How to Use This Guide's Ayurvedic Home Remedies Safely

Then choose the recommended treatment. On the few occasions when it is not mentioned whether a condition is vata, pitta, or kapha, you can feel comfortable using any general treatment suggestions made for that condition. The pharmacopoeia of Ayurveda is vast, including literally A NOTE ABOUT HERBAL MEDICATIONS thousands of medicines, many of them herbal preparations. For each condition listed here, I have tried to include several very simple remedies, utilizing common kitchen herbs or household strategies such as taking a warm bath.

I also recommend some common Ayurvedic herbs, most of which are easily obtained from various sources (see Resources). For guidelines on how to prepare your own herbal formulas, how to take herbs, how to make ghee, and other important information, please see appendix 2. For each condition, several suggestions are made. No one expects you to use SEE WHAT WORKS all of them.

Try what sounds good to you, and observe how it works. If it solves the problem, you don’t need to try any others. If it doesn’t seem to work, then try a different approach. Each person is different and will react differently to these remedies.

In self-treatment using Ayurvedic principles and DON’T BE DISCOURAGED IF A REMEDY DOESN’T WORK remedies, keep in mind a fundamental therapeutic guideline. If you diagnose your problem to be, for example, a vata disorder and embark on a treatment to reduce vata, then find that the treatment is not working or appears to be exacerbating the problem, this indicates that your diagnosis was not entirely correct. This does not mean you should give up on Ayurvedic remedies! Simply try using the treatment recommended for either pitta or kapha, whichever makes more sense to you considering your symptoms.

If you are untrained in Ayurvedic diagnosis, you may simply have made a mistake. So use your best judgment and try again. Sometimes the effect of the first remedy can give you a clue for a more beneficial treatment. For example, perhaps you thought your condition was due to excess kapha, and you decided to use a heating herb such as ginger, pepper, or trikatu to treat it.