Interview of Dr. Vikram Chauhan (MD-Ayurveda)
Interviewer – What you have to say about when body gets cold and flu?
Dr. Vikram Chauhan – Basically, cold and flu we get because of seasonal changes and when our immunity gets low. These are the two causes, when we, when the immunity is low and the season is changing, we get cold and flu basically, when we are affected by the cold or flu our nasal passages they block and we get fever, our, there is deposition of cough and our body try to expel the cough and we sometime get fever also. So these are the signs and symptoms of the cold and flu and we should take rest whenever we are affected by the cold and flu.
Interviewer – Can you tell us the difference between cold and flu?
Dr. Vikram Chauhan – Yes, cold is basically, usually the cold affects us when there is a seasonal change. It is seasonal type of environmental factor responsible for this. But flu is usually the cause is the virus. There are some type of viruses like influenza virus is there, some swine flu there are some viruses, bird flu is there, some type of flu are there. So viruses, the flu, the cold caused by some virus are called flu. So these are interrelated terms but basically symptoms are the same. Nasal congestion allergies and nausea this fever and all such symptoms are there in both the diseases and this flu becomes difficult to treat if it’s not handled properly in the beginning so flu is little dangerous than the cold, common cold.
Interviewer – Can you tell me how you treat cold and flu in your medicines?
Dr. Vikram Chauhan – We get cold and flu because you know not everybody gets cold and flu; there are some people who gets flu or some people who get cold not everybody. So first of all we believe that improving the immunity is very important. If our immunity is good enough we don’t get cold and flu. So Ayurveda doesn’t lay emphasis only on the treatment of the symptoms but, also improving the immunity along with that. So symptomatic treatment of cold and flu it consist of giving some herbs like we use turmeric, curcuma longa, we use this black pepper, we use Tulsi. Tulsi is an herb we use Tulsi capsules, Aller-G Care is the combination of various anti-allergy herbs. So there is simple home remedy in India we use, we take some Tulsi leaves juice and some ginger juice and put some black pepper and then we add some honey then we give that home remedy to children so this way we treat the flu in India. Proper rest is very important. And giving some soups, warm soups, and vegetable soups are also very important. And the rest is also very important. It is very important to remain hydrated drinking warm water is also very important to fight flu. And keeping your self-covered, keeping your head covered, keeping your body, upper chest covered is also very important. Keeping yourself warm is important.
Interviewer – How do you diagnose cold and flu in ayurveda medicines?
Dr. Vikram Chauhan – In ayurveda medicines it’s basically the symptoms, it’s we call pratisaya, this cold and flu we call pratisaya, there is specific term for that. So we diagnose like with the symptoms only how the mucus, what is the type of mucus, the color of mucus, and fever, and the pulse we check, we check the tongue also so different method of diagnosing flu and cold.
Interviewer – Ok, thank you doctor.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan – Thank you
