Phuket is home to top-notch Western-based hospitals and doctors, as well as therapists and practitioners of everything from ancient Ayurvedic philosophies, to New-Age style, East-meets-West fusion healing therapies. Combine these with the gentle tropical climate, the ease of island living, and you have the makings of a great, recuperative, holiday.

How to cure asthma: vigorously move the abdomen in an hour-long dance routine designed to strengthen the lungs, take a small package of specially prepared herbs on a daily basis, swim regularly and apply specially prepared oils to the chest at night, practise yoga as often as possible, change your diet to avoid dairy products, and increase your vitamin-C intake.

All of these ideas come from alternative therapy practitioners on Phuket. Whether any of these methods actually work is a question that can only be answered by those who have tried them. But, as the range of asthma treatments shows, Phuket presents lots of alternatives for visitors with an interest in therapies outside the Western medical orthodoxy.

Thailand has long represented a major intersection of Eastern and Western cultures. Long before the current international boom of interest in Eastern medicines and therapies, the traffic was going in the opposite direction. All Thai doctors would receive their medical training and qualifications in the USA, which rapidly led to Western medicine dominating therapy in Thailand's hospitals. Traditional Thai medicine, meanwhile, became almost obsolete.

Now, as we charge on into the 21st century, many cultures, most of them Western, are taking an unprecedented interest in a myriad of different health and lifestyle options. Ironically enough, this has led to the rediscovery and development of a distinctive Thai medical heritage. More than 20 doctors on Phuket now practise traditional Thai medicine, and two of the island's major hospitals have recently opened Ayurvedic and acupuncture centres. Further facilitating this growth is a loose-knit group of "alternative" practitioners, drawn to Phuket's tranquil shores to develop their respective crafts.

Ayurvedic means "science of life", and refers to a holistic Indian medical tradition of healing that evolved among the Brahmin sages of ancient India over 4,000 years ago. Alison Potter is a fully qualified Ayurvedic practitioner and spa consultant who's been based on Phuket for the past 13 years. She visits southern India two or three times a year to further her Ayurvedic studies.

"Ayurveda is practised by everyone in India; it's part of their everyday life. The thing I love about it is that it is to do with everything," she explains. "Lifestyle, diet and climate are all important, but Ayurveda is about balance. And it's completely non-judgemental."

The first step towards an Ayurvedic lifestyle is establishing exactly what kind of a person you are: vata, kapha or pitta. This can be done through consultation with an Ayurvedic practitioner and is determined by factors ranging from hair colour and degree of perspiration to speech, sex drive and temperament. All three stem from Sanskrit words that are interpreted as air (vata), fire (pitta) and water (kapha). Each has defining physical and mental characteristics. For example, pitta governs our bodily digestive functions as well as the ability to digest concepts and ideas. Although most people will have one or two elements, the challenge is to balance all three.

"People will come to me and together we can work out their basic elements," Alison explains. "We can then look at making changes in lifestyle and diet. After a consultation, I always give people a diet sheet, which they may try for a while and then give up on. But they keep going back to it, trying again until eventually, maybe six months later, they'll understand it and everything I told them will make sense. The most important thing is to give someone the responsibility of their health back to them. That takes away blame and expectation from other people, such as doctors. Ayurveda is essentially about prevention, rather than cure."

Increasingly, Phuket's spas are moving away from standard massage, facial and steam packages into areas of alternative therapy like Ayurveda. This is due, in part, to an existing synergy between the two. Some of the Ayurvedic treatments that Alison has been asked to introduce, like shirodhara (the slow pouring of warm oil onto the forehead) and netraeasti (the pouring of herbal ghee into the eye, to clear the channels around it) fit in well with the spa's philosophy. She has now received the ultimate accolade of a commission from Chiva Som, in Hua Hin on the Gulf of Thailand coast. Chiva Som is rated as one of the world's best spas, and Alison has been asked to set up a full Ayurvedic centre there.

Another of Phuket's spa consultants, Dorinda Berry, who along with her husband Nikorn Banjerdlert was responsible for setting up the Banyan Tree Spa, has also noticed a change of direction in some of the island's high-end spas. The Banyan Tree now employs a full time yoga instructor. The Amanpuri has two healers on its staff, and the Evason has a professional aromatherapist. Aromatherapy is a subject that Dorinda and Nikorn know a lot about, as they have been successfully running their own company, Roseberry, which specializes in oils, scrubs and salts.

"Aromatherapy is about a lot more than simply mixing oils together," Dorinda says. "All of our healing range of oils are developed according to Buddhist teachings, and reflect the qualities of the Thai people." The five oils are Meditation, Intention, Patience, Respect and Clarity, and are made using indigenous oils from Thailand and China. To prepare one litre of each takes 24 hours. This is because Dorinda and Nikorn believe in investing the oil with its key property through reiki. Reiki is a method of natural healing, developed in Japan, based on the application of "Universal Life Force Energy" with the hands. Dorinda and Nikorn begin with meditation. Then, as the oil is slowly mixed drop by drop, they hold the bottle, while thinking first of a colour and then a prayer.

"When a person selects an oil," Nikorn says, "they should choose the one that smells the most attractive to them at the time. It then helps to balance chakras and strengthen the auric field."

Chakras, a common concept in Asian culture for millennia, are the seven major energy centres contained within our bodies. The concept of chakra derives from tantric philosophy, which is interpreted from Buddhist and Hindu scripture. Chakra in Hindi literally means "wheel of spinning energy". Each wheel is thought to vibrate to a musical note and have a colour of the rainbow.

"For people with the healing touch," claims Isabelle Ott, "energy circulates through the hands. The hands are like plugs that run energy through the patient. People can feel it, but describing it is very hard." A movement therapist and energy healer, Isabelle thinks that Phuket is the ideal place to carry out her therapies. "I've stayed here for so long because it's very peaceful. After the therapy, patients can go to the beach and relax for the rest of the day rather than sit in a traffic jam."

Energy therapy, in Isabelle's opinion, can help people with serious physical illnesses and those on strong medication that can unbalance the energy field. It can also help people who suffer from depression. "The physical, the mental, the emotional and the spiritual are all linked," she says. "For me, traditional medicine is all about the physical body. I take care of the body, I take care of emotions, and sometimes I take care of a spiritual level. I believe I have a gift. Well, that's what people tell me."

Thailand's Buddhist culture also has a significant link to Isabelle's healing technique. "When I give a healing, it's like a meditation for me," she says. "When I'm working in the USA, it's much more active; here it's much more gentle and soft, because of the local energy. Although chakra healing originated in India, it has a clear link to Buddhist teaching."

The most widely known Buddhist therapy is traditional Thai massage, which has been practised here for centuries. Wat Po in Bangkok, built in the 16th century, has for many years been the most important massage school in the country. Ever popular, Thai massage and the wider field of Thai traditional herbal medicine received a major boost in January 2002 when Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan announced that the Ministry would actively promote traditional Thai medicine as an alternative medicine and develop it to international standards.

Phusit Krittayapornpong, a native of Chumporn Province, came to Phuket three years ago to open the Natural Therapy School. The school specializes in teaching Thai massage, Thai herbal medicine and Thai music, all of which he believes have great therapeutic benefits. Thai herbal medicine is very similar to its Chinese counterpart, in which plants and herbs are either ingested or rubbed onto the skin in order to cure all manner of ailments. The central philosophy of traditional Thai medicine is akin to that of Ayurveda. “Basically,” Phusit says, “it’s all about balancing the four elements – earth, water, wind and fire – within everyone.”

Although not yet fully qualified as a Thai traditional medicine doctor, Phusit sees himself as a conduit between the exclusively Thai-speaking world of the Thai Traditional Medicine Association of Phuket and curious Westerners. "I attend meetings of the association every week," Phusit says, "and I learn new things all the time. I have been training to be a doctor for the last three years, and I should qualify in two years time, although maybe it will take longer. It all depends on when my teacher feels I have learned and understood enough."

Phusit strongly believes that the traditional Thai dance taught at the centre also has a strong therapeutic value: "The movements in dancing are very similar to those used in massage and meditation; they can help relax the body and free the mind."

This is a sentiment that Rhonda Clarke would agree with, albeit with a slight difference. Rhonda is a keen advocate and teacher of Nia dance therapy. Nia (neuromuscular integrative action) was developed by Debbie and Carlos Rosas in the 1980s in the USA, and involves a series of kinaesthetic dance movements and patterns. Although there are now over 400 certified teachers world-wide, Rhonda is the first in Asia.

"Nia combines the breath of yoga with tai chi, aikido and other types of martial arts, and free-dance all in one routine," Rhonda explains. "Nia is all about being a kid again. Kids can go down the beach and dance and sing without any insecurity about being watched or caring what people think. Nia tries to bring that out again, to make people let go and be free. A lot of the movement is waking up the hips, waking up the ribs, grinding your feet into the earth and feeling the sensation of music. Nia is about connecting body mind, soul and emotion."

A typical Nia routine will last about an hour, and can feature a mixture of classical, African, South American, flute and healing music. Participants are encouraged to interpret the movements demonstrated by the teacher in a way that's most comfortable for them.

Currently, Rhonda teaches Nia in homes around the island. But the demand for Nia and other alternative therapies has been so great that, in July, she'll be opening a purpose-built movement centre in Chalong. Yoga, tai chi, tae kwondo and aikido classes will all be offered as well.

Phuket's fascination with all things alternative has now reached such a level that local businessman Miguel Kirjon has begun organizing alternative health seminars on the island. Miguel is confident that the week-long programmes covering many different aspects of the scene will prove a great success. "I've had a very positive response so far," he says. "It will make a change from just lying around on the beach all day or elephant trekking. Phuket offers everything for people interested in alternative health. When people come on holiday, they want to take a good feeling back with them and many of these therapies can give that."

Will any of them work for you? You be the judge.