ayurvedic therapy

Ayurveda is a traditional life science system that originated in ancient India and has been circulating for more than 5,000 years. It is neither a "miraculous metaphysics" that can cure all diseases, nor is it an unfounded IQ tax. The core logic is to adjust diet, work and rest, and lifestyle to match the individual's constitution to achieve a dynamic balance of body and spirit. It has a clear auxiliary role in adjusting chronic metabolic disorders, emotional internal friction, and sub-health states, but it absolutely cannot replace the formal treatment of modern medicine.

The first time I seriously came into contact with Ayurveda was when I was living in Dali in 2019. At that time, I stayed with a healer from Sri Lanka for half a month. He had been practicing Ayurveda for 14 years and had at least thousands of cases on his hands. What impressed me the most was the two girls who were doing conditioning together at the time. One was an Internet operator. She was constipated all the year round and had a bowel movement every three or four days. She took probiotics for half a year but didn’t see any improvement. She was found to have a typical Vata constitution. The teacher didn’t prescribe any “magic medicine” for her, so she just had to have a bowel movement every morning. Drink a cup of warm ginger tea with 1g of ghee on an empty stomach, stop drinking iced American drinks when you wake up in the morning, stop watching short videos until one or two o'clock at night before going to bed, chew slowly and don't wolf down food. With just a few simple requirements, she persisted for more than 20 days and said that her bowel movements were basically normal. Another girl suffered from allergic rhinitis due to the change of seasons. When it was severe, she couldn't even sleep. She was tested for pitta constitution. The teacher adjusted her diet and asked her not to eat heavy oil and spicy hot pot all the time. She put two drops of warm sesame oil into her nasal cavity every week. She persisted for more than a month, and the number of rhinitis attacks in the autumn of that year was 80% less than in previous years.

But if you say that Ayurveda is all good and has no problems at all, that is definitely nonsense. There is a lot of controversy about Ayurveda in the market now. Two groups of people are quarreling with each other: one group is the businessmen who boast about it. They say that one Ayurveda oil treatment can eliminate "ten pounds of toxins" and that drinking turmeric powder can cure cancer. What's so slow about it? Sexually transmitted diseases can be cured for you. This basically earns IQ tax. I have seen many people spend tens of thousands to get oil therapy cards, but they have done it several times to no avail. There are also friends with sensitive skin who used the wrong massage oil and got a rash on their face. The other group is completely negative, thinking that all traditional medicine is pseudoscience, and that Ayurveda is the Indian version of "Dance God". This is too extreme - India has already incorporated Ayurveda into the public health system, parallel to modern medicine, and is specifically used to treat high blood pressure and diabetes. For the follow-up treatment of chronic diseases such as diseases, many Western natural medicine researchers are also studying the medicinal value of curcumin and Triphala (three fruit powder) in Ayurveda. Many research results have confirmed the anti-inflammatory and metabolic regulating effects of these ingredients.

Last year I went to Sri Lanka and visited an Ayurvedic pharmacy in a local residential area. It was almost exactly the same as the old traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy in China. There were baskets of dried herbs on the wooden shelves, and the prepared ointments were in glass jars. The boss sat behind the counter. , just like an old Chinese medicine doctor, he asks you if you have had a sore throat recently and whether you can sleep well. Then he grabs you a small packet of ground medicinal powder and tells you to drink it with warm water in the morning and evening.

Many people's misunderstanding about Ayurveda is that it means "massaging with oil" and "drinking ghee". In fact, it is not. The core of it is "individual differences", which is also insomnia. People with Vata constitution have insomnia because their brains cannot stop and think about things. It is suitable to drink warm milk and do some gentle stretching before going to bed.； Insomnia caused by pitta constitution is due to excessive inner fire and easy irritability. It is suitable to eat some sweet fruits before going to bed, such as ripe mangoes, and avoid strenuous exercise. ； Insomnia in Kapha constitution is mostly caused by sleeping too much during the day. If you are not sleepy at night, you have to go out and walk more during the day instead of staying at home all the time. If you use one method regardless of your physical condition, it will definitely be useless and may even cause problems.

I myself have been adjusting my living habits according to Ayurvedic methods intermittently in the past few years. After all, I am a typical Vata. I used to like to toss and stay up late, and I also like to drink iced milk tea in winter. Every time I visit my aunt, it hurts so much that I break into a cold sweat. Now I almost don’t touch ice. I drink a cup of warm turmeric milk every morning. My dysmenorrhea has been mostly cured. My mood is much more stable than before, and I won’t be so anxious that I can’t sleep. To put it bluntly, there is nothing magical about Ayurveda. It teaches you to understand the temperament of your body, follow the rhythm of nature, sleep when you should sleep, eat when you should eat, and what suits you is the best. If there is really an organic problem, don't blindly believe in any folk remedies. Go to the hospital. This is the only way to be responsible for yourself.