As all know, psoriasis is included under the category of autoimmune diseases. Then, what is an autoimmune disease? Our body is having a very well organized immune system, hence this immune system reacts to all external factors like a change in climate, dust, certain viruses, etc. Immunization is done from birth to increase our immunity power against various virus that may be fatal. Sometimes our body shows this immuno-reaction without any cause or the cause is still unknown to us. These reactions or symptoms are grouped as autoimmune diseases. Hence, one could now understand that the real cause of the disease psoriasis is still unknown.
But still, there are some possible chances of its occurrence. Some of these are mentioned here;
1. Virudhahara (incompatible foods) – Food substances which provoke doshas, but does not expel them out of the body are known as virudha aharas. These are some of the combinations of foods that act as Viruddha Ahara,
Curd X Chicken
Black gram soup X Radish
Wild jackfruit X Black gram soup/milk/honey/ghee
Banana X Buttermilk/Curd/palmyra fruit
Honey X Jaggery
Equal quantities of honey, ghee, oil and water
Mushroom cooked in mustard oil
Milk X Fish ( especially prawns)/Sour foods/Fruits/Horsegram/Millets
Drinking milk after eating vegetables like radish
2. Lack of sleep in the night – As per today’s lifestyle and job nature, so many people are having late sleep. Our body constitutes 3 doshas, vata, pitha and kapha. These are the functional units of our body. Late sleep vitiates these doshas especially vata dosha.
3. Extreme climates – This disease is most prevalent during the winter season. During this climate, people would not sweat. Sweat is the main excretory waste expelled out through the skin. Hence, these wastes remain in the body under the skin and may lead to psoriasis
4. Change in climates – Those who are working in air-conditioned rooms are more effected. Some people have the habit of taking breaks in their works frequently. During the break, they may go out to a non- AC room or directly out to the sun. The body may react to these temperature changes as various skin diseases.
These are some of the causes that change the equilibrium of doshas and vitiate them but do not expel out of the body. These vitiated doshas remain in the body silently for a long period and after a while start showing various symptoms on the skin like eruptions, dryness, scales, redness, etc.
In Ayurveda, psoriasis can be related to sidhma kushta. In this type of skin disease, vata dosha and kapha dosha are highly vitiated. Its symptoms are commonly seen on the scalp, which many people misunderstand it as dandruff and do home remedies and treatments to dandruff. It may then spread to various parts of the body like the back of ears, eyebrows, hands, legs, etc due to the absence of proper medication. In some people, symptoms are shown only on palmar and plantar parts of the body. It do not spread from person to person through contact or any other ways.
Earliest the treatment, earliest is the cure. The treatment is mainly based on internal purification along with symptomatical treatments, as the possibilities of its cause lies inside the body. As the disease is an effect of long term indulgence of its causes, the treatment also requires a long period of treatment.
A minimum of 2 weeks treatment is required for its management. It includes snehapanam, virechanam, dhaaras like kashayadhara, thakradhara, tailadhara, poochu, pizhichil, etc. Internal medicines will be aimed at the purification of blood and a strict food diet has to be followed during the treatments, and even after that, medicines and food diet have to be followed.
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