Can Ayurveda or homeopathy cure my Ankylosing spondylitis ?

Does Ankylosing spondylitis have a permanent cure in ayurveda or homeopathy ?

Ankylosing spondylitis is usually a life-long disease. Unfortunately, there is no permanent cure for AS in any pathy. However, some patients can go into a state known as remission. Remission is a state where the pain and disease of AS patient becomes completely silent. This can occur in a patient while taking some form of treatment (like NSAIDS or biologics) or sometimes even when they haven’t taken any treatment.

Read the following article to know everything basic about ankylosing spondylitis

Know everything basic about Ankylosing spondylitis

एंकिलॉज़िंग स्पॉन्डिलाइटिस गठिया या वात रोग क्या होता है ?- Ankylosing Spondylitis gathiya/vaat rog samjhiye hindi bhasha mein

Is your diagnosis of Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) correct ?

In many developing countries like India, patient don’t show rheumatologist for arthritis problems. Many a times they have just isolated sacro-ileitis, reactive arthritis or other diagnosis. These patients are wrongly labelled as Ankylosing spondylitis. Some of these diseases can resolve on their own with time. The persons who are treating (like ayurveda specialists, quacks, non rheumatologists etc) claim that they have cured the disease. If somebody says that they have cured AS, they are either misinforming or they are not qualified to make the right diagnosis. A proper arthritis specialist or rheumatologist will never tell that they can cure AS.

Ankylosing spondylitis has no cure. Many AS patients claimed to have cured never had AS. Also, many a times disease can have silent phases extending from weeks to years. A proper arthritis specialist or rheumatologist will never tell that they can cure AS.

Treatment of AS depends on your symptoms and depends on how active / severe your disease is. The goal of treatment is to silence or control symptoms as much as possible, especially pain and stiffness, to help one do normal activities. This also helps in preventing any future complications. Don’t worry, most patients can be controlled very well on todays medications.

Most AS patients can be controlled very well on allopathy medications now available. Biologic drugs may be required in severe Ankylosing spondylitis. Mild AS, can be controlled fairly reasonably with minimum drugs.

There is no evidence that ayurveda or homeopathy has any specific treatment for Ankylosing spondylitis. Allopathy treatment in AS has advanced with very good research in last 30 years.

For example : A drug called Humira (adalimumab), used in Ankylosing spondylitis has been researched in at least 30,000 patients, approved in more than 90 countries and been used by at least 10 Lakh (1 million) people worldwide for various problems. Another drug called Remicade (infliximab) has been used in more than 26 lakh (2.6million) patient’s worldwide. This is old data for just for two drugs used in AS. One cannot even imagine the recent data available for these & other drugs.

Allopathy treatment in AS is supported by more than 30 years of solid research. There are now molecules specifically developed to treat AS by understanding what makes this disease progress. Ayurveda and homeopathy has minimal research in AS treatment. These specialities just use very old drugs (with nothing new developed) and tend to use common drugs for all arthritis. They don’t have any specific research for a drug specifically developed to treat AS.

There has been no specific research in ayurveda or homeopathy for AS. Most drugs used in these streams are age-old drugs without any proven benefit in AS. Avoid people who claim to give guarantees and cure the disease, as these people are usually fake. Ayurvedic medicines with bhasm’s and gold powder can permanently damage the liver, nerves or kidneys. Also, many ayurvedic and homeopathy medicines are unlabeled in India. There is no way for a patient to know what they contain. Also, if you don’t take a proper proven treatment, it might lead to complications in the future (as explained below).

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What if I don’t take proper allopathy treatment in AS ?

Many patients with AS can have mild to moderate disease. These people usually tend to do generally well with intermittent non-steroidal anti-inflammatories drugs (NSAIDS). In some patients we use drugs like methotrexate and sulfasalazine (DMARDS).

However, there are patients whose disease is very severe. Such patients have constant back pain, their inflammatory markers (CRP, ESR) might be persistently raised and they might have associated hip pain. Such patients usually need biologics in AS. If they don’t take proper treatment, there is more chances that their spine will get fused (bamboo spine) and deform in future. This is besides the poor quality of life they will have due to constant pain. It is also commonly in these patients that their hip joints get damaged very fast and they may need hip replacement surgery at a very young age (see photographs below).

Many AS patients can manage life reasonably with exercises and intermittent NSAIDS. However, many have very severe disease which requires biologics. If a patient with severe AS doesn’t get adequate treatment, their quality of life gets affected severely due to constant pain. Also, there are very high chances of them having spine fusion (bamboo spine) and/or hip damage requiring early hip replacement. If they have other joints involved (other than spine) they can get damaged too without proper treatment. Unfortunately, there is no good drug in ayurveda and homeopathy to control severe AS. Mild AS, can be anyways controlled fairly reasonably with minimum drugs.