Most westerners have adopted Ayurveda into their lifestyle. But have western medicine practitioners/researchers? To really help them understand and appreciate this traditional medicine, it needs to be explained in terms of modern medicine.
Ayurveda originated in the ancient Vedic times of India. Splitting the word, Ayus means life and Veda is Knowledge or Science. So it is the Science of Life. Ayurveda uses the principles of nature to distinguish and define different body types or constitutions, each with unique characteristics and response to the environment, and with predispositions to diseases and reactions to drugs. Ayurveda promotes constitutionally dependent guidelines for maintaining balance and protecting against disease.
Current medical research engages in understanding the cellular and molecular processes and with the current technology, we are able to look at each molecule and its characteristics that are involved in a cell’s normal process or in a disease state. Ayurveda dives deeper and looks at the complexity of intra tissue interactions and environmental responses.