Asthma and Bangalore

The city of  Bangalore is sensed with some amount of negativity by some or few because of the belief of an higher incidence of asthmatic attacks for children and adults alike. This is more prevalent in children where these attacks commence on as common cold gradually graduating into full fledged bronchial asthmatic attacks on a repetitive basis year after year accompanied by heavy cough sometimes with a deep whooping noise.

I  was myself a subject of such bouts of illness as a child and became a regular victim and can largely say that this ailment robbed me of my childhood depressing my general chest formation and the need to be on medicine. Franol , Periactin , lidermyzin all medicines I have taken and not to forget some injection called denzyllin. The main reason for me to translocate for higher education to a relatively warm place like Calicut was this ailment thereby getting rid of this disease once and for all. A weed called parthenium  was seen to be the propogater of this kind of asthma but have no proof to nail this as the only cause. At REC I did one thing constructive..an attempt to build my chest and stamina to act as some kind of immunization against such onslaughts and spend considerable amount of time during my formative years into such efforts at REC.

There was a  gym in the ground floor of the B hostel where I did  bench pressing which means lifting weights and also trained myself into running upto ten rounds around the foot ball court. I don't regret having spend time into all these efforts as it helped me get my heath aspects into control. I learned Yoga too. At the gym I used to regularly meet Vinayak Prabhakar More my senior and his room mate Sunil Chilar.

What is the reason for asthmatic attacks in Bangalore ? I have always wondered. I have got an answer. Cold winds.....Selectively in my view cold winds sweep through Bangalore during the winter months somewhere starting in September and extending to the end of February a full six months in all and a sizable part of the year. Note that prior to these months is the rainy season that renders the various lakes and tanks of the city full and many peripheral areas becoming plush with vegetation. I presume these cold winds that are aggressive almost during the day intensifies during the nights bringing down the temperature to around 12 degrees Celsius. It is not the cold that does the harm it is the winds.

Somewhere in my view point these winds have their source to almost far off  Siberia and descend into india through the crevices of the Himalayas progressing through the Vindya Sathpuri mountains and thereafter encountering the Deccan plateau which is a conical structure formed by Western and Eastern Ghats on either sides ..the winds intensifying in rapacity owing to this bottle neck and constraint and the city of Bangalore is almost at a vantage point that faces the fury of this gush becoming colder as it passes along the wet bodies

 of the  city which are brimming due to the rains few months earlier. These winds must be progressing even further downwards into the Indian ocean. The city of Bangalore is in an continental wind belt and especially when house holds and habitats are on this belt are susceptible to Asthma creating winds.

The skyline of Bangalore is fast changing with construction activities of various kinds and must be having a bearing on the overall weather patterns but these winds will always influence the overall life of this city

How can you counter the Bangalore winter..by being careful and prepared for it. Use ear plugs when you go out especially children and those driving cars... only drink warm water and not water that is at room temperature..never drink any cold drinks during the day time...Avoid air-conditioners..Keep the windows of the car closed while driving..use a heater to heat up the room if needed..especially in children identify some herbal remedies and administer it to the child all over the year to create resistance ....and if you observe cold winds gushing at your residence year after year build some barricade..... preferably sleep in the room which is relatively warmer..give children hot water to drink on a regular basis during these months.

Let the asthmatic attacks on the children in this city decline..or else their parents will think of sending their children to some far off places for advanced education not just to study but to also help their ward get rid off bronchal diseases that were gifted to them by Bangalore winds when they were too young to understand what asthma and its causes meant.