Avascular Necrosis Treatment In Ayurveda

Avascular necrosis is emerging as a challenge these days. The excessive use of steroids, acceptance of alcohol as just a drink, and poor lifestyle are major causes of this disease. Modern medicine has its own limitations. Because for the diseases of bones, they just have surgeons. Surgeons who are qualified and skilled for “replacement” alone. In this condition, Ayurveda is promising because Ayurveda understands the human body, better than mechanical-medical science. Science is an ever-changing process. This is wisdom that is stable and timeless. Here I will be discussing the avascular necrosis treatment in Ayurveda ad how scientifically Ayurveda can help you to not just avoidance of joint replacement. But also can ensure the reversal of avascular necrosis.

What is osteonecrosis, bone death?

Through this disease, one can lose a piece of bone due to a lack of blood supply. In some cases, the dead piece is as big as a fingernail or as huge as an arm or leg. In some other cases, it starts from the small bones inside the ear and gradually spreads all across the body. People who have had this disease are most likely to be professional athletes, especially boxers. However, people who have had a bone or joint injury with blood loss can also develop this disease.

There seem to be no remedies for preventing the onset of osteonecrosis. But there are certain treatments that can help control its progress. But when it comes to avascular necrosis treatment in Ayurveda. It is also possible to reverse the grades of AVN and to build the bone. The same we will discuss, logic and science behind all this.

Doctors should try their best to avoid any sort of surgery unless necessary. Because surgeries might trigger the spread of osteonecrosis in other bones.

AVN treatment in Ayurveda makes you safe from above both points.

People with osteonecrosis may feel constant pain in the place where the bone has died off because dead pieces rub themselves against each other when one walks and moves and that can be very painful. Osteonecrosis can also prevent the body from absorbing calcium and this makes one more susceptible to fractures.

Does Calcium have some role in Osteonecrosis?

Calcium is the main building block of bones. As you have read above, it provides support to your body’s physical structure. It makes one stronger and healthier although some people believe that calcium weakens one’s muscles. When you feel pain in places where large pieces of bones are located, there might be a lack of calcium inside those areas due to osteonecrosis.

Does Calcium have any role in the Prevention or Treatment of Avascular Necrosis?

Doctors use medicines containing high levels of calcium for treatment because this mineral strengthens bones and makes them resistant to fractures. However, taking these medicines for treating osteonecrosis may not help much because they cannot reach all the parts which are still healthy enough to absorb calcium through blood vessels or the lymphatic system.

Doctors know that calcium cannot travel through the blood vessels and the lymphatic system on its own so they use medicines containing anti-resorptive agents, substances that prevent bone loss or stimulate new bone formation.

However, medicines containing high levels of calcium are still being researched for their potential in fighting osteonecrosis.

But orthopedic surgeons just prescribe these medicines just for sake of Placebo. The limitation of surgeons is- they don’t understand the physiology and working of the bone and tissue. Surgeons only know – how to replace a joint.

Calcium: Myths vs Facts

Avascular Necrosis treatment in Ayurveda: In Scientific Way

Some 15 years back, when I met with the first patient of Avascular necrosis of the femur head. It confused me completely. It was an old patient. He had tried many other doctors and every doctor has prescribed him- Calcium. Even many Ayurvedic prescriptions were having- Kukuttandtvak Bhasma, Prawal Pishti, and other so-called natural calcium supplements of Ayurveda.

But, as I was aware, that calcium has no role in the treatment of Avascular Necrosis, which made me lost.

When we are looking for Avascular necrosis treatment in Ayurveda, we need to think rationally. The logic was simple. Medicine or treatments that we are using should help in one thing and that is- “vasculature” of the bone. If we can ensure the proper vasculature of the bone or more specifically bone marrow- that is the only way to ensure recovery from the disease.

The success stories of reversal of Avascular Necrosis are not just a claim or just random findings for us.

We follow science and we have a better logical understanding of the condition which makes us different from others.

For the treatment of avascular necrosis through Ayurveda, I never ever used a single percent of the “calcium” preparations and this helped my patients better than anything.

What should Treatment for Avascular Necrosis do?

Besides restoring the “vasculature of the bone” these medicines should also fulfill the following criteria, because, unlike allopathy, Ayurveda talks about “wholeness” and takes a very much “subjective” approach.

Here are the few points, which we kept in mind and which helped us in the journey of the development of Ayurvedic medicines and treatment for Avascular Necrosis-

Bone Marrow: The Majja Dhatu

When we look at the chronology of the Dhatus, it is Majja which comes next to Asthi. But “Asthi-Saushriya” weakness and fragility of the bones come under the diseases of Majja Dhatu. So for the medicines and treatment of osteonecrosis, what comes to my mind is to balance the Majja Dhatu.

The Sooner you control the Majja Dhatu, the quicker you stop the progress of the Avascular Necrosis.

Bone marrow is responsible for the formation and development of bone. It produces red and white blood cells and stems cells, which help in bone healing and regeneration. This function of bone marrow makes it very critical for patients suffering from Avascular Necrosis or osteonecrosis because, if there’s no blood supply to this area due to lack of vasculature (vascularity), the normal bone may not get formed inside the affected area.

What happens when there is Edema in Bone Marrow?

If you have edema (swelling) inside your bone marrow, it will make your treatment difficult because swelling can disturb the proper flow of energy and “Vata” (air). This type of swelling destroys the delicate balance of “Vata, Pitta, and Kapha” (air, fire, and water) which are responsible for the health of your body. This type of disturbance in the delicate balance of three doshas can be controlled by using medicines that have “anti” properties on these doshas.

Thus, if you are looking for treatment for Bone Marrow Edema (swelling) caused due to Avascular Necrosis or osteonecrosis then your medicine should be having anti-Vata, Pitta, and Kapha components.

Balancing the Medas Dhatu: the Fat component

The precursor Dhatu for the Asthi Dhatu is- Medas. It was a confusing statement for me as a student. But thanks to the modern biochemical for explaining the human body for better understanding of the Bones. Today we know the role of adipocytes in bone formation. These are the adipocytes, which we balance through the medicines and these help us in “restoring” the normal bones in case of Avascular Necrosis.

Adipocytes: Helping the Restoration of Bones

Adipocytes (fat cells) are nothing but storage units of fat. These cells store the food consumed by us for future use. They act like a warehouse or bank that stores our “calorie” or “energy” for future use.

The role of adipocytes is believed to be extremely critical in bone formation and regeneration because they release their stored energy (from your diet) at proper times which helps in the proper development of bone marrow inside the bones.

As per Ayurveda, Adipocyte starts their function once the food reaches our stomach through Agni (fire). Thus, you can say that adipocytes start acting on your food only after your stomach had put its seal of approval on it by initiating necessary digestive processes.

Food that is properly broken down and digested by your stomach goes to your liver which then sends it back to Agni (fire) for further processing. Once the food gets processed through the proper digestive action of Agni, it’s given to Vyana Vayu (circulatory force), where it starts its journey throughout your body

While passing through every nook and corner of our body, adipocytes release their energy along with blood. This released energy is very critical information of bone marrow because, after the “vasculature” of the bone, adipocyte plays an equally important role in ensuring the development of bone marrow inside the bones.

Bone Marrow Vasculature Restoration using Adipocytes?

Adipocyte plays a crucial role in bone marrow development and health by releasing their stored energy along with blood. Thus, the blood that travels through your body helps in creating a healthy vasculature of the bone marrow inside the bones

This is where “Osteogenic stimulators” or “Vasodilators” come into the picture. The medicines which you would be using for the treatment of avascular necrosis should have anti-inflammatory and adipocyte properties as these medicines help us in providing proper nourishment to bone marrow as well as provide new vessels (vasculature) for carrying more oxygenated blood to this area.

Adipocytes secrete several cytokines that promote vascularisation and osteogenesis (bone strengthening). Adipocytes also secrete a hormone called Leptin. which is known to activate an enzyme known as endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS).

This enzyme helps in the production of Nitric Oxide (NO) from L-Arginine and Oxygen. NO is a vasodilator that helps in widening the blood vessels so that oxygen-carrying blood could easily pass through these areas. This, in turn, would help us to have strong bones due to the optimal supply of oxygenated blood inside the bone marrow.

Reversing the Avascular Necrosis in Scientific Way

Adipocytes also release something known as Osteopontin which has been identified as a signal molecule responsible for different stages of marrow development. Osteopontin makes itself one of the most important players in the bone marrow vasculature.

All of these combined actions of adipocytes help us in getting the proper nourishment to our bones, this support includes oxygen-rich blood, hormones, cytokines, and signal molecules which are responsible for different stages of bone formation.

So you would say that if Adipocytes were not there inside you, your bones would have had no chance to survive? You are absolutely right about it. Thus, doctors who just do fat reduction surgeries must know that they are jeopardizing the lives of hundreds of people by removing their adipocytes. This is the reason, during my line for Ayurvedic Treatment for Avascular Necrosis, I never advised any patient for weight loss.

The Kidney and Bone Axis

Our kidneys are responsible for the proper development of our bones. Kidneys filter the blood and remove the excess fluid with salts from this blood. This filtered fluid then goes to your bladder, where it’s stored for later release in the form of urine. The important point to note here is that while removing all these salts out of the blood, kidneys also work on balancing their quantity so that the maximum amount of minerals could be delivered throughout your body

This balanced ratio helps us in having healthy bones because more minerals would mean strong bones by activating some important enzymes required for the bone formation process inside the body

Kidneys also play a vital role in producing Vitamin D which helps these enzymes to act properly inside our body. Thus, if you had weak kidneys, you would also have weak bones.

Reversal of Osteonecrosis with Ayurvedic Treatment

The approach of Avascular Necrosis Treatment in Ayurveda

Any treatment is a journey, a process and you need to complete the journey. Things just don’t happen overnight. There is no space for magic in science. And I believe strongly that there cannot be a better science than Ayurveda.

There are some “stupids” and “quacks” who malign the image of Ayurveda because of their “zero-understanding” of Science. From the above material you can understand that the treatment of AVN in Ayurveda is not just by chance. It is possible to “reverse avascular necrosis” through a complete sequence of scientific exposition.

Here are two things we do in a scientific manner and the following steps we take:

1. Panchakarma therapies
2. Medicines that work on target

Panchakarma for Avascular Necrosis

I don’t know who started using fancy words like – “Detoxification” for the wonderful treatment procedure of Panchakarma? Because the wonderful Panchakarma procedures are more than that.

Panchakarma procedures also work as routes of medicines too.

The route of medicine to ensure better bioavailability of medicines to the body.

We work on Basti alone in this condition. So we will discuss the Basti more. The main thing which Basti does for the avascular necrosis treatment in Ayurveda are-

1. Selective Rectal Absorption
2. Bypassing the hepatic channel

Selective Rectal Absorption

The rectum’s environment is thought to be relatively constant and stable, with little enzymatic activity when compared to other parts of the gastrointestinal tract. Furthermore, following systemic absorption, drugs can partially avoid the liver, lowering its first-pass effect; as a result, rectal medication administration may provide significant local and systemic dosages for several medications despite the small surface area of the rectal mucosa. Writes Sussan Hua in her research article on Rectal drug administration.

The knowledge and understanding of Ayurveda cannot be just in-vague. Right from the understanding of the cause and pathological process of the complicated conditions like bone death up to the treatment procedures, everything is in right pattern with Ayurveda.

Bypassing the hepatic channel

A rectal administration technique is another form of enteral medication delivery and enables for rapid and efficient drug absorption via the extremely vascularized rectal mucosa. Rectally ingested medicines, like sublingual and buccal methods, undergo passive diffusion and a portion of the first-pass metabolism. Only about half of what enters the body through the bowels directly goes to the liver. [Medication Route of Medicines]

This makes sure that you get the primary metabolite of the medicines. The exact thing that we want to give to you.

These are fat-based medicines (Ghritam), which we use for basti. And research proves our point too that these fat-based medicines absorb well through the rectum. “Medium-chain fatty acids absorb in the human rectum at a rate similar to that for short-chain fatty acids. If results can be applied to the human colon, colonic absorption of medium-chain fatty acids could possibly become an important secondary site of absorption in abnormal intestinal conditions such as massive small-intestinal resection or malabsorption syndromes.” (Read here)

The main thing with the Basti treatment for avascular necrosis is to make sure that we are using the correct medicines. We at Sukhayu understand the value of quality medicines. When it comes to the right medicines for Basti, we do believe that we should prepare all Ghritam by ourselves- what we use for the treatment of avascular necrosis.

Ayurvedic Medicines for Avascular Necrosis

Once you have an approach for the disease, next you need proper medicines for the problem. Without proper medicines, no treatment can help a patient. This was the reason at Sukhayu we worked for the development of ayurvedic medicines for Avascular necrosis and today we are proud enough to share that we have the proper medicines.

Cap Ankylocare: as we have seen above that you need to balance the internal environment of the “fatty” tissue. This is a preparation for the same. The medicine in Ankylocare is based on fats.

Cap Ossium-8 and Ossium powder: These basically work on the bone marrow edema and in the reestablishment of the vasculature.

Br. Manjisthadi Kashayam: This is a classical preparation of Ayurveda to make sure that your toxins will flush regularly.

Tab M. Forte: You need something to manage the inflammation and joint laxity, here is it.

The Conclusion: Avascular Necrosis treatment in Ayurveda

Reversal of Avascular necrosis with Ayurvedic treatment at Sukhayu Ayurved didn’t happen by chance. It is a journey, based on scientific parameters and a better understanding of the disease. Avascular necrosis treatment in Ayurveda is completely scientific and based on logic.

You can consult me for your queries and when it comes to the ayurvedic treatment of avascular necrosis- I always say “the sooner is the better”. Don’t wait for the decay of your bone.

The chronicity of disease complicates the whole problem so you better join us for the reversal of avascular necrosis.