Is Ulcerative Colitis Curable in Ayurveda
Imagine 5000 years ago, A patient coming to an ancient vaidya, who lives on the verge of a village in adjoining deep forest.
The patient asks him in agony Oh Lord !
Is there any cure of his problem of bloody diarrhea, weakness, mucus in stool, weight loss, pain and cramps in abdomen.
The patient is scared and looking for a permanent solution to his problem. He doesn't know it will be called Ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease after 5000 years. He is depressed, sad and in deep despair. He is staying in his room not going out because he knows if he goes out he may have to find a toilet. His life seemed ruined to him and he may even developed suicidal thoughts.
What Would The Ancient Sage In The Forest Do?
Will the Indian saint 5000 years ago speak in English and take out his feather pen and prescribe medicines for ulcerative colitis on a piece of himalayan birch ( Bhurja patra )?
Or he will speak in English and say
Hey man !
You got to go for a colonoscopy, endoscopy, Fecal calprotectin and some blood tests Or will he write down the name the disease as ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease and some chemical based medicines like Mesalazine, steroids or immune suppressants ?
No !
He wouldn't know what it would be called in English after 5000 years. He wouldn't know the name will be Crohn's disease, named after Dr. Burill Crohn in 1932 AD. He wouldn't know it will be called ulcerative colitis after thousands of years.
He would name it as Aama Janya Grahni with Raktatisaar or PittaAtisar in Sanskrit. He wouldn't know after 5000 years, only a few Indian Ayurvedic vaidyas will be able to decode this terminology and correlate this to ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease.
He would continue to write something in ancient language Sanksrit and recommend him to eat certain blood clotting or astringent leaves like Dalbergia sisoo, Mimosa pudica leaves juice or extract, Durva grass juice or bark of certain herbs like Kutaz tree bark decoction or a fruit pulp of unripe Bael/Aegle marmelos fruit or ask him to drink Pomegranate juice everyday.
He already knows in detail that Unripe fruit pulp of Aegle marmelos is good for diarrhea and Ripe fruit pulp is good to relieve constipation but how would he knew that ??
He wouldn't know that some botanist after 5000 years will name the kutaz tree as Halorrhena Antidysentrica in Latin but he is already using the herb to cure the bloody diarrhea.
This mystic vaidya already knows that the bark of this tree Kutza is having anti diarrheal and anti dysentery properties.
Why the need arose to name this tree as antidysentrica?? Who told the new scientists of 19th century to name it like that ???
May be the scientists of 19th century, who were naming the plants in Latin, read the ancient texts written in sanskrit language over the fragile papery bark of birch tree.
By the way, Birch is called BhojPatra or Bhurj patra in India where all Indian vedic scriptures were written thousands of years ago.
Birch is a tree found in Himalayas and also very common in Europe. May be the papery bark of birch lured ancient sages to use the bark as a paper.
May be the scientists of 19th century found themselves that oh ! This kutaz tree bark is having anti-dysentery properties so let's name it anti dysentrica and never referred to Ayurvedic texts.
Whatever the reason or the method the new scientists adopted for naming but they concluded to name this powerful astringent tree as Halorhena antidysenteica.
Meanwhile the ancient maharishi didn't write English name of the disease but instead he wrote something which is alien to modern world.
He wrote AmaJanya SanniPaitik Pitta-Atisara with atipravriti of AnnaVaha Srotas with Pitta vridhi or simply AmaJanya RaktPittaAtisara.
This is something which goes above the head to the modern world scientists:-) and they are so busy in discovering modern drugs.
They don't even have time to look into ancient texts and rediscover or research these written secrets.
Why don't these scientists who are running ahead to find cures so desperately, try to take a dip in the ocean of Ayurveda and find out the treasure, which is already there.
The maharishi however will analyze the Prakriti (Constitution) of the person and write down his Prakriti and Vikriti (Imbalance).
He will examine the naadi (pulse) to see the imbalance of the doshas known as Vata, Pitta, Kapha.
He would say your disease prognosis is Sadhya (Curable) , Asadhya (Incurable) or KrichhSadhya ( Curable with difficulty) depending upon various factors.
In this case of u Aam Janya RaktPittaAtisara he would say it's KrichSadhya, which means curable but with difficulty.
This means that the disease can be cured depending upon patients age, prakriti, race, strength, stage of the disease, chronic nature of the disease etc.
After this he will start the treatment of the disease.
The modern scientific people will not be able to interpret these terms because they don't know how to read Sanskrit language and shrugg it off as its coming from a third world country.
Everything coming from Ayurveda seems alien to modern world. Because they wouldn't try to read the ancient texts in Sanskrit or even the translated versions. Sometimes the translation can also be inaccurate and can be misleading.
That's why the modern people think the pyramids were made by aliens and many ancient Indian temples were also built by aliens.
The reason for this thinking is that it was difficult to decipher and study the sanskrit language or ancient languages or they were not translated into English.
There were not enough translated versions of ancient texts available in English but now that's not the case.
The ancient sages are now known as Ayurveda experts. Ayur means life and veda means knowledge.
The knowledge when read from ancient books is called information. The information gathered by reading books, listening to lectures and seminars or internet..
This information when perceived and interpreted and applied for the benefit of all is called wisdom which comes from within.
People are awarded noble prizes for such works of wisdom.
If modern scientists just decipher concepts of Ayurveda and apply them on their patients and do clinical trials in their own language or methods, I am sure every single chapter of Charaka Samhita can fetch a noble prize.
Now What Is This Charak Samhita??
Samhita means a text book. Charak was an ancient sage who wrote down this ancient wisdom in a text book. The knowledge which was floating among monks and sages and which was just in the air or verbally taught to students under the trees.
He wrote down all lectures which were given to him.
Ayurveda doctors study this ancient text Charak Samhita in their modern day syllabus of 5 and half years degree course called BAMS ( Bachelor of Ayurvedic medicine and Surgery)
After 5 years of rigorous studies of modern medicine subjects + Ayurvedic subjects, They can also opt to do MD which is a 3 years regular course in Ayurveda universities and this MD is working in hospitals and doing the research work and writing down a thesis on certain topic.
So there is a lot going on in Ayurveda world. The ancient rishis are now modern day vaidyas who studied herbs and understanding the ancient language and translating it into English.
The professors in these Ayurvedic institutes are helping the IT companies to make softwares to analyze pulse in ancient way, analyze prakriti, Vikriti, writing down books on usage of herbs etc. and how to interpret the whole concepts of Ayurveda in modern context.
Coming Back To The Topic
Is It Possible To Cure Ulcerative Colitis in Ayurveda ??
We can say now that according to Ayurveda texts, we are not treating Ulcerative colitis or Crohns disease.
We are treating a disease named AmaJanya RaktPittaAtisara.
Which is classified in Ayurveda as KrichhSadhya (Curable with difficulty).
So it's possible to cure or bring remission but with difficulty. The cure can be named as remission by many modern doctors but it doesn't make any difference to an Ayurvedic vaidya because as long as a patient is living a healthier life for many years without medicines and the treatment works without any side effects.
Ayurvedic Herbs Used In Ulcerative Colitis Treatment
What Are The Various Herbs Used In Ayurveda For The Treatment Of Ulcerative Colitis ?
Home Remedies For Ulcerative Colitis
- Herbal tea from Marigold flower petals
- Herbal tea from Rose petals
- Herbal tea from Pomegranate peel
- Ashgourd or long gourd or bottle gourd juice - Not more than 20 ml per day. Avoid bitter gourd ( Karela).
- Toasted bread- Toasted bread can be consumed. As informed earlier it has no nutritional value, no vitamins but it's ok to maintain weight.
- Coriander leaves juice 10 ml per day
- Chewing licorice - Can help heal the ulcers but don't consume too much. 5 gm per day is ok.
- Achillea milleafolium - Dry powder 1 teaspoonful once daily can be consumed to stop bleeding.
- Jamun or Java apple Seeds powder - 1 teaspoonful once daily.
- Touch me not plant leaves powder or juice 10 ml twice daily can be consumed. We have Cap. Mimosa Di and they are working really well.
