In Ayurveda, immunity is vyadhikshamatva in Sanskrit, meaning “forgiveness of disease.” The essence of motherly love is forgiveness.

With the increased measures taking place in Hong Kong these days, I’ve decided to use this down time to study Seth’s Materials by Jane Roberts after my first encounter to Seth’s Materials series 8 years ago. I bought the last Seth’s book called “The Way Toward Health.” To my surprise, Jane Roberts, the medium and author, died from severe Arthritis in her mid 50s in 1984. Another trigger to write about this specific topic is that I’ve consulted many people who currently suffer from various Rheumatoid symptoms. I am suddenly surrounded myself with different severity of rheumatoid diseases and clients that I have gone much deeper than ever on this typical Vata aggravated illness.

In Chinese, Rheumatoid is written as “Wind + Wetness” （written as 風濕 in Traditional Chinese characters), which is alike Ayurveda that also addresses Rheumatoid diseases to Vata caused diseases. When we look at the quality of Vata, which is the combination of Ether & Air, cold, pain, irregular, mobile, dry and cracking manifest themselves in rheumatoid diseases.

Rheumatoid disease like rheumatic fever, rheumatism and rheumatoid arthritis are auto-immune conditions. The Ama (toxins) in the body is tightly wedged into you that some of your own tissues are destroyed by immune reactions. A typical result is that synovial fluid gets clogged and becomes harder to lead to immobility of the body and affect the body functions. The pains are around the joints, like fingers, toes, knees, and ankles that may last few hours to longer to impair the body movements. And rheumatoid arthritis can affect the heart and eventually kill. It has to be treated immediately.

Physiologically, Rheumatoid is called “Ama-Vata” in Sanskrit, which when Vata circulates Ama all throughout the body via Vyana Vayu. (Ama means half-digested food wastes or toxins) The most important initiating cause seems to be improper diet, which creates Ama. Other causes will be overwork exhaustion, excessive exercise, frequent sex, intense worry and strong emotions such as grief. Any Vata aggravated attitudes and lifestyle will worsen the conditions and eventually Kapha imbalances will kick in if initial cause is not uprooted. The sticky, opaque and dense Ama can be found in joints of every sufferer of rheumatoid arthritis. This is different from osteoarthritis, which is due to aging process. In rheumatoid arthritis, the synovial fluid fails to lubricate the joints and clots. Synovial fluid is one of the body’s reservoir of Kapha force. Kapha has a similar caramel characteristic as Ama, which is accumulated in the joints and immobile them.

Psychologically, Rheumatoid is manifested from improper digestion of life experiences. Oppression of strong emotions of griefs, sadness, fears and insecurities and use over-work exhaustion as an escape to “empty the mind” will lead to illness. The avoidance of any strong emotions will lead to physical illness as our cells don’t work with oppression but expansion. And another interesting sign is no desire for food as the emotions will decrease the appetite and the sufferers end up improperly consume food at irregular hours, or eating without appetite, all these behaviours lead to more Ama in the body. Another explanation of psychosis arthritis is that taking a sick leave from work is more widely accepted to the public when the body is down with Rheumatoid diseases than mental disease. It’s a way of coping mechanism in the body to immobilise and condition the extremities without totally disrupting its balance of the mind.

Questions to ask yourself: What is it we are making ourselves unable to move freely? What is it outside that is threatening our identity and security?

There are still many ways to explain how the Rheumatoid disease come about and how to treat accordingly to different medical systems. In Ayurveda, the initial phases before the fluids clogged and impairing the movement ability, Vata is the primary causation to treat. In any Ayurveda consultation, I ask my clients to be 100% honest with themselves if they wish to uproot their causation. It is definitely not easy for Rheumatoid sufferers to face and deal with past hurts as that’s one of the reason that initiates the diseases. The psychological check-in questions I will normally ask, if they are ready, whether if they are escaping a certain role to play in the society or any oppressed strong emotions due to separations (real or potential). The auto-immune system is your war against yourself, there is no intruders from outside. If we can recognise this and start asking the right questions, the healing will begin.

Therefore treating Vata and maybe a combination of Kapha are the common practice according to the severity of the diseases. Ayurveda is working best side by side with modern medicines as you should never replace your acute medical treatment with Ayurveda. Rheumatoid diseases can vary from minor to severe. You should always find an experienced practitioner to understand your imbalances to change your lifestyle and attitudes. My teacher always said if the clients are not doing their homework, please ask them not to come back. It takes 21 days to form a habit, so set your expectation when it comes to treat your diseases as it’s a life-long habit not just present.

Please note that my point of view can vary from other Ayurveda practitioner depending on what their specialities are. If you like my sharing, feel free to re-share (quote the source) and subscribe my blog post. Stay healthy and safe.

Thanks for reading!

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