Management of hypothyroidism:

As mentioned by charaka “vikaranamakusalo…”exact nomenclature is not necessary for all the diseases. It insists on diagnosis of constitutional status of the disease.

As per the nidana Hypothyroidism can be classified as
1.Primary (thyroid failure)
2. Secondary, (due to pituitary TSH deficit). And
3. Tertiary (due to hypothalamic deficiency of TRH)
the later two are rare and may not be amicable to ayurvedic treatments.

If hypothyroidism results due to Genetical and hereditary defects, these comes under adibala pravritta vyadhis and these are asadhya.

If hypothyroidism results due to Congenital defects like thyroid gland agenesis, dysgenesis, ectopic thyroid gland comes under Janmabala pravritta vyadhis. These are preventable if proper pathyapathya is followed during pregnancy.

The main cause of hypothyroidism is iodine deficiency, as per sarvadha sarva bahvanam-iodine containing drugs like shigru, jalakumbhi are advised here.
Another main cause autoimmune thyroid disease is characterized by gradual lymphatic infiltration and progressive destruction of the functional thyroid tissue. So it may be Yapya, means that the treatment should be continued Jeevanaparvantam with immuno modulatory drugs.

Selection of drugs acting at various levels:

• At hypothalamo pituitary level: anti stress drugs, medhya rasayana drugs, nasya karma may be beneficial.
• At thyroid gland level: thyroid stimulatory drugs are recommended here.
• At metabolism level: deepana, pacahana, ushna, teekshna, sukshma, lekhana drugs which pep-up body metabolism is recommended.
• Immuno-modulatory drugs for autoimmune related hypothyroidism.