Allopathy and Ayurveda

1. Allopathy and Ayurveda
It has been noted that Allopathy relies on human synthesized chemicals to ease a patient from disease; these chemicals are seen to have harmful side effects that are sometimes so severe that one needs additional medications to address them. Ayurveda however, relies heavily on herbs available in abundance in nature; it is preventive in nature and can be slow if the disease has reached advanced stages while having little to no side effects. Healthcare cost can be a very important factor prompting one to invest in preventive medical systems as it can become prohibitively expensive as one's health deteriorates.

2. When seen in the context of Sama, Dana, Bheda, and Danda[1] principles, Allopathy and Ayurveda can be seen as complementing each other: depending on the severity of one's condition, one's patience, and priorities, one can start off with Ayurvedic treatment and progressively incorporate Allopathy medications, if necessary, based on how the disease responds. If one is already on Allopathy medications, one could adopt authentic Ayurvedic medications and treatment to obtain relief from side effects. It is highly likely that similar thinking might be applicable to farming in the context of fertilizers and chemical free farming. It is important to note that Ayurveda adopts a holistic approach of treatment encompassing a healthy daily regimen (dinacharya), diet, and exercise (Yoga practices), in addition to treatment or medication based on one's physical and mental constitution; in Ayurveda, one's constitution is considered to be one or more of vata, pitta, and kapha, which can be seen as a more holistic way (body and mind) to characterize an individual type from a higher level of abstraction, correlating closely with the five elements (earth, water, fire, air, and ether), than from testing one's blood, urine, and stool samples, etc. Having identified one's constitution through means such as pulse diagnosis, Ayurveda has a higher likelihood of preventing the onset of a disease by treating the cause than the symptoms.

3. That said, efforts being made to revive the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda and restore it's well deserved glory by removing the 'quackery' label are highly commendable. 1. Wisdom and Information