Abstract: Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a burden to both patients and the healthcare system as it requires high-cost medicines, frequent clinical visits, disturbed personal and professional schedule, anxiety, and depression in the patient. This chronic disorder causes abdominal pain or discomfort and is characterized by abnormal defecation that presents mainly as either constipation or diarrhea symptoms. There is no standard allopathic treatment available for such a complex condition; the plan of treatment differs from person to person, doctor to doctor.
In such a situation most patients turn to Ayurveda that describes this disorder as “GRAHANI” in its texts as it offers a promising treatment for patients suffering from IBS and improves his/her quality of life. Kameshwar Modaka is one such miraculous formulation that has been long lost in the Ayurveda texts. This study highlights the use of Kameshwara Modaka in the treatment of Chronic IBS (GRAHANI) and also proves how it can be the ideal formulation of choice for GRAHANI treatment.
This is a case of a 32-year-old female with a history of mixed constipation and diarrhea bowel pattern for the last few years and how Kameshwar Modaka helped her overcome her complaints gradually.
Ayurveda Perspective
According to Ayurveda, Grahani is a disorder that affects our Majjadhara and Pittadhara Kala. An ideal formulation for the treatment of Grahani would be having the properties of being ‘Grahi’ ‘Deepana’ ‘Pachak’. The Vijaya in the Kameshwar Modaka reassesses the inner dialogue in the affected person and induces calm and peaceful sleep. Which in turn helps to cure the ‘Mandagni’ cause due to mental stress.
The formulation overall serves to give promising results in Grahani as it acts as AGNIVARDHAK and GRAHI for the physical impacts of the disease, and also the MEDHYA guna of cannabis helps the patient to overcome the mental disturbances he/she undergoes while having Grahani (IBS).
Introduction
Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a common disorder that affects the intestine. Signs and symptoms include episodes of unexplained constipation and diarrhea, abdominal pain and cramping, bloating, etc. It is a chronic condition that one needs to manage in long term.
The cause of IBS isn’t well understood. A diagnosis is often made based on symptoms. Moreover, there is no test to definitively diagnose IBS either. This makes the diagnosis and management of the disease an arduous task for healthcare professionals.
IBS affects an individual physically as well as mentally as it refrains you from doing even the easiest things on the schedule as you never know when the complaints kick in.
Case Report
Today Vaidyas prescribe Kameshwar Modak in the treatment of Sexual Dysfunction and it has gained popularity in that field due to its promising and instantaneous results. A very few of us know that Kameshwar Modak has been mentioned as a formulation that can be used in the effective treatment of GRAHANI roga and more analysis suggest that it can be an ideal drug for the treatment of GRAHANI.
Patient description
A 32-year-old female was presented with complaints with a history of mixed constipation and diarrhea bowel pattern. She reported that she ‘either can’t go or can’t stop going to the bathroom’. A few years ago (roughly 5 years) she complained of having long durations of constipations with lower abdominal pain but as time went by her symptoms progressed. The duration of constipation and intensity of pain gradually started to increase and it could turn worse with stress.
Case history
She was referred to a Gastroenterologist by a General Practitioner 2 years ago who did a full workup including blood testing and ultrasound examinations and also colonoscopy. All tests were unremarkable. She was diagnosed with IBS with constipation and started treatment with laxatives.
Over the past year, she has developed intermittent diarrhea every 10 days and followed by a few days of constipation and complaints of having 3-5 episodes of watery or semi-formed stools.
Lately, she has been training and has had a sense of incomplete evacuation with lower abdominal cramping and bloating. She has no celiac disease. She is moderately anxious.
Dietary & Lifestyle Habits
The patient has been eating healthy food but the complaints persist no matter what she eats. She does not consume alcohol nor does she have any other ‘habits’. She has a good overall routine and makes sure she gets 8 hours of sleep.
Previous treatment
She used milk of magnesia or Castor oil when she was constipated and used TAB LOMOTIL (Diphenoxylate and Atropine) on rare occasions when she had diarrhea.
Treatment plan
Medicines to be used – Kameshwar Modaka. She was prescribed Kameshwar Modaka 250 mg every day after food sublingual. She was also asked to make dietary modifications and practice Yoga (certain asanas) as a part of her daily routine.
Expected outcome of the treatment plan
It was expected Kameshwar Modaka would be able to help the patient ‘manage her situation’ better with time.
Actual outcome
As expected the patient got little relief within a week. She did not have an episode of constipation and she was less anxious overall. She was keen to continue her treatment and felt hopeful for the first time during her treatment period of 2 years that her life would be close to normal again.
Discussion
The treatment was decided considering the mentions of Kameshwar Modaka as one of the treatment drugs for Grahani in the Ayurveda literature.
Grahani Roga should be primarily treated for AGNIVARDHANA CHIKITSA with the help of drugs that have the quality of DEEPANA and PACHANA. Kameshwar Modak as a formulation has the aforementioned qualities and serves to be an ideal drug of choice for the treatment of GRAHANI.
Conclusion
This case study shows that GRAHANI can be successfully managed with Kameshwar Modaka. It is supportive for further research, as Grahani Chikitsa is one of the most challenging chikitsa Vaidyas face even today!
Dr. Sameer Paranjpe, Consultant Ayuvedacharya
Published by Hempstreet
