Why does a wave of influenza occur annually at the beginning of spring?

Maharishi Ayurveda recognizes a rhythmic change in the prevailing climatic qualities in the course of the year. Spring is the actual beginning of the annual cycle: everything germinates, everything sprouts, everything grows and multiplies. The climate is still cold and humid. These qualities show us that Kapha is dominant.

What is Kapha?

Kapha consists of the elements earth and water. If Kapha is in balance, the best conditions for vitality, strength and fertility exist. When Kapha is imbalanced, fatigue, sluggishness and mucus accumulation occur. The immune system can be weakened, making it more susceptible to all kinds of diseases. This is the reason why a wave of flu rolls over us almost every year at this time of year. We are experiencing this particularly intensely this year. Any imbalance of kapha, any accumulation of ama favors a feverish flu-like infection.

Stay in balance

If you start the spring with a cleansing cure, you have a particularly good chance of getting through this season healthy and fit. Kapha dosha has the qualities of damp, heavy and cool. Fasting and cleansing cures bring lightness and dry up excess moisture and mucus, which can express themselves in allergies and infections.

Due to the excess of high-calorie foods and drinks, many people today suffer from obesity and metabolic disorders such as diabetes, fatty liver and elevated blood lipids. The "Kapha time of year" spring is the best time of year to regain balance in such ailments.

Nutrition in the "Kapha time" of the year

By ingesting especially light, fresh, and warming foods, you'll beat springtime fatigue and allergies!

In the Kapha season of the year, the organism needs a large part of the energy to build and renew the tissues. The digestive fire, which is called "Agni" in Ayurveda, needs easily utilizable vital substances such as those contained in fresh herbs and flowers. This fresh food, which usually tastes bitter and spicy, is rich in so-called "secondary plant substances", minerals and vitamins, which support the building of healthy tissues.

A particularly light, Kapha-balancing diet includes reducing the amount of fat, dairy products and meat. Lighter grains such as rice, millet and barley should also be preferred.

Fresh herbs from meadow and meadow

Very important now is the abundant use of spicy and/or bitter-tasting spices and culinary herbs. Fresh chives and parsley, wild garlic, goutweed, sorrel, watercress, nettle, daisies, violets, primroses and spruce tops should be part of your diet, preferably daily.

Also use warming exotic spices such as ginger, turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cumin in greater quantities now than usual. If you are not very experimental, you can also try a ready-made kapha spice blend.

No snacks in between meals

What few people know and pay attention to: The digestive process of each meal takes about 4-6 hours, depending on the amount and heaviness of the food consumed. If you eat food or nourishing drinks such as fruit juices before this time has elapsed, you interrupt the sensible utilization of the food in the digestive tract. This leads to the formation of harmful waste products in the body, which in Ayurveda are called "Ama" (literally "the undigested"). Ama is considered a breeding ground for diseases of all kinds.