Ayurveda is the ancient Indian system of medicine where in our days has moved the interest of many doctors. Ayurveda is a medicine - philosophical system that considers the person in a holistic way. It considers him that is to say as a psychosomatic entity. The scripts of this system are recorded from 700 bc and in their very meaning are the same system with the medicine of Ipokratis. We do not know which emanated from the other. The current interest for Ayurveda is owed mainly in the failure of classic medicine to cure substantially the cause of illnesses and also due to the fact that the modern chemical medicines present a lot of side effects. Big interest for Ayurveda is observed in America, mainly because of the projection of the system from Dr Chopra whose books circulate internationally. According to the theory of structure and operation of an organism, there participate three basic factors.

The three attributes (Doshas), the seven components (Datous) and the excessions (Mala) The three attributes are the air (Vatta) the fire (Pitta) and the water (Kapha). The attributes check the operations of physiology and biochemistry of an organism. The components participate in the structure of cells and excessions are removed after they are used in some stage of metabolism of food. The health is judged by the balance in which this three factors are found. Because of a number of certain effects this balance is being disturbed also the organism via a mechanism that is called omoiostasis, tries to restore it or remove the elements that are in excess or using from the deposits what is absent. Observing these operations the healer sees that is the problem and acts helping the organism to recover the balance.The diet is basic factor in this system on one side because with the food the organism is maintained and fills its deposits with the essential elements, and also because the various foods influence the three attributes. Food that is to say can play the role of unregulator and also the role of regulator of balance of organism.

In Ayurveda, food is examined with base flavours that are six. Salty, sweet, bitter, sour, astringent and hot. Each flavour influences the attributes by balancing them or increasing them. Thus bitter, the astringent and hot flavour,they increase air while sour, salty and sweet balance it. Salty, sour and hot they increase fire while sweet astringent and bitter they balance it. Sweet, salty and sour increase water, while hot, bitter and astringent balance it.

- Sour are the flavours of lemon, orange, strawberry, yoghurt etc.

- Sweet are the flavours of cerials, rice, greasy, milk, sugar etc.

- Hot are those of pepper, ginger, the paprika, the fennel, the mustard, the garlic, the onion, the nutmeg etc. - Bitter are coliander, salt etc.

- Astringent is honey, coffee, tea, sage etc.- Salty is the flavour of salt.

In this system it is considered important to be included in each dinner all of the 6 flavours, but they predominate those that each type needs according to its temperament.According to the theory of 3 attributes nine types are being recocnized:

1. The type of air.
2. The type of fire.
3. The type of water.
4. The mixed type that predominates the air and afterwards the fire.
5. The mixed type that predominates the air and afterwards water.
6. The mixed type that predominates the fire and afterwards the air.
7. The mixed type that predominates the fire and afterwards water
8. The mixed type that predominates water and afterwards air
9. The mixed type that predominates water and afterwards the fire.

- The main element of type of air is unstability that flows through all levels. These individuals move themselves continuously in a mental or a physical way. They have a lot of ideas but organisation is absent to them, they have weak memory and move from subject to subject. Very often they present headaches, an increased heart beat, arrhythmias, dyspneas, colites. They are people that think continuously and deal with a lot of things simultaneously but seldom finish what they begin.

 

- The type of fire is the type of order. When he deals with something he does it with detail and regularisation. Disarray bothers him and he wants all in their place. His physical problems are related with inflamations in which exists the element of burn. Often it presents ulcers in the stomach and various hepatic problems. He does not tolerate the heat and sweats excessively.

 

- The type of water is the slow-motioned type whose basic problems have relation with detention of water. They have tendency for thickness and lose weight difficult. In the sentimental sector they are the calm characters that are constant and do not want to change their habits. They are not theoretical nor particular organisational but they are ideal in keeping what exists. They easily have patience and enter in the place of other. Their memory is very possible and lose their temper easily.The mixed types result from the mixture of these three types.

Many of what is reported in the Ayurvedic system were re-discovered from the classic medicine after a lot of centuries. Most ideas of Ayurveda are compatible with the modern medicine mainly in the subjects that concern the body, but Ayurveda goes still further because it considers the person as a psychosomatic entity, something that does not occupy the classic medicine.

Apart from the diet which is s kind of medicine, there are used mainly medicines that are prepared by plants and animals. There also exist medicines that are produced by metals and mining. Today, in the trade one can find packed Ayurvedic medicines of that are of plant origin.Ayurveda is a therapeutic system that deals with the all diseases apart from clearly chirurgical. It’s main action is in chronic diseases where exists the element of intoxication of the organism.

The diagnosis in Ayurveda is quite a complicated process and requires an educated healer. Ayurveda has of course relation with the plant therapy and physiotherapy that are also included in it. In India there exist doctors that consider homeopathetic as an evolved piece of Ayurveda. Our personal experience shows that this two systems they collaborate also thus exists bigger effectiveness. In Greece there are many doctors that apply Ayurvedic techniques and continuously other are being added because they see it’s therapeutic results. The word Ayurveda is complex and it is constituted by the word Ayus that means life and from the word veda that mean science-knowledge therefore Ayurveda means the science-knowledge of life. In Ayurveda the philosophical dimension coexist with the science in the confrontation of person as biological organism and as an intellectual entity.It is a scientific and philosophical system simultaneously. The modern sciences and the philosophy do not communicate more. In the ancient deliveries the philosophy and the science aimed at common, the balanced growth of person as biological organism and as intellectual entity. Through the development of food in the organism there are produced that thin matters that they nourish apart from the material and the superior bodies of person. Ayurveda goes beyond the material body, expands that is to say beyond the science of laboratory and it enters in the space of philosophy in which the aim is achieved. Despite the enormous growth of discovery of science, the problem of treatment it has not been untied. The incurable illnesses expand with rapid rythms and the side effects of chemical medicines create always more patients. Ayurveda and other alternative therapeutic methods they do not come to suppress the modern medicine but they help it in it’s big aim, the alleviation of human pain. It is by no means anachronism to use the knowledge and the experience of thousands of years enriching the therapeutic knowledge.

Apart from the pharmaceutical education for the confrontation of some disease, Ayurveda gives explicit directives on one side on the diet that one should follow and also gives directives on the daily life for the sleep, for the bathroom, for how cleans somebody the nose, the ears, the language, gives even special physical exercises depending on each temperament, still proposes the parts that are better in order for each type to make the interruptions. On the other hand the classic medicine settles in the confrontation of symptoms with chemical medicines and if it gives certain directives on the daily life these are for all the same because it does not recognize that different attributes exist. It is therefore obvious that Ayurveda individualises each case while the classic medicine considers all cases to be the same.