My confusing illness & Road for the healing.

My confusing illness & road for the healing!

             It is a story of last few weeks. I felt seek and my mind started diagnosing the issue, finding out the solutions. And I realized this time it was not a simple issue. My symptoms were so confusing that it became difficult to decide the line of treatment.

              It was a mixture of everything. I was very tired with body ache, my face was showing it, there was a constipation, the fever was not there but definitely my body was experiencing high temperature and also there was a little mucus, my throat was gone. The most overpowering symptom was cough, mostly it was dry, after coughing for long some little mucus was coming out.

         I was experiencing Vata, Pitta as well as Kapha symptoms! What to do, from where to start? What is this problem, what to name it? I remembered a guideline from Ayurveda books which says even though you can’t name the disease doesn’t matter, just understand the symptoms and start the treatment.  Fine, no need to name it. But my next question was what to balance, Vata, Pitta or Kapha?

            I checked my hunger & thirst. Hunger was low but not totally gone, thirst was there but I was not enjoying warm water, rather my body was asking for slightly cold water. Wow, this was a clear indication that my Pitta has gone up. As there was thirst & little hunger the Kapha was not too much so for time being I kept my kapha away. I remembered my past experience that whenever my kapha was high my thirst was minimum, I preferred a warm water and hunger was totally gone. This was not the case now.

          Secondly symptoms like body ache, constipation, extreme tiredness was pointing my attention towards Vata. Now I started planning my treatment. The foremost thing I decided to do is taking a good rest. That was the best treatment of Vata. I also recollect one reason of not getting a good hunger is my extreme tiredness. I am tired means my whole body is tired, my brain is tired, my liver is tried and my digestive system is tired. Every cell of body is tired. How can I get hunger? I have this experience in the past several times. Whenever I was tired too much my first demand was rest, not food. As I used to take good rest, my systems were fresh again, my hunger used came back.

                        Next is eating food when body demands but the lighter one. My body was rejecting wheat, roti or rice, sweetmeats, mere sight of such food items & I was experiencing the rejection. I gave a thought on what my body will prefer, just few minutes of thinking and I got several answers. Puffed rice, churmura, some fruits like pomegranate, sweet lime etc. that’s all. Also without spices, body was not ready to accept hot spices, so bland food. As my Pitta was more, it was so natural & wise signal from the body to go for the bland food. And of course normal temperature water whenever body demands.

                    Certain other important decisions were came in my mind.  First is not to hurry and not to worry. When I look back it was very clear for me that how this illness came in. For almost a month I was just working, working & working. Not taking enough rest, not giving a proper nutrition to my body. I accepted my mistakes and decided to give a very good rest to clear the balance. First of all I have to let go the big list of what to do in coming days. Very difficult task but at same time very important one! I must need this mindset to start the treatment, otherwise I was not really resting. With some initial resistance I was able to let go everything and then in real sense my rest started. Rather I started enjoying this resting which I was doing after so many days.  Deep within I knew this will be the treatment. This mental & physical rest activated my healing.

             In Ayurveda one way of treating the illness is treating or balancing the reasons behind the illness. If the illness is due to eating a lot then eating less or fasting is the treatment. So for me exertion was the reason of the illness, naturally rest was my primary treatment. Sometimes I feel that many of the patients get well after hospitalization because they get good rest over there, compulsory rest. Rest works for them than any other treatments.

               Secondly I decided not to keep any time limit for my recovery. That’s another important decision. How can you decide the time limit? And if you decide it then the pressure game starts. Oh, two days over and still I am not feeling better. Let’s go to another Doctor, let’s change the medicines. That may lead to over medication, hospitalization! The mind game starts. Mind will continuously valuate the situation with conclusion that I am not getting better. A game of expectations! So I took out the pressure of the time. Rather took the situation positively that my poor body, working for so many days, now will get a good rest and will become strong again. So decided to observe the symptoms, any new changes and accordingly changing the mode of the treatment. Changing as per the present situation!

                      I also did very important thing is to discuss about my decisions with my close ones. Sometimes you get unnecessary pressures form your near & dear ones and the process of recovery may slow down. You are not hungry and you get a pressure for eating something, you want to take a good rest & everyone around you are discussing about how much rest you are taking. There is great pressure within ourselves and outside of getting well soon.

                       So I took all this permissions of eating whenever I want, whatever I want, resting a lot and taking my own time to recover. I was happy for getting the cooperation from my close ones. Now I was very relaxed, only work remained was ongoing observation.

                     For the first day and two took a very good rest, slept & slept a lot ,was not much hungry so was eating very light food, was not  getting pressure for stools ,so accepted it.  Within two days started feeling better, the tiredness reduced, body ache reduced drastically, face was little better. Within two days of rest I felt like I can do some work and started doing it. But I was wise enough to do appropriate work, was not getting tired with the work.

                   Suddenly my face turned red, there was a red colored rash on the hand, dark colored urine, requirement of fan and a deep craving of having sweet and cooling things.  I understood my Pitta has surfaced, a different turn in the story.

                Respecting these new body signals, I jumped to cooling & sweet things, but of course the lighter ones as my hunger was still not good. So I had guava, Gulkand (Rose petals & sugar), little ghee and sugar, fresh coconut and a cooling medicine made from khus. Again I was right, my body responded well, the heat with in went down, redness of my face diminished, the color of urine became light yellow. My wise body reduced the demands of sweet and cooling things. I was surprised by the sensitivity and wisdom of my body. My confidence strengthen once again and I saluted to my natural wisdom. I was much better in every aspect than the initial situation.

             And then came the time of kapha, it started coming out. Again I followed my signals, as hunger was not strong I was enjoying the lighter food. Now felt like having something made from Pulses, dals, a little heavier food. So had chilla, dhokla, dals etc. Felt like no need of having cooling food so stopped it. But either I didn’t felt to have spices (which are the good medicines for kapha), so didn’t took it. But started taking honey which is the best medicine of kapha.

                 It took almost two weeks to come back to normal hunger and strength. There were times where my mind came up with doubts such as whether I am on a right track, whether I have do something else. But then I used to check my improvement. Oh, my tiredness and body ache has reduced, my redness & heat has gone, and day by day my strength is coming up. That gave me confidence again to walk on the path.

                 So this may happen to anyone, no diagnosis of the disease, confusing symptoms, or a diagnosis such as Dengu, viral fever where there is no treatment as such but road to health is respecting body signals, observing, understanding & tracking yourself, lot of patience and taking actions as per the present situation. Knowing the positive signs of health is also important. Tiredness has reduced and freshness has gone up, food demands are changing, body is asking for heavier food than before, body is able to work little more than before, and then you are on a right path.

                If I my symptoms were worsening, my tiredness was increasing, high fever came in again & again, body was not showing any signs of improvement and then I must do some intervention, some expert advice, and some investigations! If you are walking on the path and there is no positive signs then be wise to change the path. Don’t follow it blindly. Give some initial time of 2-3 days and if you experience some positive signs then only move ahead. Otherwise think differently. Don’t go to extreme.

                No one like to be seek, it’s not a pleasant situation. Everyone wants to come out of it soon. But sometimes this extra hurry, impatience puts us in more trouble. Too much medications, changing the Doctors again and again worsens the situation. With so many healing factors Ayurveda always mentions about time, very important healing factor. One must give appropriate time for healing.

                See how much important is to choose the right food. Today we choose medicines very easily but don’t choose the appropriate food. We must give lot of importance to food, my experience tells it is a very important factor for our healing, far more than medicines. See how I was changing my food as per the situation.

               So our learning is giving importance to rest, food and above all is our mind set. Then you are on your road to True healing!

Dr Nikhil Mehta

Pune

26 th Aug 2016

Pulses/Legumes/Beans

Pulses /legumes/ Beans:

            As we have learnt that food means cereals, they come at the top of the list. After them the second on the list is Pulses, legumes. They are Dicot seeds, having two halves together. Means if we break them they depart in to two halves. As per Ayurveda although they have presence of earth and water element they also have wind and space elements in dominance. So they are generally astringent along with the sweet taste; some are also bitter tasting. They are dry, cooling, light, constipating, causes excess Vata, good for Kapha & Pita imbalance and for obesity.

           Do you remember what we need every day as a nutrition? Yes, we need around 10-15 % of proteins from our food. Cereals provide around 7-10% of proteins to us, so we can say half of the required proteins come from cereals. To fulfill the remaining half Pulses is a very good source along with dairy products.

          Also cereals and pulses work complimentary to each other. Cereals lack some amino acids (Proteins are made up from various amino acids) & pulses lack some. When we eat combination of two we get all the required amino acids.

          Those who have non-veg food as their staple diet they get proteins easily. But for a vegetarian person pulses & dairy is essential. If you see the chart( at the end) you can easily conclude that all the pulses have little higher protein content, around 17-28%. Naturally they take care to fulfill the demand. As they are high in proteins they have little less carbohydrates, around 54-61 %

           If you see how peoples eat pulses/beans world-wide is interesting. In India Dal-Roti or Dal –rice (Dal is a soup made out of pulses), in South America rice with beans, In Europe bread with beans, it’s a perfect combination, which makes the food almost complete food. But see the proportion, almost 70-80 % is cereal and 20-30% is a pulse, legume, not vice versa. That will cause imbalance. We will understand it latter.

            Along with carbs and proteins pulses give lot of vitamins, minerals and fiber if they are unpolished.   They are rich in Vitamin B group vitamins.  Now you know it means 7-8 Vitamins. They also have Iron, Calcium, Phosphorus and other minerals.

           As their protein content is more they are hard in nature. You can easily notice their hardness. When you cook them they take longer time to become soft than cereals.  As they are hard they take long time to cook. But remember they are not heavy. Heaviness and hardness are two different qualities. Try this, take one fist full of cereals in one hand and one fist full of Pulses in other hand. You will notice the lightness of them as compare to the cereals.

           Now let us understand them with Ayurvedic wisdom. Ayurveda also gave them importance after the Cereals. All the pulses have slightly astringent or bitter taste along with the sweet taste.   Naturally they have more wind element into them than cereals. Can you correlate? Astringent & bitter tastes have dominance of wind element. As wind is light the pulses are lighter than cereals. And also wind makes them more dry and hard. If you remember the taste chart the bitter, astringent tastes come at the lower part of it. So they are less important than cereals. Both the sciences modern medicine & Ayurveda talking the same about the proportion of Cereals and Pulses.

              In Marathi language the dals are also known as Varan, it means Aavaran, means topping, covering. It speaks about the proportion of cereals to pulses. So you take a heap of rice and cover it with Dal, Varan. That’s the proportion. Not vice versa, taking a dal and mixing small portion of rice into it.

              You can very well understand with the wisdom of Ayurveda that if you have more pulses you are going to suffer from Vata issues, wind issues as they have more wind into them. Many of the patients very clearly correlate that when they have more pulses they suffer from gases and problems due to them.

               Remember your experience. One day you ate more pulses and your stomach bloats. If you don’t know the gaseous nature of pulses you cannot correlate this bloating with Pulses. Especially a person suffering with Vata issues cannot tolerate pulses, he eats pulses and his Vata becomes stormy. The dryness, pains and aches in the body, the gases increases immediately.

              Today one stream of health emphasizes on having high protein diet. One has to check that having such diet doesn’t come up with any gas issues? Especially the proteins from pulses lack fats and can create more gas issues as compare to proteins from Dairy, Non-veg & nuts. Even the basic science from modern medicine says that for good metabolism of proteins fats are necessary. So be cautious for the side effects while having excess of proteins, especially from the pulses.

             There is one very good information has come up about hormone of happiness—Serotonin, which is in abundance in the brain. The carbs, sweets, chocolates increases this hormone making you happy but if you have more proteins serotonin levels goes down making you unhappy. So remember the side effect of excess protein intake.

           The culture around the world knows this fact about the pulses so while cooking them care has taken that how the wind, gas can be pacified.

           Do you remember which tastes pacify Vata? Yes, Sweet, sour & salty. See how people around the world cook pulses. In the north India they use sourness of raw mango. Of course they use the best medicine of Vata that is oil in abundance or ghee while cooking pulses. This oiliness and sourness pacifies Vata.

          In Maharashtra, middle part of India they use Jaggery & tamarind or Kokam, sweet and sour and with some oil or ghee. There is a tradition of putting a ghee on a sweet dish named Puran Poli made from chick peas.  This is also a complete food --rice, plain dal & ghee. (Carbohydrates, proteins & fats)In south India they will go for sourness of tamarind.

            The famous humus, an Arabian dish, works on the same principles. It is a mix of chick peas, sesame seeds & olive oil. In china they ferment the Soybean (Which increases the sourness of it) before eating.

 Use of salt and asafoetida will also pacify the windiness of pulses.  So with this precautions pulses are very useful for us. 

                Another precaution is about eating them raw in the form of sprouts. As we have seen that they are hard to cook. So in this form they are hard for digestion and so Ayurveda recommends not to have them raw.

           Another very good way to have proteins is fried pulses, pharsan, shev, Bhujiya, phafada etc. I was always wondering why this Gujarathi people always have Pharsan (Fried Pulses items) in their food. Now I got the answer. They used to be strictly vegetarian, now the culture is changing. Few of Gujarathi’s started eating Non-Veg food now. For a vegetarian person pulses is a very good source of Proteins and when you have them with oils then their gas producing effect is pacified.

              After many years I was reading a book on Biochemistry, a subject in Modern Medicine, and it mentions that for protein metabolism (proper utilization of protein in the body) fats are essential. So the Pharsan’s, the fires Pulses is a very good combination of Proteins & fats. And due to extreme fear about the oils the vegetarian person stopped having them, what a loss! Although our wise body demands it often but we restrict this very important food as a junk food.

                 If you actually calculate how much oil you need to make a Pharsan, you will come with the answer that very minimal oil actually goes inside. Just think if lots of oil was going inside these fried pulses items their prize should have touched the sky, as oils are expensive. But it is not the case. So in reality Pharsan’s need very less oils. So don’t worry. Yes, you can worry about the quality of oil used. It should be filtered or cold pressed Groundnut, Sesame, Musturd or coconut.

          I am waiting for the day when someone will make Pharsan’s in these oils and also using the organic pulses. Now a days they use cheap quality refined oils. Or the best way is to make them is at home. But have them and they will fulfill your nourishment.

              This is the normal proportion but you can increase them especially during Kapha issues. As the dryness of them acts against the stickiness of kapha.  They play a role of balanced food for kapha. During excess kapha  when very little hunger comes one can go for soups of pulses with addition of hot spices ( sambhar or rassam) or if hunger is little better some solid item made from pulses –– dosa or roti made of pluses flour. Or Thalipeeth--- roti from roasted flour of pulses. Or just eating roasted pulses as it is-- Chana –Phutana (Roasted Pulses). And our wise body prefers anything made from Pulses when Kapha takes over us.

               For obesity one can give preference to Pulses, increase the quantity of pulses to grains and you will benefit. But again remember the side effect of pulses. If you start getting gases, has suffer from Vata issues reduce the amount of pulses.

               As most of the pulses are cooling in nature (Except Horse gram) soup of pulses without hot spices is a very good remedy for the raised Pitta. And with the addition of the best medicine of Pitta, the ghee, it will be more ideal.

            Amongst them Green Gram (Moong) is the best one because it produces least gases. If you cook soup (Dal) from it a slimy layer like cream on the milk comes on the top. This is the stickiness of Green Gram. Due to this it produces least gases and therefore best among all Pulses.

               Next to it are Red Gram (Masoor) and Pigeon Pea (Toovar). Pulses like chick peas, Chinese peas, Garden Peas, kidney beans, flat beans, Chole, Rajma makes lot of gases and one has to take proper precautions while making them. ( See how they cook Chole & Rajma in North India – with lot of oil, isn’t it?)

            Only the Black gram (Udid, adhar) is heavy, sticky, sweet, and warm in nature and reduces Vata.

See the table for the qualities of different pulses.

The rough flour made from this pulses especially from Red gram or Chick peas acts as a very good scrubber for cleaning the skin.

             And remember to have less polished or naturally polished Pulses. They will offer you all the nature’s wealth into them.

Pulses, Beans

1.             Green gram (Moong) – Best among pulses, less Vata producing, strength giving, best for making soup (Dal) and purities (cleans) wounds.

2.             Red gram (Masoor) - Strength giving, good for skin, increases Vata, good for making bathing powder.

3.             Pigeon peas (Toovar) - Increases Vata, cold, reduces Kapha and Pitta.

4.             Garden peas (Matar) - Increases Vata too much, little bitter also.

5.             Chinese peas (Chuli) - Increases Vata too much, dry, heavy and increases bowel quantity.

6.             Chick peas (chana) - Increases Vata, are constipating.

7.             Flat beans (Pavata) - Hot, increases Pitta and Vata, reduces Kapha heavy, not good for eyes and genesis, helps in getting motions.

8.             Kidney beans (Mataki) - Cold, light, increases Vata.

9.             Black gram (Urad) - Hot, heavy, oily, sweet, helps in getting motions, reduces vata increases Kapha, Pitta and fats, increases stool quantity, increases shukra dhatu (responsible for genesis) and nourishing.

10.     Horse gram (kulith) – Hot, sour, dry, light, increases Pitta, causes acidity, reduces Kapha and Vata.

NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF DIFFERENT FOOD TYPES

(We are considering here unpolished cereals and pulses, and unrefined fats)

Food Item	Carbohydrates	Proteins	Fats	Minerals	Vitamins	Fibre	Water
Cereals	66.2-78.2 %	6.8-12.1%	0.5-1.7%	0.9-2.7%	B group vitamins (8 vitamins)	0.6-3.9%	11.9-14.9%
Pulses	54.5-60.9%	17.1- 28.2%	0.5- 1.7%	2.1-3.5%	B group vitamins (8 Vitamins)	0.7-5.3%	8.1-13.4 %
Leafy Vegetables	1.4-13 % very few more	0.4-8%	0.1- 0.8%	0.6-3.4%	Vitamin A & C	0,8-4,8%	73-95%
Fruit Vegetables	2.2-17 % very few more	0.4-4.1%	0.1-1.9% few more	0.3-1.6% few more	Vitamin A & C	0.5-3.0% few more	70-96.5 %
Fruits	3-30% few more	0.2-1.8% few more	0.1-1.5% few more	0.1-1.7% few more	Vitamin C	0.5-5% few more	60-95.8 %
Roots & tubers	3.4-28 % few more	0.2-2.5%	0.1-0.7%	0.4-2%	Vitamin B group & small amounts of Vitamin C	0.1-1.7%	60-94 % few less
Nuts & oil seeds	10-28.9 % few more	13.9-25.3% few less few more	25.6-64.5% few less	0.6-6.4%	Vitamin A,D,E,K	1-10.9% few more	3-6.5 % few more
Oils	00.00%	00.00%	100%	very minimal	Vitamin A,D,E,K	00.00%	00.00 %
Fish & sea food	0.9-7 %	8.9-25.2% Dried: 56-68 %	0.4-10.8% few more	0.9-3.2% Dried: 12-17.4%	Vitamin D Not much other vitamins	0.0%	53-83% Dried: 5-18 %
Meat, poultry & eggs	0.1-3.7 %	13,3-26.6 %	0.9-13.7%	1.0-2.4%	B group vitamins	0.0%	68.8-79.4 %

Cleaning Agents

Cleaning agents                                                                                                7^Th March

            Today we will think on the various cleaning agents we use in our daily life. We use so many cleaning agents, soaps for bathing, washing our hairs & hands, washing our utensils & cloths, cleaning our floor and furniture, cleaning our toilets etc.

          If we think about the purpose one is literally cleaning-- cleaning the dirt, dust, sweat, sticky, oiliness from it. And secondly take care of, getting rid of microorganisms from it,—form body, from floor, from utensils etc.  I am totally agree with the first reason we must clear all above things almost every time, every day. So let’s discuss on that first and then we will come to the second point.

           Today all these cleaning agent’s contents very high degree of chemical agents.  It is a fact that you cannot make a soap or detergent powder without using a chemical such as caustic soda. There cannot be herbal or Ayurvedic soap without such chemicals. So please come out of such misunderstanding that I am using herbal soap or shampoo. And the detergents used for washing clothes, utensils & floor have much more chemicals than bathing soap and shampoos. One thing is very clear to me today we are opting for chemical cleaning.

           Naturally it has its side effects on us, on our physical health and environmental health. It is a proven fact that all this chemicals are carcinogenic and responsible for many cancers. One may argue that we are not consuming this chemicals as a food so how can they are responsible for the cancer growth. If you observe carefully even if you take while washing your utensils some little portion of it stays with your utensils. Naturally you are consuming this poison every day.

          Ultimately all this chemicals are mixing with river water or sea water or will eventually mix with our mother soil. And will ultimately through sea food, river food and food coming from our soil will reach us.  A big risk! Also tons of these chemicals are polluting our natural resources.

          So what are the options? Just go few decades back and you will get all the options. The answer is mechanical cleaning. The soaps entered in Indian land around 16-17 th AD. The history says that in Europe from 15 th to up to around 18 th century soaps were not a commodity for a common man, they were very expensive.  Naturally before that Europeans must be using a mechanical cleaning. What is this mechanical cleaning? As for oily utensils we were using mud or ash. The dryness of mud and ash will absorb the stickiness of utensils making it clean. I have tried it myself and it works. Most of the time when utensils are not sticky even a plain water is enough to clean the utensils. Try it yourself.

           Same with the body. Our skin oozes a sticky substance which makes our skin oily. On this oily surface dust gets stuck. If such dirt remains there then may be microorganisms will grow there and will create a problem. So if we take care of this dirt then we don’t have to worry about microbes. Clean skin naturally has a protective mechanism for all such microbes. And then the various scrubbers is the answer. Remember what we were using to clean the skin—a rough rock, a cloth, a fibers from different dried gourds,  a coarse powder of pulses such as chickpea, red gram etc,  ubtan—mixture of different herbal powders and even a soil like multani mitti.

         Basically anything coarse, rough which will have a scrubbing action and will take out the dirt from the skin. When you rub such rough material the dirt comes out making your skin clean. Once it is free of dirt it is free of microbes.  A mechanical cleaning!

       Actually you can try this experiment. Bath with a soap and then once again bath with using any scrubber immediately. You will be surprised to see how much dirt comes out. Soaps are not doing their job. When you use scrubber you get a real feeling of cleaned skin. I myself using a stone, the same stone for last 8-10 years and might well go for next many years. Only for the face I use some herbal powder or powder made from chick peas. Only problem with such bath is you have to invest some time and some strength.

     I think this is the issue. We don’t have time, today we need a quick wash. Secondly some of us also don’t want to use this exercise of rubbing, they want an easy solution. But all these fast and easy solutions are putting us is in more risk. 

           Now the big issue of microbes. We are exposing to media day and night which are coming up with the advertisements showing very dangerous microbes on your skin, on your hands, your teeth. Naturally a common man will rush to the shop and will buy these soaps to protect oneself, one’s family. But is there any truth behind this? We must think then why these microbes were not affecting our ancestors or those few of us not using soaps even today? Are we human beings are so weak then rest of the species that we need such chemicals to protect us. Try not using soaps and nothing will change rather you will have a more healthy skin. Just use scrubbers and your purpose is solved. And these scrubbers are not polluting your soil and water.

For hairs again go back to age old cleaning agents as Shikekai and Reetha.  Make a decoctions from it and wash your hairs.

Now let’s discuss about solutions to clean floor and toilets. Actually for floor we have to just clean it with water, no absolute need to use any chemical. We don’t have to take any action against microbes, just clean the dirt and dust. If don’t get a strong smell of chemicals we don’t feel like our home is clean. What a powerful impact on us. Just think for years people are staying in houses where floor is made up of mud and cow dung. I strongly feel that someone must do a research in depth on this issue.

For toilets I follow a simple advice from my friend. Just clean the commode every day with a broom made to clean it.  If you do it every day it remains absolutely clean. Again no need to use any strong chemical. Sometimes the issue comes about the foul smell. Most of the times if you keep it clean the issue of smell doesn’t come and even if it comes use some natural fragrance.

Now the question remained is of clothes. Here I have not got a good solution. One thing I have tried is soaking the clothes in water or a hot water for hours and then striking them on a floor or on a rock. These takes out some portion of dirt from them. Remember how they used to wash the clothes in olden days. These repetitive striking loose out the dirt and takes it out. But the oily dirt needs some use of soap. We have to search what are the olden day’s solutions?

When I studied about soap making some facts became very clear to me. The original soaps were made from just using oils, fats and caustic soda. That’s all. You mix them and your soap is ready. I have tried it and it was the best soap I have ever used. But as oils and fats became costlier they started adding fillers just to fill the space. (This reduces the efficacy of the soap.) That is why still some soaps made today by using oils are expensive. And as good amount of oils are there so they don’t make your skin dry. They reduce the effect of caustic on your skin.

On the other hand these new generation of soaps started using multiple new chemicals making them strong and stronger. Especially the washing soaps. Detergent powders, making the pollution worst.

            May be in these issues we have to go a step back. We can use the soaps or powders few decades ago where they were using very few chemicals and good amount of oils/fats. Remember those yellow cakes. I can think of the same issue here. With such old generation soaps you need some mechanical strength, striking the clothes again and again, rubbing them again and again. So again some time and strength. To avoid these the new detergents came in the pictures. The additional benefits in washing clothes in this way is going through the good exercise, no need to take out a separate time.

So let’s move few steps back and start using Eco-friendly, health friendly solutions. Many of us must be using such solutions even today. Please share your experiments with all so we will know many more age-old ways and many doors will be open for us. Most important is please come out of the fear factor of microbes. Pl search on it and you will know that we are unnecessary taking the extra precaution to clean our house with these super chemicals. Just imagine if every one of us minimizes the use of these deadly chemicals what massive effect it will have on water and soil pollution!

Dr Nikhil

Pune