In short
Ayurveda is a traditional Indian system of medicine; yoga is a practice of body, breath and mind. They share a philosophical root and a vocabulary, and in Kerala they are often offered side by side. Yoga you can start today with a teacher. Ayurvedic treatment should involve a qualified practitioner, and serious conditions belong with your doctor.
Kerala has a long Ayurvedic tradition and an equally long tourist industry built on top of it. Both are real. The trick is knowing which one you are dealing with.
Two sister systems
Yoga and Ayurveda grew from the same soil and share ideas: the three gunas, the five elements, the notion that routine, food and season shape how a person feels. Classical texts treat them as complementary — one concerned with how you live and practise, the other with health, diet and treatment.
They are not interchangeable. A yoga teacher is not a physician. An Ayurvedic doctor is not necessarily a yoga teacher. Anyone claiming to be everything at once is worth a second look.
What Ayurveda actually is
A traditional system of medicine, studied in India as a five-and-a-half-year degree — Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery, BAMS — and regulated by the state. It works with constitution and imbalance, described through the three doshas: vata, pitta and kapha. Treatment involves diet, daily routine, herbal preparations and physical therapies.
What a Kerala centre typically offers
- Consultation with a practitioner, who takes a history and assesses constitution.
- Treatments such as abhyanga, a warm oil massage, and shirodhara, where warm oil is poured in a steady stream on the forehead.
- Panchakarma, a longer cleansing programme over one to three weeks, prescribed rather than bought off a menu.
- Diet and routine advice, often the most useful part and the least photographed.
The monsoon, June to September, is traditionally considered the best season for treatment in Kerala, which is why many centres are busiest when the beaches are quietest.
Choosing carefully
- Ask about qualifications. A BAMS-qualified doctor on site is the baseline. Ask; a good centre answers happily.
- Expect a consultation before treatment, not a price list.
- Be wary of cure claims. Any centre promising to cure cancer, diabetes, infertility or a chronic illness has left medicine behind.
- Tell them your medicines. Herbal preparations can interact with prescriptions.
- Look at hygiene, as you would at any clinic.
- Keep your own doctor informed, particularly if you are being offered anything to swallow.
Where yoga fits
In practice the overlap is undramatic and useful: both traditions ask you to eat simply, keep regular hours, sleep properly and move daily. A week of treatment with no change in how you live is a holiday. A daily practice, plainer food and an earlier bedtime is the part that carries on after you fly home — set out in full as dinacharya, the daily routine.
Our piece on sattvic food covers the eating side, and the month-by-month guide explains the seasons if you are timing a trip.
What we do, and what we do not
We are a yoga school. We teach Hatha Yoga, pranayama, meditation and philosophy, and we serve Ayurvedic tea to students on the training. We do not run treatments, we do not prescribe, and we do not diagnose anything. When students ask for a recommendation, we point them towards practitioners rather than pretending to be them.
If you want the yoga side of your Kerala trip sorted, our classes and retreats run daily, and you can ask us anything before you come.
The idea underneath most Ayurvedic advice is the three doshas; vata, pitta and kapha are explained here.
Common questions
What is the difference between yoga and Ayurveda?
Yoga is a practice of body, breath and mind that you learn with a teacher. Ayurveda is a traditional system of medicine involving consultation, diet, routine, herbal preparations and physical therapies, studied in India as a five-and-a-half-year degree. They share philosophy and vocabulary but are separate disciplines.
When is the best time for Ayurvedic treatment in Kerala?
The monsoon months, roughly June to September, are traditionally considered the most favourable season for treatment in Kerala, which is also when centres are busiest and the coast is quietest.
How do I choose a good Ayurveda centre in Kerala?
Ask whether a BAMS-qualified doctor is on site, expect a consultation before any treatment, avoid anywhere promising cures for serious illness, disclose any medicines you take, and keep your own doctor informed.
Do you offer Ayurvedic treatments at Santhi Yoga?
No. We are a yoga school: Hatha Yoga classes, private sessions, workshops, retreats and a 200-hour teacher training. Students on the training are served Ayurvedic tea, but we do not provide treatments, prescriptions or diagnosis.
Known to his students as Achu, Aksharanand trained in the Sivananda tradition and holds an Advanced Teacher Training Certificate. He has taught Hatha Yoga, pranayama, meditation and Vedanta philosophy in Fort Kochi for over fifteen years, across more than 5,000 group classes and seventy international teacher training batches.
More about Achu and the school · Book a class or ask a question