Ayurveda is preeminently a comprehensive approach to healthy living. Its primary goal is preservation and promotion of health, with an emphasis on enhancing immunity. A secondary goal is the treatment of mental and physical illnesses, and the restoration of spiritual peace.

Taking a holistic approach to the individual, Ayurveda believes that all aspects of life contribute to health, including nutrition, hygiene, sleep, weather, and lifestyle, as well as physical, mental, and sexual activities. Emotional factors are also taken into consideration. Anger, fear, anxiety, and unhealthy relationships are believed to contribute to illness. A healthy emotional state is considered the very foundation of physical health.

Because the wider social environment is considered an important contributor to health and disease, Ayurveda is concerned with maintaining a healthful physical, social, and spiritual environment, and uses collective meditation to try to influence society.

Ayurvedic herbal preparations generally have no equivalent in Western medicine. Unlike allopathic medicine, Ayurveda uses combined herbal preparations, often including whole plant products, rather than isolated chemicals from plants. Herbal preparations may contain ten to twenty different herbs.