Ayurveda

Ayurveda, a Sanskrit word, denotes the Traditional Medicine of India. Translated as the science of life, the term more accurately implies the wisdom in living. Several thousand years old, its ancient roots produced an integrated body of enduring knowledge and practice incorporating medicine, psychology, aesthetics, philosophy, the humanities, and spirituality. Yet, it goes beyond only immediate care of health symptoms and illnesses by suggesting principles and practices for overall self-development and good health. This book offers the reader a concise yet detailed overview of thousands of years of deep thought and clinical work aimed at improving the human condition. Concentrating on healing and prevention, the practice is intended to restore balance and instill better health through consciousness and the connection between body, mind, and spirit. Through Ayurveda, Dr. Ninivaggi offers guidelines toward achieving a better quality of life and health in all areas of one's life.
For thousands of years, Ayurveda has merged the traditional wisdom of eastern medicine, psychology, aesthetics, philosophy, the humanities, and spirituality to form the foundation of a worldview that is today prevalent throughout India. Now, Frank John Ninivaggi introduces one of the oldest medical systems to the West in a manner that is intelligent, understandable, and practical. By moving beyond conventional treatment of symptoms for illnesses such as diabetes, obesity, coronary heart disease and others, Ayurveda offers alternative principles and practices for overall self-development and better overall health by focusing upon life's purpose, its ills, and their treatments.
Using a completely Ayurvedic perspective, this book takes the reader from the beginning and moves step-by-step through the historic origins of the universe, including all sentient matter within it, to the interrelationships these have to each other. It is clear that Ayurveda is a tradition that has evolved from antiquity and has endured through oral as well as literal translations. The text demands that Western readers peel off the sheaths of their way of thinking about the origins of matter and life....This book provides a comprehensive history of the development of Ayurveda, including its relationship to Buddhism, with occasional references to traditional Chinese medicine. The reader is quickly drawn into the conceptualization of the world from the Ayurvedic perspective.--JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association
Written by a North American psychiatrist, this is a first-rate introduction to a set of traditional medical theories and practices from India that are represented as an organized system of healing principles and clinical interventions. In India, Ayurveda has enjoyed a postcolonial resurgence, and elsewhere it finds a place today among alternative and complementary forms of medicine. Healing as a process of restoring balance through exercise and physical manipulation, prescribed diet, and carefully selected herbal remedies is a key feature of Ayurveda. Ninivaggi gives these components full attention, but is particularly interested in Ayurveda's philosophical background as relevant to his own practice through an emphasis on cultivation of consciousness that inspires a biopsychospiritual perspective for clinical psychiatry, drawn from the ancient East and the modern West. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his former student Deepak Chopra earlier popularized Ayurveda in the West; Ninivaggi's book reflects the more nuanced consideration that Ayurveda is receiving now....Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers.--CHOICE
Dr. Frank Ninivaggi, MD is one of very few physicians who has knowledge and deep understanding of Ayurveda. I am particularly enthused by his ability to simplify complex concepts. Readers will see this ability throughout the book. Because of increasing emphasis on 'healthy lifestyle', physicians all over the world are looking for an alternate approach. Ayurveda provides a very good alternative because of his unique approach to establishing harmony between the body and mind. This undoubtedly is an important book that will make an essential reading not only for the physicians and health care workers but also for those who are interested in promoting a healthy life style.--Rajendra Badgaiyan, M.D., assistant professor, Harvard Medical School Associate Neuroscientist, Massachusettes General Hospital Harvard University
Dr. Ninivaggi has done us a great favor in providing this clear and scholarly presentation of Ayurveda. His text includes a welcome effort to make correlations among Ayurveda, neuroscience, and Western physiology. We in the West have much to learn from these ancient observations and procedures.--Robert Evans, M.D., clinical professor, Child Study Center and Psychiatry Yale University School of Medicine
Frank Ninivaggi's updated second edition of Ayurveda strikes me as an ambassadorial success. The volume introduces concepts of ancient Indian medicine in a tone readily grasped by the Western reader and easily incorporated into a traditional medical framework. As a practicing psychiatrist, I was especially pleased to learn of the riches that this ancient body of knowledge has to offer us on wellbeing: the books renewed entreaty to live well and meaningfully is welcome and timely indeed.--Andres Martin, M.D., MPH, Yale Child Study Center
On the road to a one-world medicine, this book is the most concise and comprehensive text on Ayurveda on the market. You must read it if you want an in-depth understanding of the functional concepts of Ayurveda. The definition of the technical terms from each chapter is summarized in helpful glossary at the end of the book, which serves as a practical help for students of Ayurveda.--Dr. Henry J. Greten, Heidelberg School of Chinese Medicine and the German Society for Traditional Chinese Medicine