Editorial experiment: how panchakarma affects the body

What gives the cleansing of the body in Indian style? Natalia Ekonomtseva, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the DO, editor of the He alth section, tested the system on herself and shares the results that she did not even suspect at the beginning of the program

When I was offered to test the panchakarma program in the Ayurvedic clinic "Atreya Ayurveda", I knew little about the ancient Indian system of cleansing and healing the body. Friends who have had time to undergo panchakarma believe that the program is able to work miracles with the body. I was assured that those who every year find time for cleansing look 10 years younger than their age, practically do not get sick and simply forget about the problem of excess weight. After one course, it's too early to talk about 10 years or decisively throw away scales and medicines. However, it turned out that under the influence of just one panchakarma, other changes occur - perhaps less global, but no less pleasant.

1. You will begin to perceive smells in a new way. For example, it will become completely impossible to be in a room where people smoke or have recently smoked. Favorite perfumes will suddenly be too harsh. Or it turns out that from the diner, by which you calmly walked to work every day, it smells so disgusting that you want to plug your nose. It was this effect that I noticed in the first place - three days after the start of panchakarma, for the first time in my life, I cooked homemade ketchup, because the store-bought one, which had previously seemed quite edible, suddenly smelled of chemistry. Dr. Uni, under whose supervision I underwent panchakarma, says that this is in the order of things: when the body is cleansed, we become more sensitive.
2. Your skin will be different. I can't promise you that mimic wrinkles will suddenly smooth out by themselves in a matter of days, but the skin condition will definitely change. It will become firmer, fresher and smoother. If before you were worried about swelling or bags under the eyes, after panchakarma you can forget about them for a very long time (and if after the completion of the program you follow the recommendations on nutrition, exercise and daily routine, then almost forever).
3. Most likely you will lose weight. If you follow all the doctor's recommendations, then it is impossible not to lose weight - at the first stage of Panchakarma, which lasts 7-8 days, only stewed vegetables and rice. In the second and third stages, when the restrictions are no longer so strict and any vegetarian dishes are allowed, some return to their previous weight. “That's good,” Dr. Uni smiles, “if you didn't lose much weight during panchakarma, then your weight before the cleansing was optimal.”
4. But even if you lose only 1-2 kilograms, your body will still change. In a month and a half of panchakarma, I lost only 1.5 kg, but my body definitely became more fit, and I happily took out my favorite shorts from the mezzanine, which became hopelessly small for me 3 years ago - after the birth of my daughter.
5. You will start waking up earlier. Don't ask me how it works, but it seems that under the influence of panchakarma the whole organism is intuitively rebuilt towards a he althy lifestyle. It seems that now you need less time to sleep, and, oddly enough, there are more forces. I've never been an owl before, but my eyes close at 10:30 pm, and at half past six in the morning I'm already on my feet. There are many advantages to this routine - for example, before work I have time to run to the pool or do yoga.
6. You will definitely start drinking less. Your relationship with alcohol will become more difficult (maybe easier, depending on your point of view). I have friends who, after 2-3 courses of panchakarma, completely abandoned alcoholic beverages, and they did not have to make any special efforts. They just gradually realized that alcohol does not give them the slightest pleasure. Such enlightenment has not yet happened to me, but alcohol in my life is becoming less and less - one glass of wine literally knocks me down.
7. Some of the habits acquired through panchakarma will stay with you forever. and children, it turns out, eat barley with pleasure. Who would have thought?