Re: Absolutely must listen to this man

Physically I show symptoms of the Kapha Type, but mentally and personality and spiritually strong aspects of Vata and Pita. After doing a constitutional diet of a Kapha and losing 125 lbs, I developed a very Vata type metabolism. I believe you can change your constitution, and in fact create more imbalances to replace old imbalances.

So, I completely agree that proper diagnostic of constitution is essential and that Ayurveda is a complete science. However, the same could be said in that Western Allopathy and Traditional Chinese Medicine are complete sciences. Thus for the uninitiated, each of these schools of medicine is intimidating and inaccessible. Functional and integrative medicine bridge the gap and reach people who would otherwise be mistreated by doctors who for instance do not understand gall bladder and liver physiology as is understood in Ayurveda. However, Chinese Medicine offers poor advice in cases where herbs aggravate hormonal aspects of patients, and it could be said that TCM has a poor understanding of the endocrine system and psychology. Ayurveda has a superb understanding of both, and TCM has a strong understanding of infectious disease, liver issues, and lymphatic issues. Etc, etc.

With the integration of all three medical sciences, many practitioner's are set to make poor decisions as you suggest towards the specific constitution of the patient. This mans suggestions by far and large are quite well balanced, unbiased, and counter balanced with opposing argument.

I believe it really boils down to proper diagnosis of a person's specific constitution and conditions. In TCM, thorough diagnostics are made to select specific formulas. These are never based on constitution, but on illness conditions that are shown. They are not purely based on symptoms either, but rather on recognized patterns associated with specific illnesses. As, in some cases a case of liver heat and spleen deficiency with presented fatigue could potentially be caused by 10 different diseases and require 10 different formula.

Succinctly, it could be said that each school of thought has its weaknesses and strengths, and I believe if handled respectfully- the three could be integrated on a case by case basis for each patient.

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