Ayurvedic Treatment of Obstructive Jaundice
-by Sheela Rani Chunkath
A close friend of mine is one of those high-flying types, jetting in and out of the country. When he felt weak recently he attributed it to his hectic schedule. His urine was a dark yellow for almost a fortnight and he attributed this to his travel and subsequent change in his diet. When the urine became almost yellowish-red, he decided to consult a General Physician who prescribed various tests including a CT scan of his abdomen. The CT scan showed that the common bile duct leading from the liver was blocked by a small calculus or stone. In allopathy, the treatment consists of a surgical procedure to remove the calculus. Allopathy has no effective remedy to treat jaundice and generally relies on one of the ayurvedic herbs, keezhanelli or Phyllanthus niruri. I find their treatment quite primitive and unimaginative. Oftentimes they will tell you that hepatitis is a self-limiting viral disease and therefore needs no treatment. In this case, as there was a stone, a small surgery was indicated.
Now my close friend being quite scared of aggressive interventions and surgery, consulted my ayurvedic vaidyar. I have written earlier that ayurvedists are obsessed with the condition of your digestion and the colour of your stools and urine. The vaidyar closely questioned him about all of this. The fact that his stools were white indicated that the common bile duct (CBD) was blocked and is described in the Ashtanga Hridayam as Ruddapatha kamala. Simply translated it means that the pathway of pitta or bile has been blocked. The block is said to have been caused by kapha. Basically in my friend's case, the kapha had solidified into a small stone. The stone blocking the bile duct prevents the bile containing bilirubin from reaching the digestive system. The lack of yellow bilirubin is what had made the stools white in colour. Kapha can be eliminated by increasing consumption of pungent and bitter foods. An aggravation of pitta or bile causes jaundice. Pitta can be pacified by sweet, bitter and astringent foods. Kapha is increased by sweet foods. The treatment and diet for removing the calculus is almost the opposite of that required to pacify pitta and treat the jaundice.
So the vaidyar first started the treatment to remove the calculus or kapha block. She prescribed really pungent foods to be had as a mash or soup. The soup is to be made from pungent foods such as horsegram and dried radish. To this is to be added a kashayam made from pounded seeds of Elandappazham or Indian jujube. To make the soup pungent a powder of chukku, milagu and tippali (called trikatu) is added. If you ask me the soup was just about edible. It could be drunk as medicine, but as food, no. He was also asked to take lime juice with honey and trikatu which was tastier. Anyway this was the food to be consumed till the kapha block in the CBD disappeared and the duct was clear to allow the passage of bile to the digestive system. The stools regained the normal yellowish-brown colour in less than 24 hours after the horsegram soup and lime juice with trikatu was consumed. Once the kapha problem i.e. the block was removed, the treatment for jaundice or kamala was started. The treatment for jaundice consisted of tablets of Chandraprabhavati, Datriloha and a kashayam made from the bitter herb of keezhanelli, bark of the neem tree, roots of Adhatoda vasica and the stems of Tinaspora cordifolia or seenthil kodi.
Now, this whole kashayam seems complicated to make, but I was able to procure all the ingredients in and around my neighbourhood in Chennai. Once you are attuned to an ayurvedic way of treatment you will notice where these herbs grow and be able to use them to great effect.
--- The writer was earlier Health Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu and is currently Additional Chief Secretary and Chairman & Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation. She can be reached at Sheelarani.arogyamantra@gmail. com. Earlier articles can be accessed at http://arogyamantra.blogspot.com/