Ayurvedic Treatment Of Paget's Disease

About Paget's Disease

It is also known as Ostetitis Deformans. It is localised bone disorder which is characterised by abnormal growth of bone. It may affect one or more bones. The risk of this disease increases with age. It commonly occurs after the age of 50.

In normal cases, the bone tissues are broken down and get absorbed into the body and rebuilt the new cells.

In Paget's disease, the speed of breaking of bone tissue is faster than normal. The body speeds up rebuilding process of new bone. But these bones are often weak and brittle in nature and these bones break easily.

Paget's disease disrupts the normal cycle of bone renewal. It commonly occurs in pelvis, skull, spine and legs.

Symptoms Of Paget's Disease

Sometimes the people who have this disease do not know that they have this disease because it has no symptoms in some cases.

The common symptom is bone pain. The signs and symptoms of disease depend upon the part of body affected. It may affect one or more parts of body.

• Pelvis: Hip pain is there in this case.
• Skull- Bone abnormality in skull may cause hearing loss or headaches.
• Spine-When spine is affected, nerve roots can be compressed that may cause pain, tingling and numbness in arms or legs.
• Leg- Weakness in the bones may cause bending and patient becomes bowlegged. It may put extra pressure on surrounding joints and may cause osteoarthritis in your knee or hip.

Causes Of Paget's Disease

The exact cause of disease is unknown. Genetic and Environmental factors may cause this disease.

• Genetic factors-There is an important gene called SQSTM1 which is involved in this disease. Mutation in this gene increases the risk of Paget's disease. People who have inherited this mutated gene are at risk of developing Paget's disease.
• Virus- Some scientists believe that it may be caused by virus named as Paramyxovirus nucleocapsidwhich is not found in normal bone.
• Environmental factors - These are also important causative agents.

Complications Associated With Paget's Disease

This disease may progress slowly with the time. Some common complications may arise which are following:

•   Fracture and Deformities
•   Osteoarthritis
•   Heart failure
•   Bone cancer

Diagnosis

It can be diagnosed with the help of physical examination, imaging and blood tests.

PHYSICAL EXAMINATION:-

It helps to diagnose the area where pain is there.

IMAGING TESTS:-

• X-Ray- X-ray image of the affected area is helpful to diagnose the bone reabsorption, enlargement and deformities which are symptoms of Paget's disease.
• Bone scan- It helps to produce scanned image of bone with the help of radioactive substance which is injected into body and that spots on affected bone.
• Laboratory tests- It includes the blood tests which are helpful in measuring the alkaline phosphate level in blood.

Ayurvedic Outlook

There are three energies (vata, pitta and kapha) in body which is responsible for good health. Imbalance of any three results in health complications. Vata is dry (rooksha) in nature when it gets vitiated then problem in any of joints may arise.

Paget's disease is due to vitiation of vata and it can be compared to Asthi Dhatus Kshaya(Decrease in bone density) in Ayurveda.

How Ayurveda Helps In Management Of Paget's Disease?

Ayurveda lies on the principle of balance of tri energies in body. Ayurveda is mainly aimed to control the symptoms and basic pathology of disease. There are various herbs used in the formulation of medicines used in the management of disease.

Diet And Lifestyle

•   Increase calcium intake.
•   Take vitamin D rich diet like mushrooms, eggs etc.
•   Light exercise like yoga and flexibility practice is helpful in Paget's disease.