Should I try Ayurveda for curing my rheumatoid arthritis ?

Does Ayurveda work in Rheumatoid arthritis or does it cure it ?

Theres is no evidence that ayurveda is as good as or even better than allopathy for rheumatoid arthritis. The reasons for saying so is explained in detail below.

Before reading this article, please read the following article in detail. Then only one will understand this article better.

What is the best & natural way to treat Rheumatoid arthritis ?

Is there a cure for Rheumatoid arthritis ?

First, make it very clear, there is no cure of Rheumatoid arthritis as of now. If anybody is telling that, they are either not knowledgeable or telling a lie.

Please read following before reading ahead.

Disclaimer : Many times internet based articles are not written by certified medical writers or doctors. Do not believe them blindly. This article, however is written by a certified arthritis specialist doctor (rheumatologist) and not just any blogger. The information here is genuine and based on verified facts (as per the published post date). However, before reading the article, please make sure that you have read our disclaimer here.  

Ayurveda studies claiming benefits in Rheumatoid arthritis are extremely few and mostly do not have any control arms

Remember that for any drug to be proven that it works, one has to conduct a trial with two arms. In one arm you give patient sugar pills (or no treatment without actually telling the patient) and in one arm you give real drug. Such a trial design is very necessary to prove that a drug is effective or not. This is because if we give patients even a sugar pill, telling that it will work for them, certain patients will feel better even with sugar pills. We call this a placebo effect. Only if there is more benefit in the arm where real treatment was given, that is good proof that treatment is actually working. The arm where proper treatment was given is treatment arm and where we gave dummy drug (sugar pill or no drug) is called control arm. Only if treatment arm has much better result, than we say that treatment is good or effective.

Here is another example with slightly different scenario. There are ayurvedic doctors / homeopathy doctors / quacks (fake doctors) in various parts of India, who sell drugs to pregnant women to guarantee that they will have a male child (yes I know, this sounds funny and sad. These things happen in most countries with poor education level). The problem (or actually good thing for this fake doctors) is that 50 % of pregnant women will have male child anyways (by God’s design :). Did these medicines work ? Absolutely no. Imagine if we did a trial with two arms as above. In one arm if we gave this ‘miracle boy guarantee drug’ to pregnant women and if in another arm we just gave ‘sugar pills (like a placebo)’. Both groups (provided you take large enough sample) will have boy child at percentage of around 50 %. There will be obviously no difference (again by God’s will :).

The problem with ayurveda or homeopathy claiming that it works in Rheumatoid arthritis patients is that most such studies never had control arms. If you don’t have comparison arm, one can never say that treatment is having any benefit more than any psychological benefit. Psychological benefit is good for many things. But that alone cannot help a very severe and body damaging disease like RA.

Read more

Rheumatoid Arthritis – Basic knowledge for patients
Which Ayurvedic oil is best for knee / joint pain ?
Why you should not stop eating chana dal (or other lentils) in gout, increased uric acid and arthritis ?
How do rheumatologists confirm diagnosis of Rheumatoid arthritis ?

Even in Ayurveda trials for Rheumatoid with control arms, the benefit has been very less

Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease which can damage all joints of body if proper treatment is not given. We need to control disease by 90-100 % to prevent joint damage. That can be achieved only by allopathy. Good trials and even clinical experience hasn’t shown that ayurveda can control RA by 90-100% in a given patient.

What happens if one continues to take only unproven therapies (ayurveda, homeopathy, acupuncture etc) for Rheumatoid arthritis ?

RA affects most joints of body. If proper treatment is not taken, the inflammation can start causing damage to joints within weeks. Joints can be irreversibly damaged in few months and might have total destruction in months to years. Previously, even when current ayurveda, homeopathy drugs were available, most RA patients use to develop deformities and joint damage (compare images in infographic below). With allopathy advances, today we don’t see such damage or deformities or they develop very slowly. There is no evidence that ayurveda therapy can prevent joint damage in Rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a very painful disease. Uncontrolled disease can lead to constant pain, poor quality of life and joint deformities. With allopathy, which can control diseases by 90-100% in a majority, the patient’s quality of life is much better with much less pain.

Some more reasons, why one should not try ayurveda drugs for Rheumatoid arthritis

• Ayurveda still propagates that RA or any arthritis occurs due to vata dosh / toxins in body. It is totally wrong concept. We have huge body of evidence now that RA occurs due to part of our immune system becomes overactive. It is a auto-immune disease (you can read article with link below to understand about autoimmune disease). We need to control that and not remove toxins, as ayurveda therapy claims.

What is autoimmune disease and why rheumatologists treat it ?

• Ayurveda therapists claims to attack root cause of RA. Their concept and what is root cause is wrong. So how they can ayurveda therapists even claim to cure its root cause ?
• Allopathy drugs are now designed with this new research and specific targets based on that research. We now know that all arthritis are different and hence treatment approaches are totally different in allopathy. In ayurveda, every arthritis is considered due to vata dosh and treatment is almost same for all arthritis (herbs like guggul, nirgundi etc, panchkarma, oil massages etc). How can there be same treatment, if diseases are entirely different ?
• Ayurveda therapy can cause diarrhoea or even damage kidneys and liver. At least in allopathy, we admit that there can be side effects and we should check or keep a watch. If one drug gives problem we can change to something else. Ayurveda therapy for RA doesn’t work and on top of that wrongly claims to have no side effects.

If one has confirmed evidence of Rheumatoid arthritis and still wants to go for ayurveda / homeopathy therapy for that, please at least be careful of following things

• Don’t try it for more than 3-4 months without relief. If you have constant pain or joint swelling, your inflammation markers like ESR & CRP remains very high, show a qualified rheumatologist as soon as possible. If you have read the article on natural therapies and RA (in link given at start), you will understand that there is ‘window of opportunity’ in very early RA disease. Allopathy can work wonderfully well in that period.
• Make sure that you show a qualified ayurveda / herbal /homeopathy/ unani doctor which uses branded medicines. Powders or unbranded medicines may contain steroids which can give temporary relief and even decrease ESR / CRP. They will harm in the long run.
• Don’t try to continue medicines if you have just mild relief with ayurveda / homeopathy. Today RA can be controlled in most patients by 90-100 percent by allopathy. This is possible only if allopathy is given early. If you have only mild relief with ayurveda and inflammation (joint swelling) is still present, your joints might still get damaged.
• Many herbal medicines can also damage kidney and liver. Get adequate tests for checking same and always talk to your doctor to get these tests from reputed lab.
• Don’t show doctors / specialists who give guarantees or claim to cure RA. As said earlier, they are mostly not knowledgeable or fake.
• Never waste money on fancy supplements and fancy therapy claims. Don’t waste too much money if ayurveda is not working.