Ayurveda, Balance & Bliss

Ayurveda, Balance & Bliss

Ayurveda is everywhere in Kerala and much of the rest of India, in spas, beauty parlors, hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes, and even supermarkets, who carry tons of soaps, shampoos, and other products with this or that herb. Most area hotels offer ayurvedic treatments, including packages (lasting from three days to one month) in which ayurvedic doctors, masseurs, and yoga and meditation instructors team up and attempt to optimize your physical and spiritual well-being. If an extended treatment sounds like ayurvedic overload, try a simple ayurvedic massage: a vigorous rubdown involving copious amounts of oil, a hard wooden table, and a masseur with hands like driftwood. A postsession application of an herbal powder removes most of the goo, leaving your skin feeling fresh. It's both invigorating and relaxing.

Ayurveda's Deep Roots

Ayurveda may be trendy, but there's nothing new about it. This holistic belief system, which roughly means "knowledge of life" in Sanskrit, has been practiced for about 4,000 years. Over time it has become linked with Kerala, thanks to the region's tropical climate and its wealth of medicinal herbs. Its therapeutic powers are supposed to peak during the cool and wet monsoon season—a belief that has come as a blessing to the Kerala tourism department, which has used it successfully to attract off-season travelers.

Unlike other alternative medicines, which are sometimes used as replacements for conventional medicine, ayurveda is used in a complementary fashion. Its goal is to preserve a balance between the forces and principles thought to govern the body, mind, and soul. Doctors, who must complete more than five years of training, prescribe treatments based on their patient's constitution, and remedies usually take the form of medicated oils and herbal concoctions that are ingested, massaged into, or poured over the body. Oil, it's believed, has restorative powers, lubricating joints, rebuilding tissue, softening and hydrating skin and washing away toxins. The oils also decrease friction and spread heat evenly throughout the body.

Restoring Balance

Resorts throughout Kerala offer ayurvedic packages, from three-day general health and rejuvenation programs to longer treatments tailored to specific ailments. Treatments for serious ailments, such as paralysis, can last as long as 41 days. But treatments for healthy people typically last no more than 15 days. Ayurveda is thought to be especially effective for rheumatoid arthritis, back pain, and repetitive strain injuries. The massage is also supposed to relieve stress and pain, slow the aging process, improve circulation, loosen muscles and improve sleep. Practitioners focus on the whole body rather than just on a specific ailment, and on prevention as well as healing. The idea is to bring the body back to its natural equilibrium.

Ayurvedic physicians believe that people are born with unique physical and psychological characteristics and their constitutions are made up of a combination of doshas (qualities): vata (air), pitta (fire) and kapha (earth). One or two doshas are typically dominant, but most people have a unique mix of all three. Each dosha is associated with a body and personality type and particular diseases. Vata people, who tend to have dry skin and thin frames, are prone to chronic diseases such as asthma and arthritis and nerve problems. People with strong pitta qualities have warm bodies and keen intelligence; they often can suffer from digestive and metabolic problems. And kaphas, who have cold skin and heavy, well-developed bodies, are prone to respiratory disease and weight gain.

Before prescribing treatments, ayurvedic doctors determine the patient's constitution by asking questions, observing and touching the body, and feeling the pulse. It's possible for patients with the same ailments to receive different herb and diet plans because of their unique constitutions. Treatments these days focus primarily on massage and panchakarma (detoxification), but ayurveda has a total of eight branches, including surgery, psychiatry, and reproductive medicine. The five detoxifying techniques of panchakarma are a lot less pleasant than having warm coconut oil rubbed into your back: they induced vomiting, enemas, laxatives, herbal nasal inhalation, and bloodletting. A course of panchakarma may also include massage, dietary prescriptions and sweat baths.

Modern Ayurvedic Practice

The softer side of ayurveda—massage—is usually performed by two or more therapists who are the same sex as the patient. The massage is meant to release toxins by making a gentle circular motion with the forefinger at specific reflexology points (The body has 107 of them, according to ayurvedic principles). Masseurs rub the skin and pour heated oils and other liquids, sometimes including milk or buttermilk, over the head and body. The patient is asked to lie down or sit upright on a wooden board called a droni. Resorts have adapted the traditional techniques for modern, western clientele. A number of centers, for instance, use padded massage tables, which some tourists find more comfortable than the stiff board, especially those with low back pain. And some hotels have even started offering couples' massages.

The number of spas in Kerala has grown tremendously in recent years, all seeking to treat the hoards of tourists coming specifically for ayurvedic treatments. But not all spas are created equal. The Arya Vaidya Sala, a charitable institution founded in 1902 in Kottakkal (about two hours from Calicut) is considered to be the most authorative ayurvedic source. It addition to its clinic and hospital in Kottakkal, it has branches across the country.

In order to stop the growth of spas that fail to adhere to reasonable health and safety standards, the Indian government has created an accreditation system. "Green leaf" is the highest classification, followed by "olive leaf." A list of accredited spas is available at keralatourism.org.