Ayurved has two main approaches of treatment – samshaman ( palliative ) therapy and samshodhan ( curative / purificatory ) therapy. The pancakarma deals with the samshodhan procedure of the systems of the body by eliminating of vitiated Doshas( Vata, Pitta, Kafa) from the body. Five Special procedures that are adopted in this case are namely VAMAN , VIRECHAN, VASTI, SIRO-VASTI and RAKTAMOKSHAN – which are famously known as pancakarma therapy in Ayurveda.
It also deals with the Purvakarma – SNEHANA KARMA ( Oleation Therapy ) and SVEDANA KARMA ( Sudation therapy ) & Paschatkarma ( Samsarjan Therapy) along with these five main special therapies.