Dysentery Causes Symptoms And Treatments

Dysentery or bloody flux is a condition characterized by inflammation of the bowels. It is associated with colicky pain in the abdomen, and liquid or semi-solid stools mixed with mucus and blood. Modern medicine categories dysentery into two types: bacillary and amoebic.

Causes and Symptoms For Dysentery

Modern medicine believes that both bacillary and amoebic dysentery are caused by infection. In bacillary dysentery, the stool is mixed with blood. Ayurveda terms bacillary dysentery as Raktatisar. Many of the remedies prescribed for diarrhea are useful in treating the blood flux or bacillary dysentery. In amoebic dysentery, mucus is present in the stools, along with the organism which causes it. In Ayurveda, amoebic dysentery is known as Pravahika. Amoebic dysentery is a more serious condition than bacillary dysentery. It is a disease endemic to tropical climates, and once contracted, it may lead to serious complications unless the patient is careful. It is to serious complications unless the patient is careful. It is characterized by discharge of mucus in the stools and griping pains in the abdomen. According to allopathy, the causative organism is Entameba histolytica. Discharge of muscus, dyspepsia, amemia, and general weakness are the characteristic symptoms. In more serious cases, the liver may be involved and a condition known as hepatic amoebiasis will arise. Loss of appetite and loss of weight also occur.

Home Remedies For Dysentery

The following home remedies are of use in both bacillary and amoebic dysentery. Lemon juice is efficacious in dealing with cases of dysentery. A few lemons, peeled and sliced, are added to 250 ml of water and boiled for a few minutes. The strained infusion is administered thrice daily. Small pieces of onions mixed with curd, and given half a dozen times during the day, are also helpful.

Diet For Dysentery

The patient must live on milk, boiled rice, and sugar. All forms of salt and water should be withheld. As in the case of other diseases the diet of the patient suffering from either form of dysentery is of the utmost importance. He must avoid fried food, ghee and other fats, chillies and condiments, and heavy meals. Meat and its preparations should be avoided except in the case of soups. Fruits with a sour taste like pomegranate, citrus fruits, and amla are useful in such cases. During a severe attack, the patient should be advised complete bedrest. At this stage of the disease, he should even avoid a cold bath.

Diet During Dysentery

Equal parts of the tender leaves of peepul tree, coriander leaves, and sugar should be chewed slowly to relieve the condition. Powdered seeds of the mehndi (henna) plant mixed with ghee should be made into small balls, the size of a betal nut, and taken twice daily with water. The tubercles of nagarmotha (nut grass) should be powdered and mixed with fresh ginger and honey. A 20 gm dose of the preparation should be taken thrice daily. Bale fruit, is perhaps, the most efficacious in the treatment of dysentery of the verities. Pulp of the fruit mixed with Gur should be given thrice daily. For a chronic case of dysentery, unripe bale fruit is roasted over the fire and the pulp is mixed with water. Large quantities of the infusion so made should be administered with Gur. The pulp of the unripe fruit mixed with an equal quantity of dried ginger should be given with buttermilk. The patient should subsist on buttermilk during the course of the treatment.

Medicines Recommended During Dysentery

Chronic cases of bacillary dysentery can be cured by administering one tablet of kutajaghana Vati two or three times a day with water for buttermilk before meals. Alternatively, 12 to 2 tables of Piyshavalli Rasa may be taken twice daily with roasted bael fruit and gur. For Amoebic dysentery, Katja (Holarrhena antidysenteria) is the drug of choice. Powedered bark of the plant is administered thrice daily in one teaspoonful doses. Patients suffering from amoebic dysentery are also liable to suffer from chronic constipation an so, should take two tablespoonfuls of flesed husk at bedtime with milk or buttermilk. The Ayurvedic preparation Rasaparpati should be given in a dose of 150 gm thrice daily in chronic cases of amoebic dysentery.

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