Dr. Latha Damle

Are you suffering from bouts of stuffy nose with difficulty in breathing? Does that sneezing, nasal irritation and burning nose keep you occupied whole day? Most of the people may nod their head rubbing their red, itchy nose. That may be a case of allergic rhinitis. For which the doctors may use many jargons like vasomotor rhinitis, pollinosis, hey fever; rhinorrhoea. Allergy is a manifestation of the complex mechanism happening in the body. Which means it is only the tip of the iceberg.

We all have a defense mechanism in our bodies, which is comparable to a nation's defense system. Like our army, our body has soldiers in the form of various types of blood cells. Basically, the army is supposed to attack the potential enemy like a bacteria or virus which might harm our body. There is a distinct mechanism to identify the enemy built within.

We, in everyday life come across innumerable foreign matters like pollens, gases, dust, etc., which are not harmful enough to create any havoc in our system. Most of the soldiers ignore them or neutralize them.

But in some individuals the immune system becomes hyper active. It responds fiercely and wages a war against even pollens or strong perfume. The war here is chemical in nature where in the system releases many chemicals creating increased secretion, mucosal swelling, sneezing, nasal block etc and make the victim's life miserable.

So it is basically the perplexed army unable to distinguish between trivial and serious threats that manifests itself as allergy.

How to do we face this problem?
Simple, our soldiers need to be taught to behave properly. The disease is by and large preventable by decreasing the exposure to the causative substances.

There are drugs, which can keep the allergies away by giving symptomatic relief, which is however; short lived. Gradually, one gets addicted to such drugs. However; there is help in Ayurveda. It recommends multiple methods to combat the problem.

• The suppressing kind which helps in reducing the symptoms immediately.
• By building resistance towards nasty substances. These medicines basically work at the immune system level by modulating the system. They are called rasayanas or decoctions. There are many decoctions like Dashamula katutrayadi kashaya and herbs like tulasi (holy basil), turmeric, pippali (longer pepper) which have properties to suppress the symptoms.

An Ayurvedic panchakarma method called nasya is very useful in reducing the disease. It is a method of giving the medicine through the nasal route. It helps in reducing the nasal congestion. Nasya not only helps in clearing the nasal airway but also prevents the susceptibility of nasal mucosa. It is advisable to undertake this treatment once in a year for a chronic patient. A combined effort with nasya and rasayana methods may be possible to provide relief apart from preventing the recurrence of the illness.

Other natural methods like regular inhalations of steam, yoga techniques like Jalanethi, exercise, may help find a remedy for your stuffy nose.