SRINAGAR:Kashmir may appear an unlikely place for a Panchkarma therapy but the Ayurvedic body massage is fast catching up as a mode of herbal treatment, led chiefly by the state government. The massage parlours set up by the Department of Indian System of Medicine are pitched as an added attraction for the high spending tourists to the state.
Ever since the first such parlour was inaugurated by the former J&K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at Srinagars Royal Springs Golf Club, the Panchkarma therapy is now available at the major AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha and homeopathy) hospitals.
Government is also planning to establish more such health clubs at Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Patnitop, Katra, Kishtwar, Mansar and other famous tourist resorts in the near future. There is also a full-fledged Panchakarma unit at the states major AYUSH hospital in Srinagar at Shalteng. Besides, the therapy is also administered at AYUSH centres in district hospitals.
However, it is the Royal Springs Golf Club which has attracted both the tourists and the states high and mighty, including the ministers and the senior bureaucrats.
Various panchkarma procedures being administered are Katibasti, Grivabasti, Patrapinda Sweda, Churanpinda Sweda, Balukapotli Sweda, Udavartanama, Abhyanga, Nadi Sweda, Sarvanga Abhyanga, Vashapa Sweda, Shirodhara, Shirobasti, Nasaya, Vamana, Virechana, Basti etc.
All these therapies involves some complex procedures which span herbal medicines, specific diets, oil massages, heat treatments, herbal baths and herbal steam baths. Besides, the department has also introduced the cupping therapy in which cups are placed on the skin to create suction. The therapy mobilizes blood flow to promote the healing of a broad range of medical ailments.
Massage parlours draw on the panchkarma herbal therapy and also tap into the herbal wealth of Kashmir.
According to Director ISM Dr Kabir Dar, his department has hired herbal specialists to run these centres. Massage parlours is a new concept in Kashmir.
But ISM has made it a reality, Dr Kabir said.
The centers are expected to go a long way to develop herbal tourism in J&K, keeping in view the herbal wealth of state and expertise of the specialists of Ayurveda and Unani Systems of medicines available in the state. The idea is to attract more and more tourists from across the country and abroad.
The Ayurvedic and Unani massage therapies, Panchkarma therapies have proved very effective in the treatment of various lifestyle related diseases, and anxiety disorders like depression, insomnia, loss of memory, neurological disorders, hypertension, arthritis, reumatoid arthritis, lower backache, muscular disorders etc, says Dr Kabir adding these parlours will also help provide employment opportunities to the unemployed professionally qualified youth of the state.
Panchkarma is basically a five-fold purification and detoxification therapy. It aims at correcting imbalance of the body’s humors or bio energies in order to maintain their inherited equilibrium, says Dr Kabir. We hope to create more high-end parlours to popularize the herbal method of the treatment in the state.
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