As the coronavirus cases have increased around the world, I think most of us have quite a few people in our near circles who have contracted it.

With a growing sant sangati circle around me in the past few years, I now know at least 3 people who got low to medium COVID symptoms and they tackled it only with home remedies & yoga practices. They didn’t get tested, so one doesn’t know for sure whether they got it. But considering the symptoms, it is most likely they did contract this virus.

Gathered from Real, Personal Experiences. No Whatsapp or Via Via Info.

Here I am sharing the typical remedial routine they all followed after having fairly detailed conversation with them. These are not via via stories or whatsapp sharings.

I am not a certified practitioner of any medicine field nor yoga. But I strongly feel that every individual and household needs to have a reasonably good understanding of medicine and healing. This includes home remedies, AYUSH stuff like ayurveda, yoga, siddha, and to some extent allopathic knowledge. This blog post is trying to capture that innate knowledge that I have gathered talking to these few people. It is not a replacement for “expert opinion”. For expert opinion, you must consult them.

Note: it is recommended to be in touch with an allopathy doctor and/or other medical expert if you develop symptoms. However, many situations – like unavailability of reliable healthcare support – prompt different people to opt for home based remedy as long as symptoms seem manageable.

Symptom monitoring: apart from a thermometer, it is important to check your oxygen levels using an Oximeter. As there are cases of asymptomatic patients dying due to low oxygen levels (with no symptom of the same) – read more about “happy hypoxia“. FYI oximeters are available for 700 – 800 INR from proper shops. So you don’t need to shell out thousands of rupees for them.

Home Remedies for COVID-19 like Symptoms

These have been followed by most folks I spoke to when they had COVID symptoms. Many of them are also good as preventive measures.

– hot water gargling. One can add Neem, Turmeric or Salt to it. I prefer Neem. Twice a day.

– steam inhalation. Add balm or turmeric or neem or ajwain to it.

– drink hot water only. With lemon or neem or tulsi or turmeric etc.. make simple herbal teas (which some folk are calling “kadha”) with a mix of ajwain, soonth, pepper, turmeric etc..

– lots of vit C through lemons, mosambi and other sources. One aunty who tested positive said, drinking hot water with lemon in it through out the day really helped.

– strength giving foods that are traditional in Indian homes. Because the body becomes weak and also can do with more heat in it. Soonth Gol (dry ginger and jaggery balls) are really good. But also dates balls or gol papdi (jaggery sweet) or some other stuff that we usually have in winters to increase heat and strength in the body.

– Good food as many times a day as needed. Many people experience much weakness, fatigue and hunger during these days. So ensure you eat nutritious, good food as much as needed.

Yoga Practices for Covid-19

– Simha kriya – I personally consider this practice as the GO TO if one gets any such symptoms. It’s freely available here. Sadhguru, specially designed it for COVID and that means a lot to me. Plus, I have heard many stories from Isha folk of how Simha Kriya broke the fever or eased the experience for the patient very quickly.

– kapaalbhatti – since it deals with the breathing tract and generates heat in the body, I think this is a good one. Women who are menstruating can’t do kapaalbhatti during that time. So they can supplement with other breathing practices like Anulom Vilom, Simha Kriya etc..

Any other yoga practice that you are already doing. If you aren’t doing any pranayam / hatha yoga yet then check out Sw Ramdev videos – they are pretty good and freely available. He makes a lot of boisterous claims – ignore them. And here’s one post I had written on beginner meditations that you can try.

– health chit shakti meditation – freely available on Sadhguru app, this helped one person feel healthier. This meditation usually relaxes the body and improves sleep. Very good in these times.

I think a combination of pranayam (breathing exercise), hatha yoga (generate heat) and meditation (mentally vibrant) is good. COVID is known to affect mental states. And a negative mental state can quickly aggravate it further. One aunty noticed a drop in Oxygen levels every time she got worried/tense. Thus, best to remain calm, positive and relaxed.

Conflicting Views

This information has been collected from a bunch of close people who most likely got COVID in my circle. For various reasons I won’t disclose their identities. Also, there are conflicting views sometimes.

For example, one Mumbai doctor recommended that no yoga, pranayam or any such breathing effort should be done if one has these symptoms. On the other hand, I have seen many doctors recommending yoga to even high symptom patients. So opinions are varying.

This is one of the reasons some people are choosing to stay out of the official COVID detection route, because a lot of allopathic and government rules get imposed. Many which they consider against good health practices like forced state quarantine taking the patient away from loved ones or disallowing non-allopathy medicines and so on.

AYUSH recommended medicines

Homeopathy pills, Ayurveda powders and so on were distributed across the country by volunteers and concerned groups as soon as this pandemic lockdown came into action. Initially, I was sceptical of these, they were unnamed medicine packets handed out by random groups. However, India’s COVID growth numbers have been way lesser than the dooms day figures predicted earlier. And many ground level folk are saying that these AYUSH medicines were one reason for this.

– Nilavembu Kashayam – comes in powder, liquid or tablet form is a Siddha medicine recommended for these times. Sadhguru also recommends it 😉

– Arscenic Album 30 as precautionary homeopathic medicine. A knowledgeable friend suggested these doses: 4 balls on empty stomach for 3 days. Repeat after 15 days. Then monthly once. AYUSH also recommends this medicine but with slightly different dosage.

– Shamshamani Vati twice a day with warm water for 15 days is the Ayurveda prescription.

Get the exact details for these medicines as preventive measures if you get COVID-like symptoms from AYUSH ministry here. This doc also contains prescriptions if you have COVID like symptoms. And if possible, do consult an expert before taking these.

Allopathy medicines reltd to COVID-19 Symptoms

– paracetamol

– vitamin tablets – zinc, vit C, vit D

– betadine / cough syrup gargle – not sure about the frequency

– thermometer & oximeter to keep tabs on your specs.

For any other medical info you have to contact a doctor. They are typically prescribing the usual anti-biotics course if we have persisting fever for a couple of days. And Kiran Shaw’s blog post about her COVID-19 positive journey mentions HCQ doses too.

That’s all I have on this.

Overall India is doing well

In India, the situation seems to be heading for community spread. Eventually, it seems that everyone will get it. But if we are prepared with medicines, home remedies and yoga I feel we have a good chance to get through this with minimal impact. 🙂

I feel our Indian natural immunity, younger age demographic, prevalence of home remedies and traditional foods with healing spices like turmeric has also contributed to the low mortality rates. Considering our healthcare infrastructure is so much weaker than other countries, I think our mortality rates at 1.73% are pretty good. And the government seems focused on reducing that rate – that is a very good focus. IMHO better than focusing to stop transmission because that seems a much tougher tasks given our inability to adopt proper mask etiquette or social distancing.

That’s all folks. If you or any one in your direct circle faced COVID, do share what remedial measures they took. No via via information or whatsapp info please. Only REAL, PERSONAL experiences. Thanks.