A Look at Traditional Tibetan Medicine: Part 1

We are back from our two-week hiatus to continue this series on the Roots of Medicine. The last article before the break was a two-part look at Ayurvedic Medicine.

I continue today with a look at another traditional system of medicine, Traditional Tibetan Medicine.

I had my first in-depth look at traditional Tibetan Medicine a number of years ago, when I was living in San Diego and went to a presentation given by Dr. Yeshi Dhonden at the VA hospital in town.

Dr. Dhonden is a practitioner of Tibetan Medicine and the former personal physician to the Dalai Lama.

Dr. Dhonden was invited by the VA hospital to present and to do grand rounds. The grand rounds at the hospital that day took place in the auditorium, to a very large audience of health providers. The grand rounds consisted of doctors at the VA bringing some of their most difficult cases to the auditorium and having Dr. Dhonden give his professional opinion about their health status.

One of the primary tools in Tibetan Medicine is urine analysis, though not in the standard way as known in Western Medicine, as a UA. In Dr. Dhonden’s approach to urine analysis, the patient would pee into a cup, and Dr. Dhonden would then make his diagnosis by observing the urine.

I can’t remember what he diagnosed for the patients based on his urine analysis, but I recall the treating doctors, and the audience as a whole, sitting in awe of this man of such deep wisdom.

Besides his urine analysis, he also used pulse diagnosis, which is a form of diagnosis also used in Chinese Medicine. Once he formed his diagnosis, Dr. Dhonden then was able to make a prognosis and make recommendations as to what the patient could do to improve their health.

So what is Tradititonal Tibetan Medicine?

It is a centuries-old traditional medical system that employs a complex approach to diagnosis, incorporating techniques such as pulse analysis and urinalysis, and utilizes behavior and dietary modification, medicines composed of natural materials (e.g., herbs and minerals) and physical therapies (e.g. Tibetan acupuncture, moxabustion, etc.) to treat illness.

The Tibetan medical system is based upon a synthesis of the Indian (Ayurveda), Persian (Unani), Greek, indigenous Tibetan, and Chinese medical systems, and it continues to be practiced in Tibet, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Ladakh, Siberia, China and Mongolia, as well as more recently in parts of Europe and North America. It embraces the traditional Buddhist belief that all illness ultimately results from the “three poisons” of the mind: ignorance, attachment and aversion.

Traditional Tibetan Medicine addresses the well being of the whole individual in the observation, healing and prevention of physical, mental, and energetic imbalances.

By synthesizing knowledge from various medical systems, Tibetans created a approach to medical science drawn from thousands of years of accumulated empirical knowledge and intuition about the nature of health and illness.

Centuries ago, before Buddhism entered Tibet, Tibetans like all ancient people had a significant degree of medical knowledge. According to traditional sources, in the beginning of the 4th century many new ideas regarding medicine began to enter the country. At first influences came from India in the form of what is now called Ayurvedic medicine, as well as more spiritual and psychologically based systems from Buddhist and other sources.

Around the 7th-8th centuries the Tibetan government began sponsoring conferences where doctors skilled in the medical systems of China, Persia, India and Greece presented and debated their ideas regarding health and the treatment of illness. Those with superior abilities in the diagnosis, treatment and understanding of illness were invited to stay and contribute to the country’s medical knowledge base.

In the 11th century, this knowledge was codified into a unique system containing a synthesis of the principals of physical and psychological medicine imbued with a Buddhist spiritual understanding. This understanding formed a foundation for Tibetan medicine and benefited patients and doctors alike. It acknowledged how health and illness resulted both from the relationship between the mind and the body and people’s connectedness to the natural world and sense of spirituality.

Next time: A Look at how Traditional Tibetan Medicine works.

Ayurvedic Medicine: The Oldest System of Medicine, Part 2

In the last article on the roots of healing, I discussed how over the eons, the art and science of healing, as it becomes ingrained in a society’s way of being, becomes more systematized and formalized.

One such system, and the oldest system of medicine on the planet, is Ayurvedic Medicine. In the last article, Ayurvedic Medicine: The Oldest System of Medicine, Part 1, I talked about its origins and roots.

Today I will continue with the discussion, with Part 2 about Ayurvedic Medicine.

(Please note: After today’s column, I – and the Low Density Lifestyle website – will be on hiatus for the next two weeks. So this is the last article until Tuesday, Aug. 31).

As I mentioned in the previous article, Ayurveda stems from the Vedas, the ancient classical sacred texts of Hinduism. It is a medicine based on balance, and is a medicine of the body, mind and soul. It is closely associated with the other Hindu disciplines of yoga and tantra, which together are seen as the three paths of Vedic knowledge.

Ayurveda believes that building a healthy metabolic system, attaining good digestion, and proper excretion leads to vitality.

When people think of Ayurveda, they often think of the three Doshas: vatta, pita and kapha. According to Ayurveda, these three Doshas (literally that which deteriorates) are regulatory principles that are important for health, because when they are in a balanced state, the body is healthy, and when imbalanced, the body has diseases.

The three doshas stem from the five great elements: Prithvi – earth; Aap – water; Tej – fire; Vaayu – air; and Akash – ether. Ayurvedic principles hold that all of these compose the Universe, including the human body.

In addition, Chyle or plasma (called rasa dhatu), blood (rakta dhatu), flesh (mamsa dhatu), fat (medha dhatu), bone (asthi dhatu), marrow (majja dhatu), and semen or female reproductive tissue (shukra dhatu) are held to be the seven primary constituent elements of the body.

The doshas are comprised of the different elements. Vata is air and space, or wind; pitta is fire and water, or bile; and kapha is water and earth, or phlegm.

The Ayurvedic doctor uses a number of diagnostic approaches in order to determine the right diagnosis and understand which of the doshas is most predominant. This will then help the doctor to determine the best course of treatment.

This is actually standard protocol in any system of medicine, and what separates a system of medicine from just an approach or modality.

In a system of medicine, the doctor first makes a diagnosis, and from there determines what the best treatment principles and course of treatment is.

The difference between Ayurvedic, and any other traditional system of medicine, and modern/Western medicine, is that with Ayurvedic, diagnosis and treatment is both an art and science, and as an art it is known that sometimes the body will work in mysterious ways.

Whereas with modern/Western medicine, diagnosis and treatment has had the art taken out of it, and has become a technological science that attempts to reduce things down to absolutes, which then allows no room for the mysteries of healing.

In fact, in the modern/Western way of medicine, the mysteries of healing are best to be avoided at all costs.

And so, with diagnosis for the Ayurvedic doctor, the patient is to be questioned and all five senses are to be employed. Ayurvedic texts recommend a tenfold examination of the patient.

The qualities to be judged are: constitution, abnormality, essence, stability, body measurements, diet suitability, psychic strength, digestive capacity, physical fitness and age. Hearing is used to observe the condition of breathing and speech.

The study of the vital pressure points, or marma, is of special importance – it is the trauma science described in Ayurveda. There are 107 different spots described and located on the body surface which produce different signs and symptoms. With respect to the underlying anatomical structures, the symptoms vary according to blunt or penetrating trauma. The severity of the symptoms and signs also depend on whether the injury is exactly on the marma point or slightly around it.

Treatment includes diet and herbs; herbs may be a misnomer, because the Ayurvedic herbal pharmacy includes vegetables, animals and minerals.

In regards to the vegetable part of the herbal pharmacy, warming herbs such as cardamon, cinnamon, tumeric and pepper are very popular. They are said to strengthen the digestion.

Animal products include milk, bones, and gallstones. And minerals used include sulfur, arsenic, lead, copper sulfate and gold.

Some minerals employed by Ayurvedic medicine are toxic, but traditionally the toxicity of these materials are believed to be reduced through purification processes such as samskaras, which involve prayers as well as physical pharmacy techniques.

At least one scientific study has looked at the process of purification of toxic substances in Ayurveda with lab mice. The study looked at aconite, which is used in Ayurvedic pharmacy formulations, and is an extremely lethal substance in its crude and unprocessed form.

The study compared aconite in its crude and unprocessed form, versus aconite in the form where it is processed by way of the samskaras, which involve prayers as well as physical pharmacy techniques.

Unprocessed aconite was significantly toxic to mice (100% mortality at a dose of 2.6 mg/mouse) whereas the fully processed aconite was absolutely non-toxic (no mortality at a dose even 8 times as high as that of crude aconite).

Other treatment approaches include: the application of sesame oil to the body, known as snehana, abhiyanga and shirodhara; sweating, known as swedana; and panchakarma, which is a Sanskrit word that means “five actions” or “five treatments.” This is a process used to clean the body of toxic materials left by disease and poor nutrition.

Ayurvedic Medicine: The Oldest System of Medicine, Part 1

I’ve been writing about the roots of healing in this series, and in the last article I discussed sound healing. I said how sound healing is one of the oldest forms of healing known to humankind.

Now I will expand beyond discussing healing approaches and begin to discuss various systems of medicine. As medicine begins to be part of a society’s way of life, it becomes more systematized and formalized, in order that it can be used by the masses.

Ayurvedic medicine is one such system of medicine, and it is the oldest known system of medicine on the planet.

Ayurvedic medicine is native to India. The word Ayurveda comes from the Sanskrit and means, “Science of Life.” In Sanskrit the word ayurveda consists of the words āyus, meaning “longevity,” and veda, meaning “related to knowledge” or “science.”

Ayurveda springs from the Hindu tradition, although Buddhism has also had a major influence on Ayurvedic ideas.

Ayurveda traces its origins to the Vedas, the ancient classical sacred texts of Hinduism. There are four Vedas, and Ayurveda is said to stem from the Veda known as Atharvaveda, which contains 114 hymns or formulations for the treatment of diseases. Ayurveda originated in and developed from these hymns. In this sense, ayurveda is considered by some to have divine origin.

According to legend, the system of medicine was received by a man named Dhanavantari from Brahma, and Dhanavantari was deified as the god of medicine.

Dhanavantari is said to be an avatar of Vishnu from the Hindu tradition, and god of ayurvedic medicine. Dhanavantari was an early Indian medical practitioner and one of the world’s first surgeons.

Based on Vedic traditions, he is regarded as the source of ayurveda. He perfected many herbal based cures and natural remedies and was credited with the discovery of the antiseptic properties of turmeric and the preservative properties of salt, which he incorporated in his cures.

There is a quote attributed to Dhanavantri, in which he says, “I the Lord Dhanavantri brought this healing science on earth from heaven.”

Ayurveda is a medicine of the body, mind and soul, and is closely associated with the other Hindu disciplines of yoga and tantra, which together are seen as the three paths of Vedic knowledge.

According to Robert Svoboda, a doctor of Ayurvedic medicine:

“Because every embodied individual is composed of a body, a mind and a spirit, the ancient Rishis of India who developed the Science of Life organized their wisdom into three bodies of knowledge: Ayurveda, which deals mainly with the physical body; Yoga, which deals mainly with spirit; and Tantra, which is mainly concerned with the mind. The philosophy of all three is identical; their manifestations differ because of their differing emphases. Ayurveda is most concerned with the physical basis of life, concentrating on its harmony of mind and spirit. Yoga controls body and mind to enable them to harmonize with spirit, and Tantra seeks to use the mind to balance the demands of body and spirit.”

Within Ayurveda, there are eight disciplines of treatment, known as Ashtangas. They are:

* Internal medicine (Kaaya-chikitsa)
* Paediatrics (Kaumarabhrtyam)
* Surgery (Shalya-chikitsa)
* Eye and ENT (Shalakya tantra)
* Demonic possession (Bhuta vidya): Bhuta vidya has been
called psychiatry.
* Toxicology (Agadatantram)
* Prevention diseases and improving immunity and
rejuvenation (rasayana)
* Aphrodisiacs and improving health of progeny
(Vajikaranam)

Balance is a central theme in Ayurveda. Balance is emphasized; suppressing natural urges is seen to be unhealthy, and doing so may almost certainly lead to illness.

To stay within the limits of reasonable balance and measure is stressed upon. Ayurveda places an emphasis on moderation in food intake, sleep, sexual intercourse, and the intake of medicine.

Ayurveda incorporates an entire system of dietary recommendations, along with lifestyle recommendations, in order to help achieve balance.

To be continued tomorrow…