REVIEW ON ROLE OF AYURVEDA IN THROMBOSIS - A MAJOR CAUSE OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES

Abstract

A cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the world’s largest cause of death, claiming 17.1 million lives a year.
Thrombosis is the widespread cause of CVD. Rudolph Virchow discovered three factors for thrombus formation
known as Virchow’s triad. Modern medicine is capable to deal with it in curative aspect, but is found to be
lacking in prevention. So this review was made to explore the Ayurveda literature & related research to come
out with some result in curative as well as preventive aspect. In Ayurveda, the term ‘Dhamanipratichaya’
described under Kaphaja Nanatmajavikara. Some herbs are illustrated under the name of specific action such as
lekhan(having scrapping action), chedan(scarificient) etc. Some studies proved vasodilator effect of
snehan(massage therapy) and swedan(Thermotherapy).It also increases the supply of oxygen and nutrients and
the elimination of carbon dioxide and metabolic waste. Animal studies showed significant efficacy of some
herbs as a thrombolytic agent. It is concluded that many treatment modalities and herbs are described in
Ayurveda which may perhaps be helpful to treat or prevent thrombosis but still a very less amount of research
work is done in this regard. So there is a huge scope of research to assess these modalities on modern
parameters.