Words: Dr Rituraj SARMA Ayurveda addresses our mind, body, and spirit, with a holistic purport. It emphasises eating right to bring oneself into balance, as also exercising, breathing fully, reducing stress, sleeping well, besides using allied, or fundamental, concepts to keeping our body whole, harmonious, balanced, and healthy. Food is medicine in Ayurveda tenets. Food

Words: Dr Ambika P NAYAK This is an important physiological function for a healthy body, every day, more so after getting up in the morning, and emptying the bowels. The bowel habit of an individual is one of the prime indicators of their health. The nature of stools, like frequency, colour, and consistency, tells one

Words: Dr Ambika P NAYAK There are three support systems of life as elucidated in Ayurveda literature — aahaara [food], nidra [sleep] and brahmacharya [self-discipline]. The objective of food is to maintain a healthy body and mind through nourishment. This sets the precedence to treatment — as is the relevant concern, according to Ayurveda, so

Words: Dr Deep Narayan PANDEY Ayurveda places a profound emphasis on daily intake of fruits — such as amalaki, dadim and draksha — by making them nityasevaneeya [part of regular diet]. Risk reductions for total mortality in the order of 35 per cent — and, specifically of 27 per cent to 39 per cent for

Words: Drs Ranjita NAHARIA & Anand Prakash VERMA  Sankramaka roga and aupsargika rogas are certain terminologies of Ayurveda associated with communicable diseases. According to the tenets of Ayurveda, the pandemic could be described as janapadodhwansa, depending upon jala, kala and desha. Jwara and shosha are major features of sankramaka roga, as observed in the current

Words: Dr Asit Kumar PANJA Food is one of the three supporting pillars of life. It has a direct impact on our body [dosha, dhatu and mala], senses and mind. This impact relates to origin, growth and development, and also destruction [by causing illness] of the elements supporting life. The goal of taking food is to provide

Words: Dr B C JANA & Dr Ajay Kumar SRIVASTAVA The universal law of life states that anything that takes birth [utpatti] gets developed [vikas] and, in the end, ceases [laya]. Human beings are no exception to this law. Ayurveda is basically a health manual of mankind. It deals exclusively with protection of life, health,

Words: Dr Ambika P NAYAK Ayurveda emerged during Vedic times — for the well-being of our human race. The origin of Ayurveda, as literature testifies, started when illnesses emerged on earth. When this happened and triggered a cascading effect, our ancient great sages submitted themselves to Lord Brahma for help — to alleviate ill-health. Lord

Words: Dr Rajgopal NIDAMBOOR Acne Acne — pimples in common phraseology — is a ‘universal’ inflammatory skin disorder. Apart from being a cosmetic glitch, acne represents a certain elevation in the body’s production of the sex hormones, especially at puberty. This stimulates the sebaceous glands to produce excess sebum — the fatty oil that lubricates

Words: Dr Vihar Rajendra BIDWAI & Dr Pranay GANDHI A host of rapid changes in peoples’ lifestyle, in recent years, has led to several new disorders — they are collectively called ‘lifestyle disorders.’ Hypertension [high blood pressure] is a well-known risk factor of the cardiovascular system that increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. It also