Panchakarma Treatment
Feeling sluggish, depressed, unmotivated? Having difficulty with emotional issues, digestion, or concentration? You may benefit dramatically from panchakarma: detoxifying through Ayurveda.
Panchakarma (translated as five cleansing actions in Sanskrit) is a gentle, yet profound purification therapy, designed to reduce the body of toxins, which cause disease and discomfort. Feeling good already? Panchakarma is supreme for disease prevention and life extension and is the heart of healing with Ayurvedic medicine.
When the energetic forces known as vata, pitta, and kapha get out of balance, it lowers our digestive fire, and toxins are created. The ama enters the blood stream, clogging the channels, and lodges into joints, muscles, organs, and reproductive tissue, etc. This is detrimental to our prana (life-force or energy), tejas (metabolic energy), and ojas (immunity).
When using Ayurveda to heal, we can choose palliative care—which includes diet, meditation, yoga, pranayama, herbs, etc.—and/or take a deeper path of cleansing. Cleansing enables us to get to the root of imbalances—rather than reducing symptoms—and can heal chronic conditions.
For thousands of years, Ayurveda has emphasized that the stress created by our minds directly affects our Gastrointestinal Tract, causing inflammation and slow digestion, ultimately creating ama.
The ama causes us to hold on to emotionally driven habits that ultimately lead to disease and imbalance. Detoxing with panchakarma allows us to unravel these patterns, increase our energy andmental clarity, and move forward with our dharma and our dreams. Panchakarma resets digestion and allows the body to do what it’s supposed to—detox naturally.
The complete process of Panchakarma involves the following three steps:
- Poorva Karma
This is a preparatory procedure required before the main treatment, to soften the tissues so that
the lipid-soluble toxins deposited into them are liquefied and flow back into the digestive tract.
From here, they can be eliminated. This treatment prepares the patient mentally and physically for the main procedure of Panchakarma.
It involves three procedures:
- Pachan Karma – improves digestion with herbs and fasting so that the patient can digest the ghee (clarified butter) which is provided to liquefy the fat-soluble toxins.
- Snehan Karma – medicated ghee is given to the patient in increasing doses to aggravate and liquefy the fat-soluble toxins deposited in the deep tissues.
- Swedan Karma – a full body steam bath is given to the patient thereby opening the body
channels and allowing the heat to liquefy the toxins further. This facilitates their movement
from the tissues to the digestive tract.
- Pradhan Karma
This is the Panchakarma, a five-step procedure which is highly individualized depending on the needs, age, digestive strength, immune system, and other factors. This intense Panchakarma procedure can only be done under the guidance of an Ayurvedic practitioner.
The five karmas to cleanse the complete body are:
- Vamanam (therapeutic emesis) – induced vomiting which helps clear the upper GI tract to the duodenum (end of the stomach) and a part of the respiratory tract.
- Virechanam (purgation) – induced purgation clears the GI tract from the duodenum to the exit.
- Anuvasana (enema using medicated oil) – the oil enema helps lubricate the rectal area and remove the lipid soluble waste out through the anus.
- Nasyam – nasal inhalation of medicated substances which help clear the respiratory tract and the para nasal sinuses.
- Paschaat Karma
This is a post-therapy dietary regime to restore the body’s digestive and absorptive capacity to its normal state. It includes rejuvenating treatments, lifestyle management, diet management, and intake of herbal supplements.
It includes the following procedures:
- Sansarjan Karma – food therapy after detoxification, which aims at gradually increasing the patient’s diet from liquids to semi-solids to a normal diet.
- Rasayan Adi Prayogam – a rejuvenating rasayan therapy which aids in increasing natural immunity and enhancing your general well-being.
- Shaman Chikitsa – a pacification therapy with herbs and lifestyle management.
It is important to note that a panchakarma procedure is designed specifically for an individual after a thorough physical examination and pulse diagnosis.
