A-listers may love their ayurvedic healers, but panchakarma takes detoxing to a whole new level

Total body detoxes, many of which are deeply rooted in ancient medicine techniques like ayurveda, are all the rage right now. But, what happens when a spa-pampered Westerner tries it out? A shock to the system and exploding bowels, that’s what, says Helen Kirwan-Taylor…

Many people are starting to dabble in the science of detoxing (Getty)

The world is divided between those who scroll TikTok and those who don’t. The former, which includes me, will by now be very familiar with things like tongue scrapers, oil pulling and castor oil packs.

In between videos of women slathering castor oil on their hair, face and belly buttons, there are tutorials for fixing leaky guts, burnout and adrenal fatigue by doing a “panchakarma” detox.

During the pandemic, I became intrigued by these videos and have since discovered that these methods are rooted in ayurvedic medicine, an ancient teaching that is still widely used in India and Nepal.