Ayurveda in America

This article was written by Francis C. Assissi, who has had a lifelong interest in India’s indigenous medical systems and closely follows current research on ayurveda. This article was initially published in India Currents Magazine.

Interest in ayurveda emerged as Americans started to question the tenets of their own health care system. Today, nearly three decades after it was first transplanted in American soil by Indian pioneers such as Dr. Vasant Lad, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, ayurveda is still struggling to establish roots as well as legitimacy.

The dissemination of ayurveda in America continues as a result of the confluence of several trends: Indian and American doctors and health scientists approaching the tradition on a more scientific basis; Western doctors and researchers recognizing that ayurveda offers much that they do not know; ayurvedic doctors (vaidyas) from India setting up consultations; and patients seeking non-Western healing modalities.

Most importantly, the signing of the Health Freedom Act (SB 577) in California is seen as a landmark event towards the legitimization of ayurveda and other forms of CAM in America. The bill, which became effective January 2003, allows trained practitioners of alternative and complementary health care to legally provide and advertise their services. It provides that a person is not in violation of certain provisions of the Medical Practice Act (that prohibit the practice of medicine by anyone who is not a licensed physician) as long as that person does not engage in certain specified medical acts. Similar laws have also been passed in Rhode Island and Minnesota.[Ayurveda in America: From Marginality to Legitimacy]

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