Ayurvedic Treatment of High Blood Pressure

by Sheela Rani Chunkath

You see someone wearing a beautiful strand of pearls and the epithet cool crosses your mind. In Ayurveda, mukta a pearl is indeed for cooling your system and is considered pitta hara. Pearls are processed and made into fine powder and used in various formulations. Pearls are used as mukta pishti or mukta bhasma. Both are very helpful in conditions where the system needs to be cooled down. If you ever want to test whether the pearls which are sold to you in Hyderabad (fast emerging as the pearl capital of India) is genuine or not try rubbing the pearl with paddy husk. There should be no change in the shine or lustre of the pearl.

Another test, which is easier for Ayurvedists is to soak it in cow’s urine for a while. Again, there should be no change in the lustre of the pearl. Next time one goes shopping for pearls, maybe one should consider taking a small bottle of cow’s urine in one’s handbag. And see the consternation in the eyes of the shopkeeper when the test is carried out. Anyway jokes apart, pearls have a myriad uses in ayurvedic chikitsa. From lowering the blood pressure to strengthening the cardiac muscles, pearl is a versatile gemstone. It is included in the navaratna category or nine gemstones, the others being ruby, coral, emerald, topaz, diamond, sapphire, hessonite and cat’s eye.

Many of these rudras are also included in therapy with coral being used quite as much as pearl with somewhat similar cooling properties. Diamonds are also used in minute quantities in the treatment of tumours and cancers along with other herbs and minerals. In the management of blood pressure, Dr. M. Gopi Krishna of Bellary uses a combination of sutshekhar ras, chandraprabha vati and divya mukta vati. All of them are herbo-mineral preparations and are very effective according to Dr. M. Gopi Krishna. He also prescribes a shirodhara, a panchakarma technique in which oil is slowly trickled on the forehead to cool the system sown. Normally ksheerabala tailam is used. Divya mukta vati is a product of the Patanjali group and is a proprietary product. It is not a classical formulation, however they have made a felicitous combination of herbs and minerals which are cooling to the system and heart protective. Sarpagandha dilates the blood vessels and causes high blood pressure to drop. It also contains both mukta pishti (pearl powder) and pravala pishti (coral powder). In addition, the formulation contains Shankapushpi (Convolulus pluricaulis), Ugragandha (Acorus calamus), Gajwan (Onosma bracteatum), Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri), Jyotishymati (Celastrus paniculatus), Pushkaramoola (Inula racemosa), Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), Jatamanshi (Nardostachys jatamanshi), Guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia), Sarpagandha (Rauwolfia serpentina).

Because of these ingredients, it helps in addressing depression and anxiety by relaxing calming the mind. According to Dr. M. Gopi Krishna the advantage of Divya Mukta vati is that it does not generally result in sudden hypotension as observed clinically. However, BP monitoring is always advocated by vaidyar when new formulations are prescribed. Orthodox vaidyars treat not the blood pressure per se but the symptoms. But in today’s fast moving world where people are often not aware of anything going wrong with their system. BP monitoring may be warranted to prevent stokes, heart attack etc. However allopathic way of treating BP as a lifelong issue is not warranted. The treatment of BP in ayurvedic terms means going beyond the numbers, by looking at the symptoms, analyzing the causes and treating them. Emergency measures of course cannot be ignored.

--- The writer is retired Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu. She can be reached at Sheelarani.arogyamantra@gmail. com. Earlier articles can be accessed at http://arogyamantra.blogspot.com/