Ayurveda cover

Ayurveda

by Frank John Ninivaggi

Written by a North American psychiatrist (Yale Univ. School of Medicine), 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. The ancient wisdom of Ayurvedic medicine, with its emphasis on balance in diet and lifestyle, is a good fit with the contemporary Western model of integrative mind-body medicine. He introduces the underlying concepts, applications, and scientific research on this Indian tradition that treats disease from a holistic perspective. Appendices add a timeline of Ayurvedic oral and written tradition, list of disorders said to be caused by doshas (a fundamental bioenergetic principle, per the glossary), and clinical case examples.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?