Second World Ayurveda Congress (Theme: Ayurveda for the Future)-Inaugural Address: Part II

Association of constitutional type of Ayurveda with cardiovascular risk factors, inflammatory markers and insulin resistance

CONTEXT

Ayurveda propounds that diseases manifest from imbalance of doshas. There, have been attempts to indicate biochemical basis of constitutional types described in Ayurveda.

AIMS

The study was intended to assess the association of constitutional types (Prakriti) with cardiovascular risk factors, inflammatory markers and insulin resistance in subjects with coronary artery disease (CAD).

SETTINGS AND DESIGN

Hospital based cross sectional study.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Three hundred patients with CAD >25 years were studied. Assessment of Prakriti was done by using Ayusoft software. Biochemical parameters, inflammatory markers (hsCRP, TNF-alpha and IL-6) and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were measured.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Was done using EPI INFO, version 3.5.3.

RESULTS

Mean age of patients was 60.97±12.5 years. Triglyceride, VLDL and LDL was significantly higher (P<0.0001, P<0.0001 and 0.0355, respectively) and HDL cholesterol (P<0.0001) significantly lower in vatta kapha (VK) Prakriti when compared with other constitution type. VK Prakriti was correlated with diabetes mellitus (r=0.169, P=0.003), hypertension (r=0.211, P≤0.0001) and dyslipidemia (r=0.541, P≤0.0001). Inflammatory markers; IL6, TNF alpha, hsCRP and HOMA IR was highest in VK Prakriti. Inflammatory markers were correlated positively with both VK and Kapha group.

CONCLUSIONS

There is strong relation of risk factors (diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia), insulin resistance, and inflammatory markers with Vata Kapha and Kapha Prakriti.

The basic cardiovascular responses to postural changes, exercise, and cold pressor test: do they vary in accordance with the dual constitutional types of ayurveda?

According to Ayurveda, the native Indian system of healthcare, three Doshas, namely, Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, are the basic mutually reciprocal mechanisms that are responsible for the maintenance of homeostasis in human beings. Ayurveda classifies entire human population into seven constitutional types (Prakriti), based on the dominance of any single or a combination of two or three Doshas. Considering the fact that, in the recent past there have been several studies that have proposed some important genetic, biochemical and haematological bases for Prakriti, we conducted the present study in 90 randomly selected clinically healthy volunteers belonging to dual constitutional types (Dvandvaja Prakriti) to evaluate the variability of heart rate and arterial blood pressure in response to specific postural changes, exercise, and cold pressor test. The results of this study, in general, suggest that these basic cardiovascular responses do not vary significantly as per the dual constitutional types. However, we noted a significant fall in the diastolic blood pressure immediately after performing the isotonic exercise for five minutes, in Vata-Kapha individuals in comparison to the other two groups, namely, Pitta-Kapha and Vata-Pitta.