Balancing the Doshas: The Ayurvedic View of Health and Illness
Ayurvedic practitioners regard the balance of the doshas as their primary diagnostic
indicator. When the doshas are balanced, individuals experience health on all lev-
els: mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. It is much more than the mere
absence of disease. Mentally healthy people have good memory, comprehension,
intelligence, and reasoning ability. Emotionally healthy people experience evenly
balanced emotional states and a sense of well-being or happiness. Physically
healthy people have abundant energy with proper functioning of the senses, diges-
tion, and elimination. Spiritually healthy people have a sense of aliveness and rich-
ness in life, are developing in the direction of their full potential, and are in good
relationship with themselves, other people, and the larger cosmos.
Balancing one’s doshas does not mean trying to achieve an equal portion of Vata,
Pita, and Kapha. One cannot change the ratio of doshas that are present from con-
ception. Health is the balance of each dosha that is right for that particular individ-
ual. Doshas, however, are responsive to people’s habits, such as diet, exercise, and
daily routines, which can either deplete or increase the doshas. While both states of
imbalance lead to ill-health or disease, increased doshas are more problematic than
decreased doshas.
Imbalance in the doshas is the first sign that mind, body, and spirit are not perfectly
coordinated. One type, called natural imbalance, is due to time and age. Natural
imbalances are typically mild and normally do not cause problems. Each dosha
becomes more predominant during certain times of day, as energy moves through
six cycles in each 24-hour period: Veta predominates from 2 to 6, day and night;
Kapha during the hours of 6 to 10; and Pita from 10 until 2. Each dosha also pre-
dominates during particular seasons and stages of life. Kapha is predominate during
childhood and during the spring season, Pita during summer and middle age, and
Vata during fall and the latter part of one’s life.
Unnatural balances of the doshas can be caused by a variety of factors, each of
which falls into one of three broad categories of disease. Adhyatmikadiseases origi-
nate within the body and include hereditary and congenital diseases. Adhibhautika
diseases originate outside the body and include trauma, bacteria, and viruses.
Adhidaivikadiseases originate from supernatural sources, including those diseases
that are otherwise unexplainable, such as illnesses originating from seasonal
changes, divine sources, planetary influences, and curses. While some of these
causes are beyond individual control, lifestyle and diet are within one’s control.
Preventing disease and improving overall health depends on the recognition of
dosha imbalance and an understanding of the factors that increase and decrease
each of the doshas.56 ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TOALTERNATIVE MEDICINE