European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

CRITICAL REVIEW ON DIABETES MELLITUS VIS-A-VIS MADHUMEHA: AN OVERVIEW

*Deepika Dwivedi and Ajai Kumar Pandey

ABSTRACT

Prameha was well known and well-conceived as a disease entity in ancient India. Classical Prameha is a syndromic presentation of variety of urinary and extra-urinary disorders, which are preferably based on quality and quantity of urine. Several clinical conditions like obesity, metabolic syndrome, Prediabetes, and Diabetes mellitus of biomedical sciences are presumed to be a sequential event of similar etio-pathological consequences. These disorders and its management can be traced in Ayurveda literature under Prameha. A chronological study of the Ayurvedic classics and the Samgraha texts have shown changing trends of emphasis on its understanding and practice. There is a group of clinical conditions characterized by polyuria which find place in the writings of Indian physicians as prameha. Charaka, Sushruta and Vagbhata were the prominent Indian physicians who had described the disease prameha as a set of complex urinary disorders in their famous treatise Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita and Ashtanga Hridaya respectively. The patho-physiology, types and principles of management of Prameha of Ayurveda is describd with highly evolved manner, which is comparable to diabetes mellitus of modern medicine. However nowadays, diabetes mellitus is being correlated with Madhumeha, which is actually the terminal stage of prameha. Keyword: Ayurveda, Prameha, Madhumeha, Polyurea, Diabetes mellitus.

Keywords: Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita and Ashtanga Hridaya.