Dosha & Constitution
Using both: how to combine Ayurveda with conventional care
Most people who use Ayurveda also use conventional medicine. Doing both well requires a few specific habits and a clear sense of what each is for.
Dr. Anjali Deshmukh
21 articles by Deshmukh
Daily Routine
Children: traditional practices and what to be careful about
Ayurveda has a branch dealing with children, and several traditional practices for infants carry documented risks that are worth knowing precisely.
Evidence Watch
Choosing a practitioner: what to look for and what to ask
Regulation of Ayurvedic practice varies enormously between countries, and in many places anyone may use the title. Here is how to assess someone.
Dosha & Constitution
Mind in the classical framework, and mental health care now
Ayurveda has a developed account of mental states and a category of treatment addressing them. Where that sits relative to contemporary mental health care needs stating carefully.
Daily Routine
Pregnancy and postnatal traditions: what is helpful and what is not
Ayurveda has detailed prescriptions for pregnancy and the postnatal period. Some are sensible, some conflict with obstetric guidance, and several specific practices carry real risk.
Yoga & Breath
Conduct as part of the regimen: the ethical prescriptions
Both classical Ayurveda and the yogic system include behavioural and ethical prescriptions as part of health practice, which is a framing modern health advice has largely lost.
Yoga & Breath
Practice in later life: what actually helps
Classical texts treat older age as requiring specific adjustment. Contemporary evidence about what preserves function with age points in a particular and consistent direction.
Dosha & Constitution
Dhatus and srotas: the tissue and channel model
Beyond the doshas, classical physiology describes seven tissues formed in sequence and a system of channels through which everything moves. It is worth knowing what the model claims.
Dosha & Constitution
Can constitution change? What the tradition says and what follows
The classical position is that prakriti is fixed for life, which has consequences for how the framework should be used and for how popular material misuses it.
Daily Routine
Vyayama: the classical exercise instruction and where it stands now
Ayurvedic texts give a specific instruction about how hard to exercise, based on observable signs. It is more conservative than current guidance, and the reasoning is worth understanding.
Daily Routine
Eye practices in classical routine, and what is actually good for eyes
The daily routine includes several practices directed at the eyes. Some are harmless, one requires real caution, and the interventions with the best evidence are elsewhere.
Dosha & Constitution
A kapha disturbance, and the conditions behind it
Heaviness, congestion, sluggishness and low motivation are described classically as kapha aggravation. The response is activating, and several serious conditions present the same way.
Dosha & Constitution
A pitta disturbance, and the conditions it overlaps with
Heat, acidity, inflammation and irritability are described classically as pitta aggravation. The management is reasonable and several of the overlapping medical conditions need identifying.
Dosha & Constitution
A vata disturbance, and what the classical response involves
Dry skin, irregular digestion, disturbed sleep and restlessness are described in classical terms as vata aggravation. Here is what the framework prescribes and what modern medicine would ask.
Dosha & Constitution
The dosha clock: times of day, stages of life, and how much to make of it
Classical Ayurveda assigns dosha predominance to periods of the day, seasons and stages of life. Some of the resulting advice lines up with circadian science and some does not.
Daily Routine
Abhyanga and panchakarma: what these procedures involve
Ayurvedic therapies range from a gentle oil massage anyone can do at home to medical procedures that require supervision and are not appropriate for everyone.
Dosha & Constitution
Vikriti: reading the current state rather than the type
The distinction between what you are and how you are is central to classical practice and almost entirely absent from the popular version.
Yoga & Breath
Asana in Ayurveda is not the same thing as a yoga class
The physical postures most people associate with yoga occupy a smaller place in classical texts than in modern practice, and the way Ayurveda uses them has a different emphasis.
Dosha & Constitution
The three doshas, described as the texts describe them
Vata, pitta and kapha are functional categories in classical physiology. Understanding what they are supposed to explain is more useful than the popular personality-type framing.
Diet & Digestion
Agni: the classical account of digestion, and what it maps onto
Digestive fire is the organising concept of Ayurvedic dietetics. Some of what it describes corresponds to recognisable physiology and some of it does not, and the distinction is worth being clear about.
Dosha & Constitution
Prakriti: what constitution means in the classical texts
The idea that a person has a fixed underlying constitution is central to classical Ayurveda. It is worth understanding what the texts actually claim before assessing what modern research has made of it.