Ayurveda in Contemporary Clinical Practice: Integrating Traditional Principles With Preventive, Metabolic, and...

The increasing burden of chronic, metabolic, and stress-related disorders has created a need for clinical models that emphasize prevention, lifestyle modification, individualized care, and long-term risk reduction. Ayurveda offers a structured framework for diet, behavior, metabolic regulation, constitutional assessment, and mind-body balance; however, its integration into contemporary clinical practice remains constrained by fragmented evidence, heterogeneous interventions, and variable methodological quality. This review examines the relevance of Ayurveda in preventive, metabolic, and mind-body medicine and evaluates how traditional principles may be aligned with evidence-based clinical care. A structured narrative review was conducted using PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar to identify primarily English-language literature published between January 2015 and June 2026. Original clinical studies, randomized trials, observational and translational studies, systematic reviews, methodological studies, and relevant policy documents were selected according to their relevance to preventive, metabolic, mind-body, personalized, safety, and regulatory aspects of Ayurveda. The review was intended as an illustrative narrative synthesis rather than a comprehensive systematic review. The evidence suggests that Ayurveda is most appropriately positioned as an adjunctive framework for cardiometabolic risk reduction, diabetes and metabolic syndrome management, mood and sleep regulation, chronic pain care, and personalized prevention. Emerging fields such as Ayurgenomics, Ayurinformatics, microbiome research, and systems biology may support the translation of traditional constructs such as Prakriti into testable biomedical models. Responsible integration requires rigorous trial design, standardized formulations, transparent reporting, pharmacovigilance, and regulatory oversight. Overall, Ayurveda may contribute to patient-centered preventive and integrative care when applied through evidence-informed, safety-conscious, and clinically accountable models.