Ayurveda: The Art of Self-Care

India’s venerable medical system finds a home in the Hudson Valley

by Wendy Kagan and photographs by Annie Internicola, September 28, 2011

It’s not every day that you receive an Ayurvedic pulse diagnosis in a busy café at lunchtime. But that is exactly what I find myself doing on a recent Wednesday at Oriole 9 in Woodstock with Linda Lalita Winnick, a yoga studio owner and self-described “Ayurvedist.” I feel like I’m about to have my palm read by a fortune teller, and I think the dark-haired, doe-eyed Winnick would look perfectly natural in flowing clothes and a colorful headscarf. She puts her fingers on my wrist and visibly turns inward, listening deeply. Then she does what you don’t want any healthcare provider to do in your presence, especially with a hand on your pulse. She gasps. “Am I dead?” I ask. “No,” she says, smiling. “But your digestion is.”

The daughter of three generations of Western physicians, I was raised on a steady diet of scientific empiricism. I’m drawn in by soulful alternative practices like Ayurveda—Sanskrit for “the science of life”—but there’s a skeptic living inside me with one eyebrow raised; he has my grandfather’s voice. Nevertheless, I have to admit that Winnick is barking up the right tree about my digestion, which, though far from dead, is often in disarray. She goes on to tell me that she believes my digestive fires (called agni in Sanskrit) are “displaced” and perhaps lower than my stomach, their proper home. I’m intrigued, and I have to admit to that inner skeptic (sorry, Grandpa)—she’s right.

Wisdom from the East
Ayurveda is a complete medical system developed over 6,000 years ago in India. Its teachings are said to be passed down directly from the rishis, or realized beings, who established this method of caring for the body alongside interwoven concepts of philosophy and religion. In modern India, nearly 80 percent of Indians use it for health care, either exclusively or combined with conventional (Western) medicine. Here in America, Ayurveda is considered a complementary or alternative practice like traditional Chinese medicine. Though it has been slower to catch on than TCM, Ayurveda has gained recognition over the past decade—due in part to the work of Deepak Chopra, MD, the celebrity physician and New Age guru who unites the Indian practice with Western medicine. According to the National Ayurvedic Medical Association, the US is now home to more than 30 Ayurvedic training programs, many introduced in the past few years. And thanks to the widespread popularity of yoga—Ayurveda’s sister science and physical discipline—Ayurveda is poised to emerge from the realm of spas and health care “lite” to the larger mainstream world of holistic medicine.

Rooted in the five elements, Ayurveda holds that all health depends on the balance of the doshas, or vital bodily energies. Each person presents a unique mix of the three doshas: vata (ether and air), pitta (fire and water), and kapha (water and earth). The concept is similar to the somatotypes developed by William Herbert Sheldon in the 1940s, with slim ectomorphs resembling active vata types, muscular endomorphs reminiscent of fiery pitta, and softer mesomorphs corresponding with earthy kapha. Yet in Ayurveda, the typing is not so simplistic; the system recognizes that these qualities can blend into a constitution as one-of-a-kind as a snowflake. An individual will have one primary dosha, while another dosha will be secondary and the last, tertiary. An Ayurvedic doctor or practitioner can assess one’s dosha through diagnostic tools like Winnick’s insightful pulse reading, as well as tongue analysis, eye analysis, and discussion with the client.

Ayurveda regards all disease and bodily disorder as the result of a doshic imbalance, and treatment involves restoring the delicate equilibrium of vital energies through various approaches ranging from herbal remedies, diet, and exercise to daily habits and lifestyle changes. A great gift of Ayurveda—and one that is sorely lacking from the Western medical approach—is its offering of a complete program of preventive self-care tailor-made for each person. “It’s a matter of educating people about how to take care of themselves really well,” says Winnick, who holds a master’s degree in the science, consults with clients, and threads Ayurveda’s teachings through her yoga classes.