TREATMENT MODALITIES IN TREATING AMA CONDITIONS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES: A REVIEW

Abstract

The main fundamental concept of Ayurveda is to preserve the health of a healthy person and cure the disease of an unhealthy person, i.e., prevention and cure. Acharya Charaka has enumerated various rasayana at the very beginning of chikitsa sthana, which explains the role of prevention that comes prior to cure in Ayurveda. In autoimmunity and their diseases, where the cause is unknown, a person's immune system reacts to self-proteins causing various inflammations, fevers, etc., destroying body tissues and changes in organ functioning, leading to more significant morbidities over time. While treating these conditions, the primary objective of a physician should be relieving the patient’s symptoms and correcting the imbalance created in his immune system without further compromising it. Here comes Ayurveda, the ancient holistic science of life, where acharyas have provided various formulations, purificatory mechanisms, and rejuvenator elixirs in treating such exasperating diseases with the concept called “Ama” by correcting the agni the Élan vital of life. The imperfectly digested anna rasa due to impaired agni is known as ama. The present article lists all possible treatments for treating sama conditions with special reference to autoimmune diseases.