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Multiple Sclerosis In Women: Ayurvedic Therapies To Conclusively Treat This Autoimmune Disease

Multiple Sclerosis In Women: Ayurvedic Therapies To Conclusively Treat This Autoimmune Disease
In Ayurveda, since multiple sclerosis is looked at as an immune-mediated disease, the first round of treatment is for the existing damages in the brain and the spinal cord.

Multiple Sclerosis is three times more common in women than in men. But Ayurveda may have a promising answer to this problem.

Written by Editorial Team |Updated : June 28, 2022 10:38 AM IST

Multiple Sclerosis or MS, as it is more commonly referred to, is a debilitating, chronic inflammatory disease of the nerves, or more precisely the Central Nervous System. While it is not very prevalent in India, globally, its incidence is quite common, affecting about 36 persons in a 1,00,000 population on average. The disease usually causes relapsing-remitting attacks of inflammation, demyelination, and neural axonal damage, leading to various degrees and types of neurological symptoms and disability ranging from vision to limbic impairment as well as other neurological effects. Unfortunately, an aspect of MS is that this disease is three times more common in women than in men, apparently due to causes not entirely clearly understood by conventional science yet.

Ayurveda, thankfully, can address the disease and cure it if treatment is started at an early stage. This is possible because this approach places stress on treating a disease from its roots. It is a holistic system of treatment focusing on using only natural products derived from plants, herbs, and other natural elements, followed by a balanced diet, lifestyle changes and exercises.

MS IN WOMEN: AYURVEDA'S PERSPECTIVE

According to Ayurveda, the causes of the higher incidence of MS in women are multiple. These vary from person to person but are all due to the immune pathway pathologies.

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Mismanaged infections

Apart from the specific individual genetic triggers, since the pathway to the immune system is via the brain, MS in most cases, over 80 per cent, is the outcome of poorly or mismanaged infections. This is due to the use of antibiotics or antihistamines, which cause continuous inhibition or manipulation of our immune system.

The genetic factor

It is noticed that MS is transferred from mothers to daughters or in other maternal relationships in a vast majority of cases.

Toxicity plays a role

Toxicity is another key cause of MS amongst women where this demographic succumbs more to its ill-effects as compared to their male counterparts. Bhopal, for instance, is a proof point for this causality. Another illustration of the toxicity effect is the statistically higher incidence of MS who consume vegetarian, leafy food, which may have higher residual toxicity due to the overuse of pesticides etc.

Stress

A few other factors, such as highly stressful jobs for instance those in the IT sector, etc., also trigger MS in women.

Miscellaneous causes

Another cause of MS in women can be attributed to psychological factors, hormonal variations over extended durations, etc. which also affect the central nervous system (CNS).

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS TREATMENT IN AYURVEDA

As far as Ayurvedic treatment goes, it differs from Allopathy in its approach to the immune system. The latter suppresses the immune system to make the auto-immune response dormant.

Treating existing damage

In Ayurveda, since multiple sclerosis is looked at as an immune-mediated disease, the first round of treatment is for the existing damages in the brain and the spinal cord.

Crossing the blood-brain barrier

Since the neurological damage is the next dominant disease site after the damage to the immune system initially, Ayurvedic treatments, using natural molecules, such as Brahmi, aim to cross the blood-brain barrier for addressing the MS disease pathology. This barrier is unable to be y passed by any Allopathic treatment, hence the inability of a permanent cure for MS under that treatment methodology. Ayurveda, in essence, goes directly to the CNS and treats MS from that platform, a unique and unrivalled advantage over most other medicine systems.

Specific treatment therapies

The specific treatment therapies range from food and diet to customized medicines, to yoga treatment, lifestyle regimens etc., and are done over three cycles of 60 days each over two years for patients with moderate symptoms. The medicines are taken for 1,000 days approximately alongside the ongoing treatment. This can be modified for specific disease conditions as applicable. The treatment efficacy is analysed regularly and tweaked as it progresses through investigations such as MRI, where a close watch is kept on lesions growth and frequency.

(This article is authored by Dr Prasanth Raghavan, CEO, Ayush Prana )