Ayurveda is a medical science based on elemental physics. In nature, we easily see that plants and animals need certain requirements to flourish. Our human cells, tissues, organs, mind, and soul do as well. Ayurveda is the practice of bringing balance and meeting the body’s requirements. When we live in a balanced state we naturally experience more joy in our hearts and more vitality in our physical health.

This may seem like an obvious statement: Our bodies need certain requirements to flourish. But when we look at our food supply, our environment, work, relationships (or lack of), it is glaringly obvious that we have created a world that meets our comfort, but not our body or soul’s requirements.

The symptoms that are commonly experienced in today’s world such as chronic fatigue, constipation, anxiety, lower back pain etc. are our body’s feedback system telling us something is wrong. When we shut down these signals with medication instead of investigating what is causing it, we may experience temporary relief, which is fine. However, without uprooting the cause of the symptom, the imbalance will continue to accumulate beneath the surface. Our bodies need what they need and we can ignore it and shut it up with medications or we can restore balance and experience not only a resolution of symptoms but greater health, vitality and vibrancy in our entire being.

Because Ayurveda restores balance and is in line with natural law, treatment plans involve doing things that feel good to your body and mind, eating foods that leave you feeling full and satisfied, planning your day with activities that nourish and fill your soul, coming to work with energy and enthusiasm, balancing business with stillness. This is life through the eyes of Ayurveda.

The Doshas

The doshas are the foundation of Ayurveda. They are the energetic principles that form our bodies and the physical world around us. That which synthesizes matter from energy. There are three doshas. Vata, Pitta and Kapha.

Vata

Vata is composed of the air and space elements. Vata is the energetic force that governs movement, communication, and transportation. Vata governs the nervous system but its home is in the colon. Modern medicine calls this the gut-brain axis. Ayurveda has understood this for thousands of years. The gut-brain axis has only become an integral part of health trends in the past twenty years. Ayurveda has been treating and intervening at this level since around roughly 1000 BCE. It is of vital importance and understanding if we are to achieve true health.

Vata is the underlying intelligent force that directs peristalsis, moving food through your digestive tract and ensures bowel movements flow downward instead of up. The nervous system, as the body’s master control system, is a manifestation of Vata. The nervous system responds to your thoughts and emotions and tells your body what to do based on them. Additionally, the nervous system incorporates data from your five senses and responds accordingly. That is why sound, vibration, aroma and massage therapy can have full-body therapeutic effects. This is the communication aspect of Vata.

The colon, Vata’s home, is also where much of the immune system and serotonin (among a million other things) are synthesized and regulated. The colon is in direct communication with the nervous system and vice versa. This is why 80% of chronic disease has a psychological component(look it up). This is also why Ayurvedic texts say that 80% of disease is due to Vata imbalance. We balance Vata and we can balance most of the body’s ailments. Ayurveda understood thousands of years ago what modern medicine now has the numbers and data to support. Constipation, anxiety, and chronic pain are all Vata imbalances.

Pitta

Pitta is the element of Fire and Water. It governs all of the metabolic processes. Typically when we think of digestive processes we just think about how our food is turned into energy. The metabolic processes of the body go so far beyond that. The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system is a great example of this. One enzyme turns into another, turns into another, to regulate blood pressure. There are thousands of mechanisms like this in the body. Pitta in our body determines how well every single one of those processes is executed.

If our digestive fire is impaired, our bodies cannot effectively extract nutrients from food or convert them into the essential elements needed by our cells, tissues, and organs. When digestion falters, so does our energy. Mitochondria, known as the powerhouse of the cell, are responsible for producing the energy our body needs to function. Mitochondrial dysfunction, often stemming from poor metabolic health, disrupts this energy production as well as cell cycle repair and regulation. This is why poor metabolic health is a key predictor of the future formation of cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s. Pitta, the dosha that governs digestion, metabolism, and transformation, fuels these processes.

Kapha

Kapha is the combination of Earth and Water. It governs all of the gross, structural elements. It is what provides lubrication and suppleness between our organs, their cavities, all of our joints, and our cerebral spinal fluid. It is the muscle and fat mass. Without proper balance, between fat and muscle mass, our cells cannot thrive. Too much Kapha, in the form of obesity, impairs energy production causing lethargy, dullness, and heaviness in the body and the mind. Too little Kapha or Vata in the joints can manifest as osteoarthritis .

Kapha in balance, manifests as strength, sweet disposition, soft skin, suppleness in the joints, and resilience towards disease.