Ayurveda, Nature's Medicine

by David Frawley, Subhash Dr. Ranade

Contains a full description of Ayurveda on all levels from diet and herbs to yoga and meditation, explaining both Ayurvedic diagnostic and treatment methods.

Genres: Health

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

David Frawley (or Vāmadeva Śāstrī वामदेव शास्त्री), b. 1950, is an American Hindu teacher (acharya) and author, who has written more than thirty books on topics such as the Vedas, Hinduism, Yoga, Ayurveda and Vedic astrology, published both in India and in the United States. He is the founder and director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which offers educational information on Yoga philosophy, Ayurveda, and Vedic astrology. He works closely with the magazine Hinduism Today, where he is a frequent contributor.[1] He is associated with a number of Vedic organizations in several countries. He is a Vedic teacher (Vedacharya), Vaidya (Ayurvedic doctor), and a Jyotishi (Vedic astrologer).

Reviews

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Substantive look at Ayurvedic medicine.

Weather changes during the transition of season affect the health of all living beings. In hot seasons, enjoy cooling foods and herbs and lifestyle: fruit juices, salads, walking during the evening. In the cold seasons, warm food, warm herbs, and cook grains and root vegetables; enjoy aerobic exercise. In the dry season (autumn), take to moistening foods, and use more oil and dairy, tonic herbs and oil massage. In the wet season (spring), take more drying food, herbs and saunas.

Ethical Regimen

- Speak the truth
-Don't lose your temper
- Don't get addicted to sensory pleasures
- Do not harm anyone
- Don't expose yourself to hardships
- Control your passions
- Speak pleasant and sweet words
- Meditate for tranquility of mind
- Observe cleanliness
- Be patient
- Observe self-control
- Distribute knowledge, advice and money to others
- Devote your service to spiritual endeavors or the elderly
- Be straightforward and kind
- Avoid irregularity in daily activities
- Consume Sattvic food (fresh, juicy, light, nourishing, and tasty, giving energy and balance)
- Avoid overly spicy or sour, nonvegetarian food and alcohol
- Behave according to the time and place where you reside
- Be courteous and polite
- Control your senses.

General Rules of Conduct
- Avoid overeating, overdrinking, too much sexual activity, or too much/too little sleep
- Never eat at an unhygienic place, at an improper time, or with unhealthy people
- Don't disclose another's faults or secrets
- Don't take another's wealth or property
- Don't keep company with people who break the rules of good conduct
- Don't undertake strenuous work that is more than your physical capacity, or when you are ill
- Don't do a job that is beyond your capacity
- Control your sense organs.

Best Foods
Grains - Basmati rice
Legumes - Mung beans
Water - Rain from high above ground or spring water at a high altitude
Salt - Rock salt
Veggies - Jivanti
Dairy - Ghee and milk from the cow
Oils - Sesame
Animal fat - pig and chicken
Fruit - grapes, raisin

Special substances: Sesame oil for Vata; Honey for Kapha; Ghee for Pitta

Utility of Food
1 Nature - mutton is heavy; rice is light; sesame oil is damp and oil; toast is dry
2 Preparation - cooking, frying, roasting
3 Combination (Samyoga) - fish and milk or milk w/ sour fruit = toxins, aggravates Pitta
4 Quantity - Total consumed, and of each particular one
5 Habitat where grown - Region, climate, soil
6 Time - Heavy foods at night have adverse effects as do hot foods in the summer
7 Dietary rules (Ypayoga Samstha)
8 Condition of person eating - Take food according to one's constitution; consider mind and emotions

Right use of sexual energy is a key to physical and mental health.

In treatment, consider the psychological qualities of the patient and how to guide them to right judgment and from that to right action.

Sensory contacts are of four types: 1) Excess 2) Deficient 3) Inappropriate 4) Optimal


Tonification therapy consists of a rich diet, tonic herbs, rest and relaxing lifestyle. Food prepared with ghee, butter, sesame oil, milk, raw sugar and jaggery is used. Almonds, pistachios, cashews and other nuts added. Tonic herbs like shatavari, ashwagandha, bala, ginseng, and amalaki are used. The lifestyle should have no tension or stress, with plenty of rest and enjoyment. Mental tranquility should be maintained throughout the course of treatment.

Vata individuals require strong tonification. Warm sesame oil massage, warm baths, warm clothing and a warm environment and climate are essential. Nutritive food is indicated with dairy, grains like wheat and oats, nuts and raw sugars. Increase digestive fires with trikatu or ginger to help digest food.

Pitta people require moderate tonification. Massage with cooling oils like coconut. Eat cool and nourishing food like mung beans, wheat, basmati rice, raw veggies and sweet dairy including ghee. Fasting and use hot spices is not suggested.

Kapha people require minimum tonification. Their appetite is not strong, so eat whole grains like basmati rice, barley, corn with a lot of spices (trikatu, cayenne, garlic) and drink herbal wines.

DRYING METHOD
Oily, sticky and fatty constituents of the body are dried and reduced, eliminating excess mucus, fat and water from the tissues and organs. Drying food is used: barley and rye, soybeans and horse gram, honey over 6 mos old. Dry massage with powders of calamus, sandalwood, lodra or udumbara is used to remove oil. Astringent herbs like catechu. Drying is indicated for cold, cough with expectoration and diabetes.

Mind - Manovaha Srotas

Heart and nerve tissue damaged by overwork, stress, worry, anxiety, fright, anger or grief.

Treatment

Reduce high Vata and calm its resultant agitation and instability. Use herbs to calm and balance the mind like gotu kola, calamus, shankha pushpi, jatamamsi and valerian. In cases of brain fatigue, tonics like ashwagandha and shatavari are useful. Warm sesame oil massage to the head, including dripping the oil on the forehead is excellent for calming Vata in the mind. Meditation is also important. Stimulating the marmas in the head, particularly those at the top of the head is important.

Purity of body, mind and speech are essential for physical health and spiritual liberation.

Patanjali was the main teach of Yoga, a doctor and grammarian:

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Mahabhashya of Patanjali
Charaka Samhita.

Ayurveda is the science of life, helping us to realize of full human potential.

True intelligence brings about the realization of ultimate reality by showing us the eternal truth behind the changing appearances of the outer world. It eliminates all sorrow by showing its basic illusory nature and leads to liberation, which is inherent in our true self. Charaka explained that ego (self-centeredness) is the cause of all miseries. When true intelligence emerges, the soul or Atman transcends the ego and all worldly sufferings come to an end.

Yogic science explains that to achieve liberation, one has to move inward from the physical body through the subtle bodies to the inner Self or Pure Consciousness:

- Physical sheath to Pranic or breath sheath composed of the vital force and its manifestations (the 5 pranas)
- Mental sheath and field of sensory impressions
- Wisdom sheath where the understanding of Truth abides
- Bliss sheath that holds our deepest joy and love
- Pure Consciousness (Purusha)

Vata-Pitta Food Program

Qualities to reduce: Hot, light and dry
Best taste: Sweet
Small Amounts: Astringent, sour
Worst: Salty, pungent and bitter

Grains: Best to eat cooked or unyeasted breads

Best - Wheat, cooked oats, white basmati rice
Small amounts: Amaranth, barley, rice (brown or white, short or long grain), millet, quinoa, rye
Avoid: Buckwheat, corn flour products, dry oats

Dairy - Best to use raw or organic milk. Take milk warm w/ a small amount of spices like ginger or cardamom

Best - Butter, cottage cheese, cream cheese, ghee, milk (whole), paneer (farmer's cheese)
Small amounts: Buttermilk, hard unsalted cheese, kefir, sour cream, yogurt
Avoid: Ice cream, frozen yogurt

Sweeteners - Overusing any sweetener causes an imbalance eventually

Best - Honey (fresh), maltose, maple syrup, maple sugar, rice syrup
Small amounts: Date sugar, dextrose, fructose, grape sugar, molasses, sucanat (jaggery)
Avoid: White table sugar

Oils - Very important and use abundantly if skin is dry. They alleviate dryness and are generally heavy and nourishing

Best - Avocado, coconut, ghee, olive oil, sunflower
Small amounts: Sesame, almond, castor, flaxseed, corn, soy
Avoid: Safflower, margarine, mustard, peanut, lard, canola

Fruit - Best when well ripened and sweet. This balances both doshas. Consume in moderation

Best - Apricots, avocado, bananas (sweet), blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, cherries, coconut, dates, figs, jujube (cooked), grapes, lemons, limes, mango, nectarine, orange (sweet), papaya, peaches, pears, persimmons, plums (sweet), pomegranate, prunes, raspberries, raisins, strawberries

Small amounts: Apples, banana (sour), cranberries, grapefruit, pineapple (sweet), tangerines, watermelon

Avoid: Cherries, dry fruit, jujube (dry), pineapple (sour), plums (sour), oranges (sour), papaya, olives

Vegetables - Cooked veggies are best as they are more nourishing and easier to digest. Only leafy greens may be eaten raw with dressing. More raw salads may be eaten in the hot summer if digestion is strong and there is little gas or constipation

Best - Artichoke (with oily dressing), avocado, bean sprouts, cauliflower, cilantro, corn, Jerusalem artichoke, leeks, okra, onion (cooked), peas, potato, pumpkin, seaweed, squash (acorn, winter, crook neck, zucchni, etc), sunflower sprouts, tomato (sweet vine ripened)

Small amounts: Alfalfa sprouts, asparagus, beets, bell pepper, bitter melon, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrot, celery, cucumber, eggplant, green beans, lettuce (raw), kale, mushroom, mustard greens, parsley, peas (sweet), spinach, sweet potato, tomato (sour), turnips

Avoid - Brussel sprouts, cabbage, chili, hot peppers, radishes, raw onion, tomato paste and sauce, snow peas

Nuts and Seeds - Eaten lightly dry roasted to assist digestion, and only very lightly salted, if at all. Nut butters (except for peanut butter) may be eaten

Best - Coconut, pinyon, sunflower seeds
Small amounts: Almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, lotus seeds, macademia, pecan, pine, pistachio, pumpkin seed

Avoid: Peanuts

Meat - Plant-based diets are healthier than meat-based diets. Weak patients may take as a soup broth

Best - Chicken (white meat), egg, fresh water fish, pork, turkey (white meat)
Small amounts: Duck, venison, beef, seafood, lamb
Avoid: Shellfish, dark meat of chicken or turkey

Legumes: When weak, avoid even small amounts

Best - Mung beans, tofu
Small amounts: Aduki, black gram, chick peas, kidney, black lentils, navy, pinto, soybeans, split peas [all legumes in small amounts are best as a dal or spread with spices added]
Avoid: Fava, red and yellow lentils

Spices - Food to be overall spiced for being warming, but not hot. Spices aid digestion and absorption of nutrients as well as improve flavor. Never eat bland.

Best - Bay leaf, caraway, catnip, chamomile, cardamom, cilantro, cumin, coriander, dill, fennel, lemon verbena, peppermint, rosemary, saffron, spearmint, tumeric

Small amounts: Anise, basil, cinnamon, coconut, fenugreek, ginger (fresh), marjoram, nutmeg, oregano, poppy seeds, sage, salt, start anise, thyme

Avoid - Asafoetida, black pepper, cayenne, calamus, cloves, garlic (raw), ginger (dry), horseradish, hot mustard, hyssop

Condiments

Best - None
Small amount: Carob, mayonnaise
Avoid: Catsup, chocolate, tamari, vinegar

Beverages - Best at room temperature or warm and never ice cold

Best - Chamomile tea, licorice tea, mild spice teas, mint tea, milk, water
Small amounts: Carrol juice, fruit juice, naturally flavored soda and juice, tea (black or green)
Avoid - Alcohol, carrot juice (undiluted), coffee, Soft drinks and very spicy tea, sweet fruit juice (undiluted), tomato juice, vegetable juices (green)




Best foods - eaten without reservation on a daily basis. If sick, only consume these foods. These are ideal as they are close to or perfectly balance both doshas.

Small amounts: Eat in small portions fairly often or in larger portions once or twice a week. Over-reliance on these foods cause imbalance.

Avoid - Eat only on rare occasions, like once a month. They can imbalance in both doshas or significantly disturb one of the doshas.

[Kristin]

This is best read in conjunction with:
Yoga and Ayurveda: Self-Healing and Self-Realization by Dr. David Frawley
and
The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine by Dr. David Frawley and Vassant Lad
and
Ayurveda and Marma Therapy: Energy Points in Yogic Healing by Dr. David Frawley and Avinash Lele

When read together, each book provides supporting information or added clarity for the others. Doesn't matter in which order they're read - I found myself going back to the others and re-reading pertinent chapters. All four books combined would be four stars.

[Kimberly Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking to live an ayurvedic lifestyle for each dosha or want to have your family do so - great resource. All Frawley's books work together to create a library of ayurvedic resources for every aspect of the science.

[Belann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of Ayurvedic medicine, but a little too detailed for practical use.

[Justin]

Not enough on pranayama

[Jen]

I'm studying ayurvedic medicine..so...my text books..