A good patient: How to practice preventive medicine with Ayurveda
What is it to be a good patient? The word patient originally meant “one who suffers”. It was derived from the Latin word patien, meaning “I am suffering”. It seems a very passive word; being the victim who has to endure, and being treated by others. On the other hand, Ayurveda has many names for diseases and imbalances, but rarely uses formal term for the person experiencing the illness. There is no personalisation of disease (such as diabetic, addict or heart patient), which puts distance and objectivity between the illness and the person experiencing it. This presents the “patient” with an opportunity to be part of the healing process, perhaps even the main driver, rather than a passive passenger.
Most of us don’t consider ourselves to be passive about our health. I beg to differ. In this modern world, we push ourselves until we are quite unwell, make an appointment with a doctor and get pharmaceutical drugs which often suppress the symptoms so we can get on with our lives rather than endure having to rest and care for ourselves. We wait until our health is no longer in our hands, and then introduce chemicals with their own imbalances and side effects, into an already taxed system. It is only when we are unwell and taking the time and effort to heal, that we are presented with the opportunity to rest and reflect. How did we get here?
We often recognise that we are falling ill well before that cough and cold sets in - fatigue, joint pain, a sore throat, feeling moody or irritable; these are the gentle nudges to slow down and pay attention. Compared to modern medicine, Ayurveda recognises the transition from subtle to gross symptoms using the six stages of disease: accumulation, aggravation, overflow, localisation, manifestation and chronicity (modern medicine often picks up stage 4 onwards).
In the first three stages, the symptoms are subtle and somewhat tolerable. Stage 1: Accumulation is when subtle signs of excess dosha (combinations of the elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether) begin to gather, such as walking and talking fast when there is excess air and ether. In stage 2: Aggravation the accumulated energies begin to cause mild symptoms such as feeling gassy and dried out. In stage three: overflow, the excess accumulates enough that it causes the dam to break - allowing the imbalance to spread to other parts of the body, such as feeling anxious or overwhelmed. This is often when we get a sense of just not feeling right or “feeling off”, without any specific symptoms.
Stage four: localisation, is the point at which the imbalance starts to impair specific organs in the body such as the liver, lungs, uterus or small intestine, which creates Ama or metabolic toxins in the organ. As these toxins build in the organ, we get a heavy head, a scratchy throat, painful menstruation or acid reflux - stage five: manifestation. And finally, Ama continues to be created along with an increasingly systemic imbalance in the dosha affecting many parts of the body, diagnosed as stage six: chronic disease such as diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and chronic pain.
Until stage three, we are often capable of reversing the imbalance through diet and lifestyle adjustments because we still have a natural inclination towards balance and harmony. But once we pass stage four and the imbalance is no longer localised, our minds and bodies are equally affected, so recognising the root cause of the issue and making changes becomes more challenging. This is why avoiding the things we know make us feel unwell, such as caffeine, alcohol, soft drinks, cigarettes, overwork, unhealthy relationships, anger, anxiety, etc, become more difficult over time. Working with someone who applies the Ayurvedic lens can help shed light on how to manage, or even reverse the stages of disease. Prevention is better than cure, and certainly easier!
Lying under the covers with bed socks, wads of tissue and herbal tea is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the points at which you progressed from stage one to three to five, and what prevented you from being able to discern the need to slow down and pay attention. Not for self judgement or criticism, but to learn about who you are and where your energy and focus were in that time. Nature is its infinite wisdom provides us with ample opportunity for self awareness and self care; it is what we call “suffering”.
“When you learn how to suffer, you suffer much less”
