Ayurveda offers unique therapeutic measures that heal mild and chronic diseases. Even diseases that are believed to be incurable by modern medicine have been healed. Stories abound of people being carried into Pancha karma centers, and a few weeks later, walking out on their own two feet, healthy and rejuvenated. Ayurveda is not based on magic; rather, it is based on understanding medical principles and the six stages of illness.
The most deeply seated toxins that cause disease are heavy and sticky, lodging in the deepest tissue layers. Pancha Karm permanently eliminates these toxins from the body, allowing healing and restoration of the tissues, channels, digestion, and mental functions.
Six therapies are divided into two categories:
1) Toning or nourishing (Brimhana or santarpana), and
2) Reducing or detoxifying (langhana or apartarpana)—those that cause lightness.
Brimhana tones because it uses therapies that promote earth and water elements, while langhana lightens by using ether, air, and fire elements to reduce. Illness is relieved as doshas become balanced through these therapies.
The six major therapeutic categories are either toning or reducing in nature.
1. Reducing (langhana or lightening) the body, making it light.
2. Nourishing (Brimhana or expanding) the body by adding corpulence.
3. Drying (Rukshana) or producing roughness in the body.
4. Oleation (snehana) or applying oil to the body creates softness, fluidity, and moistness.
5. Sudation (svedhana) or sweating, removes stiffness, heaviness, and coldness.
6. Astringent (stambhana) balances the flow (slow or fast) of bodily fluids (e.g., diarrhea, bleeding, etc.), and prevents mobility.
The therapeutic measures involved for each category primarily include herbs, foods, internal and external application of oils; fasting, and exercise.
