Overview
Bell’s palsy is a disease where one side of a person’s face gets paralysed. The facial nerve controlling the working of muscle in facial region gets damaged and fails to accept and send signals to brain. Due to this damage, a person might lose the sense of taste, smell and touch. This weakness of facial muscle leads to incapability of making tears and saliva. This disease can happen suddenly.
According to Ayurveda this diseases is known as “Ardit”!! Ardit is half, means half of the face is affected. Vataj aahara and vihara intake leads to vata vitiation in body which blocks the local channels or strotas to present with various symptoms.
Common Causes of Bell’s palsy
Bell’s palsy can be caused due to several reasons. Some of them being:
- Due to the presence of herpes virus that causes sore throat and cold sores.
- This disease can also be caused when the facial nerve gets damaged due to inflammation.
- If a person has existing health problems, like diabetes, hypertension, tumour, trauma or any infection (viral or bacterial) then it can also cause paralysis of the face.
Important Symptoms of Bell’s palsy
One can get some indication of Bell’s palsy by knowing below symptoms:
- The fundamental indication of Bell’s palsy is that a person suddenly feels paralytic on one side of his face leading to droop. You can feel very difficult to shut your eye on the side of face, which feels paralyzed
- A person is unable to taste
- Dry or watery eyes
- Loss of ability to taste
- Feel painful sensations inside or behind the ears
- Ears become sensitive and sensitivity to sound increases
- Continuous drooling in the speech
- Pain begins in the neck region or behind head and spreads quickly
Home Remedies for Bell’s palsy
- A warm massage with olive oil on face for fifteen minutes would increase blood circulation in the area, stimulate and strengthen the damaged nerve.
- Take a soft and clean cloth. Dip it in hot water, squeeze it, fold it and put it on the face till its temperature comes to room temperature. Give your face a relaxing steam for five to seven times. Do this procedure after massage to improve blood circulation in the facial region, heal broken nerve tissues with the warmth of water.
- Apply castor oil on your affected facial region to prevent swelling and treating the damaged muscles. This oil is also beneficial to improve the elasticity of the skin. A soft thin cloth can be soaked in the castor oil and gently put on the face. This process should be repeated three to four times a day.
- Use three to four cloves of garlic with olive oil and take it two times daily. This will surely reduce swelling and increase blood circulation in the body. Practice this wonderful home remedy for Bell’s palsy on regular basis.
- Celery is again a very important ingredient used to enhance immune system. It has lots of vitamins and minerals in it. It strengthens nerve tissues and makes them healthy.
- Consume a few drops of black seeds oil in a day. This oil is meant to reduce swelling in the nerves and facial muscles. It improves blood circulation and helps in complete healing of damaged nerve.
- Turmeric has lots of medicinal properties. It acts as an anti-inflammatory agent and helps in healing wounds caused due to the damaged nerve. Turmeric also promotes better blood circulation and eliminates any sort of skin infection. This surely make an excellent home remedy for Bell’s palsy.
- Do some facial therapy exercises that will help to relax your facial muscles. Regular exercise would help in preventing numbness in the muscles to a larger extent. There are various types of facial exercises that one can do to strengthen the facial nerve and make them more elastic and flexible. Some of these exercises can be smiling, lifting your eye brows, shutting down your eyes, trying to whistle etc.
- Consume food products, which are rich in Vitamins (Vitamin B1, B2, B6 and B12). These vitamins are considered to be good for skin and helps in healing body tissues.
- One who is suffering from this Bell’s palsy should avoid being in contact with wind. Also when you go out in the sun, you should wear protective eyeglasses to prevent direct contact of your sensitive eyes with powerful sun rays.
Bell’s palsy is considered to be a mysterious neurological disease as exact causes of this disease is difficult to identify. However, there are various time tested and proven home remedies for bell’s palsy available that are considered to be immensely useful in treating this disease successfully.
