Lifestyle, Body type and Seasons, What are their connection?

The Science of Imbalances!

 

‘Science of life’ is explained very well in Ayurveda. It’s very fascinating to know about this science, which deals with the way of life and life style. It’s main aim is to lead a healthy and happy life. It believes in maintenance of health and prevention of diseases. Thus maintaining harmony in the health and environment, and achieving overall well-being of an individual is the overall objective of this ancient science.

All of us know that any variation in the food or place or life style from our routine, we often feel a difference in our health like say, a mild stomach discomfort or change in bowel movement or sore throat etc. We have also observed that we come over the disturbances that tend to happen by simple life style changes or adoption of specific food and regimens. The remedy is often within nature that can influence the body composition a bit for chemical changes within. We just need to be present to these or be aware of basics of our body.

In the science of Ayurveda, all these changes are keenly observed and according to the variation of environment, changes or adoption of our life style advises are given

All of us know that the season changes all-round the year. We wear warm clothes in winter and thin cotton clothes in summer, or carry an umbrella in rainy season. Why we do all these, is to protect us from the effect of environment on our health.  Similarly, body also adopts itself to seasons based on the changes.

The narration of 6 seasons (ritus) comprising of 2 months each is mentioned in books by the ancient scholars.  This is broadly categorized into 2 Ayanas depending on the direction of movement of sun ie.. Uttarayana (northern solstice) and Dakshinayana (southern solstice). Each comprised of three Ritus (seasons). A year consists of six seasons, namely, Shishira (winter), Vasanta (spring), and Grishma (summer) in Uttarayan and Varsha (monsoon), Sharata (autumn), and Hemanta (late autumn) in Dakshinayana.

Apart from the seasonal variation, a day variates based on the dosha predominance. Vata, pitta and kapha, which are known as building blocks of our body. These are functional entities with specific function. Doshas are not physical entities, they are only functional unit. We can tell, Doshas in its normal state have no disease, when these become vitiate, they tend to causes disease in the body. Authoritative Ayurvedic treatises describe how the quantity and quality of these three substances fluctuate in the body according to the seasons, time of day, diet, and several other factors. Everything we eat, do, think and behave can affect the doshas and the dhatus (the seven fundamental elements/principles that support the basic structure and functioning of the body) in our bodies. They determine conditions of growth, aging, health and disease. So to balance health and maintain equilibrium of doshas we need to adopt or change our life style and food regimens accordingly.

When we deeply understand these fundamentals, we realize, a lot of modern science principles too are based on these principles at different levels. Imagine, when we combine the strengths of these ancient wisdom with modern science in diagnosing a disease from various dimension - symptom, nature (prakriti) and environment, the precision that we could arrive at with which we can treat a patient can be a big breakthrough. This is what is missing today! This is achieved through ‘Integrative medicine’ as an approach. The approach of diagnosing and treating a disease becomes more personal, specific and more holistic.

-by Dr. Vatsala BAMS, MD, Principle Consultant Ayurveda, WELLBEEING Integrated Health Centre, Bangalore