Panchakarma the fivefold detox and cleansing arm of classical ayurveda has long been used for rejuvenation, chronic disease management and preventive care. In this era of modernisation and global competitiveness, every field needs proper advancement that is essential for its growth, improving efficiency to generate better outcome to the society. When it comes to Panchakarma, it is found that Panchakarma is getting more recognition than Ayurveda itself. Many people think Panchakarma as Ayurveda. Along with this gradual realisation about the importance and benefits of Panchakarma added with media exposure, public now talks about detoxification of the body and for this the most natural way is Panchakarma therapy. Now we are in a stage which needs scientific answers for all things, especially because todays evidence-oriented healthcare environment, so we also need to get adapted without losing our authenticity. Over the last few years, the field has seen clear push toward modern evidence.
Need for scientific explanation or modernisation of Panchakarma
Acceptance in modern medicine: –
Long before there was no comparison of Ayurveda with modern medicine which is purely evidence based, but now modern doctors, patients and all common man is comparing different system of medicines. so, it is very important for Ayurveda to prove the authenticity and reliability to the evidence-oriented healthcare environment.
It is also for bridge in Ayurveda and other medical system, reduce doubts among doctors, policy, makers, and patients.
Standardisation and safety: –
The practice of Panchakarma procedures vary from region to region and doctor to doctor, but standardising procedure in terms of dose duration and indication can be done after scientific explanation. It also ensures patient safety for chronically, elderly patients.
Understanding the mode of action: –
By understanding the mode of action, it transforms Panchakarma from ritual practice into a rationalist therapeutic intervention.
Evidence based validation: –
In present era, documentation is very important. Documentation of treatment outcomes, Comparison with other convention system and publishing the result in peer review journal is important. This increases the global recognition of Panchakarma and Ayurveda.
Legal and ethical requirement: –
It protects the doctors from legal challenges and ensures patient safety and protects the rights of patients.
Communication with Patient: –
When Panchakarma comes to an evidence based standardised treatment, we can communicate with the patient why therapy is needed easily, what will happen to your body, and it can improve the confidence of the patient and thereby getting the outcome of treatment.
Now we will discuss what are the advances in Panchakarma
Evidence based approach
The most important recent developments and their practical implications for patients, clinicians and researchers are on growing clinical evidence — from case series to controlled programmes.
Although high-quality randomized trials remain limited, there has been a surge in clinical studies, observational cohorts and programmatic evaluations testing Panchakarma for specific conditions such as osteoarthritis, diabetes melitus, hypertension and supportive cancer care. Recent case series and clinic trial report published improvements in pain, function and quality-of-life metrics after structured Panchakarma programmes; larger retrospective evaluations suggest benefit when Panchakarma is embedded in a closed hypertension and supportive cancer care.
Standardisation of procedures: –
The need for standardisation of Panchakarma procedures is very relevant in this period as Panchakarma and Ayurveda are getting global recognition day after day. Basically, the vitals of patient before and after Panchakarma procedure is noted and compared. This ensure the safety of patient as well as can understand the changes in body vitals after the procedure.
Physician can be classified into two categories, i.e. vikalpavid and avikalpavid. Vikalpavid is one, who able to assess the agni (biofire), koshţha (nature of bowel) and considering all variations, he fixes the dose and duration. But in contrary, avikalpavid cannot do so. Standardization is the need of hour for second category physician, to prevent atiyoga (over activity), ayoga (less or no activity) and to get adequate effects in a systematic and sophisticated manner within desired time period.
Standardisation includes procedure protocols dosage, and medication as well as indication according to patient disease and chronicity of the disease. While as in procedures and protocols, defining step-by-step guidelines for each therapy, including the Purva karma, Pradhan karma and Paschatkarma, Standardising the type, quality , preparation methods, medicinal ingredients, considering the patient specific variation is done..
Technological advancement:-
When comes to technological advancement in Panchakarma first, we can discuss about Snehana and svedana.
MRI and USG have been used to study the changes in the body fluid after Snehana. While heating oil for Abhyanga, digital thermometer has been used and the normal range is said to be between 38 to 40°C.
As pitta predominant patient needs less heat using this thermometer, it can be done. Earlier it depended on patient to patient, now the scenario changed due to this type of standardised procedure.
When comes to Svedana, Full body steam chamber are nowadays available in market in both lying and sitting variants. There are options like Electric generated steam chamber, featuring controls for temperature time and steam intensity .
Vamana Karma- Automated Vamana system developed by KLE College of Ayurveda in collaboration with KLE engineering College is found to be highly beneficial as it simplifies the challenges during Bhavana, and it is more comfortable, hygienic and safe.
Among the five , Panchakarma procedure, vamana is said to be having more complications, so technical advancement was much needed for this.
When comes to Virechana , there are many standardisation protocols. Proper standardisation of drugs, like trivrut, aragwadha it’s toxic studies etc ensures proper virechana procedure.
In the current method of Nasya instillation we come across difficulties for warming the drug, measuring the dose and instillation like a dhara(stream) to the nostril. During Covid there were serious hygiene issues too.
The present invention is a nasal instillation device designed for performing Nasyakarma, featuring a precise suction mechanism, dosage control and OLED display, a PID-controlled heating element to maintain medicine temperature, a detachable nozzle, and an adaptive flow control mechanism to reduce patient discomfort.
In case of Raktamoksha, blood test like bleeding time (BT), clotting time(CT), Hb, HIV VDRL etc are done before procedure to avoid complications. The changes in clotting factor after Raktamoksha has been noticed to be remarkable.
Conclusion
Ayurveda Panchakarma is now in a stage which can explain the mode of action of all five karmas in scientific grounds and has proved remarkable changes in reducing the symptoms and curing the disease which has been documented. There are several ongoing researches, clinical studies and designing of different instruments and equipment for Panchakarma to make it more soft simple, hazardless, hygienic, and safe. The standard operative procedures (SOP) for all Panchakarma procedure including Panchakarma Purvakarma and Pradhan Karma has been prepared and practised throughout the country despite of minor changes, according to the patient and type of disease and its chronicity. Many of the lifestyle diseases has been under control through Panchakarma and nowadays, more educated, people are attracted to Ayurveda and Panchakarma. Ayurveda and Panchakarma is getting more and more global recognition due to this improvement with the help of science and technology.
