A REVIEW OF HEALTH BEHAVIOUR DYNAMICS IN AYURVEDA

Abstract

Health behaviour was essentially a part of sociology. It has now evolved as an individual branch focusing on hu- man therapeutic care. The human behaviour or actions that have a definite impact on his health is named health behaviour. Those which complements one's health are known as positive health behaviours. The negative/altered health behaviour is considered one of the major causative factors for diseases. Alterations from the ideal health behaviour (misdeeds) are due to the wrong psychotic process. These unhealthy behaviours are usually focused on few factors like food, physical activities, sleep, sex and substance use. The positive, as well as negative impacts of behaviour on health, should be understood as part of sociology about psychology, medicine and ethics. In ancient literature, there were such descriptions of health behaviour in the form of do’s and don’ts or taboos. Ayurveda considers misdeeds (prajnaparadha) as the root cause of diseases. They are happening by an unsuitable psychotic process like ignorance (unawareness), lack of control/thinking over actions or lack of remembrance. This work attempts to list out the health behaviours mentioned in Ayurveda. The ways to abstain from such misdeeds are also disclosed here. Keywords: health behaviour, Prajnaparadha