Practical Applicability of Nasya Karma (Ayurveda Therapy) in Sinusitis

Abstract

Nasya karma is an important therapy in which the medicine is administered through the nose either in the form of ghrita oil powder liquid or smoke. It is particularly useful in treating the diseases of organs above the clavicle. Sinusitis is one such disease. All the recently published guidelines have adopted the term rhinosinusitis RS instead of sinusitis. RS is the inflammation of the nose and paranasal sinuses characterized by two or more symptoms one of which should be either nasal blockage obstruction congestion or nasal discharge and the second either facial painpressure or reductionloss of smell or both of these with objective findings on either computed tomography or nasal endoscopy. Nasya karma is a unique therapy of Ayurveda that does both the shamana and shodhana of the doshas thereby relieving the symptoms and preventing the problem from progressing. Though there are a large number of studies on the topic more studies with larger sample size needs to be carried out to understand nasya therapy in depth and its role in sinusitis.nbsp