The Immune System

A recent addition to Western medicine is psychoneuroimmunity (or PNI). This studies the effects of stress on the immune system and reflects a fact which has always been known to Ayurveda - anything that affects the mind also affects the body and that a compromised immune system is primarily the result of mental imbalance and negativism. Disease attacks when the Tridosha are disturbed.

To strengthen immunity, it is first necessary to improve the spirit. Someone who is depressed, lethargic, angry, unhappy and at a low emotional ebb is vulnerable to attack by pathogens, leaving the system open to invasion by illness and disease.

Ayurveda recommends healthy living, healthy eating, counseling, meditation, yoga, massage, group therapy and natural remedies to help the body and mind find balance.

When the doshas are seriously out of balance, two kinds of external disorders can take hold: krimi roga, which are worm infestations, which commonly afflict children and kshudra jeevi roga, which are parasitic, bacterial and fungal infections, which describes external complaints including infections such as chicken pox, mumps and measles.

Unlike anti-biotic medicine, Ayurveda does not kill these organisms but remedies the problem by restricting their growth and ultimately rid them from the body. The World Health Organization has reported that in fifty years all the organisms, which are currently sensitive to the existing antibiotics, will become resistant. Thus the way of Ayurveda shows wisdom, as it is impossible to have drugs to kill all the harmful organisms, but instead the answer lies in strengthening the immunity of the individual to deal with the problems effectively.