Bridging Ayurveda With The Modern Science

Not everyone is familiar with Ayurveda - an ancient Hindu system of medicine and a general philosophy of health and wellness. This medical system is composed of advice on diet, exercise, sleep, and hygiene with a mix of herbal preparations.

Ayurveda, like other traditional medicine systems, was also developed and refined over a thousand of years through observation and experience. This is where science begins. The Sanskrit word "Ayurveda" literally means the "science of life."

According to Research Gate study, Ayurveda is considered as the oldest extant health systems in the world that contain fundamental principles and theory-based practices. Furthermore, the theoretical foundations, epistemology, and rational of Ayurveda are usually based on the six darsana which are mainly the logic of Samkhya and Nyaya-Vaisesika system of the natural philosophy 1.

Everyone is asking whether Ayurveda is a science. Technically, Ayurveda is grounded in experiment and observation which is the foundational pillars of science. Some Ayurvedic herbal remedies which have been evaluated in placebo-controlled trials with mixed results.

Studies show that the modern scientific method only focused on the things that can be measured. And Ayurveda is considered as more esoteric which involves so many things that cannot be easily measured by instruments and methods used by the modern science.

According to US National Library of Medicine, Ayurveda is a person-center medicine (PCM) which deals with a healthy lifestyle, health promotion and sustenance, disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Its holistic concept emphasizes health promotion, disease prevention, early diagnosis and personalized treatment.

There is a theory that states that the person's regimen is customized according to their energetic constitution and energetic imbalances that contribute to their symptoms. This theory is hard to prove with the use of modern scientific methods, but people who still believe in this kind of system are already contented to do it in the old way.