Integrating agent-based modelling with Ayurvedic principles a conceptual framework for systems health

Abstract

The emergent nature of health and disease is due to the complexity of interactions between the biological system, behavioural system and the environmental system. In Ayurveda, the traditional Indian system of medicine, the human organism has traditionally been viewed as a living system of Dosha (functional principles), Dhatu (tissues), Agni (metabolic energy) as well as Shrotas (circulatory channels). These organizations constantly are at work with both internal and external variables in order to preserve harmony within the system. The current systems biology and computational science is also understanding health as an emergent phenomenon of complex adaptive systems. which gives a framework of enormous power to computational simulation. This review seeks to understand the conceptual and methodological combination of Ayurvedic principles with Agent-Based Modelling in order to develop a systems framework of organising, predicting and controlling the dynamics of health and disease. Narrative and conceptual review was done ensuring that classical Ayurvedic literature is analysed together with the modern systems biology, computational models, and ABM readings. Ayurvedic objects were equated to computational analogs: Dosha as control agents, Dhatu as a structural matter, Agni as the processors of metabolism, Ama as mala adjusting products and Shrotas as the communication channels. It has been used to develop a conceptual model of human physiology as a multi-agent system the interactions of individual agents governed by the Ayurvedic laws of balance and feedback regulation give rise to global health. Findings: The proposed schematic illustrates how ABM has the capability of simulating Ayurvedic processes (Prakriti (individual constitution), Samprapti (pathogenesis), and Chikitsa (therapeutic intervention)) using computational logic.