Abstract

HOLISTIC APPROACH IN THE PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Upreti Diksha*, Pandey Reena and Verma Keerti

ABSTRACT

It cannot be denied that childhood obesity is on the rise. Childhood obesity is a burden in developed and developing countries. Worldwide in the year 2000,the international obesity task force declared about 10% of children aged 5-17 (about 155 million) were overweight out of which 2 to 3% (30 to 45 million) were obese. Globally, over two billion children and adults suffer from health problems related to being overweight or obese. The term overweight refers to excess body weight for a particular height whereas the term obesity is used to define excess body fat. Obesity recognized as multi-factorial metabolic disorder in conventional system of medicine that may appear as consequences of high calorie diet, sedentary habits and in a person who have genetic susceptibility. Obesity increases the likelihood of various diseases and conditions, particularly cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and depression. ayurveda is the science of life deals with the preventive and curative aspect. Obesity is described as - medoroga or sthoulya roga in ayurveda. Obesity is a santarpanoth (over nutrional disease) disorder. The collection of imbalances of doshas, imbalance of agni (digestive fire) and shrotas interferes with the formation of tissue or dhatu and leads to a tissue imbalance that we experience as excess weight. In charaka special intervention are included in obesity therapy in the purpose to cut down excess fat to correct the irregular metabolism. In ayurveda potential interventions are rasayan therapy, panchkarma therapy, sansaman chikitsa and yoga to achieve the goal. Through ayurveda, we will success to reduce the burden of obesity at the childhood age, and we will see the world full of physically and mentally healthy people.

Keywords: Childhood obesity, Yoga, Rasayan and Panchkarma therapy.