Let’s beat dengue with yoga!

A dengue awareness session was organised at the Faiz Ghar, Model Town, to raise awareness about the curing of dengue through ‘Yoga and Nature Cure Methods’.
According to the session, yoga provides a simple yet effective solution against dengue that is based on three basic healing therapies that are faith, breathing and diet. Faith includes conviction, positive thinking and hope. It is important because positive attitudes help the patient in fighting against the disease. The holistic system of yoga attaches great importance to a healthy mind while a depressed, weak mind would only make the disease overpower the body.
Faith and confidence in the healing process is expected to boost the recovery process. Breathing has miraculous effects that benefit the physical state of being as well as mental health, by letting in oxygen in large amounts. In the case of dengue, breathing is particularly effective because the blood which is crippled by the disease is enriched tremendously. Breathing not only provides an oxygen boost but energy that is scattered in the environment all around us, said expert Ustad Shamshad Haider, a yogi by profession. The yogi imparts lessons and meditation training at Faiz Ghar, and is an accomplished master of his art who acquired it from renowned ustads of India, Burma, Nepal and Tibet.
In his session, he explained the three basic breathing exercises that are meant to provide relief to the patient:
Deep breathing, fully inhaling and exhaling through the nose. Normally we take a breath that is only 25 percent of our lungs capacity.
Holding the breath, taking a deep breath and holding it in the lungs for sometime.
Alternate breathing, taking breath through the left nostril and exhaling through the right and inhaling through the right and exhaling by the left and so on.
The third most important thing that the yogi specified was a diet that was rich in calcium and iron would help a dengue patient to recover fast. A common symptom in this fever is loss of appetite. Solid food otherwise takes a long time to digest and would strain the body that has already diverted most of its energy for fighting against the disease. Fruit juices and milk would provide a good amount of energy.
In the yoga session some patients who have recovered from dengue shared their experiences and practical demonstration of breathing exercises were given. Hussain A Qazi, who was a recovering patient, told Pakistan Today that he, his wife and three children had all caught dengue but with they had benefited greatly by these exercises.
“I am thankful to finding out these exercises by Yogi Shamshad,” said Qazi. “These brilliant exercises helped us recover soon without any one becoming a serious case. These are easy, free techniques that any person of any age or background can do without any cost or side effects. In fact this therapy was practically applied in multiple cases and found effective,” he says.