Ayurveda, often described as the “art of living,” goes beyond the conventional definition of medical science. It views life through a wider lens, encompassing physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. When applied to complex conditions like autism, Ayurveda offers patients comfort, peace, and satisfaction by focusing on developing their inherent abilities.
Instead of viewing autism as a condition needing a “rebirth” through a cure, Ayurveda focuses on helping individuals with autism develop into social beings, capable of navigating and participating in the world around them. While addressing biological factors is a part of the Ayurvedic approach, it’s just one aspect of a larger management strategy.
The Potential of an Ayurvedic Lifestyle
Adopting an Ayurvedic lifestyle can yield significant benefits in supporting individuals with autism. However, a lack of understanding about Ayurveda and its application to autism may create skepticism among those who could benefit from it. Often, parents are only exposed to the medical aspects of Ayurvedic management, which can lead to a mismatch in expectations and hinder the acceptance of this beneficial system.
To truly understand the potential of Ayurveda for children with autism, it’s crucial to look beyond the diagnosis and recognize its holistic nature.
Understanding Autism Through an Ayurvedic Lens
Ayurveda’s understanding of autism parallels the evolution of modern culture. The industrialization and globalization that followed imposed a strong influence on the world’s cultures, resulting in a widespread change, creating a new world order. Human development was defined in terms of detachment from nature, with greater detachment considered more “cultured.” Developmental indices like per capita income and health indices were used to grade national development. This understanding, when read alongside the increased incidence of autism in developed countries, sheds light on the root cause of this developmental disorder. Thus, a range of causes, including industrial revolution and resultant toxin accumulation, strong negative effects of past actions due to a major shift in traditional culture, impaired digestion and metabolism, and disturbed rhythmic activities of life, contribute to the disease.
Ayurveda’s Role in Prevention and Management
Prevention of autism is possible to an extent through proper care before conception, during pregnancy, and after birth. Ideal individualized care before conception, administered for a minimum of two months prior to conception, cleanses the reproductive tissues and brings mindfulness by tuning the body through pre-planned Ayurvedic protocols. This proactive approach aims to rule out the dangers of inappropriate conception. Similarly, a judicious and safe gestation period, along with active postnatal care through Ayurveda diet, medicine, and lifestyle guidelines, is crucial.
Ayurveda uniquely interprets issues affecting the mind. Moving deeper into the current gut brain theory, Ayurveda advocates that protecting the digestive system is, in fact, protecting the brain. Recognizing the common factor between the brain and the gut, Ayurveda focuses on correcting the gut to benefit the brain. It has established that addressing the gut is the primary way to manage brain issues, as merely bypassing the brain is not clinically effective.
Ayurvedic Management Strategies
Recent trends in managing autism, in addition to speech therapy, behavioral therapy, and occupational therapy, involve modifications in lifestyle, behavior, and food. As Ayurveda is a non-linear, complex dynamic system of biological approach proclaiming the wondrous effect of lifestyle and food in disease management, it offers many tools in several aspects of managing children with ASD.
Ayurveda has formulated the AGASTYA protocol (Ayurveda Drugs, Gut Therapy, Ayurveda Standards of Living, Training of Parents, and Yogic Assistance), a management strategy designed with experience in managing autism for over 15 years. This protocol, still under clinical recording, is a culture and civilization-dependent approach for managing children with autism. It comprises individualized Ayurveda drug-based treatments aiming at detoxification and correcting impaired digestion and metabolism, therapies targeting the gut to remove metabolic waste products, implementing Ayurveda standards of living, training parents, and yogic assistance to ensure the synergism of biological rhythms.
The prime focus of autism management will be the correction of digestion and metabolism, typically related to imbalances involving mucus, heat, and altered nervous system function. The primary t issues involved are plasma and blood, and the systems involved are the digestive, circulatory, and excretory systems. Therefore, the most suitable treatments will involve substances that improve blood quality, counteract toxins, improve digestion, and eliminate metabolic waste products.
Dietary Considerations in Autism
Ayurveda emphasizes that anything that satisfies one’s appetite is not food. A substance is called food only if it can be converted into the living part of the human body. This ability to convert depends on the method of intake, rather than the nutritional value. Mindful eating, eating at regular times, and minimizing the gap between food and sleep are crucial dietary rules.
The casein-free diet, highly discussed today, is ideal for children with autism. Milk and milk products are least or not promoted in cases of children with autism. Care is taken to avoid milk and related ingredient-processed medicines, due to concerns about disrupting digestion and metabolism.
In cases of gluten, pathological analysis is important. If the presentation involves abdominal masses in a child with a tendency towards inflammatory conditions, the diet should be well-screened for gluten.
The Role of Family and Music Therapy
The main goal of autism management is to create harmony between the family and the child, facilitating their interaction within and outside the society. Family support and biological harmony are the prime steps, with the focus on customizing daily living activities within the family. This benefits the child’s development and corrects disrupted physical and physiological processes, such as altered metabolism, imbalances in gut bacteria, allergies, and mild to moderate developmental issues.
The family environment greatly influences autism treatment. Difficulty in adapting to social norms is a key feature of autism. Since social learning begins at home, family support is essential to empower the child’s social development. Autism management is, to a great extent, family management.
Autism benefits from a multi-faceted therapeutic approach, where each intervention stimulates the child’s senses. Music therapy, developed in Ayurveda, stimulates the auditory sense, influencing other senses, promoting brain plasticity, and aiding control over mind and intellect.
Clinical experience has led to the AyuCALM protocol (Ayurvedic Centre For Autism and children with Learning Disabilities) for administering music therapy. In children with obstructions in physiological channels, like speech difficulties, the root cause may be mucus accumulation blocking other factors, especially those related to neurological function. Music with a “penetrating power” is used to remove this obstruction.
In cases of overactivity, like hyperactivity, the dominant factors are those related to movement and heat. Music that balances these factors should be selected.
Dietary Considerations in Autism
Ayurveda emphasizes that anything that satisfies one’s appetite is not food. A substance is called food only if it can be converted into the living part of the human body. This ability to convert depends on the method of intake, rather than the nutritional value. Mindful eating, eating at regular times, and minimizing the gap between food and sleep are crucial dietary rules.
The casein-free diet, highly discussed today, is ideal for children with autism. Milk and milk products are least or not promoted in cases of children with autism. Care is taken to avoid milk and related ingredient-processed medicines, due to concerns about disrupting digestion and metabolism.
In cases of gluten, pathological analysis is important. If the presentation involves abdominal masses in a child with a tendency towards inflammatory conditions, the diet should be well-screened for gluten.
