Stroke Treatment and Management of Its Effects with Ayurveda

Stroke is literally a sudden jolt to your body, where your brain’s blood flow is suddenly blocked, leading to the death of brain cells. This leads to incredibly serious complications such as paralysis or pakshaghata and other serious conditions, even causing death when severe. This sudden effect on blood flow can be due to severe internal bleeding within the brain or an arterial clot in the blood vessels circulating blood to the brain. Hence, the extremely active brain cells do not receive the required oxygen and start dying. The severe implications of this condition require elaborate stroke treatment and therapeutic protocols to rejuvenate the body and mind.

As an Ayurveda doctor practicing in my Chennai clinic for many decades now, I have commonly seen many incidents of stroke, which often comes to our attention after quite a delay. This approach often delays the scope for successful stroke treatment and rejuvenation and the patient struggles with the aftermath of this rather complicated condition.

Let me take you through the causes, symptoms, and Ayurveda treatment options of stroke so you understand the seriousness of this sudden and serious condition.

Common symptoms after a stroke attack

The body’s response to a stroke attack is severe and dramatic. It leads to impaired consciousness and confusion in patients. They could fall or glide down as they lose consciousness. Alternatively, they could completely lose control of specific portions of the body after feeling a sense of weakness. Another term for this symptom is paralysis, which can affect movements across the entire body, or one or both the arms or legs. This is also accompanied by difficulty in normal vision, distinct memory loss, and headache in many instances. They are not able to talk clearly, with slurred speech being a definite indication of a stroke. The characteristic drooping of the mouth on a specific side is another characteristic symptom.

Causes of Stroke

Ayurveda categorizes stroke as a vata roga, which affects both the movement and the critical senses of the body. Conditions that lead to stroke are uncontrolled blood pressure, people with cardiac conditions, obesity, high cholesterol, and those struggling to manage their diabetes. The aftermath of a stroke is especially severe in the presence of diabetes. If your family has a history of stroke attacks, then you need to be watchful. Additionally, poor lifestyle, including smoking and lack of exercise, is a major risk factor.

Ayurveda stroke treatment

Every case of stroke and resulting conditions are different. Hence the Ayurveda doctor assesses not only the stage of the patient’s condition but also all the symptoms and the body’s ability to take up strong treatment protocols before prescribing the right combination of treatments.

One line of treatment focuses on relieving the symptoms. While the other combination works on restoring the brain’s impaired functionalities and improving the blood circulation to the brain. The therapy then focuses on detoxification and rejuvenating the body, thus preventing further damage.  This approach requires a strong combination of treatments, which your expert Ayurveda doctor will determine based on the patient’s condition.

A common combination of panchakarma treatment, abhyanga, kaya seva, shirodhara, herbal medications, kashayams, arishtams, herbal oils, vasti, and nasya is used.

Abhyangam and Shirodhara use herbal medicated oils. Ghee is also a popular option. Expert doctors recommend a continuous series of sittings.

The entire procedure of treatment takes time, focus, and a lot of effort. The guidance of an expert Ayurveda doctor will go a long way in delivering the desired results.