Why Practice Ayurveda?

Why should one practice Ayurveda, or seek Ayurvedic remedies for many common ailments? The answer may surprise you. Ayurveda is an ancient medical practice from India. It dates back some 5000 years and is practiced widely in India and in some form or another in neighboring countries. Over the centuries, Ayurvedic medicine has devised treatments for a wide variety of common illnesses, such as the flu, arthritis and heart problems.

It has only recently begun gaining popularity in the Western world, but it is practiced and regulated as an serious branch of medicine along with traditional western medicine in India. India even has several schools of Ayurvedic medicine. Often, a practitioner of Ayuveda will be trained in western medicine before taking training in ayurveda.

Ayurveda can be a very good way to treat an illness or condition without worrying about side effects. Too often, western medicines have many undesirable side effects. This is not to say that they are ineffective, only that sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. With ayurveda, this may be avoidable.

Ayurveda treats the whole person. The body, mind and spirit are treated with equal importance. Food is considered to be a form of medicine, which is why ayurveda relies on plants and herbs.

Although ayurveda is relied on by a significant proportion of the rural population of India, there are safety concerns. Some ayurveda treatments add minerals, gems and metals to the herbs used in preparing medicine. This can accidently add toxic metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury to the medicine. Clearly, consuming too much of these toxic metals can have an adverse affect on health.

Traditional ayurvedic techniques of preparation are meant to reduce the toxicity of the metals via a combination of physical techniques and prayer. There is no evidence that the toxicity of these metals has been reduced using these methods. On the other hand, finding samples of medicines have been contaminated is nothing new in western medicine. It has been said that the reason samples of ayurvedic medicine have been found to be contaminated is because of modern manufacturing methods.

Despite the safety concerns, there is some evidence that some herbs used in ayurveda have beneficial properties. For example, curcumin, derived from turmeric, is being tested for effectiveness versus various cancers, psoriasis and Alzheimer’s disease.

Furthermore, many plants used in ayurveda have been found to have antioxidant properties. It is best to order ayurvedic products from a company that tests in products by an independent third party to ensure quality.

Even though not every ayurvedic remedy will produce results, and ayurveda is not a silver bullet to cure any illness, there is some evidence to suggest that ayurveda can provide results without the side effects that sometimes accompanies western medicines.