- "Ayurveda is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent." - "The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific." - "Ayurveda therapies have varied and evolved over more than two millennia."
This traditional Indian medicine that uses natural remedies, herbs, and a balanced diet to treat and prevent illness.
History of Ayurveda: Learn about the origins, evolution and development of Ayurvedic medicine over time.
Foundational Principles of Ayurveda: Understand the fundamental principles of Ayurveda, including doshas (vata, pitta, kapha), gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas), and the concept of agni (digestive fire).
Diet and Nutrition: Discover the importance of food in Ayurvedic medicine, and how to use diet to balance the doshas and promote good health.
Herbs and Herbal Formulations: Explore the role of herbs and herbal remedies in Ayurvedic medicine, including common herbs and their uses, as well as how to prepare and use herbal formulations.
Yoga and Breathing Techniques: Learn about the benefits of yoga and pranayama (breathing) in Ayurvedic medicine, and how to use these practices to promote health and well-being.
Ayurvedic Bodywork: Discover the various forms of Ayurvedic bodywork, including massage, marma therapy, and panchakarma, and how they can help balance the doshas and promote healing.
Diagnosis and Treatment: Understand how Ayurvedic practitioners diagnose imbalances in the doshas and develop treatment plans, including use of herbs, dietary changes, and lifestyle recommendations.
Ayurveda and Modern Medicine: Explore the integration of Ayurveda with modern medicine, including how Ayurvedic principles can be applied in conventional healthcare settings.
Ayurvedic Psychology: Learn about the connections between Ayurvedic medicine and psychological health, including the role of emotions and mental states in overall well-being.
Ayurvedic Ethics and Philosophy: Delve into the ethical and philosophical underpinnings of Ayurvedic medicine, including its focus on the interconnectedness of all things and the importance of living in harmony with nature.
- "It is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population report using Ayurveda."
- "Therapies include herbal medicines, special diets, meditation, yoga, massage, laxatives, enemas, and medical oils."
- "Ayurvedic preparations are typically based on complex herbal compounds, minerals, and metal substances."
- "Ancient Ayurveda texts also taught surgical techniques, including rhinoplasty, kidney stone extractions, sutures, and the extraction of foreign objects."
- "The main classical Ayurveda texts begin with accounts of the transmission of medical knowledge from the gods to sages, and then to human physicians." - "The Sushruta Samhita (Sushruta's Compendium) frames the work as the teachings of Dhanvantari, Hindu god of Ayurveda, incarnated as King Divodāsa of Varanasi, to a group of physicians, including Sushruta."
- "Through well-understood processes of modernization and globalization, Ayurveda has been adapted for Western consumption, notably by Baba Hari Dass in the 1970s and Maharishi Ayurveda in the 1980s."
- "Historical evidence for Ayurvedic texts, terminology and concepts appears from the middle of the first millennium BCE onwards."
- "In Ayurveda texts, Dosha balance is emphasized, and suppressing natural urges is considered unhealthy and claimed to lead to illness." - "Ayurveda treatises describe three elemental doshas viz. vāta, pitta and kapha, and state that balance of the doshas results in health, while imbalance results in disease."
- "Ayurveda treatises divide medicine into eight canonical components."
- "Some Ayurvedic preparations have been found to contain lead, mercury, and arsenic, substances known to be harmful to humans."
- "A 2008 study found the three substances [lead, mercury, and arsenic] in close to 21% of U.S. and Indian-manufactured patent Ayurvedic medicines sold through the Internet."
- "The public health implications of such metallic contaminants in India are unknown."