Aea hefeekeerohevoh galeh yuvo (Oh My Gosh!)!

Ah (catching my wits), namaste.

I was reading on a web site the following:

"No doubt Caraka conceived the germ theory of the causation of diseases, but he rejected the idea that germs are the only causative factors for disease. On the other hand, he had advanced the theory that it is the imbalance of dosas and vitiation of dhatus which are primary causes of diseases, and various germs may grow in the body only when they get such a congenial environment. Both for metabolic diseases and infective ones, correction of the imbalance of dosas and dhatus constitutes the basic principle of all therapeutics. This is a unique feature of the Ayurvedic concept of diseases and their management as enunciated by Caraka in his monumental work.

"Surprisingly, Caraka is very modern in his emphasis on the prevention of diseases than on cure. Similarly, the theories of immunity, digestion and metabolism are quite mundane. Caraka's description of the general nursing home, maternity home, medical ethics, emphasis on experimental scientific methodology, repudiation of dogmatism, heredity and many advanced concepts of pathogenesis and management of diseases bears testimony to its relevance today."


I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS! I knew about this because I studied Natural Hygiene very thoroughly over 20 years ago. This is where the knowledge of NH came from! I just wonder how it made its way into the NH text books of the now-defunct Life Science Institute, which existed until about late '97. I even worked for them as a shipper, shipping out the course books for over two years. Anyway, this is how I see health, from that model of health rather than the model of disease, which is what western medicine is based on. I had no idea that I was living in a perspective originating from India!