Defence mechanisms of the body & Root causes of diseases – With the constitution of every individual
Ayurveda for a healthy life ! – 41/2024 on 1.12.2024
Rogapaharakshamata (Defence mechanisms of the body)
Earlier Portion—–
Every individual is born with a specific constitution, which he inherits from his parents. A person with healthy genes has an ideal constitution, which can resist various stresses & strains in life easily. More the defective genes, worse is the constitution. Such a person suffers from severe diseases & dies a premature death. The constitution that is resistance is constantly modified by diet, rest, activity, happiness, sorrow and environmental factors.
– Contd.
In Ayurveda, defence mechanism that is resistance at various levels is described in Particular way
1. Relative proportion of the causal elements that is satva, raja and tama in mind. Persons with predominance of Tama element are unable to tolerate even slight pain and break down under ordinary stresses & strains of life. Person with predominance of raja elements get emotionally upset over trivial matters and are prone to emotional out-bursts and temper tantrums. Persons with predominance of satva element can withstand extraordinary stresses and strains of life without difficulty. A tamas person never takes decisions. Rajasa persons are likely to take wrong decisions, whereas satvik person always take right decisions even under condition of stress.
These decisions constitute most vital defence mechanism of the body, as on these decisions depend even the survival of the individual. Pradnyaparadha that is not following one’s conscience is the root cause of all the diseases. For increasing satva guna that is for strengthening the mind and avoiding psychosomatic disorders, one should follow 1. The rules of good conduct & activity 2. Suppress various desires, instincts and emotions and develop philosophical attitude towards life.
2. Relative proportion of five basic elements in the body that is space, air, energy, water and earth.
Health may be defined as a state of perfect balance between the five basic elements both quantitatively and qualitatively. Increase or decrease in any element gives rise to disease and lowered resistance of the body example decreased and increased water content of the body give rise to dehydration and oedema respectively. Increase or decrease in internal energy gives rise to fever and shock state respectively. Body offers best resistance when all the basic elements are in balanced state.
3. Relative proportion of biological molecule viz. vata, pitta and kapha. Vata, pitta and kapha molecules constitute the structural and functional units of the body on which depend all the life process. The unbalanced state of these molecules gives rise to disease, while the balanced state both quantitatively and qualitatively is defined as health. Persons with the vata, pitta and kapha constitution example person with kapha constitution
feels chilled when exposed to rain, air-conditioned room and may develop cold, cough or an asthmatic attack. Person with pitta constitution is prone to develop bleeding disorders if he takes excess of pungent and sour food items or is exposed to sun. On the other hand, a person with balanced constitution rarely suffer from disease and enjoys burning heat of summer, biting cold of winter and lashing torrents of monsoon equally well.
How to maintain balanced state of vata, pitta and kapha and thus prevent disease is given in ‘Treatment of decreased doshas’ of the book, ‘Principles of Ayurveda’ by the same author.
4. Tissues and organs of good qualities
Tissues of inferior qualities are vulnerable to various stresses and strains example a person of poor quality of muscular tissue is prone to frequent attacks of cold. A person with inherited defect in the synthesis of blood may suffer from diseases like Cooley’s anaemia for which there is no cure. On the other hand, a person with good quality of liver & heart rarely suffer from jaundice & heart attack respectively.
A person with poor quality of bones is prone to develop fractures even with slight injury. On the other hand, a person with good quality of tissues rarely develops disease related to that tissue example person with ideal nervous tissue will rarely develop poliomyelitis, meningitis etc. & will have good memory even at the age of 100 years.
The resistance of tissues improves by administering appropriate diet and ‘tissue tonics’ as advised in chapter 15 of ‘Tissue’ of Principles of Ayurveda and in the chapter on Rasayana that is tonics.
In addition, Ayurveda has mentioned diet & medicines that act as tonics for various organs example ‘Hrudya’ diet & medicine means that act as tonic for heart, ‘Netrya’ means eye tonics, ‘Keshya’ means hair tonic, ‘Kanthya’ means throat tonics etc.
Thus healthy molecules, tissues and organs which have ideal structure and functions can defend themselves as well as the body from various stresses and strains of life.
Roganam Moolakaranani (Root causes of diseases)
The imbalanced state of doshas that is structural & functional molecules (both intracellular as well as extracellular) of the body, dhatus & malas is defined as disease. The various aetiological factors alter the milieu interior that is bring about quantitative increase or decrease; or alter quality of the various doshas, dhatus and malas. The aetiological factors as well as precipitating factors are limited. The same aetiological factor can give rise to number of diseases or different diseases in different persons e.g indigestion may give rise to rheumatism, bronchial asthma, vomiting, diarrhoea, skin disorders, depending on which organ is weak in particular patient. The products of indigestion that is Aama gets absorbed in circulation & accumulate in tissues or organs which can’t resist their entry. Weakness of tissues or organs is either hereditary that is genetic in origin or is the result of various illnesses or insults. A person with weak lungs is susceptible to recurrent attacks of cough or asthma; while a person with weak intestines suffers from recurrent attacks of diarrhoea and dysentery. In a person with marked weakness of a particular organ, the disease will be precipitated by minor, or insignificant precipitating factors example even exposure to breeze, or fan, fatigue, infection, hair bath etc. can precipitate an attack of asthma in a person born with weak lungs. A person born with genetically healthy tissues can live a full life of over hundred year’s despite of all the vices and irregularities of life. On the other hand, one peg of alcohol or smoking few cigarettes may cause cirrhosis of liver or lung cancer in persons with weak liver and lungs respectively.
In medicine, very rarely can we incriminate one agent as the cause of a disease. Even in case of infectious disease, causative organism is only one of the causes of the disease example though we say that poliomyelitis is caused by virus of polio, only 1 out of 5000 cases infected with the virus develop an attack of paralysis in poliomyelitis. Only those children whose nervous tissue can’t defend itself against polio virus develop poliomyelitis. The susceptibility to disease is increased by injury, exertion & fatigue. Thus, poliomyelitis is caused by not the virus of polio alone but number of factors like 1. inherent weakness of anterior horn cells 2. poor defence mechanism of the body like antibody formation 3. lower resistance of the anterior horn cells by factors like injury, exertion, fatigue, injection etc 4. the number of polio viruses entering in the body 5. virulence of polio virus 6. state of immunity of the child which may be natural following previous exposure to the virus or acquired as a result of administration of polio vaccine. Thus, every disease is multifactorial in origin, though some factors may be more important than others as causative agents.
The details of history gives clue to the aetiological factors which include the main causative factors as well as the aggravating, relieving and precipitating factors. Examination of the patient as well as the history give us an idea about the structural and functional state of various biological molecules that is vata, pitta and kapha, various tissues and organs and waste products.
It is much more important to understand the genesis of the symptom, or the disease process in an individual patient rather than labelling the name of the disease. This is natural as unless the aetiological factors, which vary from patient to patient, are corrected, the disease cannot be eradicated example treating lung cancer alone is not sufficient unless one tackles the route cause that is smoking. Hence, the physician who understands aetiopathogenesis of the diseases can alone get the insight into the disease process and guide the patient correctly so that he can restore his health.