Whether you go to an Ayurvedic internal medicine specialist or an obstetrician, or other specialist, they will take both a preventive and curative approach.
This approach seeks to create and maintain health and longevity within the individual. It emphasizes defining each person’s prakturi (or constitution) and creating daily and periodic regimens to support that prakturi and keep it in balance.
These health routines focus on everything from diet and exercise to herbal therapies, massage, meditation, and social behavior and positive relationships.
Curative medicine
These treatments seek to heal an illness, which may be achieved by one or more of the following approaches:
Internal measures, including shodhana (detoxification) and shamana (methods used to improve quality of life via palliative care).
External measures, including snehana (oil treatments), svedana (steam therapy using herbal steam), and use of herbal pastes.
Surgical methods, including removal of tissues, organs, and harmful growths
Mental and spiritual therapies, called daivya chikitsa
Herbal measures, including rasa shashtra (the use of various herbal and trace metal formulations)
What are the Ayurvedic specialties?
Ayurvedic medicine features the following eight specialty branches:
Internal Medicine (Kaya-Chikitsa), which focuses on doshic balance and imbalance, metabolic function, and digestion
Surgery (Shalya Chikitsa)
Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat (Salakya Chikitsa)
Obstetrics/gynecology (Prasuti and Stri-Rog)
Pediatrics (Bala Chikitsa/ Kaumarbhritya)
Psychology and Psychiatry (Bhuta-vidya or Graha-Chikitsa), which includes spirituality
Toxicology (Agadha-tantra), which focuses on poisons ranging from insect bites to heavy metals and plants, and includes a medical jurisprudence role in which practitioners address cause of injury, death, and other medical ethics
Rejuvenation/Geriatrics (Rasayana) and Virilification/Sexology (Vajikaran)
