Ayurveda originated as oral tradition in 5000-2000 BC and in written form around 1500 BC. It flourished from 1000 BC – 1000 AD and then declined from 1200 AD to 1800 AD due to Muslim invasion and destruction. Ayurveda, the traditional system of medicine is still used in India by over 70% of its population. Ayurveda is a body/mind /spirit or holistic way to achieve health and its practitioners recommend diet and lifestyles changes along with drug therapy. It tried to put medical knowledge on a rational and scientific basis excluding magic, sacrifices and mysticism unlike the Vedic period. Surgery was a major component of Ayurveda till 600 AD but it is seldom used now. The code of ethics for physicians was well developed. The contributions of Ayurveda to modern system of medicine in surgery, herbal medicine, yoga and meditation will be covered. The reasons for its decline were failure to evolve and take up new ideas, close ties with religion. All animal parts, heavy metals, pesticides, microbes and toxins must be eliminated from Ayurvedic preparations. There is a need to prove the safety and efficacy of Ayurvedic drugs in animal models and double blind placebo controlled trials in adequate number of patients. However its low cost, easy accessibility to poor and uneducated communities make it imperative to modernize Ayurveda in the light of advances in science and medicine and incorporate some of its validated and tested ideas into primary healthcare and modern medical practice. TCM has a much larger share of the global market than Ayurveda.
Ayurveda has eight branches. Rasayan (rejuvenation) is one of them. Rasa has different meanings like “taste“, “essence”, “flavor”, ”juice”, or “emotion”, but is not limited to any of these. In therapeutic process Rus is concerned with the conservation, transformation, and revitalization of energy. Rus nourishes our body, boosts immunity and helps to keep the body and mind in best of health. Rasayan describes an herbal preparation that promotes a youthful state of physical and mental health and expands happiness. Rasayan herbs have high levels of both safety for daily use and effectiveness. They are given to small children as tonics, and are also taken by the middle-aged and elderly to increase longevity.
Rasayan herbs and formulas are often confused with the categories of adaptogens, amphoterics, alteratives and tonics, even though they are not identical. Rasayans affect the body in a general way, i.e. they may affect the immune system rather than the lungs. They are nontoxic in normal doses and are amphoteric, in that they won’t over-tonify the body. Tonics will build up or stimulate the body towards normal health but can be over-tonifying. Alteratives will help normalize physiology, but do it through gentle eliminative functions that tend to focus on one or more organs, so are quite different. Amphoteric herbs seem to have a built in buffer that will help the body achieve homeostatic or allostatic balance, building or eliminating to achieve physiological equilibrium. While all rasayans are amphoteric, some amphoteric herbs can be specific to an organ and are thus not rasayans. Both rasayans and adaptogens are nontoxic, and amphoteric, but adaptogens tend to work on a body-wide basis, by stimulating the HPA axis and the neuroendocrine system. Some rasayans do not stimulate the HPA axis or may focus somewhat more narrowly on major systems of the body such as the digestive or immune systems. However the categories tend to overlap and many herbs belong to both categories.
