Dilip Kumar Verma

Application of Leech Therapy and Khadir in Psoriasis Dilip Kumar Verma

The skin and skin disorders are beautifully described in Ayurvedic literatures. Scholars have described all the skin diseases under the umbrella of ?Kushtha?, further classifying them to ?Mahakushtha? and ?kshudra kushtha?. Psoriasis is the oldest recorded skin disease. The disease ranks with Acne vulgaris, Viral warts and eczema as one of the commonest skin. It is a common, chronic, genetically determined, inflammatory and proliferative skin disease. Although not fatal, but is cosmetically unacceptable and cause a lot of mental agony and stress to the patient. Leech therepy is a purificatory and rejuvenative measure for the treatment of chronic diseases. This therapy is easy to administer, does not require any sophisticated instruments for application and rarely produces any complication. Ancient ayurvedic scholars have mentioned that it can be very easily administered in fearful patients as well as in patients of all age groups. Therefore, it is emerging as highly demanding therapy now- a-days. Khadir has also been mentioned to have rasayan property. It is best and broad spectrum drug for the treatment of various skin diseases including Psoriasis.