It was interesting to see the alternative therapy guidelines around COVID-19 published by AYUSH in India.

What does AYUSH stand for? Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy. Allopathy is what is prevalently used across the world. The others listed above are alternative forms of therapy / medicine. Being interested in Home remedies, it was definitely interesting to see how AYUSH guidelines resonated with so many best practices across the world.

Quoting the content in the pdf guidelines published

Ministry of AYUSH in India recommends the following self-care guidelines for preventive health measures and boosting immunity with special reference to respiratory health. These are supported by Ayurvedic literature and scientific publications.

Read the original AYUSH Guidelines pdf published by the Indian ministry

Healthy foods to eat during the pandemic from around the world

Now let us look at the AYUSH guidelines and understand the rationale behind the measures below

• Drinking warm / hot water pushes down any phlegm in throat or chest. This is practised and advised all around the world. Mostly other countries ask people to increase fluids and electrolytes and consume hot food (like in hot water, hot tea, hot soups and basically hot food based on their cultures)
• Practising Yoga is known to reduce mental stress and ensure one performs some form of physical activity. During lockdown and while working from home, one of the biggest things people miss out on is their own personal routine, personal grooming and their overall health gets impacted in the long term. People from military background across the world also suggest that having a personal routine which includes some form of physical exercise and some personal time to relax and meditate or be in a zen-zone helps
• Based on the study of foods eating around the world, eating Cumin, Coriander and Garlic seems to be consistent across all cultures (except usage of turmeric). The other three are mostly used in soups. Turmeric is the only food item naturally available that can the ability to reduce inflammation and has been used in hydrogen therapy as well. Read hydroger water article and underlying research for more information. Basedon my personal experience, just eating these would increase the heat significantly in the body. For those who have cold/congestion it helps a great deal. For those who are not suffering from cold/congestion, make sure you have enough greens in your diet as well.
• For nasal blockages, using a neti-pot helps significantly. At least using a salt water spray in both nostrils clears out blockages and reduces phlegm and breathing difficulties.
• Using mint in the form of Halls, Vicks and Lemon+Honey cough drops and drinking ginger tea is prevalent across the world

In essence, AYUSH guidelines seem to be resonating with what the rest of the world follows as home treatment and alternate therapy at home 🙂 It is nice to see broad forms of medicine converge to simple remedies in terms of prevention during the crisis.

PS: Thank you Lekshmi for asking me to write about this 🙂