Former football superstar Ricky Williams credits Ayurveda with getting his life back on track

Former Miami Dolphins football star Ricky Williams has become a vocal champion for Ayurveda, a 5,000-year-old system of body-mind balancing from India. The former Heisman Trophy winner credits Ayurvedic principles with helping him regain physical and spiritual strength after a long period of feeling out of balance. Williams is one of millions of Americans discovering Ayurveda, which has become one of the more popular natural health movements in recent years, despite critics’ claims that the practice is not rooted in science.

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- At the height of his professional football career, Ricky Williams was feeling stressed and unbalanced. So the Miami Dolphins star abruptly walked away from the sport - and a multimillion-dollar salary - and began studying the ancient Indian medical system known as ayurveda. "I am now able to do things with my body, after only minimal yoga practice, that I could never have imagined doing on the football field," he wrote. Interest in ayurveda is growing as Americans are increasingly trying alternative treatments to battle chronic health problems such as colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and other inflammatory disorders. Considered a comprehensive health-care plan in India, ayurveda teaches that humans are made of three essential qualities, or doshas. When these doshas are knocked out of balance, whether by stress, lack of sleep, a poor diet or something in the environment, symptoms of disease or illness can arise. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who brought transcendental meditation to the United States, generally also is credited with introducing ayurveda in the 1980s. The National Council Against Health Care Fraud, a group that consistently demands more scientific proof with regard to alternative treatments, has warned that "ayurveda has become a marketing term for a variety of health products and services of limited, questionable, or unproved value." Consumers also should stick with products recommended by quality practitioners because the use of dietary supplements such as herbs is largely unregulated by the federal government. Knowing your dominant doshas (many people have two) can affect everything from what you eat to how much exercise you need and what types of oils to use on your skin. "After the first one I was calmer; after three treatments, my body was really responding.