Build up Immunity to fight against diseases

Since the inception of the world many new things have emerged
knowingly or unknowingly.  Human beings have become more prominent in
nature amongst the other creatures. They have a tendency to keep aside
and not giving any importance to the original creature of nature.
Besides other organisms, different varieties of microbes or viruses
persisted in nature long back and from time to time erupted as an
epidemic when human behaviour changed during the Neolithic period
around 12,000 years ago. It happened because human beings developed
more densely populated agricultural communities. This allowed viruses
to spread rapidly and subsequently became epidemic. When viruses in
the plants and livestock increased, it had a great impact on human
being as well because human communities mostly depend upon it and as a
result devastating consequences spread out.
    Small pox and measles viruses were the oldest one that infected
human. It first appeared in Europe and North Africa thousand years ago
but when it spread out no natural resistance was there, as a result
millions of people died in the form of epidemic. It was Louis Pasteur
and Edward Jenner who developed vaccine to eradicate the viral
infection. Later on, many more viruses evolved like influenza virus,
Marburg virus, Ebola virus, Nipah virus, rabbis, HIV, hanta virus,
dengue, rotavirus and so forth. Now, the latest virus is Corona virus,
called COVID 19 which spread across the globe and infected human
population at a large scale. The symptoms of the infected people
experience with mild to moderate respiratory illness which happen to
occur especially to older people those who have underlying medical
problem like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer etc. The best
way to protect ourselves from this deadly disease, keeping distance
from one another, washing hands frequently or using an alcohol rub and
avoid touching face. COVID 19 spread primarily through droplets of
saliva or discharge from nose when an infected person coughs and
sneezes.
    The best way to fight against any infectious diseases is to
increase our immunity system. As Ayurveda experts have given more
emphasis to use medicinal herbs like amla, giloy, shilajit, neem, etc.
Besides these it is also extended that eating of a tablespoon of
chywamprash daily enhances the immune system. If we trace the concept
of Ayurveda system in ancient India, one name that comes to our mind
is Charaka who lived mostly in the 3rd century. He was the pioneer of
contributor of Ayurveda and known as father of Indian medicine. He
studied at the University of Taxila and practiced there. As per Indian
heritage and Ayurveda, prevention of all types of diseases has a more
prominent place than treatment, including restructuring the life
style.
    The most important part of our present life style depends upon the
food habits. No doubt, people of distant past ate flesh of different
animals but changed food habits to vegetables. Now a days,
Palaeodictician recommends our plate should be with red meat and fats
keeping aside of carbohydrates but it accelerates and would set up for
heart attacks. The most striking part about human diet is just how
variable they have been and the adaptations that have taken place. In
this context, the American evolutionary biologist Mariene Zuk in her
book ‘Paleofantasy’ contents that these dietary adaptations are not
fixed on what our ancestor ate in canes  some time in the past.
    The dietary pattern of Indian sages and saints approach towards
eating is very pure, satvik and simple as available in nature. It is
based on two main principles i.e. not causing any suffering to any
other living creature and not destabilizing the physiological system
affecting digestive, nervous and endocrine system. That is why their
food selection was very important, they would never over-indulge nor
allow themselves to be influenced by the sense of sight, smell and
taste. On the other hand, they believed that on the basis of
spirituality the quality of food, the manner of eating affects the
state of human mind directly. It is to be mentioned that food that has
been prepared by killing animals carries a karmic debt that becomes a
burden on the human soul. Besides the food habits Indian saints were
also practicing yoga regularly. It is also known to us that Adiyogi
Shiva was regarded as the patron god of yoga, meditation and arts. The
regular practicing of yoga helps us in increasing flexibility, muscle
strength, respiration, maintaining a balanced metabolism, weight
reduction and protection from injury etc.
   In this 21st century men and women are very much conscious of their
diet. As a result, today we see every other individual are following
some kind of a diet pattern, depending upon the goals they wish to
achieve in terms of their weight loss and well being. But mostly the
concept has been deviated when food or drink consumed under a state of
tension, anxiety, depression, anger or fear which carries a toxic load
that gradually gives way to physical disorder like acidity,
hypertension, ulcer, diabetes and arterial plaques etc. Now, question
arises how does one save oneself from these miseries? The answer is
very simple; one should prepare their food for their own well being
with meditative state of feelings of love and detachment, thereby our
soul and body.
   The human atrocity towards nature may create many more germs and
those who are freely moving in and around us. Whenever they get a
chance to set a proper substratum, immediately they attack us prior to
the strength of immunity. It is already mentioned that immunity has to
be build up by an individual himself with a  balanced diet, proper
regular exercise etc. so that ordinary germ cannot harm a person
concerned. No doubt, WBC (white blood corpuscle) has also the capacity
to fight against any foreign particles especially harmful one to some
extent but fails if it appears different to the symptoms of disease.
If a person builds up his immunity to a stronger position then less
harmful effect will be shown to the person concerned. But this time
the most deadly virus i.e. the novel coronavirus, COVID 19 which
silently spreads from one person to another by touching each other and
becomes apparent after fourteen days or more. In this regard,
definitely the defence mechanism of the body has completely failed and
as a result the deadly disease appeared which not only kills the
patient but also doctors, nurses etc, who have come in contact with
it. As the disease has spread out across the globe so various
scientists are undergoing research in many more advanced laboratories
to find out the vaccine for this deadly coronavirus. Now, the only
way to maintain precautionary measures are by frequently washing our
hands, keeping a meter distance from one another, unnecessarily
touching face or eyes and staying indoors except those with any other
important business. We are very much optimistic that the proper
vaccine/medicine will be invented in near future for the benefit of
the human race.

The author is a Guwahati based author, columnist