It all started with a small, red and extremely itchy, button-sized eruption on right forearm followed by pain in the joints of the hands and the legs. Her family doctor diagnosed the disease as “gout” (a form of arthritis) and prescribed some analgesics, which relived her pain in a few days. However, after a week, new skin lesions appeared on her back, under the folds of the breasts and groin. The pain in the big joints was replaced by stiffness, which made her movements difficult. The minor ‘dandruff’ she was having for quite a long time, suddenly flared up. Worried, she rushed back to her doctor, who because of the typical symptoms had no difficulty in diagnosing the disease as “Psoriasis”.   

Psoriasis is a common immune-mediated, chronic, non-contagious skin disease that comes in different forms and varying levels of severity.   Although commonly diagnosed between the age of 15 and 35, it may appear at any age.  It generally appears as patches of raised red skin covered by a flaky white buildup that can cause intense itching and burning. Ten to thirty percent of people with psoriasis also develop a related form of arthritis called - psoriatic arthritis.

The cause of psoriasis is unclear, but it is believed to have a genetic component. Injury to the skin, infection, emotional stress and drug reactions are considered as possible psoriasis triggers. In psoriasis, the immune system is somehow mistakenly triggered, which speeds up the growth cycle of skin cells. A normal skin cell matures and falls off the body's surface in 28 to 30 days. But a psoriatic skin cell takes only three to four days to mature and move to the surface. Instead of falling off (shedding), the cells pile up and form the lesions.

Because psoriasis is chronic and unpredictable, it can be challenging to treat. It often improves and worsens in a natural cycle over time. The conventional treatment of psoriasis involves exposure to sunlight, topical agents, phototherapy and internal medications.

In ayueved, the causes of such types of skin disease are attributed to the simultaneous, quantitative and qualitative vitiation of all the three body humors (vata dosha, pitta dosha and kapha dosha).

The important contributory factors for such vitiation are:

• Eating food when previous meal is not digested.

• Eating incompatible food such as fruit salad with ice cream, milk shakes, fish with milk, etc.

• Eating when one is not hungry or fasting when hungry or eating food in larger or smaller quantity than required.

• Eating too salty food

• Having milk and milk products like paneer, cheese, curd, etc. in excess.

• Exercising immediately after eating.

• Not adopting the purificatory procedures like panchakarma regularly.

• Thinking too much or anxiety. Etc.

All these factors may vitiate the three dosha and interfere with its normal functioning at the cellular level, which distorts the basic intelligence of the cells and triggers different unsolicited responses. As a result, some complex substances (endotoxins - poisonous substances of internal origin), related to each of the three dosha are accumulated at cellular level.  These can harm in many ways, depending on the vulnerability of a particular organ - the skin at this instance, and a favorable condition.

The treatment therefore is to remove these harmful substances from the cells and thereby help to correct the cellular physiology.    

To eliminate such “endotoxins”, Ayurved advocates "panchakarma" as a powerful purification process. This five-fold therapy is aimed at eliminating these substances from the body and correcting the imbalance of the body humors.

Mrs. Parab was therefore advised all these five therapies namely: Vaman (therapeutic emesis), Virechan (therapeutic purgation), Basti (therapeutic enema), Nasya (therapeutic nasal therapy) and Rakta mokshana (therapeutic blood cleansing).  Further, she was recommended Gandhak rasayan and Arogya vardhini rasa in a 2- is – 2 dosage, to be taken after the meals.

The entire course of panchakarma lasted for 75 days, out of which Mrs. Parab had to visit the center for 20 days.  After three weeks of treatment and two procedures later, her symptoms were astonishingly reduced by about 70 percent. Six months down the line, the symptoms totally disappeared. However she will need to continue with the medicines and prophylactic panchakarma for a few months.

Dos and Don’ts

• Avoid incompatible food combinations, fish, curd, too salty food, fried food and heavy to digest foods.

• Avoid mental tensions

• Adopt relaxation techniques like meditation and yoga

• Exercise regularly

Useful Tips:    

• Regular abhyanga (traditional massage) with medicated oil protects the skin from impending diseases.

• Adopt seasonal panchakarma regimen.

• Apply plenty of sesame oil over the effected skin regularly and expose it to sunlight.

• Some of the generic medicines useful in psoriasis are: pancha tikta ghruta, manjishtadi quath, rasamanikya, khadirarishta, sarivasav, etc. However, these should be taken under medical supervision.

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