Ayurveda Treatment Evaluation.

Ayurveda addresses the causes of disease and the individual's personal response to these causes. Because each patient is evaluated according to his or her unique constitution, any aggravating causes, the present state of imbalance, and the stage of the disease process, there is less emphasis on standard treatments or remedies according to presenting symptoms.

In Ayurveda, there is less emphasis on treating someone according to the name of the disease and more emphasis on treating the subject's imbalance and aggravating causes. Ayurveda goes deeply to the root cause of disease, and the treatment protocol for any given disease may vary from person to person and according to the stage and specifics of the disease process. Because of this approach, Ayurvedic treatments are generally not standardized. Individuals with similar Western diagnoses may often receive different Ayurvedic treatments.

There is a 5000-year tradition of the success and usefulness of Ayurveda, and there are many articles and studies reported. Ayurveda has developed and is used as an integrated system of medicine in which a unified theory guides the assessment and treatment of the patient. Its theory of health and disease, disease classifications, language and, in some cases, outcomes are different from those in the West and therefore are difficult (but not impossible) to investigate using modern Western approaches. At this point, however, there is no organization of the available literature, and finding studies on a specific area is difficult. There is an interest in testing Ayurveda as a medical system, using accepted Western medical style protocols. These studies are in the beginning stages at several university medical centers in the United States. For thousands of years, thousands of physicians and millions of patients have believed in and practiced Ayurveda. The question is, can this efficacy be proven by Western medicine?
One problem with proving efficacy according to Western protocols is the issue of double-blind trials and the placebo effect.

The healing effects caused by the spiritual strength of the physician and placebos are acknowledged by Ayurveda and considered significant in many Eastern health care systems. However, these elements are generally difficult to quantify and may not be reproducible by every practitioner. In clinical studies to date, it seems that either the Western clinical protocols are compromised to allow for the satisfaction of the alternative/complementary side or the alternative/complementary side is unhappy with the changes necessary to satisfy Western clinical trial protocols. Many Western clinical trial studies are based on drugs and medicines formulated from a synthetically produced compound that can be quantified and standardized. Many of the Eastern approaches to health care, like Ayurveda, have a substantial pharmacopeia that uses only whole herbs.

These herbs may be processed into tinctures, powders, or combinations, but active ingredients are not separated from the whole; the entire herb is used and is therefore difficult to standardize. Despite these difficulties, the benefits of a number of Ayurvedic products and practices have been studied and are summarized in the next section.