Allergy Video Transcript
Ayurvedic Explanation of Respiratory Allergy
As per Ayurveda, basic reason behind all respiratory issues is reduced immunity. The site of allergy defines the resulting disease eg. when allergy affects nasal mucus membrane, we call it rhinitis, when it goes further inside and affects nasopharynx then it gives rise to adenoids, if it affects oropharynx then it causes tonsilitis, if it affects sinuses then we call it sinusitis, if allergy goes into deep respiratory tract than we name it as bronchial asthma.. more in the transcript below.
Allergy Video Transcript
Do you suffer from recurrent cold and cough? Does runny or syuffy nose keep bothering you every now and then? Whenever there is a change in climate or presence of even a little dust or smoke, do you have trouble in breathing? If all the answers are in affirmative then the culprit behind your problems could be allergy.
Today's polluted environment and irregular dietary habits make us suffer from several kinds of allergies. Sometimes we get cold and cough and sometimes runny and stuffy nose bothers us. A minor change in climatic conditions or even a little exposure to smoke and dust creates breathing problems for us. If a person gets an asthma attack then even for a normal breathing he has to take long or deep breath. When the air breathed in through nose is not sufficient then the person has to breath in through mouth as well. In fact, the patients of asthma face more problem in breathing out as compared to that while breathing in.
Today, to discuss on the same topic we have an Ayurvedic expert, Dr. Prmeshwar Arora, in our studio. We welcome you on our show, sir.
As I was discussing with our readers, the problems like cold and cough, runny and stuffy nose, irritation in throat etc. have become such common problems, that we see that it keeps growing each day. Its such that every second person seems to be suffering from these problems. According to you, what are the causes behind these problems. You are right when you say that every other person in today's world is suffering from respiratory problems. People face problem in breathing. Allergic conditions are growing and people suffer from problems like runny and stuffy nose. If we talk about the cause behind these problems, then I would say that these days most of us do not follow good dietary habits and healthy lifestyle. We are living under nutritional deficiency which in turn is, weakening us physically as well as mentally. The end result is, our immunity system is getting compromised. The scenario is such that even very small changes in climate eg. change to winter from summer or vice-versa, or little rainfall, seems intolerable for most of us. Similarly if we eat something cold, or sour or rich and spicy, we get sore throat. To conclude, I would say our compromised immunity is the main reason behind recurrent cough and cold etc.
Q. You just said that it is due to low immunity, but generally we address these problems as allergy. So what exactly it is?
A. You are right we generally refer to them as allergies but if we talk about the basic reason behind these, then it is compromised immunity. Let me explain it a bit more to our readers. See, for any reasons whenever we become weak, you would see that we become irritable and more sensitive. Similarly, when our immunity becomes weak, our organs too become irritable and hyper-sensitive. Small stimulus like dust, smoke, perfume and cold, sour or rich food items make them respond differently. And this hypersensitivity is what we call, allergy. But the basic reason behind it is reduced immunity. Now, the site of allergy eg. when allergy affects nasal mucus membrane, we call it rhinitis, when it goes further inside and affects nasopharynx then it gives rise to adenoids, if it affects oropharynx then it causes tonsilitis, if it affects sinuses then we call it sinusitis, if allergy goes into deep respiratory tract than we name it as bronchial asthma. These are big names, different diseases, different symptoms but if you ask about the basic reason behind all of these then it is allergy which is due to compromised immunity.
Now I understand that allergy and immunity are related to each other.
In fact, we can sa that the root-cause behind allergy is reduced immunity. Actually allergy is defined as hyper-sensitivity i.e. hyper-responsiveness which refers to increased reaction and this happens when we become weak and our immunity gets weakened.
Q. You named several diseases, whose name scare us so much that we immediately go to doctors if we get them. Are all these diseases, the same?
A. All these diseases are similar. All of these involve our respiratory passage. The site which gets affected by the allergen, decides the kind of symptoms which is shown by the patient. And accordingly the name of the disease is decided. But as you would see, in all such cases, one common medicine prescribed by the doctor is an anti-allergic medicine. Then, depending on the patient’s condition, antibiotic, broncho-dilator etc. are prescribed. So, broadly speaking, the root cause behind all these diseases is only allergy.
Q. One such disease you talked about is rhiniis? What is it and what are its cause and symptoms?
A. If there is an inflammation is our nasal mucus membrane, and this inflammation is secondary to allergy then we call this condition as rinitis, Acute rhinitis can be called as common-cold whose symptoms are runny nose. We might get it due to exposure to cold. Or some allergen attacks us acutely and our nose starts running. When we get condition of cold it is condition of acute rhinitis. But when we suffer from recurrent attacks of cold then we call it as allergic rhinitis. You would have observed that small children become victims of recurrent cold. This is an indication that their nasal membrane is hypersensitive towards allergens like, dust, smoke, pollen grains or cold etc.. This indicates that they have some kind of allergy due to hypersensitivity of their nasal mucus membrane. If we ignore this condition then it leads to chronic rhinitis. In chronic rhinitis, mucus membrane starts to become dry, We call it rhinitis atrophic in which small pieces of dry mucus come out of nose. There is a condition called rhinitis hyperplasty, in which the mucus membrane get so much affected that there is formation of a tumour like growth in mucus membrane which is called polyp. Polyp is a sort of pedenculated growth of nasal mucus membrane. There is one more condition called rhinitis hypertrophic, wherein the septum begins to thicken. So there are several pathologies possible in case of mucus membrane. Acute rhinitis, allergic rhinitis. rhinitis atropica, hypertrophy, hyperplasty are all different conditions but their basic cause is only allergy. If you don’t control the allergy the allergic rhinitis may grow into chronic rhinitis and may lead to formation of polyp also.
Q. We will definitely talk about polyps but you had named adenoids. What kind of disease is adenoids and what are its causes?
A. Again my answer is allergy. But, here the site of allergy is different. If there is formation of a lymmphoid tissue in nasopharynx in respiratory passage, due to allergy, then it is called adenoid. In adenoid conditon, the patient has difficulty in breathing. You would have heard that, adenoids need to be surgically removed. So, adenoid is lymphoid tissue which gets formed in nasopharynx. In case of tonsillitis, a lymphoid tissue (tonsils) present in the lower part of nasopharynx called oropaharynx gets inflamed due to allergy. So, tonsillitis is inflammation of tonsils. In case of tonsillitis, you would have seen the children have pain in throat, difficulty in swallowing food as well as breathing and in acute condition there is fever as well. Similarly sinus, which is an air cavity which is present around our nose, comprises of four main sinuses, namely, maxillary sinuses, frontal sinuses, ethmoidal sinuses and sphenoidal sinuses. SInuses are air cavities which are meant for decreasing the weight of skull.as well as creating resonance in our speech. When the mucus membrane of sinuses get affected by allergy, there is secretion from them and the cavities which are supposed to be filled with air get filled with substances of mucoid nature. This results in feeling of heaviness in head and speech. There is blockage in nose and sometimes there is runny nose as well. Post nasal drip, which is a feeling of regular dripping down of mucus behind the nose, is also experienced by patients. Old Ayurveda experts used a term called nazala, which is the same sinusitis. It sound simple but is a fatal disease, as it has been quoted in Ayurveda, that this nazala destroys the organ in which it enters. When it moves towards ears, it creates hearing problems. You would have heard that nazala patients have problem in hearing. When it goes towards head it becomes a reason for Sinusitis. When it drips down the throat, it becomes a reason for bronchial asthma. It can also be a reason for greying or loss of hair.
Q. You named asthma also. What actually is asthma and what are its different causes and symptoms?
A. If I try to explain it in simple language then, the kind of sound which you hear when a person breathes while running is experienced by a normally sitting person then that is the primary indication that the person may have asthma. If we talk about its symptoms then three main symptoms of asthma are cough, wheezing and dyspnea. cough involves coughing, wheezing refers to whistling sound and dyspnea refers to difficuly in breathing. Presence of these three symptoms suggests that a person is suffering from bronchial asthma. If we talk about basic nature of asthma then it is an obstructive disease wherein an obstruction is created in airways due to some reasons. Generally it is seen that the patients of asthma have problem in expiration. When he inhales air he does that comfortably but due to the obstruction, he has great problem while releasing it out. Now the question is, why do obstructions happen? Again the reason is allergy. We generally see that the patients of bronchial asthma, develop inflammation in air passage due to allergy, and this inflammation cause secretions resulting in mucus formation. This is the reason why asthma patients find relief when their mucus is released. That’s why asthma patients are given mucolytic agents. Now asthma is also of two types: extrinsic asthma and intrinsic asthma. Extrinsic asthma is the one where allergy is directly responsible for the disease. It is most common in children. In children below 10 years of age, igE levels, ESR levels are found to be increased. Sometimes it is found to be running in families or genetic history is seen. In intrinsic asthma also allergy is considered to be a reason but idiopathy is not clearly known in this case. I would like to tell you about a term called hypersensitivity of tracheobronchial tree. This term is generally attached with asthma. It means that the tracheobronchial tree becomes hyper-responsive to certain drugs.. We see that today there is increased usage of aspirin. Since there is rise in cardiac conditions, people tend to use medicines for thinning of blood. Similarly, usage of NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) has increased to relieve pain. Besides stress which has become integral part of our lives, and pollution, all these factors contribute towards making the tracheobronchial tree hyper-responsive. Thus people become patients of bronchial asthma. Being an Ayurvedic doctor, I would like to tell you that asthma is named as tamak swas in Ayurveda. The symptoms that are quoted for tamak-swas are so easily identifiable that without any investigation we can make a diagnosis of the patient.. There is a shloka in Ayurveda which depicts the symptoms of tamak swasa very precisely. It says that the patients has cough stuck inside and to release it he has to cough continuously. When the cough gets releases, the patient experiences relief for sometime. Besides, if the patient lies down, his problem increases, when he sits up and consumes somthing hot then he gets relief. As I said, it is allergic in nature, it is so mentioned in Ayurveda as well. It is written that when it is cloudy or it rains, or there is any exposure to cold or anything which aggravates cold, it initiates the problems of tamak-swasa. To conclude, I would say whether it is rhinitis, sinusitis, polyp, tonsillitis, or even bronchial asthma, the root-cause behind all of them is mainly allergy and again the root-cause behind this allergy is our reduced immunity.
Q. Am I right if I say that all these are stages which can be experienced one after the other?
A. Yes you are right, you call call them as stages too. As I said in case of nazala, if it is not cured then wherever it goes...like if it goes deep in the respiratory tract then it makes you a patient of bronchial asthma. Same nazala if goes towards ears, can result in hearing loss. If it moves towards head, it may become a reason for greying and loss of hair as well as headache. So depending on the part of respiratory tract being attacked by allergen, the symptoms are revealed. Accordingly we give different names to different conditions but when it comes to treatment, we follow a similar course for all of them i.e. we give anti allergen in all the conditions.
Q. Now when we have known about the cause, we must know the ways to deal with them. In Ayurveda, do you have something like one stop solution for all these problems?
A. If we want to attend to our problems appropriately then according to Ayurveda, we must follow three steps i.e. 1) Preventive step 2) Controlling step 3) Curative step
When we talk about preventive step then till we have achieved strong immunity, we need to avoid exposure to dust, cold, smoke, perfume or any other thing which aggravates our condition. We should take extra care while seasonal changes. These steps can help you stay away from acute conditions. Since prevention is better than cure, this step should always be taken care of.
Secondly, When a patient seeks our help, he has problems of stuffy nose, or plug or congestion. When a patient of asthma reaches us then, our priority is to dilute his deposited mucus so that it can be released. For this, we take help of herbal mucolytic agents which dilute the mucus. Then we use herbal expectorants to release the mucus. Mulaithi is a good mucolytic agent. Tunkan (borax) commonly called as suhaga, used to be found in every household in earlier days, is a very good expectorant. Phitkari ki bhasm (Ash of sphatica) is used to release rigid mucus. In cases where symptoms of pneumonia is observed nothing works better than sphatica. Sphatica or phitkari is capable of curing pneumonia. I would state it again, we use muaithi to dilute mucus, oil massage of chest also helps in diluting mucus. Then using tunkan we help the patient to release his mucus. Thus we provide immediate relief to the patient. If there is requirement of bronchodialation, then we have vasa and kantkari. These medicines are proven bronchodilators. Use of vasa and kantkari gives immediate relief in case of breathlessness.
These things which relieve coughing or runny nose provide only symptomatic relief. So we should always look for the ways to cure problems. For cure, we will have to take steps to increase immunity. There is a very simple thing called turmeric. This needs to be consumed regularly. Trikatu churn which is a mixture of sonth, kali mirch and peepli in equal proportions is a very simple medicine in itself but I would like to tell you that if a person consumes trikatu churn regularly then the time would come when the allergic reactions would completely disappear. So Trikatu churna can help you get rid of all the problems of rhinitis, sinusitis, bronchial asthma etc.. As I said we use mucolytics, expectorants, bronchodilators etc. to relieve the patients but as you mentioned one stop solution, we have developed a medicine called shwaso-ojas whose name itself describes its function. It not only relieves breathing problems but also works on increasing immunity. So we have brought this shwaso-ojas capsules for allergy patients which works on controlling the symptoms whether it is runny or stuffy nose or breathing issues. Besides it also works on curative aspects i.e. increasing immunity. If you consume these capsules regularly for three months the I don’t think the allergic problems would bother you ever again, provided, you take care of the preventive aspects.
We have some people here who have used shwaso-ojas themselves. Lets ask them about their experiences.
1. I am suffering a lot since past five years. I start continuous sneezing at the exposure of dust, smoke or the smell of perfume. I develop cold and it troubles me a lot. After seeking consultation from Dr. Arora, I have been using Shwaso-ojas and I am completely fine since last two months. *
2. I am VS Rajpal retired Class 1 officer from Govt. Of India. Last 2-3 years back, my grand daughter had a problem of cough and breathing. We had consulted some allopathic doctors and they said that she had a condition of asthma. They advised that she be put on nebuliser. We got a little upset that at such a small age of 3 years she is being declared a patient of asthma. So, we went to seek consultation from Dr. Parmeshwar Arora. He told us that there was no need to panic. He advised us Ayurvedic medicine and assured that my grand daughter will be absolutely fine in 1-1.5 months time. The medicine had to be given with honey. We gave her the medicine regularly, and after 1.5 months her condition improved considerably. We were happy and relaxed. I would recommend that for small children, instead of putting them on nebulizer take them to Dr. Arora and give them the medicines advised by him. Very sincerely, I recommend this. I really wish that all the children should get well. *
3. I was suffering from allergy since last 4-5 years. Whenever I got an exposure to dust, i would start sneezing and contracted cold. I also suffered from stuffy nose. I would say i used to suffer from cold all the 12 months in a year. I took allopathic medicines for a long time but without any improvement. Somebody advised me to meet Dr. Parmeshwar Arora. Dr. Arora prescribed me Shwaso-ojas and asked me to take it regularly for six months. I followed his advice and today I am free fom allergy. *
* Results may vary person to person
As we’ve heard, they all are so satisfied and happy about the improvement Shwaso-ojas has brought into their conditions. Dr. as you said, the medicine needs to be taken regularly for three months. Please tell us how exactly it needs to be taken and what are the doses.
The people who have acute condition i.e. they get allergy attacks almost once in every 7 -15 days, then I advise 2 capsules each, thrice a day. If you are giving it to children then you should give one capsule, thrice a day. You should open the capsule mix the content in honey or cream or whatever and feed it to the child. Take this medicine for three months and follow it with Trikatu churna (a mixture of sonth, kali mirch and peepli in equal proportion) which can be prepared at home, as ½ or ¼ tsp (whatever suits you) mixed with honey. This remedy is capable of curing even bronchial asthma.
I have one even more simple remedy, for those who can not procure this medicine. Mix batashe(250g) and black pepper (50g) and powder them. Consume 1 tsp of this powder with turmeric milk (1 cup of milk boiled with ¼ tsp turmeric powder and strained) every day. It is a very simple remedy but it can considerably bring down the frequency of your attacks.
Thank you doctor for coming on our show and telling us about Swas-Ojas. You educated us on so many diseases.
Readers, use Shwaso-ojas if you have related problems and you will see that after use for three months your problems would vanish and you would lead a happy life.