Have any of you heard of or maybe even used Ayurveda (pronounced "ä' yer vā' de")? I hadn't heard of it until today, but apparently it is the latest in holistic healing.

It seems to require you to be an early riser and to go to bed early.

The daily ideal is:
2-6 a.m. - Mental alertness; good time to meditate; rise before 6 a.m.
6-10 a.m. - Time for physical heaviness and mental slowness; avoid sleep; good time to exercise.
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. - Disgestion the strongest; eat your biggest meal here.
2-6 p.m. - Tiredness; drink herbal tea and spices in water or milk; meditate.
6-10 p.m. - Take an evening walk; bed before 10 p.m.
10 p.m. to 2 a.m. - Best time to sleep to cleanse out impurities.

I have practiced Ayurvedic principles for several years. My physicians at Mayo as well as the ones here in Mason feel that my medical conditions would be far worse if I had not been practicing these principles.

Ayurveda has a LOT more than just the schedule, much of which I let slip until my mini-stroke.

It's good stuff. It has been practiced in India for longer than I know of, but at least a couple hundred years. Obviously, it has changed over the years with new discoveries. Ayurvedic physicians incorporate ancient principles with newer modern medicine.

Ayurveda has a LOT more than just the schedule,

Of course you are right, Jo. I wasn't clear...sorry. The schedule I posted was Ayurveda's daily ideal.

I was surprised to read that there is a National Ayuredic Medical Association here with 400 members, and students can learn these skills in 30 institutions. They specifically mentioned that some of the maladies treated are colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and other inflammatory disorders. Apparently diet and prevention are the cornerstones, though other treatments include herbal-infused scrubs, facials, massages, and detoxifying hot oil treatments. They also talk abut people having 3 doshas (vata, patta and kapha) or constitutions, and it is important to know your dominant dosha as this will affect what you should eat, what exercises you need, and the types of oils to use on your skin. The doshas are assessed via a lengthy questionnaire. One Ayurveda practitioner gave this example: Wine can be medicinal for vata people, but horrible for patta people who are already firey. There was also information about panchakarma which is used when the problem is deep rooted and chronic. This lengthy treatment takes 5 to 21 days and consists of a full-body massage using heated herbal oils to remove toxims. Some of the treatments aren't as pleasant as others, such as the medicated oil enemas.

I hope I am doing it justice because I am just posting what the article in the Chicago Tribune said. I do know (this wasn't in the article) that the National Institutes of Health have put the study of alternative treatments as top priority. As with any medical treatment, they are looking for supportive data.

quote:

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2-6 a.m. - Mental alertness; good time to meditate; rise before 6 a.m.

10 p.m. to 2 a.m. - Best time to sleep to cleanse out impurities.

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Only sleeping for four hours, then meditating for another four? I'm afraid I'd fall back asleep!

What this is all about is bio-rhythms. People's preferred times for undertaking various tasks.

The only difficulty is that they vary from person to person and to try to set a strict schedule based on others' ideas might not work. What's right for one person might not be right for another.

Even the number of hours of sleep people need will vary for one person to another, let alone the time that sleep is taken.

Go then. Humour me. What impurities are cleansed out during our sleep?

Daily massage sounds good . . . I'll skip the oil enemas, though.

Graham, I surely can't answer you about the impurities because I just read about this alternative treatment myself. Also, remember that I am in the health care field myself, so this sort of thing sounds a bit like VooDoo to me, though I want to be respectful of it. I know that Jo says that it has been effective for her, but, frankly, I'd like to see some data on it.

Only sleeping for four hours, then meditating for another four? I'm afraid I'd fall back asleep!

Asa, I didn't see a mention of amount of time sleeping, but I think they meant to get about 8 hours of sleep. If you get up at 4 a.m., then you should go to bed at 8 p.m....that sort of thing. I do know that there has been a lot of research lately showing that people don't get enough sleep, and it has been linked to all sorts of chronic problems.

Richard, I think there is more to this than Circadian rhythms, though that's part of it. Of course preventive medicine relies heavily on Circadian rhythm, too.

First, Kalleh is correct about the sleep. And the meditation. Ayurveda calls for no more than two, twenty minute meditation sessions per day. There are times during the year when special meditation sessions are encouraged, but only under supervision of a trained teacher and in a group situation.

The daily schedule posted by Kalleh is suggested times for starting such activities as sleep, meditation, etc. For example: I go to bed no later than 9 p.m. and rise before 5 a.m. I meditate first at 5:30 a.m. I eat a light breakfast at 7; and I exercise at 9. My largest meal of the day is at 11 a.m. I snack lightly in the mid-afternoon, and eat a light dinner around 6. My second meditation session is at 4 p.m.

The impurities they speak of cleansing during sleep are acid build up in the muscles, as well as allowing the various bodily functions to slow down. I know that if I do not get enough sleep I am more likely to have pain and to have episodes of irritable bowel. Ayurveda also teaches that the mind must be rested and calmed in order to have good health, and that sleep must be deep and curative. Good ayurvedic practice means sleeping in a room free of electronics (no electric blankets either), preferably with a source of moving pure air. I found that when I put my ionic breeze meant for the bathroom in my bedroom I slept much better.

The doshas Kalleh spoke of -- Vata, Pita and Kaffa -- refer to body types. There can be combinations of those types also; i.e. pita/vata, etc. Interestingly enough, the theories behind the doshas is very similar to the philosophies dictating traditional Chinese herbal medicine. In a VERY simplistic form, vata types are thin, wiry, very active, have a lot of "fire"; they correspond to the ectomorph. Pita are solid and very much like the mesomorph. And vata includes us "fluffy" people, not disimilar to the endomorph.

Classification of one's body type can be superficial, involving a simple questionnaire about food preferences and visual observation of the body. However, an ayurvedic practitioner would check your pulse (again not unlike a Chinese traditional medicine practitioner) in several places, examine your tongue, check your strength in several muscle groups, etc.

Choosing foods, sleeping times, exercise times, etc. based on your dosha is meant to bring your body into balance, based on your unique individual needs. Ayurveda does not assume that everyone falls into a neat little pigeon hole -- while you are a dosha type, you also have unique needs and styles within that type.

Western medicine may be far more fallacious in type casting people. The "one pill fits all" philosophy has caused a lot of problems. Ayerveda and Chinese traditional medicine often prepares medications, usually herbal, specifically for you and no one else.

There is a wealth of information on Ayurveda on the web. If you are interested and want to explore it more, keep something in mind. Transcendental meditation folk -- the followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi -- have pretty much co-opted Ayurveda in this country. Additionally there are some folks -- Deepak Choprah foremost among them -- who have gone from being serious thoughtful medical practitioner to outright nutballs. Don't let the weirdos turn you off. Ayurveda is quite ancient, is changing all the time to accept new discoveries about the way our bodies work, and is a medical tradition very much concerned with being aware of the patterns of the individual and responding to individual needs.

BTW, one final note: panchakarma, the twice annual treatment for cleansing, is incredible. And while it sounds icky, the oil enema is one of the parts of the treatment I would never skip. When I started ayurvedic treatment I was dying, literally. A world class medical center where I was a patient had given up on me. Ayurveda saved my life.

Jo, when I posted about "ayurvedic" treatments, I had no idea that anyone here actually used them. How great to hear about it from someone who has used the treatments. Do you know if there has been any research on this field of alternative medicine? Again, I know that the NIH has put a strong emphasis on studying alternative medicine.

Western medicine may be far more fallacious in type casting people. The "one pill fits all" philosophy has caused a lot of problems.

I might have to quibble with this. While there are some health care practitioners who are guilty of this, I am sure, that is not generally the case. People are treated very individually with medication, I think, and monitored closely. Pharmacology has become very complex over the years, and it is incumbent on patients and practitioners alike to know all the medications (over-the-counter, as well as any alternative compounds) patients are on and to carefully watch their health for changes. Medicines can interact with each other, with food, or even with an individual's metabolic functions.

One problem I have seen in the area of medications is that not every physician has an expertise in all kinds of drugs. If a person has more than one specialist, for instance, or perhaps has some combination of things going on, they will sometimes have to keep going back and back and back again, and keep careful track themselves of how they feel and what is going on. One drug prescribed by physician A will sometimes counteract a drug prescribed by physician B. This problem is further complicated by going to a pharmacy that is so busy they don't always watch over this sort of thing. Not all pharmacies are alike! It sometimes really pays off to go to a pharmacy where a little more care is taken with each person who comes in.

Now, when you add in the health insurance companies who are encouraging everyone to get 'scripts by mail . . . you get even further removed from an actual pharmacist who might notice that your drugs will counteract each other.

One problem I have seen in the area of medications is that not every physician has an expertise in all kinds of drugs.

I do agree with that, CW. More and more generations of existing drugs are being developed daily, and then of course new drugs are always coming on the market. It is very important that patients have an internist (an gerontologist for the elderly) to help manage the specialties. Good point!