This paper compares and contrasts Ayurveda with Western holistic systems of medicine, examining what makes Ayurveda unique, how it interacts with other alternative approaches, and which system offers a more comprehensive philosophy of health. The paper explores Ayurveda's origins in Vedic culture, its classification of illness into Vata, Pitta, and Kapha types, and the education of Ayurvedic practitioners. It also reviews the historical foundations of both traditions, the reductionist tendencies of Western biomedicine, and the five categories of complementary and alternative medicine recognized by the NCCAM. Traditional Chinese Medicine's role in Western holistic practice is also examined.
Has medical science overlooked holistic medicine for too long? This may indeed be the case, particularly in light of what holistic medicine claims to offer in the treatment and cure of disease. Ayurveda means "the science of life or science of longevity" (Remski, n.d.), and has also been described as the "science of optimal living" (Remski, n.d.). Ayurveda is a holistic medical science that was developed within and by the Vedic culture, beginning almost 7,000 years ago. It is a treatment of the whole person and insists that "fundamental harmony on all levels of experience must be achieved in order for health to offer its beneficial purpose: the evolution of consciousness away from the isolated, contracting, self-concerned activity of egoism, and toward its natural and original state of expansive union with the sublime" (Remski, n.d.).
The use of food and herbs in Ayurveda is directed toward balancing the biochemistry, while exercise is used to balance the physical structure. A study conducted by Praveen, Shankar, and Shenoy (2002), entitled "A Study on the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Therapies in and Around Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City, Western Nepal," notes that "an increasing number of patients the world over are increasingly preferring complementary and alternative medicines."
This paper addresses three guiding questions: (1) What is unique to Ayurveda? (2) How does Ayurveda work harmoniously with other holistic approaches? (3) Which approach to health and healing makes more sense — Ayurveda or Western-style holism?
Ayurveda "recognizes that every individual has a unique constitution; a set of conditions, characteristics, and life circumstances. Therefore, Ayurvedic treatment must properly address this unique constitution to maximize the benefits of treatment in the prevention or cure of disease" (Lim, 2006). Ayurveda holds that an individual is healthy only when the mind, body, emotions, and soul are perfectly aligned with the universe, or cosmic intelligence. This view of a unique individual constitution is considered parallel to the modern scientific concept of DNA (Lim, 2006).
Breathing techniques are used for nurturing the life-force and developing ethical awareness, while mantra and meditation are used to balance the mind (Remski, n.d.). Crucially, Ayurveda focuses on individualized treatment based on what a particular person needs, rather than applying across-the-board treatments without considering the individual — a contrast with the general approach of conventional medical science.
In Ayurvedic education, the student first learns the qualities and properties of the elements, and is then able to comprehend those qualities at work in the world and to "guide them towards their natural harmony" (Remski, n.d.). The Vedic scriptures have been transmitted from teacher to student through memorization and recitation. Remski describes Ayurveda as a "Vedic Science," and summarizes the worldview shared by all spiritual traditions arising from India as follows:
1) All experience derives from a single, ineffable source referred to by many terms — pure consciousness, the ground of awareness, the ground of being, and so on. This source is the natural home of consciousness, toward which consciousness longs to return.
2) The ability of consciousness to harmonize with its source is obstructed by its tendency to indulge in self-centered thought, which creates a failure of natural wisdom. Conventional human life is made possible through this devolution.
3) Consciousness may return to its inherent bliss through a disciplined understanding of its nature, along with a gradual implementation of techniques to purify the failures of wisdom and their subsequent derangements of mental and physical faculties.
4) The purpose of life is experience, and liberation from experience (Remski, n.d.).
"Vata, Pitta, and Kapha illness classifications"
"Ancient roots and foundational five elements"
"NCCAM categories, TCM principles, and Western alternatives"
"Convergence of Ayurveda and Western holistic medicine"
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