Indian Journal of Ancient Medicine and Yoga

Osteoarthritis (OA) (degenerative joint disease) is the most common joint disorder. It mostly affects cartilage. The top layer of cartilage breaks down and wears away. Osteoarthritis is of two types, primary (idiopathic) and secondary. In idiopathic osteoarthritis, the most common form of the disease, no predisposing factor is apparent. Secondary OA is pathologically indistinguishable from idiopathic OA but is attributable to an underlying cause. The nonsteroidal anti–inflammatory drugs are the main drugs of choice in modern medicine which have lots of side effects and therefore are not safe for long-term therapy. Raktamokshan, i.e., bloodletting is one of the primeval and important para-surgical procedures defined in Ayurveda for the treatment of numerous diseases. Among them, leech therapy has expanded greater attention worldwide, because of its therapeutic values. The saliva of leech comprises numerous biologically active constituents, which have anti-inflammatory as well as anaesthetic belongings. This case series comprised five cases of knee joint osteoarthritis managed through two sittings of leech application at the interval of 15 days. Complete pain relief with normal range of motion of knee joint noticed after 1 month of treatment.Leech therapy is one of the remedies under investigation, given its claimed analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties.

The status of women in India has been subjected to many great changes over the past few millennia. With a decline in their status from the ancient to medieval times, to the promotion of equal rights by many reformers, their history has been very eventful. In modern India women have held high offices and attained highest post in almost all the fields. As per the different descriptions scrutinized from the Ayurvedic classics, many references indicate the subordinate or inferiority status of the females and male dominancy was depicted and was highlighted at several instances. In the present article an attempt has been made to find out the status of women by looking into the descriptions given in the three great textbooks of Ayurveda. Based on the observations a conclusion was drawn that even though a woman was considered as inferior to man, her emotional and aesthetic value were regarded highly and her social value as the perpetuator of the race was almost adored.

Shukra is among the seven rasadi dhatus mentioned in Ayurveda. It is the essence of all the dhatus as per Ayurveda. Shukra is often compared with sperm, semen or testosterone. When we look inside Ayurvedic classics regarding the concept of shukra we can find that shukra can not be simply compared with sperm, semen or testosterone but semen or sperm or testosterone may be part of Ayurvedic Shukra and thus spermatogenesis may also be a part of shukrajanana.

Depression is a common mental disorder affecting all age groups, gender and socioeconomic status in India and across the world. Globally, the burden of depression has been rising and major depressive disorder (DD) was the third leading cause of disability in 2015. Estimated global prevalence of depressive episode/DD varies from 3.2% to 4.7%. Yoga has become increasingly popular outside India during the past fifty years. According to the 2017 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), yoga was used in the past 12 months by 14.3 % (35.2 millions) of US adults. Although reported prevalence rates vary by country as well as the reporting time frame and the criteria for duration or frequency of yoga practice, reports that compare use over time consistently find increases. Certain sociodemographic characteristics of the study population can be related to the response to yogic intervention which has been studied in the previous studies. And this article describes the sociodemographic profile of patients of Major depressive disorder receiving adjuvant yogic intervention in a tertiary care hospital.