"When I first came to Ayurveda I was feeling completely out of control—I felt like I'd never be able to catch up . . . exhausted, unfocused, pushing hard to make my business a success and pay the mortgage, recovering from a separation. I knew I was just about to hit the wall, and was concerned about my family history of diabetes and cancer and obesity."

"Although I was initially skeptical and cautious, I began yoga, meditation, herbs, and an eating pattern. Within five days things began to change. I could feel my energy shift. I am happier, more focused, and more balanced than I have ever been. I found that my energy became balanced, and the excess weight just fell off."

Whether you're interested in preventing serious disease and improving your health in general or you want to treat specific symptoms such as headache, obesity, or insomnia, Ayurveda works.

These patients are joined by thousands of other people all over the world who are living proof that this holistic, integrated health system is as effective as it was when it originated in India nearly six thousand years ago. For one example of vedic science being lived in the modern world, visit my friends at the Sonoma Ashram at www.sonomaashram.org.

Today the ancient beauty and wisdom is spreading to the Western world, thanks in part to the success of the best-selling books and videotapes of Dr. Deepak Chopra, who was one of my early teachers.

The message is falling on eager ears for good reason:

Although modern mainstream medicine has achieved enormous success in some areas, particularly traumatic injury, acute infections, and certain types of cancers, the track record is not so impressive for treating chronic diseases such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, and most types of cancer.

Complementary, alternative, or unconventional therapies such as Ayurveda have stepped in to fill the gap, so much so that they are being called "the hidden mainstream." This phenomenon was recently documented in the New England Journal of Medicine when it published a survey that found that one out of three people used at least one unconventional therapy in 1990.

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Based on the survey results, the authors estimated that people actually make more visits to unconventional-therapy practitioners than to mainstream primary-care physicians, and are spending approximately the same total amount of money out-of-pocket ($10 billion) for unconventional therapies as for hospitalizations.

Ayurveda, a Sanskrit word that means "knowledge of life and longevity," is based on principles and rhythms found in nature. It makes use of daily and seasonal lifestyle practices (including diet, yoga, and meditation), healing herbs, purification therapies, and a life-affirming mental attitude.

Although at first glance some practices may seem exotic, foreign, or downright old-fashioned, they are in actuality universal, timeless, and as useful now as they were thousands of years ago. In my practice I have found that it is more relevant than ever, since it seeks to restore harmony and balance in a world that is growing increasingly out of kilter, with pollution, stress, junk food, accelerating schedules, sedentary occupations, and passive pastimes.

It was reported on the popular television show Frontline: "Modern Indian society recognizes Ayurveda as a legitimate medical system. Practitioners receive state-licensed, institutionalized medical training. Approximately two-thirds of India’s rural people, who comprise 70 percent of the population, use Ayurveda for their primary health care needs. In the United States, approximately 751,000 people have received Ayurvedic treatment, according to a 2004 National Center for Health Statistics study."

Since 1987 I have used Ayurveda in the United States, to bring thousands of patients to optimum levels of physical, psychological, and spiritual health.

I have found that even people who exercise regularly, eat a "well-balanced" low-fat diet, and take vitamin supplements still get sick. In spite of their efforts something is still missing—they are not paying attention to their inner lives of mind and spirit and are out of sync with their own rhythms and the universal rhythms of nature. They lack connection and deep understanding of their inner selves and their outer world.

Daily practices nurture the whole person and provide tools to make those connections. The body's natural rhythms and physiology are attended to, enabling you to better understand yourself and your place in the world and bringing you to a state of gentle pleasure, a blissful feeling of unity with the wholeness of the universe. You are in balance, and symptoms and sickness—the signs of imbalance--melt away.

"Ayurveda has brought me a greater sense of my connection with my body and has opened the door to a greater understanding of what being healthy really means—a balance of body, mind, and spirit."