What are the benefits and side effects of Ayurvedic treatments

As a traditional Indian life science with a history of nearly 5,000 years, Ayurvedic therapy can indeed regulate metabolism, soothe emotions, and improve sub-health status when used symptomatically and standardizedly. However, if the product is unqualified and the syndrome is not correct, it may also bring the risk of heavy metal poisoning and delay in the treatment of underlying diseases. Currently, there is always controversy over its efficacy and safety in the academic community.

When I worked as an assistant at a natural healing camp in Yunnan two years ago, I met a boy who was engaged in cross-border e-commerce. He stayed up late all year long and stared at the market in European and American time zones. He lost 20 pounds in less than a year and suffered from bowel sounds and diarrhea for almost half a year. He had several colonoscopies but no organic problems were found. He ate thousands of probiotics but his condition was good and bad. At that time, the camp's certified Ayurveda practitioner tested his typical Vata constitution and arranged for him to receive abdominal massage with warm sesame oil three times a week. A small amount of dried ginger and peppercorns were added to the warm water he drank daily. He was also forced to lie down before 10 o'clock every day and was not allowed to drink iced coffee. After two weeks, the frequency of his diarrhea dropped to once a week, and his overall complexion also brightened a lot. In fact, this kind of improvement is really not a metaphysics. The Vata, Pitta, and Kapha constitution classifications in Ayurveda simply put a person’s metabolic characteristics, behavioral habits, physical signs and personality into a systematic classification. The essence of the intervention plan given is a highly personalized lifestyle adjustment. Now, many studies have confirmed that the ingredients commonly used in Ayurveda, such as Tricarpa and Holy Basil, do have the effects of antioxidants, regulating intestinal flora, and reducing the stress hormone cortisol. The effect of hot oil massage on improving local circulation and relaxing nerves has been widely verified.

But there are really quite a few cases of fraud that we have seen over the years. Last year, a little girl from Hangzhou came to us for consultation. She said that she had followed the trend and bought the so-called Ayurvedic whitening pills handmade in India from an agent. Within 20 days of taking them, she first suffered from frequent nausea and regurgitation, and then her face turned gray. She went to the hospital for a check-up and found that her blood lead and mercury levels were several times higher than the safe limits. It took almost three months of detoxification to return to normal levels. This is actually the most prominent risk point of Ayurvedic therapy at present: traditional Ayurvedic preparations do have a tradition of using minerals and metals as medicine. If they are not processed in a standardized way and have not passed heavy metal testing by modern drug regulators, it is easy to have excessive residues. The US FDA has also issued a warning before. Nearly 20% of Ayurvedic herbal products sold online had heavy metal content that exceeded the safety threshold.

There are also many people who regard Ayurveda as a "magic medicine" and do not go to regular hospitals for treatment if they have clear underlying diseases. They stop taking regular medicines and rely only on healing and herbal treatments. Some of them eventually become seriously ill. I have seen warning cases in the industry before. A type 2 diabetic patient stopped taking the anti-diabetic drugs prescribed by the doctor and only took the so-called Ayurvedic "miracle anti-diabetic medicine". Within three months, he was admitted to the ICU due to ketoacidosis.

The academic circles are now very clear about Ayurveda. Scholars who support it believe that its "holistic conditioning and personalized intervention" approach has high reference value for long-term intervention for chronic diseases that are highly related to lifestyle, such as hypertension and hyperlipidemia.； Opposing scholars believe that the efficacy of most Ayurvedic therapies has not been verified by large-scale double-blind experiments, and many of the promoted "curative effects" lack sufficient scientific support and can easily mislead patients.

To be honest, what we usually tell the clients who come for consultation is that if you just want to adjust the sub-health caused by staying up late and being stressed for a long time, or you want to find a way to relax, it is perfectly fine to find an institution with formal qualifications and try products with qualified test reports. However, if you really have a clear organic disease, you must not use it to replace conventional clinical treatment. After all, no matter how effective the conditioning method is, it must be used in the right scenario and with the right group of people to be truly effective.