First Direct Experimental Evidence Correlating Ayurveda based Tridosha Prakriti with Body Mass Composition and Western Constitutional Psychology Somatotypes

Abstract

Metri, G. Kashinath G Introduction: Ayurveda is one of the most ancient systems of medical health care. The basic principles, diagnosis of the diseases and their treatment is on the basis of individual prakriti (birth constitutional type). Ayurveda further classifies the prakriti of an individual on the basis of a set of psychosomatic attributes of personality, depending on whether this individual belongs to Vata, Pitta, or Kapha prakriti, or any combination of them. The appropriate prakriti assessment is done by several means including questionnaires. We aimed to obtain experimental evidence correlating Äyurvedä based tridosha-prakriti with western constitutional psychology somatotypes. Methods: We employed Tridosha-prakriti questionnaire, and compared its results with a set of body composition parameters: Height, body weight, body mass index (BMI), muscle mass, fat mass and fat percentage in 190 normal healthy volunteers of both sexes with age ranging between 18 to 40 years old. Two-tailed Pearson’s correlations were used to match the extreme prakriti types with the western constitutional psychology somatotypes, through the mentioned body composition measures. Results/Discussion: Significant negative correlations were observed between the percentage of Vāta attributes as per the questionnaire in the individuals and fat mass (p<.000), fat % (p<.000), BMI (p<.000), BMR (p< .018) and also with their body weight (p<.006). Significant positive correlation was found with height (p<.020) and BMI .(p<029) Similarly, there was a significant positive correlation between the percentage of Pitta attributes with height (p<.043), body weight (p<.000), BMI (p<.000), BMR (p<.047) and muscle mass (p<.000) respectively. Also, a significant positive correlation was observed between the percentage of Kapha attributes with fat mass (p<.000), weight (p<.041) and fat percentage (p<.000), BMI (p<.010), along with a negative correlation with height (p<.018). Conclusion: This study provides evidence linking the ancient science of Äyurvedä to modern constitutional psychology. In this way, a concept such as prakriti is suggested to lie behind the body mass composition of an individual, and deserves attention within the scientific community.