Do Ayurvedic medicines help in treating ADHD?- Dr. Chetali Samant

ADHD is a very commonly heard terminology nowadays if you feel your child is hyperactive or if your child is not attentive enough, you might be wondering if your child has got ADHD. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which is a psychoneuro behavioural disorders has been creating a lot of waves in the behavioural disorders in children. There are a whole set of paediatrician an doctors who believe that it is not a disorder at all, it is just a variant of a child’s personality. So before you stamp your child as a child with ADHD and before giving the child with other medicines, really evaluate whether it is a ADHD and evaluate whether something is triggering this attention deficit and this hyperactivity in your child. If you know that the deficient in attention is really affecting your child’s academic performance, it will come down and the child gets into a behaviour which is not juts damaging to him and others and we create safety issues. If your child has hyperactivity or attention span problems then Ayurveda is definitely the way to go. The medicines we give in Ayurveda are safer. Giving medicines in the way of herbs is definitely a way to go. We take into consideration what is the exact span what the child is facing and from thereon we will recommend complete treatment plans for the child, many at times oral medication suffice. One of the integral part apart from the medicines we take is to modify the dietary habits of the child you might have read like artificial foods or table sugar or plain sugar triggers hyperactivity and the attention deficient in children. So you need to leave out certain foods from the diet and substaiure with other foods that will really help the child to regain the control over the mind and start feeding the mind o get healthier. The entire family shod be included so that the child doesn’t feel deprived of the foods that he or she likes and starts eating healthy, it is a long process. In children with clinically diagnosed ADHD as well in children who might have attention deficient hyperactivity as a normal variant of their personality, they respond really well to Ayurvedic medicines like basti chikitsa or enema therapies are given. Another thing I have observed is children who are suffering for hyperactivity are suffering form long standing constipation. So if the child is suffering form constipation. And it is left unidentified and it might be triggering the hyperactivity or the attention deficit hyperactivity, do start thinking how good or bad is your child’s digestion. If the child’s digestion is not attended to well, then give due attention and give attention to the child’s digestion. If the constipation has to be relieved, then make changes in the dietary habits and have the right kind of supplements in terms of Ayurveda. As the constipation and the digestion improves, so does the child’s behaviour. Yet another component of Ayurvedic treatment is yoga, no matter how small or big your child is. The child can start imbibing yoga culture. Child of any age can go for yoga especially therapeutic yoga. There are several kinds of relaxation techniques that you can do and different kinds of medication that can be adapted at any age the child may be. Ayurveda has vast number of herbs that have qualities which enhances the functions of the mind and which have direct effect on the frontal lobe of the brain, which controls our behaviour and personality. There may be some cases, which cannot be treated with Ayurvedic treatment, it varies from child to child. However we can really help a child who is really suffering from ADHD instead of giving medicines which damage the child’s brain, in the long run, it is really effective for the child and safe for the child.