Hypertension -An Ayurvedic view

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified India as one of those nations that is going to have most of the killer because it rarely exhibits symptoms before it damages the heart, brain or kidney. Hypertension is an world- wide public health challenge and remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. About 26.4% of the world adult population in 2000 had hypertension and 29.2% were projected to have this condition by 2025.Hypertension is a chronic and often asymptomatic medical condition in which systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated beyond normal. Lifestyle disorders are becoming more common in day today practice, among them Hypertension is also noted ,it results from variety of reasons like stress, obesity, lack of exercise, lack  of  proper diet, etc. Hypertension is the excessive pressure exerted by blood vessels while flowing through them due to which heart has to work harder for pumping blood through the body because of which heart may get enlarged & also damaged. Hypertension is the psychosomatic disorder which is not directly mentioned in Ayurvedic classics. We are unable to get it from ancient classics in scientific manner, where in we can co-relate Hypertension as Raktagata vata, Raktavritta vata, Raktavata, Dhamani prapurnata & Dhamani pratichaya etc. In Ayurveda there is concept of unknown vyadhis as to study the nature of disease through Dosa, Dooshya & Samprapti, so in this article an effort is made to understand the concept of Hypertension in Ayurvedic view.

Keywords: Hypertension, Ayurveda, Blood pressure, Raktavata, Raktavritta Vata, Dhamani            pratichaya