Post COVID Lung Damage Prevention through Ayurveda
Post Covid Lung Damage: How to protect yourself through Ayurveda a write up by Dr. Somasree. A. S ; Keeping your lungs healthy is always a priority but it is even more important during this pandemic.
The lungs are one of the most hardworking organs in the body, filtering air 24 hours a day to keep you alive and breathing. Your lungs are constantly working to provide healthy oxygen to the body for its proper functioning. Just like any other system of the body, the respiratory system is also prone to wear and tear due to the increasing pollutants, toxins, and respiratory infections like COVID-19. As per Ayurveda, ‘prevention’ is the golden rule when it comes to all matters of illness.
Let’s have a look on some interesting facts about Lungs:
- Protect your digestive fire: As long as we keep our Agni (digestive fire) strong, we have high chances of overcoming any illness. Some points to Keep your Agni strong:
- Avoid oily, fatty food, heavy to digest food, dense food, and fried food.
- Consume warm water when thirsty. Avoid curd, cold drinks, icecreams, etc.
- Do not overeat or drink in excess, have light to digest and freshly prepared food, and maintain regular mealtime.
- Include herbs like ginger, garlic, turmeric, cumin, fennel, etc, in the diet to strengthen the respiratory and immune system.
- Follow your dinacharya (an ayurvedic daily regimen): Having a good elf care regimen is essential for fitness and wellbeing It is the first and thing that Ayurveda recommends for healthy living. There are a lot of aspects in the regimen that is aimed towards respiratory health.
- Pranayama: By doing regular Pranayama we can clean our pranavaha srotas(channels that carry prana in the body), our respiratory system and it will give us a boosting of energy. This will maintain the balance of ojas (immunity, strength), tejas (digestion both subtle and gross), and prāna (vital life force).Another interesting health-supporting practice is to do some yoga as per physician advice. Even doing a few Surya Namaskars can boost your health and improve your physical strength.
- Facial steam and gargling with medicinal herbs: This helps to liquefy and melt adherent doshas and pollutants and expel them out in an efficient manner, thus them from the respiratory system. Facial steam can be taken by adding eucalyptus oil, camphor, and tulsi leaves. It helps to cleanse and strengthen the nasal and oral cavity.
- Immunity modulating medicines: Various Ayurvedic medicines if taken as per an Ayurveda physician’s advice can help to strengthen the respiratory and immune system and maintain healthy lungs, avoiding respiratory infections, and complications.