11 October 2012

Congress Grass and Bad Nose

Sinusitis is a very common disease among Bhutanese and most common among people living in Wangdue. This is based on no formal research but every other person around me has the infection, including myself. The local medical pharmacy tells me that thousands have come to him with the problem because he is known for his ability to treat this disease with his own combination of medicine. People trust him more than they trust hospitals.
Depending on the severity of the infection people go to extremes to free themselves from the suffocation disease, and like a myth this disease has strange treatments; Smelling the stinking waters in Gasa Hotspring, smoking cigarette filled with fragments of samba deer's horn, inhaling smoking from burning human body at the cremation ground, and of course the regular medical treatments at hospitals and indigenous hospitals.
People have come up with various causes of the disease in the region, (of course we can't expect our hospitals to do this out of their box), some say it's because of our water source that carries dirt from several villages from Samtengang to Boelangda, while others say it's the strong wind that carries all sorts of dust in the air we breath in daily. However, the water and wind story prevails across the country and attributing Wangdue's mass infection to it comes with little logic, that's when I heard and discovered the story of a toxic grass.
Santa Maria Feverfew or Whitetop Weed is originally from American tropics. It became widespread in Asia through contaminated wheat that the Congress Party of India imported from the US, which is why now the plant is known as Congress grass. It doesn't take much intelligence to find out how the grass made it to Wangdue. The grass is invasive and can spread at epidemic proportions triggering pollen allergy in human and even livestock. Due to toxic parthenin it contains it causes dermatitis and respiratory malfunction in humans, which explains why so many of us are struggling with out nose every day. 
The Political Grass- Imported from India


8 comments:

  1. Does it mean a "congress grass" as in like name (noun) or "Congrats" otherwise. Just a thought. No hard feelings. Good day

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Passu,

    I don't think sinus is not only common among the people of wangdi. its even prevalent in many other places too. This is what i have observed......

    I have a sinus too... and i have possibly tried all the methods that you have mentioned to get rid off it, but to no avail..

    I think most Bhutanese people have sinus due to our eating habits. We are people who munch lot of doma, relish the dishes of pork, yaksha, zoetey, garlic and rotten cheese and tea with amol milk powder, which is not properly boiled (i call it a cheap tea).....I think these things aggravates sinus.oohhh lets not forget aara by the way..!!!

    Now, you know what i did to keep my sinus worsening? I gave up everything i have mentioned above......and I feel much better this way....except the dust allergy.....now i feel sinus is not a problem, if we control our eating habits........

    try out once, it may even work for you..


    KUenzang (PSN)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another victim of sinusitis here :(.

    As PSN mentioned above Bhutanese diet is the main source of this disease. We consume a whole lot of diary products which is the main reactor for this disease. And sometimes i believe its heriditary also cuz starting from my mother to sister, it runs in our blood :(. I want to stop taking diary products but a heavy tea drinker I am, I am helpless :(.

    ReplyDelete
  4. P.S. I love the bird on your blog, What kinda bird is it?You got any name for it? :P

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rekha, the bird has no name. She helps me gather followers on my blog. She will also help reader share my blog contents on their twitter.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have gotten rid of the disease since last year. I was given a combination of two medicine by my sister in-law from Taiwan and I am perfectly ok now. I suggest all the try medicine from countries other and India.

    ReplyDelete
  7. nicely done.. sir.. nicely written..

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lucky you that you got a sister -in-law from Taiwan who can treat you with foreign med.

    ReplyDelete

Your thoughts on this post;