Seasonal variation of chickenpox, mumps and rubella in Taiwanese children estimated by pediatric clinics

 S C Liu 1, J D Wang, C Y Lee, M C Chou

Affiliations expand

PMID: 10496162

Erratum in

J Microbiol Immunol Infect 1999 Jun;32(2):141

Abstract

To determine the seasonal variation of childhood infectious diseases in Taiwan, the incidence rates of chickenpox, mumps and rubella were studied by analyzing patient's records collected from pediatric clinics in northern, central, southern and eastern Taiwan from January 1, 1993 to December 31, 1993. The study revealed that a chickenpox outbreak was most likely to occur in autumn, followed by a second peak in spring, and the lowest rate in summer. In this study, the highest monthly incidence of chickenpox was 540 cases per 100,000 population. The highest incidence of mumps occurred in the spring, the second highest in autumn, and the lowest during summer. Cases of rubella occurred in the spring, summer and autumn, but not in the winter. The data on chickenpox from this study revealed a similar seasonal pattern every year to that of the Department of Health of the National Quarantine Service on Taiwan. The chickenpox virus is known to be relatively sensitive to elevations in ambient temperature and is characterized by its occurrence mainly in slightly humid seasons.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10496162/

measles occur throughout the year with peaks around March, while October-November are the low transmission months.

Appropriate season for measles immunisation campaign in India

J Singh 1, D C Jain, K K Datta

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PMID: 9163711

Abstract

Review of literature on the seasonality of measles in India reveals that measles occur throughout the year with peaks around March, while October-November are the low transmission months. The epidemics of measles however, occur any time during the year. Nevertheless, measles vaccination campaigns are carried out in India in the Month of March to increase the vaccine coverage levels. Being the low transmission season, October and November may be more appropriate for undertaking measles campaigns in India.

 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9163711/

Kapha builds up in winter, liquefies in spring and needs to be cleansed

 

By Anuradha Gupta | Posted: April 03, 2020

Do you feel like a hibernating bear emerging after winter? You are not alone. Kapha builds up in winter, liquefies in spring and needs to be cleansed. This time of year there is a possibility of clogging of mind-body channels, congestion, lethargy, skin manifestations, mucus build up, allergies, hay fever, sleep and evacuation disturbances, aching joints, heavy ama (toxins), weight gain, a decline in energy and lowered immunity. Agni (digestive and metabolic fire) declines.

Late winter and spring are Kapha season. Whether we have Kapha Dosha in our Prakriti (body constitution), Vikrati (imbalance) or are influenced by the change in season; we have to be mindful about following a Kapha regimen. 

Given the current worldwide health challenges, please use caution utilizing any cleanse regimen, as cleanses can sometimes make you more vulnerable physically. It is strongly encouraged to seek medical advice before starting a lengthy or involved cleanse regimen.

What kind of routine would be strengthening right now?  Ayurveda is a science that is in tune with nature and following a seasonal regimen, Ritucharya, comes naturally to us, for instance we dress warmly in winter, and spring ordinarily prompts us to go out and exercise more. Spring is nature’s new year, a cue for us to cleanse clutter from our body, mind and environment, and rejuvenate. 

Balancing Kapha Dosha - Kapha is unctuous, cool, heavy, slow, smooth, soft and static. Like increases like and opposites balance. Examples of how to balance this are: exercise and movement; eating light, dry food; staying warm by wearing warm attire, avoiding cold exposure, and having food/liquids that are warm in temperature or potency. Be mindful of your own Vikrati (imbalance)

Spring Diet –Eat regular light nourishing meals; avoid snacking, ensure lunch is the main meal of the day and have an early dinner. Avoid heavy, oily, processed, junk food and too much of sweet, salty, sour, raw or fermented foods. Favor light, warm, easy to digest meals, and bitter, pungent, astringent tastes. Try seasonal fruits, high fiber, well spiced, steamed, baked or grilled veggies, light soups, sprouted legumes, pomegranate, peaches, oranges, berries and apples. Seasonal vegetables like bitter greens, turnips, celery, bitter melon (available at Indian grocery stores), eggplant and cabbage are great; as are grains like barley, corn, quinoa, millet, wheat and basmati rice, plus mung beans and legumes. Use organic honey and jaggery (available at Indian grocery stores) as sweeteners. Have dairy and nuts in moderation. Takra, sometimes called Indian buttermilk, made by adding water to yogurt and churning it, is fine to take during this season. Go easy on oils and fatty food. All spices like holy basil, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, ginger, garlic, paprika, coriander, fennel, parsley and turmeric are great. 

Sleep - Avoid late nights, get enough sleep and avoid day time sleep which causes build-up of kapha. Make sure to get good rest; it improves our immunity. 

Home Cleaning – Nature and our environment is an extension of ourselves. Try cleaning the clutter in the house and spend time doing creative hobbies like gardening which connect you with nature. Doing even a little spring cleaning at a time improves the Vastu, energy, in the house and makes you feel lighter! 

Yoga – Build in more exercise and energetic yoga like sun salutations, warrior and triangle pose, Padmasadhana sequence and Yoga Nidra. Your pranayama could be warming like Bhastrika (Bellows breath) and Kapal Bhati , but be mindful of contraindications. Nadi Shodhan (alternate nostril breathing) and full Yogic breathing would be very soothing. Dress warmly to avoid cold exposure if you are able to go outside for cycling or walking.

Meditation – A good way to get rid of lethargy and improve immunity is to meditate. Taking care of the mind is as important as any cleanse, or for that matter any Ayurvedic regimen like Dinacharya. This article is written at a time many of us are struggling with stress and anxiety. Try a guided meditation. Here is a free webinar if you want to learn on how to calm the mind and change your life for good.

7. Cleansing Protocol – Spring is normally the best time for a cleanse in the US, however, since we are going through a pandemic at this time, for some a cleanse could be a challenge. The objective should be to have balanced, regular, nutritious, easy to digest foods, kindle Agni with spices and be mindful with respect to rejuvenating gently, because a cleanse is inherently depleting. Here are 5 reasons to spring cleanse your body and mind every year.

An Ayurveda cleanse differs from other cleanses as referenced in this article on fall cleansing. It is individualized, done under the guidance of an Ayurvedic professional, involves decluttering the mind and lifestyle and most importantly involves a pre-cleanse and a post-cleanse rejuvenation, or Rasayana. 

Under normal circumstances, this is how you could do a mild home cleanse using Ayurveda principles: 

You could start with a pre-cleanse for 3-4 days, which involves a news media detox and stress reduction protocol with gentle yoga and pranayama. Cut down on processed food and reduce caffeine. Drink warm water with lemon and honey in the morning and sip herbal ginger or CCF tea ( cumin, coriander, fennel) during the day (1 tsp each boiled in six cups of water). Do a light Abhyanga (self-massage) with sesame, olive, dharani, or mustard oil; keep it on for about 20 minutes. Follow it up with steaming (Swedana) which you could even do in the bathroom if tolerated well. Have a warm shower. If your skin is naturally oily, you could do a dry massage, or under the guidance of an Ayurvedic professional, Udvartana, an Ayurvedic powder massage.

During the actual cleanse (for about a week) your diet should be light. In the morning have warm water, lemon and honey; you can add a pinch of cinnamon, sip warm water or herbal tea all day, (you could boil curry leaves in water, cool and drink that). Half hour before lunch or dinner, have  ½ tsp Ginger Juice + ½ tsp Honey and a Pinch of Trikatu (a combination of Black Pepper, Long Pepper and Dry Ginger in equal measures).  Avoid this if you have Pitta Vikrati (e.g. hyperacidity). You could take a cleansing herb like Ritu Haritaki or Triphala at bedtime.

Note: Take Herbs only as prescribed by your Ayurvedic Practitioner. 

During the cleanse the light diet should constitute dry, warm, well-spiced and easy to digest foods. A good example would be a mono diet of khichdi, sometimes spelled kitchari, (a specific lentil/rice combination) with veggies and ghee or any easy to digest traditional food. You could have steamed sprouted moong chaat with lemon and cilantro chutney, or poha (beaten rice) with peas and greens for breakfast, followed by khichdi and steamed veggies for lunch and a dinner consisting of light clear soups and steamed veggies. Sip warm CCF or ginger tea, or tea with warming spices like tulsi, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon or dandelion.

This is followed by a post-cleanse Rasayana or rejuvenation phase for at least a week or more, the most important phase to avoid depletion. Make sure to rest and nourish yourself. Return back to your regular diet slowly; do eat healthy. Avoid heavy, oily, cold, processed, junk food, leftovers, saturated fats, dairy, sugar, soda and alcohol. Rasayana herbs that you could take are Guduchi Rasayana, Adrak Rasayana, Chyawanprash or add ghee and honey to your diet if tolerated well; if you’ve been taking Ritu Haritaki or Triphala, taper it off now. You may find all these Rasayana and herbs online at Sri Sri Tattva.

Following a seasonal regimen helps to build immunity. As we navigate a difficult world situation, turn to your inner resilience for we are together in this; in the words of Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, “We have an opportunity to come together as one humanity; to work together, to learn and grow together.” Coming together is a principle of Kapha which is loving and nurturing and involves a slower pace. Don’t lose heart; this shall pass and that is the kind of hope that spring brings. Stay safe!

If you would like to try Art of Living’s free online guided meditation session and know more about SKY Breath Meditation, join Beyond Breath.

Spring is the kapha time of year

Spring is the kapha time of year, which means that the earth and water elements are taking over (otherwise known as mud season). I live on a dirt road that is now a mud road. Even the spring snow is heavy and wet, not light and fluffy like it was back in the subzero temps of early January.

As the temperature shifts, you might begin to feel some shifts in your body: a desire for more exercise and time outside, and a craving for lighter meals rather than the dense soups, stews, and casseroles that nourish us in fall and winter. Now’s the time to replace heavy, oily, sour, and sweet foods with foods that are pungent, bitter, astringent, dry, and light.

Eating seasonally is likely the most intuitive diet you can practice. Start with foraging at local farmers markets or joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm. At the grocery store, look for what’s on sale in the produce section—if you see pyramids of a particular fruit or vegetable, it’s likely in seasonal abundance.

Eat Lean, Eat Green

Every year, I get so excited when my town’s farmers market starts up in late spring. Ready to load up with the bountiful spring harvest, I go to the first week’s market and come home with a skimpy bagful of radishes, ramps (wild onion), and, if I’m lucky, asparagus. Spring is lean up here in the Berkshires. My body is so ready for bitter alkaline foods by this point, and there isn’t much here.

From an Ayurvedic point of view, this is just fine. Spring is the time of year to eat lean. All winter, I have been crushing pasta, stews, meats, and cheese. It’s time to reset the digestion and cleanse out the weight of the winter. In fact, spring and summer are the best seasons for eating vegetarian or vegan.

Go Light

Here are some ways to lighten up your diet this spring.

Favor vegetables and small legumes, like red lentils and mung beans.
Lay off meat, wheat, dairy, and sugar, which are all difficult to digest.
When choosing grains, swap out heavy wheat and oatmeal for lighter options like millet, quinoa, and barley.
Add lots of spices to your dishes, including black pepper, turmeric, ginger, garlic, cumin, and mustard seeds.
Get outside and forage for fiddleheads, ramps, dandelions, and nettles. Be sure to consult a foraging guide.
Eat green! Green everything. Your plate should be just as green as the fluorescent-green spring landscape.

https://kripalu.org/resources/how-eat-spring-according-ayurveda

Spring Detoxing, Ayurveda Style!

By Nadia Marshall

This is a copy of Nadia’s First Nutrition Column for Nova Magazine, published in July 2013

Every man, woman and their dog writes about cleansing at this time of year or offers some sort of super ultimate detox program. I am loathe to join in but can’t let my Spring nutrition column go by without giving the Ayurvedic perspective on detoxing. Why? Because a detox done well can help rebalance the body and prevent disease while a detox done badly can actually be quite harmful. Let me explain.

The change of seasons are great for detoxing and the change over from Winter to Spring is the best time of all! Throughout Winter the predominant elements building in the body/mind are Water and Earth, increasing ‘Kapha’ (you can think of Kapha as mucous). As it starts to warm up, this Kapha that has accumulated in the colder months begins to liquefy and move. This is why we are all more susceptible to mucousy colds as well as hay fever at this time of year.

In addition to the melting mucous, we also generally have a rather large stockpile of toxins to deal with post-Winter. Our tendency to eat heavier foods, splash out on comforting sweeties and cuddle up on the couch watching dvds instead of exercising can over-tax our digestion (‘Agni’ in sanskrit) and lead to the accumulation of undigested food wastes or toxins (‘Ama’ in sanskrit). Ayurveda teaches that these toxins/Ama gather in the digestive track but, given the right conditions, can overflow into the channels of the body, relocate into the tissues and eventually become the root cause of all disease. So it is very important to remove these toxins while they are still in the digestive tract.

So we’ve established we have some yucky, sticky, congestive stuff in our bodies that we need to get rid of. If our digestive fires were in perfect balance, it is possible that they would be able to burn up these toxins without a problem. But not many of us are in perfect balance, particularly at the juncture of the seasons – because they are a time of change. And any change, especially significant changes in the environment, will aggravate ‘Vata’.

Vata is made up of the Air and Ether elements within the body. It is responsible for governing all movement, communication and circulation so is closely associated with our nervous system. When Vata is increased it instantly affects our digestion which becomes like a fire blowing in the wind – flaring up one minute and nearly going out the next. As a result, it is pretty rare for our digestive fires to be strong enough at this time of year to mop up all the yucky stuff floating around. This is where an Ayurvedic Detox comes in.

An Ayurvedic Detox (or cleanse) does four things simultaneously:

1)     promotes stronger, more balanced Agni

2)     eliminates excess Kapha/mucous

3)     eliminates excess toxins/Ama

4)     doesn’t aggravate Vata.


Sounds complicated but you’ll be happy to hear how simple it is.

An Ayurvedic Detox involves the consumption of specific foods and drinks that are very light and easy to digest; foods that will cleanse the body but at the same time, promote stronger digestion. The detox foods of choice in Ayurveda are yellow mung daal (made from dried, split mung beans), mild spices, green veggies and papaya. Sometimes buckwheat and basmati rice are included if necessary. Herbal teas made from ginger, fennel, coriander and cumin sipped throughout the day also support the cleansing process enormously.

The food and drinks are important during an Ayurvedic Detox but just as critical is your lifestyle which can have a huge effect on the digestive fire throughout the cleansing process. Having a consistent routine including regular meal times and going to bed and getting up at a similar time each day is recommended. It is also important to stay warm, slow down, rest, relax and avoid stress and overwork as much as possible. Exercise should be kept to a minimum and only be very gentle such as walking, light gardening or restful yoga.

If have access to a good Ayurvedic Therapist, some Ayurvedic treatments can also help the detox process enormously including Pindaswed Massage. If you feel you need something extra to aid the process of elimination then take ¼-1 tsp of the Ayurvedic herbal preparation known as ‘Triphala’ in hot water before bed each evening throughout the cleansing process.

You might be wondering how the Ayurvedic approach to detoxing differs from all the other detox programs and products out there in the world. Obviously all approaches have the aim of eliminating toxins from the digestive tract and some programs and products even recommend herbs that help to increase metabolism. But most approaches recommend dietary (and other) techniques that actually significantly aggravate Vata and cause our Agni/digestive fire to become more imbalanced. For example juice fasts aggravate Vata, raw food fasts aggravate Vata and colonic irrigation deeply aggravates Vata. So although most detox approaches may eliminate Ama/toxins in the short term, they usually increase the production of Ama in the longer run and can leave the body depleted and the nervous system agitated.

The exact details of your Ayurvedic Detox would ideally be recommended by an Ayurvedic Practitioner based on your constitution and current state of health. For example, a Vata person who is very light and ethereal should not fast for long periods and may need to eat rice throughout to avoid dizziness.  A Kapha person who is robust and on the heavy side could handle a longer fast, eating just soups and juices the whole time. A more moderate Pitta person, on the other hand, might be somewhere in-between.

But, whatever your constitution, here is an Ayurvedic Detox menu appropriate for the majority of people:

Days 1-2

Breaky: Mung Daal Pancakes or Mung Daals Soup

Snacks: Stewed Apples or Fresh Papaya

Lunch: Mung Daal Soup with Greens or Veggie Soup

Dinner: Mung Daal Soup with Greens or Veggie Soup

Drinks: Ginger, Lemon and Honey Tea; Coriander/Cumin/Fennel Tea, Black Tea (no milk), Hot Water.

Days 3-5

Breaky: Buckwheat Pancakes or Mung Daals Pancakes

Snacks: Spicy Puffed Rice or Stewed Apples or Fresh Papaya

Lunch: Kicharee with Steamed or Stir-fry Greens

Dinner: Kicharee with Greens or Mung Daal Soup or Veggie Soup

Drinks: Ginger, Lemon and Honey Tea; Coriander/Cumin/Fennel Tea, Black Tea (no milk), Hot Water.

Cooking videos and recipes are available here.

When you’ve finished your detox, remember to ease back to your ‘normal’ diet over several days. Don’t celebrate the end of your cleanse with a 3 course meal and a bottle of wine! Instead, keep taking good care of your Agni and listening to what it needs. Introduce heavier foods slowly and steadily until you feel able to digest them with ease. This approach is like a ‘reset’ button for your entire system but particularly your digestion. You’ll feel amazing afterwards! So good, in fact, that you might be inspired to do it every year. Your health will surely thank you for it!


If you are in any doubt about your health please be sure to consult an Ayurvedic Practitioner or your local health physician.

http://www.muditainstitute.com/articles/ayurvedicnutrition/springdetoxing.html