How is Cancer Caused?

            by Sheela Rani Chunkath

I recently read in a leading newspaper that cancer is caused by bad luck and not because of lifestyle. This statement is supposed to have been scientifically validated by scientists in Kimmel Cancer Centre of Johns Hopkins. The reason given is that cancer strikes even people who follow all the rules of healthy living, that is non smokers, those who have a healthy diet, a healthy weight and have had little or no exposure to known carcinogens and those who have no family history of cancer. Apart from environmental factors they found that cell mutations resulting in copying errors accounted for a large percentage of cancers.

Our Acharyas have defined what the science of ayurveda is all about including the causes of disease. Hitahitam Sukham Duhkhamayustasya Hitahitam -- The science that details what is good and bad for you, that which defines what causes you pleasure and pain and that which elaborates what is wholesome and unwholesome for you is ayurveda.

The causes of diseases have been explained elaborately in Ayurveda. Inappropriate meeting (yoga) of your senses and objects of your senses can result in ill health. You may be a nonsmoker, a vegetarian and non-drinker but if you were to work through the night and sleep during the day, it could land you in trouble. Similarly running marathons in the summer heat of Chennai or Delhi is inappropriate. Ayurveda calls it mithyayoga -- a kind of 'perverted' meeting of your senses and the objects of your senses. "Asatmya indriya artha samyoga" beautifully captures the different ways in which we can behave inappropriately -- you can do too much, too little or do something in a very perverse way. Ayurveda goes on to explain what these mean. To give an example eating curds every day or with fruits is considered injurious to health. Ayurveda puts a lot of emphasis on avoiding inappropriate food combinations. As Indians we need to follow what our Acharyas advised us without blindly accepting Western medical advice.

The true causes of disease have been beautifully explained by our Acharyas and it cannot be reduced to a simplistic statement of “I don't drink,I don't do drugs, I don't smoke, I exercise and I am of the correct weight -- so I should be healthy.” This is definitely not the full story. "Sama dosha sama agnischa sama dhatu mala kriyaaha, Prasanna atma indriya manaha swastha iti abhidheeyate" -- one is in perfect health when the three doshas (vata, pitta and kapha), the digestive fire (agni), and the body tissues (dhatu) and the excretory functions (mala kriya) are in order, and when your spirits, senses and mind are content and and unperturbed.

So if you have a digestion which troubles you all the time and you are just glugging Gelusil, you could still get cancer. Since the focus of modern allopathy is curative, allopaths have not paid much attention to the cause of disease whereas the Acharyas have dealt with it in depth. Ayurveda is not just about curing diseases, it is about the philosophy of living in a manner that maintains health and thereby preventing disease. If you don't have the sense to follow the rules -- prajnya aparadha -- then ayurveda does have the knowledge to treat the diseases by identifying the cause.

So in addition to singing the national anthem before the start of a movie, let us go back to our Acharyas and heed what they have to say.

--- The writer is retired Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu. She can be reached at Sheelarani.arogyamantra@gmail. com. Earlier articles can be accessed at http://arogyamantra.blogspot.com/