Name of Lecture: …An Ayurvedic Approach to Chronic Pain and Stress Management

Name of Speaker: …Dr R.K. Mamgain    

Program Time: …1130-12am

Name of Reporter: …Yeahee Kim

Main Points of the Lecture: .... Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential damage. Pain can be categorized as either acute or chronic. Modern biomedicine can effectively deal with acute pain, but for chronic pains Ayurveda can be helpful. As an Indian traditional medical system, Ayurveda deals with the body, senses, mind and atman altogether to make a healthy and balanced life. All people are born with a basic unchangeable constitution (prakriti) to which we have to adapt our lifestyle. An underlying concept of Ayurveda is the three 3 doshas which are vata, pitta, and kapha. Among them, Vata has the attribute of vayu and akasha and is the main factor for generating and separating pain. To manage chronic pain with Ayurveda, we have to understand fully the anti-vata medicine and diet and avoid aggravating factors for vata.

In the rational ayurvedic therapy, there are 2 kinds of treatments. The first is samashodhana – panchkarma, purification of the body to clean the channels. Panchakarma is the detoxification process in Ayurveda. It helps to balance the 3 doshas as an anti-vata activity. Second is samasamana – a change of lifestyle.