Your Ayurvedic Diet -
Just the Start

The Ayurvedic diet is an essential part of the practice of an ancient medical art - Ayurvedic medicine.

As I have no personal experience with this type of normal blood pressure diet or its medical basis, I'm going to give you what I've studied about it.

However, I'll liven it up by taking some of its critics to task.

My main purpose is to give you enough info so you can decide to follow its principles either by yourself or under a holistic doctor who prescribes an Ayurveda diet.

I assume you are reading this because you are treating high blood pressure or trying to maintain normal blood pressure.

So, here we go.

Ayurvedic medicine was and is in many places of India the dominant medical theory and practice. Western medicine is challenging it there.

In the western world, it is a part of complementary alternative medicine practiced by a growing number of medical practitioners.

Let's start off with the Ayurvedic diet itself.

1. Keep away from meat, eggs and salt.
2. Limit your protein intake.
3. Eat vegetables and include lots of garlic and parsley.
4. Eat fruits, but specifically lemons, Indian gooseberries, grapes and watermelon.
5. Eat milk products.
6. Avoid caffeine and nicotine.

This diet is somewhat different from what we covered on the diets page. It looks more like a special combination of the Mediterranean and Low Sodium Diets.

Ayurvedic medicine recognizes three main functions in the body that control health. They are called doshas.

Treating high blood pressure addresses these doshas plus the heart and blood vessels.

The doshas are supposed to be in balance for the body to be in good health. This diet attempts the balancing in a particular way to reduce high blood pressure.

Certain Indian herbs and supplements are used in the treatment as well. A major one is Rauwolfia Serpentine, and there are others.

In addition to diet, many practitioners prescribe Yoga or other mild exercises, meditation, and relaxation techniques. Diet and supplements are the mainstays though.

In the past some Ayurvedic supplements were contaminated with heavy metals. This points to poor control over the production of these supplements in India.

I don't know if this has been corrected, but in the USA, the herbs would have to pass FDA standards.

Some western doctors consider this traditional Indian medicine to be akin to superstition. However to them, all alternative treatment is suspect.

Let's gouge these guys a bit - They claim Ayurvedic treatments are harmful or at best useless. However, they make no mentions of the short and long term harmful effects of the drugs they prescribe.

The consensus among most holistic practitioners is that Ayurvedic medicine is valid alternative medicine with several thousand years of trial and error behind it.

You could put yourself on the Ayurvedic diet mentioned above, but if you really want to give the whole treatment a try, search out a holistic doctor who practices it.

A Google search should get you some names of practitioners in your area.

Please remember my advice - diet is the mainstay of any treatment.

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