The Holistic Principles of Ayurvedic Geriatrics
Ayurveda, the ancient Indian traditional system of medicine is essentially the science of life and longevity. It carries a treasure of pro-nature holistic geriatric health care modalities. It deliberates on the science and philosophy of life and longevity
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Abstract Ayurveda, the ancient Indian traditional system of medicine is essentially the science of life and longevity. It carries a treasure of pro-nature holistic geriatric health care modalities. It deliberates on the science and philosophy of life and longevity with the goal of healthy aging and long life to achieve the Purusartha catustaya ie the Four fundamental Instincts of human life viz. Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksa. It considers aging as Swabhava or the natural tendency of life and describes in details the pattern of sequential losses of biological strength with advancing age in relation to the doctrine of Tridosa. The central focus of strength of Ayurveda in geriatric care swings around the concept of Rasayana/Rejuvenation therapy which compensates the age-related biological losses in the mind-body system and affords comprehensive rejuvenative effect. Combining Ayurvedic Rasayana, healthy dietetics, positive life style, yoga and spirituality it is possible to develop an effective package for geriatric care today for global use. New scientific evidences have been accumulating during last few decades which validate the age-old time tested science of life and health warranting further research and development. This strength of Ayurveda in geriatric health care is becoming more relevant today than ever before because of the rapid rate of population aging world over including India with an obvious shift in the age distribution denoting population aging with increased life expectancy of the people. Such an increase in the number of elderly people in the society is reflecting overtly in rapid rise in the incidence of diseases of old age warranting strategic plans for Geriatric health care and hence Geriatrics is fast emerging as an important medical discipline where the elements of holistic Ayurvedic geriatrics will find an important place. Keywords Ayurveda
Geriatrics Population aging Rasayana Rejuvenation
R.H. Singh (&) Department of Kayachikitsa, Faculty of Ayurveda, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, Uttar Pradesh, India e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 P.C. Rath et al. (eds.), Topics in Biomedical Gerontology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2155-8_18
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1 Introduction—What Is Ayurveda Ayurveda is the ancient Indian life and health science, its history goes back to 3000–5000 years in the antiquity which has remained in un-broken clinical practice till date and is currently one of the official systems of health care in India and several other South East Asian Countries (Sharma 1992; Singh 2001, 2003; Udupa and Singh 1974). Ayurveda is based on its own fundamental principles, its own biology, diagnostics and therapeutics (Singh 1998, 2005a, b, c, 2008, 2009a, b). Theory of Panchmahabhuta and Tridosha are the sheet anchors of Ayurvedic biology. Ayurvedic medicine is practiced on three characteristic premises comprising of 1. Pronature approach, 2. Holistic approach and 3. Personalized health care based on the
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