Month: October 2023

Every cell in the body needs oxygen, and deprived of it will die, just as a candle flame will go out when the proportion of oxygen in the air falls below a certain level.

To ensure that each cell throughout the body receives its proper supply, we are fitted out with a delicate and a perfectly adjusted apparatus consisting of the air passage and lungs, and the heart and blood-vessels. Anything which interferes with the working of this apparatus impairs the supply of oxygen to the tissues and results in loss of vitality, ranging from the lassitude and weariness of an ordinary head cold to the extreme breathlessness and collapse of severe pneumonia.

Thus blocking of the nose by catarrh, or of the great air-tubes by bronchitis, bring about discomfort and breathlessness or exertion. In inflammation of the lungs such as occurs in pneumonia, part of the lung substance is “knocked out,” and blueness and rapid breathing results. The heart has to beat more rapidly to try to make up for the poor oxygen supply, and is liable to become overstrained in consequence.

The importance of correct nasal hygiene has been stressed by all surgeons and Yogis. When the air is drawn in during inspiration, it passes along the upper part of the nose, near the “roof”. Expired air passes out along the floor. The best way, therefore, to clear the nose of mucous with entangled germs and debris is to breathe in deeply through the nose, with the mouth closed, sniffing slightly, thus allowing deleterious material to collect on the floor of the organ, then breathe out forcibly, holding one nostril shut. Dust, germs and debris should first have been cleaned out of the entrance to the nostrils by the warm ‘Jala-neti‘.

The defensive mechanism of the nose is powerlesss to protect the body against the evil effects of constantly inhaled irritant dusts. Adenoids are said to be more common in dusty regions. Hence the ‘Jala-neti’ (warm or cold according to the nature of the ‘sadhaka’) should be regularly done.

Except in circumstances of constant exposure to dust the defensive mechanism of the nose Is very efficient and, by the time the inhaled air reaches the throat, it is normally, practically free from germs. In the throat it encounters the tonsils, which when healthy, act as accessory germ traps.** If, however, the lining of the nose or the tonsils become inflamed by a cold, their protective function fails and the body is more prone to infection by the germs or more serious diseases.

The tonsils are situated in the throat and when enlarged can readily be seen by inspection through the mouth, when they appear between the arches formed on each side by the back of the palate and the throat.

The adenoids are not visible to ordinary inspection. They lie in the nasal part of the throat just where it communicates with the nose, and it will be clear, therefore, that if they are enlarged by cold the result will be blockage of the nose, and one will become a “mouth-breather”.

The tonsils are full of small depressions or pits (openings) known as crypts. These crypts are lined with mucous membrane of a delicate type. There is a secretion which, to some extent, helps to lubricate the throat. When repeated colds and inflammations affect the tonsils and surrounding tissues, these crypts frequently become invaded by bacteria.

When they have become infected, the crypts furnish a particularly advantageous location for the multiplication of bacteria. It is difficult to reach these crypts for treatment by antiseptics. It is impossible to secure proper drainage (except by Yogic methods) and in the absence of which germ life continues to multiply and the tonsil become chronically diseased. They not only become non-functioning bodies, but become a menace to the health.

The bacteria and the toxins which they produce, invade the system in a number of different ways. Most of the discharges coming from diseased tonsils are swallowed. Thus germs invade the digestive tract and attack the more vulnerable parts such as the gall bladder and the appendix.

One who has infected tonsils is very likely to have, afterwards, a secondary infection of the gall bladder or the appendix. Many of the major perations on these organs may be primarily caused by diseased tonsils.

The bacteria and their products in the tonsils may enter the blood stream through the small vessels or the lymphatics. Such an invasion results in a general poisoning of the system which manifests in various ways – arthritis, neuritis, rheumatism, diseases of some of the vital organs, especially heart and lungs, in fact heart diseases, particularly in infections of the muscle or the lining of the heart, can often be traced to diseased tonsils.

The glandular system and the body chemistry may be disturbed, and there may be a perversion of nutrition.

Repeated colds may weaken the resistance of the tonsils. They may become acutely infected with some of the well known germs such as those causing pneumonia or the ordinary pus germs. With such an active inflammation, there is swelling, heat, redness, fever – a sore throat. With a chronic infection there may be no pain, no swelling, and not even a sore throat; but usually the pillars of the tonsils are inflamed which indicates the chronic irritation.

The complicated organ known as the ear is composed of three sections – the inner ear, which contains the delicate organs of hearing; this being protected by the auricle or external ear, and the two connected by the auditory canal, the Eustachian tube; this latter terminating in the throat, just behind the tonsils. The function of the Eustachian tube is to allow air to enter the inner ear and permit vibration of the ear drum which separates the outer ear from the inner ear. Spread of infection from the nose and throat may therefore result in temporarily impaired hearing, which is due to blocking of the Eustachian tube, so that the drum cannot vibrate properly.

In more serious conditions, abscess formation may result if the infection spreads further into the inner ear.

The Eustachian tube is lined by mucous membrane which is continuous with and of the same nature as that lining the upper air passages. It is easy to see, therefore, how infection in the neighbourhood can spread along it. The result may be a sudden acute illness or a gradual chronic spread of inflammation from the nose and throat which will ultimately result in impaired hearing.

The first symptom is severe pain in the ear, which increases steadily while the patient becomes Feverish and restless. The pain is caused by the pus which forms in the middle ear as a result of rapid inflammation. The Eustachian tube is at the same time closed by swelling of its lining membrane, and the pus, being confined in a small space, causes acute pain by pressure. Deafness or roaring in the head are usually present.

The imprisoned pus may itself break through the ear drum and discharge through the external ear. It would seem that this might be satisfactory, and sometimes the inflammatory product being dispersed the eardrum heals up. But more often than not a path of infection having been opened up by this procedure, a chronic inflammation supervenes which manifests itself by a persistently discharging ear.

This condition if allowed to continue, will cause permanent injury to hearing and may also, by extension, threaten vital structures in the neighbourhood, such as the bones of the skull and the membranes of the brain.

The nose communicates not only with the stomach and the lungs, but, as we shall see, with the ears, the eyes and the insides of the face-bone; it is also in close juxtaposition with the brain itself.

In the bones of the face there are hollow air-chambers, known as Sinuses, which give resonance to the voice and lightness to the otherwise solid masses of bone. The air chambers communicate with the nasal cavities on either side. The most important Sinuses are situated in the bones of the cheek and forehead and may become centres of pain and discomfort in a severe cold. When infection spreads to them, we may get sensations of dull, throbbing pain in the forehead, which gets worse in a heated atmosphere and on bending, or, if the lower sinuses are infected, the pain will seem to radiate from the cheek bone on either side. If such a condition does not clear up with the cold, a chronic state of sinusitis may set in, leading to persistent headaches and the discharge of matter into the nose, and occasioning much ill health. Gems multiplying in the sinuses may pour their poisons into the blood-stream and cause injury to such distant structures as the knee-joint or the great sciatic nerve of the leg. It has now become practically a routine measure in the treatment of rheumatism or neuritis and in many other diseases to investigate the condition of the sinuses.

The expansion of the larynx narrows to become the wind-pipe or trachea, which is the breathing tube of the neck: it is kept open by hoops of gristle and these can be felt in the neck below the ‘Adam’s apple, which indicates the position of the larynx. Entering the chest behind the breast-bone, the wind-pipe soon divides into two passages known as the right and left bronchi and leads to the right and left lungs respectively.

In the event of these bronchi becoming inflamed, in the condition known as ‘bronchitis’, we can now, having located them, realize why one of the symptoms will be rawness and discomfort behind the breast-bone and a feeling Of congestion in the chest. Irritation of the bronchi by inflammation brings about coughing which clears the air-tubes and protects the lungs.

When they reach the lung substance the two bronchi divide and sub-divide until the microscopic tubes, through which the interchange of stale and fresh air takes place in the act of breathing.

Coughing is a protective mechanism designed to prevent irritating particles from entering the lungs. It consists first of a breathing in, or inspiration, the glottis is then closed to be opened again forcibly by a violent breathing out, or expiration. The sound of a cough is due to the breathed out air rushing over the vocal chords.

Following the air-passage downwards, we come to the larynx or voice box which, being in immediate continuity with the nose and throat, is affected in any extension of the cold. The larynx is a vibrating chamber for the voice and contains the vocal chords. An early result, therefore, if the larynx gets inflamed, is that the stuffy voice of the ordinary cold changes into the real croak of laryngitis, and later, if the vocal chords become more swollen, the voice may be reduced to a whisper or even disappear altogether.

In order to understand how cold affects the body, it will be necessary to obtain a mental picture of the air-passages, that tract which reaches from the nose to the lungs and is lined throughout by a continuous mucous membrane.

First, there is the nose, which is the most common site of a cold, and usually the first to be affected, though in some individuals a cold habitually starts as an inflammation of the air tubes in the lungs and spreads upwards. In others, the larynx may be the first part to be implicated. The nose is divided into two cavities by a partition, the nasal septum. Opening in front on the face, the nasal cavities communicate behind with the upper or nasal part of the throat.

So far, then, we have reached a space common to breathing and food intake through the mouth, but this is almost immediately divided into two passages – the front one with which we are concerned, leading direct to the lungs, and the back one carrying the food to the stomach.

During each act of swallowing, a flap-lite structure, called the epiglottis, automatically screens off the front or lung passage from the throat and prevents food particles from taking the wrong course.

The constant swallowing of inflammatory discharge, such as may occur during a neglected chronic nasal catarrh, may lead to derangements of digestion and to poisoning of the whole system. For this reason, as well as for other equally important reasons, chronic Catarrh should never be ignored.

The term cold is popularly given to inflammation attacking the delicate lining of the nose or upper air-passages.

“The common cold is not in itself a dangerous malady, that is, we do not die from an uncomplicated cold in the head, but it may be the starting-point of so many more serious troubles that its importance must not be minimised. When people are talking of some illness, we often hear the expression, ‘It began with a cold,’ and it is certain that the cold, attacking what we might call the portals of the system – the nose and throat – by which most of the infecting bacteria gave entrance to the body, is capable of weakening a very important point of defence”. Then, too, colds have a tendency to become chronic, when, as we shall see later, they may be the cause of persistent poor health.

If for no other reason, colds, on account of their frequency and discomfort, are worth studying with a view to prevent them. The victim of an acute cold is a miserable picture; his nose runs or refuses to run alternately, his eyes water, his ears buzz, his voice is thick and those consonants whose sound production depends on a nasal note, such as ‘M’& ‘N’ are distorted.

That colds are so common is, of course, due to their highly infective nature. Most infectious conditions, such as common fevers, confer a certain degree of immunity to the victim, that is, you cannot get one of them twice except at a considerable interval, and with some, the immunity period is very long or, in the case of chickenpox, lasts throughout life. With colds, however, the immunity given is so short as to be no safeguard; in fact many people suffer from a series of colds during the winter months.

An effective cure of this disease, however, exists in no system of medicine so far discovered. Every country spends a huge sum annually on the medicines meant for the cure of colds but they still persist and constantly undermine the health of people. But the Indian Yogis, who lived in all sorts of favourable and unfavourable climates and practised penance even over the snow clad tops of the Himalayas, had heroically and scientifically faced the problem of colds and discovered an excellent method of Yoga practice which is both preventive and curative. ‘Neti’ is the name that they gave to this practice. It means a practice of ‘unlimited benefits’. And rightly did they call it so; the mischief of cold and catarrh, as we shall see, knows no bounds and the ‘Neti’ nips them in the bud. It is an infallible ‘Sadhana’ that our Yogis have left for us and we should be grateful to them for this. Before actually learning the ‘Sadhana’, it is necessary to understand the nature of colds and how they act.