Auto Immune Disorders

Ayurvedic Treatment for Autoimmune Disorders

In modern medicine, autoimmune disorders are recognized as conditions where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s tissues. With its holistic understanding of the body, Ayurveda views autoimmune disorders as a result of imbalances in the body’s natural energies, or ‘doshas,’ which disrupt normal immune function. Through personalized treatments, Ayurveda aims to restore this balance and support the immune system naturally

This can be of two kinds:

Abnormally low immune activity or
Overactive immune mechanism

Because of these reasons, the body’s ability to fight against bacteria, viruses, and pathogens decreases and makes the body very susceptible to infections. Due to many known and unknown factors, the body’s immune system may begin to produce antibodies that instead of fighting against invaders start attacking the body’s own tissues.

Early Symptoms of Autoimmune Disorders

Vata Disorders: Symptoms like joint pain, dry skin, and muscle spasms are common in Vata-dominant autoimmune disorders.

Pitta Disorders: Conditions with symptoms like inflammation, skin rashes, and fever often result from a Pitta imbalance.
Kapha Disorders: Swelling, weight gain, and sluggishness can be seen in autoimmune disorders linked to Kapha imbalance.

A few early symptoms of many autoimmune diseases are

Fatigue
Painful muscles
Painful and swollen joints
Swelling and redness in joints
Low-grade fever
Skin rashes
Hair loss
Difficulty in concentrating
Individual disorders may have specific signs and symptoms that are unique to the disease.

Causes of Autoimmune Disorders

From an Ayurvedic perspective, autoimmune disorders are often the result of poor lifestyle choices, improper diet, and mental stress, which lead to doshic imbalances. For example, consuming foods that are incompatible with your body type (Prakriti), irregular meal times, or chronic stress can disturb the body’s natural equilibrium, ultimately leading to autoimmune conditions.

Researchers around the world have been constantly looking at the proper understanding of the reasons behind the autoimmune activity and they have listed a few reasons. They are

Certain ethnic groups are susceptible to a few disorders
Recent studies show that women are affected twice as men
Lupus affects more American African and Hispanic people than white people
Certain diseases run in the family though all may not be affected by them. But the susceptibility to inherit the diseases will be present.

Ayurveda’s Understanding of Autoimmunity

In Ayurveda, ‘Ama’ refers to the toxic, undigested material that accumulates in the body due to impaired digestion. Ama plays a crucial role in autoimmune disorders by clogging channels and disrupting normal tissue function.

The components of autoimmunity are as below explained

The tridoshas are the most important functional components of our body. They also determine our physical constitution or body type. All functions of the body are carried out smoothly and uninterruptedly when the doshas are in a state of balance. Dosha aggravation and imbalance will cause autoimmune disorders.

Ayurvedic treatment for Autoimmune disorders

Nidana Parivarjana: Identifying the causative factors of the concerned autoimmune disorder and isolating them (keeping them away).

Panchakarma Therapies: The five specialized treatments of Ayurveda are the ultimate weapons to tackle autoimmune disorders. They expel the morbid doshas, detoxify our system, prevent tissue damage, prevent occurrences and recurrences of autoimmune disorders, and provide longstanding immunity against autoimmune disorders. Therapeutic emesis, purgation, decoction and oil enemas, and nasal medication are the five measures.

Administration of Rasayanas

Tissue rejuvenators and immune-modulating therapies and medicines. Improving Agni, regulating dietetic patterns, and implementing lifestyle changes, Psychotherapies and counseling, mindfulness therapies, Yoga and meditation sessions, and other stress-relieving measures.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: -

Multiple sclerosis is a long-lasting (chronic) disease of the central nervous system. It is thought to be an autoimmune disorder, a condition in which the body attacks itself by mistake. MS is an unpredictable disease that affects people differently. Some people with MS may have only mild symptoms. Others may lose their ability to see clearly, write, speak, or walk when communication between the brain and other parts of the body becomes disrupted.
“Avrutha” is the term for Multiple sclerosis in Ayurveda. According to Ayurveda, Multiple sclerosis can be caused due to accumulation of Pitta and Kapha dosha. Pitta dosha can cause serious damage to myelin membranes that are the main cause of Multiple sclerosis.

RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS: -

SLE: -

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease. In this disease, the immune system of the body mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. It can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, brain, and other organs. In Ayurveda, there are three doshas (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha) that are responsible for systemic lupus erythematosus. Mainly Vata dosha is aggravated by this disease. The dhatus that are disturbed in this disease are Tweak, Ras, Rakta, & Mansa. When the doshas are aggravated, it causes vitiation of Agni (body fire) & leads to ama (toxins) formation. These aggravated doshas carry the ama and other doshas into ras & rakta dhatu which ultimately leads to the formation of SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus).

CELIAC DISEASE: -

Celiac disease is a chronic digestive and immune disorder that damages the small intestine. The disease is triggered by eating foods containing gluten. Gluten is a protein found naturally in wheat, barley, and rye, and is common in foods such as bread, pasta, cookies, and cakes. In Ayurveda, celiac disease can be correlated to Grahani. It is caused due to functionally weak digestive fire that is Agni which causes improper digestion of ingested food.