Ayurvedic medicine, or ayurveda, is a system of health care that originated in India between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago. One of the world's oldest medical traditions, it is practiced widely today in India, Sri Lanka, and other Asian countries alongside "conventional" medicine that is familiar to people in other parts of the world. The name ayurveda comes from the Sanskrit words ayur, which means life, and veda, which means knowledge.