pseudoscientific; some ayurvedic medicines have been found to contain toxic substances.[6][7][8][9]
Ayurveda therapies have varied and evolved over more than two millennia.[2] Therapies include herbal medicines, special diets, meditation, yoga, massage, laxatives, enemas, and medical oils.[10][11] Ayurvedic preparations are typically based on complex herbal compounds, minerals, and metal substances (perhaps under the influence of early Indian alchemy or rasashastra). Ancient ayurveda texts also taught surgical techniques, including rhinoplasty, lithotomy, sutures, cataract surgery, and the extraction of foreign objects.[12][13]
Historical evidence for ayurvedic texts, terminology and concepts appears from the middle of the first millennium BCE onwards.
Divodāsa of Varanasi, to a group of physicians, including Sushruta.[16][17] The oldest manuscripts of the work, however, omit this frame, ascribing the work directly to King Divodāsa.[18]
Through well-understood processes of modernization and globalization, ayurveda has been adapted for Western consumption, notably by
Skt. sāmyatva) of the doshas results in health, while imbalance (viṣamatva) results in disease. Ayurveda treatises divide medicine into eight canonical components. Ayurveda practitioners had developed various medicinal preparations and surgical procedures from at least the beginning of the common era.[21]
There is no good evidence that ayurveda is effective to treat or cure cancer.[11] Some ayurvedic preparations have been found to contain lead, mercury, and arsenic,[10][22] substances known to be harmful to humans. A 2008 study found the three substances in close to 21% of U.S. and Indian-manufactured patent ayurvedic medicines sold through the Internet.[23] The public health implications of such metallic contaminants in India are unknown.[23]
Etymology
The term āyurveda (
Sanskrit: आयुर्वेद) is composed of two words, āyus, आयुस्, "life" or "longevity", and veda, वेद, "knowledge", translated as "knowledge of longevity"[24][25] or "knowledge of life and longevity".[26]
Eight components
The earliest classical
romanized: cikitsāyām aṣṭāṅgāyāṃ), is first found in the Sanskrit epic the Mahābhārata, c. 4th century BCE.[30] The components are:[31][26][32]
Kāyachikitsā: general medicine, medicine of the body
Kaumāra-bhṛtya (Pediatrics): Discussions about prenatal and postnatal care of baby and mother; methods of conception; choosing the child's sex, intelligence, and constitution; childhood diseases; and midwifery[33]
Śhālākyatantra: treatment of ailments affecting openings or cavities in the upper body: ears, eyes, nose, mouth, etc.
Bhūtavidyā: pacification of possessing spirits, and the people whose minds are affected by such possession
Agadatantra/Vishagara-vairodh Tantra (Toxicology): includes epidemics; toxins in animals, vegetables and minerals; and keys for recognizing those anomalies and their antidotes
Rasāyantantra: rejuvenation and tonics for increasing lifespan, intellect and strength
Vājīkaraṇatantra:
aphrodisiacs
; treatments for increasing the volume and viability of semen and sexual pleasure; infertility problems; and spiritual development (transmutation of sexual energy into spiritual energy)
The central theoretical ideas of ayurveda show parallels with Samkhya and Vaisheshika philosophies, as well as with Buddhism and Jainism.[34][35] Balance is emphasized, and suppressing natural urges is considered unhealthy and claimed to lead to illness.[20] For example, to suppress sneezing is said to potentially give rise to shoulder pain.[36] However, people are also cautioned to stay within the limits of reasonable balance and measure when following nature's urges.[20] For example, emphasis is placed on moderation of food intake,[37] sleep, and sexual intercourse.[20]
According to ayurveda, the human body is composed of tissues (
ether.[39] There are also twenty gunas (qualities or characteristics) which are considered to be inherent in all matter. These are organized in ten pairs: heavy/light, cold/hot, unctuous/dry, dull/sharp, stable/mobile, soft/hard, non-slimy/slimy, smooth/coarse, minute/gross, and viscous/liquid.[40]
The three postulated elemental bodily humours, the doshas or tridosha, are vata (air, which some modern authors equate with the nervous system), pitta (bile, fire, equated by some with enzymes), and kapha (phlegm, or earth and water, equated by some with mucus). Contemporary critics assert that doshas are not real, but are a fictional concept.[41] The humours (doshas) may also affect mental health. Each dosha has particular attributes and roles within the body and mind; the natural predominance of one or more doshas thus explains a person's physical constitution (prakriti) and personality.[38][42][43] Ayurvedic tradition holds that imbalance among the bodily and mental doshas is a major etiologic component of disease. One ayurvedic view is that the doshas are balanced when they are equal to each other, while another view is that each human possesses a unique combination of the doshas which define this person's temperament and characteristics. In either case, it says that each person should modulate their behavior or environment to increase or decrease the doshas and maintain their natural state. Practitioners of ayurveda must determine an individual's bodily and mental dosha makeup, as certain prakriti are said to predispose one to particular diseases.[44][38] For example, a person who is thin, shy, excitable, has a pronounced Adam's apple, and enjoys esoteric knowledge is likely vata prakriti and therefore more susceptible to conditions such as flatulence, stuttering, and rheumatism.[38][45] Deranged vata is also associated with certain mental disorders due to excited or excess vayu (gas), although the ayurvedic text Charaka Samhita also attributes "insanity" (unmada) to cold food and possession by the ghost of a sinful Brahman (brahmarakshasa).[38][44][46][47]
Ama (a Sanskrit word meaning "uncooked" or "undigested") is used to refer to the concept of anything that exists in a state of incomplete transformation. With regards to
standard medicine
.
In medieval taxonomies of the Sanskrit knowledge systems, ayurveda is assigned a place as a subsidiary
Ayurvedic practitioners regard physical existence, mental existence, and personality as three separate elements of a whole person with each element being able to influence the others.
Swedana (fomentation). Unhealthy, or blocked, channels are thought to cause disease.[56]
Diagnosis
Ayurveda has eight ways to diagnose illness, called nadi (pulse), mootra (urine), mala (stool), jihva (tongue), shabda (speech), sparsha (touch), druk (vision), and aakruti (appearance).[57] Ayurvedic practitioners approach diagnosis by using the five senses.[58] For example, hearing is used to observe the condition of breathing and speech.[39] The study of the lethal points or marman marma is of special importance.[40]
Treatment and prevention
Two of the eight branches of classical ayurveda deal with surgery (Śalya-cikitsā and Śālākya-tantra), but contemporary ayurveda tends to stress attaining vitality by building a healthy metabolic system and maintaining good digestion and excretion.[40] Ayurveda also focuses on exercise, yoga, and meditation.[59] One type of prescription is a Sattvic diet.
Ayurveda follows the concept of
tongue scraping, skin care, and eye washing, is also a central practice.[39]
Ayurveda uses alcoholic beverages called Madya,[67] which are said to adjust the doshas by increasing pitta and reducing vatta and kapha.[67] Madya are classified by the raw material and fermentation process, and the categories include: sugar-based, fruit-based, cereal-based, cereal-based with herbs, fermentated with vinegar, and tonic wines. The intended outcomes can include causing purgation, improving digestion or taste, creating dryness, or loosening joints. Ayurvedic texts describe Madya as non-viscid and fast-acting, and say that it enters and cleans minute pores in the body.[67]
Purified
Muslim conquests.[69][71] The book Yoga Ratnakara (1700–1800 CE, unknown author), which is popular in Maharashtra, uses opium in a herbal-mineral composition prescribed for diarrhea.[70] In the Bhaisajya Ratnavali, opium and camphor are used for acute gastroenteritis. In this drug, the respiratory depressant action of opium is counteracted by the respiratory stimulant property of camphor.[70] Later books have included the narcotic property for use as analgesic pain reliever.[70]
Cannabis indica is also mentioned in the ancient ayurveda books, and is first mentioned in the Sarngadhara Samhita as a treatment for diarrhea.[70] In the Bhaisajya Ratnavali it is named as an ingredient in an aphrodisiac.[70]
Ayurveda says that both oil and tar can be used to stop bleeding,
Massage with oil is commonly prescribed by ayurvedic practitioners.[72] Oils are used in a number of ways, including regular consumption, anointing, smearing, head massage, application to affected areas,[73][failed verification] and oil pulling. Liquids may also be poured on the patient's forehead, a technique called shirodhara.[74]
Panchakarma
According to ayurveda, panchakarma are techniques to eliminate toxic elements from the body.[75] Panchakarma refers to five actions, which are meant to be performed in a designated sequence with the stated aim of restoring balance in the body through a process of purgation.[76]
Current status
Ayurveda is widely practiced in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal
Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) degree. In certain parts of the world, the legal standing of practitioners is equivalent to that of conventional medicine.[77] Several scholars have described the contemporary Indian application of ayurvedic practice as being "biomedicalized" relative to the more "spiritualized" emphasis to practice found in variants in the West.[78][76]
Exposure to European developments in medicine from the nineteenth century onwards, through
Since the 1980s, ayurveda has also become the subject of interdisciplinary studies in ethnomedicine which seeks to integrate the biomedical sciences and humanities to improve the pharmacopeia of ayurveda.[25] According to industry research, the global ayurveda market was worth US$4.5 billion in 2017.[80]
AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha, and homeopathy) were used by about 3.5% of patients who were seeking outpatient care over a two-week reference period.[82]
In 1970, the Parliament of India passed the Indian Medical Central Council Act which aimed to standardise qualifications for ayurveda practitioners and provide accredited institutions for its study and research.[83] In 1971, the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) was established under the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha medicine and Homoeopathy (AYUSH), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to monitor higher education in ayurveda in India.[84] The Indian government supports research and teaching in ayurveda through many channels at both the national and state levels, and helps institutionalise traditional medicine so that it can be studied in major towns and cities.[85] The state-sponsored Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) is designed to do research on ayurveda.[86] Many clinics in urban and rural areas are run by professionals who qualify from these institutes.[83] As of 2013[update], India had over 180 training centers that offered degrees in traditional ayurvedic medicine.[59]
To fight
unani and siddha medicine.[87][88] The formulations come from over 100 traditional ayurveda books.[89]
An Indian Academy of Sciences document quoting a 2003–04 report states that India had 432,625 registered medical practitioners, 13,925 dispensaries, 2,253 hospitals and a bed strength of 43,803. 209 undergraduate teaching institutions and 16 postgraduate institutions.[90] In 2012, it was reported that insurance companies covered expenses for ayurvedic treatments in case of conditions such as spinal cord disorders, bone disorder, arthritis and cancer. Such claims constituted 5–10 percent of the country's health insurance claims.[91]
In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report titled "The Health Workforce in India" which found that 31 percent of those who claimed to be doctors in India in 2001 were educated only up to the secondary school level and 57 percent went without any medical qualification.[95] The WHO study found that the situation was worse in rural India with only 18.8 percent of doctors holding a medical qualification.[95] Overall, the study revealed that nationally the density of all doctors (mainstream, ayurvedic, homeopathic and unani) was 8 doctors per 10,000 people compared to 13 per 10,000 people in China.[95][96]
Nepal
About 75% to 80% of the population of Nepal use ayurveda.[4][5] As of 2009, ayurveda was considered to be the most common and popular form of medicine in Nepal.[97]
Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan tradition of ayurveda is similar to the Indian tradition. Practitioners of ayurveda in Sri Lanka refer to Sanskrit texts which are common to both countries. However, they do differ in some aspects, particularly in the herbs used.
In 1980, the Sri Lankan government established a Ministry of Indigenous Medicine to revive and regulate ayurveda.[98] The Institute of Indigenous Medicine (affiliated to the University of Colombo) offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and MD degrees in ayurveda medicine and surgery, and similar degrees in unani medicine.[99] In 2010, the public system had 62 ayurvedic hospitals and 208 central dispensaries, which served about 3 million people (about 11% of Sri Lanka's population). There are an estimated 20,000 registered practitioners of ayurveda in Sri Lanka.[100][101]
According to the
Pandukabhaya (reigned 437 BCE to 367 BCE) had lying-in-homes and ayurvedic hospitals (Sivikasotthi-Sala) built in various parts of the country. This is the earliest documented evidence available of institutions dedicated specifically to the care of the sick anywhere in the world.[102][103] The hospital at Mihintale is the oldest in the world.[104]
Outside the Indian subcontinent
Ayurveda is a system of traditional medicine developed during antiquity and the medieval period, and as such is comparable to pre-modern Chinese and European systems of medicine. In the 1960s, ayurveda began to be advertised as alternative medicine in the Western world. Due to different laws and medical regulations around the globe, the expanding practice and commercialisation of ayurveda raised ethical and legal issues.[105] Ayurveda was adapted for Western consumption, particularly by Baba Hari Dass in the 1970s and by Maharishi Ayurveda in the 1980s.[19] In some cases, this involved active fraud on the part of proponents of ayurveda in an attempt to falsely represent the system as equal to the standards of modern medical research.[105][106][107]
United States
Baba Hari Dass was an early proponent who helped bring ayurveda to the United States in the early 1970s. His teachings led to the establishment of the Mount Madonna Institute.[108] He invited several notable ayurvedic teachers, including Vasant Lad, Sarita Shrestha, and Ram Harsh Singh. The ayurvedic practitioner Michael Tierra wrote that the "history of Ayurveda in North America will always owe a debt to the selfless contributions of Baba Hari Dass".[109]
In the United States, the practice of ayurveda is not licensed or regulated by any state. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) stated that "Few well-designed clinical trials and systematic research reviews suggest that Ayurvedic approaches are effective". The NCCIH warned against the issue of heavy metal poisoning, and emphasised the use of conventional health providers first.[110] As of 2018, the NCCIH reported that 240,000 Americans were using ayurvedic medicine.[110]
Europe
The first ayurvedic clinic in Switzerland was opened in 1987 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.[111] In 2015, the government of Switzerland introduced a federally recognized diploma in ayurveda.[112]
Classification and efficacy
Ayurvedic medicine is considered
pseudoscientific because its premises are not based on science.[113][6] Both the lack of scientific soundness in the theoretical foundations of ayurveda and the quality of research have been criticized.[113][114][115][116]
Although laboratory experiments suggest that some herbs and substances in ayurveda might be developed into effective treatments, there is no evidence that any are effective in themselves.[117][118] There is no good evidence that ayurvedic medicine is effective to treat or cure cancer in people.[11] Although ayurveda may help "improve quality of life" and Cancer Research UK also acknowledges that "researchers have found that some Ayurvedic treatments can help relieve cancer symptoms", the organization warns that some ayurvedic drugs contain toxic substances or may interact with legitimate cancer drugs in a harmful way.[11]
Ethnologist Johannes Quack writes that although the rationalist movement Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti officially labels ayurveda a pseudoscience akin to astrology, these practices are in fact embraced by many of the movement's members.[7]
A review of the use of ayurveda for cardiovascular disease concluded that the evidence is not convincing for the use of any ayurvedic herbal treatment for heart disease or hypertension, but that many herbs used by ayurvedic practitioners could be appropriate for further research.[119]
Research
In India, research in ayurveda is undertaken by the Ministry of AYUSH through a national network of research institutes.[120]
In Nepal, the National Ayurvedic Training and Research Centre (NATRC) researches medicinal herbs in the country.[121]
In Sri Lanka, the
Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine looks after the research in ayurveda through various national research institutes.[122]
Use of toxic metals
Rasashastra, the practice of adding metals, minerals or gems to herbal preparations, may include toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury and arsenic.[23] The public health implications of metals in rasashastra in India is unknown.[23] Adverse reactions to herbs are described in traditional ayurvedic texts, but practitioners are reluctant to admit that herbs could be toxic and that reliable information on herbal toxicity is not readily available. There is a communication gap between practitioners of medicine and ayurveda.[123]
Some traditional Indian herbal medicinal products contain harmful levels of heavy metals, including lead.
Harriet Hall to say that "Ayurveda is basically superstition mixed with a soupçon of practical health advice. And it can be dangerous."[129][130] A 2022 study found that ayurvedic preparations purchased over-the-counter in Chandigarh, India, had levels of zinc, mercury, arsenic and lead over the limits set by the Food and Agriculture Organisation / World Health Organisation. 83% exceeded the limit for zinc, 69% for mercury, 14% for arsenic and 5% for lead.[22]
Heavy metals are thought of as active ingredients by advocates of Indian herbal medicinal products.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) linked ayurvedic drugs to lead poisoning, based on cases where toxic materials were found in the blood of pregnant women who had taken ayurvedic drugs.[134]
Ayurvedic practitioners argue that the toxicity of bhasmas (ash products) comes from improper manufacturing processes, contaminants, improper use of ayurvedic medicine, quality of raw materials and that the end products and improper procedures are used by charlatans.[132]
In India, the government ruled that ayurvedic products must be labelled with their metallic content.[135] However, in Current Science, a publication of the Indian Academy of Sciences, M. S. Valiathan said that "the absence of post-market surveillance and the paucity of test laboratory facilities [in India] make the quality control of Ayurvedic medicines exceedingly difficult at this time".[135] In the United States, most ayurvedic products are marketed without having been reviewed or approved by the FDA. Since 2007, the FDA has placed an import alert on some ayurvedic products in order to prevent them from entering the United States.[136] A 2012 toxicological review of mercury-based traditional herbo-metallic preparations concluded that the long-term pharmacotherapeutic and in-depth toxicity studies of these preparations are lacking.[137]
Some scholars assert that the concepts of traditional ayurvedic medicine have existed since the times of the
Indus Valley civilisation but since the Indus script has not been deciphered, such assertions are moot.[24]: 535–536 The Atharvaveda contains hymns and prayers aimed at curing disease. There are various legendary accounts of the origin of ayurveda, such as that it was received by Dhanvantari (or Divodasa) from Brahma.[17][39] Tradition also holds that the writings of ayurveda were influenced by a lost text by the sage Agnivesha.[138]
Ayurveda is one of the few systems of medicine developed in ancient times that is still widely practised in modern times.[25] As such, it is open to the criticism that its conceptual basis is obsolete and that its contemporary practitioners have not taken account of the developments in medicine.[139][140] Responses to this situation led to an impassioned debate in India during the early decades of the twentieth century, between proponents of unchanging tradition (śuddha "pure" ayurveda) and those who thought ayurveda should modernize and syncretize (aśuddha "impure, tainted" ayurveda).[141][142][143] The political debate about the place of ayurveda in contemporary India has continued to the present, both in the public arena and in government.[144] Debate about the place of ayurvedic medicine in the contemporary internationalized world also continues today.[145][146]
Main texts
Many ancient works on ayurvedic medicine are lost to posterity,[147] but manuscripts of three principal early texts on ayurveda have survived to the present day. These works are the Charaka Samhita, the Sushruta Samhita and the Bhela Samhita. The dating of these works is historically complicated since they each internally present themselves as composite works compiled by several editors. All past scholarship on their dating has been evaluated by Meulenbeld in volumes IA and IB of his History of Indian Medical Literature.[2] After considering the evidence and arguments concerning the Suśrutasaṃhitā, Meulenbeld stated (IA, 348),
The Suśrutasaṃhitā is most probably the work of an unknown author who drew much of the material he incorporated in his treatise from a multiplicity of earlier sources from various periods. This may explain that many scholars yield to the temptation to recognize a number of distinct layers and, consequently, try to identify elements belonging to them. As we have seen, the identification of features thought to belong to a particular stratum is in many cases determined by preconceived ideas on the age of the strata and their supposed authors.
The dating of this work to 600 BCE was first proposed by Hoernle over a century ago,[148] but has long since been overturned by subsequent historical research. The current consensus amongst medical historians of South Asia is that the Suśrutasaṃhitā was compiled over a period of time starting with a kernel of medical ideas from the century or two BCE and then being revised by several hands into its present form by about 500 CE.[2][21] The view that the text was updated by the Buddhist scholar Nagarjuna in the 2nd century CE[149] has been disproved, although the last chapter of the work, the Uttaratantra, was added by an unknown later author before 500 CE.[2]
Similar arguments apply to the Charaka Samhita, written by
Dridhabala during the early centuries of the Common Era.[153]
, India
The
Fa Hsien (c. 337–422 CE) wrote about the healthcare system of the Gupta empire (320–550) and described the institutional approach of Indian medicine. This is also visible in the works of Charaka, who describes hospitals and how they should be equipped.[156]
Some dictionaries of materia medica include Astanga nighantu (8th century) by Vagbhata, Paryaya ratnamala (9th century) by Madhava, Siddhasara nighantu (9th century) by Ravi Gupta, Dravyavali (10th century), and Dravyaguna sangraha (11th century) by Chakrapani Datta, among others.[157][158]