Is Ayurveda treatment reliable?

Judging from my six years of exposure to Ayurveda and my experience of studying and practicing it with regular practitioners in China and India, it is neither a divine therapy that can cure all diseases, nor is it a worthless pseudoscience. Whether it is reliable or not depends entirely on what you use it for and whether the person who performs it on you is professional enough.

Two years ago, I took care of a girl who worked in Internet operations. She had been constipated for more than three years. She had two colonoscopies with no problems. I tried dozens of different types of kaiselu and probiotics, but none of them worked. Later, it was determined that she has a typical Vata constitution. In order to stay refreshed, I usually eat three glasses of ice cream a day. I change my plan while taking a few bites of a meal, and finish a meal in ten minutes. The adjustment plan I gave her was actually very simple. First, she replaced the iced coffee with warm ginger and cinnamon tea. She was not allowed to look at her mobile phone while eating. She chewed each mouthful 20 times. She drank a small spoonful of warm ghee on an empty stomach in the morning. After just two months of adjustment, she could basically have normal bowel movements every day, and even the migraines she always had before were much better. In fact, this part is effective. Essentially, the core logic of Ayurveda overlaps with the integrated health of body and mind that is currently advocated. It does not focus on treating a certain symptom, but looks at whether your overall living habits deviate from your physical state. Those suggestions of following seasonal schedules, eating foods that correspond to your body type, and reducing anxiety are inherently beneficial to health. There are also many modern studies that support the active effects of commonly used herbs in Ayurveda such as turmeric and holy basil. There is no problem in saying that it is reliable.

But I also have to pour cold water on it. If anyone tells you that Ayurveda can cure cancer, diabetes, or allow you to stop taking the medicines prescribed by doctors, and you turn away, they are definitely a liar. Last year, I met an aunt at an industry exhibition. She said that after listening to the words of a "master who returned from a study tour in India," she stopped taking antihypertensive drugs for 12 years, drank so-called "detoxifying herbal oils" every day, and did herbal hot compresses all over her body three times a week. As a result, she had a cerebral infarction and was admitted to the ICU less than 20 days later. After being rescued, she couldn't move half of her body. When her family found the "master", she had long since disappeared.

Nowadays, most of the doubts about Ayurveda come from the chaos in this industry. Many practitioners can't even distinguish the three most basic constitutions, so they dare to prescribe conditioning prescriptions for people. There are also many illegally circulated Ayurveda medicines with excessive heavy metals. Previously, the US FDA and my country's Food and Drug Administration have reported that many batches may harm the liver and kidneys if consumed. And from the perspective of a medical system, Ayurveda itself is a traditional empirical medicine. Like traditional Chinese medicine, many empirical conclusions have not been verified by large-scale double-blind experiments, and there are no clear standards for diagnosis and treatment. This is the core reason why it is constantly controversial in the context of modern medicine.

To be honest, if you just want to adjust your work and rest and improve your sub-health status, it’s okay to try it with a trained and qualified health practitioner. Just treat it as a more systematic health regimen. But if you really have a clear organic disease, you’d better go to a regular hospital to find a doctor. Don’t use your own body as a guinea pig.