Ayurveda & Chronic Diseases

In its own terms, expertly practiced Ayurveda can definitely yield reliable, efficacious results when applied to all manner of chronic diseases.

Its etiological theory must be robust This theory is based on the concept of ‘Tridosha’,[6] the three doshas, Vata, Pitta and Kapha, their roles in system, subsystem and organ function and the sequence of processes occurring as they are driven ‘out of balance’ in a general sequence known as ‘Shad kriya kala’,[8] the six stages of dosha imbalance.

As several articles in this issue emphasize, this is the winning point of Ayurvedic theory, allowing it to tackle chronic illness - a ‘Trojan Horse’ transporting the guardians of health into the camp of disease.

The reason why biomedicine can not treat chronic disease as effectively as Ayurveda lies in its apparent lack of any knowledge structures equivalent to Ayurveda’s Tridosha and Shad kriya kala.

Were this lack remedied, it would be able to do so, provided that it also adopted Ayurvedic diagnostics and approaches to treatment; the whole system is needed, not parts in isolation.

That is why the whole structure of Ayurveda dosha theory needs to be laid out and ‘decoded’ – what exactly is it telling us?