Would you expect that traditionally Ayurvedic medicine would be based on the intuitive, rather than a structured and rational diagnostic approach to health? Hi again. In this lesson, we will discuss the principles and practice of traditional Ayurvedic medicine in India and it's philosophical concepts with regard to the use of herbal remedies in cancer care. The term Ayurveda, literally means the knowledge of life. Ayurvedic healing is the most prevalent of the ancient traditional medical systems in India today. The healing system is more prevalent than other traditional and complementary medicine modalities in the region including siddha medicine in Southern India, unani medicine rooted in Greco-Arab and Persian medicine and the more recent, only 200 years old, homeopathy. As with TCM, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda encompasses a wide variety of healing modality, which include the use of herbal medicine, manual and touch therapies, surgical procedures and yoga. A modality in which movement, meditation, and breathing are combined to create a deep and meaningful mind/body experience. The evolution of Ayurveda began thousands of years ago evolving from Hindi philosophy and religion and was being told in two schools of medical fold around 2,000 years ago. The first of these, is the school of Charaka, considered to be the master of herbal and internal medicine. The second, the school of Sushruta, who represents the surgical approach. This duality of herbal versus surgical healing is reminiscent of India's neighbor to the North, China extending beyond the Himalayan mountains. It was here, the TCM was developed at the same time period as Ayurveda, with both combining herbal medicine. In contrast to traditional Chinese medicine however which began with the development of acupuncture and then continued with herbal medicine, Ayurvedic medicine began with herbal medicine as its focus, its center in keeping with the philosophical and diagnostic principle of this discipline. A third intermediary school of medicine was evolving at the same time in Tibet. Tibetan medicine was linked primarily to Buddhism and not to Hinduism, making it most similar to Ayurveda in its principle of care. Ayurveda is similar to Greco-Muslim and traditional Chinese medicine since it also perceives natural phenomena in the external world the macro-cosmos, as an internal process taking place in the human body, which is seen as the microcosmos. Ayurvedic medicine is similar to traditional Chinese medicine, in that, it sees the macro-cosmos as corresponding with the microcosmos. Here, the Ayurvedic schools identify five elements, including the four we already know from ancient Greek medicine. Earth, water, fire, and air with a fifth element of ether, which as its name indicates, described an ethereal aspects of the universe. Three of the five Ayurvedic elements are similar to the five elements of traditional Chinese medicine, earth, water, and fire. With air and ether replacing the wood and metal elements of Chinese medicine. Ayurveda teaches that combination of these elements may be present as part of natural phenomena, which can manifest as difference in taste and smell of food or herbal medicinal products. Changing the mixture of the herbal remedies, each with its own emphasis on one or more of the elements, will lead to the creation of one of the six Ayurvedic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent spicy hot, and astringent. The Ayurvedic herbalists will thus choose which herbal remedy is to be used based on its taste and inner qualities directing its energies to the individual patient's physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. The Ayurvedic practitioner will first diagnose the patient's state of health and disease, seeking any disharmony of the equilibrium by examining the three physiologic qualities or doshas. These include the Vata dosha, which is influenced by the air and ether elements, and is associated with movement and pain. The Pitta dosha who with its close proximity to the fire element, is associated with secretion, digestion, and metabolism. Finally, the Kapha dosha, which has an affinity to the water and earth elements and is associated with nourishment and lubrication of the body. Each of the three doshas is further subdivided according to the systems of physical, emotional and spiritual qualities. In the following interview, I asked Sharon Kotzer, a medical herbalists and the research and development director at the Bara herbs group in Israel, to discuss the concepts of taste as it applies to Ayurvedic herbal medicine. For me, I'm very attracted to it, I think it's great. They put lots of emphasis on tastes. Every herb is a combination of taste and they combine together with some kind of foods, which based on taste and different methods of diagnoses, which is at least for me, it's very easy to understand the diagnose- What do you mean taste, I mean, what's the unique aspect of taste in India or in Ayurvedic medicine? Well, we have some kind of feeling machine. Okay. We have our five senses, which are very intelligence sensors and the sense of taste is a very advanced sense and system. If I explain to you about taste, we see that we have very limited. It's salty, it's sour, it's spicy or sweet, etc. But actually, it's not true. The tastes of day, you can divide it into so many other variation of taste, and each one of them is a piece of information. Ayurvedic herbal medicine is part of a structured approach to healing, in which the diagnosis of disease is made based on an in-depth history, pulse diagnosis, and other methods of physical examination. The Ayurvedic practitioner basis the diagnosis on the findings as they relate to the five elements, three doshas and six taste systems described, designing the treatment plan accordingly. It would therefore be inaccurate to label a specific herb such as turmeric root, coco malanga, merely as an Ayurvedic herb because its origins are Indian. In order to an herbal to be an Ayurvedic, it needs to be used within the framework of the Ayurvedic medical paradigm following the diagnostic steps and treatment goals as described. If an herbal product is not Indian, but is being used within this framework, then it too will be called Ayurvedic. Ayurvedic treatment regimens typically include the use of herbs within a broader multimodality program, which include the use of non-herbal remedies such as animal-derived products and minerals, dietary changes, behavior modifications focusing on reducing stress and empowering the patient's body and spirit, the five techniques of Panchakarma whose goal is to detoxify the body through processes such as Emesis, Purgation, and the use of Decoction and Oil enemas and the wide spectrum of mind, body, spiritual modalities such as yoga, meditation, breathing, and others. The combination of herbal and non herbal products in the Ayurvedic remedy, enables the herbalists to simultaneously address the many complex aspects of the patient's condition, increasing the effectiveness of the treatment and detoxification process. The interplay between the formulas components reflects the fundamental principle of Indian alchemy in which spirituality, medical ethics, and scientific excellence are incorporated into the pharmacological productions of the prescribed and product remedy. As we have discussed with respect to herbal traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda also combines different herbal and non-herbal components in order to create synergy between them in which the sum is greater than the parts. The use of combinations of herbal products is also an integral part of the Indian cuisine. Where it is used not only for nourishment, but also for promoting health and providing a healing capacity on its own. The term masala. Is used to describe the mixture of herbs and spices in the Indian kitchen. Masala is used both for enhancing the flavor of teas, vegetables, fish dishes, and so on while at the same time bringing harmony to the body's energies, promoting health and treating illness. In the next interview, I will be talking to Dr. Anju Kumar, deputy ambassador of India and Israel who will share with us the way in which Ayurveda is being practiced today in India specifically in regard to patients with cancer. Ayurveda is an integral part of the national health delivery system in India. So, we have special Ayurvedic hospitals, clinics, dispensaries. People use it as a household remedy also and we have co-existing co-located Ayurvedic facilities in practically all department like the primary health center, the dispensaries, the district hospitals. So, it is integrated with our conventional delivery system of the health as far as the government is concerned. Now, then there are big private hospitals also. By enlarge, they all have Ayurvedic department there and they use Ayurveda as I said for simple remedies. Initially, when we grew up as children, we are all exposed to that as a culture and then, we use it as an integrative system for chronic diseases and several lifestyle diseases. So, it's a huge prevalence of Ayurveda in India.
