Ayurvedic Skin Allergy Treatment

Skin allergy is a hypersensitivity reaction to certain substance such as food, drugs, and environmental irritants such as pollen, dust or conditions such as temperature   certain weathers. The immune system reacts to these antigens giving rise to a reaction in the body and release histamine and other chemical under the surface of skin. These chemical causes inflammation of the skin leading treats damages.

                                    Skin allergy can be caused by a variety of factors.  It may be due to immune system disorders, certain medications or may be due to   some infections.  Some people have exact triggering factors for the allergic reactions to occur while other has difficulty in determining the source of the problem and has to undergo allergic testing to find out the reason. Common trigger substance includes latex, laundry detergents, soap, nickel, pollen, food, drugs, water, chemicals, insects, sunlight etc.

  Skin allergy encompasses a number of allergic conditions such as atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, uriticaria etc. The primary symptom is rashes over the skin surface. It produces itching or burning   sensation and may progress to blisters. It may be associated with oozing or perfuse discharge along with discolouration of the skin. Some of them continue to exist for a longer time, if treatment is note done at the right time.

Skin Allergy – Ayurveda View 

 Ayurveda regards allergy as a disorder caused by impaired digestion.  Unhealthy diet and life style cause vitiation of digestive fire leading to the production of toxic substance called as ama which is the root cause of all disease. This dysfunction is the cause for hyper sensitivity to substance such as dust, pollen etc and trigger the allergic attacks.

Each time when a person comes in contact with an allergen, the dosha viz Vata, Pitta, Kapha are vitiated and causes pathological changes of tissue such as twak (Skin),  Mamsa (muscles), rakta ( blood), Lasika leading to specific symptoms. These toxins released according to the imbalance of dosha caus contamination of deeper tissues leading to a variety of symptoms of various skin allergies. The factors influencing the allergy are digestive fire (Weak agni), ama accumulation, individual basic body constitution (prakruthi), imbalance of doshas ( vata , pita , kapha), immune system etc.

                        Symptom may vary according to the dosha involved.  If vata is the dosha involved, then the skin becomes dry, dehydrated with blackish discolouration. If pitta dosha is involved the skin becomes red with vesicles, pustules or blisters and show sign of inflammations. Itching along with oozing is the main symptom found if kapha dosha is aggravated.

                        Ayurveda skin allergy treatment focuses on pacifying the imbalanced dosha, by removing the ama (toxins) and correcting the digestion. For this detoxification procedures are required to remove the root cause.  After detoxification or purifying therapies, external applications are used.  In the final stage  Rasayana or Rejuvenation therapies are followed to nourish the skin. 

There are many single drugs which can be used for the management of skin allergy some of them are mentioned below.

Haridra- Curcuma longa (Turmeric)

            It is one of the best anti-inflammatory agents because of its strong detoxifying effect and its potent healing effect on the digestive system, liver, blood and the skin. It is even being used in daily cooking for a holistic cure of all the allergies.

Nimba – Azadiracta indica (Neem)

            Neem contains Vit C along with antifungal, antibacterial and anti inflammatory properties. Neem oil or neem powder can be used to massage the affected area or neem powder can be taken internally as a natural remedy for skin allergy that can heal the skin from inside out

Manjishta – Rubia cordifolia

It is a cooling herb that cleanses the blood and support healthy skin. A neem-manjishta pack can be applied on the area for smoothening the skin.

Protocol followed in Ayurveda Yoga Villa for skin Allergy.

Snehan:  It is the intake of medicated ghee or oil, which is selected according to the dosha predominance, strength of the patient, disease etc. This is continued until proper oleation symptoms occur.

Swedana: mild to moderate sweating is done after snehana procedure

Vamana: If the patient presents kapha predominant symptoms such as cold, swelling, oozing, itching etc medicated vomiting is done.

Samsarjana diet: After vamana, to increase the digestive fire of the patient special diet is indicated.

Virechana: This procedure is especially useful in pitta predominant conditions were burning sensation, fever, pus formation etc are seen.

Rakthamoksha (Bloodletting)

If signs and symptoms are note relived by the above procedures, bloodletting is done by leeches or other tools and techniques.

After attaining detoxification of the skin, Rasayanas for nourishing blood are employed.

External therapies like Lepa, Dhara etc are also employed to bring back the skin to a healthy condition.

Some of internal medicines used are: –

Mahamanjistadi kashayam            Arogya vardhini rasa

Kaisora guggulu                              Gandhaka Rasayana

Khadirarishta                                    Haridra kandam

Saribadi asava                                 Mahatiktaka ghrtham

Do’s and Dont’s.

• Drink lots of water, as it is one of the top remedies for allergies as it helps for detoxification.
• Bitter foods should be taken regularly.
• Cleanse the skin properly. Better go for herbal powders for cleansing the skin
• Take time to exercise regularly
• Keep your living quarters free of dust, pollens and allergens
• Avoid spicy & sour foods and foods which are heavy to digest
• Avoid tight fitting clothes
• Avoid curd, black gram, jaggery, pickles, sesame in food.
• Avoid chemical-based lotions.