Ayurveda and the Brain

The human brain is one of the most interesting and impressive developments in all of evolution and biology. The many ways it connects and works with other parts of the body is truly amazing. It is even more amazing to me that despite how much research has been done on the brain, and how much has been learned by scientists, that there is still so much we don’t know about it and how it works. There is still so much research that can be done and how we can utilize that knowledge to help cure or understand certain diseases better. Ayurveda is a huge part of the brain, since not only does the brain control many of the involuntary functions of the body, but it also is how we are able to have conscious thought and cognizance. It is part of both our body and our mind and is the main connection between these two main parts of Ayurveda.

I think Huntington’s disease is a prime example of how the brain is connected, and how certain diseases can affect both the body and the mind through the brain. In Huntington’s disease, a person inherits a dominant defective chromosome 4 from a parent and is affected both neurologically and mentally. Many symptoms include involuntary motor and muscle movements, as well as a change in mood or an increase in irritability or depression and anxiety. An individual with Huntington’s disease can experience some or many of these different physical and mental changes, all because it is a disease that affects the brain. 

Trauma at a young age and the factors that influence it are another way that show how important Ayurveda of the brain is and how it can drastically affect a person. Ayurveda of the brain is a way to illustrate how the body and the mind are connected because the brain is more of the body side of it and the mind is the mind. They are the same thing, and they work together to form the Ayurveda of a person. Therefore, both personality disorders and physical trauma can both come from a traumatic brain injury. It’s interesting that stressors and experience can cause which genes get regulated and which get used, and how that can affect a person both physically and mentally. The gene effects of alleles and environmental factors really gets into the whole nature vs nurture aspect of biology and Ayurveda, and how much each one affects a person is probably very dependent on the person, their genes, and their environment. Environment seems to be especially important for young children and growing adolescents, and a healthy vs non-healthy environment for a child or adolescent can make all the difference when discussing whether a gene for a mental, antisocial, or personality disorder will show or not.

The way that drugs, both for good and for bad, can affect a person’s body and brain functions is one of the most incredible advances in history. It’s unbelievable to me that there are thousands of drugs out on the market that we know exactly what they do and how they work, and even sometimes are used for their side effects. The fact that people in the drug design field can find a molecule and know exactly what it does and use it to help treat a disease or illness is truly amazing to me. Unfortunately, drugs can be both a positive and negative. A major problem in the world of prescription drugs in the United States right now is the opioid crisis. This comes from the fact that a person begins to use prescription opioids, usually because of a real problem with pain management, and they use them too often and/or for too long of a time after they need them, that it tricks their brain into thinking that they are dependent on them to just feel normal. It is a tricky balance between using drugs for an intended purpose and for abusing those same drugs. This, to me, shows again just how delicate the balance of Ayurveda in the brain is, and how that balance can be helped but also so easily thrown off if we are not careful. 

This also includes adolescent and teenage drug use as well. I didn’t know that adolescents and teens had less developed frontal lobes, and that is a reason that they may be more prone to impulsivity. It does make sense that whatever teens spend their time on is what their brain will retain and improve upon, and as drugs increase the dopamine response, it tricks the brain that it is necessary and how addiction begins for many adolescents. It is a dangerous cycle, even for many prescription drugs on the market today including opioids. The laws regarding CII-V drugs try to help reduce or prohibit the excessive use of drugs that have the potential to be addictive, but somehow people still manage to find ways to use them more than they should.

In conclusion, the brain is a very complex and intricate part of the body that can have a tremendous effect on the rest of the body, as well as a person’s Ayurveda. The fact that the brain is essentially the connection between the mind and body makes it that much more important that we do all we can to keep in from being thrown out of its natural balance of Ayurveda. Many diseases, both communicable and inherited, can affect the brain but thanks to modern medicine many of those diseases can be treated or cured through prescription drugs, though excessive drug use is also to be cautioned against in favor of maintaining the body’s natural Ayurveda as well. Outside of drugs and heritable traits, environment can also majorly affect the brain and can have severe consequences for those of younger age that may be in environments that allow certain genes to be used and can affect a person mentally. Though it seems obvious to protect our brains as much as we can, the power it has over us mentally, emotionally, and physically all at once causes it to be of even greater importance than many might initially think.