日本文が後ろに続きます。
Ayurvedic medicine, or Ayurveda, is a system of traditional medicine with 3,000 years of history native to the Himalayan area. Even today it is regarded as part of alternative medicine in such countries as India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Especially in Sri Lanka, it is protected and encouraged as one of the national industries by the Department of Ayurveda, the world’s only administrative ministry related to it.
There is a Sri-Lankan-style Ayurvedic clinic in Japan, which I’ve visited monthly for almost half a year. Sunil Nishimura, a Sri Lankan Ayurvedic practitioner, has been running this clinic since 1996 in Kawagoe, Saitama. He first came to Japan in 1994, and soon after that, he became ill because of his stressful life in Japan. He asked his family to send him Ayurvedic herbs. He took them imported from his home country and changed his eating habits into Sri Lankan ones. Then he recovered his health soon after he changed his life. That was why he opened a clinic based on Ayurveda for Japanese people who suffered from diseases of civilisation.
His treatment begins with consultation and pulse diagnosis, which are the basics of Ayurvedic diagnosis. At a glance, he said I might have some troubles in my heart and my liver. I was surprised at that because it was what medical checkup doctors told me of different hospitals for years. A cup of special herb tea was served. After drinking it, I was taken to the bed to lie on my stomach. The practitioner patted my back with hot oiled herb covered with a cotton cloth like a ball, and then he massaged the whole of my body, from head to legs. When the massage was complete, I was taken to a big wooden capsule and told to get inside. I did it, the capsule was closed, and herbs were boiled underneath so that the capsule was filled with hot herbal vapour to help me sweat and take out toxic body wastes with sweat. I went to the shower room, washed the sweat off, and then everything was over.
This treatment costs 13,000 Yen. It looks a little expensive, but every time I take this, I feel refreshed very much. A specially-made herbal curry and rice set is served upon request. Some kinds of good-for-health herb tea, liqueur, and suspicious-looking pills are sold in additional charges. I don’t know how they would be effective, but one thing I can say is that people say I look slimmer than I did half a year ago and that I’ve never caught a cold for this half a year, though coworkers around me often do.
This kind of alternative medicine is often opposed to modern Western medicine. I don’t intend to renounce Western medicine. It is very effective in the immediate treatment of acute symptoms. On the other hand, Ayurveda or other kinds of Eastern medicine is aimed to keep track of (or restore) your body status from an internal approach so that you can be in normal working conditions, while Western medicine cures diseases of an external approach. I believe that the use of some different kinds of medicine at the same time will help keep your health.
スリランカ式のアーユルヴェーダのクリニックに通い始めて、もう半年になります。
アーユルヴェーダとは、ヒマラヤに源泉を持ち三千年の歴史を持つ古来からの医療で、インド、ネパール、スリランカなどで今日でも用いられているそうです。特にスリランカでは国をあげて産業として保護・育成にあたっており、世界唯一のアーユルヴェーダ省まであるそうです。
日本にも、川越に「スニル・アーユルヴェーダ院」というところがあり、そこの院長の西村スニル先生は、1994年に来日後、慣れない日本の生活で健康を損ね、そのときに家族から取り寄せてもらったアーユルヴェーダのハーブと、食生活のスリランカ式への改善で、すっかり健康を取り戻したことから、1996年にアーユルヴェーダ院を設立し、文明病に悩む日本人のために治療を続けているとのことです。
アーユルヴェーダの基本は、問診と脈診。それだけで、「あなたは心臓と肝臓に問題を抱えていますね」と言い当てられ、それが人間ドックで先生に言われ続けてきたことなので驚きます。特製のハーブティーを飲んだあとはベッドに案内され、うつぶせになり、熱いハーブをオイルに浸して布でボール状に覆ったもので背中をパッティング、そのあと頭から足まで全身をマッサージ。
そのあとは、木製のカプセルのようなものの中に入り、その下でハーブを煮詰めて、蒸気がカプセルに充満し、そのうち大量に汗をかいて汗とともに老廃物が出て行くしくみとなっています。
そのあとシャワーを浴びて汗を洗い流し、すべて終了。
１回１万３千円と高いですが、終わると気持ちがすっきりします。ハーブとスパイスの特製カレーも頼めば出してくれます。ハーブティーや元気酒、怪しい見た目の丸薬などもオプションで売ってたりします。効果のほどはどのくらいかわかりませんが、半年前に比べ周りの人に痩せた、と言われるようになったように思います。あと、周りが風邪ひいてても自分は風邪ひかなかったり、とか。
この手の代替医療はしばしば西洋医学と対立するように思われがちですが、別に西洋医学を否定するつもりはなく、西洋医学はそれはそれで急性の症状を即効的に治すには効果的ですし。一方でアーユルヴェーダとか東洋医学は、西洋医学が外的アプローチで病気を「治す」のに比べ、これらは内的アプローチで、身体のコンディションをノーマルに維持（あるいは、ノーマルに戻す）ことをねらっているのかな、と。こういった別の医療を併用することが、健康を維持するのに役立つんじゃないかな、と、私は思います。