Fevers in Children; Go to Cause?

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> > Isn't this idea of "you have this symptom, so take this herb" perhaps

> > a pollution of pure

> > Ayurveda with the ideas of allopathy? In other words, you are sick,

> > so take this drug to stop

> > the symptoms.

> >

> > Would it not be better to emphasize proper diet, pancha karma and

> > perhaps a little fasting

> > when feverish?

> >

> > We raised two sons (before adopting Ayurveda) and never gave them

> > drugs, rather we fasted a fever.

> >

> > If a diet includes processed foods, white flour, white sugar, fried

> > food, overeating, etc. is that

> > not where the attention should go to solve the problem, rather than

> > looking for the magic bullet to solve a symptom temporarily?

> >

> > Thanks,

> > Janaka

>

 

Janaka you are absolutely right

diet is an important component in chronic URI in children

i consistently found that the key is to remove all dairy, flour and

sugar from the diet and boost immunosupportive foods and nutrients,

e.g. garlic, ginger, amla, fresh vegetables, healthy meats and fats etc.

a chronic URI is essentially a chronic ama/kapha condition, so building

agni is key, and in long term conditions, also supporting ojas but only

after there are no symptoms of ama/kapha

 

to this end partly clearing and partly nutritive approaches are best,

such as plain old chicken soup medicated with garlic and ginger is an

excellent therapy; for added effect one can throw other herbs in like

astragalus, which is traditionally made as a soup anyway

 

btw, pancha karma is not used when there is ama, and nor do I think it

is necessary to treat chronic colds and flus

 

as for allopathy, the term was coined by modern homeopaths to

distinguish the principle of "like cures like" (viparitharthakari

upashaya) versus using a medicament that is opposite in nature to the

condition being treated (viparita upashaya)

 

in this respect, much of Ayurveda is allopathic, as is Western medicine

the difference between them is holism, not allopathy

an Ayurvedic practitioner that simply recommends herb A for condition B

w/o looking for cause is being "reductionist," not holistic, although

may still be allopathic

 

of course Ayurveda also recommends homeopathic therapies

(viparitharthakari upashaya), typified by the practice of Ayurvedic

homeopathy, which is probably the best in the world

 

both allopathy and homeopathy are used in Ayurveda, but like most

traditional systems of medicine, the former dominates

homeopathic therapies originally were often a kind of religious or

spiritual therapy, such as making a paste of the charred remains of a

bow string and applying it to the a woman's belly in stalled labor

the hope would be that the power of the unguent would cause the woman

to shoot out the baby like an arrow

 

many of the bhasmas that contain toxic compounds such as mercury but

are taken in tiny amounts after being purified could also be considered

to be a kind of homeopathy; modern homeopathy however is much more

rigid in its system of correspondences

 

Caldecott

phyto

http://www.wrc.net/phyto