Being healthy….
What is your idea of health ???
Most of us feel that, health is nothing but absence of any disease. Most of us are happy, as long as the bio-chemical parameters, such as blood pressure, sugar levels, BMI etc., are maintained within limits. Is it sufficient to call oneself healthy ?. We see people despite being declared fit after a medical examination, continue to feel lousy and sick. What does this say ?
Ayurveda, defines health in a beautiful way…
“The state of the body wherein your Doshas — Dhatus — Malas and Agni(Fundamental components of the body)are in a state of balance(functioning optimally) is health”. Also a person can be called healthy, when he possesses a good state of mind — optimally functioning senses and to top it all, a good state of soul. Now, this is turning out to be spiritual….isn’t it..of course it is.
But, how would you know if there is either balance or imbalance in these ? Do you need to undergo some tests to assess these?
The thing is, we have become so insensitive, that we have stopped listening and responding to the whispers/yells of our body and started believing in machines, to find out what is going on within us.
The irony is we now depend on the machines to know whether we are healthy? Most of you routinely check your blood sugar and pressure to reassure yourself that you are healthy. Even when you feel dizzy .. you choose to ignore it and convince yourselves that, all is fine as the bio- chemical parameters are normal.
In the first place, how can a machine be better than a human to tell whether or not you are healthy? Because there are various factors intangible, which cannot be measured through machines, that determine the state of health.
The concept of customized medicine is the uniqueness of Ayurveda, and is gradually being adopted by the modern medicine. Every individual is unique, hence needs to be treated with unique medicines. And also, we are unique in our own ways, we are born in varied geographical locations, live under diverse climatic conditions, we eat different kinds of food, we think differently, our genetic make up differs so on and so forth. When such is the case, how can a single or set of values of biochemical parameters be applied to all. So then what is alternative ?
What is “Being healthy”….????
Ayurveda, gives a set of symptoms, that will help you find out whether you are healthy or not. Take this test and you will know what you have missed out.
- Do you feel hungry ? Now this is tricky because most of us don’t know what hunger in the real sense is.
- Do you have a timely appetite ?
- Do you digest what you eat ?
- Do you experience an easy –regular defecation?
- Do you have a sound sleep regularly? Not disturbed with bad dreams or too many dreams ?
- Do you get out of the bed feeling fresh, feeling good in the morning ? Without any lousiness ?
- Are you free from nagging aches and pains, those small aches which bother you ?
If your answer is “no” to any or all the above questions, you are not healthy in the real sense.
I commonly get to hear from my patients that, Dr. I don’t feel like eating, I feel full most of the times, my bowels are slightly constipated, I don’t get proper sleep, but except for these small things, I seem to be ok, as my sugars, lipids are just fine.
Now, are you one of them?
The point I am trying to make is, please don’t go by the laboratory values alone and convince yourselves that you are healthy. Start listening to your body. Of course the biochemical parameters do help us find out the pathology inside, but they alone are not the indicators of health.
