Ayurveda Treatment for Cold and Flu

Along with traditional medicine, there are some less known treatments that’s been around for a while back in my country. I know here we do believe in no medication approach especially for the kids as a way to boost up their immune system. Giving medication to nonserious issues like cold or sore throat is said to weaken their delicate immunity which is still building up in them. I completely agree and follow this when my children get sick.I do this by heavily leaning on ayurvedic treatment for cold and flu to help my kids get better.

  I come from a small state called Kerala, which is in the Southern part of India. Ayurvedic treatment is strongly practiced there for the longest time and in fact, in today’s world, it is an accredited branch of medicine.

To understand this in simple terms, here in the west, we could associate it with  Naturopathy. The underlying principle is to go against the conventional practices and derive from nature or rather plants or herbs, the source of medicine.

                                  I hope this brief introduction to Ayurveda would help you to get to know some of the remedies I am going to explain here to tackle villains like flu and cold. In Ayurveda, the Common cold is usually related to the damp quality of the air and harmful toxins found in it. This, in turn, will trigger symptoms like nasal or chest congestion, no appetite and sometimes fever.

In Ayurveda, it is believed that the child should drink a lot of lukewarm water to support the fire of digestion and get rid of the toxins. Warm ginger tea or organic honey will also help in dealing with the phlegm.

For chest congestion, a good remedy would be to mix some rock or black salt in sesame oil or butter and massage onto your child’s chest. Afterward, I suggest giving your child eucalyptus steam inhalation.

Also, how familiar are you with a plant called Tulsi or in English, Holy Basil?

It is a plant that grows in abundance in our country and worshiped as a holy plant by some religions in the world. Tulsi has some medicinal qualities too. It is good for minimizing coughs and act as a decongesting agent for the lungs and sinuses. The intake of Tulsi will promote sweating thereby lowering the fever as well. You can improvise by adding Tulsi leaves into your diet by drinking it as a Tea. Yeah, it is good for you too! You can make Tulsi tea by adding Tulsi powder (obviously, a little work is involved. Like, you dry its leaves and grind it in your coffee grinder into a powder form. All that work will be worth it, trust me).

If you have a fever, you can take this tea before bedtime to tackle a fever if nothing else would work. Some of the health food stores might carry the powder. Or check out your local South Asian stores to see Tulsi.  
        

 Ayurvedic scholars believe that fever is a natural way of burning body toxins. So, it is advisable not to control it whenever possible. But it is a fine line since any temperature beyond 102 degrees should be dealt with. I would say for children, you shouldn’t wait beyond 100. The Ayurvedic practitioners advocate some home remedies for fever control for kids. They advise massaging child’s navel area with some fresh onion juice while applying a cool damp cloth to his/her forehead to soothe the brain. Also, pomegranate or orange juice in moderate quantities is good for fever or flu. But make sure to keep it moderate since a large amount of orange juice could create acidity. 
               

The underlying principle of Ayurvedic treatment is that treating regular cold or flu in kids with herbal and dietary guidelines is an important way to support and strengthen their immune system in early days and steer clear of strong medications that could weaken their immunity in the long run. Some of you might be already following this and familiar with the Ayurvedic approach. But for some, this could be news.

Ayurvedic treatment for cold and flu is a great way to recover and restore good health with less assistance from conventional medicine.