Ayurveda and Lifestyle Modification : Research to Practice

Copyright © 2017 Phcog.Net. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Cite this article : Chattopadhyay K. Ayurveda and Lifestyle Modification: Research to Practice. Int J Med Public Health. 2017;7(3):132-3. ABSTRACT The global burden of non-communicable diseases is rapidly increasing, and the essential management strategy is to follow a healthy lifestyle. Ayurveda can play a major role in this aspect, as the primary aim of Ayurveda is to prevent diseases by following a healthy lifestyle. However, in order to implement such classical knowledge (that is, healthy lifestyle based on Ayurvedic principles) into real practice, a systematic process needs to be followed. This systematic process must include robust research studies (that is, development and evaluation of Ayurveda-based lifestyle intervention) and behaviour change of people. This paper describes these two important steps in detail. In conclusion, there is a huge scope of implementing classical Ayurvedic knowledge into real practice, which will be beneficial to all of the society.


INTRODUCTION
Globally, there is a huge burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, respiratory diseases and diabetes.Around 55% of all cause disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), 1a a summary measure to indicate the overall burden of disease and includes mortality as well as morbidity, are due to NCDs. 1 Modifiable lifestyle factors, such as physical inactivity and unhealthy diets, are some of the important risk factors of NCDs and thus, the essential management strategy is to follow a healthy lifestyle, including diet. 2 However, the conventional or western care model has its own limitations in terms of its effectiveness, safety, affordability and acceptability. 3Ayurveda, a system of medicine that originated in the Indian subcontinent, can play a major role in this aspect.The primary aim of Ayurveda is to prevent diseases by following a healthy lifestyle. 45][6] However, in order to implement such classical knowledge (that is, healthy lifestyle based on Ayurvedic principles) into real practice, a systematic process needs to be followed.This systematic process must include robust research studies and behaviour change of people.

STEP ONE: DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF AYURVEDA-BASED LIFESTYLE INTERVENTION
The evidence-base of Ayurveda related studies is extremely poor, which is either due to the non-existence of research studies or poorly conducted research studies. 7The first step should be to develop an Ayurveda-based lifestyle intervention and then, to evaluate its effectiveness, safety, affordability and acceptability.Globally, the United Kingdom Medical Research Council's guideline is used for development and evaluation of complex interventions. 8This guideline should be used to develop and evaluate Ayurveda-based lifestyle interventions, which are considered to be complex.It should be noted that this is an iterative process, as shown in Figure 1, and mixed methods approach (quantitative (including economic evaluation) as well as qualitative) should be used. 8[11][12][13][14]

STEP TWO: BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
The availability of a lifestyle intervention and providing health education are not enough to bring the desired outcomes in people. 15,16Once the Ayurveda-1a One DALY represents the loss of the equivalent of one year of full health. 1based lifestyle intervention is developed and is found to be effective, safe, affordable and acceptable, then this intervention needs to be implemented in real practice through the behaviour change of people.A behaviour emerges from the interaction between three necessary conditions: capability (psychological or physical ability to enact the behaviour), motivation (reflective and automatic mechanisms that activate or inhibit the behaviour) and opportunity (a physical and social environment that enables the behaviour). 17,18The behaviour change process helps an individual to transit from an unhealthy lifestyle to a healthy lifestyle and to adhere to the healthy lifestyle in the longer term. 15,16The established behaviour change techniques (BCTs), such as information provision, exploration and reinforcement of motivation to change, goal setting, action planning, coping plans, and relapse prevention, should be used for this purpose. 16The selection and application of any additional BCT should be based on the behavioural analysis, that is, by understanding the target behaviour. 17,18The main questions involved in this process are: why the desired behaviour is not occurring and what needs to change for the desired behaviour to occur?The theoretical domains framework (TDF), as shown in Figure 2, can help to understand the target behaviour and answer these questions. 17,18

CONCLUSION
There is a huge scope of implementing classical knowledge (that is, healthy lifestyle based on Ayurvedic principles) into real practice, which will be beneficial to all of the society.This implementation of classical Ayurvedic knowledge should follow a systematic process, which must include robust research studies and behaviour change of people.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: elements of the development and evaluation process 8