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The word catarrh means a flow. Nasal catarrh is therefore a flow from the nose and is one of the first symptoms of the common cold, influenza, bronchitis etc. Although catarrh can attack various surfaces of the body, the word is chiefly used to denote an inflamed condition of the mucous membrane which lines the inside of the nose. In an average case, little needs to be done beyond treating the cold, but if the catarrh condition persists long after the cold has disappeared, it certainly must not be neglected. It may become chronic and set up various secondary complications, even to causing disease in the bones of the nose, deafening the ears, affecting eye-sight, injuring the lungs and even the stomach.

Catarrh is, however, more often used to describe the condition of chronic discharge from the nose which exists in some people almost without intermission. The symptoms which accompany it may not be as violent as in the common cold, but it can occasion much ill-health and discomfort. It is to the chronic type of catarrh that we shall refer in this section.

So prevalent is catarrh that it has come to be considered by many suffers as a necessary evil. This is the wrong point of view – where the medicine fails Yoga extends the comforting hand. ‘Neti’ shows its marvels and bestows the state of perfect health upon the patient.

This disease should in no case be let to persist on, for though catarrh is in one sense a minor ailment, it has, like any other chronic inflammation, a harmful effect on the whole system, and the catarrh victim cannot be a healthy person. Moreover, catarrh, if untreated, may fead to permanent deafness.

Any long standing inflammation in the neighbourhood of the nose is liable to cause catarrh by constantly re-infecting nasal mucous membrane until a state of chronic discharge sets in. Such danger spots may arise from sinus infection, septic tonsils or adenoids, middle-ear disease or decayed teeth.

We saw that the sinuses, which are hollow air-chambers communicating with the nostrils on either side, may become acutely inflamed during the course of a cold in the head. This is more likely to occur if the individual’s resistance is lowered by faulty diet and poor hygiene, or if the infection is a particularly virulent one. Acute infection of a sinus is accompanied by thick yellow discharge from the nose and severe pain of throbbing, bursting character in the eye and cheek or brow. There is often swelling to the inner or outside of the eye.

Such a condition, unless treated, is liable to give rise to chronic discharge of yellow and foulsmelling pus from the nose, an extremely unhealthy and unpleasant state of affairs for the sufferer and highly infectious, even in the chronic form, to other people. A person with sinus disease should avoid using the same towels, cups and so on, as other members of the house hold.

The tonsils, if enlarged and inflamed are a frequent cause of nasal catarrh. Less often, but in a fair number of cases, a septic mouth may bring inflammation of the pharynx and thence of the nasal mucous membrane. The decayed teeth or inflamed gums may be a source of catarrh.

Sometimes a discharging ear, though not severe enough, may, through the Eustachian tube, give rise to chronic nasal catarrh which the sufferer thinks has arisen in the ordinary way, as a primary condition.

Catarrh in young children is usually due to adenoids. When catarrh is due to adenoids the condition is aggravated by the fact that the adenoids block up the back of the nose and restrict air entry. This factor of restricted air will, in-deed, of itself be sufficient to pre-dispose to catarrh, and for this reason it is more common in people with long high noses in which the air passage is narrower than in those whose nostrils are low and broad.

Lack of symmetry in the nostrils is another cause of deficient air entry, and it occurs when the nasal septum is deflected to one side or the other side. Anything which leads to obstruction of air entry into the nose brings about congestion an unhealthy mucous membrane, and a liability to infection. This effect is increased in stagnant, indoor atmospheres, but whereas the person with a normally constructed nose may escape, the one with an anatomic defect “catches cold after cold” till finally, a condition of chronic catarrh is set up. Such a person is advised to practise the ‘Pranayama’ regularly in open air.

In many cases susceptibility to nasal catarrh is due to anatomical abnormalities in the interior of the nose, the result of some minor accident of childhood or early youth.

Nasal polypi are another cause of obstruction. Polypi are small, pendulous sacs of inflammatory tissue formed as a result of irritation of the mucous membrane. The polypi hang down into the nasal cavity, causing varying degrees of blockage and catarrh according to their size. They can only be detected by expert examination of the nose.

Causes of chronic catarrh have been traced to eye-strain and gastric disturbances also. Both conditions tend to produce congestion of blood in the nose and pre-dispose to invasion by infection.

A form of catarrh associated with thickening and over growth of the nasal mucous membrane and giving rise to the feeling of a permanent cold in the head, but without much flow from the nose, is to be found in highly strung people. It may cause mouth-breathing and snoring, and the subject is constantly trying to blow the nose without much success.

Smell which is dependent on the little nerve ending in the lining of the nose, is impaired when the membrane becomes swollen.

Taste is intimately connected with smell, so that, when smell is lost there is some alteration of taste and altogether a diminished acuteness of what we may call the finer sensitiveness of the mouth and nose.

The eyes are connected with the nose by a duct which drains their moisture into the nose. When the inflammation spreads to this duct it losses its function and the moisture now begins to overflow on to the face and the eyes remain full of water. Or actual inflammation may spread from the duct to the transparent membrane covering the eyes, and they become red and ‘blood shot.’ If the condition of cold persists longer the eye-sight is also affected.

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.