MANAGEMENT OF MALNUTRITION IN CHILDREN WITH AYURVEDA INTERVENTIONS: A REVIEW

In India, malnutrition remains a significant and challenging public health issue despite dietary rehabilitation and the effort of the government to tackle malnutrition. Childhood malnutrition is an underlying cause of an estimated 35% of all deaths among children under five and 21% of global disability-adjusted life years lost among less than five children. In Ayurveda, malnutrition in children is described as balashosha, karshya, phakka and parigarbhika. A large number of clinical studies on the management of malnutrition with Ayurveda drugs have been conducted and published. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of Ayurveda interventions in the management of malnutrition in children. This review is accomplished using a complete and organized search of the available literature in Ayurveda texts and published articles. The searches were performed using various databases, including PubMed, Scopus, MedLine, and Google Scholar. Ayurveda drugs described for managing karshya and balashosha are formulated to meet all the deficiencies and cure the same. The findings of this review suggest that Ayurveda drugs, along with nutritional rehabilitation, proves to be more effective than nutritional rehabilitation alone, which may be due to the presence of deepana, pachana, brimhana and rasayana property of the Ayurveda drug. These findings will provide a substratum for future research studies for generating good-quality evidence that can help design new health policies to combat malnutrition effectively.