Skin Diseases and Panchkarma

Ayurvedic treatment comprises of two major specialities i.e. shodhan and shaman. Panchkarma is the group of modalities used for shodhan of vitiated dosha. Skin is the largest organ of human body. It is very important as it performs several important functions. Our skin protects vital organs from variations in surrounding environment. Different kind of disease causing organisms and substances are prevented by skin to enter in our internal ecosystem. Hence skin can be considered as the primary guard of human body. While performing such activities it comes in contact with different kind of pathogens and chemicals. Thus our skin is most prone part of body for infections. 

Skin Diseases in Ayurved

According to acharya Chakrapaani skin is the seat of mana. Because of this skin health is also affected by psychological factors.

Ayurved classifise skin diseases as kuntha . It is different from widely known term used for leprosy. Actually it denotes all kind of skin diseases. Meaning of kushta  explained by different ayurveda scholars is the condition which damages vapu. 

What is Panchkarma.

The verbal meaning of Panchkarma is a set of five karmas used for therapeutic purposes. Normally it includes following five treatment modalities.

Vaman,Virechan,Asthapan Basti, Anuvasan Basti and Nasya[1] . Some other modalities are also considered along with the above one like raktmokshan, snehan swedan. But the fact is that snehan and swedan are part of poorva karma. We will discuss about these things in another article. As we discussed earlier, aim of Panchkarma is to eliminate disease causing doshas from body. Due to this reason it plays a key role in treatment of skin diseases. Specially virechan  karm  is considered very effective in treatment of skin diseases.

Panchkarma Treatment Protocol for skin disease:

Although the treatment in ayurved depends upon a lot of factors, here we will discuss about a standard panchkarma protocol for treatment of skin diseases.

According to acharya Charak a patient affected by skin disease should first of all evaluated for degree of dashik involvement. A person effected by huge amount of doshas ( bahudosh ) should be preferably advised for shodhan.

“बहुदोश: संशोध्य कुष्ठी”

Timeline for sanshodhan in skin disease

Acharya Chakrapaani described a timeline for sanshodhan in skin diseases.

This complete procedure begins with vaman and ends at rakt mokshan.

पक्षात पक्षात छर्दनम, मासात मासात स्रंसनम त्रयहात त्रयहात न्यस्तत, अस्रवं मोक्षयेत षटसु। 

In a patient of skin disease vaman should be performed first . Vaman elevates kaf dosha and it is found very effective in skin diseases. Vaman karm should be performed under supervision of a well qualified practitioner.

Virechan karm this is very effective in conditions like allergies, psoriasis etc could be advised on monthly basis.

All these Panchkarma practices if performed has very good result with a very low recurrence rate .

Acharya charak [2] advocates that a disease can be easily cured by shodhan.