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Ayurveda approach
Ayurvedic remedy helps ease aches and inflammation of arthritis
problems. Those who experienced ayurvedic remedies benefited from
a reduction in the number and severity of swollen joints and noted
a statistically significant improvement in pain, stiffness and
function compared to those taking placebo.
Ayurveda distinguishes three types of arthritis:
Vata-type arthritis:
When arthritis is due to vata, joints will pop and crack. Joints
become dry and swollen and may also feel cold to the touch. They
are prone to very acute pain upon movement, usually one particular
spot. Any strenuous exercise, even jogging and jumping tend to
aggravate the pain.
Pitta-type arthritis:
The joints become swollen and inflamed, painful even without movement.
It looks red and feels hot to the touch.
Kapha-type arthritis:
Joints are swollen and stiff, however they experience feelings
of cold and clammy ratherthan hot. The slightest movement relieves
the pain. The pain tend to be greater in the morning and lessens
when the person starts moving around.
Vata is the main active dosha that brings ama into
the colon. Ama is the toxic, sticky by-product of inadequate digestion.
From here, ama travels through the system and lodges in the bone
tissues (asthi dhatu) and in the joints, causing stiffness and
pain characteristics of arthritis.
Either vata, pitta or kapha goes out of balance.
Which type go off the scale is determined by the patient’s
diet, emotions and lifestlye; and the particular dosha slows down
the agni, digestive fire, causing ama. So in order to treat arthritis,
ama has to be removed from the joint and returned to the colon
and then, get rid of it.
· Treatment for all
types of arthritis
Although each one is unique, all three types of arthritis begin
in the colon. Hence, keeping the colon clean is important.
If unsure what type it is, take 1 teaspoon of triphala
at night with ½ to a cup of water.
If it is caused by vata, substitute haritaki.
If it is caused in pitta, substitute amalaki.
If it is caused in kapha, substitute bibhitaki.
For a complete treatment, see below.
· Treatment for vata-type
arthritis
Take 1 tablet of yogaraj guggulu 3 times a day.
Keep a vata-pacifying diet. Eat warm, easy-to-digest
foods, and avoid cold drinks and food, including salad and even
ice-cream. Do not take beans, grains like corn and barley and
avoid eating eggplants, tomatoes and potatoes.
Exercise yoga postures like Forward Bend (do not
strain yourself), the Chest-Knee pose, Maha Muda and the Half
bridge pose.
Apply mahanarayan oil on painful, affected joints
like the wrist or ankles, rubbing it into the skin and then; apply
moist heat. This is done by soaking the affected joint in warm
water with a teabag of brown mustard seeds. For the ‘teabag’,
you need 2 tablespoons of mustard seeds wrapped in cheesecloth
or handkerchief.
· Treatment for pitta-type
arthritis
Pitta arthritis has more pain and inflammation than the other
types.
Take 1 tablet of kaishore guggulu tablet (350mg)
3 times a day and ½ teaspoon of sudarshan twice a day with
warm water.
Keep a pitta-pacifying diet. Do not eat hot, spicy
foods like curries, tomatoes, pickles and spinach.
Exercise yoga postures like the boat, Bow, Camel,
Cow and locust poses, and the Moon Salutation series of postures.
Do breathing exercise like the shitali pranayama,
as follows:
- Make a tube of your tongue and breathe through the mouth down
to the stomach
- Hold breath for a few seconds and exhale through the nose.
Continue the exercise for another 11 times.
Apply cool castor oil or coconut oil to the painful
area of the joints for a soothing relief.
Another cooling substance is sandalwood powder paste.
To make the paste, you need to mix 1 teaspoon of sandalwood powder
with adequate water. Gently rub paste onto the joint.
For a hot and inflamed joint, put on an icebag on
it. This helps to ease the pain and inflammation.
· Treatment for kapha-type
arthritis
Take 1 tablet of punarnava guggulu tablet (250mg) 3 times a day.
Keep a kapha-reducing diet and avoid cold drinks
and dairy products like milk and yoghurt.
Helpful yoga postures are the Spinal Twist and the
Tree, Triangle, Forward Bend.
When there is fluid in the joints (effusion), apply
an effective paste of equal amounts of ginger powder and punarnava
powder. Mix 1 teaspoon of each powder with sufficient water to
make a paste.
Apply a paste of vacha also known as calamus root,
powder to the joint. Add adequate water to 1 teaspoon of the powder
to make paste.
Rheumatoid and osteoarthritis
This vata-pitta-kapha method of treatment can also be classified
as rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis. You can follow the
specific treatment if you are sure of which condition you have.
For rheumatoid, take
1 tablet of simhanada guggulu tablet (350mg) 3 times a day and
1 chitrak-adhivati (200mg) tablet twice a day.
Drink 1 cup of ginger tea with 2 teaspoons of castor
oil before going to bed. Castor oil has natural recursors of steroids
that can help heal the inflammatory condition of rheumatic arthritis.
Take note that you may anticipate a laxative effect from taking
castor oil.
Another ayurvedic herb that helps is 1 quarter teaspoon
of yogaraj guggulu with some warm water 3 times a day.
For osteoarthritis,
take 1 tablet of yogaraj guggulu twice a day. And take ½
teaspoon of gandharva haritaki sauteed in castor oil with warm
water. You can substitute ginger tea with castor oil if you do
not have gandharva haritaki.
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