Ayurveda

In order for us to regain health, we have to regain balance. - Christopher Clark, M.D.

Ø     Traditional Healing from India!

Ø    What does it Mean to Live in Balance? 

Traditional Healing from India

Want to understand what ayurveda is all about?  Just look outside your window.  This intricate system of health developed in India more than 5,000 years ago, yet its theories seem incredibly modern.  Ayurveda (pronounced eye-your-VAY-dah) is all about the importance of balance in nature.  Think of how many natural disasters occur when Mother Nature's elements are off-kilter.  Hurricanes, blizzards, and forest fires are only a few of the nasty consequences.  Well, people are susceptible to a few natural disasters of their own when they don't live balanced lives.  Only instead of calling them tornadoes and typhoons, we give them names like heart disease and cancer.

"When people live excessively, drinking to much, smoking, eating the wrong foods, living with too much stress, and so forth, they develop what ayurveda calls imbalances," explains Christopher Clark, M.D., medical director at the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Center at the Raj Health Resort in Fairfield, Iowa.  These imbalances can range from minor ailments such as dry skin and heartburn to major conditions like hypertension, obesity, and diabetes if they remain unchecked.

Researchers at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, compared health insurance expenditures of 693 people following the lifestyle recommendations of ayurveda with 4,148 similar people who didn't practice ayurveda.  After 11 years, those who followed an ayurveda health system had about 60% fewer health expenditures than those who did not.  When the researchers broke down these health insurance expenditures, they found that the people practicing ayurveda were significantly healthier in 17 disease categories, including digestive problems, respiratory conditions, heart disease, and cancer.

In order for us to regain health we have to regain balance.  Even better, we should work every day to stay in balance so we never have to get sick to begin with.  That's the real premise of ayurveda -- optimal health.

What does it Mean to Live in Balance?

For one, it means following some of the regular rhythms of nature, like going to bed at nightfall and waking with sunrise.  But it also means eating, exercising, sleeping, and conducting our lives in a way that is in tune with our body's specific metabolic needs.  Ayurveda teaches that thought we are all human beings, we each have a unique physical constitution that dictates our personality, our physical makeup, and the lifestyle that suits us best.  It's your unique constitution that explains why you may always need a sweater, while your husband is perfectly comfortable in a T-shirt; or why some folks seem to stay wafer thin no matter how much they eat, while others can't seem to lose an ounce no matter how much they diet.  It's precisely why we don't all think, look, or act alike.

Ancient ayurveda texts teach that the universe is comprised of five basic elements: space, air, fire, water, and earth.  Those elements combine naturally into pairs that they call doshas, or universal forces.  There are three doshas that comprise everything in the world around us, including ourselves.  They are:

• Vata - space and air
• Pitta - fire and water
• Kapha - water and earth

When you were born, the theory goes, the elements from your mother and your father combined to create your unique body type or constitution, known in ayurveda as your prakruti.  As a result, each of us ends up having more of some elements than others, so we each have different characteristics.  People with higher amounts of vata, for instance, will tend to be lighter and airier, while kapha people will be heavier and earthier.

The trick to good health, according to ayurveda, is keeping the elements of your constitution in balance, which is not as easy as it sounds.

Always tell your doctor if you are using an alternative therapy or if you are thinking about combining an alternative therapy with your conventional medical treatment. It may not be safe to forgo your conventional medical treatment and rely only on an alternative therapy.

• Balancing the Elements!
• What's Your Dosha!