The Sacred in the Scientific: Ambiguous Practices of Science in Tibetan Medicine

Gandhi's Body, Gandhi's Truth: Nonviolence and the Biomoral Imperative of Public Health

Notes:

• Joseph S. Alter offers a novel reading of Mahatma Gandhi’s writings on diet, sex, and hygiene. By arguing “that nonviolence was, for him, as much an issue of public health as an issue of politics, morality, and religion,” this reading challenges previous studies that delink Gandhi’s preoccupation with issues of health from his political ideas and agenda as well as works that treat those links together but only in terms of psychological and sociopsychological meta-interpretations. Alter also takes a different line on the Mahtama’s conception of health by contextualizing it within the framework of what he terms “late imperialism,” a framework which enables the author to view his subject’s personal convictions “in the context of colonialism’s impact on subject bodies.” In other words, Gandhi’s personal “experiments with truth,” whether they centered on dietetics, celibacy, hygiene, and nature cure, cannot be separated from his search for truth, or from his belief in nonviolence, or his campaign for sociopolitical reform.

Rethinking the history of medicine in Asia: Hakim Mohammed Said and the Society for the Promotion of Eastern Medicine

Tags:

• China
• Colonialism
• Historiography
• History of Medicine
• History, 20th Century
• History, Ancient
• History, Medieval
• Medicine, Chinese Traditional
• Medicine, Unani
• Pakistan

Notes:

• In 1963 Hakim Mohammed Said took a Pakistani delegation from the Society for the Promotion of Eastern Medicine on a monthlong trip to China to meet with and learn from practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine. This essay focuses on Said’s interpretation of the history of medicine in Asia, which was inspired by his trip and informed by a broad, global understanding of how Unani medicine developed from the eighth century to the present. Said’s advocacy of Eastern Medicine provides a way to think about the history of medicine and medical revitalization that is not limited by colonial, postcolonial, or nationalist assumptions and priorities.

Psychological healing and faith in the doctrine of Karma.

Tags:

• Faith
• healing
• HINDU philosophy
• KARMA
• MENTAL representation

Metaphor and Illness Classification in Traditional Thai Medicine

Cognitive Process: A Buddhist explanation of information process and its congruent reactions

Notes:

• Applies Buddhist philosophy to cognitive processes; positions BUddha as a cognitive psychologist meditation The author presents a Buddhist understanding of the cognitive process of incoming information, its circulation and its congruent reactions based on the Buddhist spiritual meditative tradition of South and Southeast Asia. He asserts that Buddha can be credited as the first cognitive psychologist who propounded one of the most comprehensive analytic systems of cognitive process with an ultimate aim of achieving an altered psychological state of positive change and equilibrium reaction. Abstract from a paper given at the Epilepsy, Brain and Mind conference in March 2010, in Prague, Czech Republic.

The Buddha as a fully functioning person: toward a person-centered perspective on mindfulness

Clinical research on ayurvedic therapeutics: myths, realities and challenges

Tags:

• Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
• Humans
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Phytotherapy
• Plants, Medicinal
• Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
• Research
• Treatment Outcome

Notes:

• Globally there is an increasing interest in alternative routes to health such as ayurveda. There is a need to conduct globally acceptable clinical research in ayurvedic therapeutics (AT). Some of the issues in investigating AT in randomised clinical trials (CT) are: selection of appropriate AT, non-drug and/or drug AT, identification of objective outcomes, devising adequate placebo/positive controls, difficulties of blinding, guarding against bias, duration of trials, number of patients, dose optimisation, etc. There is also a need to establish reasonable safety of this therapy in CT. If AT has to complete with new chemical entities and biotechnology products, clinical research and development of AT should be focussed on unmet medical needs utilising principles and practices of modern CT approaches.

Integrated approach to yoga

Tags:

• Holistic Health
• Humans
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• spirituality
• yoga

Notes:

• Yoga is a science of Holistic living and not merely a set of Asanas and Pranayama. It is a psycho physical and spiritual science, which aims at the harmonious development of the human body, mind and soul. Yoga is the conscious art of self-discovery. It is a process by which animal man ascends through the stages from normal man to super man and then the divine man. It is an expansion of the narrow constricted egoistic personality to an all-pervasive eternal and blissful state of reality. Yoga is an all round development of personality at physical, mental intellectual, emotional and spiritual level.

Medicine and History as Theoretical Tools in a Confucian Pragmatism

Yoga and Sexual Functioning: A Review

Tags:

• ASTANGA yoga
• Meditation
• PRANAYAMA
• SEX therapy
• SEXUAL disorders -- Alternative treatment
• YOGA -- Therapeutic use

Religion, spirituality, health and medicine: Why should Indian physicians care?

Tags:

• India

Notes:

• Religion, spirituality, health and medicine have common roots in the conceptual framework of relationship amongst human beings, nature and God. Of late, there has been a surge in interest in understanding the interplay of religion, spirituality, health and medicine, both in popular and scientific literature. A number of published empirical studies suggest that religious involvement is associated with better outcomes in physical and mental health. Despite some methodological limitations, these studies do point towards a positive association between religious involvement and better health. When faced with disease, disability and death, many patients would like physicians to address their emotional and spiritual needs, as well. The renewed interest in the interaction of religion and spirituality with health and medicine has significant implications in the Indian context. Although religion is translated as dharma in major Indian languages, dharma and religion are etymologically different and dharma is closer to spirituality than religion as an organized institution. Religion and spirituality play important roles in the lives of millions of Indians and therefore, Indian physicians need to respectfully acknowledge religious issues and address the spiritual needs of their patients. Incorporating religion and spirituality into health and medicine may also go a long way in making the practice of medicine more holistic, ethical and compassionate. It may also offer new opportunities to learn more about Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine and have more enriched understanding and collaborative interaction between different systems of medicine. Indian physicians may also find religion and spirituality significant and fulfilling in their own lives.

Ayurvedic medicine. Core concept, therapeutic principles, and current relevance

Tags:

• Arthritis
• Disease
• Humans
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Obesity
• Plant Preparations

Notes:

• In the prebiblical Ayurvedic origins, every creation inclusive of a human being is a model of the universe. In this model, the basic matter and the dynamic forces (Dosha) of the nature determine health and disease, and the medicinal value of any substance (plant and mineral). The Ayurvedic practices (chiefly that of diet, life style, and the Panchkarama) aim to maintain the Dosha equilibrium. Despite a holistic approach aimed to cure disease, therapy is customized to the individual's constitution (Prakruti). Numerous Ayurvedic medicines (plant derived in particular) have been tested for their biological (especially immunomodulation) and clinical potential using modern ethnovalidation, and thereby setting an interface with modern medicine. To understand Ayurvedic medicine, it would be necessary to first understand the origin, basic concept and principles of Ayurveda.

Ayurveda and Panchakarma: measuring the effects of a holistic health intervention

Tags:

• Adult
• Female
• Health Behavior
• Holistic Health
• Humans
• Life Style
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Middle Aged
• Perception
• Quality of Life
• social support

Notes:

• Ayurveda, the traditional medical system of India, is understudied in western contexts. Using data gathered from an Ayurvedic treatment program, this study examined the role of psychosocial factors in the process of behavior change and the salutogenic process. This observational study examined associations with participation in the 5-day Ayurvedic cleansing retreat program, Panchakarma. Quality of life, psychosocial, and behavior change measurements were measured longitudinally on 20 female participants. Measurements were taken before the start of the program, immediately after the program, and 3 months postprogram. The program did not significantly improve quality of life. Significant improvements were found in self-efficacy towards using Ayurveda to improve health and reported positive health behaviors. In addition, perceived social support and depression showed significant improvements 3 months postprogram after the subjects had returned to their home context. As a program of behavior change, our preliminary results suggest that the complex intervention Panchakarma may be effective in assisting one’s expected and reported adherence to new and healthier behavior patterns.

Medicine, Modernization, and Cultural Crisis in China and India

Tags:

• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Medicine, Oriental

Ancient-Modern Concordance in Ayurvedic Plants: Some Examples

Tags:

• Medicine, Ayurvedic

Tibetan Medicine and Regeneration

The Indus Valley Origin of a Yoga Practice

"Science" vs. "Religion" in Classical Ayurveda

Tags:

• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Science and religion

Notes:

• This paper evaluates claims that classical Ayurveda was scientific, in a modern western sense, and that the many religious and magical elements found in the texts were all either stale Vedic remnants or later brahminic impositions. It argues (1) that Ayurveda did not manifest standard criteria of “science” (e.g., materialism, empirical observation, experimentation, falsification, quantification, or a developed conception of proof) and (2) that Vedic aspects of the classical texts are too central to be considered inauthentic or marginal. These points suggest that attempting to apply the modern western categories of “science” and “religion” to ancient South Asian medical texts at best obscures more important issues and, at worst, imports inappropriate orientalist assumptions. Having set aside the distraction of “science” vs. “religion” in classical Ayurveda, the paper finds support for claims that brahminic elements were later additions to the texts. It concludes by arguing that this is best explained not in terms of a conceptual tension between religion and science but in terms of social and economic tensions between physicians and brahmins.

"Gambling for Qi": Suicide and Family Politics in a Rural North China County

Disease Etiologies in Non-Western Medical Systems

Notes:

• This paper argues that disease etiology is the key to cross-cultural comparison of non-Western medical systems. Two principal etiologies are identified: personalistic and naturalistic. Correlated with personalistic etiologies are the belief that all misfortune, disease included, is explained in the same way; illness, religion, and magic are inseparable; the most powerful curers have supernatural and magical powers, and their primary role is diagnostic. Correlated with naturalistic etiologies are the belief that disease causality has nothing to do with other misfortunes; religion and magic are largely unrelated to illness; the principal curers lack supernatural or magical powers, and their primary role is therapeutic.

Sexuality and spirituality: the relevance of eastern traditions

Tags:

• Behavior
• Buddhism
• Cross-Cultural Comparison
• Culture
• Hinduism
• personality
• Psychology
• religion
• Research
• Sexuality

Notes:

• This article outlines some of the major Eastern sexual and spiritual traditions (primarily Hinduism, Taoism and Tantrism), and discusses their relevance for the contemporary Western world. The article begins by examining the sources of Eastern sexual traditions, before and after the “Axial” period, the turning point at which male consciousness and power gained ascendancy over the female principle. Although a phallocentric view of the world came to dominate the East, Eastern cultures -- unlike the West -- maintained a respect for nature. According to this view, health and spirituality are gained only when humanity respects its place in the cosmos and lives in harmony with nature. The article then examines the sexual traditions of Hinduism, in which sexual asceticism not only coexisted but also complimented the celebration of sexual desire and pleasure. The article then discusses the Taoist traditions, which, among other things, stressed the importance of female sexual satisfaction. Taoism argued that men cannot experience true sexual ecstasy unless they develop the ability to control their ejaculation. The Tantric sexual tradition, the article explains, maintained that ultimate sexual pleasure would enable one to experience the true nature of reality. The article then goes on to review variations of these traditions: the Hindu Tantric Doctrine (Shaktism), the Buddhist Tantric Doctrine, and Tantra and Yoga. Finally, the article considers the relevance of these Eastern philosophies to the Western sexual tradition, which has tended to view sexuality as antagonistic to spiritual liberation.

Falungong: recent developments in Chinese notions of healing

Tags:

• Anomie
• Asian Americans
• Attitude to Health
• Buddhism
• China
• Confucianism
• Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Health promotion
• Health Status
• Humans
• Medicine, Chinese Traditional
• Morale
• Morals
• Nurse's Role
• Philosophy, Medical
• Religious Philosophies
• Social Change
• spirituality
• Transcultural Nursing
• Unemployment

Notes:

• Transcultural nursing literature provides a rich picture of prominent Chinese health-related beliefs derived from the traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. However, these traditional beliefs are being challenged and modified in response to public discussion of a new spiritual movement, Falungong (also spelled Falun Gong). This movement calling for personal and social renewal has arisen in reaction to significant political and economic upheavals in Chinese society. This paper presents an overview of the Falungong movement and the health beliefs it advances. Implications for U.S. nursing practice are discussed.

My Ishvara is dead: spiritual care on the fringes

Making medicine indigenous: homeopathy in South India

Tags:

• Colonialism
• History, 20th Century
• Homeopathy
• India
• Medicine, Traditional
• Political Systems
• Science

Notes:

• Historical studies of homeopathy in Europe and the USA have focused on practitioners’ attempts to emphasize ‘modern’ and ‘scientific’ approaches. Studies of homeopathy in India have focused on a process of Indianization. Arguing against such unilineal trajectories, this paper situates homeopathy in South India within the context of shifting relations between ‘scientific’ and ‘indigenous’ systems of medicine. Three time periods are considered. From 1924 through 1934, homeopathy was singled out by Government of Madras officials as ‘scientific’, as contrasted with the ‘indigenous’ Ayurvedic, Siddha, and Unani systems of medicine. From 1947 through 1960, both ‘indigenous’ and ‘scientific’ interpretations of homeopathy were put forward by different factions. An honorary director of homeopathy proposed the Indianization of homeopathy, and its reconciliation with Ayurveda; this view conflicted with the Madras government’s policy of expanding the ‘scientific’ medical curriculum of the Government College of Indigenous Medicine. It was not until the early 1970s that homeopathy was officially recognized in Tamilnadu State. By then, both homeopathy and Ayurveda had become conceptualized as non-Tamil, in contrast with promotion of the Tamil Siddha system of ‘indigenous’ medicine. Thus, constructs of ‘indigenous’ and ‘scientific’ systems of medicine are quite malleable with respect to homeopathy in South India.

New Geographies of Chinese Medicine

Maharishi International University: "Science of Creative Intelligence"

Karma, reincarnation, and medicine: Hindu perspectives on biomedical research

Notes:

• Prior to the completion of the Human Genome Project, bioethicists and other academics debated the impact of this new genetic information on medicine, health care, group identification, and peoples’ lives. A major issue is the potential for unintended and intended adverse consequences to groups and individuals. When conducting research in, for instance, American Indian and Alaskan native (AI/AN) populations, political, cultural, religious and historical issues must be considered. Among African Americans, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment is a reminder of racism and discrimination in this country. The goal of the current study is to understand reasons for participating, or not, in genetic research such as the HapMap project and other genetic/medical research from the perspective of the Indian American community in Houston, Texas. In this article, we report on a topic central to this discussion among Indian Americans: karma and reincarnation. Both concepts are important beliefs when considering the body and what should happen to it. Karma and reincarnation are also important considerations in participation in medical and genetic research because, according to karma, what is done to the body can affect future existences and the health of future descendants. Such views of genetic and medical research are culturally mediated. Spiritual beliefs about the body, tissue, and fluids and what happens to them when separated from the body can influence ideas about the utility and acceptability of genetic research and thereby affect the recruitment process. Within this community it is understood that genetic and environmental factors contribute to complex diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer; and acknowledgment of the significance of environmental stressors in the production of disease. A commitment to service, i.e. “betterment of humanity,” karmic beliefs, and targeting environmental stressors could be prominent avenues for public health campaigns in this population. This study suggests that minority status does not automatically indicate unwillingness to participate in genetic or medical research. Indian Americans were not skeptical about the potential benefits of biomedical research in comparison to other ethnic minority communities in the United States.

The Transformations of Tibetan Medicine

Notes:

• This article presents a cultural and historical analysis of 20th-century Tibetan medicine. In its expansion into the state bureaucracy, Tibetan medicine has acceded to institutional modernity through transformations in theory, practice, and methods for training physicians. Despite Chinese rule in Tibet, however, Tibetan medicine has not yielded completely to state interests. With the collapsing of the traditionally pluralistic Tibetan health system into the professional sector of Tibetan medicine, contemporary Tibetan medicine has become to the laity a font of ethnic revitalization and resistance to the modernization policies of the Chinese state. These processes are particularly evident in the elaboration of disorders of rlung, a class of sicknesses that, collectively, have come to symbolize the suffering inherent in rapid social, economic, and political change.

On the Meaning of Yoga

A biostatistical approach to ayurveda: quantifying the tridosha

Tags:

• Algorithms
• Biometry
• Complementary Therapies
• Humans
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Qi
• Regression Analysis

Notes:

• Objective: To compute quantitative estimates of the tridosha--the qualitative characterization that constitutes the core of diagnosis and treatment in Ayurveda--to provide a basis for biostatistical analysis of this ancient Indian science, which is a promising field of alternative medicine. SUBJECTS: The data sources were 280 persons from among the residents and visitors/training students at the Brahmvarchas Research Centre and Shantikuj, Hardwar, India. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY: A quantitative measure of the tridosha level (for vata, pitta, and kapha) is obtained by applying an algorithmic heuristic approach to the exhaustive list of qualitative features/factors that are commonly used by Ayurvedic doctors. A knowledge-based concept of worth coefficients and fuzzy multiattribute decision functions are used here for regression modeling. VALIDATION AND APPLICATIONS: Statistical validation on a large sample shows the accuracy of this study’s estimates with statistical confidence level above 90%. The estimates are also suited for diagnostic and prognostic applications and systematic drug-response analysis of Ayurvedic (herbal and rasayanam) medicines. An application with regard to the former is elucidated, extensions of which might also be of use in investigating the role of nadis in Ayurvedic healing vis-a-vis acupuncture and acupressure techniques. The importance and scope of this novel approach are discussed. Conclusions: This pioneering study shows that the concept of tridosha has a sound empirical basis that could be used for the scientific establishment of Ayurveda in a new light.

Samādhi in Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras

An introduction to Ayurveda

Tags:

• Humans
• Medicine, Ayurvedic

Notes:

• Ayurveda is a Sanskrit word derived from two roots: ayur, which means life, and veda, knowledge. Knowledge arranged systematically with logic becomes science. During the due course of time, Ayurveda became the science of life. It has its root in ancient vedic literature and encompasses our entire life, the body, mind, and spirit.

Āyurveda and the Hindu Philosophical Systems

Tags:

• Medicine, Ayurvedic

Chinese medicine and its modernization demands

Tags:

• Humans
• Medicine, Chinese Traditional

Notes:

• As a typical naturally derived drug, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has developed for several thousands of years and accumulated abundant human pharmacological information and experience to form an integrated theory system. However, the problems of lower product quality, substandard codes and standards, and under-enhancement of fundamental research have restricted its further development and acceptance internationally. In this review, we explain the origin and developmental history of TCM, species involved in TCM, and their distributions in biotaxy. According to the status and problems, it is concluded that TCM modernization has become necessary and urgent. Modernization of TCM means the combination of TCM with modern technology, modern academic thoughts, and modern scientific culture, in which the most important point is to elucidate the active component of TCM, especially the material foundation of compound prescriptions and their pharmacodynamic mechanisms. Technology of analytical chemistry (HPLC, HPCE, HSCCC, etc.) and molecular biology (patch clamp, gene clamp, gene chip, fluorescent probe, DNA TUNEL assay, in situ hybridization, etc.) are useful tools to realize the modernization of TCM. Based on those studies and achievements and coupled with computer technology, all TCM products will achieve digitalization and normalization. TCM modernization will provide the world with useful reference information on traditional medicines.

Ayurveda: a historical perspective and principles of the traditional healthcare system in India

Tags:

• History, Ancient
• Humans
• India
• Medicine, Ayurvedic

Notes:

• Ayurveda, the science of life, is a comprehensive medical system that has been the traditional system of healthcare in India for more than 5000 years. This medical system was well established around 2500 to 600 BC, when it evolved into 2 schools: the School of Physicians and the School of Surgeons, similar to allopathy. Charak Samhita, Susrut Samhita, and Ashtang Hridaya Samhita are the Senior Triad texts, and Madhav Nidan Samhita, Sarangdhar Samhita, and Bhavprakash Samhita are the Junior Triad texts. Around 600 BC. Ayurveda was branched into internal medicine; pediatrics; psychiatry; surgery; eye, ear, nose, and throat; toxicology; geriatrics; and eugenics/aphrodisiacs. The body is composed of 3 body doshas, 3 mental doshas, 7 dhatus, and malas. The harmony among the body doshas of vata (nervous system), pitta (enzymes), and kapha (mucus) and the gunas, or mental doshas (which are human attributes: satogun [godly], rajas [kingly], and tamas [evil]), constitutes health, and their disharmony constitutes disease. The management of illness requires balancing the doshas back into a harmonious state through lifestyle interventions, spiritual nurturing, and treatment with herbo-mineral formulas based on one’s mental and bodily constitution.

Inspiration and Expiration: Yoga Practice through Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of the Body

Notes:

• An interpretation of the yoga practice of pranayama (breath control) that is influenced by the existential phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty is offered. The approach to yoga is less concerned with comparing his thought to the classical yoga texts than with elucidating the actual experience of breath control through the constructs provided by Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of the lived body. The discussion of yoga can answer certain pedagogical goals but can never finally be severed from doing yoga. Academic discourse centered entirely on the theoretical concepts of yoga philosophies must to some extent remain incomplete. Patañjali’s “Yoga Sutra” is itself a manual of practice. For this reason, the commentary of the scholar-practitioner T. K. V. Desikachar has been chosen as the basis for this study, rather than a more exclusively theoretical commentary. In so doing, yoga will be approached as an experience or phenomenon, not just in the context of a series of academic debates.

Dhanwantari: the God of Hindu medicine

Tags:

• History, Ancient
• History, Early Modern 1451-1600
• History, Medieval
• History, Modern 1601-
• India
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Religion and Medicine

Notes:

• The original conception of Ayurveda in its entirety is essentially linked to Dhanwantari who is considered as God of Hindu Medicine. Dhanwantari is considered a mythical deity born with ambrosia in one hand and Ayurveda on the other at the end of the churning of milk ocean. He reincarnated himself in the Chandra dynasty. He was born to King Dhanwa, learnt Ayurveda from Bharadwaja. His great grandson Divodasa was also known as Dhanwantari, but was specialised only in surgical branch of Ayurveda. Sushruta, is said to have learnt the art of science of surgery from Divodasa Dhanwantara.

Health and health care--a Hindu perspective

Tags:

• Attitude to Health
• Holistic Health
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Religion and Medicine
• South Africa

Notes:

• In the Hindu tradition, ‘health’ means the continued maintenance of the best possible working of the human body under normal, and sometimes even abnormal, environmental conditions. Hindu religious teaching on healthy living and ethical considerations culminate in spiritual objectives if the injunctions contained in the system are followed. Hatha yoga is a system of bodily care that is conducive to such health, which also corrects disease via the regulation of muscular action and in other ways. Other systems of medicine, such as Ayurveda and other traditional systems in Hindu culture, have been devised for the good of humanity. It is, however, the holistic approach to health in Hinduism that calls attention to such causes of ill health as climatic extremes, bacterial attack, nutritional deviance, stress, and other forms of emotional imbalance. A state of good health is within the reach of most persons if they cultivate habits that are conducive to physical and spiritual well-being. The concept of preventive medicine is probably also based on the tenet that the attainment of good health is a religious duty, and corresponding injunctions are found in abundance in Hindu scriptures. It is not the training of students in the medical profession that is most important for health care, but rather their concern for health and their willingness to apply themselves to the observation of the rules they would wish their patients to observe.

Medical science in ancient Indian culture with special reference to Atharvaveda

Tags:

• History, Ancient
• India
• Medicine
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Science

Notes:

• A high quality of Medical Knowledge was prevalent in ancient India. The present day Archaeological evidences of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa imparts the high civilization in matters of sanitation and hygiene. An analysis of the material in the Vedas reveals that, all the four Vedas replete the references regarding various aspects of medicine. The Atharva Veda is deemed to be an encyclopaedia for medicine “Interalia”, and Ayurveda (the science of life) is considered as Upa Veda (supplementary subject) of the Atharva Veda. A few glimpses of medical Science as prevalent in the ancient India have been presented here.

Ayurvĕda gleaned through Buddhism

Tags:

• Buddhism
• History, Ancient
• Humans
• India
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Religion and Medicine

Notes:

• The Pali canon consists of three Pitakas (baskets), which replete the Buddhism and is known as Tripitaka, viz, Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma Pitakas. The original phase of Tripitaka (Buddhisim started in 544 B.C. and lastly systematized up to 29 B.C. The Buddhist literature also possesses the esoteric material of Medical Science, which is practiced and conserved in India since centuries. It refers to the fundamentals of medicine, rules of good living, which lay considerable emphasis on the hygiene of body, mind. Internal Medicine, curative medicine including symptoms, methods of diagnosis, theories of causation, materia-medica, therapeutics and treatment and skills of Jivaka. Some famous and popular prescriptions are also dealt with.

Standardization of Ayurvĕdic formulations : a scientific review

Tags:

• Drug Compounding
• Formularies as Topic
• History, Medieval
• Humans
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Plant Preparations

Notes:

• Safety and efficacy of a drug mainly depends on the method of preparation. To assess the quality of a finished product, there should be some basic standards as well as methods of preparation. There are several parameters for testing the quality of a chemical drug, which have, are true indicators. So, there is no problem in assessing a synthetic drug’s quality. As far as the preparation used in Ayurvedic system of medicine, a drug formulation or design may not be a problem, because many formulations are well documented in classical texts. But, there is confusion with respect to standards to be followed while preparing a formulation as well as basic parameters to assess the quality of the finished product. In Ayurveda, pañcavidhakasayakalpana are the basic pharmaceutical preparations, from which all the other preparations are developed. A specific method for each and every preparation and some basic standards of finished products are mentioned in Ayurvedic texts to maintain their quality. This information may some times vary from text to text. To overcome this problem Sarangdhara mentioned detailed information about various formulations with respect to their methods of preparation as well as basic standards and are documented in Sarangdhara Samhita.

The Development of Modern Yoga: A Survey of the Field

The New Face of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Ayurveda and Mental Illness

Tags:

• Medicine, Ayurvedic

Consensus of local knowledge on medicinal plants among traditional healers in Mayiladumparai block of Theni District, Tamil Nadu, India

Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine: a comparative overview

Notes:

• Ayurveda, the traditional Indian medicine (TIM) and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) remain the most ancient yet living traditions. There has been increased global interest in traditional medicine. Efforts to monitor and regulate herbal drugs and traditional medicine are underway. China has been successful in promoting its therapies with more research and science-based approach, while Ayurveda still needs more extensive scientific research and evidence base. This review gives an overview of basic principles and commonalities of TIM and TCM and discusses key determinants of success, which these great traditions need to address to compete in global markets.

The Ayurveda Education in India: How Well are the Graduates Exposed to Basic Clinical Skills?

Notes:

• Ayurveda’ is an ancient system of healthcare that is native to India. At present, in India, there are more than 240 colleges that offer a graduate-level degree (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery-BAMS) in Ayurveda. Even though the Central Council of Indian Medicine, the governing body that monitors the matters related to Ayurveda education, has imposed various educational norms and regulations, the standard of education has been a cause of concern in recent years. The mushrooming of substandard Ayurvedic colleges is the most important factor that is being held responsible for this kind of erosion in the standards. The present study is a mailed survey, which was carried out to evaluate the ‘Extent of exposure to basic clinical skills during BAMS course’ as perceived by the sample groups of students and teachers drawn from 32 Ayurvedic educational institutions spread all over India. A methodically validated questionnaire was used as the tool in the study, to which 1022 participants responded. The study indicates that there are some serious flaws in the existing system of the graduate-level Ayurveda education. Since the Ayurvedic graduates play an important role in the primary healthcare delivery system of the country, governing bodies are required to take necessary steps to ensure the adequate exposure of the students to basic clinical skills. Along with the strict implementation of all the regulatory norms during the process of recognition of the colleges, introducing some changes in the policy model may also be required to tackle the situation.

Tai chi and meditation: A conceptual (re)synthesis?

Tags:

• Chronic Disease
• Coronary Disease
• Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Holistic Health
• Humans
• Meditation
• Mind-Body Therapies
• Musculoskeletal Diseases
• Pain
• Self Efficacy
• Stress, Psychological
• Tai Ji

Qi Gong's relationship to educational kinesiology: A qualitative approach

Ayurvedic medicine in neurology

Medicine--the art of humaneness: on ethics of traditional Chinese medicine

Tags:

• Beneficence
• Confucianism
• Ethical Theory
• Ethics, Medical
• History, Medieval
• History, Modern 1601-
• Human Characteristics
• Humanism
• Intention
• Medicine, Chinese Traditional
• Moral Obligations
• Paternalism
• Religious Philosophies
• Trust
• Value of Life
• Virtues

Notes:

• This essay discusses the ethics of traditional Chinese medicine. After a brief remark on the history of traditional Chinese medical ethics, the author outlines the Confucian ethics which formed the cultural context in which traditional Chinese medicine was evolving and constituted the core of its ethics. Then he argued that how Chinese physicians applied the principles of Confucian ethics in medicine and prescribed the attitude a physician should take to himself, to patients and to his colleagues. In the last part of the essay he discusses the characteristics of traditional Chinese medical ethics.

Ayurveda for comprehensive healthcare

Tags:

• Comprehensive Health Care
• Humans
• India
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Models, Organizational

Sickness, Healing, and Religious Vocation: Alternative Choices at a Theravāda Buddhist Nunnery

Notes:

• This essay examines alternative religious vocations and choices of cures that are open to women in the Sri Lankan Buddhist context. The focus of the investigation is a Theravada Buddhist hermitage that was studied over an eleven-year period. The article presents case histories of nuns who are representative of the individuals living at the hermitage, and demonstrates how the illnesses they suffer concurrently with their ecstatic trances (interpreted as spirit possession) receive meaning and can be cured within the framework of Buddhist asceticism in Sri Lanka.

Exploring the prevalence of Ayurveda use among Asian Indians

Tags:

• Adult
• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Asian Continental Ancestry Group
• Attitude to Health
• California
• Cultural Characteristics
• Female
• Health Behavior
• Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Herbal Medicine
• Humans
• India
• Male
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Middle Aged
• Phytotherapy
• Questionnaires

Notes:

• Objective: Despite a growing body of literature on complementary and alternative medicine, there is still limited information on the use of Ayurveda in the United States. Because Ayurveda is one of the world’s major traditional medical systems, knowledge of its use is important. In particular, information on utilization by Asian Indians living in the United States is needed due to increased immigration from India and related regions. Recent reports of heavy metal contamination of some imported Ayurveda products underscore this need. For this reason, an exploratory survey was conducted. Design: A semistructured 21-item questionnaire was administered using face-to-face interviews. PARTICIPANTS AND Setting: The study comprised a convenience sample of 64 Asian Indians living in Northern California. Outcome measures: Main outcome measures included sociodemographic variables, questions on awareness, knowledge and use of Ayurvedic products or services, use of other nutritional/herbal products, and reasons for use. Results: In the sample, 95% of the participants were aware of Ayurveda, 78% had knowledge of Ayurvedic products or treatments, and about 59% had used or were currently using Ayurveda. Only 18% of those using Ayurveda had informed their Western medical doctors. Conclusions: Given its common use in the United States by Asian Indians, its cultural relevance, potential therapeutic value, and possible safety concerns, physician and consumer education along with more empirical research is warranted.

Remodeling the Arsenal of Chinese Medicine: Shared Pasts, Alternative Futures

Notes:

• The discourse on alternative medicine assumes that medical practices exist as distinctive medical systems that compete with each other in plural health care systems. Anthropological and historical research clearly demonstrates, however, that this is not so. Many so-called traditional medicines are revealed as inventions of distinctly modern regimes of knowledge and institutional practice, while the political needs of healers and the epistemological desires of researchers converge in the construction of distinctive medical practices for description, classification, and comparison. This article draws on genealogy as a possible way out of this impasse. It shows how different generations of physicians of Chinese medicine employed the same four core concepts to reflect on their practice, imbuing them with ever new meanings to relate them to the changing demands of clinical and political practice. Examining these core concepts reveals something about the essence of Chinese medicine without reducing our analysis to a misguided search for cultural essences.

The Origin of Chinese Folk Medicine

Qigong: where did it come from? Where does it fit in science? What are the advances?

Tags:

• Attitude to Health
• Breathing Exercises
• China
• Evidence-Based Medicine
• Humans
• Mind-Body Relations (Metaphysics)
• Qi
• Research Design
• Tai Ji
• United States

The bias against India in western literature on history of medicine: with special emphasis on public health

Tags:

• Historiography
• History, 19th Century
• History, 20th Century
• History, 21st Century
• History, Modern 1601-
• India
• Public health
• Publication Bias
• Western World

Notes:

• The article describes a systematic bias against India in Western literature on history of medicine. While many authors have ignored the contributions of India in development of medicine altogether, the others have relegated India’s role much behind other civilizations. Unnecessary and deliberate controversies on dating and origin of Ayurveda, primacy of Greek vs. Hindu Medicine and the origin of the practice of variolation have been elaborated by Western authors. Some medical historians, like Siegrist, have tried to give India its due place in the history of medicine. Suitable references of Indian authors have also been quoted to give a comparative and balanced picture. The need for settling this controversy has been emphasized.

Introduction to Garudapurăna with reference to Ayurvĕda

Tags:

• Encyclopedias as Topic
• History, Ancient
• India
• Medicine, Ayurvedic

Notes:

• The Puranas are the encyclopedic works of the ancient and medieval Hindu religion, philosophy, history, politics, ethics, sciences etc. There are 18 (Astadasa) puranas, which are, considered as mahapuranas, among which Garudapurana is popular one. The Garudapurana is divided into two parts viz., Purvakhanda and Uttarakhanda. The first part, which is also called Acarakhanda consists of 240 chapters. The greater part of the Purvakhanda occupies the descriptions of Vratas (religious observances), sacred places dedicated to the Surya (sun), Lord Siva and Lord Visnu. It also contains treatises on various aspects like astrology, palmistry, politics, Sankhya, Yoga, anatomy, precious stones and extensive information on vedic medicine i.e., Ayurveda. The Uttarakhanda consists of two khandas viz. Dharmakhanda and Brahmakhanda, which are divided into 42 and 29 chapters, respectively. The Dharmakhanda is also known as the Pretakalpa which contains directions for the performance of obsequies rites. The Pretakalpa portion of the Garudapurana is generally recited during the period of mourning and so its importance is self-evident. It is almost impossible to narrate within such a small framework, the wide range of splendid truths scattered in the pages of this noble puranam. Little information is available from internal evidence to establish its exact period. However, it is supposed to be quite ancient in its origin.

Basic principles of pharmaceutical science in Ayurvĕda

Tags:

• Formularies as Topic
• History, Ancient
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Pharmacy
• Plant Preparations
• Plants, Medicinal

Notes:

• Pharmaceutical is one of the allied branches of science, which is closely associated with Medical science. Today pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmacognosy are playing important role in treatment for a disease and its prevention. Herbal medicines are being used by about 80% of the world population mostly in the developing countries in the primary health care. There has been an upsurge in demand for the Phyto-pharmaceutical products of Ayurveda in western nations, because of the fact that the synthetic drugs are considered to be unsafe. Due to this many national and multinational pharmaceutical companies are now concentrating on manufacturing of Ayurvedic Phyto-pharmaceutical products. Ayurveda is the Indian traditional system of medicine, which also deals about pharmaceutical science. The Ayurvedic knowledge of the pharmaceutical science is scattered in Ayurvedic classical texts. Saranghadhara Samhita, which is written by Saranghadhara, explain systematically about the information of the Ayurvedic pharmaceutical science and also updated it. Industrialized manufacturing of Ayurvedic dosage forms has brought in new challenges like deviation from basic concepts of medicine preparation. Saranghadhara Samrhita the devout text on pharmaceutics in Ayurveda comes handy to solve such problems, as the methods described are very lucid and easy to follow.

Pharmacovigilance of ayurvedic medicines in India

Tags:

• Medicine, Ayurvedic

Identity, ideology and medicine: health attitudes and behavior among Hindu religious renunciates

Tags:

• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Attitude to Health
• Humans
• India
• Male
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Philosophy
• Religion and Medicine
• Social Identification

Notes:

• In-depth interviews and participant observation was conducted with 14 Hindu religious renunciates, 70 years or older. Despite having taken vows renouncing concern for physical pain or comfort, respondents differed markedly in their attitudes toward pain and their rationale for utilizing medical treatment. They differed still further in their use of Ayurvedic and allopathic medicine, with the most culturally conservative accepting only Ayurvedic medicine. Rejection of allopathic medicine tended to be associated with a highly systematized religious world-view. The results are discussed in terms of both the ideological conflict between religious world-view and medical usage, and the need for sophisticated distinction of religious world-view if research on the religious factor of health care utilization is to prove fruitful.

Molecular approach to ayurveda

Tags:

• Alzheimer Disease
• Arteriosclerosis
• Free Radicals
• Humans
• Medicine, Ayurvedic
• Models, Biological
• Molecular Biology

Notes:

• In ayurvedic system of medicine, it is considered that a living system is made of panch-mahabuta, in the form of Vata, pitta and kapha at the physical level and satwa, raja and tama at the mental level. This covers the psychosomatic constitution and commonly known as the Tridosh theory. The imbalance in these body humours is the basic cause of any type of disease manifestation. Till date, several objective parameters have been proposed to monitor the level of these basic humours but none of them is complete. In this exercise, now it is proposed to consider free radical theory of diseases as one of the objective parameters. To be more specific, vata can be monitored in terms of membrane bound signal transduction, pitta as the process of phosphorylation and de-phosphorylation of different proteins (signalling moieties and enzymes) and kapha can be viewed as the degree of gene expression as protein synthesis. This can be correlated with the ojas of the body or total body defence mechanism.

ABC of Complementary Medicine: Acupuncture

Yoga and Freedom: A Reconsideration of Patañjali's Classical Yoga

Notes:

• Rather than follow along the lines of many scholarly interpretations of Patañjali’s “Yoga-Sutra,” which views Yoga as a radical separation or isolation of “spirit” or pure consciousness (purusa) from “matter” (prakrti), this essay suggests that the “Yoga-Sutra” seeks to “unite” or integrate these two principles by correcting a basic misalignment between them. Yoga thus does not advocate the abandonment or condemnation of the world, but supports a stance that enables one to live more fully in the world without being enslaved by worldly identification.

An Introduction to Yoga

Non-Western Medical Systems

Body, Discourse, and the Cultural Politics of Contemporary Chinese Qigong

Does It Take a Miracle? Negotiating Knowledges, Identities, and Communities of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Medicine Is a Humane Art The Basic Principles of Professional Ethics in Chinese Medicine

Notes:

• The value system of medical ethics in China has a long tradition that can be traced back to ancient times. Those values are reflected in the (Confucian) precept that “medicine is a humane art.” That is, medicine is not only a means to save people’s lives, but also a moral commitment to love people and free them from suffering through personal caring and medical treatment. Although this precept has been well accepted as the basic principle of professional ethics as general principle that emphasizes doctors’ self-accomplishment and self-restraint, there has never been a universally accepted professional code and binding principles in Chinese medicine comparable to the Hippocratic Oath in western medicine.

Religious Healing in the Veda

The Science of Respiration and the Doctrine of the Bodily Winds in Ancient India

Tags:

• Medicine, Ayurvedic

Notes:

• The following historical and philological study traces the science of respiration and the doctrine of the bodily winds through ancient Indian religious and technical literature. Basic notions about respiration and bodily winds appear in the literature of the vedic samhitas and brahmanas. By the end of the principal upanisads these early ideas begin to be codified into two separate systems. One, emphasizing a physiology of bodily winds, reaches its traditional formulation in the classical medical literature of Ayurveda, the other, focusing on respiration, attains its classical formulation in Yoga. The two unite later, when Yoga integrates medical theory into its science of respiration. Asceticism is the common thread connecting the various stages in the development of respiration and bodily winds.

The Evolution of Anatomical Knowledge in Ancient India, with Special Reference to Cross-Cultural Influences

Notes:

• Ludwig Edelstein’s study of the history of Greek anatomy will be used as a model to examine the evolution of anatomical knowledge in ancient India. The earliest evidence of Indian anatomy is found in the Vedic literature, dating from 1500 B. C. to 200 B. C. It provides a clear picture of the acquisition of anatomical knowledge by means of the sacrifice of animals, principally the horse, and of men; chance observations contributed a comparatively small amount to the body of anatomical knowledge. As a result of these sacrificial rites quite accurate lists of bodily structures of the horse and of man have been recorded and transmitted by means of the traditional religious texts. These catalogues remained the principal sources of anatomy until the first centuries of the Christian era, when we find a codification of Indian medical knowledge in the surgical text, Susruta Saṃhitā. Isolated in a chapter on anatomy, a new approach to the study of the bodily parts is recommended: in order to acquire the most complete understanding of the human body the author prescribes that first-hand observation of the parts should be combined with textual learning and proceeds to detail the correct method to dissect a cadaver. This precept, reflecting a characteristically non-Indian attitude, may well have had its origin in the Alexandrian school of medicine, in particular in the teachings of Herophilus in the first half of the third century B. C. The instruction which added a wholly new dimension to Indian anatomical thought could have been transmitted to India around the time of Alexander. As in the Hellenistic world, scientific dissection was not readily accepted by the Indian medical community and its practice quickly vanished. During the short time it was known and performed in India, some advances seem to have been made in the understanding of the inner parts of the human body, increasing the store-house of anatomical knowledge already possessed by the Indian physicians. A similar technique of dissection is detailed in the twelfth century Salernitan anatomical text, Anatomia magistri Nicolai phisici. This remarkable occurrence poses questions, the answers to which cannot be definitely given until more evidence becomes available. The paper concludes with a critical translation of chapter five on the “enumeration and distinction of the bodily parts” in the book of anatomy of the Susruta Samhita.