Ayurveda is considered to be the oldest healing science. In Sanskrit, Ayurveda means “The Science of Life.” Ayurvedic knowledge originated in India more than 5,000 years ago and is often called the “Mother of All Healing.” It stems from the ancient Vedic culture and was taught for many thousands of years in an oral tradition from accomplished masters to their disciples. Ayurvedic treatment combines products (mainly derived from plants, but may also include animal, metal, and mineral), diet, exercise, and lifestyle.
Ayurveda places great emphasis on prevention and encourages the maintenance of health through close attention to balance in one’s life, right thinking, diet, lifestyle and the use of herbs. Knowledge of Ayurveda enables one to understand how to create this balance of body, mind and consciousness according to one’s own individual constitution and how to make lifestyle changes to bring about and maintain this balance.
Just as everyone has a unique fingerprint, each person has a particular pattern of energy—an individual combination of physical, mental and emotional characteristics—which comprises their own constitution. This constitution is determined at conception by a number of factors and remains the same throughout one’s life.
Many factors, both internal and external, act upon us to disturb this balance and are reflected as a change in one’s constitution from the balanced state. Examples of these emotional and physical stresses include one’s emotional state, diet and food choices, seasons and weather, physical trauma, work and family relationships. Once these factors are understood, one can take appropriate actions to nullify or minimize their effects or eliminate the causes of imbalance and re-establish one’s original constitution. Balance is the natural order; imbalance is disorder. Health is order; disease is disorder. Within the body there is a constant interaction between order and disorder. When one understands the nature and structure of disorder, one can re-establish order.
Balancing the Three Principle Energies of the Body
Ayurveda identifies three basic types of energy or functional principles that are present in everyone and everything. Since there are no single words in English that convey these concepts, we use the original Sanskrit words vata, pitta and kapha. These principles can be related to the basic biology of the body.
Energy is required to create movement so that fluids and nutrients get to the cells, enabling the body to function. Energy is also required to metabolize the nutrients in the cells, and is called for to lubricate and maintain the structure of the cell. Vata is the energy of movement; pitta is the energy of digestion or metabolism and kapha, the energy of lubrication and structure. All people have the qualities of vata, pitta and kapha, but one is usually primary, one secondary and the third is usually least prominent. The cause of disease in Ayurveda is viewed as a lack of proper cellular function due to an excess or deficiency of vata, pitta or kapha. Disease can also be caused by the presence of toxins.
In Ayurveda, body, mind and consciousness work together in maintaining balance. They are simply viewed as different facets of one’s being. To learn how to balance the body, mind and consciousness requires an understanding of how vata, pitta and kapha work together. According to Ayurvedic philosophy the entire cosmos is an interplay of the energies of the five great elements—Space, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. Vata, pitta and kapha are combinations and permutations of these five elements that manifest as patterns present in all creation. In the physical body, vata is the subtle energy of movement, pitta the energy of digestion and metabolism, and kapha the energy that forms the body’s structure.
Vata is the subtle energy associated with movement — composed of Space and Air. It governs breathing, blinking, muscle and tissue movement, pulsation of the heart, and all movements in the cytoplasm and cell membranes. In balance, vata promotes creativity and flexibility. Out of balance, vata produces fear and anxiety.
Pitta expresses as the body’s metabolic system — made up of Fire and Water. It governs digestion, absorption, assimilation, nutrition, metabolism and body temperature. In balance, pitta promotes understanding and intelligence. Out of balance, pitta arouses anger, hatred and jealousy.
Kapha is the energy that forms the body’s structure — bones, muscles, tendons — and provides the “glue” that holds the cells together, formed from Earth and Water. Kapha supplies the water for all bodily parts and systems. It lubricates joints, moisturizes the skin, and maintains immunity. In balance, kapha is expressed as love, calmness and forgiveness. Out of balance, it leads to attachment, greed and envy.
Life presents us with many challenges and opportunities. Although there is much over which we have little control, we do have the power to decide about some things, such as diet and lifestyle. To maintain balance and health, it is important to pay attention to these decisions. Diet and lifestyle appropriate to one’s individual constitution strengthen the body, mind and consciousness.
Food is the major source for serving the nutritional needs, but with growing modernization some traditional ways are being given up. Affluence of working population with changing lifestyles and reducing affordability of sick care, in terms of time and money involved, are some of the forces that are presently driving people towards thinking about their wellness. There has been increased global interest in traditional medicine. Efforts to monitor and regulate traditional herbal medicine are underway. Ayurveda, the traditional Indian medicine, remains the most ancient yet living traditions. Although India has been successful in promoting its therapies with more research and science-based approach, it still needs more extensive research and evidence base. Increased side effects, lack of curative treatment for several chronic diseases, high cost of new drugs, microbial resistance and emerging, diseases are some reasons for renewed public interest in complementary and alternative medicines. Numerous nutraceutical combinations have entered the international market through exploration of ethnopharmacological claims made by different traditional practices. This review gives an overview of the Ayurvedic system of medicine and its role in translational medicine in order to overcome malnutrition and related disorders.
Alternative medicines are being used by about 60 percent of the world's population. These medicines are not only used by the rural masses for their primary health care in developing countries but are also used in developed countries where modern medicines dominate. The Indian subcontinent is a vast repository of medicinal plants that are used in traditional medical treatments. The alternative medicines in the traditional systems are derived from herbs, minerals, and organic matter, while for the preparation of herbal drugs only medicinal plants are used. Use of plants as a source of medicine has been an ancient practice and is an important component of the health care system in India. In India, about 70 percent of rural population depends on the traditional Ayurvedic system of medicine. Most healers/practitioners of the traditional systems of medicine prepare formulations by their own recipes and dispense to the patients. In the Western countries, approximately 40 per cent of people are using the herbal medicine for the treatment of various diseases. This interest in traditional medicines is growing rapidly due to the attention being given to it by the governmental agencies and different NGO’s comprising of general public and researchers as well as the increased side effects, adverse drug reactions, and cost factor of the modern medicines.
India is the largest producer of medicinal plants. There are currently about 250,000 registered medical practitioners of the Ayurvedic system, as compared to about 700,000 of the modern medicine. In India, around 20,000 medicinal plants have been recorded; however, traditional practitioners use only 7,000–7,500 plants for curing different diseases. The proportion of use of plants in the different Indian systems of medicine is Ayurveda 2000, Siddha 1300, Unani 1000, Homeopathy 800, Tibetan 500, Modern 200, and folk 4500. In India, around 25,000 effective plant-based formulations are used in traditional and folk medicine. More than 1.5 million practitioners are using the traditional medicinal system for health care in India. It is estimated that more than 7800 manufacturing units are involved in the production of natural health products and traditional plant-based formulations in India, which requires more than 2000 tons of medicinal plant raw material annually. More than 1500 herbals are sold as dietary supplements or ethnic traditional medicines .
Nutrition is a fundamental need. Various risk factors related to health result from an imbalance in nutrition. These imbalances in India are widely prevalent leading to adverse outcomes. A certain section of the population consumes diet which does not provide sufficient calories, let alone sufficient nutrients. In India, nearly 20% of the total population and 44% of young children (below 5 years of age) are undernourished and underweight. On the other hand, there is a huge population that is nourished in calorie intake but not in terms of nutrient intake. This segment would typically include lower middle to upper class population with sufficient purchasing capacity but probably less awareness about their nutrient requirements, leading to imbalanced nutritional uptake. In fact, in our population about 30% in urban and 34% in rural areas consume more than the recommended number of calories with higher than recommended levels of dietary fats and could be the largest contributor in making India the future cardiovascular and diabetes capital of the world. The third population segment, which is about 80 million, consumes nutrients and calories more than those recommended for the lifestyle they have opted for. The main risk factors in developing countries like India are related to nutrition and contribute to nearly 40% of total death and 39% of total disease burden.
Ibn-e- Sina popularly known as Avicenna, one of the greatest scholars of Unani Tibb (medicine), has defined Unani Medicine as "It is the science in which we learn various states of body in health and when not in health and the means by which health is likely to be lost and when lost, is likely to be restored". Unani-tibb or Unani Medicine is a form of traditional medicine practiced in Middle- East and South-Asian countries. It refers to a tradition of Graeco-Arabic medicine, which is based on the teachings of Greek physician Hippocrates and Roman physician Galen and developed into an elaborate medical system in middle age era by Arabian and Persian physicians, such as Rhazes (al-Razi), Avicenna (Ibn-e-Sina), Al-Zahrawi, and Ibn Nafis.
It originated in Greece almost 2500 years back, which is herbo- animo- mineral in origin (Approximately 90% herbal, 4-5% animal and 5-6 % mineral). It is not only the original science of medicine but also a rich store house of principles and philosophies of medicine which can be of immense value to the medicine in particular and science in general.
It is a comprehensive medical system, which meticulously deals with the various states of health and disease. It provides promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative healthcare. The fundamentals, diagnosis and treatment modalities of the system are based on scientific principles and holistic concepts of health and healing. Accordingly it considers individual in relation to his environment and stresses on health of body, mind and soul. Temperament (Mizaj) of a patient is given great importance in diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Temperament is also taken into consideration for identifying the most suitable diet and lifestyle for promoting the health of a particular individual. In spite of continuous neglect, this healing art is not only surviving but also complimenting other systems of medicine.
The Unani System of Medicine offers treatment of diseases related to all the systems and organs of the human body. The treatments for chronic ailments and diseases of skin, liver, musculo-skeletal and reproductive systems, immunological and lifestyle disorders have been found to be highly effective and acceptable. The use of elatives, exhilarants, aphrodisiacs, organ-specific tonics and immunomodulatory drugs, temperament specific drugs, correctives for adverse effects, coctives and purgatives etc. are unique features of Unani System of Medicine. Cosmoceutics, Nutraceutics, Aromatics and corresponding therapies are important parts of treatment in Unani System of Medicine.
Unani physicians give prime importance to diet and the state of digestion in a person, in both health and disease. Specific dietary regimens are recommended while treating patients according to their temperament. Proper diets are assumed to produce good humours (Akhlā\Ṣāliḥa) while improper ones produce bad humours (Akhlā\ Radiyya). Thus, the humoral imbalance can be corrected by medication coupled with proper diet. The physician prescribes the drugs according to the temperament of patient, causative humour, faculty of organ involved and severity of the disease. These drugs are classified as per the specific temperament (Mizāj) and are graded in the first, second, third and fourth degree according to their potency.
It is presently practiced in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri lanka, Nepal, China, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, Indonesia, Central Asian and Middle Eastern Countries. In India the system has been developed scientifically, nurtured and systematically integrated into healthcare delivery system over the years. Unani system of medicine also benefited from the native medical systems in vogue at the time in various parts of Central Asia. That is why this system is known, in different parts of the world, with different names such as Greco-Arab Medicine, Ionian Medicine, Arab Medicine, Islamic Medicine, Traditional Medicine, Oriental Medicine etc.