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Travel Health: Cultural Healing
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Spas everywhere are embracing treatments from different lands. On your next vacation, seek out one of these five traditional ways to relax
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BY HANNAH WALLACE
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AYURVEDA
In this system of natural healing, begun in India 5,000 years ago, illness is treated by striving
for balance between three energies, or doshas—air, fire and earth. An Ayurvedic practitioner will determine your primary dosha and may then prescribe massage, yoga, meditation or shirodhara—the pouring of warm oil on the forehead, said to calm the central nervous system.
KNEIPP
In 1849, a Bavarian priest named Sebastian Kneipp used the ritual of hot and cold baths to rid himself of TB. His “Kur” (cure), a mix of hydrotherapy, herbs, exercise and nutrition, is part of the German national health-care system today. The Kneipp Water Walk, offered in many European spas, involves wading in a shallow trough fed by cold natural springs—refreshing after an alpine hike.
PLATZA
Russia’s version of the Finnish sauna involves vigorously stroking and tapping the client with a bundle of oak, birch or eucalyptus leaves, which are believed to open up the pores and aid circulation. (The fragrant brooms are called venik in Russian and vihtas in Finnish.) The platza is said to draw out impurities, purify the skin, clear breathing and boost metabolism. Follow with a cold plunge bath.
TEMAZCAL
The name comes from a Nahuatl word meaning “house of heat,” and refers to the type of sweat lodge once used in purification ceremonies in Mesoamerican cultures. Today the temazcal is mainly focused on detoxifying. It’s more humid than a sauna, and the therapist adds herbs such as rosemary or eucalyptus to
the steam vapors. Afterward you wrap up in a sheet, rest and drink herbal tea.
TUI NA
This deep, vigorous massage is essential to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the most prevalent traditional medicine in the world. Like acupuncture, tui na relies on the principle that illness is caused by blockages in the chi—the body’s energy flow. The therapist manipulates muscles, joints and tendons to bring chi levels into balance, helping treat back pain, sprains, tennis elbow and more.
Consult your physician before engaging in any traditional healing treatments.
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Published: Fall 2011
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Illustration: Catherine Lazure
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