Ayurveda, Sanskrit for "the knowledge of life", is the traditional system of medicine and healthy living of the Indian subcontinent, with roots in the classical Sanskrit medical compendia (the Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita) of the early centuries around the turn of the common era, and connections to the broader worldview of the Vedas. Its central theory holds that health arises from the balance of three vital principles or humors, the doshas, vata (associated with wind and movement), pitta (fire and metabolism), and kapha (water and structure), whose particular proportions define each person's constitution (prakriti) and whose imbalance produces disease. Treatment aims to restore balance through a comprehensive regimen: diet, daily and seasonal routine, herbal preparations, oil massage, yoga and breathing, and cleansing procedures (the panchakarma therapies).
Ayurveda remains a widely practised and, in India, officially recognized and regulated system of medicine, and it has spread globally as a form of complementary and "wellness" practice. From a scientific and public-health standpoint it is understood as a traditional medical system: some of its herbal and dietary elements are the subject of ongoing pharmacological research, while its humoral theory is not framed in the terms of modern biomedicine, and safety concerns have been raised about heavy-metal content in certain traditional preparations. It is best understood as a living traditional medicine with a continuous history of more than two thousand years, distinct in its concepts from Western biomedicine.