Defending a nation against internal & external enemies is the function of our armed forces. Similarly defending our body from various internal and external germs, foreign bodies and allergens is the function of our immunity system. Immune system identifies the invaders, prevents them from entering the body, if they enter the system fights them. the system also remembers the harmful cells/invaders and defends the body from the particular invasion anytime in life, but sometime due to various known & unknown causes, the immune system gets confused, starts considering the body cells as invaders and starts fighting them. This condition is known as Autoimmune conditions. In the recent times we have seen a steady raise in different autoimmune conditions due to unhealthy lifestyle, diet habits and stress factors. Ayurveda, the ancient holistic science of India mentions Rogapratirodhaka shakti & ojas which takes care of the immune system of the body. In this article let us just know a bit more about immune system, autoimmune conditions and ayurvedic view point of the same.
In this modern world, polluted environment, we are continuously exposed to micro organisms by air, water, food or aerosols etc, but not every time we get sick. Why? this is because of a complex network of defense systems that protect us from potentially pathogenic micro organisms. This complex defense system is called IMMUNITY. This immunity determines whether we are resistant to pathogens or susceptible to infection and diseases. therefore in simple times we can consider disease or illness as a failure of this defense system.
Immune system of the body consists of components responsible for protecting the body from harmful agents, potential dangers and reestablish homeostasis. For efficient response, the immune system has to recognize the wide range of pathogens, remember them and discriminate them from the hosts’ body tissues. there are two types of immunity-innate and adaptive responses.
Innate immunity which is also known as natural immunity is the form of disease defense common in healthy individuals. Innate immunity or natural immunity involves the actions of structures like skin, nose, hairs, antigen-antibody reaction and phagocytosis by immunoglobulins.
Acquired immunity or adaptive immunity takes over when the innate immune system fails or is unable to fight the germs in the body. Since adaptive immunity is specifically targeted it is slower but more effective and accurate. It also has the advantage of being able to ‘remember’ the target germs. this means that whenever the body is infected by the specific germs, the immune system quickly destroys it and thereby protects the body. This ‘memory’ is what is made use of for vaccination. T-cells, B-cells and antibodies work to provide this function.
Now let us know what is meant by Autoimmune condition/diseases. In the modern world due to the unhealthy diet and lifestyle habits, autoimmune diseases or conditions have become very very common. the cases have been on a raise in the recent times.
Just imagine that our body is a country with different types of security measures like defense systems of our country. Now if the defense systems malfunction and they start attacking the country’s citizens themselves, that is when we say the body has autoimmune condition. so in autoimmune conditions, the immune system of the body attacks itself, cells and tissues instead of the external germs and allergens. The immune system can normally differentiate ‘self’ from ‘external/enemy’ but sometimes suddenly the body/lymphocytes start reacting against self resulting in autoimmune condition. some degree of autoimmunity occurs naturally in everyone but when there is alteration or interruption in the functioning of lymphocytes-they start attacking the body cells. The exact mechanism of these changes are not understood but bacterial, viruses, toxins and some drugs seem to trigger the autoimmune response especially in someone who already has a genetic predisposition and thereby develop a disorder. The inflammation initiated by the agents-toxins or infections provides the autoimmune reaction in the tissues. The exact cause of autoimmune disorders is unknown. Some of the notable causes observed include genetic disposition, environmental factors, tissue/organ damage, gender and hormonal levels.
Now let us see what Ayurveda says and opines about autoimmune diseases, their causes and their treatment.
Ayurveda the ancient Indian life science believes that our bodies being part of this nature are also controlled by the Panchamahabhutas (05 elements) in the form of Tridoshas (03 humors). These Tridoshas are-Vata, Pitta, & Kapha. The balance of these three humors along with the tissues, organs, mind and soul is considered health and any imbalance is considered Illness. According to Ayurveda, immunity or roga pratirodhaShakti is maintained by the essence of the tridoshas and saptadhatus known as Ojas. the quantity and quality of Ojas, determines the immunity of a person.
The quantity and quality of Ojas largely depends on our lifestyle especially ahara & vihara. Ayurveda advises Ahara vihara according to a person’s body type (prakriti), imbalances (vikriti), time of the day (dinacharya), seasons & place (rtucharya). If followed properly, the body develops the required immunity. but if not followed properly the body easily becomes prey to diseases. Our body with a slight help from us externally has a self healing capacity in a balanced state.
According to Ayurveda, one of the major causes of low immunity or autoimmune condition is production or formation of ‘Ama’ in the body. The production or formation of ama can be due to various reasons like imbalanced tridoshas, unhealthy food consumption, improper combination of foods, unhealthy lifestyle, emotional and mental imbalances, unwanted medicine consumption etc. Now the question is ‘What is ama?’, ‘How is it formed?’ and ‘Why does it effect the health of a person?’
Ayurveda defines ama as undigested food particles which gets accumulated in the body. the food which is consumed is digested by the Jataragni in our body. further on the nutrients or the rasa (ahara rasa) is digested by the various dhatvagnis to form the respective tissues and thereby nourish the body. When either of the agnis is out of balance especially low in intensity, the food/nutrients are not digested properly and leads to formation of ama or free radicals. This ama or free radicals stick on to healthy cells of the body and then over a period of time, body detects them as danger to the body cells and start attacking them. In this process, the body’s immunity cells attack the body cells as well to which the ama/free radicals are attached, thereby causing an autoimmune condition. Therefore Ayurveda describes the root cause of autoimmunity diseases as Mandagni or low intensity of digestive fire in the body leading to formation of ama/free radicals.
Jataragni which is one of the main agnis is the one which is situated in the grahani (stomach & duodenum) and is responsible for the digestion of ingested food. Jataragni can be considered as the basic energy or the digestive fire which controls the various digestive/modification process in the body. Other than jataragni, bhutagni, dhatvagni are also mentioned which aid in the further conversion, formation of the body elements and cells.
In Ayurveda it is mentioned that food ingested is digested in stomach and absorbed later by jatarangas later sent to liver for bhutagni paka and then the refined nutrients to the tissues and cells for dhatvagni paka. This is the normal process, but when the agni becomes ‘manda or low the resultant is undigested, unformed, unripened nutrients which is called ‘ama’. this ama can be formed at any level of process-food, nutrition or cellular digestion..
Researches about the correlation of concept of Ama in Ayurveda & causes of autoimmnue diseases show us that ama/amavisha as mentioned in Ayurveda can be compared to the antigen-antibody complexes, CRP, ANA etc which are seen in higher ranges in autoimmune conditions. Depending upon the system effected, Ayurveda mentions different types of ama as well, like ama produced due to low digestion of food leading to muscle weakness & nutritional conditions (like Lupus), ama/toxins which circulate all over the body and influence the weak joints (like Rheumatoid Arthritis) or ama caused by improper excretion of waste from the body leading to toxins (like IBS, UC etc.,).
Ayurveda has always considered mandagni and thereby formation of ama as one of the major cause of most of the diseases. Depending upon the agni which is effected the system thereby is effected. Be it amavisha or accumulation of ama or waste in the body, imbalance of the agni at various levels is the main reason for all the autoimmune conditions. So what should be the line of treatment?
Ayurveda believes in the principle of prevention is better than cure. so first and foremost following healthy lifestyle with proper dietary habits, exercise and stress relief techniques is the main line of practice. These especially daily regimen, seasonal regimen and cleanses, dietary regimen and social regimen make sure that the agni at various levels of the body is working appropriately and ama is not produced.
Now coming to the treatments when already one has contracted an autoimmune condition. In these conditions, removal or cleansing the system of the ama visha and associated toxins, rejuvenating the agnis of the body reducing the symptoms and finally for future prevention avoidance of the specific causative factors is very important. F
For cleansing or removal of ama and ama visha, Ayurveda suggests the various Panchakarma therapies depending upon the autoimmune condition. Along with or after cleansing/detox procedures, required supplements, medicines, diet and treatments symptomatic are given, During this period it is also necessary that the agnis of the the body are stroked so that the balanced diet get digested properly and assimilates in the body as well. It is also important that excretion process is regularised after detox, so that body doesnot start accumulating toxins again. Apart from all these, the individual must also start doing physical activities on regular basis for the dhatvagnis to be balanced. and also adapt stress relief techniques especially in this modern world so that body is able to relax and rebuild the degenerated cells and organs.
Last but not the least, it is also important to pinpoint or identify the actual trigger factor individually that triggered the autoimmnue conditions. According to Ayurveda, viruddha ahara vihara(performing opposite activities together or having foods with opposite tastes/qualities together), stress (chinta, krodha, shoka etc), day sleep (divaswapna), ratri jagarana (night awakening/insomnia), no physical exercise/activities, untimely, unseasonal, unwholesome and unmindful consumption of food are the main causes of amavisha generation and later autoimmune conditions.
In the modern world, whether due to the hyped marketing of pharma or duet to the increase in pollution or due to unhealthy diet, lifestyle & working condition, we have seen an increase in the various autoimmune conditions. In a state where modern medicine doesn’t offer reasons or solutions to these conditions, the ancient science of Ayurveda, has simplified the causative factors and thereby remedial measures for the conditions. Autoimmune diseases are complex and many a times unfortunately many people go undiagnosed or asymptomatic for many years. Simple lifestyle changes, diet and treatments, therapies can be helpful in managing the healing as well as preventing the autoimmune conditions.
