- "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."
Discover the various forms of Ayurvedic bodywork, including massage, marma therapy, and panchakarma, and how they can help balance the doshas and promote healing.
Ayurvedic principles and philosophy: Understanding the basic principles of Ayurveda, such as the three doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) and their characteristics, the five elements (ether, air, fire, water, and earth), and the concept of balance and imbalance.
Anatomy and physiology: Understanding the human body and its functions from an Ayurvedic perspective, including the concepts of the nadis (energy channels), marma points (vital energy points), and the seven chakras (energy centers).
Ayurvedic massage techniques: Learning the traditional Ayurvedic massage techniques, including Abhyanga (full body oil massage), Shirodhara (oil pouring over the forehead), and Pinda Sweda (warm herbal poultice massage).
Marma therapy: Understanding the concept of marma points and their importance in Ayurvedic bodywork, including how to locate and stimulate them to promote healing and balance in the body.
Herbal medicine: Learning about the Ayurvedic herbal remedies and their uses, including how to prepare and apply them for various conditions and imbalances.
Ayurvedic diet and nutrition: Understanding the principles of Ayurvedic nutrition, including the six tastes (sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent) and their effects on the body, as well as individualized dietary recommendations based on one's dosha.
Ayurvedic lifestyle practices: Exploring the various Ayurvedic lifestyle practices that promote health and balance, including daily routines, yoga and meditation, pranayama (breathing exercises), and seasonal cleansing programs.
Diagnosis and assessment: Learning how to diagnose and assess imbalances in the body and mind through various Ayurvedic methods, including pulse diagnosis, tongue analysis, and taking a thorough medical history.
Ayurvedic psychology: Understanding the Ayurvedic view of mental health and how to support emotional balance and well-being through bodywork, diet, lifestyle, and herbal remedies.
Ayurvedic ethics and professionalism: Exploring the ethical considerations and professional standards of Ayurvedic bodywork, including informed consent, client confidentiality, and maintaining boundaries.
- "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."