Ayurveda for prevention

Mere absence of disease does not mean that you are healthy. Diseases strike us when we least expect them. So one can't wait till they get ill. As we all know " prevention is better than cure" .The ancient Samhitha of Ayurveda quotes

" Swasthasya swaasthya samrakshanam , athurasya vikara prashamanam." 

Samrakshanam means to protect. Thus the foremost objective of Ayurveda is to protect the health of an individual  and then comes the vikara prashamanam meaning to cure the disease.

If we go through the history of medicine, the conventional western medicine was primarily disease oriented. The focus was disease management rather than health management. However in the last few years we can see that even the western system of medicine is thinking about wellness and not merely the cure.

Thus any health system should first focus on the prevention of the ill health and later go for the treatment of the manifested disease. As already said, Ayurveda , the science of life is primarily a health management  system with its objectives like

Prevention of the disease

Promotion of the health

Cure and rehabilitation of the diseases.

What do we mean my prevention? 

There are thousand reasons why a person gets ill. Then what to prevent? How to prevent?And when to prevent ?

Yes , there is an answer for all these questions and Ayurveda has exclusive theories for each of these modalities of prevention.

What to prevent?

" Nidanaparivarjanam"  meaning avoid the causative factors of  diseases. So Ayurveda gives a detailed description of causative factors of all the diseases particularly the Ahara  (food) and vihara(activities)which may cause the disease. Thus to prevent the disease,one has to prevent or I Can say avoid those causative factors of the disease

When to prevent?

As I mentioned earlier, we get sick with least expectations. But there are certain conditions where in we can expect some health disturbances like, during climatic changes, during an epidemic, etc, in such situations we can always take precautions before hand and keep the diseases away from us. In Ayurveda, these aspects are extensively dealt under Rtucharya (seasonal regimen) and janapadodwamsa ( epidemics).

How to prevent ?

The answer is known to each of us - good immunity, a proper diet, a healthy lifestyle and timely repair and rejuvenation of the body keeps a man healthy wealthy and wise.

But these days people are really confused about a proper diet, lifestyle and various ways of revitalising their body. So we will have to brush up on these concepts of Dinacharya, Ahara krama, swasthavrtta and rasayana krama dealt in Ayurveda.

So there is no need for a distinct term "preventive" to describe Ayurveda as prevention is intrinsic to the very management of health Maintaining health and well being is the central agenda of Ayurveda