Lifestyle is the interests, opinions, behaviors, and behavioral orientations of an individual, group, or culture. The term was introduced by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in his 1929 book, The Case of Miss R., with the meaning of “a person’s basic character as established early in childhood”. The broader sense of lifestyle as a “way or style of living” has been documented since 1961. Lifestyle sis a combination of determining intangible or tangible factors. Tangible factors relate specifically to demographic variables, i.e. an individual’s demographic profile, whereas intangible factors concern the psychological aspects of an individual such as personal values, preferences, and outlooks.
The incidence of lifestyle disorders like hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and overweight/ obesity associated with cardiovascular diseases has increased in the past few decades. Cardiovascular disorders continue to be the major cause of mortality representing about 30% of all deaths worldwide. With rapid economic development and increasing westernization of lifestyle in the past few decades, prevalence of these diseases has reached alarming proportions among Indians in recent years. The Global Burden of Disease study estimate of age-standardized CVD death rate of 272 per 100 000 population in India is higher than the global average of 235 per 100 000 population.
Ayurveda is an ancient science of life since time immemorial. Ayurveda, apart from providing various therapeutic measures for diseases, emphasizes on maintenance, promotion of health and prevention of diseases through Pathyapathya ahar-vihar (diet and lifestyle regimens). According to Acharya Charak, life is sustained by physical, mental and spiritual factors constituted by Sharir (body), Indriyas (senses), Satwa (mind) and Atma (spirit). Due to the Apathya ahar-vihar paricharya (faulty diet and lifestyle) normalcy of the Tridoshas is disturbed and they aggravate in the body. Vitiated Tridoshas disturb the normalcy of Dhatus and Malas causing their vitiation which manifests as various diseases in the body. Thus the health of an individual depends upon the normalcy of the Doshas, Dhatus and Malas. So, one should adopt a lifestyle which doesn’t provoke and disturb normalcy of tridosha in the body. These all will in turn help an individual to keep them healthy in every sense.
In Ayurvedic Science, we are born with an intrinsic nature, our Prakriti-that reflects both physical and mental qualities. We each have a body type, our Dosha – a unique blend of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, where one is dominant but all are present. This constitution responds to our diet and lifestyle choices, our relationships, our environment and even the seasons of the year. Imbalances can come from the wrong diet, exercising too much or too little, being exposed to chemicals or germs, not getting enough sleep, having emotional disturbances and many other factors.
Ayurveda is a holistic practice based on preventing illness and treating disease by addressing the imbalances that created them. We can restore this balance with Ayurvedic habits that can become a lifestyle that nurtures us to become our very best. And while everyone is different, there are some practices of this ancient wisdom that we can all benefit from incorporating into our lives. Maintenance of health of a healthy individual in Ayurveda can be achieved through following regimen described into Ayurveda keeping dosha dhatu mala siddhant in center.
Following ways are described in Ayurveda for maintenance of health and treatment of diseases.
Ahar – Diet and Nutrition
Vihar – Regimen of Personal and Social Hygiene- Dinacharya (Daily routine), (Ritucharya) Seasonal regimens, including basic sanitation and healthy living environment, Sadvritta (ideal routines) and Aachara Rasayana (code of conduct).
As Ayurveda is recognized as foremost life science and describes ways to prevent and manage lifestyle disorders. Ayurveda provides better solutions in the forms of proper dietary management, lifestyle advice, Panchakarma like vaman, virechan, nasya, basti raktamokshan, medicaments, and Rasayan therapies.
The holistic approach of Ayurveda, treating the patient as a whole, meaning intervention targeted toward complete physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being makes this science a wonderful and only choice to make in preventing and treating lifestyle disorders.
Basically, a particular lifestyle of a person is a cumulative product of his/her physical capacity coordinated with psychological functioning, displayed in the based on his own training adopted from childhood, and mimicries he gained from his immediate companions including parents, siblings, peers, etc. Thus, it involves a pure psychological and innate control over the physical and sensory activities.
The availability of a lifestyle intervention and providing health education are not enough to bring the desired outcomes in people. Once the Ayurveda based lifestyle intervention is developed and is found to be effective, safe, affordable and acceptable, then this intervention needs to be implemented in real practice through the behaviour change of people. A behaviour emerges from the interaction between three necessary conditions: capability (psychological or physical ability to enact the behaviour), motivation (reflective and automatic mechanisms that
activate or inhibit the behaviour) and opportunity (a physical and social environment that enables the behaviour). The behaviour change process helps an individual to transit from an unhealthy lifestyle to a healthy lifestyle and to adhere to the healthy lifestyle in the longer term. The established behaviour change techniques, such as information provision, exploration and reinforcement of motivation to change, goal setting, action planning, coping plans, and relapse prevention, should be used for this purpose. The selection and application of any additional behaviour change techniques should be based on the behavioral analysis, that is, by understanding the target behaviour. The main questions involved in this process are: why the desired behaviour is not occurring and what needs to change for the desired behaviour to occur?
There is a huge scope of implementing classical knowledge (that is, a healthy lifestyle based on Ayurvedic principles) into real practice, which will be beneficial to all of the society. This implementation of classical Ayurvedic knowledge should follow a systematic process, which must include robust research studies and behaviour change of people.
When this initiation, control, and coordination are disturbed, it leads to the derangement of lifestyle and results in any lifestyle disorder mentioned earlier. Ayurveda narrated this phenomenon as ‘Pragnaparadha’ (intellectual blasphemy) which is one of the three basic causes of any disease.
There are ample improper actions as an impact of Prajnaparadha which are root causes of various diseases, e.g., Vega dharan (habit of suppression of any natural urge) is a result of Prajnaparadha and enlisted as a cause of nearly 50% of diseases by Acharya vagbhatta. Reversal of any neurotransmission or improper removal of the waste products formed during metabolism leading to accumulation of toxins is the basic cause of any disease. Therefore, the habit of suppression of urge in improper lifestyle can be considered as one of the root causes of lifestyle diseases. Removal of these accumulated waste products is the first line of treatment as described in Ayurveda by Acharya Charaka.
In the management of lifestyle diseases, Ayurveda offers various regimens including Dinacharya (daily regimen), Ritucharya (seasonal regimen), Panchakarma (five bio-purification therapies), and Rasayana (rejuvenation) therapies. The Sadvritta (ideal routines) and Aachara Rasayana (code of conduct) are utmost important to maintain a healthy and happy psychological perspective. The inclusive utilization of all these treatment modalities has a great effect on lifestyle disorders. Moreover, the application of organ- specific Rasayana herbs also provides enough scope not only for prevention of disease, but also for the promotion of health and cure of disease too.
Personal Hygiene is essential for the maintenance of positive health. Daily routine followed with regulated Diet, Sleep and Bhrahmcharya is needed for maintaining a healthy life. But once disease occurs which is of two types Apatarpanotha and Santarpanotha, it can be cured by Shodhana (eliminating/ internal purification through Panchkarma) and Shamana (curative action) treatments and also by proper use of Rasayana therapies thereby a person can get a happy and healthy long life.
Hence, Ayurveda has an upper edge in treating the disease with emphasis on its root cause. The Ayurvedic physician concentrates on achieving the objective of Ayurveda for promotion of health, prevention and management of disease for a healthy and happy life in the ailing society.
