Palakurthi Manohar, Fergusson Lee, Dornala Sathya N, Schneider Robert H
Executive Clinical Director of Maharishi AyurVeda Programs, Clinical Professor of Physiology and Health, Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa, USA.
Education Researcher, School of Education, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.
J Maharishi Vedic Res Inst. 2021 Jun;17:33-73.
This study is the first of its kind to systematically investigate the relationship between the clinical practice of Maharishi ᾹyurVeda pulse assessment and cardiovascular health. Given that cardiovascular disease is a major threat to the health of people in many countries, the question of diagnostic validity of a traditional, non-invasive method of health assessment is an important one for prevention and therapeutics. For this reason, we investigated the diagnostic validity of examining the pulse of patients using the technique of Maharishi Nādi-Vigyān compared to an objective measure of blood pressure and to self-reports of other cardiovascular risk factors. The study sample consisted of 160 participants at a Maharishi ᾹyurVeda clinic in the United States and assessed consistency of diagnoses between Maharishi Nādi-Vigyān and hypertension as measured by blood pressure using a standard sphygmomanometer, and patient self-reports of elevated cholesterol, insomnia, and psychological stress (operationalised in this study as 'state of mind'). Our findings showed diagnostic validity of 95% for hypertension by Maharishi Nādi-Vigyān compared to objectively measured hypertension. For elevated cholesterol, insomnia, and psychological stress, the agreement was 76%. Previous studies assessed the reliability of conventional forms of pulse examination in ᾹyurVeda and found relatively low levels of both inter-rater and within-rater reliability, whereas the present study of Maharishi Nādi-Vigyān found generally higher levels. These findings have implications for the use of Maharishi Nādi-Vigyān as a diagnostic approach in the context of holistic, integrated, and preventive healthcare offered by Maharishi ᾹyurVeda. We conclude the study with a discussion of key theoretical domains which underpin the findings, namely the traditional forms of ᾹyurVeda and Nādi-Vigyān, and the introduction of next generation Maharishi ᾹyurVeda and Maharishi Nādi-Vigyān. Finally, we consider the influence pulse assessment might have on the future of cardiovascular healthcare.
本研究首次系统调查了玛赫西阿育吠陀脉诊临床实践与心血管健康之间的关系。鉴于心血管疾病是许多国家民众健康的主要威胁，一种传统的非侵入性健康评估方法的诊断有效性问题，对于预防和治疗而言至关重要。因此，我们将玛赫西那迪 - 维甘技术用于检查患者脉搏的诊断有效性，与血压的客观测量以及其他心血管危险因素的自我报告进行了比较。研究样本包括美国一家玛赫西阿育吠陀诊所的160名参与者，评估了玛赫西那迪 - 维甘诊断与使用标准血压计测量的血压所诊断的高血压之间的一致性，以及患者关于胆固醇升高、失眠和心理压力（本研究中定义为“心理状态”）的自我报告。我们的研究结果显示，与客观测量的高血压相比，玛赫西那迪 - 维甘对高血压的诊断有效性为95%。对于胆固醇升高、失眠和心理压力，一致性为76%。先前的研究评估了阿育吠陀传统脉诊形式的可靠性，发现评分者间和评分者内的可靠性水平相对较低，而本项关于玛赫西那迪 - 维甘的研究发现总体水平较高。这些发现对于在玛赫西阿育吠陀提供的整体、综合和预防性医疗保健背景下，将玛赫西那迪 - 维甘用作诊断方法具有启示意义。我们在研究结尾讨论了支撑这些发现 的关键理论领域，即阿育吠陀和那迪 - 维甘的传统形式，以及新一代玛赫西阿育吠陀和玛赫西那迪 - 维甘的介绍。最后，我们考虑了脉诊评估可能对心血管医疗保健未来产生的影响。
