So coming to the basics, what is Ayurveda and how is it scientific?

Ayurveda is not a concept, it is a science of life. When we call it as a life science, it is understood that Ayurveda can be applied to anything that is living, including plants & animals. ‘Ayu’ means life, ‘Veda’ means knowledge. the science which gives us the entire knowledge of life is Ayurveda. This means Ayurveda does not only cover the diseases and curative aspect of life but the entirety of life including the wide majority of activities we do like playing, talking, breathing, etc.. Ayurveda is marketed as the use of herbal medicines because it uses drugs and solutions found in the nature around us.

Let’s look deeper.

Ayurveda explains 3 main factors, Vata, Pitta, Kapha. they are called as “dosha” (A.Hr.Su.1). These factors are together responsible for the formation, development, sustenance and destruction of the body. - Vata is also called as Vayu, it is the factor which has the following qualities: dryness, lightness, cold, subtleness, movement, quickness. - Pitta is the factor which has: slight fluidity, slight unctuousness, intensity, potency, heat, lightness, odor. - Kapha has unctuousness, cold, heaviness, pacifying, sliminess, stableness. these three factors are present in all living beings in varying proportions and are responsible for the varied bodily characteristics of each individual.

Modern science explains this same concept as such.

Vata can be taken as:
  1. All the movements like breathing, transport of molecules across cells, movement of food, feces, urine, neuronal impulses, etc.
  2. All divisions like cell division, the formation of all the organs of the body, etc.
  3. Digestion (just as fire needs air to sustain)
  4. Cell birth and death
Pitta can be taken as:
  1. Energy and metabolism.
  2. Digestive substances
  3. Transformation from one form to another like differentiation of stem cells into different forms of cells in development.
  4. Color and complexion
Kapha can be taken as:
  1. The mucous membranes (protection)
  2. Built - muscle mass or fatty deposition
  3. Texture of skin
  4. Sleep

We all know that we are all made up of the same molecules which are found in the environment, but in different proportions or in transformed states. So if the molecules in the external environment respond in a certain way to a stimulus, the complex form of those molecules in our body will also respond in a similar way this is called as ‘Loka Purusha Samya’ which means similarity between man and the world. Let us take an example. fire burns wood, which has carbon (in the form of cellulose, lignin etc). similarly, fire also burns our body which also has carbon (in the form of proteins, fatty acids, glucose, etc) but the product differs

Everything in the world is a part of a balancing act. the good balancing the bad, heat balancing cold, husband balancing his wife etc.. Just as these equilibria sometimes derange, so do the doshas. When they move out of balance they tend to bring about some abnormal functioning in our body which is experienced as a disease. In a simple disease like vomiting, there is an upward abnormal movement of food or partially digested food caused by Vata, or indigestion due to improper functioning of the pitta or even cracked heels due to an abnormality of Kapha.

So when we combine the above principles, we get the theory which states that we are the personification of the environment we live in and and change in the environment will also affect us in a significant way. So it is correct to say that the diseases which are occurring to us are merely because we failed to maintain a healthy environment around ourselves or even failed to look into ourselves and address our needs. We fail to listen to our bodily ‘needs’, and mostly listen to its wants.

So it all comes down to the 3 doshas and how intelligently we balance them out. We can’t change the environment around us, or at least not immediately. The least we can do is protect ourselves or mold ourselves to adjust to the changes in the environment. How do we balance these 3 doshas? its simple, just by acting opposite to the dosha which is imbalanced we can get our body closer to the equilibrium.

Why does Ayurveda differ from the modern perspective of science? There are facts and interpretations of the same facts from different points of view. Modern science sees the body as a complex set of interactive ions and molecules.Ayurveda sees it as a whole. Ayurveda believes that the integrity of the system is not achieved by the cooperation of merely one subset, but also all the related, preceding and proceeding processes. So when we look at the world through a keyhole, our field of vision is restricted to the view of the keyhole and many things remain unnoticed. When we look at the system as the whole, it gives a better picture of the general well-being of the system rather than just a single process.

So it all comes back to this question. is Ayurveda scientific? that is something we should ask ourselves. any science should be self-explainable and experimentally evident. Why not trying and listening and observing our body and finding out the answer to this question ourselves! Scientific thinking is finding the reason behind how things work, but not ruling out the possibility of the existance an unknown concept just because we don’t see its credibility.

In this article, the bodily perspective is dealt with. Let us learn more about living beings and life mechanisms in our forthcoming Articles!

Cheers!