Moving back to India - Building Immunity

One of my favorite topics that I like to talk about is the things, experiences I have gained and lost by moving back to India. Not that I want to convince many of my NRI friends out there to move back, or to reconfirm to our own family and friends that I am fine. It is also not to emphasize how foolish or brilliant I was.  This is a sincere effort to pen down my thoughts on this topic so it serves as a memoir especially to my kids when they grow up.

The day the baby is born, it starts building its immunity and mother's milk is key ingredient that keeps it healthy. But the environment the baby lives also matters quite a bit and this is what I want to write about and how I built my immunity since I moved back.

I have allergic bronchitis/asthma since my childhood. All my friends and family reading this blog will remember how I was identified as the girl in the scarf with a Vicks Inhaler, how many times I have been bed ridden with chest congestion and Asthma attack.

My mom was the pillar of strength through out my struggles with Allergies and Asthma as a doted nurse she would bring me back to the world. She even now has the seventh sense to detect my discomfort, may it be a sniffle, or a full blown attack, just by talking on the phone from the other side of the continent! From the age of 4 to the age of 21, my mother has relentlessly pursued doctors for a cure and had me try medicines from variety of disciplines, may it be Allopathy, Homeopathy, Unani, Ayurveda, you name it.. and for 3 years have even swallowed the famous "fish" that cures Asthma in Hyderabad.

At last in my last year of BS, I put an end to mom's quest for cure and settled to the fact that Asthma is NOT a Disease but a Disorder and I have to live with it by preventing the symptoms. I survived my 6 month internship in a village in India during my last semester of college with inhalers (Allopathy) and no mom beside me. This triumph was a stepping stone for me to prove to my mom that I can survive the storm abroad and live along away from mom's care.

The very first day in Kansas State, US in the month of January, I found myself right in the middle of a snow storm.  Being a protected child where one rainfall and my mom would ask me to wear a sweater and scarf, I terribly missed her on my first day at Kansas. All I thought about is what made me come to this god forsaken place?

Eventually,  with loads of exposure to the inevitable snow that is part of mid west life, I developed immunity to snow, cold weather, freezing rain and temperatures of minus 20. My tolerance increased with every move of mine from Kansas to Madison and to Minneapolis, which I say is the snow capital of US.  In Madison, WI, I was coming back from my lab in the evening and my eyelashes wouldn't open as they had frozen shut. I had to rub my palm and place them on my eyes to open them.  There are innumerable days I have shoved the snow, piles of them, even when I was 7 months pregnant !! Although I also had lots of fun with snow, such as sledding, skiing, making snow man and just throwing snow balls, I really don't miss at all is the snow! This immunity to cold weather is also reflected in that I don't wear scarfs or sweaters during rainy season. Maybe a light sweater or jacket in winter, that too when I drive a scooter. 

I have had terrible allergies to dust mites, pollen, cat dander and dog hair. When we bought Adi, our pet German Shepherd that sheds a lot of hair, everyone close to me were concerned about my allergies except my hubby. He thought it will build my immunity! It surely seemed to work because when I did my allergy test in Madison (no dog days), I had a huge reaction to dog hair and when I redid the test with 10 times the allergen in Minneapolis and Portland, (dog days), I had none! It is amazing what our body is capable of adapting to.

Well, with regards to dust, I did not have that much luck. Although US was way less polluted, more open spaces and fresh air. I used to take all kinds of medicines to keep it at bay, Flonase, zyrtec, Claritin, Rhinocort are just a few to name. We bought houses that had no carpet (wooden floors). It was also best for cleaning dog hair.  I have couple of photographs taken by my roommates in Kansas and Madison, where I am lying on the bed with a red nose and tissue paper all around me. I however had very few mild asthma attacks in US that were abated with inhalers unlike the days in India where I was bedridden and had to suffer quite a bit.

So, when I decided to move back, many close to me had their concerns about my health and how I will survive in a dusty, polluted country such as India. It is true, I was very apprehensive and concerned, however was very reassuring to my mom that everything will be fine! The first thing I did was consult an allergist and starting taking 1 pill a day to abate my allergies. I hated taking a pill everyday and would experiment to see what happens if I did not. And within a day of no pill, I would get allergies, sniffles, and my whole day would be ruined.

After a whole year of this pill and a vertigo episode this March, I consulted another doctor who prescribed me a nasal spray that I took for 10 days diligently, and then slowly tried to wean it down to once a day (one puff) instead of 2 puffs, twice a day! Well, there was a week where I had misplaced the nasal spray and did not use it. The blankets in AC coaches of Indian Railways are a dirty sink of dust mites. Previously, I couldn't tolerate them and my doctor had asked me to travel only in Non AC, sleeper coach to avoid getting an asthma attack. In a recent trip to Gujarat, I did get a sniffle and immediately took a puff of the nasal spray as prevention, and have had no need to continue.

I really don't know if it is a combination of my dog passing away (no hair in the house), or the onset of Summer, I have had no episodes of allergy for the past two months and am on a no-pill/spray diet:)  I strongly believe that throwing myself in an unprotected fashion to allergens is what has saved me.

Of my daughters, Sindhu is more allergic than Kavya and I hope she too is building necessary immunity in India. Both Sridhar and I believe in our kids experiencing India as is. We prefer to let them drink local water at hotels, restaurants, make them walk barefoot wherever necessary, share the enjoyment of riding dusty and crowded trains, buses where you interact not only with the dirt but also get to see local people brave it all, actually in a way building immunity. Lord Krishna used to eat mud and when Yashoda asked him to open his mouth, she saw the entire milky way in his mouth. Gandhiji wrote about mud therapy and how it helps with stomach ache and dysentery. Walking on bare foot is good for health.

Mothers of new age, always carry a disinfectant with them and clean their kids hands, feed them only bottled water and protect them so much from the waggeries of environment. My advise to you moms is to do exactly the opposite.  Let kids play with dirt as this will allow them to enter the world of endless immunity.

Three Cheers to healthy living.