National Seminar on Preventive Cardiology in Ayurveda

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Cardiac disorders were considered fatal in ancient days and are so even today. The incidence of rate and fatality due to these appear to be increased because of increase in risk factors. Psychological factors including stress and fear were considered the causative factors thousands of years ago and are so even today. However, in stead of obesity it was karshana which led to the cardiac pathology. Similarly excessive exercise was a major cause of hridroga in those days. Today the improved financial status of people has changed the etiological scenario on the extreme side of the graph in these two aspects; as a result, lack of exercise and obesity are leading risk factors for preventable cardiac disorders.

However, the major concern is the alarming rate at which the cardiovascular diseases are turning fatal. The paradox of improved medical facility and so-called improved life style is that the cardiovascular disease-related deaths are presently the number one killer and consume one life every thirty four seconds despite so much advancement in medical field. They claim 17.1 million lives a year i.e. about 30% of total deaths in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 60 per cent of the world's cardiac patients will be Indian by 2010. In India in the past five decades, rates of coronary disease among urban populations have risen from 4 per cent to 11 per cent. Plethora of such evidences and reports imply that India will have to pay heavily economically and physically, if Indian population continues the present trend of life style. What a contrast! The country which thousands of years ago realized the importance of life style in the form of dinacharya and ritucharya needs reminder of the same to avoid this medical catastrophe.

Several risk factors have been identified and their control by preventive interventions is the goal in modern medicine. Preventive cardiology is one of the fields where Ayurveda can accept the challenge and come out with the flying colors, if Ayurvedic principles of maintenance of health and prevention of diseases are applied in their true sense. The realization of preventive cardiology has set in after concerted and sustained sincere efforts in this direction by scientists in several fields including cardiologists, geneticists, dietetics, pharmacists etc. This unique Ayurvedic concept, which was once frowned at is now guru mantra for a healthy life.

This important shift in the approach is based on histological evidences that vascular injury starts in adolescence and progresses slowly and silently to its gravity. By the time the condition is diagnosed a few decades have already passed for the concerned person. It is too late for him/her to return to the earlier healthy state. For a vaidya the implication of this is that the individual's natural doshic balance, which is responsive to age (childhood, youth and senile) in addition to other factors, is greatly influenced by the condition. The preventive intervention at that age differs widely from the preventive intervention at the early age, especially so keeping in the concept of prakriti and dosha variation according to age. Certain guidelines may be common for all, but not all.

The warning and subsequent medical advices are easy to say but difficult to execute. They require cooperation, coordination and commitment among public, medical professionals and government. Everyone appears to know every thing about cardiovascular diseases and their consequences, but the facts and figures (statistics) paint a different picture, otherwise how do we explain the rising graph of these diseases and deaths following them, which are otherwise preventable. Sustained, effective measures are required. The realization of importance of life style has to be efficiently practiced to bear the fruits of successful campaign. Risk factors like dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus and hypertension can be prevented or managed by the life style described as dinacharya and ritucharya and the interaction of prakriti of an individual with these and the environment. Again easier to say and difficult to accomplish is the Ayurvedic faculty requires to have large data bank for the standardization of prakriti with statistical data to significantly include the variation of different phenotypes imposed by dosha involved in prakriti. This ultimately should help us advise the healthy as well as at-risk individuals and the patients about the kind of life style.

In these coming two days we are here to discuss these issues and many more and exchange our experiences with others. The articles in full are compiled in this souvenir to enable entire Ayurvedic fraternity to have the access to them.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health Et Family Welfare, Govt. of India for encouraging to conduct such useful seminars. I also thank the President and other members of the Governing Body for their constant support in all the activities of RAV.

I thank Dr.Mrs.Sandhya Patel for her help in the preparation of this book and I appreciate the officials of RAV for their sincere efforts to achieve the goals set.

**Contents and Sample Pages**