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Ayurveda > Ayurveda Case Notes > Atisar Chikitsa By Dr. Satish Kulkarni Mrs. Kelly visited my clinic with her child, Chris. She explained that her child had been suffering from loose motions since that morning and had passed stools eight times already. During the customary medical history, she mentioned that Chris is four years old and has been suffering from repeated loose motions since birth. He falls sick, six to seven times a year and mostly it turns out to be loose motions. Each time the family doctor prescribes antispasmodics, binding mixtures, etc. His stools have been tested several times in a pathological laboratory with nothing particular in his reports. He has been treated for amoebic dysentery and bacillary dysentery, but all in vain. Within two to three months of treatment, he suffers from loose motions again. Furthermore, a month ago, his pediatrician treated him for gram negative bacillus. But with all this, Chris is still suffering from repeated loose motions. I examined Chris who appeared to be otherwise healthy. He is fair skinned and plump with brown hair, bright eyes and a slightly high skin temperature. All these signs indicated that Chris is of pitta prakruti (pitta type of basic body constitution.) The differential diagnosis was of water/milk/food born infection, food intolerance, medicine intolerance, etc. So the first curative measure was to start giving him boiled water at least for a few months. Mrs. Jose agreed to this. I also advised her to stop giving Chris milk and instead start giving him homemade buttermilk. This was to check whether he is milk intolerant. In addition, I advised against non vegetarian food and asked for him to be on a strictly vegetarian diet. I suggested giving him any combination of rice and pulses like khichadi (prepared by cooking together moong (phaseolus mango) and rice) or plain rice with any pulses in the morning and curd in the evening or cooked or fried green leafy vegetables and freshly prepared bajra roti (a kind of flattened bread made from millet), green salad and butter milk, as an alternative. In addition, I advised taking plenty of fluids by mouth like fruit juices or lemonade. This was prescribed in order to restore the water balance in Chris’s body. Mrs. Jose also wanted to know why Chris was getting repeated attacks of loose motions. I explained that according to modern medicine, diarrhea can be a result of several factors, infection being one of them. The other major cause of diarrhea is irritation of the intestinal mucosa due to unsuitable food stuff or drugs. Ayurveda too has described similar reasons. Continuous irritation of the digestive tract causes agnimandya (impairment of the digestive fire.) This is why Chris gets repeated loose motions. This time we will follow a double fold plan of treatment. We will stop intake of everything that irritates his tract and in addition we will start some ayurvedic regime which will help in soothing the tract. Modern medicine effectively halts the loose motions but ama (toxins) continue to cause them. Jaiphal (nutmeg) is the household remedy for treating loose motions. This reduces unwanted mobility of the intestine, relieves colic and controls loose motions. A small amount of nutmeg powder with jaggery and pure ghee is given two to three times a day. Food only on demand is another important measure. I advised Mrs. Jose to refrain from forcing Chris to eat. I asked her to serve him food only when he asked for it. This will provide rest to his jatharagni (digestive fire) and will allow the agni to expel toxins out of the body. I explained that at times I have seen a mild diarrhea being completely cured by fasting only, without any medicines. This is the ayurvedic philosophy of langhan (fasting) in simple terms. I also advised Mrs. Jose to add soonth (dried ginger) to the water she boiled for Chris to drink. As I explained to her, this would help in restoring his digestive fire. For the first day, Chris was kept on a light diet only and the regime was started on the second day. A quarter teaspoonful of ativish powder (aconitum heterophyllum) and kutaja (hollorina antidysenterica) was given with honey three times a day. Chris is enjoying his ayurvedic regime because it includes pomegranate juice. This helps in curing loose motions and it also increases the digestive capacity. Now, about a week has passed and Chris is better than before. His motions are under control. We will now try giving him milk, non vegetarian food, etc., one by one, after about a week. If he gets motions again then we will stop that. We will monitor him for six months before we confirm that ayurvedic treatment has given him expected relief.
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