Ayurvedic Medicine

Even the word ayurveda in Ayurvedic medicine is old. It is derived from two Sanskrit words - Ayu meaning life, and Veda, meaning knowledge or science.

Like Chinese herbal remedies, ayurvedic medicine emphasizes mind, body, and spirit as interconnected when assessing disease and approaching prevention and treatment. Another similarity is the existence of many offshoots into interrelated modalities including yoga, breath work, various forms of cleansing and life-style and dietary recommendations.

Unlike Chinese herbalism, many of the most commonly prescribed ayurvedic herbs are not highly esoteric. You may not know ashwaganda or boswellia, although both are gaining a great deal of recognition in the west. But you're very likely to know turmeric, ginger, or myrrh.

Chinese medicine practitioners seek balance in body, mind, spirit by balancing the two opposites of yin and yang. Ayurveda practitioners do the same by balancing three elemental dynamics. Each person is considered a blend of three 'doshas,' or vital energies- vata, pitta and kapha.

By the time we are adults, all of us are out of balance to some degree. Ayurveda seeks to restore that essential harmony.

Because of the importance both these old traditions place on energetic balance, it is a natural outcome that they place a large emphasis on prevention of disease. By seeking to balance underlying disharmonies, both treat the patient rather than the disease. 

For those of us used to western allopathic medical treatments, this is quite a stretch. In ancient China doctors were paid only when their patients stayed healthy or were healed from an illness. On the ladder of respectability, the most revered doctor was the one whose patients never got ill.

How would that work if we applied it to managed care? Sigh.