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Ayurveda is India’s ancient science of life, health, and longevity

By Viola Woolcott

Ayurveda is India’s ancient science of life, health, and longevity. It is an intricate system of healing that originated in India over 5000 thousand years ago.

In Ayurveda a person is viewed as a unique individual made up of five primary elements. These elements are ether (space), air, fire, water, and earth. Just as in nature, we too have these five elements in us. When any of these five primary elements are present in the environment, they will in turn have an influence on us. Two examples of the presence of these elements are the weather and the foods we eat.

The purpose of Ayurveda is to heal, maintain a high quality of life and to increase the longevity of the individual. It is an art of daily living that has evolved from practical, philosophical, and spiritual insight. Even though being used for thousands of years, Ayurvedic principles have never changed, since they derive from universal laws of nature that are eternally true.

In Sanskrit, Ayurveda means the “Science of Life”. Life in this sense is the integration of body, mind and consciousness. Ayurveda places great emphasis on prevention and encourages the maintenance of health through diet, lifestyle, yoga and meditation practice, herbal nutrition, as well as cleansing and rejuvenating therapies. By understanding our own unique nature or constitution we can begin to understand how we interact with our environment and therefore make choices that will lead us toward greater health. Ayurveda defines disease as the natural end result of living out of harmony with our original constitution. The Ayurvedic approach is very individualized, since the path to optimal health is different for each individuals constitution.

The Ayurvedic system believes that the individual’s constitution (prakruti) is recorded at the time of conception as a genetic code that can be expressed physically and mentally as disease proneness and emotional response. This constitution is determined by vata, pitta and kapha, which are the three doshas or psycho-physiological functional principles in Ayurveda. They govern the individual’s response to changes and they promote the disease process when out of balance.

Factors, both internal and external, can disturb this balance and bring about changes in the original constitution that may lead to disorders and dis-ease. Some of these factors include emotional and physical stresses, improper food combinations and choices, physical trauma, or seasonal and weather changes. Once we understand how these factors affect us on a constitutional level, we can take appropriate actions for the causes of imbalance.

From the time of birth until death, the body is engaged in maintaining life. Vata, pitta and kapha play an important role in the maintenance of cellular health and longevity. Kapha maintains longevity on the cellular level. Pitta governs digestion and nutrition. Vata, which is closely related to the life energy (prana, governs all life functions. Ayurveda offers different therapies that may support the individual’s constitutional harmony at all levels, while promoting cellular rejuvenation and overall vitality and immunity. The key to optimal health is to help the body eliminate toxins and re-establish the constitutional balance of the doshas. For such purpose, Ayurveda offers diet and lifestyle guidelines, herbal preparations, and cleansing and rejuvenating programs such as panchakarma and vata management therapies.

Filed under: Alternative Therapy on November 28th, 2007