Medical Tourism is the most recent trend in privatization of healthcare services and is gaining prominence in developing countries like India. Medical tourism or health care package tourism covers broad spectrum of medical services and has become a common form of vacationing. The objective of medical tourism package is to mingle wellness and healthcare with relaxation and leisure and to provide best of medical tour package to foreign patients.

India is a recent entrant into the global medical tourism map and medical tourism in India is at boom. McKinsey and the confederation of Indian Industry made a study and stated that medical tourism in India could become a $ 1 billion business by 2012. Government and private sector studies estimate that medical tourism in India is growing by 30 percent a year.

India has caught the attention of foreign patients with high quality treatment and services at private hospitals and those run by voluntary services. Some of the pluses offered in India are the international standard of medical attention, high-end equipments, personalized attention and minimum waiting period that too at a fraction of costs incurred overseas.

India with its culture and scenic beauty is becoming a popular medical tourism destination for foreign patients needing surgery and other specialized treatment and is providing cost effective medical tour packages. Many patients are pleased with the Indian Medical package tour like getting their tummy tucks with a trip to mesmerizing Tajmahal Agra.

Indian hospitals like Apollo are providing a nice blend of top-class medical expertise at affordable prices and thus are attracting foreign patients. Apollo hospitals are one of the leading medical corporations of India serving medical tourists from foreign countries.

In China, natural substances have been used medicinally for thousands of years, and their application is encouraged by the present Chinese government. Traditional Chinese Medicine, including herbalism, began to be imported into Japan from about the 5th century A.D., and – with a few modifications – it has to a large extent been incorporated into the system operated by Japanese health insurance authorities.

The use of herbs once belonged partly to the realm of magic, in the healing rites performed by shamans and also stems from observations of the way in which animals treat themselves to various plants when sick or wounded. But careful study of herbs and their properties over thousands of years has developed Oriental herbal medicine into a highly refined and complex discipline.

Medical diagnosis is usually undertaken by practitioners familiar with both Western and Oriental medicine, resulting in a wide­ranging and comprehensive assessment of a patient’s symptoms. The yin/yang balance will be appraised, as well as the functioning of the internal organs and systems, the patient’s psychological state, diet, and lifestyle. And each of these factors will be considered in relation to the nature of the diseases or disorder involved, and its degree and speed of progression.

Following diagnosis, the therapist selects a combination of natural “herbs,” which may include mineral and animal ingredients. Western herbal therapies are often based on using a single herbal remedy at a time; indeed, most rural forms of folk medicine work on this premise. An Oriental herbal therapist will provide an individually tailored cocktail of herbs that will work in conjunction with one another, and with you, and that will probably be readapted several times during the course of treatment as healing proceeds,

Herbs are classified in a number of ways. The nature of each is said to be cold, cool, hot, warm, or neutral. This is the chi or energy value of the herb and is used to balance excess or deficiencies in the “disharmony” that constitutes the illness. The herb’s taste and smell are also evaluated, as sour bitter, sweet, pungent. salty. These characteristics are linked special affinities with different organs or body system and the related emotions that can be involved in disease. The herbs are also characterized as having a ascending or descending effect. The herbalist prescribes a mixture of herbs and tells the patient how to prepare and use them. Occasionally ready-prepared remedies such as herbal pills or tinctures may be given.