Yoga and Diabetics

Diabetes is a silent killer disease. There is no sure remedy for curing this ailment but the practice of yoga, combined with naturopathy and lifestyle changes will help patients change their outlook towards life.

Yoga complements the lifestyle changes that are necessary to keep diabetes under control. It helps you to feel more in control of your health and well-being. Coping with stress is important when dealing with a chronic physical condition. Besides strengthening your will power and concentration yoga also reduces harmful stress reactions which are a major cause of this disease. Yoga, the ancient Indian way of life, shows us an effective way to combat this disease.

This book is useful for those suffering from diabetes. It will help them bring in harmony and well-being into their lives.

Carrmine Ireene conducts lectures and demonstrations at corporate offices, institutions, hospitals and clubs and teaches conventional and modern day yoga through dance and music for kids and aquayoga for patients with specific problems. She is an alternate therapist having done courses in yoga, naturopathy, aroma therapy, massage therapy, acupressure, pranic healing, diet and nutrition and psychological counseling.

She has conducted various workshops and has trained the IPS officers, Lion Club members, heart patients at the seminar conducted by Asian Heart Care Research Centre and also trained Kingfisher Airlines models-airhostesses inductions. She has featured on A.I.R., FM Radio City, Care TV, Sony TV for Gladrags Model Hunt 2005 & Star One (Body & Soul) and quite recently on Sahara Samay Mumbai.

She is a master in Hatha Yoga and teaches Raja Yoga and Vinyasa yoga as well.

Forever, a faithful companion, Diabetes Mellitus does not leave its master's life, whatever the provocation! Everything, and anything can change, but Diabetes Mellitus is hard to drive out. It is one of the oldest known chronic diseases afflicting humanity. This dreadful disease has been referred to even before Christ and Charaka and Sushruta. People all over the world suffer from it, and it is one of the major health problems affecting human life. So far there has been no sure remedy to cure it completely but the affected person, through change in diet, lifestyle, yoga and meditation can control it completely.

Though the exact cause of diabetes is not known, there is a hereditary tendency. Heredity plays an important role in the genesis of diabetes. People with a family history of diabetes have a higher risk of developing diabetes as compared to others. External factors such as stress, strain, lack of exercise, obesity, incorrect diet, over-eating, a high intake of sugar and a carbohydrate rich diet are other contributing factors. Stress, worries, frustrations are largely manifested on mental and emotional planes, because of which more of the stress hormone adrenaline is released into the bloodstream by activation of the adrenal gland. This is a potent stimulus to the body to mobilize glucose into the bloodstream. A constantly heavy burden of worries, anxieties, mental strain and stress demand more insulin secretion. This precipitates diabetes, especially in conjunction with a sugar based, rich carbohydrate diet. It is therefore termed as a "psychosomatic disorder."

Food plays an important role in one's constitution. What feeds the body affects the planes of the mind, intellect and the self. Food is important for our survival and can either cheer us up or bring tears, depending on our selection of diet. There is a section on food and diet in this book; a segment which includes various vitamins, minerals and trace elements and certain natural herbal foods, that helps recovery from disease. Rehabilitation brings about complete harmony of body, mind, and soul. A diabetic patient has to be extra careful about understanding what to eat and what to avoid. In this section, I have made an attempt to provide a general diet that addresses the upheaval caused in the patient's life by the symptoms of diabetes. It is a simple diet that helps achieve good health, peace, harmony and balance.