Now considered one of the leading forms of holistic medicine available in the west, Ayurveda addresses all factors that influence our quality of life.

Ayurveda claims that most people are born in a perfect state of balance but quickly lose it due to a variety of man-made factors, such as a poor diet and a stressful lifestyle. Ayurveda offers everyone the chance to rediscover for themselves what their optimal condition might be and thereby begin the Ayurveda journey towards achieving and maintaining good health. The driving force behind this balance lies with doshas

Ayurvedic Medicine vs Conventional Medicine

The major difference between Ayurvedic medicine and conventional medicine lies in the treatment method. Whilstmost modern medical treatments operate at the symptomatic level, Ayurvedic medicine dictates that treatments work at much deeper causative levels. By regaining an individual’s perfect birth composition, the root of the problem is solved.

1. Ayurvedic medicine considers human beings to be part of nature, and as such, employs all-natural treatment methods.

2. Whilst modern medicine is based on germ theory, Ayurvedic medicine is based on the theory of biological humors and body energies. This helps Ayurvedic medicine to get to the root of the problem rather than simply addressing the symptoms.

3. A fundamental aim of Ayurvedic medicine is to prevent illnesses by timely adherence to nature’s way. Conventional medicine usually plays no pre-emptive role except in certain specific situations.

4. Modern medicine uses synthetic and chemical drugs whereas Ayurvedic treatments are totally natural. As a result, Ayurvedic remedies do not have harmful side-effects.

5. Modern medicine has difficulty recognising disease which it can’t measure mechanically and it focuses on suppression of symptoms – usually by some form of treatment which destroys healthy tissue and organic functioning and poisons the body while it kills the ‘external invaders’. This makes it potentially very dangerous and in many cases its treatment may actually create new disease. In addition, the focus is often on treating the disease and not the person.

6. Unlike with Ayurvedic medicine, treatment using modern medicine is seldom applied with any changes to the lifestyle or awareness of the patient.

Modern medicine is, however, an extremely useful form of medicine for treating emergency situations such as accidents and heart attack victims. Advances such as antibiotics and immunisation have also saved many lives. But we need to be aware that allopathic medicine does not have a long history of success. Many of its medicines are very new and haven’t had time to prove themselves as safe or enduring. Antibiotics are widely overused and used inappropriately. This is damaging our level of health. In addition, the use by date of antibiotics is just around the corner. Bacteria are adapting to, and becoming resistant to, antibiotics faster than we can develop new ones.

Ayurvedic medicine should not, therefore, be thought of as a total replacement for allopathic medicine. Each form of medicine has its own strengths. Ayurveda is about improving health and preventing illness through increased self awareness; not about treating car accident victims, for example.