Greeva basti for neck pain

Neck pain is a common complaint of most of people.

Common Causes are,

• Bad posture by using mobile phones and computer
• Work stress
• Lack of physical activity
• Poor lifestyle

Neck pain may start gradually and get worsened by poor neck movements and wrong posture for prolonged duration.

The muscular strain may aggravate work stress and improper neck posture while sleeping. Sometimes the neck pain may radiate to shoulder and arms also.

Untreated neck pain may lead to cervical spondylosis, cervical spondylitis, spinal stenosis, herniated disk, cervical radiculopathy, restricted neck movement, and other neck injuries.

Remedial measure :

Greeva basti

Greeva basti is a Sanskrit word. ‘Greeva’ refers to neck and basti stands for container or retention. It is an ayurvedic care for neck pain. The greeva basti is nothing but hot oil therapy or oil pooling therapy on the neck.

Procedure

• Patients must lie down on their abdomen (prone posture).
• The ring is prepared using urad dal preferably dried in the sun.
• Place the ring on the neck region and stick it with dough.
• Medicated oil prescribed by a doctor is to be used for the treatment.
• The indirectly heated oil will be poured into the ring and maintaining the temperature of oil is essential
• Patients should be asked to avoid vigorous exercise during the course of this treatment.

Benefits

• Relieves pain
• Reduces stiffness and inflammation
• Strengthens the muscles of neck
• Gives nourishment to the joints and improves the circulation

Our observation

A female patient had complaints of severe pain with the score of 29 on the PDR Oswestry neck pain questionnaire. She was advised greeva basti for 7 days. After completing her 7 days of treatment, the score of PDR Oswestry reduced to 12. This shows a significant result that role of greeva basti helps in reducing neck pain to the great extent. For further management of pain she was taken throough seroes of yoga practices as Yoga therapy

Article By :
Dr. Anitha