Ayurveda: The Concept of Balance Both Within and Without Biology

 A need for balance in life is a belief that is not foreign to many people. In Chinese culture, for example, feng shui is used to bring the energy forces of life into balance between an individual and their surroundings. This practice is primarily focused on the application of balance to the architecture and location of buildings. This belief can also be applied to the body, as many yoga practices stress the importance of practice of grounding yourself to the earth to balance your energies. To some people, this imbalance of energies can even be the cause of their illnesses and conditions. As such, this belief has also made its way into the field of medicine through a concept called Ayurveda.

Ayurveda was once an alternative to Western medical systems, as it focused mainly on remedies involving herbs, minerals, and metals. As of now, however, it is known as a belief that stresses the importance of balance in life, particularly between the mind, the body, and soul (Wujastyk 2003). For the purpose of this paper, however, we will be focused mainly on the need for balance within the body, discussing how a disruption of it can result in disease and disorder, and how factors beyond biology can contribute to that disruption.

Our bodies depend on a multitude of parts and mechanisms working together in harmony to function properly. The different organ systems in the body consist of different organs working together to perform a similar function. Making those organs are different tissues and different cells that allow them to do the things they need to do. At an even smaller level, different chemical reactions within the body allow for the synthesis of the molecules that make up cells and their continued function. Considering this degree of complexity, the concept of Ayurveda would be particularly important in understanding how diseases come about within us, as the slightest thing being off, the smallest gear just a little out of place, could very well throw our biological reactions off balance.

Metabolism, a topic we discussed in class, is one particularly important biological reaction. It converts food into energy and building blocks, and thus forms the cornerstone of most — if not all — cellular processes by providing the energy and the structures they need to run. Like with most things, however, there are a multitude of ways the metabolism can be thrown off balance and result in disorders and diseases. One of the interesting ones I found was mucolipidosis (ML), which is an umbrella term for a group of inherited disorders that cause abnormal amounts of carbohydrates and lipids to accumulate within the cells. The root of this disorder comes from the production of ineffective enzymes or simply a lack of them, which are used for breaking down the extra substances in the lysosomes of the cell (Inserm US14 2014). The most widely known metabolic disorder, however, is diabetes. Diabetes results from having high levels of sugar in the blood, which is due either to a decreased production of insulin or the production of ineffective insulin that the body does not respond to (World Health Organization 2013).

Both of these diseases even have effects that extend beyond the metabolism. For example, mucolipidosis’ damage to the cells manifests itself on the organismal level through learning disabilities or skeletal deformities. Similarly, diabetes can result in long-term risks and complications such as coronary heart disease, stroke, and chronic kidney disease. While they are both diseases of the metabolic kind, they affect other parts of the body. It shows that even the smallest problem — whether it be with an enzyme or with insulin — can easily throw a wrench in the system and disrupt the delicate balance that the body runs on, resulting in a much bigger problem. The reach of these diseases extend beyond metabolism, displaying how important balance and the idea of Ayurveda are when it comes to maintaining a healthy body.

The concept of Ayurveda can even exist beyond keeping balance within the body, as imbalances in things such as lifestyle and socioeconomic status accelerate the appearance of some diseases. The imbalance in these categories is less clear-cut than in biology, as they have more to do with inequity and unequal access to the same opportunities. This is especially clear when it comes to affording treatment for a disease. For example, when someone is impoverished, living paycheck to paycheck, and is diagnosed with diabetes, the price of treatment is a steep one to pay. In the United States, the cost of insulin averages about $300 a vial, despite the fact that it only takes about $3-6 to make it (Gordon 2019). This drastic inflation in the cost of insulin is, in part, due to a law in the United States that allows manufacturers to set their own prices for their pharmaceuticals and raise them without limit. As a result, diabetic patients often feel the need to ration their insulin and use less than they need, which could lead to complications that would send them to the hospital and pay a much larger bill (Gordon 2019).

Ayurveda can be a concept practiced and upheld both in medicine and in daily life. In medicine and biology, it outlines how an imbalance in one part of the body can affect many others in the process. Outside those fields, it displays that an imbalance in the community can also contribute to the proliferation of disease. It is not, however, the only factor to blame in such occasions. This concept, while it may help explain why our problems exist, should not be a scapegoat for those problems. In particular, the controversial prices of insulin are not the fault of Ayurveda, but rather the manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies that choose to make a larger profit margin on insulin by selling it for more than it cost to make. It should also be alarming that the root of this problem comes from the fact that pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers — among others — are treating the healthcare system like a business rather than what it actually is. Rather than setting up a system that provides affordable healthcare for the masses, they choose to set up a system that capitalizes on the imbalances of socioeconomic status for the sake of making money.

References

Gordon, S. (2019). Why Are Insulin Prices Still So High for U.S. Patients? U.S. News & World Report.

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2019-11-07/why-are-insulin-prices-still-so-high-for-us-patients

Inserm US14. (2014). Orphanet: Mucolipidosis type II. Orphanet. https://www.orpha.net/consor/cgi-

bin/OC_Exp.php?Expert=576

World Health Organization. (2013). About diabetes. WHO.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140331094533/http://www.who.int/diabetes/action_online/basics/en/

Wujastyk, D. (2003). The roots of Ayurveda selections from Sanskrit medical writings. Penguin Books.