Ayurvedic Herbs

Ayurveda (Devanāgarī: आयुर्वेद, the ‘science of life’) is a system of traditional medicine native to the Indian Subcontinent and practiced in other parts of the world as a form of alternative medicine. In Sanskrit, the word Ayurveda consists of the words āyus, meaning ‘life’, and veda, meaning ‘related to knowledge’ or ‘science’. Evolving throughout its history, Ayurveda remains an influential system of medicine in South Asia. The earliest literature of Ayurveda appeared during the Vedic period in India.  Ayurvedic practitioners identified a number of medicinal preparations and surgical procedures for curing various ailments and diseases.

In the Ayurvedic system, the prevention of all types of disease has a prominent place in treatment, including restructuring a patient’s lifestyle to align with the course of nature and the four seasons to guarantee complete wellness.

Ayurveda is considered to be a form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) within the western world, where several of its methods, such as the use of herbs, massage, and Yoga as exercise or alternative medicine, are applied on their own as a form of CAM treatment.

(Ayurveda gained recognition in the Western world as medical scholars, notably Frank John Ninivaggi MD of Yale University School of Medicine, researched and outlined its various postulates in one major textbook suitable to Western academic science. In the United States of America, the NIH NCCAM expends some of its $123 million budget on Ayurvedic medicine research. In addition, the National Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine, established by Dr. Scott Gerson, is an example of a Ayurveda research institute. Gerson has published part of his work on the antifungal activities of certain Ayurvedic plants in academic journals. The postulates and history of Ayurveda have also been outlined by foreign scholars such as Dominik Wujastyk in the United Kingdom. Questionable practices in research involving financial gains have resulted in the questioning of some of the research and cases such as the Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health have involved litigations.)

Ayurveda is grounded in a metaphysics of the ‘five great Elements’ (Devanāgarī: [महा] पञ्चभूत; earth, water,fire, air and ether)—all of which compose the Universe, including the human body.  Ayurveda stresses a balance of three Humors or Energies: vata (wind/air), pitta (bile) and kapha (phlegm). According to Ayurveda, these three regulatory principles— Doshas (Devanāgarī: त्रिदोष)—are important for health, because when they are in balanced state, the body is healthy, and when imbalanced, the body has diseases. Ayurveda hold that humans possess a unique combination of Doshas.  Surgery and surgical instruments are employed. It is believed that building a healthy metabolic system, attaining gooddigestion, and proper excretion leads to vitality. Ayurveda also focuses on exercise, yoga, meditation, and massage. Thus, body, mind, and spirit/consciousness need to be addressed both individually and in unison for health to ensue.

Hygiene — also a component of religious virtue to many Indians — is a strong belief. Hygienic living involves regular bathing, cleansing of teeth, skin care, and eye washing. Occasional anointing of the body with oil is also prescribed.

Ayurveda stresses the use of vegetable drugs. Fats are used both for consumption and for external use. Hundreds of vegetable drugs are employed, including cardamom and cinnamon. Some animal products may also be used, for example milk, bones, and gallstones. Minerals, including sulfur, arsenic, lead, copper sulfate and gold are also consumed as prescribed. This practice of adding minerals to herbal medicine is known as Rasa Shastra.

The proper function of channels (srotas) that transport fluids from one point to another within the body is seen as vital, and the lack of healthy srotas may lead to disease and insanity. Sushruta identifies that blockages of these channels may lead to rheumatism, epilepsy, paralysis, and convulsions as fluids and channels are diverted from their ideal locations. Sweating is used as a means to open up the channels and dilute the Doshas causing the blockages and harming a patient.  A number of ways to take steam bathing and other steam related cures are recommended so that toxins are released.

Source: Ayurveda, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ayurveda&oldid=335654054 (last visited Jan. 3, 2010).

Additional Reading: Holistic Online: Ayurveda

A yogic stretch

As almost everyone knows today, yoga (Sanskrit, Pāli: योग yóga) refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. The word “yoga” means to unite (in harmony). Yoga is a self-discipline to bring harmony in our lives. It provides tools to harmonize our being at all levels of our existence: physical, mental, social and spiritual.

The practice and study of yoga help to bring about a natural balance of body and mind in which a state of health can manifest itself. Yoga by itself does not create health; rather it creates an internal environment that allows the individual to come to his or her own state of dynamic balance, or health. Basically, yoga teaches that a healthy person is a harmoniously integrated unit of body, mind and spirit.

Today, most yoga practices in the west focuses on the physical aspect of yoga. However, yoga offers more than just harmony at the body level — it provides breathing exercises, meditation, relaxation, etc to harmonize the deeper levels of our being.

You’ve probably heard that yoga is good for you. Maybe you have even tried yoga and discovered that it makes you feel better. But what are the specific health benefits can you expect to enjoy from doing yoga regularly?

Physical Benefits

Flexibility: Stretching your tight body in new ways will help it to become more flexible, bringing greater range of motion to muscles and joints. Over time, you can expect to gain flexibility in your hamstrings, back, shoulders, and hips.

Strength: Many yoga poses require you to support the weight of your own body in new ways, including balancing on one leg (such as in Tree Pose) or supporting yourself with your arms (such as in Downward Facing Dog). Some exercises require you to move slowly in and out of poses, which also increases strength.

Muscle tone: As a by-product of getting stronger, you can expect to see increased muscle tone. Yoga helps shape long, lean muscles.

Pain Prevention: Increased flexibility and strength can help prevent the causes of some types of back pain. Many people who suffer from back pain spend a lot of time sitting at a computer or driving a car. That can cause tightness and spinal compression, which you can begin to address with yoga. Yoga also improves your alignment, both in and out of class, which helps prevent many other types of pain.

Better Breathing: Most of us breathe very shallowly into the lungs and don’t give much thought to how we breathe. Yoga breathing exercises, called Pranayama, focus the attention on the breath and teach us how to better use our lungs, which benefits the entire body. Certain types of breath can also help clear the nasal passages and even calm the central nervous system, which has both physical and mental benefits.

Mental Benefits

Mental Calmness: Yoga asana practice is intensely physical. Concentrating so intently on what your body is doing has the effect of bringing a calmness to the mind. Yoga also introduces you to meditation techniques, such as watching how you breathe and disengagement from your thoughts, which help calm the mind.

Stress Reduction: Physical activity is good for relieving stress, and this is particularly true of yoga. Because of the concentration required, your daily troubles, both large and small, seem to melt away during the time you are doing yoga. This provides a much-needed break from your stressors, as well as helping put things into perspective. The emphasis yoga places on being in the moment can also help relieve stress, as you learn not to dwell on past events or anticipate the future. You will leave a yoga class feeling less stressed than when you started.

Body Awareness: Doing yoga will give you an increased awareness of your own body. You are often called upon to make small, subtle movements to improve your alignment. Over time, this will increase your level of comfort in your own body. This can lead to improved posture and greater self-confidence.

I am too stiff and out of shape. Is yoga for me?

No one is too stiff or out of shape to do yoga. Being in harmony with oneself is not limited only to people who are in good shape!

With regular practice of yoga, you will experience well-being at the level of the body and mind, and develop a positive body consciousness.

How is yoga different from other forms of exercise?

Yoga strives for well-being across all levels of our existence: not just the physical body. At the physical level it harmonizes the body with postures, stretching, and dynamic movements. At the level of breathing, yoga offers techniques to use lung capacity fully, and to harmonize the rhythm of one’s breath. For the mind and deeper layers of our existence, yoga offers meditation, concentration and relaxation techniques.

Is yoga effective to manage high blood-pressure?

Yes, the relaxation and meditation aspects of yoga are ideal for tackling high blood pressure. Breathing techniques too help in reducing stress and induce relaxation, as they have a positive impact on one’s mental state.

Will yoga help me lose weight?

Yoga makes you feel in harmony with yourself, regardless of your weight. That said, yoga can help you slim down in a couple of ways. First, it offers dynamic exercises that will help you burn calories. Second, yoga postures regulate the hormones secreted in the body, including those that control the weight of the body.

How many types of yoga are there?

Many. Each type of yoga has something unique to offer. It would be best to sample classes of different styles to find out for yourself which is best for you.

Is yoga a religion?

No, yoga is not a religion. People of all faiths have enjoyed doing yoga. In fact, many people find that their yoga practice deepens their connection to their chosen religion by encouraging self-awareness and mindfulness in everyday life.

Sources:

About

Rice University

Yoga, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yoga&oldid=335211212 (last visited Jan. 3, 2010).

Amy, an audience member, tries a neti pot for the first time on the Oprah Show.

Dr. Memhet Oz appears on the Oprah show frequently to answer bizarre and sometimes embarrassing questions for viewers. He has repeatedly given glowing endorsements for the ancient practice of cleansing the nasal cavity using a device called a neti pot.

The actual name of the pot, jala neti, is a Sanskrit term referring to an ancient yogic cleansing technique. It literally means “water cleansing.” We know that yoga originated somewhere between 4,000 to 8,000 years ago. So, it can be estimated that the practice of nasal cleansing began somewhere during that span. The pots can be made of ceramic, glass metal or plastic.

The technique is odd to many who are unfamiliar with the practice, but it is beginning to find recognition by Western medicine. Dr. Oz has certainly increased that awareness by making such a high-profile approval.

The use of neti pots is extremely common in India (where it began) and South East Asia, and is as common as often as brushing one’s teeth. The procedure of using a neti pot has been categorized as an “alternative” medicine along with chiropractic and massage therapy, acupuncture, homeopathy and other herbal remedies. The current and preferred term is now “complementary” medicine.

The Word Health Organization estimates that 65% to 80% of the world’s entire population relies on these types of “complementary” medicine as their main source of health care. That estimate would equal 3 billion people.

Oz explained that washing out your sinuses with plain tap water can be irritating. If the water is too cold, you might feel as though you’re drowning in a pool. He says that warm water with a quarter teaspoon of salt is ideal.

“You never want to wash [human] tissue without having saltwater in them,” said Oz. “Your own cells like it more.”

Amy, the willing audience participant, battles regular sinusitis. Dr. Oz explained the appropriate way to bend forward, over a bowl. You then pull your head up slightly and turn it to the side.

The neti pot is inserted into the nostril that is higher. For instance, if you tilt your head to the left, you place the neti pot in your left nostril. You need to let the long spout of the pot form a secure seal inside your nose. By slowly tilting the pot, the warm water enters one nostril and then exits in a steady stream from the other nostril.

It does look quite odd. Yet Dr. Oz explained that such a simple treatment can be much more effective than medication.

“The [ear, nose and throat] doctors who are specialists in this area will often say this is a better treatment than a lot of the other drugs that we try to offer folks, because it mechanically cleans out the problem,” he said.

Dr. Oz indicated that the last step is to blow your nose, so that any excess water leaves the nose. Amy didn’t skip a beat, and blew her nose for viewers everywhere. While it’s not the genie-in-a-bottle that most would suspect, Amy seemed delighted with her new discovery.

“I thought it would feel like drowning, but it feels good,” she said.

Source:
Associated Content

Back pain is one of the most common medical problems, affecting 8 out of 10 people at some point during their lives.

Sudhir Diwan, M.D., M.S is the Director of Pain Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell. He has been a pioneer of a procedure called radiofrequency lesioning. It uses electrical impulses to destroy the nerves that are causing the pain.

He is also the Director of the Tri-Institutional Pain Fellowship Program. As Director of Pain Medicine, he provides strategic direction for the Division to provide cutting edge interventional modalities. His research interests include the development of novel analgesics and new modalities to treat intractable neuropathic pain. He is investigating non-invasive laser therapy and targeted electronic device control for acute and chronic back pain and use of methadone in chronic neuropathic and cancer pain management as NMDA receptor antagonist. He has authored and co-authored book chapters and written articles on various topics in peer reviewed journals in pain medicine. Dr. Diwan has appeared as guest speaker to many organizations including the American Cancer Society, and served as faculty in several review courses.

He was selected as one of Americas Top Physicians 2003. America’s Top Physicians identifies over 4,700 top specialists throughout the United States in more than 60 medical specialties and according to the publisher, the outstanding physicians included in the guide represent the top one percent in the nation. Dr. Diwan has provided his expertise in pain medicine to articles appearing in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, and the Daily News. He has also appeared on Fox 5’s Good Day New York for segments on various Pain Medicine topics. In addition to general pain expertise, Dr. Diwan’s main clinical interests are advanced interventional techniques including minimally invasive nucleoplasty, radiofrequency neurolysis, neuroaugmentation techniques and intrathecal pain therapies.

After completing his residency in Anesthesiology at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital and Columbia University, Sudhir Diwan, M.D., M.S completed the pain medicine fellowship in the Department of Anesthesiology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in 1997. Dr. Diwan joined the Weill Cornell Medical College faculty in 1998 and was named Director of Pain Medicine in 2001. He received his Masters of Surgery from the Sheth K.M. School of Postgraduate Medicine and Research at the Sheth Vadilal Sarabhai General Hospital in Ahmedabad, State of Gujarat, India in 1983. He subsequently completed research fellowships in pulmonary medicine and physiology, cardiovascular, laser research, prior to beginning his residency at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta was also named one of the Sexiest Men of 2003 by People magazine.

Sanjay Gupta (born October 23, 1969) is an Indian American neurosurgeon and an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine and associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

Gupta grew up in Novi, Michigan, in suburban Detroit. His parents, Subhash and Damyanti Gupta, moved from India to Michigan to work as engineers for the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn in the 1960s. His mother was the first female engineer to work in Ford Motor Company. Gupta received his undergraduate degree in biomedical sciences at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and his M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical Center in 1993. He was part of Inteflex, a 6-year program combining pre-medical and medical school that accepted students directly from high school. He completed his residency in neurological surgery within the University of Michigan Health System in 2000.

In January 2009, it was reported that Gupta was offered the position of Surgeon General in the Obama administration. In March 2009, Gupta withdrew his name from consideration for the post. From 1997 to 1998, he served as one of fifteen White House Fellows, primarily as an advisor to Hillary Clinton.

He is known as a media personality on health-related issues based in Atlanta, Georgia and best known as CNN’s chief medical correspondent, hosting the network’s weekend health program House Call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and making frequent appearances on their American Morning, Larry King Live, and Anderson Cooper 360° programs. His reports from Charity Hospital in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina helped “Charity Hospital” win a 2006 Emmy Award for “Outstanding Feature Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast.” Additionally, Gupta publishes a column in Time Magazine and is a special correspondent for CBS News. His book Chasing Life was a New York Times and national bestseller.

While he has been the subject of some criticism in the media, Dr. Gupta is without a doubt the highest profile doctor of Indian origin in the United States.

Source: Sanjay Gupta, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sanjay_Gupta&oldid=335345263 (last visited Jan. 3, 2010).