Lichen Planus - Ayurvedic Herbal Treatment

Lichen Planus is an inflammatory skin condition in which flat lesions appear on the skin or mucous membrane, causing pain, redness and itching. It is neither infectious nor contagious, but it may persist for months or years, and may recur. The exact cause is unknown, but it may sometimes be triggered by an allergic or immune reaction to a medication or other substance.

In Ayurveda, there is no clear-cut synonym for lichen planus. However, all skin diseases have been clubbed together as "Kushtha", and the general principles of treatment for kushtha can be applied to the treatment of lichen planus, with very good results. Treatment is aimed at reducing itching and inflammation, and gradually helping the causative immune reaction to subside. Patients having severe symptoms, or recurrence, may require several courses of treatment.

Herbal

Some of the medicines usually used for the treatment of lichen planus are: Arogya Vardhini, Gandhak Rasayan, Nimba-Gandhak, Swayambhu Guggulu, Sukshma Triphala, Saarivadyasava, Mahamanjishthadi Qadha,and Khadirarishta. Single herbal medicines used for this disease are: Nimba (Azadirachta indica), Saariva (Hemidesmus indicus), Manjishtha (Rubia cordifolia), Karanj (Pongamia pinnata), Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum), Haridra (Curcuma longa), Daruharidra (Berberis aristata), Chirayta (Swertia chirata),Guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia), Khadeer (Acacia catechu) and Vacha (Acorus calamus). These medicines have the unique property of acting on the skin and blood tissue, and also bring about the desired immunomodulation.

Lichen Planus - Ayurvedic Herbal Treatment

Medicines used for local application are: Shatadhout ghruta, honey, Neem-Karanj oil, Shodhan oil, Ropan oil, Chandan oil, Marichyadi oil and Bakuchi oil. Selection of the appropriate medicine is made according to the predominance of symptoms and the location of the lesions.

Some physicians advocate cleansing of the body for the purpose of detoxification. This is advisable if the lesions are widespread or do not respond to standard oral medicines. Induced emesis, induced purgation, and periodical blood-letting are some of the procedures adopted for this purpose.

Lichen Planus - Ayurvedic Herbal Treatment

Dr. A. A. Mundewadi is Chief Ayurvedic Physician at Mundewadi Ayurvedic Clinic based at Thane, Maharashtra, India. He is available as an online Ayurvedic Consultant at http://www.ayurvedaphysician.com

Dr. A. A. Mundewadi, B.A.M.S., has clinical experience of 22 years and clinical research experience of 9 years. He has published his findings of herbal treatment of HIV / AIDS in 55 patients in the Bombay Hospital Journal, Mumbai, India, July 2005 issue.

He has also successfully completed a clinical trial of herbal extract medicines in Schizophrenia compared to modern anti-psychotics, in 200 patients. He has also conducted preliminary studies of Ayurvedic herbal extracts in the treatment of Bipolar Disorder, Vascular Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism, Mental Retardation, Tobacco and Alcohol Addiction, Age Related Macular Degeneration and different types of Cancer.

A New Ayurvedic Herb for Diabetes?

In the February 2008 edition of the medical journal Diabetes Care there is a report of a clinical trial of a "new" Ayurvedic herb for type-2 diabetes, Coccinia cordifolia.

Also known as koval or ivy gourd, this herb is in the same plant family as the better known bitter melon. Koval is a common plant of India and Bangladesh that grows over the Indian sub-continent like kudzu grows over the southern USA.

Herb

Koval grows enormous tubers that anchor it into the ground and then it spreads vines in all directions. Unlike kudzu, it bears trumpet-like white blossoms that produce a zucchini-shaped but purplish-red fruit. Ayurvedic medicine has used the fruit and the leaves for centuries as a treatment for diabetes, but this study is the first detailed clinical trial.

Since Ayurvedic practitioners typically recommend "a handful" of the dried leaves and chopped gourd brewed into a tea, the researchers at the St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences in Bangalore prepared a standardized extract from 15 grams of the dried herb. Then they gave the extract or a placebo to 60 newly diagnosed type-2 diabetics for 60 days.

If you're familiar with how most prescription medications for diabetes work (many of them encourage weight gain), you'll be impressed that the finding that people who took the herb not only did not gain weight, there was a slight trend to weight loss (less than 0.1 kilo, or one-quarter pound, per month). There was also a very slight trend to slimmer waists and tighter hips (again, a few millimeters, or tenths or an inch), all without any changes in food eaten or total calories. Body fat percentages, however, very slightly rose.

And as you may have read in other natural health headlines, the Ayurvedic herb definitely lowered blood sugars.

At the beginning of the study, the average fasting blood sugar in the test group was 132 mg/dl, and the average post-prandial (after-eating) blood sugar was 183 mg/dl.

The effects of the herb gradually increased over 90 days. By the end of the third month of the clinical trial, the average fasting blood glucose among the diabetics who got the herb had fallen to 111 mg/dl, while the diabetics who did not get the herb actually had slightly higher morning blood glucose levels. In the group of diabetics given the herb, post-prandial (after-eating) blood sugars fell to average below 150 mg/dl. The improvement in blood sugar levels was confirmed by an average drop of 0.6 per cent in HbA1C.

The researchers noted that similar percentages of diabetics getting the herb (94 per cent) and diabetics getting the placebo (93 per cent) were able to stick to their diabetic diets. The difference in blood sugars was due to the herb. It's also important to note that the diabetics taking the herb did not take any of the medications for diabetes commonly prescribed in North America, Australia, New Zealand, or the UK, and that they did not have blood sugar levels requiring immediate use of insulin.

So how does Coccinia cordifolia work?

The researchers don't know for sure, but it seems that some chemical in the herb is insulin-mimetic. That is, this as-yet-unidentified compound works the same way as insulin in clearing glucose out of the bloodstream, but does not work the same way as insulin in moving triglycerides into hungry fat cells.

Will a koval extract for type-2 diabetes be coming soon to a natural health products retailer near you? Just ask at any retailer specializing in Ayurvedic herbs or anywhere the proprietary extract Gencinia is sold. It's already available. If you take the herb, use 15 g (about half an ounce) a day to make a tea, drunk warm after brewing in a closed tea pot for 15 minutes. If you use a 15:1 dried extract, use 1,000 mg (1 g) per day.

If you have relatively mild type-2 diabetes and you are taking your blood sugars every day and avoiding carbohydrates, this herb is certainly worth a try.

A New Ayurvedic Herb for Diabetes?

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