"Ayurvedic Therapy"

This is a traditional life and health system that originated in ancient India and has been passed down for more than 5,000 years. Its core logic is to achieve balanced healing by adjusting the match between the individual's body and mind and natural rhythms. It is currently included in the global traditional medicine system by the World Health Organization. However, there are clear application boundaries and school disputes. It is by no means a "universal health regimen" spread online, nor is it an unfounded "metaphysics".

The first time I really came into contact with effective Ayurvedic therapy was when I lived in a small courtyard in Heshun, Tengchong two years ago. During that time, I worked on a project for half a month. Not only did I have red and swollen acne on my face, but I also woke up at 3 a.m. every day. My mouth felt so bitter that it felt like I had half a piece of coptis in my mouth. Even after drinking chrysanthemum tea for a week, I didn't feel better. Instead, I had diarrhea for two days. The girl I lived with at the time invited me to go for an Ayurvedic oil treatment, which is very popular in the local area. I originally went there with the mentality that "it's just an expensive SPA that charges IQ tax." But as soon as the teacher from Sri Lanka put his hand on my wrist, he asked me, "Have you been drinking iced coffee and eating a lot of mangoes lately?" ”

I was stunned for a moment. During that time, I was eating two glasses of iced Americano every day just to refresh myself. It happened to be the time when the local mangoes were on sale, so I had to eat two of them a day. He did not prescribe me a bunch of messy products. He only asked the nurse to give me a 40-minute abdominal massage with warm turmeric oil. Before leaving, he stuffed a small packet of spices mixed with turmeric powder, black pepper and cinnamon powder, and asked me to mix it with warm milk and drink it on an empty stomach in the morning for a week. I should stop eating cold, sweet and sour things first. I dubiously did it, and by the early morning of the third day I didn't wake up again, and the bitter taste in my mouth slowly subsided.

Later, I gradually understood that the core logic of Ayurveda is actually similar to the syndrome differentiation of traditional Chinese medicine, but the system is completely independent. It divides the dominant energy in the human body into three categories: Vata corresponds to the wind nature, most people have cold hands and feet, and are prone to anxiety due to wandering thoughts. ； Pitta corresponds to fire, prone to getting angry, has a short temper, and digests quickly ； Kapha corresponds to watery nature and is prone to edema, snooze, and slow metabolism. The vast majority of people have mixed constitutions, and few have a single type. The conditioning plan is also completely personalized. For example, I have high pitta. Ice coffee and mango are foods that aggravate pitta fire. Drinking chrysanthemum tea to reduce fire will hurt the spleen and stomach, and the more I drink, the worse it will be.

Don’t think this thing is so mysterious. Many daily habits actually come from Ayurveda. For example, many bloggers now recommend drinking warm salt water on an empty stomach in the morning, gargling with coconut oil, and turmeric milk that is popular all over the world. They are all daily conditioning methods that have been passed down in this system for thousands of years.

But if you really dig deeper, you will find that the differences in this field are actually very large. Nowadays, the mainstream Ayurveda is divided into two branches. The school in Kerala, South India, is better at external treatments, such as various medicated oil massages and herbal fumigations. Many people experience this when traveling to Sri Lanka and Thailand. Later, many SPA projects focusing on relaxation have gradually spawned, so many people equate Ayurveda with beauty massage. The traditional schools in Northern India particularly look down on this commercial approach. They value more the adjustment of "daily rhythms", such as what time to get up, what time to eat, and what kind of food should be eaten in different seasons. They rarely perform complicated external treatments. They believe that "adjustment of living habits is fundamental, and massage is only an auxiliary." The two groups often quarrel at academic forums.

Modern medicine’s attitude toward Ayurveda is also divided. On the one hand, there is a large amount of evidence-based medical evidence for the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of curcumin in turmeric and the repairing effect of sesame oil and coconut oil on the skin barrier. Many anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory Western medicines also use ingredients extracted from Ayurvedic herbs. ； But on the other hand, many traditional Ayurvedic therapies, such as vomiting and detoxification, long-term fasting, and traditional preparations that take heavy metals as medicine, have no reliable safety verification. I have seen news before that bloggers followed suit and did 7-day Ayurvedic fasting and detoxification, and ended up in the emergency room due to electrolyte imbalance. Not to mention those "high-end detox packages" that cost tens of thousands and claim to be able to cure cancer. They are purely scams to harvest IQ taxes.

I still carry a small jar of turmeric powder in my bag all year round. When I eat too much cold stuff on a business trip or suffer from acid reflux, I make a cup of warm turmeric water with black pepper added, and the effect is faster than taking stomach medicine. The dry cough I always had in the winter of the past two years was relieved by eating a spoonful of honey with ghee on an empty stomach every morning. But I would never blindly recommend these methods to friends with underlying diseases. I once had a relative with diabetes who heard that Ayurvedic herbs can lower blood sugar, so he stopped taking anti-diabetic drugs for half a month and started taking herbal medicine. In the end, his blood sugar soared to over 20 and he was admitted to the hospital. It was scary to talk about it.

To put it bluntly, Ayurveda, like all traditional medical systems, is essentially the accumulated experience of our ancestors in getting along with nature. We can use the useful parts as a supplement to daily conditioning, and avoid the risky parts. There is no need to hold it on a altar or beat it to death with a stick. After all, for ordinary people, a health regimen that makes them comfortable and safe is a good way, right?