Page 46 - NAMAH-Oct-2018

Namah Vol. 26, Issue 3, 15th October 2018

of the body. Minor imbalances of kapha are There is a difference between imbalance of
common in this area like the common cold, the body elements and manifest disease.
1
which are not very threatening disorders. Imbalance of the dosha, dhaaatu and malas 2
However, severe imbalance of kapha in this constitute the basis for all diseases. One
region can be life-threatening. disease differs from another only in terms
of the nature of the imbalance. Therefore,
If vaata increases in the upper region of the in Āyurveda, the focus is on understanding
body, it can cause severely debilitating the imbalance rather than the manifestation
degenerative diseases affecting the nervous, of the disease. That is why Āyurveda has
pulmonary or cardiovascular systems. Pitta defined disease as dhātuvaishamya . Imbalance
3
imbalance in upper region can also lead is the cause and disease is the effect. Health
to severe and debilitating inflammatory can be established only by correcting the
conditions.Minor and frequent imbalances underlying imbalance of the doshas, dhaatus
of pitta are more common in the middle part of and malas. That is why in Āyurveda we
the body like hyperacidity, which can also can get results even without targeting the
become severe and problematic if persistent in disease. Imbalance of body elements can
the long run. Minor and frequent imbalances exist even without disease. But disease
of vaata are more common in the lower part cannot manifest without an underlying
of the body like muscle cramps. In spite of imbalance. The goal of Āyurveda is to
the fact that there are exceptions to these prevent an imbalance from translating
general observations, the mapping of the itself into disease. In modern medicine,
doshic dominance in the upper, middle and a disease is diagnosed only when the
lower regions of the human body provides imbalance has been translated into a
a preliminary framework for understanding manifest pathology that can be detected
patterns of disease manifestations. by objective diagnostic methods.

1 Literally the supports of the body, representing the seven elements of the body that constitute the
structural components of the body — plasma, blood, muscle, fat, bone, marrow and reproductive
tissue.
2 The gross and subtle waste-products of the body.
3 Imbalance of the body elements.

Dr. P. Ram Manohar is Director of Research, at the Amrita Centre for Advanced
Research in Ayurveda, Kollam, Kerala.

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