This word literally means oral intake of medicated oils or ghee preparations. This is done as a therapeutic procedure and also as a preparatory process for the body purification therapy.
In this ayurvedic treatment, medicated ghee or oils are given in empty stomach in proportionally increasing quantity for a period of 5 to 7 days. Snehapanam treatment is done with strict restrictions for diet and activities which your doctor will be explaining to you. You are abide to follow those instructions, failing of which can lead to undesirable outcome.
This ayurvedic treatment is very effective for digestive disorders like ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome, certain skin diseases like psoriasis, rashes, boils, osteoarthritis, hemorrhoids etc. Moderate and superior doses of sneha are found to be effective for urinary disorders, diabetes mellitus, gout and epilepsy. This is widely done as a preperatory procedure before doing panchakarma therapies like Virechanam and Vamanam.