Effect Of Shirodhara On Isolated Sleep Paralysis- A Case Study

Isolated sleep paralysis (disturbed sleep) is a condition in which a person is in a state of consciousness but is not able to move or speak in the bed even if he wants to. It is a dreadful condition for a person, in which he or she even fears to fall asleep. It can occur with or without being a part of a sleeping disorder named narcolepsy. According to Ayurveda conditions of isolated sleep paralysis occurring during rapid eye movements (REM) phase of sleep can be correlated to Tandra and Manovaha Sroto Dushti in a stressed individual (Alpa Satva Purush). Ayurveda has potential to treat sleep related disorders with the help of Panchkarma procedures namely Shirodhara. In modern medicine treatment of conditions like isolated sleep paralysis mainly depends on use of antidepressant and sedative medicines which has many side effects. In this case an effort has been made to treat a young male of 21 years with symptoms of helplessness or muscle atonia during initiation of his sleep hours with heaviness in chest, difficulty in respiration and choking sensation for past 2 years. Treatment given is Shirodhara for a period of 15 days with Brahmi oil and tablet Sarpangdha as an internal medicine. The result shows positive response by decreased frequency of attacks, time duration and other symptoms along with improvement in quality of life.

A Conceptual Review Of Jalaukavacharana

The basic Ayurvedic treatment is based on two principles viz. Shodhan chikitsa (elimination Therapy) and Shaman chikitsa (internal medicine). Shodhan Chikitsa deals with five purificatory procedures popularly known as Panchakarma. Acharya Susruta included Raktamokshana in Panchakarma and described it as the best procedure because it eliminates all three vitiated Doshas viz. Vata, Pitta & Kapha. Jalaukavacharana is a type of Raktamokshana where leeches are used for bloodletting. This is considered as the most effective and most unique method of Raktamokshana as vitiated Doshas are removed from the body without using any cutting instruments, so, Raktamokshana by means of ‘Leech’ comes under Ashastra category. The following paper deals with the basic concepts of Leech therapy and the method of using leech for Raktamokshana.

Rapid diagnosis of typhoid fever.

A Reverse Passive Haemagglutination Test (RPHA) was designed for the detection of Salmonella typhi antigen and rapid diagnosis of typhoid fever. Two per cent fresh sheep RBC's were coated with 32 micrograms/ml of immunoglobulin. The minimal detectable level of the antigen was 1250 micrograms/ml. Cross reactions were observed with the samples of patients suffering from Salmonella paratyphi A and pseudomonas infections. The RPHA established was used for the detection of S. typhi antigen in culture broths from 100 patients with clinically suspected typhoid fever with culture and/or widal positive, 50 patients with septicemia caused by bacteria other than S. typhi and 50 normal, afebrile healthy controls. It was found that the sensitivity and specificity of this assay was 70% and 92% respectively.

Detection of IgM antibodies in pulmonary tuberculosis by ELISA using A60 antigen.

An enzyme immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was evaluated as a serodiagnostic test in patients with active tuberculosis (Group I), clinically suspected pulmonary tuberculosis (Group II) and pulmonary diseases other than tuberculosis and normal healthy subjects (Group III). and compared with culture and sputum smear examination results. ELISA was found to have a sensitivity of 77.5% and a specificity of 87.5%. Sputum smear had a sensitivity of 65% and specificity of 100%. In patients clinically suspected to have pulmonary tuberculosis ELISA had a sensitivity of 60%. Thus ELISA using A60 antigen can facilitate the diagnosis of tuberculosis in patients with active as well as suspected pulmonary tuberculosis and can provide results within hours of receipt of samples.

Initial and acquired drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in east Delhi.

One hundred and fifty six strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, isolated from cases of pulmonary tuberculosis were subjected to sensitivity test to detect initial and acquired drug resistance to Streptomycin, isoniazid, Rifampicin, Ethambutol and Pyrazinamide. Initial and acquired drug resistance was observed to one or more drugs in 16% and 24.4% of the patients respectively. Strains resistant to Rifampicin and Ethambutol were resistant to Isoniazid also. Drug resistance was unrelated to age and sex of the patients.

Effect of short term yoga practice on ventilatory function tests.

Twentyfive normal male volunteers undergoing a ten weeks course in the practice of yoga have been studied by some parameters of ventilatory functions tests. The observations recorded at the end of ten weeks of the course have shown improved ventilatory functions in the form of lowered respiratory rate, increased forced vital capacity, FEV1, maximum breathing capacity and breath holding time, while tidal volume and %FEV1, did not reveal any significant change. Thus, a combined practice of yoga seems to be beneficial on respiratory efficiency.