Dhatus also have three states – sama (Balanced state), vrddhi and ksaya (same as doshas). Aggravated doshas weaken dhatus, so in the disease process dhatu ksaya signs are addressed. Only in few diseases vrddhi signs are mentioned.
The entire body is composed of uncountable channels called srotas. These are the spaces that carry and transform materials.
There are 13 subtypes of srotas. Three input srotas – anna (food), udaka (water) and prāṇa (breath/air), seven srotas for seven dhātus, three srotas for three malas. ‘Vaha’ is indicative of a carrier flow. Hence, Prāṇavaha is the carrier of ‘breath’/ ‘prāṇa’ and so on.
Dairy is most beneficial when it is raw, from animals that are treated kindly, are fed with fodder free from pesticides, insecticides, and receive no steroid injections or rBGH (bovine growth hormone) in their foods.
The Universe is made up of energy and matter. The doshas represent energy and the dhātus represent matter. Dhātus are made up of mahābhūtas which are created from tanmātras. Tanmātras are the different vibrations of universal, cosmic energy. The doshas and dhātus are close friends, who cannot live or function without each other. The doshas work through the dhātus.
We need a certain amount of sweet taste to maintain tissue development. This is because the basic taste of our body is sweet. White sugars are refined, which means they have been stripped of their nutrition. Thus, as they are absorbed into the body, it takes nutrition and energy from the body to digest the sugars. Absorption may not take place, turning the refined sweet to become āma in the tissues. Raw sweets i.e. cane sugar, maple syrup, etc. contain nutrition needed for helping the body. Sugars relieve burning, thirst, vomiting, fainting, and bleeding diseases.
Dosha aggravation by itself doesn’t develop into a disease. Doshas must find weak dhātus to lodge into. Six stages of disease manifestation are described in Ayurveda. These stages are called Ṣaḍ Kriyā Kāla (Ṣaḍ -six, Kriyā – action/treatment, Kāla – stage).
All efforts to counter the pain or derangement of health are cikitsā. It obstructs the progress of a disease condition from further advancing to a more complicated stage and brings back the normal state. The following points, which also form the synonyms of cikitsā, are the key methods of treatment.
In Ayurveda the most common term used to denote disease is roga. The term roga is derived from the root ‘ruk’ meaning pain. Even the diseases that do not produce physical pain inflict some mental agony in the person. Hence the name ROGA is meaningful. The disease is caused by deranged doshas.
When the agni (digestive fire) becomes very weak, causing sluggish digestion, it is called Agnimāndya.
The energy responsible for this discrimination and transformation is called agni. Each food you eat needs to be transformed into the units that body can utilize to build new tissues.
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Dosha Ayurveda
