Ayurveda is gaining adherents, The ancient tradition uses nutrition, oils and yoga.

At the height of his professional football career, Ricky Williams was feeling stressed and unbalanced. Something inexplicable was "off." So the Miami Dolphins star abruptly walked away from the sport and began studying the ancient Indian medical system known as ayurveda.

To football aficionados, Williams is an unlikely ambassador for the 5,000-year-old holistic health tradition, which uses nutrition, oils, herbs, cleansing techniques and yoga. His critics link his newfound interest in ayurveda to a possible suspension from the NFL because of a third positive test for marijuana.

But proponents of ayurveda have welcomed the publicity that Williams has brought and say the 5-foot-10, 226-pound former running back and Heisman Trophy winner is lumbering down the path to rejuvenation.

"If anybody needs a good, thorough, deep and proper spring cleaning from the inside out, [ayurveda] is the way to do it," said Reenita Malhotra Hora, author of Inner Beauty, one of a handful of newly published books on ayurveda.

And internal spring cleanings, it seems, are needed year round. Interest in ayurveda is growing as Americans are increasingly trying alternative treatments to battle chronic health problems such as colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and other inflammatory disorders. Ayurveda emphasizes diet and prevention, two aspects of wellness often missing from modern medicine.

The National Ayurvedic Medical Association has surged from 95 members when it started in 2000 to nearly 400 today. Students can learn ayurvedic skills at more than 30 institutions in the United States.

Ayurvedic principles are popping up in places from yoga studios to the Spa Nordstrom, which offers herbal-infused body scrubs, facials, massages and hot-oil treatments.

Melanie Sherman, 30, a graphic designer living in Grayslake, Ill., was struggling with arthritis and bronchitis when she tried ayurveda. Her diagnosis and treatment called for eliminating wheat, dairy, red meat, eggs, butter, grapes and bananas from her diet.

"I had really great results with lifestyle changes," said Sherman, who finds that the arthritis returns when she eats whatever she wants.

Considered a comprehensive health-care plan in India, ayurveda teaches that humans are made of three essential qualities, or doshas. When these doshas are knocked out of balance, whether by stress, lack of sleep, a poor diet, or something in the environment, symptoms of disease or illness can arise.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who brought transcendental meditation to the United States, generally also is credited with introducing ayurveda in the 1980s. But it was wellness guru Deepak Chopra who brought it to the masses in the 1990s.

Part of the surge has to do with the boom in yoga, a sister science to ayurveda. People are investigating what's next, said Hora, an ayurvedic instructor at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

But she said it's also gaining converts because of the sorry state of health insurance in the United States. "People are feeling the need to take direct responsibility for health on a preventative basis," Hora said.

Still, many Western doctors are skeptical about its effectiveness. The National Council Against Health Care Fraud, a group that consistently demands more scientific proof with regard to alternative treatments, has warned that "ayurveda has become a marketing term for a variety of health products and services of limited, questionable, or unproved value."

Consumers should stick with products recommended by quality practitioners, because the use of supplements such as herbs is largely unregulated by the federal government.

"People shouldn't think that just because something is natural it's safe," said Nancy Lonsdorf, medical director of the Raj Ayurveda Health Center near Fairfield, Iowa, and one of the nation's most prominent ayurvedic doctors. "But it's also a mistake to think all herbs are unsafe."

If herbs are used, the type depends on a person's strongest dosha, or constitution. Everyone has all three doshas - called vata, pitta and kapha - but the overall nature of a person, and the way he or she responds to stress, is determined by the dominant dosha. Knowing your dominant doshas (many people have two) can affect what you eat to how much exercise you need to what types of oils to use on your skin.

The dominant dosha is the one most likely to get out of whack. For minor imbalances, nutrition or lifestyle changes can do the trick.

If the problem is deep-rooted and chronic, however, then the body must be detoxified using panchakarma. The lengthy treatment - between 5 and 21 days - consists of full-body massage using heated herbal oils to remove toxins.