An Ayurvedic approach :

Relieving life-long suffering of children with cerebral palsy

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Prof. Gunapala Amarasinha	Dr. Pathmashanthi

The dimmed eyes of the children attending the paediatric clinic of the Borella Ayurveda hospital mirrors their future. The brightness of their eyes shows their eagerness to walk, talk, eat and play like normal children while their pale eyes mirror their chances for a normal life being very remote.

All parents coming here with a ray of hope to get their children cured from their lifelong disease which has paralysed not only their children completely or partially but also their bright future fully.

These innocent children have become victim of this lifelong disease - cerebral palsy, as something has gone wrong before, during or after their birth causing damages to the brain, the most important organ which controls the entire body of a human being. They have arrived there with a hope of regenerating their damaged brains which was considered an impossible task in the western medicine but with a remote possibility in the Ayurveda medicine.

All these children in different ages arriving at the hospital hanging onto their beloved ones may be having chances to recover from the disease or may have missed that chance by the time they arrived there. They all have come to hear a relieving word about the future of their child after consulting many doctors in government and private hospitals.

Many of them want at least a partial recovery from their life long disease for their children to attend their own activities. Prof. Gunapala Amarasinghe attached to the Institute of Ayurveda of the Colombo University and Consultant Paediatrician of the Borella Ayurveda hospital and his team is making an effort to at least to give them a light of hope about their future through their Ayurveda medication to revive the damaged brains of these children.

According to Ayurveda terms, cerebral palsy refers to a group of neurological disorders that appear in infancy or childhood and permanently affect body movement and muscle co-ordination. Symptoms include a lack of muscle co-ordination when performing voluntary movements ; stiff or tight muscles and exaggerated reflexes ; walking with one foot or leg dragging; walking on toes, a crouched gait, or a 'scissored' gait; and muscle tone that is either too stiff or too floppy.

Anointing oil

Treatment at Panchakarma Clinic (Shiravasthi)

Children at the hospital ward

According to Prof. Amarasinghe the growth of the brain of a child starts within four weeks of pregnancy and continue to grow until the infant completes two years. So there is a possibility of affecting the growth of the child's brain during this period.

"Therefore, damages to the brain can also be caused during pregnancy, during the birth and due to the factors affecting the child within two years age," Prof Amarasinghe added.

If the mother of the child suffer from infectious disease, used medicinal drugs harmful to the child, suffer from acute malnutrition, addicted to alcohol, get exposed to radiation or having high blood pressure or diabetes during pregnancy the growth of his brain may be affected paralysing their body fully or partially.

Brain damages can also be caused if the delivery is supported by forceps, if the child is having a low birth weight, low supply of oxygen to the child during the birth, if the blood sugar level is low or if the supply of blood to the brain is low during the birth.

"This also can happen after the birth due to head injuries, infection of Meningitis or Encephalitis that can affect the brain tissues, frequent convulsion or due to Neonatal Jaundice which can be identified through the child body turning to yellow colour," he added.

If the child is having abnormal behaviour and making unusual movements and sounds and getting frequent fits, they can be symptoms of this disease.

According to Prof. Amarasinghe the extent of damage to the brain will decide the symptoms of the disease. If the child's body is fully paralysed that situation is called quadriplegia and the child does not have control over his legs and hands and sometimes having stiff muscles.

The other form is the hemiplegia and it will affect the movements of one side, either left or right side, of the body. Status of Paraplegia means the paralysis of legs and the lower part of the body. When the child is affected with Monoplegia only one hand or leg is affected by the disease.

"Apart from that hearing, eye sight and speech can also be affected due to the damages to the brain during infancy," Prof. Amarasinghe said.

Though there is no proper treatment for cerebral palsy in the western medicine there are some medication in the Ayurveda which have been written some 3,000 years ago to improve the condition of these children to a certain level.

"It was during my studies for PhD in India and through my clinical experience I focus my attention towards this and started studying it and later started treating the children at the Ayurveda hospital in Borella," he added.

Though these facts were not scientifically proven it has now been a scientifically proven fact that the brain cells can be regenerated to a certain extent.

"In the developed world we can find six cerebral palsy cases per 1000 births. In Sri Lanka this figure is high and it is around 12 to 15 such cases per 1000 births. According to available statistics in Sri Lanka there are around 40,000 such children in the country. There may be undetected cases," he added.

"If these children are partially affected there is a possibility for them to recover fully," he said.

But the chances for fully recovering is possible only if the parents can identify the symptoms and bring the child to us before two years of age. "Since their brains are still growing at this age we can treat the damaged brain tissues to recover from their status. But it depends on the extent of damage to the brain," he added.

"After two years, chances are very low to get them back to normalcy. But we can improve their situation to a certain extent depending on the treatment they receive at the hospital," Prof. Amarasinghe added.

Prof. Amarasinghe and his team is making an effort to recover these children from their present situation and a small section of the Ayurveda hospital in Borella has been dedicated for this purpose and half a dozen of children are undergoing treatment for more than seven weeks under their supervision.

Paediatric clinic

The parents can bring in their children to the paediatric clinic of the Borella Ayurveda hospital on Thursday morning if they want to see Prof. Amarasinghe who is serving there without charging a cent from the hospital to serve these innocent children.

"We mostly welcome the children under two years of age. But we also consider treating children under six years of age if there is positive response for the initial treatment we provide them at the OPD level," he added.

In Ayurvedic books there are herbs which are called brain tonic and the herbs like gotukola, lunuvila, vadakaha, hathavariya, and amukkara are being used for these treatment.

"Though it has not been scientifically proved earlier this has been scientifically proven that these herbs can regenerate the damaged brain cells and what we are doing is to improve the activeness of the brain through these herbs," he added.

Once the child is brought to the clinic they will be given a kasaya (herbal brew) to be used for two months to see whether there is any improvement in their activities.

"If there is any positive response within the first two months treatment, the growth of the brain has activated. Then we admit those children to the ward at the Borella Ayurvedic hospital for in house treatment. At the hospital we are performing series of medication for those children like oil application, oil bath massage therapy and oil anema for seven weeks," Prof. Amarasinghe added "These treatment are basically aimed at reactivating their hands, legs and muscles. Different ointments are being used for children with different symptoms," he added.

After these in house treatment these children are sent home after providing them with different set of treatment which can be done at home. After completing that process these children are admitted to the hospital for the second and third rounds of in house treatments.

Many children who had undergone these treatments at this hospital have recovered from their earlier situation.

Six-years-old Haritha Kulathunga two-and-half-year old Ashik from Thotalanga and six-years-old Denuwan from Malabe are some of the children who are being treated at the hospital and their mothers say that they can see a progress in their activities after been treated at the Borella Ayurveda hospital.

They all are fully or partially paralysed and they are recovering step by step at least to lead an independent life without being a burden to their parents and the society.

"We started treating patients of this nature from 1999 and has treated more than 800 such patients by this time. We are working as a team and not stopping children from getting western medicine and treatments for other illnesses during these treatments," he added.

"These children need special care and attention and we have trained our team specially to treat these children and also at the same time I must emphasise that this is not a disease inherit from the parents to children and there is no danger of infecting this disease to the next," Prof. Amarasinghe added.

"This is not an individual effort. It is a collective effort by doctors, therapists, teachers, speech therapists and also family members of these children. Otherwise we cannot see any improvement in these children," Prof Amarasinghe added.

At present treating for these children is done only at Borella Ayurveda hospital and the Hospital Director Dr. Hitler Tennekoon and his medical staff is extending their full support to Prof. Amarasinghe and his team's effort.

"The nursing staff, attendants, staff members at the panchakarma treatment centre and the drug manufacturing centre are extending their fullest support to our effort," he added.

"Apart from this we are directly working with the Indigenous Medicine Department of the Colombo Municipal Council and refer some of these patients to their Ayurvedic Dispensaries for some treatments. Dr. Pathmashanthi is extending her fullest cooperation in this endeavour"", Prof. Amarasinghe added.

At the Institute of Ayurveda of the Colombo University the fourth year students are also being taught on the subject of treating children suffering from cerebral palsy.

"We are trying our best to expand these treatments to other Ayurveda hospitals in the country and help those children to lead at least an independent life during their life time," Prof Amarasinghe added.

"We know once people got to know about our treatment the numbers of people coming to our clinic will increase. But we are ready to offer these treatment for the needy children with the help of the hospital staff," Prof. Amarasinghe added. "We have linked with other Ayurvedic hospitals to do some treatment for these children as there is no space for all the children at the Hospital. We are directly working with the Colombo Municipal Council Ayurvedic Department and refer the children from Colombo to Specialised Treatment centre in Kollupitiya," he added.

Dr. Pathmashanthi, Head of the Indigenous Medicine Department of the Colombo Municipal Council said at their dispensaries they also come across ten to 15 such children at their Dispensaries in Colombo and refer them to the Ayurveda hospital, Borella for further treatment."We have specially trained our staff to treat these children and refer them to the hospital only for in house treatments," she added.