Ask HN: How legit is ayurveda? - hemantgoyal
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andrei_says_
I have a friend studying Ayurveda in India. He is in his 5th year. Learned
Sanskrit in order to be able to read the texts in original, because
translating them into English is extremely reductionist by the very nature of
the two languages.

So, Ayurvedic texts in English, carry only extremely narrow interpretation of
the translator who may or may not have been aware of the context. When reading
these translations, the readers don’t even know of the difference in thinking
and language.

This is only one of the aspects: the literature’s content has been severely
reduced and detextualized by translation.

Another aspect: his English-only speaking colleagues started opening YouTube
channels trying to establish themselves as Ayurveda experts from the first
semester of the first year. So there’s that.

In short, what do we mean by the word Ayurveda?

Appropriation of the word and confidently spreading ignorance?

The “alternative medicine” industrial complex which builds upon that and is
satisfied as long as it can add its tolls and collect $$?

Or do you mean the nearly obscure medical practice which requires years of
education and refinement of one’s abilities, senses and knowledge, putting in
thousands of hours seeing patients under supervision etc.?

Some of it is legit and some of it is complete new age bs, just like “yoga.”

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muzani
The problem is traditional medicines is that it gets little scientific
funding. It's not very profitable to do effectiveness research, so few people
do it.

There's usually centuries of anecdotal evidence that it works. People do
limited experiments, and pass down what works and what doesn't. But these are
usually not done to a mass scale, or with things like controls.

A lot of it also gets warped. If you're in the US, a lot of the Chinese or
Indian medicine is not as legit as the same thing in China or India. There
needs to be someone around to correct and call out charlatans. Someone who has
been studying Ayrveda for 5 years and knows Sanskrit can more easily review
existing practitioners.

Even if it's completely legit, there needs to be some kind of certification
body. The certification body has to also be pretty focused on the art itself,
and not on cash flow.

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pravula
If you mean is it regulated, then yes
([https://www.ccimindia.org/cc_act_ug_regulations_2012.php](https://www.ccimindia.org/cc_act_ug_regulations_2012.php)).
There are many Indian medicines and they are taught by Indian government
colleges ([https://www.ccimindia.org/colleges-
ayurveda2016-17.php#](https://www.ccimindia.org/colleges-
ayurveda2016-17.php#)).

