Using Ayurveda to Change Medicine

Using Ayurveda to Change Medicine

            Balance is what we all seek, but we tend to find ourselves struggling with imbalances. The study that helps us find this balance is known as Ayurveda research. Ayurveda is something I have never heard about, but I find interesting. Ayurveda is the study of mind, body, and spirit in connection with our health, or in other words our balance we seek to find. In Hindu culture, where Ayurveda is known to have originated, they focus on this form of medicine using a balance of body and mind. Doctors are trained in the healing of mind and spirit first and then working on body. With this philosophy in their trained professionals they are finding success. They are receiving more applicants to these medical schools than ever before. Ayurveda is changing parts of the world by bringing this balance to make people healthier and happier. With Ayurveda, I hope to see a change in how people think of medicine, how doctors should be trained in Ayurveda way of thinking, and how we can use Ayurveda to help diabetics. 

            How people think of medicine can change and bring a better balance to struggling peoples’ lives. When people view medicine they think it is important to take pills and become better through the pharmaceutical world. Doctors study the metabolic pathways in order to find the right pills for their patients to take in order to help them get over their sicknesses. However, Ayurveda is a holistic form of medicine to connect body, spirit, and mind. This cheaper form of medicine allows for people to get the proper treatments using the natural forms of medicine rather than the expensive forms of medicine. Some people think this approach is not the proper way to receive the best treatment, but Native Americans have been doing it for centuries. I have read many papers that described scientists going and learning of the Native Americans’ ways to heal using Ayurveda. They then find themselves using natural herbs as a form of healing their sickened bodies. I learned from this that it does not require medications to cure all forms of illness. We can change the way we think of medicine using an Ayurveda approach and learning from those who have used for thousands of years.

            After taking a different approach to how we think of medicine, we need our doctors to be trained in an Ayurveda way of thinking. Doctors are trained professionals in their field of study. They learn their field of study and then spend of lifetime trying to obtain all the knowledge within that field of study. Medical doctors are treating patients who are struggling with both body and mind. Doctors are trained professionals in helping with illnesses, but they lack the ability to help with the spirit and mind. The problem lies in the fact that there is not enough Ayurveda research available for them to use. There is also no one teaching these doctors in an Ayurveda way of thinking. However, it lacks academic journals and people putting time and effort to learn this way of thinking. The lack of Ayurveda minded people and institutions to promote this level of teaching is concerning to researchers (Kotecha, 2015). Imagine with more Ayurveda taught in universities, and more research being done, we could better treat patients with mind and body issues. Doctors could heal people in the mind which probably could help cure diseases at the root cause, the brain. This led me to find more research about if people are actually using this form of thinking. In India, they are using Ayurveda as form of making changes to medicine and making changes in policies. In order to make these policies change it must be more accepted and more researched to help promote and inspire (Chandra, 2011). With policy changes we will be able to see a promising changes in our Doctors’ ways of thinking. There is a promising future in the field of Ayurveda research in the practice of medical doctors. 

            Now with promising future of doctors receiving training in this field of Ayurveda, we can use this way of connecting body, spirit, and mind to those plagued with Diabetes. We all know someone who has Diabetes and the number of people who have it continues to grow all around us. With both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes having their differences and struggles, we can combine them to show a major imbalance in our body. In the research I found about both types of diabetes, we can combine their description to “an imbalance found in the metabolic pathways.” More precisely, the imbalance of the glucagon and insulin pathways. This imbalance or lack of balance is throwing off millions of people suffering with this disease. To make matters worse, the pharmaceutical world is making millions of dollars off the people who struggle with this disease and is slowing research on this matter. I believe if they found a cure, pharmaceutical companies would lose a significant amount of money, thus making it difficult for them to promote research. We are also seeing a world lacking in activity. I have found a lot of research showing that inactivity is causing people to get diabetes. Ayurveda research is a promising cure for the inactivity we are seeing. Ayurveda can help with a holistic approach with dieting, exercising, and mediation which can be done by anyone, and shows to be successful in many cases (Elder, 2004). This thought of healing the mind and spirit could help someone struggling with inactivity. It could help the imbalance of the brain and the metabolic pathways to repair themselves. It could take years, but the research is promising. I hope, like millions of others, that we look for ways to find a cure for a disease like diabetes with research such as Ayurveda.

            With a different way of thinking about medicine, doctors being trained in Ayurveda way of thinking, and using Ayurveda to help cure a disease like diabetes, we could make a difference in the mind, body, and spirit of millions of people. I personally believe this way of Ayurveda medicine is a promising way of thinking. It is working in places that are using it, but we do not see it being used often enough (Kotecha, 2015). We need this balance of body, spirit, and mind in our lives. With this balance we can hopefully cure the world of some of the worst diseases. It is my hope that Ayurveda can be more of way of looking at medicine.

References

 

Chandra, S. (2011). Report on the status of Indian medicine and folk healing-with a focus on the benefits that the systems have given the public. AYU: An International Quarterly Journal of Research in Ayurveda, 32(3), 299–303. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-8520.93902

 

Elder, C. (2004). Ayurveda for Diabetes Mellitus: A Review of the Biomedical Literature. Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine, 10(1), 44–50.

 

Kotecha, V. (2015). Ayurveda research publications: A serious concern. Ayu, 36(1) doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0974-8520.169004