Ayurvedic approach to CFS/ME

[Owl42]

I'm starting this thread because I'm willing to try an ayurvedic approach to treating my CFS. I've done a little research myself but I'd love if you could help me to build up some kind of guide to ayurvedic healing proposed for this disease.

I know there are many ayurveda experts who talk about our condition and treat it but there's none near my area so I'm doing this research on my own.

I know many of you have education on naturopathy so you maybe can help revising the safety of the herbs combination.

Ayurveda is not just about taking medications, it is a complex medical system based on your prakriti type (kind of metabolical/physical/mental constitution) so the treatments varie from person to person, if you don't have an ayurvedic practitioner to guide you you'll have to experiment and read and explore yourself a lot to determine your prakriti first.


This is a good article I think http://www.muditainstitute.com/articles/ayurvedicmedicine/cfsfibromyalgia.html

I'm sorry I'm not very specific but my brain is at one of its worst times.

I'm going to post here conclusions I got some months ago after being able to read much more than I do now.

 

[hellytheelephant]

Hi @Owl42
If I understand correctly, are you planning on treating yourself? Maybe my ignorance, but I have never heard of someone self treating with Ayuveda. Really interesting article BTW, although I would ignore:

'Appropriate lifestyle practices (including the right sort of exercise) should be adopted in order to help calm the mind and support the nervous system, whilst at the same time promoting good digestion and circulation'.

My only experience with it was being given a massage with a particular oil by a friend from India who knew about Ayuveda. I was in agony with sciatica, and could not put any weight on my leg, He gave me the massage and extra oil to put on the next day- and I slept for about 10 hours and woke up and the pain was gone.

From what I can understand it is not as simple as determing your prakriti, as mostly people will have a combination of each. In my case both pitta and vata have quite high scores.

Wishing you well, but be cautious with the herbs.

 

[mango]

This is a great place to start, for anyone who wants to learn the basics of ayurveda:
http://heymonicab.com/

 

[mango]

To figure out what kind of treatment one needs one should be investigating one's vikruti (imbalances) first and foremost. In ayurveda you treat the person's current imbalances, not her/his prakriti (basic constitution).

Also, like you say, it's all very individual. No two people with the same 'disease' will need exactly the same treatment. Because of that, I personally don't believe in "disease specific ayurvedic healing guides"; it's way too simplistic, that's simply not how ayurveda works.

It's not about the disease itself, because it will manifest differently in different people, will change over time, and will need different kinds of interventions at different times and in different orders etc, depending on what other imbalances there are etc etc etc..

Again, it's about the current imbalances, which are hugely individual and keep changing over time.

 

[Sushi]

I'm starting this thread because I'm willing to try an ayurvedic approach to treating my CFS. I've done a little research myself but I'd love if you could help me to build up some kind of guide to ayurvedic healing proposed for this disease.

I was intrigued by Ayurveda and had to opportunity to be treated by Dr. Vasant Lad. He was spot on in discovering my symptoms through taking my pulses...but, I did not notice any improvement from treatment. I also saw another well regarded Ayurvedic doctor with similar results. My experience many not be typical though--I hope you find something that helps you.

 

[Effi]

I went to a very experienced practitioner for a while. Understanding the entire complex system of ayurveda takes a lot of study and practice, so I'm not sure if you'd be able to really treat yourself via self study, apart form the basic lifestyle and cooking methods. Those are pretty easy to learn on your own.

Back when I was getting ayurvedic treatment I was actively looking in their ancient writings for some clues specifically about ME, or something that was similar to ME, but there was nothing I could find, and no one I asked could really give me any answers either. But ayurveda doesn't really work with illness labels anyway, it's more about balancing out your imbalances, with the compass of your basic constitution in mind. I can't remember exactly what my diagnosis was, but it did really fit right into my symptom experience, so I feel like they were on point there.

What it did for me was get my digestion running again, at least a little, through supplements, diet and oil massages. I took a ton of different supplements, but the weird thing was that they would work for a couple of days, and then suddenly stop working, as if my body was rejecting them. I rotated through a ton of different things and my practitioner ended up saying that he had never seen this happen to anyone and that there was nothing he could do for me. (Now I know this is probably just how ME works - in many patients supplements get rejected somehow by the disease process, either instantly, or after a short period of time.)