Introduction
Ayurveda is a science of health and healthy living. It is a very scientifically designed pathy that is meant for relieving people from there misery. It is more than 5000 years old science but even then it had separate specialized branches according to the need of the patient. It is divided into eight parts. These are:
- Kaya chikitsa (general medicine)
- Bal roga or kumar bhritya (pediatrics)
- grah or bhoot vidya (psychotherapy)
- Shalakya tantra (eye, ear, nose and throat related science)
- Shalya (surgery)
- Agad tantra (toxicology)
- Rasayan (science of rejuvenation)
- Bajikaran (science of aphrodisiac)
Kaya chikitsa (General Medicine)
it is the main branch of ayurveda and it is. It deals with the general medicine. Kaya in literal terms means body. Hence it is related to the methods by which body is relived by miseries. But is the myth that it only deals with the physical body. It also helps in combating with the subtle body also. Hence it is more of a psycho-somatic way of treatment. When the tridosha (vata, pitta and kapha) of the body gets vitiated, it interferes with the sapt dhatus (seven tissues) of the body to disrupt the normal bodily function. Kaya chikitsa is s holistic way of curing a disease by reaching the root cause the problem and then rectifying it with the medicines and food supplements. Various methods have been devised to examine the patient so as the cause of his misery and ailments are detected. Accordingly he is supplied with the remedy. There has been inclusion of various methods of performing treatments. One of the most common and the effective way of treating a disease is panchkarma. This is the series of five procedures or operations through which body is purified and cleansed from the vitiated dosha to achieve the state of homogenizes and happiness. In lay man term we can define panchkarma as the method by which there is the reversal of the pathway of the entry of the disease by detoxifying the body.
Charak samhita is the most appreciated book for practicing Kaya chikitsa. Charak samhita contains eight sthana which have a specific knowledge regarding subjects like anatomy, pathology medicine etc.
