Ayurveda: A Comprehensive Guide to Traditional Indian Medicine for the West

(Hardback)

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Derived from prehistoric sages living in ancient India some r c9730 years ago, Ayurveda denotes life wisdom. The medical system of India, it is arguably the oldest medical tradition that exists. This book translates the Eastern wisdom into terms and concepts Westerners can understand, and Ninivaggi presents the text with both scholarship and compassion. He explains how Ayurveda can promote physical and mental health by targeting threats from acute and chronic stress, to contemporary disorders such as pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, coronary artery disease, and diabetes. Practical, user-friendly nutritional guidelines for maintaining health and addressing health imbalances are given. The center of attention in Ayurveda is the person. The meaningfulness of a quality of life in the world is central. Living a quality life with others and in accord with nature - the environment at large -is emphasized. Derived from prehistoric sages living in ancient India some 6,000 years ago, Ayurveda denotes life wisdom. The medical system of India, it is arguably the oldest medical tradition that exists. This book translates the Eastern wisdom into terms and concepts Westerners can understand. Ninivaggi presents the text with both scholarship and compassion. He explains how Ayurveda can promote physical and mental health by targeting threats ranging from acute and chronic stress, to pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, coronary artery disease, and diabetes. Practical, user-friendly nutritional guidelines for maintaining health and addressing health imbalances are given. The center of attention in Ayurveda is the person. The meaningfulness of a quality of life in the world is central. Living a quality life with others and in accord with naturethe environment at largeis emphasized. Health strategies are suggested for specific individual constitutional types, to prevent emotional distress, to treat illness, and to enhance optimal living. Avyureda has been handed down across millennia, virtually intact to the present day. It is a comprehensive way of living whose scope includes proactive health measures as well as integrated healing strategies for body, mind, and spirit.

Reviews

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 *
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 *
Although it is claimed that this volume can be used by any health-oriented layperson, it would seem to be most beneficial for those in a seminar or class with a qualified professional. It is very scholarly and should be a useful addition to any library having an alternative health collection. * ARBA *

Author Bio

Frank John Ninivaggi, M.D. is an Associate Attending Physician at Yale-New Haven Hospital, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Child Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, Yale Child Study Center, and a member of the Yale-New Haven Community Medical Group. He is also Staff Psychiatrist at Hall-Brooke Hospital in Westport, Connecticut, and the Medical Director for the Devereux Glenholme School in Washington, Connecticut. He is Board Certified in Psychiatry and Neurology, and in 2004 was certified as a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He received his training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He holds university and hospital appointments at the Yale Child Study Center, where he earlier received fellowship specialty training in child and adolescent psychiatry.