YOGA IN HEALTH CARE

We are today faced with numerous debilitating chronic illnesses related to aging, environment, and hedonistic lifestyle, such as cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular diseases as well as many incurable diseases such as AIDS. Modern medical advancements provide the rationale for the integration of various traditional healing techniques including Yoga to promote healing, health, and longevity.

INTRODUCTION: 

Yoga is the original mind-body medicine that has enabled individuals to attain and maintain sukha sthanam, a dynamic sense of physical, mental, and spiritual well being. Bhagavad-Gita defines Yoga as samatvam meaning thereby that Yoga is equanimity at all levels, a state wherein physical homeostasis and mental equanimity occur in balanced and healthy harmony. Yoga maharishi Dr. Swami Gitananda Giri Guru Maharaj, the visionary founder of Ananda Ashram at the International Centre for Yoga Education and Research (ICYER) in Pondicherry and one of the foremost authorities on Yoga in the past century, has explained the concept of Yoga Chikitsa (Yoga as a therapy) in the following lucid manner. “Yoga Chikitsa is virtually as old as Yoga itself, indeed, the ‘return of mind that feels separated from the Universe in which it exists’ represents the first Yoga therapy. Yoga Chikitsa could be termed as “man’s first attempt at unitive understanding of mind-emotions-physical distress and is the oldest holistic concept and therapy in the world.” To achieve this Yogic integration at all levels of our being, it is essential that we take into consideration the all-encompassing multi-dimensional aspects of Yoga that include the following: a healthy life-nourishing diet, a healthy and natural environment, a holistic lifestyle, adequate bodywork through Asanas, Mudras and Kriyas, invigorating breathwork.

POTENTIALITIES OF YOGA: 

Extensive research on Yoga being done all over the world has shown promise with regard to various disorders and diseases that seem to be amiable to Yoga therapy These include psychosomatic, stress disorders such as bronchial asthma, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, irritable bowel syndrome, gastrointestinal ulcer diseases, atherosclerosis, seizure disorder, and headache. It also includes physical disorders such as heart disease, lung disease, and mental retardation. Psychiatric disorders such as anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and substance abuse can also be managed along with other therapies. Musculoskeletal disorders such as lumbago, spondylosis, and sciatica and carpel tunnel syndrome can be tackled effectively with Yoga practices that offer a lot of hope in metabolic disorders such as thyroid and other endocrine disorders, immune disorders, obesity, and the modern metabolic syndrome.

Yoga understands the influence of the mind on the body as well as that of the body on the mind. This is the principle of Adhi-Vyadhi elucidated in the Yoga Vasishta more than 5000 years ago! It is interesting that modern medicine has only realized this connection in the last hundred years whereas Yogic of India were teaching and practicing it for thousands of years. No wonder Yoga may be considered as the original mind-body medicine. We are what we think, yet we also start to think that which we do. Yogic concepts and techniques enable the development of the right attitudes towards life and enable us to correct the numerous internal and external imbalances we suffer due to our wrong lifestyle/ genetic potential. Yoga enables us to take responsibility for our own health and happiness and as Swami Gitananda Giri would say, “If you want to be healthy do healthy things, if you want to be happy do happy things”.

The following are just a few of the mechanisms through which Yoga can be said to work as an integrated mind-body medicine:

1. Cleanses the accumulated toxins through various shuddi kriyas and generates a sense of relaxed lightness through jathis and vyayama type activities. Free flow in all bodily passages prevents the many infections that may occur when pathogens stagnate therein.
2. Adoption of a Yogic lifestyle with a proper nourishing diet, creates positive antioxidant enhancement thus neutralizing free radicals while enabling a rejuvenating storehouse of nutrients packed with life energy to work on anabolic, reparative, and healing processes.
3. Steadies the entire body through different physical postures held in a steady and comfortable manner without strain. Physical balance and a sense of ease with oneself enhance mental/emotional balance and enable all physiological processes to occur in a healthy manner.
4. Improves control over autonomic respiratory mechanisms through breathing patterns that generate energy and enhance emotional stability. The mind and emotions are related to our breathing pattern and rate and hence the slowing down of the breathing process influences autonomic functioning, metabolic processes as well as emotional responses.
   5. Integrates body movements with the breath thus creating psychosomatic harmony. In Yoga, the physical body is related to annamaya kosha (our anatomical existence) and the mind to manomaya kosha (our psychological existence). As the Pranayama kosha (our physiological existence sustained by the energy of the breath) lies in between them, the breath is the key to psychosomatic harmony.
   6. Focuses the mind positively on activities being done, thus enhancing energy flow and resultant healthy circulation to the different body parts and internal organs. Where the mind goes, there the prana flows!
   7. Creates a calm internal environment through contemplative practices that in turn enable normalization of homeostatic mechanisms. Yoga is all about balance or samatvam at all levels of being. Mental balance produces physical balance and vice versa too.
   8. Relaxes the body-emotion-mind complex through physical and mental techniques that enhance our pain threshold and coping ability in responding to external and internal stressors. This enhances the quality of life as seen in so many terminal cases where other therapies are not able to offer any solace.
   9. Enhances self-confidence and internal healing capacities through the cultivation of right attitudes towards life and moral-ethical living through Yama-Niyama and various Yogic psychological principles. Faith, self-confidence and inner strength are most essential if at all we wish for healing, repair, rejuvenation, and re-invigoration.
   10. Yoga works towards the restoration of normalcy in all systems of the human body with special emphasis on the psycho-neuro-Immuno-endocrine axis. In addition to its preventive and restorative capabilities, Yoga also aims at promoting positive health that will help us to tide over health challenges that occur during our lifetime. This concept of positive health is one of Yoga’s unique contributions to modern healthcare as Yoga has both a preventive as well as a promotive role in the healthcare of our masses. It is also inexpensive and can be used in tandem with other systems of medicine in an integrated manner to benefit patients.

PROMOTION OF POSITIVE HEALTH: 

Yoga is an excellent tool for promotive health that can enrich modern medicine. The practice of Yoga leads to the efficient functioning of the body with homeostasis through improved functioning of the psycho-Immuno-neuro-endocrine system. A balanced equilibrium between the sympathetic and parasympathetic wings of the autonomic nervous system leads to a dynamic state of health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely absence of disease or infirmity. WHO has also in recent times suggested a fourth dimension of spiritual health but has fallen short of defining it without confusing it with religion. From a Yogic perspective, it is heartening that the WHO definition gives importance to ‘well being’ that is a vital aspect of ‘being’ healthy as well as ‘feeling’ healthy. There is no use in a doctor telling patients that all their investigations are ‘normal’ when the patients themselves are not feeling ‘well’. This qualitative aspect of health is something that Yoga and Indian systems of medicine have considered important for thousands of years. The definition of asana given in the Yoga Sutra as sthira sukham implies this state of steady well being at all levels of existence.
“Yoga is probably the most effective way to deal with various psychosomatic disabilities along the same, time-honored, lines of treatment that contemporary medicine has just rediscovered and tested.

By: – Vikas Tiwari
Department of MLT