ayurveda is also very old. The earliest historical reference to Ayurveda is found in the Sushruta Samhita (the work of the Indian sage Sushruta) which dates back to around 2000 BC, but the Sushruta Samhita refers too much earlier, now lost, records which indicate the Ayurveda is at least 4,000 years old

The main principle of Ayurveda is that each person is unique and has a different individual physical and psychological constitution, including a genetic inheritance and predisposition to certain diseases.  It aims to ensure that everyone maintains a lifestyle which is in complete harmony with that unique constitution as well as their wider environment.  Ayurveda aims for complete harmony of the body, mind, senses and spirit and a natural and balanced relationship with nature, work, home, environment and society.

The essential difference between Ayurveda and western medicine is that Ayurveda starts with a preventative approach – a healthy lifestyle to avoid illness in the first place.  Even the treatment of disease in Ayurveda is a holistic approach which goes to the root cause of the disease, unlike western medicine which merely treats the outward symptoms of disease.

The Ayurvedic starting point is the diagnosis of your nature or constitution (called prakriti in Sanskrit).  This is your unique individual physical and psychological makeup which shows where your tendency towards imbalance lies – whether it’s under-activity or overindulgence.  After looking at your physical body, including your pulse rate, the diagnosis involves taking detailed notes of how you react, physically and psychologically to various life events or daily activities. 

Ayurvedic constitutions are divided into three main types called doshas - Vata, Pitta and Kapha.  Everyone has the three doshas present in their constitutional makeup, but in different combinations.  The ideal is to have a complete balance between these three types or doshas but each person has innate tendencies towards one or two of them and may already be displaying imbalances.  Maintenance of good health or re-balancing involves tailoring your lifestyle accordingly – including your diet, your level of physical activity and making other adaptations to build up resilience and strength. Ayurveda respects the body’s own intelligence and prevents imbalance caused by overloading the body with toxins and stress, which will in turn weaken the immune system and the body’s ability to heal itself.

Symptoms of disease in Ayurveda are seen as a sign of imbalance in the individual’s lifestyle. Diagnosis of the root cause of the disease involves assessing every aspect of the person’s lifestyle to find this underlying cause and treatment is then directed at addressing this underlying cause.  In Ayurveda the body and mind are interconnected and any disease is considered to involve imbalances in both areas, unlike in western medicine where they are treated separately.

Because people are treated as individuals different treatments are prescribed for different types of people, even though they appear on the surface to have the same symptoms.  Treatments may involve lifestyle advice such as suggested changes to daily routines, including sleep patterns, adjustments to your living or working space, for example de-cluttering, as well as what you eat or your physical exercise levels.  They may also include a combination of specially tailored massage or detoxification and cleansing treatments such as marma puncture (a type of needle-less acupuncture), as well as herbal medication, yoga practices, meditation or counselling to counteract negative thinking or attitudes.

Unlike similar treatments in the west, attitude and approach are vitally important in Ayurveda.  For example there are different kinds of cleansing and massage treatments according not only to the disease but to the individual person’s constitution. The massage oils and even the massage strokes used will also be tailored to the individual and the condition.

Food in Ayurveda is treated as medicine not just fuel and selecting, preparing and eating it should be done with complete awareness.  It wouldn’t be in keeping with Ayurvedic principles to choose food that wasn’t fresh or truly organic i.e. that wasn’t in season or had been imported, or was full of substitutes or unnatural additives – and this includes fortified food products. Food that was over packaged or wrapped in plastic would contribute to waste, pollution and destruction of the wider environment so this would also be non-Ayurvedic.