The urinary bladder is a pear or balloon shaped like a small hollow bag and has a muscular wall that stores urine until it passes out of the body. In ayurveda urinary bladder is known as “Mutrashaya and it is located below the umbilicus in the hypogastric region.

Here I am going to tell you about urinary bladder cancer which is more common in men and mostly seen in the age group above 55.

Malignancy arising from urinary bladder cells growing and forming a tumour is known as bladder cancer.

It is mainly of three types  –

1. Superficial bladder cancer

2. Muscle invasive cancer

3. Metastatic bladder cancer

Let's see the pathophysiology of urinary bladder –

As the bladder is in apan shestra, apan vayu is involved with kapha dosh as whatever growth

develop in our body its kapha associated with raktanubandhi as most common symptoms we

see in this case is hematuria(blood in urine).

Symptoms of bladder cancer –

The most common symptoms of U.B cancer are -

1. Hematuria (Blood in urine with or without pain and visible with naked eyes)

2. Dysuria (Pain during urination0

3. Polyuria (Frequent urination) and associated with urgency

Some other symptoms like a burning sensation in urine, swelling of feet, loss of appetite, and lethargy.

Risk factors –

1. Being male

2. Age- older people are at a greater risk.

3. Smoking

4. Family history – It is also one of the major causes of u.b cancer

5. Chronic bladder infection or inflammation can lead to u.b cancer

6. Excessive exposure to chemicals

People having occupations like bus driving, water mechanic, rubber workers, blacksmith

are more prone to get bladder cancer as they are exposed to heat in that particular area.

How it can be diagnosed –

1. Cystoscopy

2. Urine analysis

3. CT Scan

4. Intravenous pyelogram

5. Biopsy

6. Urine cytology

Management as per Conventional treatment available in modern science –

a. Chemotherapy

b. Radiation

c. Immunotherapy

d. Radical cystectomy

e. Electocautry

Above mentioned treatment procedure selection depends on the staging of bladder cancer.

Management as per ayurveda

Specific formulations are done keeping in mind as what is the root cause here the first function is hampered of this particular organ due to Dosha vigunyata i.e bringing dosha back in equilibrium for normal functioning plus cleansing is required of the organ, along with it cancer cells has to be targeted and scraping of extra growth is needed.

Wonderful preparations of herbs are used herein form of powder or tablet, or in kashaya form. Many herbomineral drug are also used which are very effective in bladder cancer.

Some examples of medicine in tablet form are – Chandraprabha vati, shivagutika, other guggul preparation that scrapes the growth of a tumor is kanchanar guggul.

Some kashaya kalpana like varunadi kashaya, punarnavadi kashaya which gradually helps in improving the condition.

Herbomineral preparation like suvarn bhasm works magical in this cancer other like pravalpisti, pravalpanchamrita can be used as per patient conditions.

Mantra for prevention – Always listen to your body, any abnormal changes you see in urine immediately contact your doctor.