Earlier I gave some examples from my clinical experiences regarding the healing potential of nasya, virechana, vamana and basti. However, treatment of most diseased conditions demands that these procedures be applied in unison in order to eradicate the root cause of the disease. The following case histories address specific conditions:
Obesity
Obesity responds well to Panchakarma therapy. Removing ama and excess fat from meda dhatu improves fat metabolism. I remember treating a thirty-two year old gentleman with a serious case of obesity. I used a treatment prescribed by the ancient texts, called udvartana. In this procedure, a dry, herbalized powder is vigorously massaged into the skin in place of oil during snehana to enliven meda dhatus metabolism. In addition, a special type of basti called lekhana basti was used to activate and then eliminate excess fat. Special medicated nasyas were also employed to remove kapha-related ama from the head region, which helped to restore the patient’s normal endocrinal functions.
Menstrual Irregularity
My wife, Dr. Shalmali Joshi, is also an Ayurvedic physician, specializing in women’s health and gynecology, and has applied Panchakarma to a wide variety of gynecological problems. A woman came to Shalmali for obesity. Shalmali’s diagnosis indicated that the weight problem was due to secondary amenorrhea — the sudden cessation of the menstrual cycle caused by impairment of rasa dhatu agni — which naturally causes an accumulation of kapha. The woman received vamana, virechana and basti, which rekindled her agni; her menstrual cycles returned to normal and her weight problem disappeared.
Infertility
We remember a woman who consulted with Shalmali about the inability to conceive. Upon examination, my wife learned that the woman had irregular menstrual cycles, hormonal imbalances and unpredictable ovulation. She had been treated with Western medicine but the prescription only seemed to complicate her condition.
Shalmali administered a series of bastis and nasyas which restored hormonal balance and menstrual regularity. She then gave uttara bastis, medicated substances designed to cleanse and nourish the uterus. Shortly after completing these treatments, the woman was able to conceive and subsequently gave birth to a healthy little girl.
Arthritis
Arthritis is considered to be an auto-immune disorder, but Western medical science does not understand its causes. As a result, only palliative types of treatments are available. However, when the Ayurvedic texts were written thousands of years ago, they described a disease called amavat, in which ama clogs the shrotas or channels of the body and restricts vata’s motion. This produces loss of mobility in the joints, resulting in pain and swelling, or what we currently call rheumatoid arthritis. Panchakarma therapy can control this disorder, and, if treated in its early stages, reverse it. It cleanses toxins from the shrotas so that vata can again carry prana and nutrition to asthi dhatu, or bone.
I have treated many patients with this illness and have found this therapy to be successful in eighty to ninety percent of the cases. My approach to treating rheumatic patients is always first to strengthen their digestive agni and improve their digestion, assimilation and elimination; and, secondly, to strengthen the immune system.
The value of this two-pronged approach is dramatically illustrated in the case of a man who came all the way from Los Angeles to my clinic in Nagpur. His condition was so crippling that even his mind was affected and he was forced to take early retirement. After two months of treatment, he recuperated so remarkably that he undertook a tour of India without a recurrence of his symptoms. Upon his return to Los Angeles, he resumed his full professional responsibilities.
Parkinson’s Disease
I recall the case of a fifty-eight year old man who had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for seventeen years. When he first came to my clinic, he could only walk with the support of two people. He was taking the maximum prescribable dosage of dopamine to reduce his tremors and increase his muscular coordination.
This type of disease is a vata disorder involving degeneration of majja dhatu (bone marrow), and treatment centers on vata pacification. Initially, I gave him snehana, nasya and bastis to cleanse and calm the vata zone, and then switched to nourishing and rejuvenating treatments like pinda swedana, Pishinchhali and ksheer bastis to nourish mamsa (muscle) and majja (bone marrow) dhatus. In three months he was walking without support and I was able to reduce his dopamine intake by one-half. While not totally healed, he was so improved that he undertook a long journey to Northern India by himself.
Other Degenerative Disorders
I have treated many other degenerative disorders, such as multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, mental retardation and various connective tissue disorders, and have found that they all respond well to Panchakarma therapy. In severe cases, I have not been able to completely cure the disease, but I have been able to stop its progression and alleviate some of the debilitating symptoms.
I am confident that cancer can respond well to shodhana therapy although I have not had much experience treating this disease because cancer patients tend to come to me at the last stages of their disease and are essentially incurable. From the Ayurvedic point of view, cancer is a condition of depleted agni or vital force that occurs because vata functioning becomes severely deranged. One of Panchakarma’s main effects is to restore normal vata function and improve the vital force. The key is to treat this disease in its early stages.
Another disease condition which I feel can respond well to Panchakarma therapy is that of AIDS. In Ayurveda, this disease is called Ojakshaya, or the “depletion of ojas from the body.” Ojas is defined as the refined product of the seven stages of dhatu metabolism. It constitutes the most crucial factor in the strength and vitality of the immune system. When the dhatu agnis become weak, the metabolic processes within each dhatu get depleted, which prevents ojas from forming. This in turn impairs the ability of the immune system to attack and control viral growth in the body.
The conditions that are judged incurable by Western medicine have, in most cases, taken decades to manifest their symptoms. Thus, it is only reasonable to expect that it may take some time for Panchakarma to root out their causes. Some of the cases recounted above entailed a series of treatments to accomplish an improvement or cure. However, in my experience, due to the fast pace of life in the West, few people have the time to undergo extended Panchakarma treatments. Consequently, the hundreds of treatments in India which I have given to Western patients have only been of one week duration. Nonetheless, I have witnessed that many conditions respond very favorably to these shorter treatment regimens. I will share the following anecdotes to demonstrate what can be accomplished in such a short amount of time.