People think that to be healthy you need to make heroic efforts. Of course, if you are to be treated for an ailment, even more heroic efforts are needed.
So, unless a shunt has been put in to drain the liver or a catheter to drain the bladder, one is really not being treated.
The simple philosophy that steps taken to prevent disease is also treatment, is attractive to hardly anyone.
If you were to advocate a simple nasyam for prevention of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or dementia. People are looking around for more complicated ways of addressing the disease.
People appear more comfortable with treatment after the onset of the disease and undergo even major surgeries such as brain or liver surgery in their stride.
Yet if you suggest taking drugs processed in gomutra or bhasma that has been processed and purified as a preventive, you are subjected to myriad questions and perhaps some ridicule too.
Take the simple application of two drops of say anutailam to the nostril as a preventive from most diseases that affect organs above the clavicle.
Now, how is it possible, think our doubting Thomases. Nothing great or heroic about putting two drops of oil in your nostril.
Can it really prevent diseases for which there is no cure in allopathic medicine?
Nasya, as the procedure of instilling oil in the nostrils is called, is one of the five panchakarma procedures.
Its sheer simplicity and effectiveness fascinates me. From preventing nasal polyps to sinusitis, to treating facial paralysis, nasya is a versatile procedure.
The highly vascularised mucosal layer and the nasal cavity help to take the drugs administered to areal allopaths couldn’t have dreamt of.
It helps avoid the first-pass metabolism as drugs given orally have to first go through the liver (where it gets absorbed or neutralised, because the liver is cautious about allowing drugs/strong chemicals into systemic circulation). And so the allopaths are beat.
Ayurvedists, on the contrary, could deliver their drugs through the nasal route or anal route if needed.
Vastis are one way of taking drugs to the gastrointestinal tract and bypassing the liver to some extent.
Many of the drugs for epilepsy, mental illnesses and depressions are given by way of nasyam.
The drugs are delivered to the trigeminal nerve from the nasal cavity and then on to the central nervous system.
In the 1970s and 1980s, there were multiple studies showing that substances could enter the brain by pathways involving olfactory epithelium and the olfactory bulb.
In 1995, a study by Thorn et al showed that large-sized molecules could be delivered to the brain bypassing the blood-brain barrier if the intranasal route was taken.
This is something our ayurvedic vaidyars knew hundreds of years ago and nasyam is a popular method of drug administration through the nose.
As I had written in an earlier article, daily administration of two drops of anutailam is considered to be a part of dinacharya or daily ritual to keep healthy.
There are many types of nasyam but a simple classification is one involving that which one can do as a preventive and one which is used for therapeutic reasons; it is called pratimarsha nasyam and marsha.
Pratimarsha nasyam is using about two drops of the tailam while marsha nasyam is about using it for treating diseases and uses about 4, 6 or 8 drops of the drug.
Marsha nasyam sometimes has complications and one needs to follow a set procedure. Pratimarsha nasyam is simple and effective, and at the same time prevents a myriad diseases.
Encouraging our youngsters to use this one simple procedure can save the government and families crores of rupees in medical expenses and also the trauma that disease brings with it.
There are other interesting nasyam techniques too called Avapidana, Dhumapana and Dhuma.
Nasyam and panchakarma are truly amazing, and we need to educate the young and old alike about the easy methods of preventing diseases without heroics!
The writer is retired Additional Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu. She can be reached at sheelarani.arogyamantra@gmail.com/arogyamantra.blogspot.com