Ayurvedic medicine

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Ayurvedic medicine is a form of alternative medicine that descends from ancient medical techniques of Hindu society in Ancient India. It is based on the idea that the body has three elements, and that disease is the result of elemental imbalance.[1] Like any health system, proponents of the practice of Ayurvedic medicine endeavor to cure almost anything, in this case by getting your bodily systems in line with one another and with the elements of the Earth. This is achieved by many treatments including yoga, herbal remedies, pastes made by herbs and oils, or Panchakarma, which is described as a 5-step program for therapeutic cleansing and which at rare times uses bloodletting.[2]

Contents

[edit] Treatments

[edit] Panchakarma

Panchakarma is an Ayurvedic treatment which supposedly clears the body of toxins and balances the body's "energy" (whatever that means). It's recommended to be done every year as a "tune up".[3] It consists of five parts: Vomiting, purging, enema, herbal inhalation therapy, and bloodletting, as well as a "pre-treatment" consisting of oil massage and essential oil ingestion.[3][4] The vomiting is used to balance the body's Kapha, the purging is for clearing the body of toxins, the enema is used for various things, the herbal inhalation balances the body's Prana, and the bloodletting "purifies" the blood and clears it of toxins (again).

[edit] Bloodletting

Bloodletting is used for excessive drowsiness, baldness, urticaria, rash, eczema, acne, scabies, leucoderma, chronic itching and hives, enlarged liver, spleen, gout, tumors, and genital infections.[5][6][7]

[edit] Vomiting

Vomiting is supposedly good for "cough, cold, symptoms of asthma, fever, nausea, loss of appetite, anemia, poisoning, skin diseases, diabetes, lymphatic obstruction, chronic indigestion, edema (swelling), epilepsy (between attacks), chronic sinus problems, and for repeated attacks of tonsillitis."[3]

[edit] Leeching

In Ayurvedic medicine leeching is thought to be good for baldness.[8] According to one pro-Ayurveda source, "Ayurvedic medicine has had an obsession with these creatures for centuries."[9]

[edit] Heavy metals/Rasa shastra

Rasa shastra is an ancient body of medical folklore in Ayurvedic medicine. It holds that it will do you good to eat mercury, lead, and arsenic, but only if they've been purified by baking them in burning cow shit. Not recommended.

In Ayurvedic medicine, arsenic,[10] lead and mercury are thought to be effective remedies. Accordingly, about 20% of Ayurvedic herbs sold on the Internet (by both Indian and American companies) contain dangerous amounts of substances such as lead, arsenic, and mercury.[11] In one study, researchers bought imported Ayurvedic herbal remedies from several stores in the Boston area, and 20% of those products also contained dangerous levels of the same heavy metals.[12] In one study, about 20% of Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese remedies sold in the Netherlands also contained dangerous amounts of heavy metals.[13] However, not all of this is due to rasa shastra; some of the heavy metal content is likely due only to unintentional contamination.

Ayurvedic practitioners opposed a global ban on mercury trading on the grounds that the mineral is a very important component of Ayurveda; some went as far as to say that Ayurveda "may collapse" if the ban goes through.[14]

[edit] Herbal medicine

Ayurvedic medicine promotes the use of unproven and sometimes toxic plants (such as birthwort, betelnuts, and madder root).[15][16][17]

[edit] External links

[edit] Skeptical

[edit] General

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Quite like humorism, really, and both consider cupping a splendid idea, but at least Ayurvedic medicine is not quite as fond of bloodletting.
  2. Ayurvedic Medicine: Cancer Natural Ayurvedic Cure
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Ayurveda - Panchakarma, holistic-online.com.
  4. Panchakarma, Chopra Center.
  5. Bloodletting - An Ayurvedic perspective
  6. Raktamokshana(Siraveda & Jalokacharana), Ayurveda Health Clinic.
  7. Bloodletting therapy helps to remove toxins, Allayurveda.com.
  8. Ayurveda for Alopecia, AltMD.
  9. Ayurvedic Detox: Leeches Help You Live Longer, Reenita's wisdom.
  10. http://www.academia.edu/1439765/Arsenical_Compounds_in_Ayurveda_Medicine-_A_Prospective_analysis]
  11. Study finds toxins in some herbal medicines, Liz Szabo, USAToday.
  12. Heavy metal content of ayurvedic herbal medicine products, Saper RB, Kales SN, Paquin J, Burns MJ, Eisenberg DM, Davis RB, Phillips RS, JAMA. 2004 Dec 15;292(23):2868-73.
  13. Monitoring of mercury, arsenic, and lead in traditional Asian herbal preparations on the Dutch market and estimation of associated risks, Food Addit Contam Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess. 2010 Feb;27(2):190-205. doi: 10.1080/02652030903207235, Martena MJ, Van Der Wielen JC, Rietjens IM, Klerx WN, De Groot HN, Konings EJ..
  14. Mercury Ban may Hit Ayurveda
  15. [1]
  16. [2]
  17. Manjishta - Uses & Benefits of Manjishta, Rubia Tinctorum, ILoveIndia.com.
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