Care of Covid Postive patient at home

                                         Care of Covid patient at home

It really give a bad ache and stress when the report comes positive - Covid positive . 

Chills run through the spine and we start looking for help.

It increases our stress to double when after looking around the city hospitals we got to know that all beds are full . Patient is advised for home quarantine. 

Home quarantine I mean is it good and will it help us . This is the very first question which comes in our mind and will he make it at home ... what next and bla bla ...mind goes blank the only horrible word which keeps nagging is Covid positive .

So my dear friends here I am going to share you principles of management of a suspected / confirmed mild case of Covid 19 and few very basic but necessary equipments and Ayurvedic herbs to be kept at home to win this viral fight .

                                           

Herbs :-

• Haridra - turmeric powder or raw turmeric ( curcuma long )
• Chirata- (Swertia Chirata)
• Pippali-(long pepper)
• Sonth - Sunthi (dried ginger powder )
• Dalachini - (cinnamon) 
• Amla powder -( indian gooseberry)
• Tulsi patra - ( basil leaves )
• Giloy patra - ( tinospora cordifolia )

Make out decoction ( kwath /kadha ) out of all herbs . For this decoction take all the herbs in 6 glasses of water and boil well and reduce to two glasses . Then divide in 4 equal portions and drink this decoction four times day . 

This decoction gives tremendous effect over body ache cold and fever .

If patient feels itchy throat then you can give a mixture of Talishadi churna and Sitopaldi churna 2gms 4 times a day with honey if non diabetic Otherwise with Luke warm water and gargle with Luke warm water . 

In addition to these herbs we must follow the basic three immune boosting supplements as follows :-

• Vitamin C - tablet Limcee ( it’s available by this name in Indian market )
• Vitamin D - calcirol sachets (it’s available by this name in Indian market 
• Zinc supplements-Zinc (Nature Made Zinc - it’s available by this name in Indian Market )

This is all about herbs  and supplements, now I am going to tell  you about the Equipments . 

Let’s take them one by one 

• Pulse oximeter-        it’s a very basis device and you must keep it with you to check oxygen saturation in system which  is denoted as SPO2 . Oxygen Saturation between 100%to 95 % is generally considered to be normal oxygen level .. However , an SpO2 Reading of 93% or less suggests that body is poorly saturated and immediately need hospitalization and proper oxygen supply . This machine also shows pulse rate . According to the studies pulse rate values  for adults range from 60 to 100 beats per minutes average 72 bpm.

• Large balloons - which help you in respiratory exercises.
• Straw - reusable  straw / plastic straw / sipping straw . 

Now let me tell you about those basis principles as I mentioned above . So the very first and basis principle is to increase your immune system , followed by decreasing the viral load followed by pranayam and maintaining your posture while sleeping.

• Increase Body Immune System- Immunity.

Immunity is the very first part of defense of our system For fighting any infection and same is applied with fighting with Covid 19 infection .

So it’s very important that we must have very good diet that is rich in vitamins minerals for that we need real food , colour full vegetables and fruits and we must minimize any junk , packed or processed food , including alcohol, smoking and any kind of fizzy drinks .

Also keep in mind that you have to keep yourself well hydrated throughout the day with water with very good sound sleep of at least 8 hours and don’t forget to meditate to keep your mind calm because as the name suggests Covid our minds are every much determined what will happen to our matter to our body. So its  quite necessary to keep ourselves calm  and keep  Pranayam practices. Some people call out respiratory exercises. 

• Decrease viral load -

If you are healthy  and Covid negative - For this keep face mask  and glasses on if you are going out due to some necessary reason . Keep a Social distance of 2 meters if not possible at least 1 meter.

If the person who is Covid positive at home starts itchy throat sore throat stuffy nose fever dry cough running nose loss of taste and loss of smell then is   important to start Working on diluting that viral load straight away . So the most important thing in decreasing viral load is to start gargling with Luke warm  or warm water and better if you add betadine  mouth rinse. In addition to rinsing your mouth also rinse your nose . For this you can use use Nasovion Saline Nasal spray.

For this you can just spray up into each nostril and you can repeat as many time you want to .

One other better option is homemade saline water made up of 100 ml of boiled then cooled water then add three four drops of betadine concentrate and fill into spray bottle and drop into each nostril this will dilute the viral load . Much better then this is if you make up a nasals saline rinse . For this you can a jal neti device or nasal rinsing bottles and in that just put 250 ml of boiled cold water and into that add half teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate and half a teaspoon of salt and in addition to that add few drops of betadine and mix well then with this do this procedure over the sink and direct the flow of this mixture into one nostril and let the mixture come through your mouth . Don’t drink it . This will clear viral load and flush through the nasal .

• One more method to decrease viral load is steam inhalation by using zandu Blam of Vick or pudine hara or eucalyptus oil or Karvol plus capsules in Boiling water . While steaming yourself or Covid patient at home cover his face which towel and steam under it .avoid fan or AC during this procedure .

• Pranayam or respiratory exercise - blow up balloons 3 to 5 times in a day. For this inhale nicely and then blow the balloon and empty your lung and fill the balloon well . You can repeat this process .If you have no balloons at home then inhale well and blow up air through your mouth and wait for few seconds then again inhale , stop wait and exhale then again stop then again inhale . You can do Anulom vilom paranayam too .If somehow you are not  comfortable with this you can use straws as i meantioned above . Put some water in bottle and put straw in it and blow air in it . This is also a kind of respiratory exercise.

• Last but not the least the very important point is posture while sleeping ,whenever you are going to sleep, sleep on over abdomen side with a pillow under you . That will help you breath well and  that will avoid precipitation of fluid at the base of lungs .

In between you keep in touch with your doctor and keep following his advisory and prescription as mentioned according to the guidelines.

I hope this will help you and you will follow it and keep yourself calm and healthy . 

If you like this informative then do share like and comment.

In-service 

Dr Rajshree R singh 

Ayurvedic Consultant