Ayurveda

Written by a North American psychiatrist (Yale Univ. School of Medicine), this is a first-rate introduction to a set of traditional medical theories and practices from India that are represented as an organized system of healing principles and clinical interventions. In India, Ayurveda has enjoyed a postcolonial resurgence, and elsewhere it finds a place today among alternative and complementary forms of medicine. Healing as a process of restoring balance through exercise and physical manipulation, prescribed diet, and carefully selected herbal remedies is a key feature of Ayurveda. The ancient wisdom of Ayurvedic medicine, with its emphasis on balance in diet and lifestyle, is a good fit with the contemporary Western model of integrative mind-body medicine. He introduces the underlying concepts, applications, and scientific research on this Indian tradition that treats disease from a holistic perspective. Appendices add a timeline of Ayurvedic oral and written tradition, list of disorders said to be caused by doshas (a fundamental bioenergetic principle, per the glossary), and clinical case examples.