BENGALURU: Do you or someone you care about have an eating disorder? There’s more to these problems than simply food and weight. From school or job performance to physical health issues, an eating disorder may create severe disruptions in a person’s life. Yoga is a mind-body activity that is recognised for its inherent healing effects and awareness. Yoga and naturopathy may be a valuable aid in the rehabilitation process, and consistent yoga practice in conjunction with naturopathy treatment and psychiatric therapy may be beneficial.
What makes yoga a suitable choice
According to a study published by the National Eating Disorder Association, 4 out of 10 adults have either directly experienced an eating disorder or know someone who has. Through non-judgment, confidence, and self-acceptance, yoga has been demonstrated to help ease anxiety, anger and depression as well as improve self-esteem and a healthy body image. Yoga may be customised to assist digestion, ease constipation, and lessen reactivity to the unpleasant process of binge eating.
It also encourages emotional connection to the person’s internal world, allowing emotions, wants, and longings to be grounded. Stressful mental patterns that sustain eating disorders may frequently dissipate slowly with a design that first “opens” the body via stretching and then completes with relaxation. During or after a yoga practise, we may be able to release feelings that have been burdening us for years. Yoga, meditation and breathwork both lessen the body’s physiological stress response by lowering sympathetic nervous system activation and boosting activity in the part of the brain responsible for confidence, emotion management, and mental flexibility, according to studies on mindfulness.
How naturopathy helps
Naturopathic physicians treat patients focusing on their physical, lifestyle, environmental, mental, and emotional wellness. Naturopathy doctors who follow these concepts always concentrate on addressing the underlying cause of a patient’s ailment. Depression, anxiety, trauma, or another factor may play a role in eating disorders. This may also need collaboration with a psychologist due to the serious nature of binge eating disorder.
The naturopathy method entails examining the body’s long-term changes: What nutrients have been deficient for a long time? What impact does the eating disorder have on mental performance? What organs or blood components, such as the stomach, heart, kidneys, and so on, have been impaired? It also entails assessing what deep-seated issues the patient may need assistance in overcoming the eating disorder. Naturopathy also involves alternative healing therapies like acupuncture, relaxation therapy, botanical medicine and others.
Acupuncture may aid in the treatment of eating disorders by addressing linked health issues, lowering stress, and speeding the healing of afflicted bodily systems. The botanical medicine approach tries to replenish the patient’s organ systems, which are often damaged as a result of the binge eating problem. And relaxation therapy involves massage therapy, which seeks to lower stress hormones, raise positive chemical levels (norepinephrine and dopamine), and reduce body dissatisfaction. (The author is the deputy chief medical officer, Jindal Naturecure Institute)