Correlation between ayurveda tridosha prakriti and body mass composition

2^nd International Conference and Exhibition on Traditional & Alternative Medicine

August 25-26, 2014 DoubleTree by Hilton Beijing, China

Kashinath G Metri

Accepted Abstracts: Altern Integ Med

Abstract :

Introduction:Ayurveda is one of the most ancient systems of medical health care. The basic principles, diagnosis of the diseases and their treatment is on the basis of individual prakriti (birth constitutional type). Ayurveda further classifies the prakriti of an individual on the basis of a set of psychosomatic attributes of personality, depending on whether this individual belongs to Vata, Pitta, or Kapha prakriti, or any combination of them. The appropriate prakriti assessment is done by several means including questionnaires. We aimed to obtain experimental evidence correlating Ayurveda based tridosha-prakriti with western constitutional psychology somatotypes. Methods: We employed Tridosha-prakriti questionnaire, and compared its results with a set of body composition parameters: Height, body weight, body mass index (BMI), muscle mass, fat mass and fat percentage in 50 normal healthy volunteers of both sexes with age ranging between 18 to 40 years old. Two-tailed Pearsons correlations were used to match the extreme prakriti types with the western constitutional psychology somatotypes, through the mentioned body composition measures. Results/Discussion: Significant negative correlations were observed between the percentage of Vata attributes as per the questionnaire in the individuals and their BMI, body weight and fat mass respectively (p<0.05). Similarly, there was a significant positive correlation between the percentage of Pitta attributes with the height, body weight, and muscle mass respectively. Also, a significant positive correlation was observed between the percentage of Kapha attributes with fat mass and fat percentage, along with a negative correlation with height. Conclusion: This study provides evidence linking the ancient science of Ayurveda to modern constitutional psychology. In this way, a concept such as prakriti is suggested to lie behind the body mass composition of an individual, and deserves attention within the scientific community.

Biography :

Kashinath G Metri has completed his BAMS at the age of 26 from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health sciences Bangalore (RGUHS), Karnataka and then he competed his MD (Yoga and Rehabilitation) at the age of 30 years from S-VYASA University and currently perceiving PhD in Yoga from the S-VYASA University, Bangalore, Karnataka. He is working as an Assistant Professor in S-VYASA University. He has published 6 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as Assistant Professor and Ayurveda consultant at S-VYASA University Bangalore.