Arthritis or Joint Pains - A common disease

Joint pains or Arthritis is a common problem these days. Whenever winter comes, it increases. According to Ayurveda mostly pains are caused by the aggravation of vata (air), dosha. Arthritis is a condition which is caused by accumulation of Ama and aggravation of vata. Ama is a toxic by-product of improper digestion. When the food we eat is not digested completely by the digestive fire, it produces a toxic substance called Ama. This Ama circulates in the whole body and deposits or gets collected at the sites which are weaker.

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It causes many diseases in the body depending on the location of deposition. For example, dangerous asthama is one which is caused by deposits in the lungs. If it deposits in the intestines it causes dysentery. When it deposits in the joints and at the same time there is aggravation of vata, that means if biological humor air is also disturbed, it results in a disease called Ama vata. This Ama vata is arthritis. Thus the patient generally has a weak digestion. A history of wind and constipation is usually found in these cases. People who overeat or eat too much fried foods, sweets, meats etc. and have no or very little physical activity can develop this problem.

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Symptoms:

The main symptom of this disease is severe pain in the affected joints. The muscles, ligaments, synovial membrane and cartilage get inflamed and the movement of the joint becomes extremely painful, specially in cold, windy and damp weather. If the condition is not treated properly, the joint becomes immobile and this may ultimately lead to deformity of the joint. Sometimes it is associated with fever. Infact, these days fever has become a regular part of arthritis symptoms and it raises the infection levels in the body shown by allopathic pathological test ESR.

Cure: Ayurvedic herbs are quite successful in curing the arthritic joint pains and there are a lot of herbs that can be used here. Some of them are:

• Ashwagandha - Also called as winter cherry in the west. This is one of the wonder herbs as stated by Ayurveda and curing joint pains is just one of the uses of this one.
• Alflafa - The tea of alfalfa reduces the joint pains considerably specially in the early stages
• Dandelion - Magnesium is something which is required for proper mineralization of the bones and dandelion is rich in magnesium. It's use make the bones stronger and joint pains can be prevented
• Vishwagarbha taila - If the joint pains are due to trauma, then Vishwagarbha taila is prescribed for external application over the region where the joint pain is felt. For internal administration, the patient can take rasnadi guggulu.

Above are few curing herbs for joint pains but as they say prevention is better than cure and it is more than 100% right in case of joint pains. Certain good living habits can make sure that arthritis can be delayed by at least 10 years and hence 10 more years of comfort

Hast Mudra Series - For a disease free life

Often, we take lot of medicines for number of dieseases either for curing it or for preventing it and multiple times it is seen that these medicines backfire at older age when we start seeing their aftereffects in body. Yogasan came as a breather for all those who want an alernative for taking medicines and yet remain free of diseases. Hast mudras are the next generation of yogasan and have multiple benefits.

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Our universe is made up of five tatvas viz. Aakash, Vayu, Agni, Jal and Prithvi. Likewise our body is also madeup of same five tatvas and whenever the proportion or the placement of these tatvas change in our body, it becomes prone to diseases. Right proporation of these tatvas in our body is called as Samsthiti and it becomes Vishamstithti whenever the proportion changes. These 5 tatvas controls the internal secretion of glands and hence proper functioning of internal organs. The five fingers in our hands also represent these 5 tatvas and we can alter the proporation of these tatvas to the right combination by exercising few mudras made with the helps of these fingers. Let us see which finger represent which tatva:

Thumb: Agni

Index Finger: Vayu

Middle Finger: Aakash

Ring Finger: Prithvi

Little Finger: Jal

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Now, we will go through few Hast Mudras below:

• Vayu Mudra - This mudra is beneficial for all the 80 types of vatvyadhis like arthritis, paralysis, cervical, joint pains, gastric troubles etc. It strengthens the backbone and improves blood circulation. This mudra can be exercised by keeping the index finger at the root of thumb and pressing the thumb lightly on the index finger. All other fingers should be kept straight. Given picture shows the correct form of this mudra :