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What is
Ayurveda?
▪ Origin
& history
▪ Definition
of Ayurveda
▪ Concepts
& Principals of Ayurveda
▪ Diagnosis
& Treatment
▪ Types of treatments
▪ Development
& its present status
Origin and History
Ayurveda originated
in India long back in pre-vedic period. Rigveda and Atharva-veda
( 5000 years B.C.), the earliest documented ancient Indian knowledge have
references on health and diseases. Ayurved texts like Charak Samhita
and Sushruta Samhita were documented about 1000 years B.C. The term Ayurveda
means ‘Science of Life’. It deals elaborately with measures for healthful
living during the entire span of life and its various phases. Besides, dealing
with principles for maintenance of health, it has also developed a wide range
of therapeutic measures to combat illness. These principles of positive health
and therapeutic measures relate to physical, mental, social and spiritual
welfare of human beings. Thus Ayurveda becomes one of the oldest
systems of health care dealing with both the preventive and curative aspects
of life in a most comprehensive way and presents a close similarity to the
WHO’s concept of health propounded in the modern era.
A perusal of its several
classical treatises indicate presence of two schools of Physicians and Surgeons
and eight specialities. These eight disciplines are generally called "Ashtanga
Ayurveda" and are :-
-
Internal Medicine(Kaya
Chikitsa)
-
Paediatrics(Kaumar Bhritya)
-
Psychiatry( Bhoot Vidya)
-
Otorhinolaryngology and
Ophthalmology(Shalakya)
-
Surgery( Shalya)
-
Toxicology( Agad Tantra)
-
Geriatrics(Rasayana)
-
Eugenics and aphrodisiacs(Vajikarana)
Compendia on these subjects
like Charak Samihta, Sushruta Samhita etc. were written by the ancient
scholars during B.C. period. These were used for teaching of Ayurveda in the
ancient universities of Takshashila and Nalanda.
The Early Beginning
During its early period, it was
perhaps the only system of overall healthcare and medicine which served well
the people in such crucial areas as health, sickness, life and death. It
enjoyed the unquestioned patronage and support of the people and their rulers.
This situation promoted maximally the growth of this system. Practically all
the systematic ground work of laying down its basic concepts, principles and
medicaments took place during this period of Indian history.
The Medieval Period
Then followed a long period of
medieval history marked by unsettled political conditions and several invasions
from outside the country when Ayurveda faced utter neglect. Its growth was
stunted, its teaching and training were stopped from being spread and its
monopoly in practice or utilization was eroded greatly by the officially
supported systems. Ayurveda barely survived because of its native roots and also
because the official systems of medicine could not reach everywhere particularly
in widely scattered and difficult rural areas.
The Present Era
The political situation of the
country was destined to change in favour of freedom from foreign rule. With the
awakening of nationalism and movement for freedom the Indian cultural values and
way of life (including health care and sickness cure systems) surfaced again.
The patriotic zeal of the people, their leaders and benevolence of the
rulers of princely States initiated the revival of Ayurvedic system of medicine
even before the country got its freedom. In 1916, the Members of Imperial
Legislative Councils pressed the Government to accept this ancient and
indigenous system of Ayurveda for developing it on scientific basis and for
increasing its usefulness. In 1920, the Indian National Congress demanded
Government patronage for Ayurveda and Provincial Governments began to grant
assistance. The State and Central Governments appointed several committees to
suggest ways and means of rehabilitating this time tested system in the service
of the people and promote its further growth following modern scientific
parameters and methods. As a result, several States started schools and colleges
for training of competent Ayurvedic practitioners with working knowledge of
modern medicine.
After, the country became free in
1947, the movement for revival gained additional momentum. The first Health
Ministers’ Conference resolved that Ayurveda should be developed and put to
use for providing medicare to the people. In due course of time this system got
official recognition and became a part of the National Health network of the
country. In several ways, the official health policies, national plans and
programmes accorded to it the same status as enjoyed by the dominant Allopathic
system. At present the system is well set to re-orient itself to modern
scientific parameters. Simultaneously, it is well poised for much greater,
effective utilization so as to enable the country to reach its goals of Health
for all and regulate population growth. In the present situation, Medical
Scientists are researching Ayurveda remedies for lifestyle related diseases,
degenerative and psychosomatic disorders.
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Definitation
The classical works
on Ayurveda describe it as under :
It is that knowledge
of life which deals elaborately and at length with conditions beneficial or
otherwise to the humanity, and, to factors conducive to the happiness, or
responsible for misery or sorrow besides indicating measures for healthful
living for full span of life .
Ayurveda is also
considered as ‘Science of life’. This probably makes it the earliest medical
science having a positive concept of health to be achieved through a blending of
physical, mental, social moral and spiritual welfare.
According to the
ancient books of knowledge, health is considered as a prerequisite for achieving
the supreme ends of life consisting of righteousness, wealth, artistic values
and spiritual freedom. Preventive and curative aspects of diseases are
considered as important components of the concept of positive health.
Ayurveda deals
elaborately with measures of healthful living during the entire span of life and
its various phases. Besides dealing with principles for maintenance of health,
it has also developed a wide range of therapeutic measures to combat illness.
These principles of positive health and therapeutic measures related to
physical, mental, social and spiritual welfare of human beings. Thus Ayurveda
became one of the oldest system of medicine dealing with both the preventive and
curative aspects of life in a most comprehensive way.
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Concepts & Principles
The Body Matrix
Life in Ayurveda
is conceived as the union of body, senses, mind and soul. The living man is a
conglomeration of three humours (Vata, Pitta &Kapha), seven
basic tissues (Rasa, Rakta, Mansa, Meda, Asthi, Majja & Shukra)
and the waste products of the body such as faeces, urine and sweat. Thus the
total body matrix comprises of the humours, the tissues and the waste products
of the body. The growth and decay of this body matrix and its constituents
revolve around food which gets processed into humours, tissues and wastes.
Ingestion, digestion, absorption, assimilation and metabolism of food have an
interplay in health and disease which are significantly affected by
psychological mechanisms as well as by bio- fire(Agni).
Panchamahabhutas
According to Ayurveda all objects in the universe including human body are composed of five basic
elements (Panchamahabhutas) namely, earth, water, fire, air and
vacuum(ether). There is a balanced condensation of these elements in different
proportions to suit the needs and requirements of different structures and
functions of the body matrix and its parts. The growth and development of the
body matrix depends on its nutrition, i.e. on food. The food, in turn, is
composed of the above five elements, which replenish or nourish the like
elements of the body after the action of bio-fire (Agni). The tissues of
the body are the structural whereas humours are physiological entities, derived
from different combinations and permutations of Panchamahabhutas.
Health and Sickness
Health or sickness depends on the
presence or absence of a balanced state of the total body matrix including the
balance between its different constituents. Both the intrinsic and extrinsic
factors can cause disturbance in the natural equilibrium giving rise to disease.
This loss of equilibrium can happen by dietary indiscrimination, undesirable
habits and non-observance of rules of healthy living. Seasonal abnormalities,
improper exercise or erratic application of sense organs and incompatible
actions of the body and mind can also result in creating disturbance of the
existing normal balance. The treatment consists of restoring the balance of
disturbed body-mind matrix through regulating diet, correcting life-routine and
behaviour, administration of drugs and resorting to preventive Panchkarma and Rasayana
therapy.
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Diagnosis
In Ayuveda
diagnosis is always done of the patient as a whole. The physician takes a
careful note of the patient’s internal physiological characteristics and
mental disposition. He also studies such other factors as the affected bodily
tissues, humours, the site at which the disease is located, patient’s
resistance and vitality, his daily routine, dietary habits, the gravity of
clinical conditions, condition of digestion and details of personal, social,
economic and environmental situation of the patient. The diagnosis also involves
the following examinations:
-
General physical examination
-
Pulse examination
-
Urine examination
-
Examination of the faeces
-
Examination of tongue and eyes
-
Examination of skin and ear
including tactile and auditory functions.
Treatment :-
The basic therapeutic approach
is, ‘that alone is the right treatment which makes for health and he alone is
the best doctor who frees one from disease’. This sums up the principal
objectives of Ayurveda, i.e. maintenance and promotion of health, prevention of
disease and cure of sickness.
Treatment of the
disease consists in avoiding causative factors responsible for disequilibrium of
the body matrix or of any of its constituent parts through the use of Panchkarma
procedures, medicines, suitable diet, activity and regimen for restoring the
balance and strengthening the body mechanisms to prevent or minimize future
occurrence of the disease.
Normally
treatment measures involve use of medicines, specific diet and prescribed
activity routine. Use of these three measures is done in two ways. In one
approach of treatment the three measures antagonize the disease by counteracting
the etiological factors and various manifestations of the disease. In the second
approach the same three measures of medicine, diet and activity are targeted to
exert effects similar to the etiological factors and manifestations of the
disease process. These two types of therapeutic approaches are respectively
known as Vipreeta and Vipreetarthkari treatments.
For successful
administration of a treatment four things are essential. These are
-
The physician
-
The medicaments
-
The nursing personnel
-
The patient
The physician
comes first in order of importance. He must possess technical skill, scientific
knowledge, purity and human understanding. The physician should use his
knowledge with humility, wisdom and in the service of humanity. Next in
importance comes food and drugs. These are supposed to be of high quality, wide
application, grown and prepared following approved procedures and should be
available adequately. The third component of every successful treatment is the
role of nursing personnel who should have good knowledge of nursing, must know
the skills of their art and be affectionate, sympathetic, intelligent, neat
& clean and resourceful. The fourth component is the patient himself who
should be cooperative and obedient to follow instructions of the physician, able
to describe ailments and ready to provide all that may be needed for treatment.
Preventive Treatment & the
concepts of Aetio-Pathogenesis
Ayurveda has
developed a very vivid analytical description of the stages and events that take
place since the causative factors commence to operate till the final
manifestation of disease. This gives this system an additional advantage of
knowing that possible onset of disease much before the latent symptoms become
apparent. This very much enhances the preventive role of this system of medicine
by making it possible to take proper and effective steps in advance, to arrest
further progress in pathogenesis or to take suitable therapeutic measures to
curb the disease in its earliest stage of onset.
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Types of Treatment
The treatment of disease can
broadly be classified as
-
Shodhana
therapy (Purification Treatment)
-
Shamana
therapy (Palliative Treatment)
-
Pathya Vyavastha
(Prescription of diet and activity)
-
Nidan Parivarjan
(Avoidance of disease causing and aggravating factors)
-
Satvavajaya(Psychotherapy)
-
Rasayana
therapy(use of immunomodulators and rejuvenation medicines)
(a) Shodhana treatment aims at removal
of the causative factors of somatic and psychosomatic diseases. The process
involves internal and external purification. The usual practices involved are Panchkarma
(medically induced Emesis, Purgation, Oil Enema, Decoction enema and Nasal
administration of medicines), Pre-panchkarma procedures (external and internal
oleation and induced sweating). Panchkarma treatment focuses on
metabolic management. It provides needed purificatory effect, besides conferring
therapeutic benefits. This treatment is especially helpful in neurological
disorders, musculo-skeletal disease conditions, certain vascular or neuro-vascular
states, respiratory diseases, metabolic and degenerative disorders.
(b) Shamana therapy involves suppression of vitiated humours (doshas). The
process by which disturbed humour subsides or returns to normal without creating
imbalance of other humours is known as shamana. This treatment is achieved by
use of appetisers, digestives, exercise and exposure to sun, fresh air etc. In
this form of treatment, palliatives and sedatives are used.
(c) Pathya
Vyavastha comprises indications and contraindications in respect of
diet, activity, habits and emotional status. This is done with a view to enhance
the effects of therapeutic measures and to impede the pathogenetic processes.
Emphasis on do’s and don’ts of diet etc is laid with the aim to stimulate
Agni and optimize digestion and assimilation of food in order to ensure strength
of tissues.
(d) Nidan
Parivarjan is to avoid the known disease causing factors in diet and
lifestyle of the patient. It also encompasses the idea to refrain from
precipitating or aggravating factors of the disease.
(e) Satvavajaya concerns mainly with the area of mental disturbances. This includes
restraining the mind from desires for unwholesome objects and cultivation of
courage, memory and concentration. The study of psychology and psychiatry have
been developed extensively in Ayurveda and have wide range of approaches
in the treatment of mental disorders.
(f)
Rasayana therapy
deals with promotion of strength and vitality. The integrity of body matrix,
promotion of memory, intelligence, immunity against the disease, the
preservation of youth, luster and complexion and maintenance of optimum strength
of the body and senses are some of the positive benefits credited to this
treatment. Prevention of premature bear and tear of body tissues and promotion
of total health content of an individual are the roles that Rasayana therapy
plays.
Diet and Ayurvedic Treatment
In Ayurveda,
regulation of diet as therapy has great importance. This is because it considers
human body as the product of food. An individual’s mental and spiritual
development as well as his temperament is influenced by the quality of food
consumed by him. Food in human body is transformed first into chyle or Rasa
and then successive processes involve its conversion into blood, muscle, fat,
bone, bone-marrow, reproductive elements and ojas. Thus, food is basic to
all the metabolic transformations and life activities. Lack of nutrients in food
or improper transformation of food lead to a variety of disease conditions.
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Development
and its Status
Human life and knowledge of preserving it as a going concern,
in the face of overpowering and brute physical and biological environment, must
have come into being almost simultaneously. It has to be so. There cannot be any
other plausible explanation, other than this, to account for the continuity of
human race and survival of its several highly developed cultures and
civilisations. All known cultures of the past - Egyptian, Babylonian, Jewish,
Greek, Indus -Valley etc. - had their own equally glorious and useful systems of
medicine and health care.
In India, development and growth of such a body of knowledge
known as Ayurveda, meaning science of life, was coeval with the growth and
evolution of Indian civilization and culture. Vedas, which are considered to be
the repositories of recorded Indian culture, have mention of this knowledge both
in theoretical and practical form. There is discussion of theories about the
composition of living and non-living matter, the physical, biochemical,
biological, psychological and spiritual components of man and the vital motive
forces working both inside and outside the body. In other ancient works there is
mention of such current medical subject like anatomy, physiology, aetiology,
pathology, treatment and environmental factors. This medical knowledge has been
the work of ages. It is the out-come of the great power of observation,
generalisation and analysis combined with patient labour of hundred of
investigators spread over thousand of years. This knowledge has played so
important a part in the development of Indian culture that it has been
documented in an integrated form in the Vedas-the ancient most documented Indian
wisdom and knowledge.. Most of the mythological and medico-religious genesis of
Ayurveda is even today shrouded in the mist of antiquity.
Around 5000 years BC, Rigveda & Atharvaveda (the ancient
books on Indian knowledge, wisdom, culture & science) contain many hymns on
diseases and their treatment by various plants and other materials. It was
around 1000 years BC when Ayurvedic fundamentals and its eight clinical
specialities were fully documented in Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita –
the first compendia on Ayurvedic medicine & surgery respectively. In this
sense, Ayurveda is considered to have divine origin representing one of the
oldest organised system of medicine for positive health & cure of human
sickness. Making use of systematic careful observations and documenting detailed
experiences over the past several thousand of years, it has grown into a very
comprehensive health care system with two major schools and eight
specialisations. It has a school of physicians and a school of surgeons referred
in literature as ‘Atreya Sampradaya’ and ‘Dhanvantri Sampradaya’
respectively.
The most important and massive ancient compilation of the
School of Medicine is known as Charka Samhita. It contains several chapters
dealing at length with therapeutic or internal medicine. About 600 drugs of
plant, animal and mineral origin are described in it. Besides, this compendium
also deals with other branches of Ayurveda like anatomy, physiology, aetiology,
prognosis, pathology, treatment and medicine etc.
An equally exhaustive ancient compilation, Sushruta Samhita exists relating
to school of surgery. It deals primarily with various fundamental principles and
theory of surgery. More than 100 kinds of surgical instruments including
scalpels, scissors, forceps, specula etc. are described along with their use in
this valuable document. Dissection and operative procedures are explained making
use of vegetables and dead animals. Descriptions of how to go about doing
incision, excision, extraction and bandaging etc. are detailed in this
compendium. In addition, this document also mentions of such other topics as
anatomy, embryology, toxicology and therapeutics. It also has a mention of about
650 drugs.
In course of time Ayurveda, which
started as a magico-religious practice, matured into a fully developed medical
science with eight branches which have parallels in the modern western system of
medicine. The growth of these eight specialties gave Ayurveda another name of
Astanga Ayurveda. In the last 50 years of development in the teaching and
training, it has developed into following sixteen specialties .
1. Ayurveda Siddhanta
(Fundamental Principals of Ayurveda).
2. Ayurveda Samhita.
3. Rachna Sharira (Anatomy).
4. Kriya Sharira (Physiology).
5. Dravya Guna Vigian (Materia
Medica & Pharmacology).
6. Ras-shastra.
7. Bhaishajya Kalpana
(Pharmaceuticals).
8. Kaumar Bharitya (Peduatrics).
9. Prasuti Tantra (Obstetrics
& Gynaecology).
10.Swasth-Vritla (Social &
Preventive Medicine).
11.Kayachikitsa (Internal
Medicine).
12.Rog Nidan (Pathology).
13.Shalya Tantra (Surgery).
14.Shalkya Tantra (Eye & ENT).
15.Mano-Roga (Psychiatry)
16.Panchkarma.
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