Ayurveda was an interesting concept for me to explore and learn more about. I have always believed that we obtain the highest degree of overall health when we are healthy in all aspects of our lives, including physical and mental health. Ayurveda is a completely new term and practice to me, but thee idea and principles behind the big picture of Ayurveda is something that I have long believed. Ayurveda, I found, is thee connection between mind, body, and spirit to obtain the highest level of health. Ayurveda, being one of the world's oldest forms of holistic medicine focuses on the whole body, rather than just treating specific ailments, like our idea of modern medicine often does. Ayurveda doesn't focus just on treating disease but is aimed to promote entire physical body health.
Ayurveda has 3 main life forces, and the combination and power of these life forces determines what physical ailments you are likely to suffer from. An Ayurvedic practitioner will take into account all of the life forces and strength of each when deciding the best treatment to create the balance that is needed to achieve maximum health.
An individual can decline physically if there is something out of balance in the mind or soul. Take stress for an example. Stress is not inherently a physical ailment, it's very much a mental imbalance, but stress can lead to physical ailments if not taken care of and balance is not restored.
Diabetes, specifically, is very much a physical ailment. The two types of diabetes each affect the body differently, are treated differently, present differently, and are caused by different factors. Type I diabetes, which is considered an autoimmune disease (the immune system attacks the body's insulin producing cells,) can be extremely detrimental to an individual's health as insulin is an essential protein for proper function of the body and endocrine system. In terms of type I diabetes, Ayurveda style treatment is not necessarily the way to go, because you body lacks the proper proteins for proper function and restoring balance without medication and insulin that replaces what is missing is not always possible.
Type 2 diabetes is different from type I in that it is developed over time, mostly through lifestyle choices, and can be avoided completely, or managed, with lifestyle changes. Ayurvedic treatment is completely geared towards managing type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes treatments are all about balance and finding the proper lifestyle to diminish symptoms and manage the disease. Something went wrong somewhere which caused an individual to make choices that in turn caused them to develop diabetes. Type 2 diabetes really is an imbalance in the body, and life, and sometimes mind (which can influence lifestyle.) Finding balance is the core of Ayurvedic treatment and the core of managing type 2 diabetes.
There is so much overlap between Ayurveda and type 2 diabetes. Diet, lifestyle, and mental health all need to be in line and balanced for an individual to treat type 2 diabetes. The number of individuals developing type 2 diabetes today is increasing. The World Health Organization's statistics on diabetes states that in 1980 it was estimated that roughly 108 million people were living with type 2 diabetes and that number had risen to 422 million in 2014.
With our ever changing world and the priorities of society today is is not surprising that diabetes diagnoses are rising. One of thee main factors influencing the development of type 2 diabetes is weight and lifestyle, which are connected in many ways. Much of this imbalance comes from our shifting priorities. Our society has shifted from having a work life balance, to being all about work and forgetting that we need to have a life outside of work (work to live, not live to work!) This has caused a detrimental shift in the lifestyle that society values. As a society, we no longer prioritize ourselves and our mental health, but prioritize our paychecks. This is difficult, especially today when many people and families are living paycheck to paycheck. Finding the balance here is obviously much more difficult. It is nearly impossible to shift the perspective of an entire country, and the rates of diabetes and the costs of treating diabetes are showing that.
Sources
"Diabetes." World Health Organization, 10 Nov. 2021, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diabetes.
I had similar thoughts about Ayurveda starting off as well, especially in believing that we need to all obtain the highest level of health we can. I think the way that you compared Ayurveda to diabetes was very interesting. From what I understood, you were saying that Ayurveda can treat some diseases, but things like type 1 diabetes need to be treated with specific medications. Ayurveda can't treat all, but there are so many principles from it that the world is missing, based on you stat from the WHO.
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