Living With Obesity and Required Health Measures

Abstract

In the present era of modernization and industrialization, due to the over intake of processed and junk food and lack of physical fitness and exercise we are making ourselves more prone towards lifestyle oriented disorders. One such very common ailment is obesity. Ayurveda had a detailed reference of obesity mentioned by our ancient acharya over thousands of years ago. So let’s start discussing this in detail.

Introduction

Obesity is defined as accumulation of excessive amounts of fat in the body. As per ayurveda we can correlate obesity with “satholya”. Acharya charaka included this in ashta nindita purusha (eight despicable persons).In satholya the doshas are present in the “medovha srotas”. As mentioned in below listed shaloka the ‘medovaha srotas’ have their main residing seat in the vrikk (kidney) and vapavahan (greater omentum).

Definition of Obese as Per Ayurveda

The person is called over obese who due to excessive increases of fat and muscles, has pendulous buttocks, abdomen and breasts and due to that they suffers from the problem of deficienct metabolism and energy.

Etiological Factors

These are the main causes (nidan as per ayurveda) that results in formation of an ailment.

As per ayurveda, Dietary causes (aharaj nidan)

• Intake of guru (bulky) and snigdha (unctuous) food items in excess amount.
• Consumption of food in high amount
• Intake of fat rich diet in large amount
• Use of newly formed grains (naveen anna)
• Alcoholism

Lifestyle related causes (viharaj causes)

• Avyayam (lack of exercises)
• Divaswapna (who sleeps during day time)
• Ati nidra (over sleep)

Other causes

• Presence of underlying disorders such as:
  • Hypothyroidism
  • Cushing syndrome
  • Deficiency of growth hormones.
  • Eating disorders
  • Binge eating disorders.

• Use certain medications such as:
  • Steroids
  • Antidepressants
  • Anti epileptic drugs
  • Hormonal therapy.
  • Insulin administration.

Clinical Features

It includes the signs and symptoms. A symptom means the general complaints along with which patients present in front of the physician. Signs: It means what a physician notices himself by observing the patient’s condition.

According to ayurveda, Over obese person have 8 common symptoms, as explained in below mentioned shaloka:

• Shortening of lifespan (Ayu haras)
• Hampered bodily movements (Jav aprodho)
• Difficulty in coitus (Kricha vyavaya)
• Debility (Daurbalyta)
• Foul smell (Daurgandhyam)
• Over sweating (Svedabadha)
• Increased hunger (Ksudha atimatram)
• Excessive thirst (Pipasa atiyoga)

As per the below mentioned verse:

• Excessive hunger
• Increased thirst
• Over sweating
• Breathlessness on mild exertion
• Over sleep
• Difficulty in performing daily day today tasks.
• Sluggishness
• Short life span
• Presence of foul odour in the body

Ayurvedic Overview about How Obesity Affects a Person Life

(Charaka. sutra 21/5)

As per the verse it states that

Due to the obstruction of body channels with excess amount of fat, vayu gets obstructed within the body channels, it starts moving abundantly in the belly and thus stimulates digestive fire (agni) leading to an elevation in  digestion power  and absorption of the food. Hence such a person digests food quickly and that will increase the power of hunger. Naturally due to increased hunger a person eats more and gains more body weight leading to suffering from a major health issue called obesity. If there is a delay in taking food such a person will start facing some severe disorders. The vayu (air) and agni (fire) mahabhuta (major elements for life) got aggravated, both these vayu and agni mahabhuta burn the obese person like forest fire burning the forest due to their principle properties. This will give rise to severe disorders and thus destroy life shortly.

Risk Factors

It includes the factors responsible for increasing the chance of developing an ailment in the body. A person suffering from obesity may face various below listed risk factors:

• Hypertension
• Obesity
• High blood cholesterol level
• Various cardiovascular ailments
• Certain neoplastic conditions.
• Osteoarthritis.
• Piles
• Fistula in ano
• Filariasis

Diagnosis

• Through detailed physical examination of the patient by using below listed four diagnostic approaches:
  • Inspection
  • Palpation
  • Auscultation
  • Percussion
• Ruling out family history.
• BMI (body mass index)

BMI (kg/m2 )	Category
18.5	Underweight person
25.0	Normal body weight
30.0	Overweight
35.0	Obesity type I
40.0	Obesity type II
> 40.0	Obesity type III

Management

Preventive measures

• Avoid consumption of processed and junk food.
• Indulge yourself in regular exercises- perform exercise to certain extent not beyond your strength.
• Eat a healthy diet rich with good antioxidants and other important nutrients by adding more fruits and vegetables in the diet.
• Calories restricted diet with addition of healthy foods will help in providing essential nutrients to the body.
• Practice intermittent fasting.
• A vegan diet is a potent house of healthy digestive fats and contains essential micro and macronutrients. This diet is enriched with a good glycemic index that will help in attaining healthy body weight. So people suffering from obesity find good sources in the form of a vegan diet to cut their extra calories and help them in attaining normal body weight.

As per ayurveda, In ayurveda we use following below listed treatment protocols:

1. Nidan parivarjan chikitsa– Avoiding the root of disease. Under this treatment protocol we need to avoid all the causative factors that lead to formation of a pathology in our body.
2. Main treatment modality mentioned in our ancient classical text for obese person has explained in below listed shaloka:
   (Charaka. Sutra 21/20)
   It states that for reducing the bulk of the obese, use of ‘guru aptrapan’ (heavy and non saturating therapy) had been prescribed by our ancient acharyas.
3. Sanshodhan chikitsa(detoxification procedure) – In sanshodhan chikitsa we will purify the inner channels of our body (srotas) by using different procedures. Acharya charaka included five procedures in it, they are as follows- vaman (emesis), virechana (purgation), anuvasana basti (enema with medicated oil), niruha basti (enema with medicated decoction)  and nasya karma (adding drops of medicated oil/ churna in the nostrils).
   Before using sanshodhan chikitsa we need to use purva karma (foremost procedures) – they are the set of procedures that need to be done before main panchakarma procedures. They are very important as they help in preparing the body for the main purification procedures. It includes: deepan karma, pachana karma, snehana karma and swedana karma.
   • Deepan karma: In this we use deepaniya dravya to increase the digestive fire of the body.
   • Pachana karma: In this we use pachana dravya to digest the food substances.
   • Snehana karma (oleation therapy) – Smoothing the body dosha’s by using herbal ghrit/oil.
   • Svedan karma (sudation therapy)– Semi-hot medicated kwath or other herbal solution is sprayed on the patient’s body by a specially made swedan yantra (instrument).
   • Vaman (emesis) – In this procedure we do elimination of toxins by using emetic herbs to take out vitiated kapha dosha from the body.
   • Virechana (purgation) – In this we use purgative herbs to take out vitiated pitta dosha from the anal route by purgation technique.
   • Basti (Enema) – It is the best procedure for balancing the vata dosha within the body. In this herbal kwath (decoction) is inserted into the anal route of the patient and it will take out the pacified vata dosha with the faecal matter.
4. San shaman chikitsa (alleviating treatment) – In this treatment modality we use the herbal medicines by oral route to balance vitiated doshas within the body itself.

Herbal Remedies of Planet Ayurveda

Planet ayurveda is a leading herbal manufacturing unit serving people worldwide with their holistic approach of healing by using principle of ayurveda. They offers various herbal formulations that will work very efficaciously in obesity, it includes:

Thinner you pack – This pack contains 4 herbal formulations:

1. Trim Support
2. Stholyantak Churna
3. Garcinia Capsules
4. Guggul Capsules

Product Description

1. Trim Support

This herbal capsule contains medicinal herbs such as vrikshamla (Garcinia cambogia), mustak (Cyperus rotundus) and triphala [amalaki (Emblica officinalis), haritaki (Terminalia chebula) and bibhitaki (Terminalia bellerica)]. All these herbs are very effective in maintaining healthy functioning of the digestive system of our body. So it supports attainment of healthy body weight in people facing the problems of obesity.

Dosage: 1 capsule twice daily with plain water half an hour after meals.

2. Stholyantak Churna

This powdered form of herbal formulation contains chir bilva (Holoptelea integrifolia), balbach (Iris ensata), babool (Acacia arabica), ashok (Saraca indica), arjuna (Terminalia arjuna), vidang (Embelia ribes), chitrak (Plumbago zeylanica), kalmegh (Andrographis paniculata), dalchini (Cinnamomum zeylanica) etc. This herbal formulation is specially designed to lose body weight, as it contains various herbs that have tridosha shamak property (helps in balancing vitiated three principle energies of our body- vata, pitta and kapha)

Dosage: 1 teaspoon, twice daily with plain water after meals. Its decoction can also be prepared by mixing 1 teaspoon of the powder in a glass of water and boiling it to one-fourth the quantity.

3. Garcinia Capsules

This herbal capsule contains a pure form of garcinia (Garcinia cambogia). This medicinal herb possesses great bulk reducing property so it helps in reducing the amount of extra fat from the body and works very generously in problems like obesity.

Dosage: 2 capsules twice daily with plain water half an hour after meals.

4. Guggul Capsules

This herbal formulation contains pure form of guggul (Commiphora mukul). Puran guggul (old guggul) has mentioned has great medohar dravya (fat reducing herb) in our classical text as it contains lekhan (scrapping property) that will take out excessive fat accumulation from the body, so this herbal capsule works very efficaciously in obesity.

Dosage: 1 capsule twice daily with plain water half an hour after meals.

Conclusion

As mentioned in our ancient text out of the over lean and over obese individual, the obese person is more indisposed toward serious health ailment.

(charaka. Sutra 21/17)

Now we can conclude that ayurveda works very efficiently in lifestyle related problems such as obesity by doing prakriti analysis of the patient. The herbs present in our surroundings are packed with various health benefits and ayurveda tells us about that in detail. For ayurvedic treatment you can consult planet ayurveda, their herbal formulations are very effective in this regard as they are made under the guidance of ayurveda experts.