Bone and joint diseases in Ayurveda are mentioned with related concepts and texts written in ancient to modern period. Three main joint manifestations are treated. They are Sandigatha Vatha (osteo arthritis), Amavatha (rheumatoid arthritis) and kostukashirsha (pain with swelling of knee joint) . Symptoms of these conditions can correlate to structural changes of modern clinical cases. Two of them are polyarthritic clinical entities having a range from acute to chronic. Sandhigata vatha is the commonest form of articular disorder. It is a type of disease which mainly occurs in old age people due to the dryness of the tissues which limits daily activities such as walking, dressing, bathing making patient disabled. This is a type of vata category of disease. Therefore in identifying prognosis by detecting early symptoms is very important because this is very common type of disease. As it is vata type of disease pain is the cardinal feature of the disease associated with swelling, lack of movements of the joints or painful movement of the joints, sometimes loss of function and dislocations are possible. Vata raktha is a condition with symptoms of pain, fasiculations, swelling, dryness of the affected part with discoloration, itching, contraction are seen, predominantly in larger joints, but begins from the smaller joints both the vata (motile force) and rakta (blood) are in predominant positions.. Kostukashirsha is the other common form of disease whose name is according to its appearance of the knee joint. The affected knee joint looks like jackals head due to the swelling and with severe pain.
To manage these diseases different therapeutic measures are used according to the Ayurveda system of medicine. In clinical practice medicinal materials in form of single drugs as well as poly-herbal formula are used. Body has been buildup of dietetic materials, the drug materials giving to manage the diseases also constitutes same physical properties identified by Ayurveda. To maintain the balance there should be equilibrium in metabolic functions. These functions are governing by the three energy flows (vata, pitta, kapha) with the help of different agnis (metabolic power) in the body. These processes activated in the body are responsible to maintain the internal environment in balance state by avoiding to cause any imbalance which originated a disease. Therefore treatment is defined as chikitsa that implies collection of suitable procedures which can be normalizing the imbalance state of internal environment of the body.
Based on this different treatment lines are applied to manage joint diseases. They are avoiding causative factors such as dietary mal practices, mal practices in behavior, corrections in routine according to seasonal changes, pacifying doshas mainly vata ,using medicines to relieve pain with other medicaments for correction of rearranged body functions according to the causative factors . Cleansing the obstructed channels by Panchakarma using suitable drugs . Facilitate diseased person if the condition caused due to the aging process by rasayana (rejuvenation) therapy. If the person needs rehabilitation then yoga therapy or meditation can be adviced to the patient. Finally all these treatment options can be apply as local or systemic therapeutic applications according to the patient condition as well as the nature of the disease.
