New Age Health

[Prima]

Ayurveda

Ayurveda is an approach to medicine that began in India approximately 5000 years ago. It is holistic, intent on treating the entire body instead of one particular disease or ailment. It is used by 70-80% of India's population. Although it originated in India and is a Hindu practice, it has become especially popular in the New Age Movement. Here are the basics of Ayurveda.

There are five basic elements in nature and our bodies:
Space - akash
Air - vayu
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Fire - agni
Water - jala
Earth - prithvi
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A healthy person has a balance of these elements. However, when ones body has an imbalance of these forces, sickness of some kind occurs.

In the human body, these elements are represented slightly differently.

Vata - composed of air and space, and controls all movement functions, such as respiration, circulation, and thought. Creativity, flexibility, fear, anxiety.
Pitta - composed of fire and water, and responsible for metabolism on both a physical and mental level - the hunger for life or food, for example. Courage, ambition, anger, pride.
Kapha - composed of water and earth, and holds everything together, providing the structure of the body. Love, devotion, greed, jealousy.

Everyone has a different combination of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Your unique mixture of these forces is called your prakriti.

Other elements:

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[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Dhatus
These are the basic tissues which maintain and nourish the body. There are seven dhatus—plasma, blood, muscle, fat, bone, marrow and reproductive fluid. The quality and quantity of each dhatu and its balanced functioning is very important for good health.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Mala
These are the waste materials produced as a result of various metabolic activities in the body. The main mala are urine, feces and sweat. Proper elimination of mala is equally important for good health. Accumulation of mala causes blockages in the body, resulting in diseases.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Srota
These are channels, which are responsible for transportation of food, dhatus, malas and doshas. Proper functioning of srota is necessary for transporting different materials. Blockage of srota causes many disorders.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Agni
'Agni' means fire. According to Ayurveda, there are 13 types of agni in the body, which carry out different metabolic activities. This may be compared to different types of enzymes responsible for digestion and metabolic activity in our body.

www.ayurvedic.org [/font]

Ayurveda focuses on an understanding of the self:
Sharira: body.
Indriya: senses. There are ten main senses, cognitive and working. The cognitive senses deal with thought and knowledge: taste, smell, sight, hearing, and touch. The working senses deal with action: feet, hands, voice, genitals, and anus. The working senses should cooperate with the cognitive senses, taking knowledge and acting on it. Manas: mind. The mind is almost an eleventh sense, but one that helps all of the senses work together well.
Atma: soul. The only concious part of us, and the body is a material representation of such. The mind is a bridge between the soul and the environment. See http://www.ayurvedic.org/ayubasics/atma_soul.asp?nm=Deeper Ayurveda&nm2=Atma: Soul
Purusha: ideal human. The concept of the perfectly healthy person, which ayurveda strives for.
Ayus: life. More than simply 'being alive' it is the healthfullness of the body, mind, senses, and soul. See http://www.ayurvedic.org/ayubasics/ayuslife.asp?nm=Deeper Ayurveda&nm2=Ayus: Life


Ayurveda focuses on natural treatment, especially the use of herbs. A guide to basic ayurvedic herbs: http://www.ayurvedic.org/ayubasics/commonherbs.asp?nm=Common Herbs

Ayurveda, having its roots in India, uses terms that are not English (they are often Sanskrit) A glossary: http://www.ayurvedic.org/ayubasics/ayurbasics_glossary.asp?nm=Ayurvedic Dictionary

Ayurveda also focuses on self-healing - that is, being concious of your body's health needs and seeking to fulfill them. It is proactive - take care of your body to keep disease and sickness away! It focuses also on how your physical body and your emotions interact, and encourages a healthy lifestyle. Yoga, healthy eating, exercise, and hygeine are all important.


Sources:
www.ayurvedic.org
www.wikipedia.org
www.ayurvedic.com
www.everydayayurveda.org
www.encyclopediabritannica.com


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[michel]

Thanks for that Prima, very informative. I'm always open to looking at any 'new age' methodology (even though, in truth the 'new' bit is often just a resurection of something much older).

Holism though is , to me, without doubt the right attitude; merely dealing with individual symptoms is just 'patch up jobs'.

 

[Prima]

Iridology

Probably the most critisized of New Age medicinal practices. The basic concept of iridology is that certain parts of the iris (part of the eye - the part which has pigment and makes someone 'blue-eyed' or 'brown-eyed' etc) correspond to parts of the body. Thus, by observing the iris, a practitioner can tell what parts of the patient's body are in poor health or need medical attention. Dr Lisa Niebergall says that iridology can show:

[font=Arial, Helvetica]Toxins and their locations[/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica]
Stages of Inflammation
[/font][font=Arial, Helvetica]Inherent Weakness or Strength
[/font][font=Arial, Helvetica]General Health level[/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica]
Biochemical Deficiencies [/font]

Iridology as a concept is generally thought to have originated at the time of the Ancient Greeks. The first specific text discussing it was published around 1665, written by Philippus Meyeus. It began to gain modern popularity when Ignatz von Peczely of Hungary became interested and began studying the concept. Myth says that von Peczely saw similar dark streaks in the iris in both an owl with a broken leg and a man with a broken leg. Many variations on this story exist. Pastor Felke of Germany and Nils Liljequist of Sweden also contributed significantly to the field. In the 1950's, iridology became more popular in the United States thanks to the work of Bernard Jensen, P. Johannes Thiel, Edward Lane, and J Haskell Kritzer.

The base idea of iridology is that the iris is a reliable source of informatoin because of the thousands of nerves that converge on the eye. Colors, patterns, and unusual formations are used to indicate health concerns. Iridologists often use charts of an iris that define areas corresponding to areas of the body, and then overlay these onto the view of a patient's eye. The standard charts are those of Bernard Jensen. An iridology chart by Jensen: http://www.healingfeats.com/eyechart.jpg One practitioner's charts: http://www.iaw.on.ca/~warriner/chart2.GIF

Criticism of Iridology:

- lack of conclusive studies. Many iridology studies failed to show that iridology is a reliable method of diagnosis or health tool.
- development. Iridology was mostly developed in an area of Europe that had primarily blue-eyed people, which some critics say causes a bias.
- failure of practitioners to come to a concensus. In studies and by comparing charts and methods, iridologists often come to completely contradictory conclusions.
- arbitrary development. Jensen's charts and methods, which are considered the standard, were developed only by him with little to no outside references.
- lack of cooperation among iridologists. Most iridologists follow their own methods, even though they may attend the same school.

"Iridology is Nonsense" - http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/iridology.html



Sources
www.encyclopediabritannica.com
www.medicomm.net
www.wikipedia.org
www.healingfeats.com
cnri.edu
www.infoplease.com
www.bernardjensen.org
www.skepdic.com
altmed.creighton.edu

 

[EnhancedSpirit]

Yes, I've read about this. Even printed an eye chart. But without s lot of other eyes to compare to, I don't really understand what I am looking at.

I do know that people I know who have been in different states of health, it definitely shows in the eyes.

 

[magoism]

I am attaching a file how our body looks like. as you can see in this image water energy should go up and fire energy should go down. However when we're angry, fire energy goes up, and gives lot of pressure in our brain, and water energy goes down to have stomach, and liver problems....and when energy is upside down, you cannot fall asleep very well. In this case, medicine cannot help, all you have to do is meditate regularly for having fire energy goes down water energy to go up

 

[michel]

Yes, I've read about this. Even printed an eye chart. But without s lot of other eyes to compare to, I don't really understand what I am looking at.

I do know that people I know who have been in different states of health, it definitely shows in the eyes.

Exactly what I have found;

E.G -..........."Interestingly, there are two eye conditions that can alert a doctor that a patient may have cholesterol problems. The first is called arcus senilis, which refers to a thin, white line circling the edge of the cornea. The whiteness of the line is due to the deposition of cholesterol and fat in the eye. While the condition is most often seen in older people, if it is seen in a younger patient, blood tests for elevated cholesterol levels must be performed as soon as possible."........................

Excerpt from :- http://health.ivillage.com/eye/0,,6g68,00.html