The Branches of Thai Medicine

Traditional medicine in Thailand is historically split into three disciplines: Spiritual healing, massage, and dietary regimens and herbal medicine.

Thai Massage: Thai massage is considered to be a therapy of energy. Masseurs apply acupressure to sensitive points on the body in order to impede or increase the flow of energy through the nadis, or sen lines (Thai energy meridians) as necessary to relieve symptoms and stimulate healing. While Thai massage has enjoyed increasing popularity in the West as of late, it is a field that, in Thailand, remains intimately tied to the other branches of traditional medicine.

Dietary regimens and herbal medicine: Herbs and food affect the human organism by causing physiological changes in body chemistry. This is expressed in traditional Thai medicine, like in the Ayurvedic medicine of India, by the idea of Four Elements. The constant interaction of the Four Elements gives rise to the processes of the body, and therefore is the impetus behind life. The Elements can become unbalanced due to a variety of reasons, including environment, food intake, age, and mental state. During the normal course of one's life, the Elements go in and out of balance in a continuously changing state of health or disease. The primary goal of traditional Thai dietary regimens and herbalism is to maintain balance of the Four Elements for optimum health.

Thai Spiritual healing: Thai medicine emphasizes the spiritual well-being of the patient, and holds that many diseases flow from a troubled spirit. For this reason, even modern traditional Thai medicine is enveloped in a rich and intricate tradition of prayer, meditation, mantras, and mythology based around Buddhist and shamanic ideas, which are designed to heal the spirit in order to heal the body.