Ayurveda, which means "life knowledge" is perhaps the oldest organized medical system in the world. With its roots in the ancient Vedic culture of India, its concepts were passed down orally for thousands of years from accomplished masters to their disciples.  Much of what we now know as Ayurveda is the organization of this oral tradition into standard written treatises taught in Ayurvedic medical schools around the world.

Like most holistic medicines, Ayurveda places great emphasis on illness prevention and encourages the maintenance of health through close attention to balance in one's life.  Knowledge of Ayurveda enables one to understand how to create a balance among body, mind, and consciousness according to one's own individual constitution and how to make lifestyle changes to bring about and maintain this balance.  Just as everyone has a unique fingerprint, each person has a particular pattern of energy-an individual combination of physical, mental, and emotional characteristics-that makes up his constitution. This constitution is determined at conception by a number of factors and remains the same throughout one's life. 

Many factors, both internal and external, act upon us to disturb this balance and are reflected as a change from the balanced state. Examples of these emotional and physical stresses include one's emotional state, diet and food choices, seasons and weather, physical trauma, work, and family relationships. Once these factors are understood, one can take appropriate actions to minimize or nullify their effects or to eliminate the causes of imbalance and re-establish one's original constitution.

Balance is the natural order; imbalance is disorder. Health is order; disease is disorder. Within the body there is a constant interaction between order and disorder. When one understands the nature and structure of disorder, one can re-establish order.

Ayurveda identifies three basic types of energy or functional principles that are present in everyone and everything. Since there are no single words in English that convey these concepts, we use the original Sanskrit words vata, pitta, and kapha.  All people have the qualities of vata, pitta, and kapha, but one is usually primary, one is secondary, and the third is usually least prominent. The cause of disease in Ayurveda is viewed as a lack of proper cellular function due to an excess or deficiency of vata, pitta, or kapha.  By completing the following short questionnaire, we can help you determine your constitutional type and how to keep it in proper balance.