| |
Ayurveda > Ayurveda Case Notes > Vaat Jwar-Chikitsa
By Dr. Satish Kulkarni
Treatment of vaat related fever
Mr. John Doe
(name has been changed to protect
identity) came to me with a complaint
of repeated fever since one month. He
mentioned that there were ups and
downs in his fever.
I started
taking down his health history. Mr.
Doe is 56 years old and he is a
factory worker. He stated that he was
sensitive to allopathic medicines and
that he developed an allergic rash on
the body if he took a tablet of
paracetamol or a tablet of nimesulide
which are both common allopathic
prescriptions for fever. I talked to
him about ayurvedic medicines
and we unanimously decided to start
an ayurvedic regime for his
sickness.
I first
diagnosed his prakruti (body
constitution as defined by ayurveda)
Mr. Doe’s body structure is
short, thin and weak. His lean body
frame, scanty and dry hair, dry and
rough skin, big, protuberant,
irregular teeth, his blackish and
unsteady eyes all suggested that he
is of vaat prakruti (vaat,
pitta and kafa are the
three basic body constituents which
govern the functioning of our body).
Everybody’s prakruti is
made up of these three constituents.
In Mr. Doe’s case, vaat
is the dominant constituent and the
other two are the recessive
constituents. In short we can say
that he is of vaat prakruti.
When I examined
him, his body temperature was
somewhat less than normal. His palms
and feet were cold but he said that
the temperature increased in the
evening and he felt the increase
throughout the night. A few other
notable facts are that Mr. Doe is in
his late fifties, he goes to work
early in the morning. In addition,
his tendency towards vaat aggravating
food with regular consumption of
alcohol were adding to his vaat
prakop (aggravation of vaat).
I noted this on his case paper. Mr.
Doe told me that he experienced low
grade fever with slight shivering. In
addition to this he talked about his
tendency towards blackish hard
stools, scanty urination, less
sweating, experiencing cramps in the
calf muscles and tastelessness in the
mouth. I did a nadi pariksha
(pulse examination). My diagnosis was
that Mr. Doe was suffering from vaat
predominant fever.
To start with,
I advised him complete bed rest for a
minimum of five days followed by
light work for the next ten days. I
also explained to him certain dietary
restrictions. Mr. Doe said that he
would not be able to observe complete
fasting even for a day because he
cannot control hunger. Therefore the
next choice was light food and plenty
of fluids by mouth. For breakfast I
advised cooked pulses, rice and real ghee;
for his lunch and dinner I suggested jawar/bajra
roti (a kind of flattened bread
made from millet), cooked green
vegetables, butter milk and plenty of
fruit juices like pomegranate juice,
sweet lemon juice, etc. three to four
times a day.
I prepared a
decoction out of kade chirait
(a diaphoretic herb) and gave it to
him three times a day for five days.
In the evening I prepared a decoction
out of pimpal mool (piper
longum), gulvel (tinospora
cordifolia), nagarmotha and sunth
(dry ginger) and gave that to him to
take at bedtime. This helped in
reducing his aches and pains.
I recommended
an alternate day late afternoon
shower or tub bath with hot water. I
also suggested wearing warm sweaters
for induced sweating.
After four to
five days Mr. Doe started feeling
better. He was comfortable with his
diet of pulses, rice and real ghee.
Ghee served the purpose of
internal snehan (olation
therapy.)
Mr. Doe needs panch
karma treatment i.e. snehan
(systemic olation therapy) for long
term relief. It will serve as a
lubricant to the body system. It will
help in reducing dryness. Snehan
enters the dhatu (body
tissues) and strotasa (body
passages) and ultimately helps in
driving impurities out of the body. Snehan
mobilizes unwanted stuff lodged in
the body.
Mr. Doe has now
stopped consuming alcohol. He has
started doing regular exercise. These
days he takes real ghee and
lukewarm milk at bed time and
maintains that he is much better than
before.
Visit India Herbs For Ayurvedic Medicines and Nutritional Supplements
|
|
|
