Ayurveda does not have one treatment that it gives to everybody. The doctor selects from these according to your constitution and the imbalance behind your symptoms — usually several of them, in sequence, over a course of days.
The classical detoxification of Ayurveda. These are courses of treatment, prepared for over several days and given under the doctor’s supervision — not single appointments.
The process by which bodily wastes are evacuated through the lower pathway of the body.
Virechana is one of the five classical cleansing actions of Panchakarma. Preparation with internal and external oleation and steam loosens the accumulated doshas; a measured herbal purgative then clears them downwards through the intestinal tract.
Medicated enema used to cleanse and purify the colon, and to nourish the body.
Operating in the colon, Basti is used to maintain or restore equilibrium of the nervous system. It is considered the single most effective treatment for disorders of Vata, and is given as a course rather than a single session.
Medicine introduced through the nostrils to clear the passages of the head and neck.
The nose is understood in Ayurveda as the doorway to the head. Warm medicated oils or decoctions instilled into the nostrils, after gentle facial massage and steam, act directly on the sinuses, eyes, ears and the nervous system.
Warm medicated oil held against one part of the body inside a ring formed on the skin. Where a joint or a stretch of spine is the problem, the treatment goes to it directly.
Warm medicated oil held over the sacral and lumbar region inside a specially formed ring.
A ring of dough is built on the lower back and filled with warm medicated oil, which is kept at temperature for the length of the session. The heat and the oil work together on the muscles, discs and nerves beneath.
The same retained-oil technique applied to the cervical region.
Warm medicated oil is retained over the back of the neck within a specially formed ring, softening the muscles around the cervical vertebrae and easing pressure on the nerves leaving them.
Warm medicated oil retained over the knee joint.
A ring is formed around the knee and filled with warm medicated oil. The therapy is used where the joint is degenerating rather than acutely inflamed, and is normally given daily over a course.
Warm medicated oil retained over the cardiac region.
Applied over the centre of the chest within a formed ring, Hridaya basti is used to strengthen the heart and to ease the muscular and respiratory structures around it.
Ayurveda treats the head as its own territory, with therapies for the nervous system and for each of the senses that sit in it.
A steady stream of warm liquid poured across the forehead for the length of the session.
Decoction, medicated oil, milk or buttermilk is poured in an unbroken stream onto the forehead from a suspended vessel. It is the treatment most patients associate with Ayurveda, and the one most often asked for by name — the effect on the nervous system is immediate and cumulative.
Lukewarm herbal oils held against the scalp in a fitted cap.
A cap is fitted to the head and filled with specific lukewarm herbal oils, held for fifteen to sixty minutes a day according to the patient’s condition, over a course of about seven days.
Medicated oil held over the eyes inside a ring fixed around the socket.
A ring is fixed around each eye and filled with medicated oil, which the open eye is bathed in. It is carried out both to protect the eye from age-related degeneration and to improve eyesight.
Lukewarm medicated oils poured into the ears.
A short, simple therapy often given alongside Nasya or Shirodhara, in which warmed medicated oil is poured into the ear and retained.
Holding a mouthful of medicated oil or decoction, daily over a week.
The mouth is held full of medicated oil or decoction for fifteen to twenty minutes each day for seven days. It is the classical Ayurvedic treatment for the mouth and gums, and is also used cosmetically.
Whole-body therapies — some nourishing, some deliberately reducing — along with the classical treatments for the skin of the face.
Lukewarm herbal oil poured over the whole body by two to four therapists at once.
Two to four trained therapists pour lukewarm herbal oils over the entire body in a continuous rhythmic pattern, for sixty to ninety minutes a day across a course of seven to twenty-one days. It is the most intensive of the rejuvenation therapies offered here.
A hot bolus of medicated black gram worked over the body below the neck.
Black gram is cooked with specific herbs and tied into a bolus, which is then rubbed vigorously over the whole body below the neck, concentrating on the muscle tissue and the joints.
Massage with herbal powder worked against the direction of the body hair.
The body is massaged with oil or herbal powder in the direction opposite to the lie of the hair. The friction is deliberate: it is the reducing therapy, used where the aim is to break down rather than to nourish.
Medicated gel, steam, exfoliation and a herbal plaster applied to the face.
A facial massage with medicated gel is followed by medicated steam, then exfoliation with a powder massage, and finally a thick plaster of medication applied over the whole face and left to set.
Ayurveda works from a small set of ideas. You do not need to accept them for the treatment to help, but they explain why two people with the same diagnosis are rarely given the same therapy.
Whichever predominates gives your prakriti — Vata, Pitta or Kapha constitution. It is established at your first consultation and it does not change.
In health the doshas and the dhatus together keep the body growing and working. Vitiated, they are where disease begins.
Where the disturbance is mild. Treatment is with herbs, minerals and metals chosen to settle the vitiated dosha, with no adverse reaction.
Where it is more than mild: Panchakarma. Herbal medicine, medicated oils and ghee are used to carry the vitiated doshas out of the body altogether. Healthy people use it too, to stay well.
Ayurveda is not simply a health care system but a form of lifestyle adopted to maintain perfect balance and harmony within human existence.
That is what the first consultation is for. The doctor establishes your constitution and the cause behind the symptoms, then builds the course from there.