Ayurveda Treatment Principles

According to Ayurveda, abstaining from the cause of the disease – whether, food habits, life style, occupational causes or environmental factors – is the first step in the treatment of a disease.

Ayurvedic medicine is a comprehensive system of medicine that combines natural therapies with a highly personalized approach to maintaining health and to the treatment of the disease. Ayurvedic medicine places equal emphasis on body, mind and spirit, and strives to restore the innate harmony of the individual.It includes mental and spiritual aspects and considers the body types (prakrit) to have far greater influence on a person’s health and well – being than do physical attributes alone. Ayurveda manages diseases by cleaning and detoxifying (sodhana), palliation (samana) rejuvenation (Rasayana) and mental hygiene (sathwa-vajaya chikitsa)

The objective of Ayurveda is “Swasthasya Swasthyarakshanam athurasya vikaraprasamanam” ie. To protect the health of the healthy and relieve the suffering of the sufferer.

AYURVEDIC TREATMENTS
Ayurvedic treatment consists of the use of herbal remedies, special ayurvedic treatment procedures like massage etc., dietary and lifestyle advice and other aspects of treatment, tailor made for that individual that is there are internal medicines and also medicines and procedures for external application.

Herbal Remedies

Drugs are prescribed based on the patient’s body type (prakriti) as well as on what disease or disturbance of the doshas they are suffering from.Drugs are meant for sodhana (cleansing), samana (palliative treatment) and rasayana (rejuvenation).

The traditional methods used to prepare Ayurvedic drugs are based on the principles of extraction, concentration and purification. The choice of preparation method depends on the part of the plant to be used, on its condition (fresh or dried) and on drug’s anticipated use. Basis ayurvedic preparations are :-

1. Svarasa - Fresh juice
2. Kalka - Herbal paste
3. Kvatha - Decoction
4. Hima - Cold infusion
5. Phanta - Hot infusion

Other important preparations are Asava / Arishta (prepared by fermenting herbal preparations), Grithas (Medicated ghee) Thailas (Medicated oils), Choornas (Powders), Gulika (Tablets), Bhasma (calx), Arka (Distilled extracts), Koopipakvarasa (sublimates) and Malhara (Ointments).

Treatment Procedures
Treatment or upakrama in Ayurveda comes under 2 classifications. Langhana or Depleting and Brimhana or Nourishing. These are also known as Apatharpana and santharpana. Langhana is further classified into 2 categories.


Sodhana (Cleansing / purification) is done when there is prabhoota dosha (excessive accumulation of waste materials) and samana is done where there is alpa dosha (less waste materials). Most of the practices like taking medicines or massages and steam baths fall into the category of samana.

Panchakarma
“Nirooho vamanam kayasirorekoskravisrutaya ch.,
panchakarmani” (Astanga Hridaya, Sutrasthana 14/5)”
‘Vamanam rechanam nasyam niroohaschanuvasanam
ethani panchakarmani kadhithani muneeswarai”

Panchakarma literally means five actions or techniques. They are vamana (induced emesis) virechana (purgation), Kashaya Vasti and sneha vasti (two kinds of medicated enemas), nasya (nasal medication) and rakthamoksha (blood letting). Some include vamana, virechana, two kinds of vasti and nasya under Panchakarma avoiding Rakthamoksha.

Theoretical background : - According to Ayurveda , body is made up of seven different types of tissues called dhathu. These body tissues are nourished through food material that get digested by action of digestive fire (agni). The digested materials are carried to different tissues through srotas (body channels). At each tissue level, there is a digestive fire that works on food material to activate absorption of nutrients into the corresponding tissue. As a by – product of this process, mala (waste material) is formed which is eventually eliminated. If there is any block in body channels or impairment in the function of any digestive fire nourishment of body tissues does not happen and this results in indigestion of food. This undigested material or waste material (ama) clog the body channels and manifests in different disease conditions. When oleation and sudation are done, waste materials, clogged in the body channels become digested and disintegrated and they move into the Kostha (main channel) During Panchakarma these are expelled through natural orifices. As it is a mechanism to eliminate the waste materials from the body, panchakarma is not only used as a curative but also as preventive and promotive.

Astanga Samgraha, one of the classical texts, says that Panchakarma has to be applied to remove the waste materials accumulated in the different seasons for prevention of diseases caused by seasonal changes. It is mentioned that waste materials accumulated in the body during winter should be eliminated in spring, those accumulated in summer should be eliminated in rainy season and that accumulated in rainy season should be cleared in autumn. In Kerala, during the month of Karkataka (July-August) oil treatment is very popular. This is to alleviate the vata accumulated in the body during summer and aggravated in rainy season.