Ayurvedic medicine originated in India almost 5,000 years ago but in recent years it has become increasingly popular in the western world.
The belief behind Ayurvedic medicine is that our emotional, spiritual and physical make-up form three fundamental life forces, or doshas. Illnesses will then occur when there is an imbalance of these doshas, either with one another or with the world around us. By using Ayurvedic methods these imbalances can be corrected and natural harmony restored resulting in a return to good health.
The Ayurvedic practitioner makes their diagnosis by taking a detailed account of their patient's life and medical history. They then carefully examine the lips, nails, tongue and the nine 'doors' of the body (the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, the mouth, the genitalia and the anus). They then use their findings to work out the imbalance of the doshas and what treatments are needed to correct this.
The actual therapy can be quite complicated and can involve a mixture of any of the following:
- herbal remedies
- dietary changes
- meditation
- yoga
- massage
- enemas
- breathing exercises
- and, in some more extreme forms of treatment, blood-letting and forced vomiting
Some parts of this treatment, particularly blood-letting and forced vomiting, could actually be harmful for people with cancer and should certainly be avoided. On the other hand there is some evidence that some of the herbal remedies used could actually have a beneficial effect in actually helping to control cancers.
Unfortunately, however, as over a thousand different plants are used in Ayurvedic medicine, often in complicated mixtures, scientifically testing and working out exactly which treatments might be helpful will take a very long time.
Other parts of the Ayurvedic programme, like massage, yoga and meditation may well help people with cancer to feel better even though they do nothing to actually treat or cure the underlying illness.
So although it would be very unwise, even dangerous, to use Ayurvedic medicine as an alternative to normal treatments for cancer some bits of the therapy may sometimes help in coping with the illness.
Ayurvedic medicine is not usually available on the NHS.