Ayurveda in the United States
America welcomes Traditional Indian Medicine
The Green Revolution in American Medicine
A review of Ayurveda in the United States
What is the status of Ayurveda in the U.S. right now?
Ayurveda became popular here in the late 1960s, when the Beatles
brought spiritual icon Maharishi Mahesh Yogi here. Since then a
number of other Ayurvedic doctors have made their contributions,
including in the early 80's my teacher Dr. Vasant Lad. The name
you are most likely to know is Deepak Chopra, the M.D. with a
poetic flair and a gift for presenting Ayurveda to the western
mind. Thanks to these and other figureheads, Ayurveda has really
grown in the past few years. The American people have really
taken to the idea of natural, preventative health. Each year an
enormous number of Americans use alternative therapies, and one
of the fastest-growing areas of interest is Ayurveda.
What training for Ayurveda is available in the U.S.?
The number of training schools has surged recently. While
twenty years ago there were two or three schools in U.S.,
there are now perhaps ten-times that number. While many
schools offer high-quality training, the most respected
school is probably the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico.
Two other well-established schools are the California College
of Ayurveda and the Florida Vedic College. These schools offer
full-time or weekend workshop-format classes, of a guaranteed
number of hours per course. These are by no means the only
training options. There are several good correspondence
courses, by mail and by internet. Lower price and not
having to travel make correspondence programs very popular.
The highest-level training options remain in India. These are
the five-year Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS),
the Ayurvedic M.D. (Ay. M.D.) and the Ayurveda Ph.D. (Ay. Ph.D.).
The pre-eminent school is the Gujarat Ayurveda University in
north-west India, which incidentally offers the only English
language BAMS program in the world. Another trend, for those
graduates of the one- and two-year schools in the United States,
is the practice of interning or pursuing further clinical
training with an established Ayurvedic practitioner in this
country.
Is Ayurveda in the U.S. different from Ayurveda in India?
Ayurveda in the US is more about authentic food therapy, perhaps because
we have access to so many different ethnic ingredients. In Indian
Ayurvedic clinics, most patients are fed the same dahl (lentils) and
rice or chapattis (flat bread) because a hospital cooking for 300
patients cannot afford to buy ingredients for separate dietary
programs, nor do they have refrigeration to store food from one
meal to the next. In America there is more yoga, meditation and
spiritual training included in Ayurvedic consultations. Also,
drug quality here is perhaps more strictly enforced. While the best
Ayurvedic medicines are still found only in India, made by skilled
masters whose families have been making medicines for generations,
some herbal supplements manufactured in India are of suspect
quality. The quality of formulas made here in the U.S. may not
be stellar, but they are less likely to contain toxic metals,
chemicals or prescribed substances.
For clinical excellence in Ayurveda, India still has a
considerable edge. Indian Ayurvedic doctors use more formulas,
more traditional formulas, and with more rigorous clinical
application. There are numerous Ayurvedic hospitals with
residential patient wards. Detoxification therapies like
"pancha karma" are done extensively for medical effect.
However, there are a few cautions for western clients
considering treatment in India: they must be aware that
medicines used there are generally stronger than those
used in the U.S., and that a-septic precautions are often
less than in the U.S.
How is Ayurveda different from traditional medicine?
It is more correct to call Western medicine "Allopathic" medicine
and to call systems like Ayurveda, Chinese medicine or Native
American medicine "Traditional Medicines", since they have been
practiced for thousands of years before Western medicine. Did
you know that allopathic medicine actually originated from
Ayurveda, and as recently as the 19th and early 20th century
was almost identical to Ayurveda? Here is the connection:
Allopathic medicine originates from Europe or European medicine.
European medicine originates from Greek medicine. Greek medicine
received its' boost to greatness when Alexander the Great campaigned
through Asia, bringing Ayurvedic doctors back home to Greece to
share their knowledge. If it hadn't been for the generosity of
those visiting Ayurvedic doctors, Western medicine from Alexander's
time up until the early twentieth century would have been very
different. As it is, your great-grandparents were probably
treated using Ayurvedic principles such as 'body humors', herbal
cleansing programs and patent elixirs such as root beer
and cough syrup.
If you find that surprising, you will be amazed to hear that the
very symbol most Americans associate with medicine -the winged
staff with the intertwined snakes, called a Caduceus- is in
fact an Ayurvedic symbol! Your encyclopedia will inform you
that the Caduceus originates from Greek medicine and mythology.
The Greeks inherited this symbol from the Ayurvedic and yogic
sages, for whom the staff symbolized the "sushumna nadi"
(life energy), traveling along the spinal cord; the two
serpents represented the "ida" and "pingala", or right
and left body energy channels and the wings represented the
state of spiritual elevation achieved through the science of
yoga and Ayurveda. Unaware of these origins, we are used to
seeing this symbol as the logo of our local hospitals, we see
it on news hour health segments; it is one of those symbols
instantly recognized, like McDonald's "Golden Arches" or a
red stop sign. It is so interesting that this several
thousand year old symbol of health from a gentler, perhaps more
spiritual time and place, should find it's way into the heart
of bustling modern America. Did some mischievous spirit of
fait play a pun on us? Is destiny giving us a glimpse of
medicine to come?
You are probably taking a medicine or following a few good
health guidelines right now that are in fact Ayurvedic in origin.
It could be argued that Ayurveda has a greater number of
modalities and medicines adopted by allopathic medicine than
any other traditional medical system. I shall give some
examples:
-the Ayurvedic herb Sarpagandha (Latin rauwolfia serpentinia)
was used to produce the extract "reserpine", a classic medicine
for treating high blood pressure.
-leeches are still used by top surgeons for post-surgical
vascular regeneration in difficult cases, as they are in
Ayurvedic medicine.
-tongue-scraping has recently been shown to be effective and is
now widely used in dental medicine to reduce oral bacteria
levels and bad breath.
-red wine (called arista in Ayurvedic medicine) is recognized
in studies to be effective for prevention of high cholesterol,
heart disease, diabetes and other symptoms of aging.
-"sunthi", or ginger (zingiber officinale), has been the
darling subject of several studies for it's many uses including
fighting inflammation.
-Topical herbal pain patches are now found in every drug store
across North America as a favorite for reducing sore muscles.
Ayurvedic doctors have employed the beneficial effects of these
therapies for thousands of years.
What is the Theory Behind Ayurvedic Medicine?
Here is the biggest difference between these two systems. In Allopathic medicine, each patient with the same condition receives the same treatment as the next patient.
Ayurveda employs the concept of qualities: there are 10 pairs of opposite qualities (heavy-light, hot-cold, sharp-dull, etc.). It is understood that "similar qualities increase each other; opposite qualities decrease each other". All substances have identifiable qualities and therefore can be used therapeutically. When I say substances, think drugs, food, herbs, activities, music, etc. Using this system, Ayurveda can identify what any substance or drug would do and what it's therapeutic action would be.
There is another Ayurvedic concept, of the three "body humors". Each body humor has different qualities. And each person has varying ratios of the three humors, according to what they've been eating, their environment, genetic history, etc. Because of these varying ratios, each person will respond differently to a medication, and the Ayurvedic doctor tries to adjust his program accordingly.
There are a few other differences between the Ayurvedic and Allopathic systems:
-Allopathy has more diagnostic options, while Ayurveda has more treatment options.
-Allopathy is more advanced in surgery and emergency intervention, while Ayurveda is more advanced in disease prevention and treating without side-effects.
-Allopathy responds to a set of disease conditions, while Ayurveda addresses the whole person. The Ayurvedic patient usually sees a broader range of improvement in his basic functions like energy, digestion, sleep and mental state.
-Also, Ayurveda educates the client in the relationship of his body type, disease predisposition and specific disease condition, so that he can understand how to avoid problems that previously would have become debilitating or expensive conditions.
-An interview with Gabriel Van Loon, Ayurvedic Practitioner and director of the Durham Center for Ayurveda.
© Gabriel Van Loon 2006
