Determination of causative factors of disease in Ayurveda and alot more

Determination of causative factors of disease

• Misuse of sense organs
• Pradnyaparadha – crimes against wisdom; dhi, dhritti and smrtti
• Parinama – external effects.

Parinama – if someone is following everything then what would be the reason for disease? If someone is following everything in right manner – food in right dosage, ritu and dinacharya they can still get diseases or vitiation of doshas. External effects such as seasonal changes or natural effects like floods etc… can effect doshas – certain diseases will happen: that is called parinam.

 

Seasons with respect to vitiation of doshas and coming back to normalcy.

Shishira – late winter  
Vasanta – spring             
Grishma – early summer
Varsha – rainy season   and late summer
Sharada – autumn          
Hemanta – early winter

Earth is moving in proper fashion and seasons not due to certain areas – due to sun, moon, wind or prana, and all of it is atmospheric. Even though a little different from place to place in microclimate, the same seasons are everywhere as well. In India, people think there are 3 seasons – summer, winter, and rainy. But there are same 6 seasons. When we are saying its raining in rainy season due to Shita Guna (cold quality), Kapha and Vata increase and go out of balance.

Okay, before we go into that, draw yourself a circle. Now draw a line from the top to the bottom cutting the circle into a left half and a right half vertically. This line is showing the path of the sun and the length of the day. Lets say the top of this line is the Winter solstice or where the sun changes course, the shortest day of the year. This means the other end of that line at the bottom of the circle is the longest day of the year in the middle of Summer. This IS what makes up all of the seasonal varieties. Uttarayana and Dakshinayana. Look em up for a deeper understanding, since this concept is throughout all of the Vedic wisdom at its foundation.

Top of the circle is the coldest and wettest and the bottom of that circle is the hottest and driest. This is the basic foundational understanding that makes up the seasons in the atmosphere. When you understand this perfectly, you can then apply it to whatever latitude you wish and understand how it would change and what will happen to the elements for each season there. Work to understand the basic template of the seasons before trying to understand it in any detail to variation of location, desha (land).

Pitta. Pitta accumulates in the second half of summer and then aggravates in autumn. The moisture and humidity of the second half of summer after the days start to shorten starts the accumulation of pitta. Nowhere in the United States that I have personally experienced has there ever been pitta accumulation or aggravation in the beginning of summer time, especially in New Mexico where it is very dry in the Summer. This is counter to what is taught in the Western world as Ayurveda. Pitta cannot be accumulating or aggravated in the beginning half of summertime due to it being the driest season of the year. Pitta is water element and fire element and therefore it gets dried out and cannot increase due to dry heat of summer. The increase in moisture in the middle of summer where it starts to get a bit more humid can start to increase pitta. I personally lived in New Mexico while attending the Ayurvedic Institute and experienced no pitta increase in summertime. This is in opposition to what Dr. Vasant Lad teaches there and in his books as well as all of his students stating in their articles on the web ezines. It is very incorrect and if one was to treat based upon this idea, it will harm and create disease badly. I have not seen aggravation of pitta at all anywhere in the US during summertime except in cases where vata was pushing pitta in individuals that are excessively pitta imbalanced to start with. Besides all of this, real Ayurveda diagnosis with the gunas. One guna of a dosha can be aggravated and the other gunas are fine. This is deep diagnosis and how Ayurveda has to be practiced to have accuracy in treatment. Be very careful on what you read and believe. It isn’t about the doshas and a check list. Even don’t trust what I am writing. Take it, question me, and experience it for yourself. A blind and numb trust will only cause more ignorance and suffering.

 

Chaya, – dosha increasing and accumulating in their place only

Prakopa – increased dosha in enormous quantity and vitiated.

Prashama – dosha comes back to normalcy

This is the normal patter or cycle in nature. It is only due to avidya (ignorance) and pragnaaparadha (willful violation of wisdom)

Doshas are constantly changing. They are not the same the whole life and even in the day.

In the beginning of summer, excessive heat from sun, causes laghutwa (lightness) in everything. In water, seeds, grains and everything. Because of that, vata starts increasing but because of heat (ushna guna), vata doesn’t go out of balance. Because of dryness, pitta does not accumulate and kapha has come back to normalcy. In the late summer, vata aggravates due to the increase in vayu. The winds change direction. I have personally seen this everywhere I have been in America at this time of year. It is to be experienced.

 

Hemanta (early winter) and Vata. Vata will only go up in winter if the individual is not eating enough and not feeding their agni (digestive fire). In this case, the agni eats the dhatus (tissues) and it increases ether (akasha) and vayu (air). Due to the coldness of winter, the heat of the body is pushed into the digestive system and the extremities are left cold. Vata cannot go up due to this. This is also opposite to what is taught in the Western ayurvedic world. It is totally possible for people who have vata imbalances already to have vata go up at this time. This does not mean vata is a seasonal change at this time though. What proves this is the lack of vata diseases that are see at this time. Vata diseases have their symptoms in early late summer. Can set your watch by it. Every year I see many patients that have nerve pain like sciatica show in summer not winter.

Kapha and Vasanta (Spring) – In late winter starts Kapha is accumulating in body, but with heat in spring, starts to come out of the body in aggravation. Can cause certain conditions like seasonal allergies, colds, flus… of which these really do not exist but are just the impact of continuing to eat foods that increase kapha during this season – this is time of kapha prakopa. If we give a little push to that – vamana esp. good (medicated emesis in real Ayurvedic treatments) (not to be done on your own!!!!) or kunjal kriya in yoga, it helps to hurry that process, get rid of kapha and move things along more quickly. Vamana is specifically done as ritucharya to specifically keep dosha in balance. It maintains health and heals disease by reducing vitiated kapha. Vamana in done only in morning in kapha time, this is before 8 AM (based upon textual reference and completely against Western idea of kapha time. Vamana is only given before 8 AM ever in India)– kapha is already increased, and helps to eliminate when kapha is in maximum quantity.

In Spring, all one needs to do is control urges and control eating (eat more kapha reducing food) so one doesn’t further aggravate kapha. Allergies happen in spring when kapha is high. Not in summer, even if it is warm, it’s the spring – people start eating cold desserts like ice cream and yogurt and its kapha accumulation time, so aggravate kapha excessively. Not pollens at all, but rather kapha. Jala neti can be helpful if we give importance to warmth of water and then do neti, can be helpful to keep kapha under control. It can also create complications if the water is cold. Salt actually increases kapha. From an Ayurvedic view point, doing jala neti everyday is not good and would never be prescribed. However if done properly, probably would be all right for a healthy person. Should research more before trying. Maybe I will write a post on this.

Kapha, if it keeps accumulating in body, once reaches stages of prakopa and then moves into the next stage of disease, it shows the premonitory symptoms of a disease, after that point will start heading into disease state and you will have different symptoms and after that you will have a label-able full blown disease.

Kids and kapha– Gerber food (if you want to call it food) increases kapha in babies bodies. When child is in infancy it needs specific herbs and foods – when child is born, 1 month later start mixing certain herbs in breast milk. That takes care of baby and excessive kapha, pitta, and vata – keeps doshas in balance. Guti – herb mix that rub on stone and mix with milk and give to baby. If a baby has constipation, more haritaki can be used. Loose stools, more dry ginger can be used. In certain cases, give it to the mother and the medicine comes through breast milk. If mother becomes ill, she needs to stop breastfeeding – if mother has fever etc. Mother has to be cured within short period of time because breast milk is by far the best for a baby.

Here is a few things for babies:
Boiled milk with dry ginger and Vidanga – heat milk with both herbs and ½ water, let water evaporate out and whatever is left you cool, then strain, then give to baby/small child. Vidanga in seed first ideally, then powder if you can’t find the seed.

Vidanga’s qualities are (katu vipaka, tikta/katu rasa, ushna/but not very ushna virya, anti-parasitic, very nourishing to rasa dhatu, excellent for pitta, antialmetic/reduces worms – most important part is that it helps to reduce kapha/marshy quality of body). Vidanga purely reduces kapha and therefore worms don’t like to live there. This is how to naturally deal with parasites in all cases. Change the environment. Vidanga is good for kleda as well.

Vacha/Calamus – also good for reducing kapha and anti worms but prabhava is that it helps the mind to increase dhee/dhrutti/smrutti. Beneficial for kapha. Good for depression and headaches too but those are not main indications to be used for. VERY ushna.

Once again, Ayurveda does not just use a single herb usually. It normally will use a blend that is a classical blend that has time tested results but the knowledge of herbal use is far more than taking a single herb because you have read it is good for something on a blog. Do not do that here please. Please do not try to do your own self diagnosis and treatment.

After spring, in Grishma (early summer), its comparatively getting more dry and naturally reduces kapha by ushna (heat), (dry), and ruksha (roughness)– bringing nature back to normalcy. If it was raining a lot in Grishma, it would increase kapha due to aap mahabhuta instead of reducing kapha. This is called parinama – the effect of an abnormal seasonal disturbance. By knowing how you are able to decrease kapha by diet, you can avoid seasonally abnormalities. By not understanding any of this, eating ice cream in the beginning of spring because it is getting warmer out, well…. you are living in the world of allergies, influenza, and colds and then needing vaccinations and antibiotics. Added to that a view that it is something outside of you that is making you sick. Wake up, it is not outside of you, just lack of knowledge and lack of awareness of nature, that is all.

Same thing with Pitta and Vata. They increase in body, show up, then naturally they reduce to the range of normalcy. The first two stages of accumulation and aggravation are the first two stages of disease. Nature creates them but brings it all back to normalcy naturally as well.

Constant change is nature. Human minds really don’t like that. The small mind is attached to meaning and entitlement or being special, our suffering is only due to the inability to be with what is natural and be present to all that is. That is change. This constant change is needed for the constant change of the human system as well as it is the chaos to order to chaos cycle of everything natural. The immune system needs building, the strength of the system needs building. This is the cycle of life and death or wane and wax. The sun takes away in summer. This is obviously seen by the drying of all of nature around. The grass goes brown the plants dry out. All of this is very simple to understand if you do your own landscaping and take care of plants. It is the same in our bodies, nothing at all different except for walking into freezing air conditioning from hot external conditions shocking the body and throwing pranas out of balance or gulping down a huge cup of ice water into the weakened digestive system in the middle of the hottest day. Just a couple things we typically do that maybe you might want to think about instead of spending that hard earned money on a expensive detox or the newest diet fad. Learning to dance with the seasons will make you healthy.

Grishma (early summer) is drier, hotter, increase of laghu everywhere which imparts to our body, we have already started accumulating vata but doesn’t go out of balance because of heat. Heat opens channels and vata doesn’t get stuck at a single point. Ex. If we have constipation, vata can get trapped and we show vata conditions like pain and dryness. If we warm the channels, we allow srotas (channels) to open and vayu moves through. This is also what is happening in abhyanga and swedana.

 

DIFFERENT STAGES OF DOSHAS

The three doshas and and their subtypes is discussed at nausea on the web and is what every book concentrates on so you can find the information of this there or in past posts. There is more important things to explain.

Each dosha has certain functions they perform, Vata- movement, Kapha – strength, Pitta – conversion

When we say a person is healthy and everything is in proper equilibrium, each dosha is working properly. If these same doshas go out of range though, they are responsible for creating diseases.

Ex. Anemia – layman thinks related to blood/hemoglobin reduced. In Ayurveda, it means rakta dhatu is disturbed, but a dhatu gets disturbed when a vitiated dosha is “attacking” it. When a disease is related to a dhatu, it cannot be just related to that dhatu – must be related to a dosha as well. Just because its blood related doesn’t mean its necessarily Pitta related. Anemia is mainly due to rasa dhatu specifically.

Ex. Obesity – fat is increased in body so layman or Western practitioners will think kapha is imbalanced or maybe they might go as far as to think meda dhatu is vitiated or increased. But meda dhatu will not vitiate on its own, must have kapha dosha pushing it, and therefore vata must be pushing kapha.

Disease ONLY happens in improper action of doshas. Dosha are an integral part of disease. The range of normalcy for doshas will increase and come back, not a particular level all the time. In the flow of the natural range if it goes above its upper limit, may result in pathological disturbance. Prakopa is upper level of normal range, if it doesn’t come down from that level, it will result in disease. If it is at its peak level of prakopa and we do something wrong that adds more to the system, it will result in disease.

Yogurt is not that bad – it actually acts as an aphrodisiac and is nourishing. It clogs channels though because of water content of whey which increase kleda. Kleda is actually responsible for the clogging of the channels. Add cooked mung or sugar to the yogurt, they both bind with water and then doesn’t increase kleda in body. Like mango lassi in summer when whole surroundings are dry, body needs some unctuousness and yogurt is good for that but whey protein is worst for that so use sugar or mix with mung beans. Increasing protein intake is responsible for certain diseases. Think about why we have so many new diseases out there and how many supplements we have on the market. I am not saying it is all from whey. Most of the stuff on the market is excessive and causes disease. What is healthy is a really great question to ask oneself and sit on it for a while.

Kleda reducing – best thing is exercise and then stop eating kleda karana foods. Then certain herbs like Punarnava (works on bladder). It depends on stage and condition before you figure out which herb to take though. Food that is kleda reducing is mung and green gram prepared in specific manner (make soup of mung). It can be kleda producing if prepared in a way like porridge of mung is with ghee/sugar/milk – this is surely not NOT kleda reducing.

Here is a recipe for kleda reducing:
2 tbl whole green mung, roast with a little ghee on pan. Heat beans to increase laghu and ruksha and that dryness will reduce kleda in body, ghee is important to stop increasing vata. Only a little because too much ghee will also increase kleda. Add water to it and boil for a long time. Don’t use pressure cooker as it gives a lot of heat in very short time. When you heat without pressure cooker, heat is given for a long time and because of that extra time, there is more lightness in mung beans which will help reduce the kleda. Laghu, ruksha and ushna – 3 gunas that help reduce kleda.

Making kitchadi to reduce kleda:
Roast rice and mung both to help reduce kleda increasing qualities. Due to the use chemicals etc. on rice, for kitchen storage, rinse the rice then allow to completely dry. Then roast and use. Dry in shade not in sun ideally. When mung is completely cooked, then its ready. Making mung bean soup in slow cooker can be a good idea for more time, but not to the extreme of 10 hrs. A couple of hours in the slow cooker is ok, not all day. This kind of slow cooking is not good and a ati or excessive samskara. Soaking mung overnight isn’t harmful, won’t increase kleda. Theoretically will add some water, but mung itself won’t increase kleda. If you keep too long, then it will sprout and will increase in kleda. THERE ARE NO SPROUTS OR SPROUTED FOODS IN AYURVEDA!!! They create excessively moist tissues that are not formed properly (abhishandi). Those tissues are ideal for the production of diseases.  

Everything is in respect to agni – if person is exercising heavily, agni is strong, may manage to digest the sprouted foods, but not good for most people. If you are exercising it won’t affect you right away because that reduces kleda, however long term it will.

Sprouts – Ayurveda emphasizes that anything that produces kleda should be avoided. When they are soaked in water, they retain water and when eaten, the body will start retaining water. That forms kleda, kleda mixes with meda dhatu, provides environment for worms. Now in US, there are not so many eggs of worms due to how excessively clean it is here (which presents other problems) and kids don’t hang out in soil, so actively there are few complaint of worms but it still creates the environment of kapha. Later in life, these is those big round parasite bellies and yeast problems.

Fermentation also increases kleda. Yeast and sugar are most important ingredients of alcohol. They create a reaction like in beer. This is why people that drink a lot can look bloated. It does the same in the tissues.

 

Doshas are integral part of any disease process/mechanism.

In any disease formation doshas are increased. When they are out of balance they are circulating throughout the body and get stuck at points of weakness. This point of weakness and the vitiation is the place where disease is formed.

 

Different stages of doshas –

There has to be doshas involved in disease. There can not be a condition where dhatus are out of equilibrium and doshas are in balance. It does not exist. Doshyanti iti doshaya – the one that has the capacity to vitiate the body.

Doshas causative factors are important to make doshas a pathological entity as opposed to a physiological entity. This is important to understand. Read this several times. Dosha labels are constantly changing according to the season – increase, go out of balance, and peak, then come back. Same thing for time doshas and periods in a day. Time for Vata increase – brahma mahurta and 3:00 pm ish. Evening is considered the time for Vata prakopa. Proof is the statistics for heart attacks in early morning time when vata is already increased. The settings have to be right though. As an example, when a person already having a vata imbalance, seasonally there could be vata prakopa, the time of day is when vata is most active… add this together for the causes of vata diseases like heart attack and asthma.

Dosha Vishamya – abnormal changes in the levels of dosha. Still not considered pathological, but abnormal or unusual. The chaya, prakopa, and prasham are all in the range of normalcy. Either doshas are reducing or increasing.

Dosha Kshaya – depletion of doshas and reducing doshas. Reducing not from prakopa to normal, rather from normal to below normal range, depleted. That depletion will cause loss of functions, normal functions are absent or impaired. When one dosha is in kshaya, another will be in vrddhi but this is a more complicated picture. This is also what most of the detoxing stuff that is popular out there does to people. There are no ways of understanding this from a Western model. It just does not exist. When should one detox or build or what????? With kshaya, there are not symptoms of disease yet. To generate disease, must be prakopa. Then it goes to particular point where dhatus can be affected and dosha gets stuck in that point of the body and create disease. At every level there are certain signs and symptoms, but not necessarily a disease. Symptoms are signs to help us to come into balance, and things do begin in their home.

Kapha Kshaya – say there is a case of kapha kshaya, not a disease at this point, but kapha is unable to perform its natural functions – to give moisture, unctuousness, strength to body. If kapha is not there, kapha is not doing its proper function. Ex. If someone is eating a very less amount of food, ahara rasa itself doesn’t have enough quantities of aap and prithvi mahabhuta and the dhatus are not nourished properly. The mala of rasa dhatu is kapha, no rasa means no kapha. Physiological change from normal, conditions are forming, but THIS is not disease yet per se. So if someone is fasting for a long period of time, kapha will be depleted, because the fast has increased laghu guna that leads to vata prakopa. They are opposites in gunas after all. Each dosha can affect the others – have potential to create changes in the others. Movement is vata only though. It takes vata to create a disease. If kleda kapha is depleted, digestion is affected. Specifically kapha kshaya itself won’t lead to diseases, but Vata increases and gets vitiated. A depleted dosha cannot travel because its depleted. Just that simple.

• There will be dryness in body (snigda guna also getting depleted, all unctuousness going down), specifically not a vata increase, it’s a reduction of kapha. How does one tell the difference? Unctuousness is reduced, what remains is dryness but not an actual increase in dryness, just seems to be because no unctuousness. Dryness is felt more prominently when moistness is reduced. First property you will see is lack of unctuousness, What do you think all the fear of fats and cholesterol in the Western world has done to peoples health?
• Then burning sensation due to loss of moisture – if you have an umbrella in the sun you don’t feel the sun, remove the umbrella, then you feel the heat. The umbrella is kapha. Kapha is gone and then you start feeling the heat of Pitta that is always there.
• Laxity of joints due to no strength.
• Excessive thirst – when we are sweating we experience loss of water, body needs water and we get thirst. Even if pitta is in perfect balance, exerciser will still need water to replace that which was loss. Pitta not the cause of the thirst. Loss of water is cause of thirst. This is not from pathological view.
• Emptiness in stomach due to depletion of kapha and depletion in kleda kapha specifically.
• Lack of proper sleep, lack of good amount and quality of sleep. If kapha was in proper balance it would give good quality of sleep. Rudravaha – sounds related to heart – if kapha is depleted, avalambhak kapha at site of heart is depleted and it causes cardiac murmer.
• Giddiness – lightheaded/slaphappy/bhrama – the person feels he is not stable on the ground, feels like he is falling down, not grounded. There are 2 types of bhrama – one related to vata, one related to pitta. Kapha kshaya leads to vata prakopa after a long time. Anything in the body that leads to emptiness in body leads to air increasing and that leads to vata prakopa. Would also see ojakshaya (can be thought of as Immune dysfunction) at advanced pathological condition. This then leads to certain conditions and that would then lead to other issues. Kapha depletion affects tamas guna, it decreases. One might think they are increasing their sattva. Lol.

 

Pitta Kshaya – leads to reduced temperature in body, agni is reduced so the body feels cold and the luster of the skin is reduced. Maintaining proper temperature, keeping agni active, and giving luster to skin are all functions of pitta.

Dosha Kshaya is for only a limited time, then we focus on vata prakopa and then that triggers disease.

Vata Kshaya – movements in body becomes slow and sluggish, then lethargy and laziness, heaviness, overall dullness of body, lack of understanding. Gunas are seen in kshaya and vrddhi. And needs to be treated through them before gets to conditions or symptoms. Effects are much subtler than in prakopa. If not paying attention may not even be aware at start. Ignore it and then it may get to prakopa. If vata is not functioning properly, prana vayu is not working, so understanding and ability to take in is limited. Obesity will eventually happen but there is happiness long term to this person. Can you understand why?

 

To understand pathology, must understand dosha vishamya – dosha vruddhi kshaya. These are happening in the body, if it goes beyond them then it can turn into vikruti which leads to disease.

 

Kapha kshaya is when kapha goes down, then space where kapha was is empty and vata will fill that place. Think about dieting and detoxing here. Vata increases, when it goes beyond a normal level can lead to prakopa. This can happen in any season. Kshaya is a short state of time. When kapha goes down, vata has to and WILL go up, but can be a slow process. Pitta Kshaya could go either way because shita guna will increase, but could be wet or dry, so either kapha or vata could increase.

There are conditions where kapha and pitta are at base levels and vata could be increasing on its own. In kapha kshaya, it could be quickly changed by hunger and then it can be treated by eating a meal.

 

Dosha Vriddhi

 

Causative factors for increase in doshas.

 

Vata – rasa kashaya/astringent – has prithvi and vayu – becomes laghu and increases in vayu because like increases like. Katu – pungent, fire/tejas and vayu – so increase in vayu. Heat usually reduces vayu in body. But because the dry heat here increases dryness. Gati (path) of fire is always upwards so the lightness of the fire is always there. Vata then increases. Tikta Rasa (bitter) has vayu and aakash and is therefore MOST vayu increasing of the rasas. Kale is one of the highest vata provoking foods. Make dehydrated kale chips and what do you have? Bitter gourd juice will increase vayu in the body. In a pathological condition it is not that simple, in kapha condition one can’t just increase vayu to treat. In a vata condition that is already raised, will have more affect.

Neem juice in morning is so bitter and vata increasing that it can cause vata disorders, and it depletes shukra dhatu. If you connect it to real yogis and real brahmacharya, they often drink neem juice. So the sexual desire and libido is lessened. It will kill the shukra dhautu and reduce potency.

Onions and Garlic – They increase rajas and have a tendency to go downwards – actions are always in the lower part of the body. That is why onions specifically affect shukra dhatu. Onions increase shukra dhatu and increase desire. Garlic has aphrodisiac effect. They increase Rajas and Tamas in the body. People try to use as a contraceptive as an intra-uterine treatment.

Heat and cold (hot cold plunge) or also it has been applied to scrotum to reduce spermatogenesis. Bad for you because disturbs the spermatogenesis and imbalances doshas. At the same time this causes skin conditions. Testes should not be hanging because it disturbs spermatogenesis as well and causes vata prakopa. Body heat also can affect and should not be so high as to disturb the spermatogenesis. If you have certain diseases like pitta disorders like mumps, measles, jaundice etc. it will disturb shukra dhatu in body.

 

Vata – laghu, ruksha, shita – All beans aggravate except mung, moth, toor, and masoor/red lentils as don’t increase vata too much but all the rest of the lentils and pulses are very vata increasing. That is why must be cooked with oil and garlic. Hing is also used to balance vata provocation. Heating it all for certain period of time to then combine with lentils. Chana/chickpea when cooked without oil, ghee, or hing will greatly increase gas in the GI tract and stomach. If not eating garlic, add Hingwashtaka churna.

Certain grains like millet compared to wheat will increase vata, but much less so than ragi. Barley is not that vata increasing but will increase vata if consumed without ghee or milk because it is drying. Green peas increase vata. All dried and dehydrated vegetables increase vata. Light and heavy are all relative. Solution is to cook with ghee and heat, but over the long term it will still have its own effect on the body. If one is having green peas everyday, it will definitely have affect on body even if it is cooked with ghee and spices. All lentils have dryness. Some substances have similar appearance to body parts and are good for them like walnut are to the brain tissue. They are helpful for the brain tissue. Pigeon peas and dahl is good for skin and complexion. They have many benefits despite their vata increasing quality so use them with proper usage of ghee etc.

 

 

 

• 19/08/2014
• Ayurveda Articles
• 2 Comments