ayurveda and health care

There are many factors that affect our biomaterials or doshas causing diseases or body imbalances. Ayurveda classifies seven major causative factors in disease: hereditary, congenital, internal, external trauma, seasonal, natural tendencies or habits and supernatural factors. The biomaterials can also be affected as the result of imbalanced emotions such as unresolved grief, sadness, anger, fear or anxiety that also affects the doshas.

Disease can also result from overuse, misuse and under-use of the senses: taste, sight, hearing, touch and smell. According to Ayurveda, a disease itself can be described by the number of biomaterials or doshas involved, the specific tissues affected, the quality or combination of qualities that aggravated the dosha, whether the disease is primary or secondary, strength, and the length of time of the disease.

Health care in Ayurveda is essentially aimed at keeping the equilibrium of our biomaterials (doshas) and their universal qualities (gunas). In line with the concepts of Ayurveda, good health is based on the equilibrium of biomaterial or humours (doshas), digestive five (agni), seven body tissues: lymph, blood, muscle, adipose tissue, bone, bone marrow, semen (dhatus),and faeces, urine and other waste products (malas). In addition, the WHO defines good health in almost the same way as the ancient Ayurvedic classic texts (WHO Report, 2002).

An important goal of Ayurveda is to identify a person’s ideal state of balance, determine where they are out of balance, and offer tailored interventions by the use of diet, herbal protocols, body massage treatments, meditation and other techniques to re-establish balance.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​