Everytime we see Benedict Cumberbatch’s version of Sherlock Holmes decode and unravel a mystery each of us wistfully wishes to possess that ability to make our brains calculators too, to be that observant, shrewd in pin-pointing cause and effects. Well, some people are born with it whereas more than 18 lakh citizens in our country and many others worldwide train themselves to do it.
Yes, I say that confidently because we really do. “ How? ” you ask, well we shall see just precisely how now.
Right from the 1st year the basic mechanics of how a normal body functions is grasped by young 18 year old minds through Physiology and anatomy. The fundamentals of Shareera rachana and Kriya take us through a journey of building blocks and pouring in the foundation for a gigantic construction that is yet to be visualised completely. The journey moves on and takes us through a huge maze of facts, puzzles, normals and abnormals, health and disease. As we learn about age-old concepts and try to fathom how to make head or tail of it , we’re now bombarded with seeing and facing people in direst and distrust. Getting these people to open up, start from the beginning of their journeys, listen , then calculate their prognosis is a seemingly insurmountable task, yet it’s done regularly, almost 24/7 by people in the field.
Where is the decoding here? How can you compare this with Sherlock? you ask.
That’s where roganidana stepped in . Just to give an example of the basic set of factors the vaidya or consultant looks into, let’s step in one of their shoes .
Male, age 40, hailing from Madurai, arrived at the clinic complaining of intense abdominal pain in the upper right quadrant. What would be required to assess this situation ?
The build of the person, age , the type of pain, time of onset of pain, aggravating and alleviating factors, duration of pain, the climatic condition of the patient’s home town, the fluctuation in that climate due to travel, whether the patient had food or not, if the food was an allergen, the type of food and its quantity, general background of diseases that the patient suffer from, diseases that run in the family, strength of the patient, the kind of appetite he has normally, specific susceptibility to certain disorders, mental status of patient, any other associated complaints, if it is of recent onset or a sustained issue, if he had any other medication. The list almost seems endless right. Well that’s how med students feel too. Apart from this if we’re looking properly from the ayurvedic angle - dushya, desha, bala, kala, anala, prakruti, vayas, satwa, satmya, ahara, checking naadi, mutra, mala, jihwa, shabda, sparsha, drik, aakruti, vikruti, sara, samhanana, pramana, satmya, satwa, aharashakti, vyayamashakti, etc. The person is analysed from all these angles and then the thread of clues connecting the whole picture is used to unravel the cause for disease and a solution is arrived at. Throughout the process we keep in mind that the other person is also a living, breathing, thinking, emoting human going through a phase of dis- ease and difficulty where we are mediators to facilitate them to regain a state of health and well being .
Sherlock may be a great example for someone who can connect the pieces , but his clues were based on the outside world and were absolute physical ones. A vaidya on the other hand is a king of subtle understanding and a master of the codes of this universe. He is the ultimate human being , in tune with nature and views , in every creature he comes across the entire universe :)
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