ARTICLES ON AYURVEDA

The natural way to relieve Alzheimer’s

“It’s our way of life that’s inviting many chronic ailments and Alzheimer is just one kind” says Dr.Sasidharan. Presently, he is the chief physician of the famous Keraleeya Ayurveda Samajam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, offering therapy to alzheimer’s diseases. Being an exponent in Ayurveda, the Indian holistic medicine. He vehemently criticize the unhygienic way by which we live today, causing innumerable health problems.

Unfortunately, there is no sure-fire way to prevent the onset of Alzheimer disease. But nature has provided us some preventive measures, which we frequently forget. And through his noble endeavour, Dr. Sasidharan attempts to bring back those glorious medical traditions we had in the past.

Studies reveal that there are no clear-cut indicators or tests to confirm Alzheimer. “The disease can only be detected through the nullification of many other psychological diseases, as Alzheimer share some symptomic similarities like defective perception, memory loss, degeneration of brain cells, lack of mind-body co-ordination and other physiological and psychological disorders” adds Dr.Sasidharan.

Now, it’s high time for the physicians and scientists to find a way out from this dilemma, as the growth of Alzheimer is on a fast pace. According to Dr.Sasidharan, there are many intrinsic and extrinsic factors that leads to degeneration of our nervous system. And the factors include, pollutants, unhealthy diets, genetic mutations, psychological condition etc.

Environmental Factors

From every media source, we are alarmingly informed that we are living in a polluted environment, and we casually ignore these scientific warnings by just acclimatizing to it. But our systems can’t function like that, and these toxins dysfunction our body systems by blocking, the vital energy flow. When the energy flow is disturbed, the main physiological centres gets disoriented and make them invincible to medicines. Brain cells are one such targets of toxins, as they are sensitive among the cells, which results in many physiological problems. Histamines and alike compounds produced as a result of antigen-antibody reaction is one such example to quote in this regard.

Diet Practice

The nutritional imbalance of the food we intake and the presence of incompatible food are few reasons that lead to both physiological and psychological disturbances. Many studies show that the presence of metals like zinc and Aluminium in the food results in the cognitive deterioration due to the accumulation of them in neurofibrillary tangles of brain tissues.

Ayurveda prescribe the practice of vegetarian diet for better health, as nutrients like vitamin A,C, and E, the mineral Selenium, and Carotenoids etc are present in them. These nutrients are antioxidants, and can prevent the oxidative damage of free radicals, which contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Brain tissue is highly susceptible to free radical damage because, unlike many other tissues, it does not contain significant amounts of protective antioxidant compounds.

Ayurveda also contempts the unhealthy combination of food ingredients, and clearly suggests the perfect combination of food items to be followed while consuming. For example, curd and fish are of high nutritional value, but when used together do more harm than good, as the by products formed on their digestion are of toxic nature.

Like physical regimens, psychological regimens are also a must for the formation of a healthy mind. Noble activities like righteousness, optimism, morality, tolerance, altruism etc soothens one body and mind, maintaining a proper balance which ward off many diseases.

Treatment

Dr.Sasidharan’s treatment schedule include panchakarma methods like snehapanam, vasti, kshayavasthi, and snehavasthi for Alzheimer’s patient. And the steps varies according to the nature of the patient’s body and disease.

Usually snehapanam(medical oil application) starts first and extend for seven days. Along with this, patients have to intake drugs like Brahmi Grihtham and Kalyana Grihtham. After the completion of this, swedanam (sudation) is repeated for the next three days, which ends in purgation, to eliminate all body toxins, and it falls in the fourth day of the second step.

Vasthi, is another method advised for the treatment by Dr.Sasidharan. It’s nothing but a process of injecting fluid through the anal, vaginal and urinary canal. Vasthi is done for combatingvata and vata dominant diseases. And Alzheimer is one such type. Different vastis like kshyaya vasti, sneha vasti, Rajyapanam vasti, and Madhuthailikan’s vasti, which are of anabolic nature are used to stimulate and rejuvenate the brain cells. Apart from this anabolic therapies in ayurveda like pizhichil, tarpanam and Shirodhara are also performed to improve the health of the patient.

Rasayana chikista or Rejuvenation therapy is yet another prominent therapeutic method envisaged in this treatment plan. Here the medicinal values of brain tonics like Brahmi, Kudangel, Jatamanji, Aswagandha…etc are incorporated in effective bases like ghee or milk for the rejuvenation of degenerated cells. These drugs clear the body channel to facilitate the memory power and intelligence. Not just that, it also clears all the toxins in the body to create an ideal environment for the medicines to act effectively. But this type of treatment has got only little effect in older ages.

To cap it all, Dr. Sasidharan’s treatment assessment chart shows an optimistic result. Yes, fifty percent of his patient were found relieved from the diseases. A notable percentage, carrying a good omen for him to carry this therapeutic programme forward, anticipating miraculous results in the near future.

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