Lifestyle Hacks to Tackle Dengue

Dengue is a viral infection caused by a certain kind of mosquito. I am not going to go into those details as we are going to come straight to the symptoms and solution. There’s really no medication that can treat dengue because it’s a viral infection and antibiotics don’t work on viruses. This doesn’t mean you sit at home. It is very important to visit your doctor. Sometimes you need to get hospitalized so they can stabilize you in case the symptoms are strong.  Here is a list of some commonly reported symptoms. If you have them and you think you’ve been in places with mosquitoes, you should get yourself tested immediately

• Sudden fever (some people get chills)
• Constant headaches
• Pain beneath the eyes
• Joint and muscular pain
• Constant fatigue
• Low blood pressure
• Rashes and itching in the palm or foot area
• Vomiting and nausea

Since there’s no real medication that works on it, here are some lifestyle hacks you can use to deal with it:

Keeping yourself hydrated
Drink water regularly even if you’re not thirsty. Don’t overfill yourself but you need to keep on sipping water because most dengue patients lose their appetite and thirst

Papaya leaf treatment
Take papaya leaves, cut off the stem, wash and cut it into a cabbage like consistency. Then with very little water make a juice out of it or a hand pound it in a muslin cloth. The Juice is green and very bitter, but it is fantastic for your platelets count.

Turmeric
Turmeric is excellent as it is anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiviral. It works better with black pepper so if you’re grinding turmeric or you’re cooking it in a curry you want to add black pepper to it.

Tulsi Leaves and Pepper
This is something that we learn from people in our villages who overcome dengue all the time. They take a couple of Tulsi leaves, boil it in water with a couple of peppercorns and they drink that concoction over and over again

Pomegranate and Pumpkin
Pomegranate is rich in ellagic acid which helps you boost your blood platelets. Pumpkin has fantastic benefits right from your immunity to vitamin C and it can keep you hydrated.

B12 Supplements & Folic Acid
When you do your CBC make sure that you also check B12 levels. If your B12 is low, you should start supplementing immediately because B12 is required for our entire complete blood count. Folic acid is extremely necessary. If you’re not getting it from your green vegetables, nuts and seeds, you can ask your doctor to prescribe you folic acid because its going to assist with your platelet count and immune system.

Iron Rich Foods
Anything that is rich in iron plays a huge role in your complete blood count. Make sure that you have things like pumpkin seeds, beetroot and lentils. Try to get some lemon with it or drink some lemon water because lemon which is rich in vitamin C boosts the absorption of iron into your body  

Rest
Your body is being attacked by a virus, your cells are fatigued so rest is one of the best medications. Let your body heal and do all of the above that we spoke about.

Keeping your surroundings clean making sure that there’s no water stored anywhere where mosquitoes can breed and keep your immunity high.