Introduction to Ayurveda
Ayurveda, which literally translated means "the science or knowledge of life" is the traditional medical system of India. Its origin dates back an estimated 5-10,000 years, and it is widely considered to be the oldest form of health care in the world. It is understood by most scholars that, as knowledge of Ayurveda spread out from India, it influenced the ancient Chinese system of medicine, Unani medicine, and the humoral medicine practiced by Hippocrates in Greece. For this reason, Ayurveda is often referred to as the "Mother of all healing." The knowledge of Ayurveda has its written origins in the Vedas, the sacred texts of India, believed to be the oldest writings in the world. Written in Sanskrit, the Vedas cover a vast number of subjects from grammar to health care. The Vedas were written approximately 2500BC or earlier.
Current knowledge about Ayurveda is mostly drawn from relatively later writings, primarily the Caraka Samhita (approximately 1500BC), the Ashtang Hrdyam (approximately 500 AD), and the Sushrut Samhita (300 - 400AD). These three classics describe the basic principles and theories from which Ayurveda has evolved. They also contain vast clinical information on the management of a multitude of diseases. Later writings and research expand on this early clinical information. Ayurveda is based on the premise that disease is the natural end result of living out of harmony with our environment. Natural is an important word because Ayurveda understands that symptoms of disease are the body's normal way of communicating disharmony. With this understanding of disease, Ayurveda's approach to healing becomes obvious: to reestablish harmony between self and environment. Once reestablished, the need for the body to communicate disharmony diminishes, symptoms dissipate, and healing is said to have occurred.
Ayurveda understands each person and the disease the person is manifesting as a unique entity. It could be said that no two people are alike, and no two diseases are alike. Therefore, Ayurveda does not approach the cure of a disease as much as it approaches the cure of a person. This approach vastly differs from allopathic medicine. Where allopathic medicine looks for a drug that will cure a statistically significant number of people for a specific condition, such as rheumatoid arthritis, Ayurvedic medicine looks for a treatment that will cure an individual person of their unique presentation of the disease. Since no disease affects two people in exactly the same way, no two cures are exactly the same.
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