Will students be heading to American universities to get their degrees as
Ayurvedic doctors? Will patients seek out practitioners of this 5,000-year-old
system of medicine from India? And will Ayurveda form the basis for new health
and beauty products, even of restaurant menus, in the U.S.?
Highly
unlikely, you say.
Well, remember yoga? This once equally obscure
ancient practice from India is hardly considered Indian anymore and has gone
global. Now there’s a yoga studio in practically every mall across America.
Everyone from the waitress in the fast food place to seniors in the local Y does
yoga. In fact, yoga has been embraced to such an extent that there are now
American versions from chair yoga to baby yoga to even doga – yoga for dogs!
As the world turns ever more complex, people yearn for the natural and
the organic, the simple and the pure. Ayurvedic practitioners are gradually
taking root in the U.S., and Ayurveda is entering the lexicon in everything from
spas to restaurants to supplements and cosmetics.
Yes, Ayurveda’s name
is being heard more often, with many of the Western spas providing Ayurvedic
massage and treatments, the most noted being Deepak Chopra’s Chopra Center for
Wellness in New York and California. There’s Pratima Skincare and Spa in New
York, founded by Dr. Pratima Raichur, who has written Absolute Beauty, a book on
skincare based on Ayurveda, and who also offers a whole line of Ayurvedic beauty
products.
Indeed, products based on Ayurvedic formulations are
increasing in the U.S., and include Shahnaaz Husain’s herbal products,
well-known both in India and the U.S. The latest to join the Ayurveda Gold Rush
is an Italian-American, Laura Callegari, who has created the Bhaktiveda
products, which range from Tulsi body lotion to Neem hand cream to Indian-rose
scented bath salts.
American clients
“I have hardly any Indian
patients,” says Pratibha Shah, an Ayurveda practitioner in Philadelphia, who is
the secretary of Association of Ayurvedic Professionals of North America
(AAPNA.) “Is there a demand for Ayurveda? Yes, absolutely there is a demand, but
the clients are primarily Americans because the Indians who come here are still
not oriented toward their own traditions—I have not seen that yet.”
AAPNA is holding an international conference in Miami in October, which
will perhaps answer many of the questions people have about Ayurveda viability
in the U.S. The keynote speaker is Ricky Williams, running back for the Miami
Dolphins and an avid Ayurveda student. The theme of the 3-day conference is
‘Anti-Aging and Rejuvenation through Ayurveda.’
Indeed, Ayurveda has a
history in America and over the years has been winning converts as part of
complementary medicine, along with other natural and holistic traditions,
including acupuncture, massage therapy and Reiki healing. Some major hospitals
which are devoted to allopathy are now introducing Integrative Medicine, which
includes many of these disciplines.
The Mayo Clinic, as well as the
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, has sizable Integrative Centers which offer
everything from yoga to music therapy to acupuncture and Reiki, along with
allopathy. Neither offers Ayurveda, though Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s
Integrative Center does provide an online list of hundreds of herbs and their
compatibility with cancer treatment drugs.
Balancing energy
DSC0471:
To introduce Ayurveda and showcase Ayurvedic massage, supplements and beauty
products to the mainstream, the Indian Consulate in New York organized a
conference with Ayurvedic experts and vendors from India and the U.S. One of the
speakers was Dr. Scott Gerson, who holds degrees in both Ayurveda and allopathic
medicine, and established the National Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine (NIAM) in
the U.S. in 1982.
Having been on both sides of the medical divide, he
described the single most important difference between eastern and western
medicine. “We view all people as a dynamic flow of energy and it is this
underlying energetic matrix that crystallizes into the physical body,” he said,
explaining the dynamics behind Ayurveda. In Western treatments, however, he
said, doctors look instead to label people; they want the name of the disease
because without that they cannot prescribe a course of action which will
suppress the pathological process.
He added, “In Ayurveda, we ask a
completely different set of questions and, I believe, a more accurate, more
human set of questions. We ask what is the energetic state of this person and is
this person in balance. Where is this imbalance in this person’s mind and body,
and is that causing an obstruction in the energy, the life force which is the
key to all health and disease?”
He explained that whereas Ayurveda takes
time, in a very real sense it is timeless, and you capture your tension in the
very moment you’re preparing tea in the morning or the oil for your massage. He
advised, “Find some entrée into Ayurveda, whether it’s the massage or the herbal
medicines, or the yoga exercises which will open up a whole new world for you.”
Licensing and credibility
Yet Ayurveda continues to remain on
the periphery for, unlike in India, where it is recognized as a medical system,
here Ayurvedic practitioners are not licensed. Dr. Amala Guha, professor of
Immunology and Medicine Director, Complementary Alternative Support Care (CASE),
at the University Of Connecticut School Of Medicine, is one of the Ayurvedic
experts who is working to get this ancient science educational credit in this
country.
The university offers Understanding Ayurveda, an introductory
Ayurveda course, to first- and second-year medical students, as well as advanced
credit courses for which the students also get to travel to India.
Guha, who
is the president of the International Society for Ayurveda and Health, is also
the editor of Elements, a journal for alternative medicine. Her expertise in
cancer immunology is combined with training in Ayurveda, and she is a reviewer
for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a branch of
the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
She looks with an unbiased eye at
some of the hurdles Ayurveda faces in this country: “It’s very difficult, as the
credibility of practitioners is being questioned. Another challenge we face is
supplements are not known as therapeutic or health models and being free from
scrutiny, there’s no quality control. Many of them are adulterated with heavy
metals. After taking them, people sometimes land up in our emergency rooms. We
cannot deny that these things are happening. In New York itself, three herbal
supplements were banned.”
How different is the situation in the U.S., as
compared to India? We asked Prathiba Shah, an Ayurvedic expert who practiced
Ayurveda in Delhi for 12 years before moving to Philadelphia and continuing her
profession. She was the Chief Medical Officer in the Central Government Health
Scheme in Delhi. It had outpatient departments with its own pharmacies which
offered allopathy, homeopathy, Ayurveda, and Unani medicine, all in one place.
“So the patients have a choice of different treatment modalities under one
roof,” she says.
Whereas under British rule, Ayurveda and other
traditional forms of medicine were looked down upon in India, things are quite
different now with all the traditional forms being integrated into the
mainstream healthcare of the country. As Shah points out, Ayurveda is gaining
popularity because it lacks drug side-effects and is a holistic system where the
body is treated as an entity, and the approach is to find the root cause of a
problem and make the whole system healthy.
In India, Ayurveda has been
incorporated into governmental health facilities, as well as institutions such
as Max Health Care, which has centers all over India, and private health centers
in the North and South, which offer both western and eastern medicine and the
option to choose the form of treatment.
So why has the same not happened
in the U.S.?
Here the practice of Ayurveda is not licensed – and that’s
a major stumbling block. Most health plans would not reimburse the costs of
Ayurvedic treatments – and there is also the credibility question for patients.
If something is not licensed by the government, how much can they trust it?
Why is Ayurvedic practice not licensed in the US? “Modern medicine
believes that without evidence and scientific studies using modern methodology,
it is not medicine,” says Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharya, who is both an Ayurvedic
physician and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Weill Medical
College of Cornell University in New York. “The FDA supports evidence-based
medicine. The AMA, NIH, and most governmental authorities only support
evidence-based medicine as defined by science. On the other hand, Ayurvedic
practitioners count the experience of humans when using the herbs and spices as
cumulative evidence.”
Still, Ayurveda is being practiced widely in the
US at different levels, from Panchakarma, which is the high level of Ayurveda,
to basically lifestyle consultations, supplement support and diet charts.
Although Ayurveda is not licensed, it can be practiced in a limited form due to
the Freedom of Health Act, which exists in various states.
Preventative
medicine
Denville-1
With a good Ayurvedic practitioner on your side, you
can at least get your bearings, and learn to control your own health issues.
Pratibha Shah, for instance, has reared her family totally on Ayurveda. “Though
we have a PCP—personal care physician—and go for routine physical exams every
year, we’ve never had to visit any doctor for health issues in the past six
years. The first line of treatment if someone has a problem is to make changes
in lifestyle, in diet and if you can get someone to determine your body type,
have a diet chart and according to that make sure you’re eating right.”
Of course, if one has major illnesses or a life-threatening situation,
then one should opt for mainstream medicine.
Indeed, it’s the integrated
approach both patients and providers need to keep in mind. Shah also likes to
point out that allopathy has life-saving capabilities, but more than allopathy,
these are advancements of technology. “If you have an MRI, it is technology
that’s you’re using, not a system of medicine,” she says. “MRI can be used by an
Ayurvedic physician also. Laser treatment for gallstones is not allopathy—it’s
technology; I’m not against that, but once you know you have a gallstone, you
can start avoiding fatty fried food, which forms gallstones. So that’s the kind
of approach that should be taken.”
As with everything Indian, the
opportunities to listen to Ayurvedic speakers, try remedies and treatments and
just learn more about this ancient system are increasing, especially in certain
states like California and New York. AAPNA has announced Ayurveda Day in
October, to coincide with the birth celebrations of Lord Dhanwantari, the
creator of Ayurveda. On Ayurveda Day, free Ayurveda awareness lectures,
workshops, and other special events will be conducted in various American
cities.
Travel to India is also familiarizing many Americans and
second-generation Indian Americans with the benefits of Ayurveda, its
treatments, massages and products. Since tourists go to India specifically for
Kerala’s famous massage treatments, it seems a smart move to bring those
treatments to the U.S. Santhigram Kerala Ayurvedic Co, a Kerala-style Ayurvedic
wellness center that has branches in India, now has four centers in New Jersey
to offer the traditional Kerala Panchakarma therapy. A fifth center is scheduled
to open in Houston.
According to Gopinathan Nair, CEO of Santhigram, “Our
specialized Ayurvedic and Panchakarma therapies help alleviate specific problems
like back and neck pain, frozen shoulder, migraine, insomnia and joint pain,
besides revitalizing the body.” Having targeted the Indian areas of New Jersey,
Nair says 70 percent of the clients are Indians but Ayurveda is getting popular
with Americans too. He says, “In fact, the latest center is in Denville, where
the white population is more and we started getting these clients from Day 1.”
At the opening of the center in Denville, noted business leader Sreedhar
Menon vouched for the power of Ayurvedic therapy, describing how it had helped
him avoid knee transplant surgery. At this event, New Jersey State Assemblyman
Upendra Chivukula said he would make efforts for legislation supportive of
Ayurvedic medicine in New Jersey, as is being done in California.
More and
more, trained talent from India seems to be coming to the U.S. Ambika Nair, who
was the personal physician to K.R. Narayanan, former president of India, is now
with Santhigram, along with other Ayurvedic practitioners.
Ayurvedic
supplements are big business in the U.S., but there are often concerns about
what goes into those bottles. One manufacturer who has met that challenge is
Uday Gupta of American Ayurveda—he simply manufactures the products right here
in the U.S. “We found that most of the products from India do not meet the FDA
guidelines on the content of heavy metals, and this way we also have quality
control,” says Gupta. “Most of the ingredients are from California, though we
get those which are unavailable here from India.”
Both Indians and
Americans are clients for products ranging from Blood Cleaner Capsules and
Regularity Capsules to herbal teas and oils, Gupta says. “Interestingly, we find
that most of our clients are healthcare professionals, including physicians
practicing mainstream medicine.”
Ayurvedic meals
YogisKitchen:
Walking in New York’s Curry Hill area, you see Yogi’s Kitchen, a brand new
eatery devoted to serving food cooked purely according to Ayurvedic principles,
and served in steel thalis. It’s such a guilt-free space it doesn’t even have a
deep fryer! ”Even our papads are roasted,” says Mamta Mulloi, who owns this
little restaurant in Manhattan with her husband Dinu. “We don’t do a la carte,
because in that people will order only one dish – and that will not have all the
elements to make it a balanced meal.”
In Ayurvedic meals it’s important to
have balance with all the five vital elements being present. Spiritual Awakening
South Thali gives you a complete gastronomical experience of a balanced,
lightweight and yet savory meal consisting of rice, roti, sambar, rasam,
pulikulambli, poriyal, avial, and kootu, while the Spiritual Awakening North
Thali substitutes the main dishes with dal, kadhi and two vegetables. Both
thalis include yogurt and sprout salad as the protein source, and also include
papads and dessert.
The Mullois hope to educate their customers and are
planning to have a small library of Ayurvedic books on hand, as well as
Ayurvedic information. They point out that the spices in the food promote
digestion and strengthen the immune system. The black pepper in the rasam is
great for preventing colds and throat infections, and the garlic in the food
lowers cholesterol and inhibits rheumatism, besides having anti-cancer and
anti-bacterial properties. Many of the dishes have turmeric, that wonder spice
which is reputed to be a natural blood-purifier and improves liver function,
skin tone and is an antiseptic.
Yes, in bits and pieces, Ayurveda is
certainly entering our lives. As the mainstream spas offering Ayurvedic massages
and treatments increase, the tongue-twisting word ‘Ayurveda’ becomes easier to
handle for many Americans. Applying a slather of these soothing herbal products
to one’s hands or soaking in a warm bath suffused with sandalwood or jasmine,
one cannot but feel that with such a start, the day is already off to a positive
start.
We can take as much as we want, or as little as we want, from
dosha consultations to diet changes to organic toiletries to oil massages. We
can start with small steps, right in our kitchen, investigating the potent
health cures in the Indian spice box.
Ayurveda is all about balance, and
don’t we all yearn for that in our busy, over-scheduled lives?
Sidebar:
APari:
Exploring the Indian Spice Box with Pratibha Shah
Did you
know that there’s a potent pharmacy hidden in your spice box?
Indeed,
many home remedies revolve around the properties of herbs and spices like
turmeric, fenugreek seeds, ginger, garlic and carom seeds, used to get relief
from minor ailments ranging from initial cough and cold, and diarrhea, to
stomach ailments.
“No one-line advice can be given on this,” says
Pratibha Shah, who has written extensively about the importance of herbs and
spices on health. “Different spices have different properties and different
functions. Lots of Indians use their kitchen spices as home remedies, provided
they’ve had that kind of exposure in India.” Yet merely using these spices in
your food is not enough, for these are used in small quantities in cooking and
the medical dose has to be much larger.
Cumin seeds, for example, are an
action-packed herb with digestive and anti-spasmodic properties. Fenugreek seeds
are another magical herb used in treating rheumatoid arthritis, because of their
anti-inflammatory and nervine tonic action. To bring down blood sugar levels,
she recommends sprouted seeds or those soaked overnight and crushed, being taken
daily in the morning, on an empty stomach. These can also be taken to bring down
fever. “Recent studies have shown blood cholesterol lowering and blood
glucose-lowering properties of fenugreek seeds,” says Shah. “And what is even
more encouraging is that it has been shown to lower only the bad cholesterol.”
Another super herb is ‘ajwain’ which is considered a powerful
anti-spasmodic (pain reliever) and recommended for pain and bloating due to
indigestion, gas pain, pain due to diarrhea, dysentery and kidney stones as well
as menstruation. “In all these situations, ‘ajwain’ can be chewed after
roasting, or can be boiled to make an infusion, or can be distilled and then
consumed,” says Shah. “It can be used alone or along with other similar acting
spices like fennel seeds, cumin seeds, asafetida, black salt, and rock salt.”
We all of course have heard of the superpower of turmeric and how there
is a battle on to patent its life-saving qualities. Mustard seeds also have tremendous health benefits. But did you know that
the innocuous kalaunji or black onion seed can increase appetite, as well as
help in diarrhea, and even in cough, bronchitis and asthma due to their
bronchia-dilatory and mucolytic properties.
Dates are very cooling and
can be thrown into smoothies or other drinks (about 2 dates per person) for
added value. Shah also suggests mango panna—which is made from raw mango roasted
over fire, and from which the juice is squeezed out and is tempered with roast
cumin powder, brown sugar and black salt. It should be cooled in the fridge,
rather than have ice cubes added to it. This drink increases one’s capacity to
tolerate the heat.
.
Sidebar:
Quickie Remedies for Cough, Cold
& Sore Throat
? Ginger tea for adults and ginger juice with honey
(ginger juice may be warmed a few seconds in the microwave before mixing with
honey) for children. Ginger is a good mucolytic agent, which means it helps
break down mucus.
? Black pepper powder (finely ground and fresh is
preferable) about ½ tsp mixed with about 4 tsp of honey, to be taken about 1/4th
tsp, every two hours. Black pepper has excellent anti-allergic properties and is
effective in controlling the initial symptoms of sneezing and runny nose.
? You can also apply black pepper to a cut lemon and roast it. Add a
fine coating of brown sugar or jaggery to it and suck on this lemon. It is not
only anti-allergic but also helps in soothing a sore throat and is a good source
of Vitamin C.
? Boil and slice an egg, apply black pepper and salt on
it and eat it hot.