A little basics on Cough
A cough is a reflex action that clears the throat from mucus and foreign irritation causing particles. Coughs that last lesser than three weeks is acute and if the cough is persistent, it is chronic which needs treatment.
Causes of cough
There are many conditions, both temporary and permanent. Few of them are mentioned below:
- Clearing the throat: As mentioned earlier, cough is a reflex action to clear the throat.
- Bacteria and viruses: Cough can be caused by respiratory tract infection, such as cold or flu. Respiratory tract infection is mainly caused by virus and lasts from few days to weeks. Whereas, infections caused by flu can last up to several weeks and may need medications to clear up.
- Strain on throat: Cough can also be caused by too much stressing on the vocal chords either by singing or screaming. But it does not last very long.
There are many other reasons such as smoking, side effects caused due to medicines, asthma.
Insight on common cold
Common cold is upper respiratory tract infection mainly caused by viruses. It causes coughing, runny nose, sneezing. It is communicable through air or direct contact with the secretions which is infected.
Causes of cold
- Viruses: As mentioned earlier, Common cold is upper respiratory tract infection caused by viruses, most commonly rhinovirus. It is a type of picornavirus with 99 known serotypes. Other common viruses include human coronavirus, influenza viruses, adenoviruses, human respiratory syncytial virus. Usually there are more than one virus. In total, more than 200 viral types are related to common cold.
- Transmission : It can be caused by transmission of the droplets via air from someone who is infected or fomites(contaminated objects).
Ayurveda and its age-old effective treatments
Ayurveda is a Sanskrit word which is made up of two words:Ayur meaning life and Veda meaning knowledge. In a nutshell, Ayurveda means knowledge of life. It can be tracked to 6000 BCwhen they originated as oral tradition in India.
Ayurvedic medicine is the world’s oldest health care system and is practiced widely in India. It is not only a comprehensive medical system but also includes healing of mind and spirit and the art of living.
In India, Kerala is found topractice Ayurvedic treatments and is known globally. Also, there are spas which offer ayurvedic massages, but would cost a lot. There are traces of practice of Ayurveda Karnataka in different regions of the state such as Ayurveda Udupi has gained lot of recognition over the time not because people choose Ayurveda over other modes of medication, but also there are many medical colleges in that area.
Here are few Ayurvedic Remedies
Cough is known as Kapha disorder in Ayurveda. In Ayurvedic treatment, medicines try to completely cut out the root cause behind the creation of a cough. Few Ayurveda remedies for cough and cold are as follows:
- Ayurvedic herbs and spices like ginger, long pepper, cloves, cinnamon, turmeric powders, etc. are extremely beneficial to cure the cough.
- Another easy method to reduce cough is to consume equal parts of honey and lemon juice.
- In case of a chronic cough, you must have two tablespoons of Giloy Juice with water in the morning as it acts as an anti-allergic and helps in treating cough caused due to allergic reactions to pollution or pollen.
- Try pranayama and stretching to relive chest constriction. To relieve breathing-related constriction due to coughing, sneezing and physical inactivity, there is a simple practice called Dirgha Pranayama, or Three-Part Breath.
- If one is getting a discharge of yellow phlegm, fever, burning sensation in the throat and chest and dryness of the mouth, then, in this case, ghee can be used to soothe the throat. Additionally, powdered lotus seeds, coltsfoot, horehound and mulletin are also helpful in treating this type of a cough.
- For dry cough, Ayurvedic herbs like shatavari, comfrey root, liquorice, marshmallow and ashwagandha is recommended.
- The focus should be more on intake of wheat, barley, variety of rice, millets, green gram, black gram and horse gram. Soup or goat meat, fish, crab or chicken are also beneficial in Vata cough.
- The patient should also intake an old variety of liquor, goat’s milk, old ghee, brinjal, radishes, lemon, grapes, cardamom, garlic, hareetaki, poppy seeds, popped paddy and trikatu.
- For relief try doing dhoomapana, it is a procedure of medicinal smoking in which medicinal herbs are inhaled through nostrils for curing various ailments.
- Jal Neti is a nasal cleansing technique which helps in relieving cough, cold, and the effects of sinusitis. This technique uses warm water to clean the accumulated mucus from the nasal passage. Once the passage is clean, it is less prone to infection.
- Consuming pineapple juice daily can reduce mucus in throat and suppress coughing.
- Thyme has both culinary and medicinal uses and is a common remedy for a cough, a sore throat, bronchitis, and digestive issues. It has antioxidants which can be responsible for its benefits.
- Paniprakshalana must be performed to prevent being infected from viruses and bacteria which can cause cold. Paniprakshalana is a ratricharya activity(night activities) which includes washing hands thoroughly it is clean.
Prevention is always better than cure. Hence there are few Ratricharya activities, i.e., activities performed at night that emphasizes preventive measures for comprehensive maintenance of health.These includePaniprakshana as I mentioned in the last point, asana like vajrasanafordigestion, dhoomapana as mentioned earlier, consuming triphala etc.
These are few Ayurveda remedies that can give you relief. The similar treatments can be found in Chithrakoota Udupi at Chithrakoota Medical and Health Centre . Here, there are treatments for every ailment and also help you with vayasthapana which means “preventing the effects of aging”.
There are many tourist destinations in and around Chithrakoota and cosmetic treatment is something every woman would love to give a try.