A review on ayurvedic perspective of thyroid disorders

Thyroid gland disorders are growing worldwide health issue. Thyroid hormone regulates metabolic rate of the body. Failure of thyroid hormone to maintain metabolic rate mainly produces hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism. Thyroid disorders are characterized by physical and mental abnormality. There is no exact correlation of thyroid gland in Ayurveda. But the Ayurvedic system of medicine is very futuristic and it doesn’t emphasize on naming the disease. It rather insists on understanding the constitutional status of a disease and adopting an appropriate treatment principle. The main action of thyroid hormone is to act as a spark to start-up body metabolism at cellular level. In Ayurveda, it can be correlated with the actions of agni. The agni located in the jathara (digestive fire) is responsible for digestion and absorption of the food. The bhutagni is responsible for transformation of heterogeneous substance to homogenous substances. The dhatwagni (the agni located in the body tissues) along with bhutagni are responsible for the metabolism. Also the symptoms of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism can be correlated with imbalanced doshas. These concepts of Ayurved could be considered to understand thyroid disorders from ayurvedic perspective.  As modern treatment has many adverse effects, it is important to understand thyroid disorders from Ayurvedic perspective to give safe and effective ayurvedic management.