It’s a natural instinct that a person desires to live a long, healthy, joyful life. As far as these things keep on going smoothly, one generally doesn’t bother. When there happens to be a problem regarding health, the person wishes to get rid of it, at the earliest, with minimum expenses and preferably without any restrictions. There is nothing wrong in this thinking. But on practical level, it may take a totally different turn. Let me try to explain, how it happens.

First of all, let us understand the difference between a Treatment & Drug or Medicine. People have various notions about medical systems, as per their knowledge and experience and they spreads their opinion quite freely. In India there are so many medical systems in practice. The modern medicine is widely spread and receives first preference in most states of India . But in spite of this situation, there are a few practitioners of Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Unani, and Bio-chemic etc.

People try to differentiate these pathies according to the use of type of medicines or even by the mode of treatment. For example, the ‘injection route’ of medicine is known as modern medicine. Even educated, learned persons from urban areas believe that injection gives immediate relief. So the doctor who gives injections is really a good doctor! What to speak of illiterate and village based people? Now with the rapid spread of ‘AIDS’, the use of injection is becoming less and people are turning more to capsules and tablets etc. On the other hand, people understand  ‘Homeopathy’, in the form of small sugar pills. So, one who gives such pills is a homeopathic doctor. People understand Ayurveda in the form of medicines such as herbs, decoctions, pills, matras (a special kind of medical preparation which is instantly effective by rubbing it in a media like honey etc.), medicated oils, asava (a kind of medicine with self generated alcohol), etc. So any person who gives such medicine is known as ‘Ayurvedic’ doctor. A naturopath may be known as a person who emphasizes on ‘fasting’.

These are general beliefs, I once again explain, they may vary from person to person according to their knowledge and experience. But then this belief does really create a problem. A fact should be well known that every medical system has its own theory about health, illness and solutions to these illnesses. Treatment is a part of this theory and medicine is a part of this treatment. But people understand medicine as a treatment and hence, may keep on asking, whether you know some medicine for this particular disease etc. In this case, the whole credit goes to the medicine and the results are also quoted as drug results. So the people, even from medical system, try to emphasis drug oriented research.

In this situation, it would be worth to look back again to know “Treatment”. Treatment as explained early is really the outcome of the theory about the disease, e.g. According to ‘modern medicine’, as Aspirin’ has analgesic, antipyretic properties it becomes a drug in fever. Due to anti-coagulant property it becomes a drug in heart diseases. Since fever is due to infection, according to modern medicine, use of antibiotic is the treatment. Proper antibiotic may be chosen as a medicine according to the modern medicine.
 
Ayurveda on the other hand, thinks quite in a different way. Since the digestion is not proper in most of the cases of fever, ‘fasting’ is a treatment for fever according to Ayurveda. Medicine with a bitter taste is a drug for fever according to Ayurveda.

One may try to understand, that, getting a disease or becoming ill is a complex phenomenon, involving many factors and achieving health again, is also dependent on so many factors. Every medical system has its own views about this and treatment and drug are a part and parcel of the systems.

After having a bird’s eye view regarding various medical systems, one would really understand that, it is necessary to know the basic principles, the concept of the disease and health, the treatment etc. for the knowledge of any medical system.

           
A person keeps on acquiring knowledge throughout his life. Each time the knowledge is assessed on the basis of previous knowledge and Experiences. The person may even not be aware about that. This gives rise to different, kind of thinking on personal basis, receiving the same knowledge. For example different personalities reading my article, from various fields would naturally be acquiring knowledge with different background. Some may be medical practitioners of another system, who would try to compare the knowledge with their system. Some may belong to various non-medical fields and may be interested in reading these articles with different intensions. For example one is suffering from a disease and wants to know, whether Ayurveda can help him in this regard, whereas another healthy person may just be interested in keeping health according to Ayurveda. Another person may be interested just for knowledge purpose and so on.

 
Etymology and definition-

The word ‘ Ayurveda’ consists of two parts viz. ‘Ayush’ and ‘Veda’. The latter word has been derived from the root “ Vid” meaning ‘ to know’, to understand. So Ayurveda is something by which we try to know or understand about ‘Ayush’. ‘Vid’ has another meaning – that is ‘to gain’ also. Considering this meaning Ayurveda would mean something by which ‘ we gain Ayush’. ‘Vid’ has a third meaning viz. ‘presence’. So Ayurveda is something, which has a presence of ‘Ayush’ in it.

After having known the various meaning of ‘Vid’, let us now consider the first word, ‘Ayush’. ‘Ayush’ is the “sanyoga (Union)” of four factors, “Sharira (Body), indriya (Senses for Perception and action), satva (Mind) and Atman (Soul)”, according to Ayurveda.  So ‘Ayush’ is something consisting of these four factors together. This very definition of ‘Ayush’ is quite different from the present concept of ‘Life’, which we learn. That is why I tried to avoid using the word ‘life’ for ‘Ayush’ initially. While we consider the life from the unicellular organism like amoeba to human beings, we mostly emphasize on the bodily activities. Very little consideration is given to the mind, the feelings of living organism. Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose received a Nobel Prize for proving the feelings of the plants. We, the humans, though know about our feelings, pay very less attention to these, while considering the health problems.

I would like to explain this, with the help of a case. A woman, aged 27 approached me for treatment. She was suffering from a severe backache. She was investigated thoroughly and was found to be having some defect in the vertebral column and so was advised surgery. She came to me to find any solution without surgery. I examined her and asked a simple question. ‘When the pain starts, or with what it aggravates?’ Surprisingly the answer was spontaneous and simple. ‘When I start thinking!’ Naturally my second question was, “what do you think about?” Then she told her story. She belonged to the ‘Khoja’ caste and was the fifth wife of her husband. She got married at the age of 12^th and conceived 1^st child at the age of 13th and second at the age of 14th. She was sterilized and divorced at the age of 17^th. She came back to her poor parents, could get some job and start living with them. I said ‘this is an old story now. You have already lived ten years after that, what makes you unhappy now?” Then she said that, she met her children accidentally in a ceremony and had an immense feeling of having atleast one of them. The backache started with this thought.

Having realized the only psychological cause of her illness, I gave her some medicines. Oil massage and steam bath was also given for immediate relief. But mainly I emphasized on basic thinking. I asked her to think of three alternatives (1) Sue her husband and try to get the possession of at least one child. (2) To marry somebody else and try to reverse the sterilization operative. (3) Forget everything and start living the life as she was doing previously. Within fifteen days she could determine to select the third option and could remain firm about it. She was totally relieved from the pain and didn’t suffer from that since least twelve years.

As there are so many medical sciences all over the world, one would really be interested in knowing what is the speciality of Ayurveda. I would like to elaborate the various specialities of Ayurveda in a series of articles.

(1) Firm, unchanging principles- I think this is the most important speciality and is also the base for other specialities. Now we are living in a world, which is constantly changing and advancing. Man has made a remarkable progress in various fields. There is literally information explosion and newer and newer information constantly keeps on pouring into the ocean of knowledge. The medical field is not even an exception. The development in medical field has changed our views quite a lot regarding our approach towards the disease, its treatment, prevention etc. Let us go into the details of this fact.

According to Ayurveda, the diseases have a very long history. The references regarding illnesses can be traced up-to the Vedic period. For example, there are references regarding Jaundice in Vedic literature. There were various mythologies regarding their causes and treatment was mostly in the form of rituals.

There happened to be a natural instinct to get rid off the diseases and our body and mind do give some suggestions regarding our behavior. For example if one has done tremendous work beyond his capacity, he would naturally feel exhausted and the body and mind would suggest him to take rest till he is restored. If somebody has over-eaten or have eaten without hunger, may have an instinct to observe fast till his digestion restores.

Ayurveda picked up this as a principle. According to Ayurveda “treatment in short is avoidance of causes of disease.” One should really be able to identify causes of the disease in an individual and then he can be advised to avoid them.

But the progress in the modern medicine has changed this attitude to a vast extent. For example, ‘Fever’ is a commonly found ailment all over the world over thousands of years. Once modern medicine identified it to be an effect of an infection from a germ, the whole approach towards fever has changed. One should avoid infection for prevention of fever is one aspect and the treatment in the form of antibiotic, is another aspect regarding fever, which has deeply seated in our minds.

In previous days, we used to fight “fever” in a natural way. Taking rest and fasting was really relieving us from fever and within two-three days we again could start working. But since the approach changed, instead of rest and fasting we started having medication may be useful for relieving body-ache and lowering the high temperature. Even this is acceptable as you are just helping the body mechanisms to restore, if this is accompanied with rest and fasting. But getting rid of infection with antibiotics really created magic in the beginning and use of antibiotic became the only treatment. Later on resistivity of the germs, the side effects of the antibiotics were known and scientists started thinking to find another solution. Here in it is worth noticing that the Ayurvedic principles of treating fever are unchanged. I would like to conclude with an example.

One patient came to me from a distant place. He was having fever for four days and was being treated with antibiotics. Only the antipyretics were lowering his temperature for a short while, but as a whole, the fever continued. I found that he needed fasting and so advised to remain only on liquid diet like tea, coffee, rice-water and soups. The patient was scared of fasting and said that his energy would be lost. I assured him about energy and he made up his mind for fasting. Within one day without any use of antibiotic, his fever had gone and he felt more energetic besides fasting. I have quoted this example only to emphasize the approach.
   

Last time we had seen that the “unchanged, firm principles of Ayurveda” is the most important peculiarity of Ayurveda. The existence of Ayurveda over thousand of years show that it is time-tested and has got a very firm base.

            
Individuality- this is another important peculiarity of Ayurveda. Now a day we speak in term of masses. We have a statistically significant data, neatly analyzed to draw certain inferences. For example occurrence of such a disease in a particular country is so much percent etc. This does give a general guideline about the probability of diseases, its probable causes etc. But when we start thinking of treatment except epidemics, we are thinking individuals and not really masses. Let us try to understand.

Actually formation of a disease is really a complex phenomenon. There are so many factors involved. Depending upon the quantum and quality of these factors, the manifestation of the disease changes. Let us take an example of Bronchitis. Now according to Ayurveda this is mainly related to  “Kapha” and “Vata” dosha. The causes of ten patients of bronchitis may vary from patient to patient. For example the cause of increase of Kapha dosha may be consumption of sweets like chocolates in one patient; may be jams and jellies in other. May be ice-cold water, ice creams in another, may be fruits like banana in some others. Smoking might be cause in other patients. Irregularities in food habits leading to disturbance of “Vata” dosha may be a cause in some patients.
  

The quantum of the causative factor may also vary. One may be consuming 2-3 chocolates a day for years, where other may be consuming 1-2 per day for few months. The sign and symptoms, the longevity of the disease may also vary from person to person. According to Ayurveda, the basic constitution of an individual is also different. Depending upon what one inherits from one’s parent, how one behaves in one’s life, what one eats, how one eats, how one thinks etc., the formation of disease in a particular person can be known. Since this varies from person to person, the treatment is also personal. Actually the patient is interested in his disease and its treatment. He is not really benefited by the information of occurrence of his disease or the efficacy of a particular treatment in that particular disease. For example if somebody is suffering from cancer and is advised radiation. If he is told that the results of radiation are 50% i.e. you have 50% chances to recover. Actually he will be interested in knowing what will happen to him.

I am associated with Cancer treatment for a long period. We have a very detailed proforma about the information of the patient. We find varieties of causes in various individuals and accordingly our treatment varies. There are so many psychological disturbances like severe mental shock, grief, unsatisfied state of mind etc. along with other factors like improper food habits etc. responsible for development of cancer. We take an account of an individual and this is common for all diseases in many patients. Because of this, the Ayurvedic Diagnosis of an Individual is time consuming. You really need the person to investigate thoroughly to know about his disease, then fix up guidelines of his treatment and treat accordingly. That is why I have incorporated questions about Life style of a Person in this Website. Since physical examination is necessary before commencement of any treatment, we ask you to Contact Various Service Providers for actual help at personal level.

Holistic approach-

The holistic approach of Ayurveda is well known and is being discussed all over the world. Let us consider it elaborately.

Our body mechanisms are very much complex. The modern medicine is very much successful in analyzing the body parts thoroughly. Huge information has been put forth by modern medicine with the help of microscopes, X-rays, ultrasound mechanisms, cat-scans and MRI ‘s etc. It has become possible to visualize many internal organs with various super sophisticated techniques. This has given rise to specialties and super specialties and also a fragmented approach towards a disease.

One thing is certain that modern medicine has put forth a particular cause-effect relationship in certain diseases. But in many cases where the disease is psychosomatic or associated with the change in the lifestyle, modern medicine just concentrates on symptomatic relief, at-least on practical level. Very recently modern medicine has started to think about the changing lifestyle and psyche as the root of disease. As a result, modern medicine relies more on Physical and   pathological examinations and manages treatment accordingly. There are so many specialties in modern medicine like cardiology, neurology, gynecology, dermatology, oncology etc. Depending upon the signs and symptoms of the patient and finding from the investigations, various experts are called to treat a particular patient. Everybody gives his treatment leading to chaos.

In earlier days the concept of a family physician was deep rooted in the society. The family physician used to know not only the present signs and symptoms, but also full familiar history, personality to some extent and thus could give some comprehensive treatment. People had very much faith in him and unless and until he advises, nobody will go to another physician or specialist.

But with the development of modern sophisticated techniques and super specialties, the whole picture has changed or is changing very fast. People on their own try to find specialists or they are referred to them. When a patient is admitted in a hospital, hospital management itself seeks the opinions of various specialists. This gives rise to fragmented approach towards the disease.

As against this, the Ayurvedic approach is holistic. Ayurveda emphasizes on a detailed history of the patient with various angles. Such as what the patient has inherited from his parents, how he was brought up, what is routine diet in that region? What are the common diseases in that region? What is the daily routine of that patient? What is his constitution? What are his problems? What does he think about? What are his past illnesses? Etc. This gives complete picture of the patient and provides guidelines for treatment. Since Ayurveda considers every aspect of life, nothing is probably left out. I would like to quote few examples. A case was reported to me for allergic urticaria. He was suffering from this disease for last five years. He has to take an anti-allergic everyday. When I took the history I found that, originally he suffered from “Hyperacidity” and was being treated with antacids for five years. The symptoms like heartburn, headache followed by vomiting, stopped after that and so the treatment of hyperacidity was discontinued. Later on after 5-6 months he started suffering from urticaria and was being treated with anti-allergic.

Then what I found was the treatment for hyperacidity and urticaria was only symptomatic. Nobody had bothered to examine the lifestyle and correct it. As a result the root cause i.e. ‘doshas’ according to Ayurveda changed only the form of the disease, as they were really not dealt with. I advised him to change the lifestyle and gave some treatment. He got cured from the disease once for all.

           
Another case was reported to me for loss of weight and intermittent loose motions. This patient didn’t respond very well to my treatment. I kept on asking for any psychological ailment and then he told that he has a fear in mind that he is suffering from cancer. I tried to convince him that it is not so and he should stop worrying unnecessarily. But he couldn’t realize. Ultimately he was subjected to all investigations unto liver and bone-marrow biopsy and it revealed that he doesn’t have cancer. The patient then improved miraculously.  

Panchakarma-

The five fold therapy for purification is another peculiarity of Ayurveda. The main principle of Ayurveda is theory of doshas. The doshas namely vata, pitta and kapha are the basic constituents of our body. They work in harmony and in a balanced state they maintain perfect health. But if by any means, the balance is disturbed, then that leads to diseases. For example, if one is fond of eating ice creams and keeps on eating even in winter season daily, then it gives rise to increase of kapha dosha in the body. This may further lead to sinusitis/ bronchitis/asthma etc. Now to get cured; one has to stop eating ice cream, as that is the cause of the disease. Depending upon the quantum, the frequency and the period of consumption; the accumulation of ‘dosha’ would vary. If one were eating ice creams for long period, very frequently and in large quantities naturally the accumulation of dosha would be much more and longstanding. If you stop consumption, gradually the effects will go away and the person will be freed from the disease. But this will take quite a long time, since the accumulation is more. If we stop ice cream & start consuming something that nullifies the effects of ice creams, say for example, ‘ginger’; then the recovery would be faster. But if we were able to expel out the accumulated kapha dosha in one stroke, the recovery would be much faster. This is really a peculiarity of Ayurveda. It’s a very good way to recover faster. There are in all five such purification processes.

(1)     Vamana-
This is a scientific process of producing vomiting. It is especially useful for kapha and pitta dosha in diseases like sinusitis, bronchitis, asthma, skin disorders, hyperacidity, herpes etc. and in general for prevention of diseases caused by kapha and pitta. It’s an elaborate procedure to be performed under supervision of an Ayurvedic expert. Since the kapha dosha is sticky by nature; to separate it from the body and to protect the body as well, ‘Snehana’ process is administered first. The patient is given medicated ghee / oil internally. The dose is increased everyday and is increased to such a quantity that the person won’t feel hungry for 12 hours. For example, if he consumes ghee at 7 a.m. he should require 12 hours to digest it and feel hungry at 7 p.m. Steam bath is also given along with this Snehana and that is called as ‘Svedana’. The vomiting is induced with some medication. The process may require 2-3 hours for completion. Rest is advised on the day of the process and special dietary regimen is administered before coming back to normal diet. The whole procedure may require 8-10 days.

(2)     Virechana-
This is another purification process, especially useful for pitta dosha and diseases like hyperacidity, skin disorders, herpes etc. and also to prevent diseases caused by pitta dosha. In this procedure Snehana and Svedana is performed like ‘Vamana’ and then ‘Virechana’ i.e. medication for producing loose motions is given. Dietary regimen and rest are also observed like the ‘Vamana’ procedure.

(3)     Basti-
This is a procedure useful for vata dosha and diseases caused by vata like backache, low backache, arthritis, multiple sclerosis etc. It also helps in preventing diseases caused by vata dosha and can also be used as a rejuvenating treatment. The route of medication in the procedure is anus. But the procedure is much different from enema. Two kinds of bastis are given-

(a)    Sneha Basti (oil enema)

(b)    Niruha basti (enema consisting of decoctions, oil, honey etc.)

Courses of 8, 15 or 30-basti s can be arranged as per the requirement of the patient combining both types of basti. Basti is one of the important treatments of Ayurveda.

(c)    Uttarbasti- it is given through Urinary tract or in females through Vagina.

(4)     Raktamokshana-

According to Ayurveda many a diseases are caused by impure rakta i.e. to say blood. As a consequence, removing blood from the body is a treatment. This is done in four ways. The most common way is application of leeches, which is most suitable for local application. It is very useful and gives instant relief in diseases like migraine, piles, abscess (primary stage), arthritis, and toothache and even in acute appendicitis. It is very useful in herpes zoster. The other way is doing Snehana, Svedana and then letting the blood out by using needle. This is effective especially in skin disorders.

(5)     Nasya-

Here the route of administration of medication is nose. Few drops of medicated oil, fresh herbal juices are instilled into nostril. This is very useful in diseases of head, ear, nose, and throat like migraine, sinusitis etc. Medicated drops can also be used for complaints of hair (like falling of hair, graying of hair etc.) and even for strengthening the senses.

This five-fold therapy is called ‘Pancha-karma’ and is now becoming very popular due to its instant effectiveness.