Turn To Ayurveda When Autoimmune Condition Strikes; Here's How It Can Help

Are you suffering from an autoimmune condition? If yes, then Ayurveda might be able to help you overcome the problem. Here's how!

Written By: Arushi Bidhuri | Updated : May 15, 2022 1:22 PM IST

One of the key factors that help us keep diseases at bay is maintaining a healthy lifestyle and eating a nutritious diet. Following this lifestyle can help your immune system to work properly. Basically, a strong immunity means that your body is strong enough to identify foreign substances called antigens and get rid of them. But sometimes, this process is hampered due to several reasons and lead to autoimmune diseases.

For the uninitiated, autoimmune diseases are conditions that occur when your immune system becomes unable to identify healthy cells as unwanted microorganisms. Some of the common autoimmune conditions include type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. Cases of autoimmune conditions are rapidly rising around the world. But you can try to reduce the risk with the help of Ayurveda.

Ayurveda For Autoimmune Diseases

According to Dr Smita Naram, Co-Founder, Ayushakti, "An autoimmune disease develops when the immune system, which defends the body against disease, decides healthy cells are foreign. As a result, healthy cells are attacked by the immune system. An autoimmune illness can affect one or many different types of body tissue, depending on the type. It can also lead to alterations in organ function and abnormal organ development."

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She further explains that it can be difficult to diagnose autoimmune conditions as there are 80 types of autoimmune diseases that have similar symptoms.

In Ayurveda, "the immune system is referred to as Ojas and its key energy is concentrated in the heart chakra. So, whenever a person gets diagnosed with autoimmune disease it indicates that the Ojas energy in the body has decreased and antigen-antibody reaction becomes such, that body's defence mechanism starts fighting against the body itself. The person then becomes vulnerable to various allergies and infections.

Ayurveda advocates the intake of herbs that have immune-enhancing properties, which in turn reduces the chances of frequent infections and allergies. One should have 60 per cent Vegetables, 30 per cent Protein, 10 per cent Carbohydrates in their diet and once a month for 5 -7 days have only mung & vegetables," she adds.

Food To Avoid If You're Suffering From An Autoimmune Condition

According to the Dr Naram, people should avoid the following foods if they develop an autoimmune condition:

Heavy to digest foods such as wheat, meat (especially red meat) and refined sugar. These foods severely decrease the digestive fire (Agni) and produce mucus and toxins (aam).
Deep-fried foods are also heavy to digest and highly Vata increasing.
One should avoid all sour foods/fruits like tomatoes, oranges, pineapples, lemons, grapefruits etc.), vinegar and hot spices like chillies. These foods increase pitta and heat in the body and reduce digestive power (esp. tomatoes).

What you should do instead is live a healthy lifestyle by "practising meditation and yoga and including nutritional food in your everyday diet can help in maintaining your as well as your immune system's well-being," suggests the Ayurveda expert.