Ayurveda Vs Medicine over Lauki Juice (Bottle gourd juice) in heart attack: What expert says

The use of Lauki Juice and its benefit during the heart emergency has been long debated. The Lauki Juice is is anti-inflammatory and also helps in lowering the bad cholesterol levels in the body.

Ayurveda says that it gives immense benefit while having symptoms like heart attack and other similar emergencies.

Recently, a social media influencer posted that, “In our country India, 3000 years ago there was a great sage with the name Maharishi Vagvat. In a book titled Astang Hrudayam, he wrote 7000 formulas to cure diseases”. He further claimed that the saint has written in the book that whenever the heart is getting attacked, that means blockage is starting to happen in the tubes of the heart! So it means that in the blood, acidity has increased.

The social media user claimed that the regular use of Lauki (Bottle Gourd) gives the guarantee that heart attack will never happen. She claimed that Bitter gourd juice is anti-inflammatory and also helps in lowering the bad cholesterol levels in the body. Thereby, it significantly reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke.

However, a doctor with the name of TheLiverDoc said this pseudoscientific garbage peddled by a science-illiterate Ayurveda sympathizer, citing from the classic Ayurvedic text called Ashtanga Hridaya written by Sage Vagbata claiming cure for 7000 diseases, written 3000 years ago, promoting acidification of blood as a cause for heart attacks and advising consumption of alkaline bottle gourd mixed with tulsi (Holy basil) leaves & ROCK SALT to battle the blood acidity to prevent and treat heart attacks has received close to 400,000 views, 12000 likes and 4000 retweets with everyone praising Ayurvedic Dharmic Lifestyle as superior to modern medical science.

“Bottle gourd contains toxic tetracyclic triterpenoid compounds called cucurbitacins that have been linked with multiple reports of poisoning, bleeding and near deaths. Please do not consume bottle gourd juice. In patients with systemic hypertension and heart disease, use of rock salt every morning in the absence of proper medical treatments can worsen hypertension and lead to strokes and heart attacks. Cut down on salt use, you can literally die from it, if you have cardiovascular disease”, the doctor claimed.

The doctor even commented even the scientific temperament of the country and said it is tattered like a flower garland given to a rabid monkey. Everyone has the right to be stupid, but this special group of nationalistic Indians are abusing that privilege.

However, Dr Tarun Kumar, Interventional Cardiologist, RML Hospital, said that the Lauki Juice is rich in fiber and antioxidant’s. High fiber content help in stabilising sugar and beneficial in reducing cholesterol. As it has high water content and low calorie it helps in weight reduction. Moreover it has diuretic effect which reduces blood pressure. In nutshell all these are risk factors for heart diseases. So it reduces all the risk factors for development of heart problems and so the heart diseases.