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)

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 :-

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

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.