Many of the diseases and maladies that afflict us today have no cure in the medical establishment, or we just can’t get off our medication. For those who wish to support their body with a natural system of support and healing, Ayurveda is a way of life.

Ayurvedic diagnosis and medicine holds so much wisdom about how our bodies actually work, and how to completely heal and support ourselves by seeing our bodies as a whole mind-body-spirit system.

What is Ayurveda?

Ayurvedic medicine (“Ayurveda” for short) is one of the world’s oldest medicinal healing systems. It was developed more than 3,000 years ago in India.

Those who practice Ayurveda believe every person is made of five basic elements found in the universe: air, fire, water, earth, and ether (or “space.”) If any one of these elements is out of balance or if its energy blocked, an individual will develop an illness. The root cause of all disease lies not just in individual bacteria or viruses, but also in the whole body-mind-spirit mechanism. If one piece is out of balance, the rest will also be out of balance.

In Ayurveda, the five elements create three major life forces or energies, called doshas. Most people’s bodies are biased toward a particularly element, and so fall into one of three doshas: Vata dosha (space and air), Pitta dosha (fire and water), or Kapha dosha (water and earth). Based on your own constituency, or dosha, different types of foods and medicines will be prescribed to support or heal your whole body system.