Precisely how old Ayurveda is has been the subject of conjecture. The development of Ayurveda or of any science is a part of human evolution, involving the unfolding of curiosity and the increasing sophistication of human intelligence, synthesis, and observation. One cannot put a numerical age on Ayurveda since it began to evolve long before writing existed. When ayurveda is dated, it is on the basis of writings 3,000 to 5,000 years old although it undoubtedly far predates those writings. Attempts at dating ayurveda have proven both inaccurate and misleading, particularly so because India's ancient wisdom comprised an oral tradition, and there was much resistance by its scholars and seers to the reducing of such wisdom to writing, which they felt to be an ignoble end and an unsophisticated means for its retention in pure form.

Among the objects of their most intensive study and interest were issues of practical application: agriculture, animal husbandry, astronomy and the human body and mind - specifically, the means for maintaining their good working order and the means for their cure when either fell victim to disease or injury. The sum of the knowledge gained from their millennia-spanning study is known in Sanskrit as ayurveda or in English, the science of life.

In India and throughout south Asia, Ayurvedic medicine is taught in universities and medical colleges on an equal footing with western medicine, and qualifications for the practice of both disciplines are virtually identical. Governmental, academic and commercial support is devoted to research in specific areas of Ayurvedic medicine and the development of new forms of therapy.

Ayurveda's most distinctive features are its reliance of primarily natural remedies to treat and natural means to avoid disease, its extremely sophisticated system of diagnosis, and its categorization of patients into distinctive anatomic and metabolic types.

Ayurveda describes the existence of three fundamental types of the human metabolism, known as dosas (pronounced, and sometimes spelled doshas) and somewhat like the western medical concepts of endomorphic, mesomorphic and ectomorphic body types. These are together known as the Tridosa, or three categories, and include the Kapha, Pitta and Vata. Regimens for maintaining health and for its restoration vary from one type to the next. Each of the dosas is said to be represented by one or more of the five elements of the classical world: fire, earth, air, water or empty space (ether).

Kapha types tend to be short, squat and more or less rotund, like endomorphs. They are prone to put on and retain weight, love to eat and despise exercise or any form of physical activity. Their elements are water and earth, and the health challenges they are likely to face involve an overconcentration of body fluids and hyperdensity of bodily tissues. Notwithstanding the fact that they are sedentary, activity-avoiding overeaters, they are stable, long-lived and solid.

Pittas, represented by the element fire, are energetic balls of fire for whom physical activity is both a pleasure as well as one of life?s necessities. Being mesomorphs, having the character of fire, and exhibiting fire's dehydrating properties, they tend to have smaller amounts of fluid in their constitutions than than is optimal. Treatment of health challenges faced by Pittas may involve modifying their metabolic fire and employing moisturizing therapies.

Vatas, whose element is air, are - like air, light, vaporous, fast-moving and quick-changing. They may experience changes in their physical or emotional states very rapidly, changing direction in a manner not unlike air currents. Like fire, air has a dehydrating property, and health issues that are seen in vata individuals often betoken the need for increased internal and external moisture. They may also suffer from health problems involving the hypodensity of bodily tissues, such as (in later life) osteoporosis. They tend to be tall and thin-boned with small amounts of musculature: in other words, somewhat ectomorphic.

Few individuals represent one type, or dosa, exclusively: most individuals are a combination of two or even all three types, with one type often predominant.

Ayurveda was brought to the North American continent with the wave of Indian immigration in the 1960's and 1970's, to whom its practice was largely confined until the mid 1980's when the attention of the larger community was caught by the writings of Boston endocrinologist and Ayurvedic practitioner, Dr. Deepak Chopra. Today Ayurveda is increasingly one of the more widely known forms of traditional healing. Critical to its success has been the fact that Ayurvedic medicine has earned respect as a scientifically legitimate medical system around the world, and has been called by the UN's World Health Organization "an invaluable part of humankind's medical heritage and an important tool in the service and promotion of global health."

As Ayurveda becomes more widely known, it is hoped that resources for its study and practice will become more widely available. Apart from the writings of Dr. Chopra and other practitioners and well-known teachers such as Drs. Vasant Lad and Robert Svoboda, systematic instruction in this ancient healing art has been difficult to acquire. Only three institutions in the United States teach Ayurvedic medicine on a full time basis, and these are located in California, Florida and New Mexico. Several other institutions offer Ayurvedic certification programs throughout the country on a part-time basis, and one of these, New Jersey Institute of Ayurveda (www.ayurveda.mirrorz.com) offers its entire professional program via a distance learning format.

According to Dr. Aparna Bapat, program director of the New Jersey Institute of Ayurveda and a globally renowned practitioner, scholar and lecturer, there is both a thirst for and a crying need for Ayurvedic knowledge in this country. When health care systems fall into disrepair and fail, when medical care becomes unaffordable and out of reach of ordinary citizens, then clearly an alternative is needed and Ayurveda has been an effective and affordable presence for centuries.

Ayurveda has much to teach the west both about making health care and self-care more widely available to knowledgeable consumers, about the promotion of the idea of the individual's responsibility for the maintenance of his or her own health, and about the need for an integrated approach to health maintenance based on the unity of physical, mental and spiritual factors. It is hoped that as knowledge of Ayurveda spreads, resources for its study and practice will manifest more widely.