Literally Ayurveda means the science of life. It considers the human body as a whole including mind and soul.

Ayurveda considers disease as a deviation from the normal state of the body and the treatment is intended to bring the patient to the normal state.

Ancient Indian philosophy says that all the substances in the universe are made up of five basic particles or elements.

These are:

Prithvi (earth), Ap (Water), Thejus (fire), Vayu (air) and Akasha (ether). The different combinations of these five elements occur in various materials.

In case of the living organisms, in order to explain the body functions, these five elements can be consisted into three functional factors called vata, pitha and kapha. These are called tridoshas. In each and every person, the quality of these three will be different as there is much difference in structure and function between persons.

In a person, the balance of these makes the health and imbalance makes the disease.

The above principles are followed at Rajah Islands for consultation, diagnosis and treatment. First of all a doctor thoroughly evaluates a patient's problems and body conditions. The patient should feel free with the doctor and discuss his or her mental and physical conditions in his or her own words. Only if conditions are communicated with out reservations will the doctor be able to come to clear conclusions about the dosha conditions of the patient's body and mind.

According to this diagnosis, two types of treatments will be decided upon. One for the healthy people to prevent diseases and maintain normal health and second for the sick people to cure the disease and regain normal health.

Relaxation and rejuvenation treatments are for the healthy people and treatments of specific nature are for people with illnesses. After the doctor's diagnosis you will be clear about the type of Ayurvedic treatments that should be administered to you.

There are different diagnostic criteria to determine the anatomical and physiological changes of the patient's body due to illnesses or disease. There are three methods of examining the patient. The are:

Darshana – inspection, Sparsana – palpation and Prasna – interrogation.

With the help of these three, we can evaluate the data of the patient into two groups.

I. Ashta sthana pareeksha

This includes the nature of the patient's pulse, urine, stool, tongue, sound, touch, eyes and physique.

II. Dasavidha pareeksha

This includes evaluation of the doshas, nature of the living land, his physical strength to withstand the disease as well as the treatment, the season, patient's digestive capacity, his mental and physical constitution or the prakruthi, age, mental strength, habits and the type of his food and exercises.

All these points play equally important roles in the diagnosis of the disease. However paper diagnosis is based on the deranged doshas, and any disease whatever be it's name, can be diagnosed based on the state of doshas and appropriate treatment can be employed. It is described that no physician need be ashamed if he could not name a disease, when he can diagnose and treat any disease depending on the dosha derangement.

Along with these various modern diagnostic techniques like blood and urine tests, X-rays, scans etc. are also made use of for better understanding of the disease.

In Ayurveda, treating a disease means, balancing the doshas which is imbalanced due to various factors. Even through two people have the same disease, their treatments ma be different because, in Ayurveda, treatment is not for the disease, but for the patient. For this various methods like internal and external medication and some deviations in diet and exercises are made use of.

Types of treatments

Imbalance of doshas means an increase or decrease in the quantity of doshas. Both conditions can result in diseases. The treatment aims at the increase or promotion of the decreased ones and pacification of the increased ones. For this we have two types of treatments. Sodhana and Samana.

Samana involves procedures by which the deranged or exaggerated doshas are allevated and brought to the normal state and sodhana means the deranged doshas are mobilized and expelled out of the body. The latter method is especially meant for chronic ailments or where the dosha derangement is too much.

After the consultation, the doctor decides one of these treatments according to your dosha derangement and also the temperament. The doctors after discussions among themselves decide on appropriate treatment plan and the internal medicines to be administered, after the consultations are over.

In the Rajah Islands, there are two sessions of treatments in a day. One major treatment in the morning and one minor treatment in the afternoon. Treatments are done by trained staff at the treatment rooms. The medications are also given by the staff at the appropriate time.

Other treatments

Apart from Ayurvedic treatments, there are doctors who provide treatments like Acupuncture, Acupressure, Reiki, Magneto therapy, Electro therapy and physiotherapy. In certain conditions, the doctors may advice you to take the appropriate treatments from these or if you are interested to experience these treatments, you should consult your doctors about it.

Response to treatment

There are some basic pre-requirements for the treatments to be successful and for you to gain good results from the treatments. These are:

• The physician
• Equipments and materials used for the treatment
• Attendants
• The patient

The above four factors should be favorable and in tune with the basic required dictates mentioned in the ancient texts.

For example – the patient – should have full faith in the physician and must be obedient to his advice. He or she must be capable of mentioning his symptoms correctly and he or she should be physically and mentally strong enough to bear the stress of the disease and as well as the treatment procedure. Once the course of treatment prescribed by the doctors are over, rest for double the number of days of treatment or at least for the number of days of treatment are required. One may not get the full benefits of the treatment during the course of treatment. The tissues regain normal health only after the treatments.