Indian Ayurveda

As an Indian traditional medical system with a history of more than 5,000 years, the essence of Ayurveda is to achieve disease prevention and physical conditioning by regulating the balance of body, mind and spirit. It is currently officially included in the public medical system in India and recognized by the World Health Organization as one of the mainstream traditional medical systems in the world. However, it is not the "universal health-preserving magic" spread online. The lack of evidence-based medical evidence for some therapies, false propaganda and irregular operations in the commercialization process are its current biggest sources of controversy.

To be honest, my first personal experience with Ayurveda was two years ago in a traditional sanatorium in Kerala, South India. On the first day I arrived, the doctor touched my wrist, looked at the coating on my tongue, and asked me if I stayed up late, was prone to anxiety, and had my hands and feet as cold as ice in the winter. I had goosebumps at the time - he was absolutely right. He said that I have a typical Vata constitution, which corresponds to the wind element. My metabolism is fast but unstable. The core of conditioning is "stability", so don't mess around.

For the next half month, I basically lived a day of rising from sunrise to sunset. At exactly 6 o'clock in the morning, a nurse knocked on the window and delivered herbal tea that was so bitter that I frowned. After drinking it, I went for a full-body oil therapy. The warm sesame oil was mixed with a dozen herbal medicines. The therapist's hands pushed the whole body along the meridians. It was so warm that I fell asleep while lying on the treatment bed. The most amazing thing is the oil drop therapy (Shirodhara). The warm and cool medicated oil is dropped evenly on the center of the eyebrows. The brain, which always seemed to be filled with a bunch of messy threads, was completely empty within a few minutes. It was the most solid half-month sleep I had in recent years. The shoulders and neck that had been stiff for more than half a year were also much more relaxed.

Many people think Ayurveda is metaphysics. To put it bluntly, its core logic is very straightforward: the human body's life energy is divided into three types: Vata (wind), Pitta (fire), and Kapha (water and earth). Each person is born with a different energy ratio, which is the so-called constitution. Once the three energies are out of balance, people will get sick. For example, people with a Pitta constitution have a strong fire nature and are prone to acne, temper tantrums, and peptic ulcers, so conditioning requires reducing the fire. People with a Kapha physique tend to be more stable, prone to edema, weight gain, and slow metabolism, so conditioning requires more stimulation. This set of logic actually has a lot in common with the constitution differentiation of traditional Chinese medicine. In essence, they both emphasize that “everyone needs a thousand prescriptions”, and there is no conditioning plan suitable for everyone.

But the controversy also revolves around this system. Most of the supporters are traditional Ayurveda practitioners and researchers who recognize traditional medicine. A 2022 sample survey by the Central Committee of Ayurveda in India shows that for chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, chronic anxiety, and bone and joint degeneration, the effectiveness of Ayurveda as an auxiliary intervention method exceeds 62%. Many public hospitals in India now use modern medicine and Ayurveda in parallel, and patients can choose to match and regulate according to their own needs. The World Health Organization also issued the Global Code of Practice for Ayurveda in 2014, clarifying its scope of application as a complementary and alternative therapy.

The objections are equally valid. In 2008, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that found that about 20% of commercially available Ayurvedic medicines sampled contained lead, mercury, and arsenic exceeding safety standards. The U.S. FDA has repeatedly recalled Ayurvedic products with excessive heavy metals in recent years. Not to mention the chaos in the current commercialization process: many Internet celebrities package Ayurveda as a universal magic tool, such as drinking turmeric milk to whiten skin, 7-day fasting to detoxify, herbal ointments to treat cancer, and it is just cutting leeks. I had a friend before who saw a blogger saying that Ayurvedic fasting can cure constipation. He starved at home for three days because his Vata constitution was inherently weak. In the end, he fainted and went to the hospital due to low blood sugar. Traditional Ayurvedic fasting does not mean eating nothing at all. It involves drinking corresponding herbal porridge and herbal tea according to the constitution. Only refined sugar and highly processed foods are prohibited.

Nowadays, Ayurveda has actually been divided into two completely different schools: one is the traditional school in India. Physicians must undergo 5 to 7 years of systematic study before they can hold a certificate. They must identify their physical constitution before treatment. The medicines prescribed and the diet and rest arrangements are all tailor-made. They do not sell any general "health pills" or "detox oils"; the other school It is a commercialized urban genre. Most of the Ayurveda products promoted by many online celebrities in Europe, America and China fall into this category. They tell you that "everyone can use it" regardless of your physical constitution. If you use it wrongly, it will cause problems. For example, if you have a pitta constitution that is prone to internal heat, drinking turmeric milk with ginger and cinnamon every day will not cause acne or oral ulcers.

If you ask me whether Ayurveda is reliable, I really can’t give you a black and white answer. Now I occasionally massage my scalp with warm coconut oil at home. After washing my hair, I actually lose less hair than before. In the winter, I drink less iced drinks according to the requirements of my Vata constitution. My cold hands and feet have really improved a lot. But I never dare to buy Ayurvedic oral products from unknown sources online, let alone any miraculous claims that they can cure serious illnesses. By the way, one more thing to mention: There is currently no officially recognized Ayurveda physician qualification certification in China. If someone comes up to you and says that you are an "Ayurveda master" who can cure all diseases, you can just turn around and leave. There is a high probability that he is cheating money.