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Cancer – Ayurvedic Perception
Factors responsible for conversion at the tissue level
Vaidya M. P. Nanal (Ayurved Foundation)
Cancer is a disease characterized by an uncontrolled growth of various cells of the body. These affected cells could be at different stages of maturity. The growth is uncontrolled and rampant. As an ayurvedic physician I know from my point, what factors control body tissue growth, multiplication and their destruction. So if I give it due consideration, I can come to a certain conclusion about the state of a particular person.

We cannot cure cancer, but we can keep a lot of conditions under control – those which are not very virulent. Sarcomas are very virulent, so we have not been able to do much. But mylomas, lymphoma and breast cancer respond favorably to treatment than certain kind of leukemia like CLL and CML. But the diagnosis by an ayurvedic physician may not be necessarily confined to cancer diagnosis. I have been able to isolate 24 conditions. In this, the symptoms resemble a condition called “ Cancer”. The person comes to me with cancer, I examine and diagnose him, then treat him according to my findings. Therefore, I get different viewpoints. Since, each viewpoint is different the conclusion is different and both conclusions could be equally valid. Since these systems are mutually exclusive they are not necessarily complementary to each other. So what is known as CML may be impossible to treat by a particular method, but it also becomes treatable, not curable, by another system of medicine. Homeopaths might also have something to say on this. The human body could be understood by various ways. A physician would look at the body from particular point of view say by looking at weight, volume and inertia. A chemist would be more concerned with the valance structure and everybody would have correct perceptions. It is the truth which is the sum total of all this. If you look at it from a fragmented point of view then it will be misleading.

Let us look at the tissue metabolism according to the ayurvedic view. The conversion of ingested food to body constituents by digestion takes place at three levels, rendering it to a progressively subtle state. Due to this it becomes progressively devoid of waste products. The conglomerate of factors which bring about this transformation are collectively known as Ahara Parinamakara Bhavas. Each has a definite role to play in the process of digestion. Any malfunction of these, singly or collectively, leads to the initiation of intrinsic disease process. Malfunction of these singly or collectively leads to inhibition of digestion which manifests not as Rasa but as Ama. This ama is a highly toxic, gross, dense, slimy, cold and heavy substance. It is not nourishing in nature but contaminating and vitiating. As it is manifested in place and instead of Rasa it has access to all the sorts of Rasa. Owing to the density and heaviness, it causes suppression of Vata activity, vitiation of Pitta activity and a substantial contamination of Kapha. Because of the gross dense attribute even if it succeeds in escaping the alimentary canal it cannot penetrate the individual tissue or organ cells. Thus it deprives distant tissue cells of their nourishment and due to its undigested or partially converted nature it causes imbalance of all the three doshas proximaly.