AYURVEDIC MANAGEMENT OF PRAMEHA: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Diabetes, which is a metabolic disorder, is the most common disorder affecting more than 30 million people with type 2 diabetes is characterized by polydipsia, polyphagia, and polyuria that can be related to Prameha. The pa-rameters for the diagnosis of diabetes are fasting blood sugar (FBS), post prandial blood sugar (PPBS), fasting urine sugar (FUS), post prandial urine sugar (PPUS) and glycated hemoglobin (Hba1c). The word prameha com-prises of 2 words ‘Pra’ which means Abundant and ‘Meha’ which means ‘passing of large quantity of urine’. In Ayurveda the cardinal features of Prameha which is caused by vitiation of all doshas mainly Bahudrava Shleshma1 are Prabhootha mutrata and Avila mutrata1. The complaints of diabetes are included under Medova-ha sroto Vikara. Two broad classifications of Prameha are Sahaja and Apatya Nimittaja characterized by krusha pramehi and sthula pramehi2 respectively. A 44-year male patient, with the complaint of weight loss, increased thirst for 11 months on regular body check-up came to know that his blood sugar & urine sugar levels were high i.e., FBS – 263mg/dl, PPBS – 396mg/dl, FUS – 0.5% and PPUS – 2%, Hba1c 13.6. Based on the symptoms and presentation it was diagnosed as Apatya Nimittaja, sthula pramehi and treatment was done for the same. This case was managed with sthula pramehi chikitsa siddhanta3,4 (treatment principles of diabetes) with the shodhana i, e virechana followed by administration of Shilajathu, yava and meha abhaya kashaya. The weight of the pa-tient was maintained throughout the treatment, without allowing the condition to enter into vataja prameha which is asadhya condition. A significant improvement was observed with decreased in symptoms and decrease in blood and urine sugar levels.