Is Obesity weighing you down? Get the Perfect Solution with Ayurveda

Why do so many people fail at losing weight? Is it because they are addicted to food? No. Is it because they are lazy? No. Is it because they aren’t good at exercising? No. Failure at weight loss stems primarily from ignorance – about the risks of being overweight and the reasons we actually gain weight.

The condition of being overweight, known as Obesity in medical parlance, is soon becoming an epidemic. With more than 500 million clinically obese people worldwide, incidences of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and high cholesterol associated with Obesity are also on a constant rise. According to global estimates, Obesity is the reason for about 80% of type 2 diabetes, about 70% of cardiovascular diseases, and 42% of breast and colon cancers.

What is Obesity?
Obesity or being overweight is a condition characterized by excessive storage of fat in the body. When the body’s calorie intake exceeds the amount of calories burned, it leads to the storage of excess calories in the form of body fat. Some of the common symptoms of this disease include increased body fat, breathlessness on exertion, lethargy, excessive sweating with bad odor, and fatigue.

The Overhyped Solutions
Due to the expanse of the media, there is so much misinformation on fitness and weight loss that it becomes hard for a person to cut through all the junk and find out what really works. Also, what works for one person might not work for another, since everyone's body and lifestyle is different.

Frustrated because of their inability to lose weight, most people end up opting for the overhyped solutions – slimming programs and crash diet courses that ‘assure’ you will lose a certain number of kilos in a certain number of days. These programs have been designed to help you lose weight fast. However, in the long-term, they cause health complications such as weakening of the immune system, heart palpitations and cardiac stress, overexertion, loss of heart muscles, and damage to blood vessels, among other problems. These unhealthy ways of losing weight are short-term solutions that ultimately end up weakening the body from inside.

So, what do you do? Where do you turn for help? Well… Ayurveda presents the perfect solution to your problem.

The Ayurvedic View
In Ayurveda, Obesity is known as Medorog, a disease caused by the aggravation of Kapha. Kapha is an Ayurvedic humor representing Water and Earth; it is dense, heavy, slow, sticky, wet and cold in nature. It governs all structure and lubrication in the mind and body apart from controlling weight and formation of all the seven tissues - nutritive fluids, blood, fat, muscles, bones, marrow and reproductive tissues.

In a balanced state, Kapha gives nourishment to these tissues through various micro channels. However, when it is aggravated, Kapha leads to production of toxins in the body. These toxins are heavy and dense in nature and accumulate in weaker channels of the body, causing their blockage. In the case of an obese person, toxins accumulate in Medovahi Srotas (fat channels), thereby leading to an increase in the production of fat tissue (Meda Dhatu). When the body produces more fat tissues, it leads to an increase in weight.

According to Ayurveda, the treatment of Obesity cannot be generalized for every patient. The identification of the root cause of disease is paramount to providing a long-term solution.

The Perfect Solution
Ayurveda provides the perfect solution to the problem of Obesity. The treatment starts with cleansing of fat accumulated in the body’s channels using herbal medicines. It then focuses on maintaining the body’s digestive fire. Regular exercises are recommended to keep the body fit and mobile. Ayurvedic treatment therapies, known as Panchakarma, can also be quite effective in eliminating toxins from the body. At the mind level, the solution to this problem lies in enhancing Sattva (purity) by eating fresh foods and thinking positive. Additionally, the patient should try to remove the cause of depression by having a personal counseling session with a doctor.

Diet & Lifestyle Advice
• Avoid high carbohydrates like polished rice and potato.
• Avoid oily and fried foods, processed foods, fatty foods like butter, cheese, whole-milk yogurt, cream, chocolate, etc.
• Have more bitter vegetables like bitter gourd and the bitter variety of drumsticks
• Replace refined flour with whole-wheat flour and rice with brown rice or parboiled rice
• Increase intake of fruits, salads and vegetables.
• It is very important to engage in daily exercise in the form of walking, jogging, swimming or any other physical activity that is not competitive.
• Try to take a walk in the morning and again in the early evening, working up to 30 minutes or more each time. Increase physical activity by doing more physical chores during the day.

Some Home Remedies
• Take 1 cup of warm water with 1 teaspoon each of lime juice and honey and a pinch of black pepper. Have this on an empty stomach twice a day.
• Mix powdered long pepper, black pepper and dried ginger root in equal quantities. Have ½ teaspoon of this twice a day with lukewarm water.
• Boil 7-8 mint leaves in 1 cup of water for five minutes, and let it cool. Add 1 teaspoon honey and a pinch of black pepper to the cooled mint water and drink it. You can have this preparation 2-3 times a day.

If you have been troubled by Obesity, it’s time to take concrete action with the help of Ayurveda. Organizations like Jiva Ayurveda are working for the mission of taking the benefits of Ayurveda to every home by providing customized medicines, diet and lifestyle advice.