Snehan Karma
Ayurveda is the complete healing system of medicine. Ayurveda has called panchakarma therapy for removing accumulated toxins or doshas from the body. Among the five purification technique Snehan Karma is done as the pre therapy of major panchakarma. Application of oils internally or externally in the form of oil massage is Snehan karma. So Special Ayurvedic Massage is called Abhyanga or Mardhana- a specialized oil massage therapy of Ayurveda.
According to Charaka Samhita, Oil massage is taken as regular health care measure for maintaining health. It is obvious massage preserve body energy and maintain blood circulation and helps excreting toxins out of body. It helps the maintainance of vitiated doshas. Ashtanga sangraha and Astanga hridaya described massage as it helps skin become smooth, and makes the body strong. Ayurveda has described the good results of massage in skin diseases like eczema, blisters, scabies, seborrhea and other conditions like neurasthenia, headaches, sleeplessness, gouty arthritis, polio, obesity and mental disorders. Massage also increase physical stamina of body and mental along with sexual vitality.
Ayurveda system called the lymph system as Kapha system. Usually lymph contains mostly the elements in blood i.e plasma, amino acids, glucose, fats, hormones, enzymes, salts and lymphocytes which fight infections. Thus lymphatic system act as transportation system between cells and blood vessel. Ayurvedic system of massage is the technique of applying pressure towards increasing lymph flow in the body at the marma (vital) points. Increase in Kapha activities by the massage is to increase the nourishment of the body and give proper stimulation to the joint and body tissues.
When there is increase in circulation in the lymph by the massage, there are several processes like Amino acid to tryptophan. This results parallel increase in the neurotransmitter, Serotonin. Serotonin has Implicated in several psychiatric disease with low levels of metabolic in case of depression, hallucinations, headache, anxiety, and irritability. So the ayurvedic massage are very beneficial for all these conditions. One more things lymph contains quantity of Histamine (enzyme to break the allergy and acidity causing histamine) as in blood. So where there is allergic condition of gastric irritations, irritability, skin allergy, headache can be treated with the simple Ayurvedic massage to provide supply of histamine increase. Several scientific research and study are going on this topic to scientific evaluation of Ayurvedic massage. This proves that the daily effective oil massage is proven very beneficial for maintaining good health. So Snehan karma is the very important palliative treatment and pre-operative procedure of Panchakarma Therapy.
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