ACE YOUR IMMUNITY GAME

5 min readApr 9, 2020

A SNEAK PEAK INTO THE GOLDEN RULES OF BUILDING IMMUNITY FROM THE AGE OLD SCIENCE OF AYURVEDA!! WELL , PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE RIGHT? READ ON FOR MORE SIMPLE DIETARY INCLUSIONS THIS QUARANTINE

Just as we are passing through several days of quarantine in the liberty of our houses, most of us might have run this thought over a 100 times in our heads- HOW LIKELY AM I TO GET INFECTED OR SYMPTOMATIC?

By now we are accustomed to the guidelines of the WHO which says all about contact history, comorbidities, age factors and so on. We are just left with social distancing and hygiene measures for now, to escape the rapid communicability. But is it also because we don’t intend to trust our immunity levels?

The immunity levels of each person decide the game-plan of the pathogen inside that body, in communicable disease. Some infected individuals may be asymptomatic carriers or others severely affected. While looking at medical trends on disease incidence in the past many years, are we moving uphill? Are we facing significant drops in immune levels? ( Both the innate and naturally acquired active immunity)

The term “immunity” was decoded almost simultaneously with the term “disease” back in the day. When we look at the Indian medical classics like Ayurveda, terms like “ojas” and “bala” resonate with the modern-day immunological concepts. Bala of a body is that which antagonizes the disease and its causative factors.It is basically our natural resistance. And that’s not all while evaluating the “bala” of a person, it further branches out itself to two. Roga bala — which means the strength of the disease and Rogi bala — which means the strength of the patient. The latter has to be overpowering to make our way out of a disease or say, an epidemic.While talking about epidemics, Ayurveda also talks about the drop in “bala” over time.

In such contexts, it is said that the average lifespan of a population will be facing a downfall every 100 years. The reason being the reduced availability of eatables with higher nutritional index to all strata of the society. Considering today’s circumstances it does stand true. The consumerist society added on with environmental pollution, the right food probably reaches only the elite sections. Also, overindulgence in the wrong food has given rise to the millennial health conditions like metabolic syndromes.

The environment and its creatures do not merely exist as separate entities, but very interdependent. The ill happenings in the environment are bound to create repercussions in our bodies too. Our dietary needs have definitely been medicalized. The zillion amount of dietary and vitamin pills in the market is distracting our attention to the core problem.

We are what we eat . Period. The food we eat forms the very building blocks of our body and thereby our ‘bala’. And to accelerate it, the best way is to indulge in local, indigenous and seasonal food articles. Our taste buds would love to travel around the world, but our gut might not!

In a country like India, we have a plethora of over 3000 medicinal herbs with some familiar ones like the Indian gooseberry, liquorice, ginger and giloy (Tinospora cordifolia). Studies have proven their immunomodulatory actions. In Ayurveda, a separate section called ‘Rasayana’ has been set aside exclusively for the same which includes various formulations and preparations with such herbs having a wide range of properties. Antioxidant and immunomodulatory actions are some of them.

Hence it is evident that the science focuses on preparing the body to fight the pathogen than depending on external means. Thus increasing the natural resistance! So indulgence in such indigenous herbs will have a positive impact on ‘yukthikritha bala’ — one attained by having the right kind of food.

Therefore, if no access to medicinal herbs, we should at least be focusing on the right kind of food than food supplements. You don’t have to go in search of exotic fruits and vegetables, but simple ones like ginger or garlic right in your kitchen. The Indian spices are not only hyped for their impeccable aroma and flavor, but also for their wide range of medicinal properties.

Our hearts should also go out to the underprivileged for they are forced to eat things which lack the right amount of nutritive elements, simply because, in a pandemic, the immunity of the whole population is at stake — be it rich or poor. We cannot probably change our genetic predisposition towards certain diseases, but we definitely can build our natural resistance against communicable diseases.

Why not indulge in such a good diet which boosts our immunity in the coming days of quarantine. Make sure to assess the quality of what you eat than quantifying it.We should come out of this pandemic as a stronger society to take the future head-on. Because health after all is the primary responsibility of each individual!