Ayurveda — “the knowledge of life” — is India's traditional system of medicine, recorded in texts such as the Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita and Ashtanga Hridaya. It sees health as a balance of body, mind and environment, and places great weight on daily routine, diet and prevention. This page explains the core ideas used throughout our condition guides.
Ayurveda holds that everything, including the body, is made of five elements (Pancha Mahabhuta): space (akasha), air (vayu), fire (agni), water (jala) and earth (prithvi). These are best understood as qualities rather than literal substances — space as openness, air as movement, fire as transformation, water as cohesion and earth as structure. In the body they combine into three functional principles, the doshas.
When a dosha becomes excessive (vriddhi) or depleted (kshaya), Ayurveda considers that disease can begin. Opposite qualities restore balance: warm, oily, grounding food and routine calm dry, light, cold Vata; cooling foods and a calm mind settle hot, sharp Pitta; light, warm food and activity lighten heavy Kapha. Each dosha also has five sub-types — for example Apana Vata, which governs downward movement and elimination, and Bhrajaka Pitta, which governs skin colour.
Prakriti is your constitution — the balance of doshas fixed at conception, shaping body type, digestion, temperament and tendencies. Someone with a Vata-predominant constitution may be slim, quick and prone to dryness and anxiety; Pitta, of medium build, focused, warm and prone to acidity and irritability; Kapha, sturdy, calm and steady, and prone to weight gain and congestion. Most people are a combination.
Vikriti is your current state of imbalance, which Ayurvedic treatment aims to correct. Our dosha checker gives an informal idea of your tendencies; it is not a diagnosis.
Agni, the digestive and metabolic “fire”, is central to Ayurveda. Balanced agni digests food and builds healthy tissues. Weak or irregular agni produces ama — a sticky, undigested residue that Ayurveda considers the starting point of many diseases, recognised by a coated tongue, heaviness, poor appetite and sluggishness. This is why so many Ayurvedic treatments begin with digestion: regular meals, warm cooked food, appetising spices, and not eating before the previous meal is digested.
The body is described as seven tissues (dhatus), each nourished in turn by the one before it:
| Dhatu | Roughly corresponds to |
|---|---|
| Rasa | Plasma, lymph, nourishing fluid |
| Rakta | Blood |
| Mamsa | Muscle |
| Meda | Fat |
| Asthi | Bone |
| Majja | Marrow and nervous tissue |
| Shukra / Artava | Reproductive tissue |
The refined essence of all seven is Ojas — vitality and resistance to disease — which stress, illness, grief and irregular living deplete.
Daily and seasonal routines — Dinacharya and Ritucharya — put these principles into practice.
Classical Ayurveda (Ashtanga Ayurveda) has eight branches:
On NeedsDoctor, we present Ayurveda as a complement to, not a replacement for, modern medical care — especially for serious illness, infections, emergencies, pregnancy and children. Please read our medicine safety guide before starting Ayurvedic treatment.