Ayurveda is a complete medical system that has been practiced in India for at least 5,000 years. It is a holistic approach to health that is designed to help people live long, healthy, and well-balanced lives. Both prevention (maintenance of good health) and healing are carried out by entirely natural means. According to Ayurveda, health is a perfect state of balance among the body's three fundamental energies, or doshas (vata, pitta, kapha). The term Ayurveda is taken from the Sanskrit words ayus, meaning life or lifespan, and veda, meaning knowledge. 

As a science of self-healing, Ayurveda encompasses diet and nutrition, lifestyle, exercise, rest and relaxation, meditation, breathing exercises, and medicinal herbs, along with cleansing and rejuvenation programs for healing body, mind and spirit. Adjunct therapies such as sound, colour, and aromatherapy may also be employed.