Pregnant women have such low levels of Hb, especially vegetarians suffer from lack of B12- cobalamin or folic acid b9. Anemia statistics reveal how much blood women have world over, especially in India.
haima "blood" – anaemia - bloodless. Megaloblastic, pernicious, sickle-cell, thalasemia minor vs. macrocytic, aplastic, sideroblastic – so many types. Many of my classmates had their hip bones drilled to diagnose megaloblastic/pernicious anemia which was initially misdiagnosed as cancer.
Blood is preserved in a preserving solution that contains citric acid, sodium citrate etc among other stuff. It takes 4+ hours for 450 ml to trickle drop by drop. A caretaker has to be sitting for most part of the transfusion, especially after the first hour to see, if the flow is normal and keep squeezing once in a while either the blood containing plastic bag, or near the IV to ensure, the trickling continues, in case of coagulation or stopping in case of swelling. Nothing to speak about all possible adverse effects of blood transfusion.
Few lucky things - Find the vein is one thing, inserting the needle correctly the first time is another, else, one has to suffer numerous pricks, and injections to flush out the next time the same blocked IV line is used.
Somehow, CMC vellore is inundated with NE and Kolkatta patients. I still remember the bubbly teenaged girl who had blood cancer. She was the one who introduced me to Bengali sweets 14 years ago. I used to wonder why blood cancer arises karmically?
Y this saga?There was this Dom Moraes biography of IG, where he described, how IG calmly ate oranges in her car surveying a bomb blast site. I was wondering, how she could eat after witnessing the carnage. But when there is work to do, you have to keep yourself fit, so that you can take care of others. I ate my lunch keeping an eye on the blood trickling drop by drop, since I had to be functional first before I can take care of others. Mom finished her lunch at 11 am itself, before transfusion started. A rude shock for me. It is better to drop in every week and check out in person, rather than being medically summoned, no matter, how demanding time is. 120 days life for RBC. 5-6 days for platelets.
For us allSimple things to have a healthy blood count. Lack of proper nutrition is one thing, another thing is having nutritious food, but the body not being able to absorb. At least once monthly fasting and induced bhedi, helps cleanse the body internally for people who don't let go of anything. Not buying or not being able to afford vegetables or fruits is one thing, but buying them, and charring the vegetables, overcooking them, eating fruits at the wrong time, in the wrong combination is yet another. Not drinking juice is one thing, but to prepare the juice, add excess sugar or milk and storing it in fridge and drinking it super chilled is another thing.
Without taking vitamin C, iron intake will be wasted. So lemon honey in luke warm water, works wonders in detoxifying blood. (I have seen no effect on my weight though). Again, lemon can't be had by people with wheezing etc. Honey, is the precursor to erythrocyte. Kadalai muttai, roasted unsalted channa with panna vellam, or jaggery also helps. So does wheat grass juice.
LLRC – Prevention is better than cure
Vitamin C: I have always been biased towards oranges over apples. Value for money is lemons, amla, guava, papaya. Amla with honey is the best. For others mosambis, pomegranates. Any fruit that is fresh should be fine. Dad used to say, why do you seek exotic fruits, vegetables and nuts, nature gives you what you need, right where you live. So it helps to identify, know the names and medicinal properties of wild green leafy vegetables that grow randomly in our garden, depending on the season. For instance, vallarai, karuvepillai leaves grows wildly in our garden. Capsicums, tomatoes + supplements for B12. Dates, tomatoes, red and green capsicum etc.
Cooking: No overcooking, simple things like washing vegetables, before cutting, washing fruits and vegetables with salt and turmeric, if it is to be consumed raw. Ensuring that the vegetable colour does not change after cooking, avoiding excess salt, oil with vegetables or sugar with fruits and ensuring proper food combination. I used to be so specific on colour of cooked vegetables and colours of plates and final arrangement that my sis asked me to graze in the fields. Not having tea or coffee immediately after a heavy lunch. Why wait for anemia to eat mosambi?
Mudhras: Dhenu/Surbhi mudhra – mine is a prithvi or vayu variant of dhenu mudhra.
Apana mudra, apana vayu mudra, surya mudra
Meditation: Vethathri maharishi’s technique asks us to meditate on Mars and the bone marrow as part of Pancha Bhootha Navagraha meditations.
Chakras - Helps to work on manipura, mooladhara, ajna chakra (mars, saturn, sun and moon) Some of the practices given by Swami Satyanand Saraswathi
manipura - agnisar kriya, uddiyana bandha, nauli kriya
pawanmuktasana, chakrasana, dhanurasana, marjariasana, matsyasana, yoga mudra, paschimottanasana and ushtrasana
Mooladhara - nasikagra drishti (nose tip gazing), Moola bandha
Swaadistana - vajroli mudra, ashwini mudra; shalabhasana, dhanurasana and uddiyana bandha, bhujangasana, shashankasana
Ajna - Trataka, anuloma viloma, moola Bandha, ashwini mudra, Shambhavi Mudhra
I avoid all forward bending asanas thanks to my L3, for women who have had cesarian or hernia operations, all backward bending asanas need to be avoided. Again mudhras variants need to practiced according to their body constitution. Simple body exercises that make one sweat without any strain is sufficient.
Aromas: Lemon, sandalwood etc.
Above all, one needs to be happy, let go, hang around with family and friends and have a healthy dose of laughter, eat when hungry instead of living by asanas, mudras or a strict diet regimen. Just do what you love doing.
