The Science of Life

Tired of contradictory "scientific" studies and health reports on food, diet and exercise ? Overwhelmed with incessant "expert" opinions about lifestyle and habits ? One day dairy is good for you, another day not so much; high protein or carb-rich diet; raw food or supplements. Ever wondered why there is still no cure in sight for arthritis, asthma, AIDS, cancer or diabetes; why bacterial illness such as Tuberculosis and Malaria have resurfaced; what makes primary healthcare so expensive; why almost every synthetic drug comes with a list of side effects, some including death; why vaccines may be causing autism in children; why medicines flushed down the drain are responsible hormonal imbalance in fish populations; why hospitals produce tonnes of toxic biomedical waste !

The problem you see, is that modern western medicine takes a narrow reductionist approach towards health and the environment. It views the body as a machine, organs as its parts, emotions as chemical secretions and intelligence as an emergent property of the neurons. Health specialists are trained to treat body parts rather than the human being in his entirety. Until recently, modern medicine had completely ignored the mind-body connection. It is such mechanistic thinking, that drives medics to rationalize isolated compounds, radiation, vitamin supplements, transgenic organisms, animal trials etc. Research in these areas are either inconclusive or have devastating long-term consequences.

Take vaccination for instance. Overwhelming a new born child with an array of foreign bodies could have unknown side effects. Even if we were to ignore safety concerns around vaccines, they would fail to counter the vast genetic diversity among microorganisms. The blind chase for killing bacteria and viruses is untenable since they mutate constantly. Microbes do not cause disease but appear on scene as opportunists and passers by. Yet every time a new virus pops up on the medical radar, billions of dollars are poured into discovering its genetic fingerprint and attacking its DNA. Viruses that may have existed for millenia are turned into evil monsters overnight by a fearmongering scientific community followed by the mass media. The fact that the human body's natural immune is our primary defense against the never ending swarm of foreign bodies is grossly overlooked; a mundane health issue is complexified, its causes externalized and potential solutions commoditized.

Medicine in the west is unscientific trial and error that is statistically bound to encounter failures. And when spooky science gets muddled with greed and the stock market, profit becomes the priority not human health. Despite all its technology and research spending, modern medicine is clueless about the big picture - the relationship between man and nature; the macrocosm and the microcosm; cause and effect. At best, it treats the symptoms of a disease but not the cause.

Enter Ayurveda, literally the "Science of life" in Sanskrit - the 5000 yr old mother branch of Yoga, Acupuncture, Vastu, Feng-shui, Chakra system and Chinese herbal medicine. Ayurveda's approach towards health, nutrition and exercise is simple yet profound.

Central to Ayurveda is the concept of the flow of life-force or Prana in the body. All living beings and the food they eat, are much more than just billions of atoms held together; they have an intrinsic energy that cannot be broken down into constituents. It takes a little observation to realize that Nature gifts Prana to everything that has manifested from the atomic particles to the homosapien. Raw foods for instance are high in prana as opposed to overcooked or frozen foods, no matter what their calorific value.

Ayurveda is less concerned with labeling or classifying diseases, chasing symptoms or genomes of random microorganisms. Instead it focuses on the body, mind and the spirit of the individual. Several factors such as a person's elemental constitution, diet, lifestyle, and environment are taken into consideration. The goal is to balance the natural elements or dosha in the body and then fortifiy the immune system to ward off any external (viral, bacterial, radiological or chemical) or internal (cancerous) attack. For optimal health, diet, Yoga and meditation are prescribed based on the individual's mind-body type.

It is this balance of doshas that has inspired traditional Indian cooking - ghee, spices, khichdi, roti-daal, saag-paneer, aloo-gobi, pickles, etc. According to Ayurveda, food in itself is neither good nor bad; what is nourishing for one may be toxic for another. For instance, if a person is of a Vata (dry/airy) body type, then eating salads on a dry winter day may aggravate his dryness thus making him sick and unsettled. Instead, eating greasy and oily food could balance the dryness and ground his "airy" body. People of such body types need little exercise and are less likely to become overweight.

If nature evolved us along with the food that we eat, why would would it require technological inventions such as microscopes and scanners for the investigation of basic health conditions ! Vaidyas or ayurvedic physicians do not rely on intrusive blood tests for diagnosis. Instead they observe the color of nails, skin or eyes, the root of the hair etc. Expert Vaidyas can perform accurate diagnosis through intuitive pulse reading which is a vast subject in its own right.

So why then do we still pop synthetic drugs for every sneeze ? If these drugs are so effective, why are pharamaceutical companies bribing doctors and spending billions on their ad-campaigns ? Why are thousands of innocent animals and unsuspecting people being tortured and killed in drug trials ? Why are nearly 70,000 different drugs being sold in India, where given the number of ailments and as per WHO's recommendation, no more than 250 are needed ?

Aside from surgery as a last resort, modern medicine is redundant and needs to be relegated into the past. To be fair, Susruta performed complicated surgeries around 1000 B.C but details of these procedures have been lost to history. It is said that a large number of modern surgical equipment were originally documented by Susruta. 

Ayurveda is eternal because it is inspired by the laws of nature. It is a complete science that will be fundamental to human existence on the planet.