Ayurveda is the “Science of Life,” originating in India over 5000 years ago. A holistic system of medicine, Ayurveda focuses on diet, lifestyle, and herbal remedies to stimulate the body's own natural response to regain balance. Ayurveda or Ayurvedic medicine is an ancient system of health care that is native to the Indian subcontinent. The word "Ayurveda" is a tatpurusha compound of the word ayus meaning "life", "life principle", or "long life" and the word Veda, which refers to a system of "knowledge". Thus "Ayurveda" roughly translates as the "knowledge of life", "knowledge of a long life" or even "science of life". Ayurveda has always been preserved by the people of India as a traditional "science of life", despite increasing adoption of European medical techniques during the time of British rule. For several decades the reputation and skills of the various Ayurvedic schools declined markedly as Western medicine and Western-style hospitals were built. However, beginning in the 1970s, a gradual recognition of the value of Ayurveda returned, and today Ayurvedic hospitals and practitioners are flourishing throughout all of India. Ayurveda, based upon the Indian philosophical, psychological, conventional and medicinal understandings, is a traditional health care system from centuries. One of the main aim of ayurveda is to provide guidance regarding food and lifestyle so that healthy people can stay healthy and folks with health challenges can improve their health.

For thousands of years, Kerala has been home to a healing tradition - Ayurveda - that is based on the principle of a vital power or life essence ('Prakriti') which sustains all beings and moves through them. As humans, our bodies as well as our psyches, share intimately in this flow and are uniquely constituted by it. 'Prakriti', according to Ayurveda philosophy, manifests itself as the 'Pancha Maha Bhutas' or the 'Five Great Elements' - namely, earth, water, air, and 'ether' or space. In us, as microcosms of a larger universe, these elements have their existence and their play as the three 'doshas' or triune 'humors' -'Vatta', 'Pitta', and 'Kapha'. According to the sages who developed Ayurveda, 'Life' ('Ayus'), ‘Health’ ('Swastha') and ‘Happiness’ ('Ananda') depend on maintaining a critical point of balance – a homeostasis - of the 'doshas'; the place of balance is like a pivot, a fountain-head, whence the very fabric of our beings - our tissues and cells - is generated and renewed or rejuvenated in a cyclic manner.