Pranayama Instructions

Nadi Sodhana:

Following steps instruct on how to perfrom the nadi sodhana pranayama:

• Sit down in a comfortable place assuming a cross legged position
• Now use your thumb (right hand) to close the right side of your nose. Inhale deeply using the left nostril
• Now close the left nostril and exhale using the right one
• In the same way, now with the left nostril still closed, inhale using the right nostril and exhale with the left one

You can continue doing this exercise for around 10 – 15 times.

Shitali Pranayama:

Sheetal also means cool, and this pranayama technique will help you achieve the same. To perform shitali pranayama, be seated in a comfortable position. Cross your legs and take five to six deep breaths to get yourself prepared.

Now open your mouth in a “O” shape and start to inhale through the mouth. When you exhale, do so with your nose.
This can be repeated five to ten times.

Ujjayi Pranayama

Ujjayi means the ocean and this pranayama is about mimicking the oceanic sound or the sound of the waves.
To do this, be seated in a comfortable position crossing your legs. Now start to inhale and exhale deeply using your mouth.

While doing this, constrict your throat as if something is choaking it when you exhale and inhale the air. This will produce a sound similar to the ocean when you breath.

Now close your mouth and start to breath using your nose, but maintain the same tone to your throat so you still continue to make the same sound as your breath.

You can repeat this prayanama breathing exercise for about ten to fifteen times.

Kapalabhati Pranayama:

To perform the kapalabhati pranayama technique, sit in a comfortable position crossing your legs. Perform two to three deep inhales and exhales.

Now inhale deeply and exhale forcefully drawing all the air out. Your belly should be drawn in, as you exhale.

When you inhale, let it happen passively without you making any effort to inhale as the belly goes back to normal position.

Exhale forcefully again and continue doing this for about 20 to 30 times.

Dirga Pranayama – Three Part Breathing

The dirga pranayam is a bit different from other types as it involves lying down on your back instead of being in a seated position. This technique involves very deep inhalation and exhalation.

To perform this panayama, lie down on your back and close your eyes. Breath normally and then slowly take deep breaths, relaxing your body.

Now inhale a lot of air in slowly to fill your belly up. Your belly should rise up like a balloon. Hold this position for a few seconds and exhale drawing the belly inwards ensure there is no air left.

In the second step, inhale deeply to fill up the belly. Inhale a bit more to fill up air in your rib cage. When you exhale, exhale air from your rib cage and then from your belly.

In the third step, inhale deeply to fill up your belly and rib cage with air. Inhale a bit more to fill up your heart center (area around the heart) with air. When you exhale, exhale air from the heart center, then the rib cage and then the belly.

Repeat the whole process for five to six times

Viloma Pranayama

Viloma Pranayama involves praused breathing at regular intervals and can be divided into two stages. The first stage is called ‘paused inhalation’ and the second stage is called ‘paused exhalation’. Let’s look at these stages in detail:

Viloma Paused Inhalation:

• Lie down in a comfortable position and try to relax. Breath deeply, but normally.
• Now inhale for 2 to 3 seconds and pause. Hold your breath for two seconds and then restart inhalation. Pause inhalation again after 2 to seconds. Inhale again. Repeat this process untill the lungs feel full of air.
• Exhale now, slowly, till you feel empty of air.

Viloma Paused Exhalation:

The paused exhalation is the exact opposite of the inhalation process. In this case, you inhale deeply and normally without interuption, but exhale with regular pauses.

Anuloma Pranayama

Just like Viloma Anuloma is about alternate nostril breathing. In this case, the inhalation and exhalation is done with one nostril blocked and the other partially open. Some variations of the yoga are granular anuloma.

This type of pranayama is particularly useful in clensing the nasal passages and creating calmness within.

What is the Importance of Pranayama?

Practice of pranayama has been reported to be beneficial in treating a range of stress related disorders, improving autonomic functions, relieving symptoms of asthma, stuttering and reducing signs of oxidative stress. Pranayama techniques are also effective for depression cure. Practice of prayanama develops a steady mind, strong will-power and sound judgment. In addition regular pranayama helps extends life and enhance perception

In old age, the respiratory function decreases due to the contraction of the air cells of the lungs, which therey takes in less oxygen. Prayanama will help to normalize their size and make the red corpuscles circulate in all parts of the body, infusing life and vigor throughout. Through regular practice of Pranayama even old people can delay the ageing process.

What is Pranayama?

Yoga science of breathing is called prayanama. It is control of Breath. The way you breath gives you benefits in number of ways.

Where to Perform Pranayama yoga?

Any cool and pleasant open space (like your balcony, terrace, park, etc) where plenty of fresh air is available. Pranayama techniques are best practiced while sitting on the floor on a folded blanket. In this posture the back is kept erect from the base of the spine to the neck and perpendicular to the floor. Bad and poorly performed posture will lead to shallow breathing and low endurance.

When to Perform Pranayama?

Pranayama yoga must be performed in empty stomach. One must empty the bladder and bowels before starting pranayama yoga. The best time for practice is the early morning, preferably before sunrise when the pollution is at its lowest level, and the body and brain are still free. However, if morning is unsuitable, pranayama may be practiced after sunset, when the air is cool and pleasant.

Some major types of pranayama yoga are as follows:

• Nadi Sodhana
• Shitali Pranayama
• Ujjayi Pranayama
• Kapalabhati Pranayama
• Digra Pranayama
• Bhastrika Pranayama
• Bahya Pranayama
• Bhramari Pranayama
• Udgit pranayama
• Anuloma & Viloma Pranayama
• Agnisar Kriya

Water is absolutely essential to the human body’s survival. A person can live for about a month without food, but only about a week without water.

During any normal day, fluid losses occur continuously, from skin evaporation, breathing, urine, and stool, and these losses must be replaced daily for good health. When your water intake does not equal your output, you can become dehydrated. Fluid losses are accentuated in warmer climates, during strenuous exercise, in high altitudes, and in older adults, whose sense of thirst may not be as sharp.

Let us find out some more important and inspiring reasons for drinking more water.

1. Drinking Water Helps Maintain the Balance of Body Fluids. Your body is composed of about 60% water. The functions of these bodily fluids include digestion, absorption, circulation, creation of saliva, transportation of nutrients, and maintenance of body temperature.

When you’re low on fluids, the brain triggers the body’s thirst mechanism. And unless you are taking medications that make you thirsty, you should listen to those cues and get yourself a drink of water, juice, milk or coffee — anything but alcohol. Alcohol interferes with the brain and kidney communication and causes excess excretion of fluids which can then lead to dehydration.

Water leads to increased energy levels. The most common cause of daytime fatigue is actually mild dehydration.

2. Water Can Help Control Calories. For years, dieters have been drinking lots of water as a weight loss strategy. While water doesn’t have any magical effect on weight loss, substituting it for higher calorie beverages can certainly help.

What works with weight loss is if you choose water or a non-caloric beverage over a caloric beverage and/or eat a diet higher in water-rich foods that are healthier, more filling, and help you trim calorie intake.

Food with high water content tends to look larger, its higher volume requires more chewing, and it is absorbed more slowly by the body, which helps you feel full. Water-rich foods include fruits, vegetables, broth-based soups, oatmeal, and beans.

Water helps to maintain healthy body weight by increasing metabolism and regulating appetite.

3. Water Helps Energize Muscles. Cells that don’t maintain their balance of fluids and electrolytes shrivel, which can result in muscle fatigue. When muscle cells don’t have adequate fluids, they don’t work as well and performance can suffer.

Drinking enough fluids is important when exercising. During exercise, fluids should be drunk at regular intervals to replace fluids lost by sweating.

Being dehydrated can severely hamper your athletic activities, slowing you down and making it harder to lift weights. Exercise requires additional water, so be sure to hydrate before, during and after exercise.

4. Water Helps Keep Skin Looking Good. Your skin contains plenty of water, and functions as a protective barrier to prevent excess fluid loss.

Dehydration makes your skin look drier and wrinkled, which can be improved with proper hydration. But once you are adequately hydrated, the kidneys take over and excrete excess fluids.

You can also help “lock” moisture into your skin by using moisturizer, which creates a physical barrier to keep moisture in.

5. Water Helps Your Kidneys. Body fluids transport waste products in and out of cells. Your kidneys do an amazing job of cleansing and ridding your body of toxins as long as your intake of fluids is adequate.

When you’re getting enough fluids, urine flows freely, is light in color and free of odor. When your body is not getting enough fluids, urine concentration, color, and odor increases because the kidneys trap extra fluid for bodily functions.

If you chronically drink too little, you may be at higher risk for kidney stones, especially in warm climates.

6. Water Helps Maintain Normal Bowel Function. Adequate hydration keeps things flowing along your gastrointestinal tract and prevents constipation. When you don’t get enough fluid, the colon pulls water from stools to maintain hydration — and the result is constipation.

Adequate fluid and fiber is the perfect combination, because the fluid pumps up the fiber and acts like a broom to keep your bowel functioning properly.

7. Water Helps in Preventing Many Serious Health Problems. Drinking adequate amounts of water can decrease the risk of certain types of cancers, including colon cancer, bladder cancer, and breast cancer. Water also reduces your risk of heart attack.

8. Water Helps Reducing Joint and Back Pain. For a majority of sufferers, drinking water can significantly reduce joint and/or back pain. Water cushions and lubes your joints and muscles.

Tips to Help You Drink More

If you think you need to be drinking more, here are some tips to increase your fluid intake and reap the benefits of water:

• Have a beverage with every snack and meal.
• Choose beverages you enjoy; you’re likely to drink more liquids if you like the way they taste.
• Eat more fruits and vegetables. Their high water content will add to your hydration. About 20% of our fluid intake comes from foods.
• Keep a bottle of water with you in your car, at your desk, or in your bag.
• Choose beverages that meet your individual needs. If you’re watching calories, go for non-caloric beverages or water.

Level of Water for Adults

For healthy sedentary adults living in temperate climates:

Men: 125 oz (3.7 liters) of water per day from all dietary sources
Women: 91 oz (2.7 liters) of water per day from all dietary sources

For most people, this amount of water per day is a lot more than they normally drink. The requirement for men is roughly 1 gallon per day. How many of you men out there drink this much water every single day? For the women, 91 ounces is roughly 3 quarts.

However, an exercising athlete can lose enormous quantities of body water through perspiration. The recommendations listed above don’t apply to endurance athletes.

How Much You Need to Drink Water

The optimum amount of water you should drink depends on your body weight. The fatter you are, the more you need to drink.

Take one-half of the amounts of your weight in pounds and convert that to ounces and that is how many ounces you should be drinking. Thus, if you weigh 128 pounds, you should be drinking 64 ounces a day. If you weigh 300 pounds, you need to drink 150 ounces a day. You can’t just categorize any liquid consumption as being adequate to meet the recommended amount– for example, coffee is a diuretic and causes you to lose water, so you wouldn’t want to try meeting your daily water requirements with large quantities of that.

Diagnosing Allergies

Some allergies are fairly easy to identify because the pattern of symptoms following exposure to certain allergens can be hard to miss. But other allergies are less obvious because they can masquerade as other conditions.

If your child has cold-like symptoms lasting longer than a week or two or develops a “cold” at the same time every year, consult your doctor, who will likely ask questions about the symptoms and when they appear. Based on the answers to these questions and a physical exam, the doctor may be able to make a diagnosis and prescribe medications or may refer you to an allergist for allergy skin tests and more extensive therapy.

To determine the cause of an allergy, allergists usually perform skin tests for the most common environmental and food allergens.

If reactions to a food or other allergen are severe, a blood test may be used to diagnose the allergy so as to avoid exposure to the offending allergen. Skin tests are less expensive and more sensitive than blood tests for allergies. But blood tests may be required in children with skin conditions or those who are extremely sensitive to a particular allergen.

Even if a skin test and/or a blood test show an allergy, a child must also have symptoms to be definitively diagnosed with an allergy. For example, a toddler who has a positive test for dust mites and sneezes frequently while playing on the floor would be considered allergic to dust mites.

Treating Allergies

There is no real cure for allergies, but it is possible to relieve symptoms. The only real way to cope with them is to reduce or eliminate exposure to allergens. That means that parents must educate their kids early and often, not only about the allergy itself, but also about what reaction they will have if they consume or come into contact with the allergen.

Informing any and all caregivers (childcare personnel, teachers, extended family members, parents of your child’s friends, etc.) about your child’s allergy is equally important.

If reducing exposure isn’t possible or is ineffective, medications may be prescribed, including antihistamines (which you can also buy over the counter) and inhaled or nasal spray steroids.

In some cases, an allergist may recommend immunotherapy (allergy shots) to help desensitize your child. However, allergy shots are only helpful for allergens such as dust, mold, pollens, animals, and insect stings. They’re not used for food allergies, and someone with food allergies must avoid that food.

Tips to avoid Airborne Allergens –

Here are some things that can help kids avoid airborne allergens:

1.         Keep family pets out of certain rooms, like your child’s bedroom, and bathe them if necessary.

2.         Remove carpets or rugs from your child’s room (hard floor surfaces don’t collect dust as much as carpets do).

3.         Don’t hang heavy drapes and get rid of other items that allow dust to accumulate.

4.         Clean frequently.

5.         Use special covers to seal pillows and mattresses if your child is allergic to dust mites.

6.         For kids allergic to pollen, keep the windows closed when the pollen season is at its peak, change their clothing after they’ve been outdoors, and don’t let them mow the lawn.

Keep kids who are allergic to mold away from damp areas, such as basements, and keep bathrooms and other mold-prone areas clean and dry.

The good news is that only a very small group of kids will experience severe or life-threatening allergies. With proper diagnosis, preventive measures, and treatment, most kids can keep their allergies in check and live happy, healthy lives.

I am writing this article in continuation of my earlier post about ‘Allergies in Children – Why, Who is prone and Which all types?’

 It’s so important to detect the allergy symptoms soon. The physician will be surely there to confirm the allergy but as a parent you should at least be informed about the symptoms of possible allergies in children. Allergy symptoms in children often resemble the signs that indicate they are tired or catching a cold. It is important then, that you know what the common allergies are for children, what may trigger these allergies, and what to do if your child has an allergic reaction to something.

The type and severity of allergy symptoms vary from allergy to allergy and child to child. Symptoms can range from minor or major seasonal annoyances (for example, from pollen or certain molds) to year-round problems (from allergens like dust mites or food). Because different allergens are more prevalent in different parts of the world, allergy symptoms can also vary depending on where you live. For example, peanut allergy is unknown in Scandinavia, where they don’t eat peanuts, but is common in the United States, where peanuts are not only a popular food, but are also found in many of the things we eat.

Allergy or Sickness?

 The most common and least dangerous allergy symptoms include red and itchy eyes, dark circles under the eyes, stuffy or runny nose, and general fatigue. Unfortunately, these are the same symptoms children display when they are starting to get sick. One way to tell if any of these symptoms is an indication of a virus or an allergy is to notice how quickly the symptoms appear. If a child is exposed to an allergy trigger, the reactive symptoms will become visible almost immediately or within a few hours. In addition, if the child does not have a fever, you should consider the possibility of an allergy.

 Triggers of Allergy Symptoms in Children

 Some obvious triggers are food, pet dander, indoor airborne inhalants such as dust or mold, and outdoor pollens. In these cases, you can often see, or at least identify the cause and connect it to the subsequent symptoms. Sometimes, however, it is more difficult to identify the cause of the symptoms because you may not even be aware that your child has been in the vicinity of the trigger.

Here  I am trying to consolidate the symptoms of common allergies which are triggered by different allergens.

Airborne Allergy Symptoms

Airborne allergens can cause something known as allergic rhinitis, which occurs in about 15% to 20% of Americans. It develops by 10 years of age and reaches its peak in the early twenties, with symptoms often disappearing between the ages of 40 and 60.

Symptoms can include:

• Sneezing
• Itchy nose and/or throat
• Nasal congestion
• Coughing

These symptoms are often accompanied by itchy, watery, and/or red eyes which are called allergic conjunctivitis. (When dark circles are present around the eyes, they’re called allergic “shiners.”) Those who react to airborne allergens usually have allergic rhinitis and/or allergic conjunctivitis. If a person has wheezing and shortness of breath, the allergy may have progressed to become asthma.

Itchy nose is also one of the symptoms usually observed. When a child has a cold, the nose will be stuffy or runny, but usually not accompanied by an itch. If your child is rubbing his nose often, you can be fairly certain that the stuffiness is due to an allergy. Allergies that cause this particular symptom are usually a reaction to airborne allergens such as dust or pollen.

Food Allergy Symptoms

The severity of food allergy symptoms and when they develop depends on:

1. How much of the food is eaten
2. The person’s sensitivity to the food

Symptoms of food allergies can include:

• Itchy mouth and throat when food is swallowed (some kids have only this symptom — called “oral allergy syndrome”)
• Hives (raised, red, itchy bumps)
• Eczematous rash
• Runny, itchy nose
• Abdominal cramps accompanied by nausea and vomiting or diarrhea (as the body attempts to flush out the food allergen)
• Difficulty breathing
• Shock

Insect Venom Allergy Symptoms

Being stung by an insect that a child is allergic to may cause some of these symptoms:

• Throat swelling
• Hives over the entire body
• Difficulty breathing
• Nausea
• Diarrhea
• Shock

Depending on how severe is the allergy the kind of symptoms varies. Below are the symptoms listed as per severity of the symptoms?

Mild Allergy Symptoms

Mild allergy symptoms can include:

•           Rash

•           Itchy, watery eyes

•           Congestion

Mild allergic reactions do not spread to other parts of the body.

Moderate Allergy Symptoms

Moderate allergic reactions can include symptoms that spread to other parts of the body, including:

•           Itchiness

•           Difficulty breathing

Severe Allergy Symptoms (Anaphylaxis)

Anaphylaxis is a rare, life-threatening emergency in which the body’s response to the allergen is sudden and affects the whole body. In rare instances, if the sensitivity to an allergen is extreme, a child may experience anaphylaxis (or anaphylactic shock) — a sudden, severe allergic reaction involving various systems in the body (such as the skin, respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, and cardiovascular system).

Allergy symptoms may begin with sudden itching of the eyes or face and within few minutes progress to more serious symptoms, including:

• Varying degrees of swellings that can make breathing and swallowing difficult (particularly of the face, throat, lips, and tongue in cases of food allergies)  
• Rapid drop in blood pressure
• Abdominal pain
• Cramps
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Mental confusion or dizziness    
• Unconsciousness
• Hives
• Tightness of the throat
• Hoarse voice
• Lightheadedness

Severe symptoms or reactions to any allergen, from certain foods to insect bites, require immediate medical attention. Also, if there is swelling anywhere around the mouth, such as lips or tongue, you can know that there is danger.

Anaphylaxis can happen just seconds after being exposed to a triggering substance or can be delayed for up to 2 hours if the reaction is from a food. It can involve various areas of the body.

Fortunately, though, severe or life-threatening allergies occur in only a small group of kids. In fact, the annual incidence of anaphylactic reactions is small — about 30 per 100,000 people — although those with asthma, eczema, or hay fever are at greater risk of experiencing them. Most anaphylactic reactions — up to 80% — are caused by peanuts or tree nuts.

Keep the details in mind and Take care !