Ayurvedic approaches to prevention and treatment

ACCORDING to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, upper respiratory tract infections such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and Covid-19 increase during autumn and winter. These diseases present similar symptoms. For this column, we will focus on influenza.

- DR TAMLYN GOVENDER

This common respiratory virus can cause mild to severe respiratory illness, especially in young children, older adults, and individuals with weakened immune systems.

In Ayurvedic medicine, we focus on prevention, which involves strengthening the respiratory system and boosting immunity through natural practices.

Several measures can be adopted to avoid and combat the flu. However, it is important to note that viruses, like influenza, frequently change its structure to evade the immune system, resulting in new strains that can bypass previous immunity. This constant change poses challenges for the development of new and advanced vaccines.

There is a growing need for effective medication to prevent the illness and enhance the body’s natural immune response against these respiratory diseases. This is where natural healing modalities such as Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, Naturopathy, etc, are succeeding.

These holistic modalities focus on strengthening the natural immune response, so that the body can fight off viruses and infections, rather than suppressing them. Often, these measures have stood the test of time, and are essentially about going back to basic health care instead of looking for new medications to fight the common cold, new vaccines, etc.

What is influenza?

According to modern medicine, influenza, which is commonly known as the flu, is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. It can lead to mild to severe symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, fatigue and sometimes complications such as pneumonia.

In Ayurveda, the clinical presentation of influenza-like illnesses can be correlated with what we call Vataja-Kaphaja jwara (a fever with the predominance of vata and kapha symptomology) such as general body ache, heaviness of the head, fatigue, chills, dry/wet cough with or without sputum, rhinorrhoea, etc.