Ayurveda: A Comprehensive Guide to Traditional Indian Medicine for the West [Hardcover]

Frank John Ninivaggi (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0313348375 | ISBN-13: 978-0313348372 | Publication Date: November 30, 2007 | Edition: 1

Derived from prehistoric sages living in ancient India some r c9730 years ago, Ayurveda denotes life wisdom. The medical system of India, it is arguably the oldest medical tradition that exists. This book translates the Eastern wisdom into terms and concepts Westerners can understand, and Ninivaggi presents the text with both scholarship and compassion. He explains how Ayurveda can promote physical and mental health by targeting threats from acute and chronic stress, to contemporary disorders such as pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, coronary artery disease, and diabetes. Practical, user-friendly nutritional guidelines for maintaining health and addressing health imbalances are given. The center of attention in Ayurveda is the person. The meaningfulness of a quality of life in the world is central. Living a quality life with others and in accord with nature - the environment at large -is emphasized.

Derived from prehistoric sages living in ancient India some 6,000 years ago, Ayurveda denotes life wisdom. The medical system of India, it is arguably the oldest medical tradition that exists. This book translates the Eastern wisdom into terms and concepts Westerners can understand. Ninivaggi presents the text with both scholarship and compassion. He explains how Ayurveda can promote physical and mental health by targeting threats ranging from acute and chronic stress, to pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, coronary artery disease, and diabetes. Practical, user-friendly nutritional guidelines for maintaining health and addressing health imbalances are given. The center of attention in Ayurveda is the person. The meaningfulness of a quality of life in the world is central. Living a quality life with others and in accord with nature—the environment at large—is emphasized.

Health strategies are suggested for specific individual constitutional types, to prevent emotional distress, to treat illness, and to enhance optimal living. Avyureda has been handed down across millennia, virtually intact to the present day. It is a comprehensive way of living whose scope includes proactive health measures as well as integrated healing strategies for body, mind, and spirit.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Written by a North American psychiatrist, this is a first-rate introduction to a set of traditional medical theories and practices from India that are represented as an organized system of healing principles and clinical interventions. In India, Ayurveda has enjoyed a postcolonial resurgence, and elsewhere it finds a place today among alternative and complementary forms of medicine. Healing as a process of restoring balance through exercise and physical manipulation, prescribed diet, and carefully selected herbal remedies is a key feature of Ayurveda. Ninivaggi gives these components full attention, but is particularly interested in Ayurveda's philosophical background as relevant to his own practice through an emphasis on cultivation of consciousness that inspires a biopsychospiritual perspective for clinical psychiatry, drawn from the ancient East and the modern West. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his former student Deepak Chopra earlier popularized Ayurveda in the West; Ninivaggi's book reflects the more nuanced consideration that Ayurveda is receiving now….Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers."

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Choice

"Using a completely Ayurvedic perspective, this book takes the reader from the beginning and moves step-by-step through the historic origins of the universe, including all sentient matter within it, to the interrelationships these have to each other. It is clear that Ayurveda is a tradition that has evolved from antiquity and has endured through oral as well as literal translations. The text demands that Western readers peel off the sheaths of their way of thinking about the origins of matter and life….This book provides a comprehensive history of the development of Ayurveda, including its relationship to Buddhism, with occasional references to traditional Chinese medicine. The reader is quickly drawn into the conceptualization of the world from the Ayurvedic perspective."

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JAMA

"Although it is claimed that this volume can be used by any health-oriented layperson, it would seem to be most beneficial for those in a seminar or class with a qualified professional. It is very scholarly and should be a useful addition to any library having an alternative health collection."

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ARBA

Review

"Frank Ninivaggis updated second edition of Ayurveda strikes me as an ambassadorial success. The volume introduces concepts of ancient Indian medicine in a tone readily grasped by the Western reader and easily incorporated into a traditional medical framework. As a practicing psychiatrist, I was especially pleased to learn of the riches that this ancient body of knowledge has to offer us on wellbeing: the books renewed entreaty to live well and meaningfully is welcome and timely indeed."

(

Andres Martin, MD, MPH Yale Child Study Center

)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 376 pages
• Publisher: Praeger; 1 edition (November 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0313348375
• ISBN-13: 978-0313348372
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,056,869 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Comprehensive, March 22, 2011

By 

PAM "cat fairy" (Atlanta) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ayurveda: A Comprehensive Guide to Traditional Indian Medicine for the West (Paperback)

This is indeed a comprehensive ayurvedic medical guide, but what I appreciate most about this book is that it is written for the non-Indian layman, with historical background, pronunciations and explanations so that one can *comprehend* the scope of Ayurvedic. It is a fairly large book that looks somewhat daunting, but once you start reading, it becomes fascinating to see how everything connects.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superlative effort and very rewarding read!, August 8, 2011

By 

William Courson "William Courson" (Montclair, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ayurveda: A Comprehensive Guide to Traditional Indian Medicine for the West (Paperback)

Frank Ninivaggi has now authored two superlatively useful, superbly written books on the heretofore inaccessible subject of Ayurvedic medicine. His slightly shorter 1999 work, "Elementary Textbook of Ayurveda" was a well-rounded introduction to ayurvedic medicine for those unfamiliar with this fascinating and complex subject. His current effort, "Ayurveda: A Comprehensive Guide to Traditional Indian Medicine for the West" I look upon as a revision and an expansion of his earlier work.

"Ayurveda: A Comprehensive Guide to Traditional Indian Medicine for the West" is more comprehensive than any of the other volumes widely available and intended to be read by the general public. That is likely because, like his first book, it is meant to be an introduction to Ayurveda for western-trained health professionals.

Ayurveda is a lineage of healing that has evolved from the primordial past in a far-off land with an unimaginably different cultural context from the West and has endured through oral legacies of countless generations of healers as well as literal translations of radically varying quality and completeness. This text demands that Western readers peel off the sheaths of their way of thinking about the origins of matter and life - that is, discard their cultural preconceptions and - its most rewarding aspect - opens their eyes to a new way of thinking about health and healing.

The book's eleven sections deal with, respectively, Ayurveda's background, history and development; its theoretical underpinnings; anatomy, physiology (focusing on the physiology of digestion), the concepts of prakriti and vikruti, the disease process, nutrition, behavioral medicine and swasthavritta (physical and mental hygiene), specific ayurvedic therapies and materia medica, the role of consciousness in health and disease, and ayurvedic psychiatry.

One serious lack of Dr. Ninivaggi's earlier work has been remedied with the inclusion of an excellent and very useful index.

This is surely among the very first books on Ayurveda that I would heartily encourage anyone to read: others include Robert Svoboda's "Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution" and David Frawley's "Ayurvedic Healing."

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ayurveda, October 30, 2010

By 

Lynn Anderson (Ashland City, Tn United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ayurveda: A Comprehensive Guide to Traditional Indian Medicine for the West (Paperback)

Rather technical, but it may just seem technical because I am not familiar with many of the words.