Evaluation of safety and efficacy of Vamana Karma in healthy and diseased individuals: a systemic review

Abstract

Introduction: One of the five Pradhana Karmas (five chief procedures) of Panchakarma is Vamana Karma (therapeutic emesis), which is essentially a Samshodhana Karma (purification technique). Ayurvedic literature states that after Samyaka Vamana (proper Vamana), a person perceives Hrit (precordium), Kantha (voice/throat), and Shirah (head) as feelings of lightness. In the Ayurvedic system, this process is beneficial for both healthy and sick individuals in terms of bodily cleansing and dosha extraction, particularly for Kapha. In contrast, this procedure is very rarely conducted due to its associated reluctance as it is comparatively a complicated procedure with other Panchakarma therapies. Aims and Objective: The objective of this research is to examine numerous papers written by different writers on Vamana Karma and to establish a conceptual framework that supports the notion that Vamana Karma is safe and helpful for both healthy and unwell persons. Research Methodology: This study was done following the standards outlined in the Cochrane Handbook of Systematic Study of Interventions. The findings are described in adherence to the Preferred Reporting Guideline for Systematic Reviews. The search included electronic databases from 1946 to the present, the Database of Systematic Reviews from 2005 to January 2015, and PubMed also recorded the searches. The search engine Google was used to get further online resources and data. This article reviews eight different research articles on Vamana in healthy and diseased individuals by different authors, these articles were assessed for the formulated question, identify study relevance appraise tier quality, and summarize the evidence to rule out the safety and efficacy of Vamana Karma. Results: It was observed in all the studies that Vamana is an effective technique to alleviate diseases and is safe to execute if the incorporated methodology is correct, in all the cases there were no complications found when undertaken methodically with maximum efficacy. Conclusion: This study concludes that Vamana is a safe and effective Panchakarma procedure.