RUDRA AYURVEDA | NEW YORK
Ayurvedic Medicine, Services and Therapies by Vaidhya(Dr.) Rudra | 358 Fifth Ave. Suite 704 New York, NY 10001 | (646) 331-0398
ABOUT AYURVEDA | Page 2 of 8
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ABOUT AYURVEDA
Ayurveda, the "science of life" is a system of traditional medicine native to India and practiced in other parts of the world as a form of Alternative Medicine. In Sanskrit, the word Ayurveda consists of the words ayus, meaning 'life', and veda, meaning 'related to knowledge' or 'science'. Ayurvedic practitioners also identified a number of medicinal preparations and surgical procedures for curing various ailments and diseases.
As per Indian heritage and science, and the Ayurvedic system, the prevention of all types of disease has a prominent place in treatment, including restructuring one's lifestyle to align with the course of nature and the four seasons to guarantee complete wellness.
Ayurveda is considered to be a form of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) within the Western world, where several of its methods, such as the use of herbs, massage, and Yoga as exercise or alternative medicine, are applied on their own as a form of CAM treatment.
Ayurveda is applicable to every living thing, as implied by its name, the "science of life". Ayurveda views each and every person as unique, with a unique mind-body constitution and a unique set of life circumstances, all of which must be considered in determining either natural healing approaches or recommendations for daily living. According to Ayurveda, because we each have a unique constitution, our health prescription must be unique to us. This means that in order to be healthy, you need to eat certain foods that are beneficial for your body type. Your exercise program must be personally suitable as well. Your constitution determines very much about you - your body, your personality, even how you relate to other people. Understanding it lets you know what you need in order to be healthy.
The human body is part of nature. Nature has set us up with all the equipment we need to be perfectly healthy. Health is our natural state, and ill health is unnatural. Every day our systems are exposed to literally millions of bacteria, viruses, allergens, even carcinogens, and yet our immune system has the intelligence and skill to deal with all those invaders and keep us healthy. However, when stress, inadequate nutrition, or just fatigue weakens the immune system, those same invaders may produce disease - Doshas.
Every person (and thing) contains all three Doshas, Vata, Pitta and Kapha. However, the proportion varies according to the individual and usually one or two Doshas predominate. Within each person the Doshas are continually interacting with one another and with the Doshas in all of nature. This explains why people can have much in common but also has an endless variety of individual differences in the way they behave and respond to their environment. Ayurveda recognizes that different foods, tastes, colours, and sounds affect the Doshas in different ways. For example very hot and pungent spices aggravate Pitta; but cold, light foods such as salads calm it down. This ability to affect the Doshas is the underlying basis for Ayurvedic practices and therapies.
A balance among the tridosha is necessary for health. Together, the tridosha governs all metabolic activities. When their actions in our mind-body constitution are balanced, we experience psychological and physical wellness. When they are somewhat unbalanced, we may feel uneasy. When they are more obviously unbalanced - when one or more of the three Doshas influences are excessive or deficient-discernible symptoms of sickness can be observed and experienced.