Kriyakala in Ayurveda: Understanding disease progression for precise treatments

Abstract

Ayurveda, an ancient wisdom, focuses on keeping healthy people healthy and healing those who are unwell. It does this by balancing Dosha (biological factors), Dhatu (body tissues), and Mala (waste). Shat Kriyakala is about understanding how a disease progresses. It helps figure out the right actions to fix dosha imbalances. Kriyakala is a mix of two words: Kriya, meaning the treatments like medicine, food, and habits that help fix dosha imbalances, and Kala, which shows the stage of a disease. Acharya Sushruta talked about six stages that tell us how a disease is developing in the body. This guides us on when to step in with treatment. Detecting diseases early means we can treat them more effectively and with less discomfort. This study aims to show how Shat Kriyakala is super useful in figuring out how diseases progress and how severe they might get. This concept is found in ancient texts. Kriyakala is like a guidebook. It tells us about diagnosis (figuring out what's wrong), prognosis (how the disease might go), and when to act. This helps prevent a disease from taking a strong hold in the body. Understanding Kriyakala helps us know when to step in to keep diseases from getting worse.