Have you looked at your maids closely?

 I ask this because, we have households being run by their presence. One day she takes off and all hell breaks loose. Washing, cleaning, folding, putting away, dusting, dishes - nothing gets done. So do you notice how often she falls sick. Worse still, have you spotted how often she is sick but pops a pill and turns up for work as usual?

I ask, because these women usually come from abusive homes, with no scope for rest, extreme tensions and money troubles coupled into a need to escape from the house. It's here that the chronic fevers, wheezes, joint pains, headaches all come under the umbrella use of over the counter quick fixes. A tablet a day definitely keeps the doctor away, but that's a band aid solution until the body starts giving up and the organs protest with even more severe symptoms that cannot be swept under the carpet or conveniently ignored. 

A fever / jwara in ayurveda comes up from the first base cause of an overload. Overload to the basic functioning of digestion. How do we cause that?

1. Eating heavy foods in high quantities at inappropriate times. (Ex- Meat/Eggs/Paneer/Curd at night)

2. Eating small meals in higher frequencies when we aren't hungry.

3. Eating more than you needed at a time.

4. Eating combinations that don't go well together. ( Citric fruits and milk or milk based fish preparations etc)

5. Eating in high stress/ emotional imbalance.

These can be some basic ways of hampering food processing. From here the rest of our buildup starts to lead the way to jwara. After having had food in this manner- then either a lack of sleep, oversleep, movements/exercise or in her case washing clothes, not getting a moment's break can push this unprocessed matter to the periphery.

We have seen in Protein Shake Blog about two types of vata. Samana and vyana. These guys always have a role in jwara as well. Once the undigested matter manages to clog up the tiny channels of sweat, your main site of metabolism ( aka digestive system) goes on a hike and stops its job temporarily.

The body then tries to reboot by increasing the set temperature and liquify all these clogs, bring back your metabolic fire to a start and we usually break sweat when this happens. Allowing this to happen naturally and resting during that time is the best possible medicine. If you can identify that the fever is from a cause based on the food you consumed- then go ahead with the fasting + waiting and rest.

If not, definitely seek help from a vaidya/ doctor to guide you on the best line of action. 

Few pointers for what to do in a fever.

1. Stop eating full meals and curd rice

2. Do not pop a pill that doesn't address the underlying cause

3. Eat kanji ( boil either dry roasted rice and crushed with some jeera and have the supernatant liquid) or Puffed rice that's boiled similarly or green gram soup ( made super thin)

4. Put a cold water pack on your forehead and head to protect the marma ( a site of vital importance we'll discuss later)

5. Pomegranate juice with just the pulp- mildly warmed can be had throughout during mealtimes for sustenance.

Indicators that your fever is actually completely broken

1. Passing loose stools ( not to the point of diarrhoea and tiredness. Just when compared to normal/ Smelly stools 

2. Temperature is back to normal

3. You have sweat it out ( best method is to cover up in layers and a blanket)

4. Bitter aftertaste in the tongue is gone

5. Your appetite is back and the body feels light.

Many a time the fever need not be from such a simple buildup of undigested matter. In those cases, when you are having multiple symptoms together- approach a vaidya to help you through the process.

A sign that the fever is converted into an underlying issue is when you start having repeated occurences after one episode. Another is when post fever you develop some other complaints within a short period. Those are clues from the body that the interna isn't fully set right yet! Again your best bet is a qualified physician to help out with the declogging in the right manner.

For your home helps specifically, we offer free consults at Saadhya Ayurvedalaya. If needed please reach out through the link For Consults / contact - 9994346144