Dealing With Diabetes - A Long Term Perspective

Editorial

As we all know that diabetes is one of the non- communicable diseases and quickly developed as a major healthcare problem. According to a new study published in world's leading independent general medical journal ‘The Lancet’; since 1980 the number of adults with diabetes worldwide has quadrupled from 108 million to 422 million in 2014 [1]. These findings provide the most comprehensive estimates of worldwide diabetes trends to date and show that diabetes is fast becoming a major problem even in low and middle income countries. Meanwhile scientists and researchers from pharmaceutical industry worldwide have invented various effective drugs and best kind of insulin to controldiabetes effectively. Despite all the genuine efforts the worldwide number of new diabetic patients is increasing day by day. The focus of my editorial is to discuss long term approach to deal with diabetes - one of the most notorious life style disorders. Let me rationalize the situation by a simple example. Suppose there is a large forest fire in the vicinity of your city and you being the most responsible, intelligent and capable person is appointed as a head of the team to control the fire. With all the available resources say water, sand, fire extinguisher etc. your team has started working over it genuinely to control the fire. Say after 2-3 days of your restless efforts you are claiming that all the means you have applied to control the situation are very effective but on the contrary the area of conflagration has tremendously increased than that of the previous. I must say that your resources might be effective but your method to control the fire is hopeless. Logically speaking to control the forest fire at its best along with all the available aids which you are using right now simultaneously you must have to prevent the non-affected area of jungle which is more prone to catch the fire by incorporating proper means. Today in our society same story is happening with diabetes. In case of diabetes we are trying to increase the quality of life of existing diabetic patients by inventing effective and safer anti-diabetic drugs. Still we have observed that the number of population adding to diabetes community worldwide is increasing just like never before. It means on one hand we are trying our best to deal with the fire of diabetes by water of insulin, sand of other anti-diabetic drugs etc. and on other hand we are failing to restrict the number of new diabetic patients adding up every year. It is high time to have a top view and think seriously in context to the quality of life of future generation in context to ever-changing lifestyle and dietary habits. Do we want a crippled generation of human being suffering from diabetes or a healthy one? From futuristic perspective of humanity we have to pay undivided attention towards preventing new population from falling in the pit of diabetes. Diabetes is one among the eight dangerous diseases mentioned in Ayurveda. The very first aim of Ayurveda is to maintain health of a healthy person. As per the law of cause and effect the causes of diabetes which has been clearly mentioned in classical Ayurvedic texts are physical inactivity, day time sleeping, lack of exercise and laziness in day to day activities [2]. Apart from lack of exercise, the comfort sitting and excessive comfortable sleep can lead to diabetes. All these leads to vitiation of Dosha and ultimately results in diabetes [3]. Never before human race has received the amount comfort and conveniences which we are availing due to Journal of Natural & Ayurvedic Medicine

scientific and technological advances. Cumulative impact of these advances is that overall community moved toward more sedentary lifestyle. On one hand due to these advances physical activities are greatly reduced while on the other side so as to achieve these comforts and conveniences, stress has been tremendously increased leading to lifestyle disorders. Wisdom (principles) offered by Ayurveda are eternal in nature. As described in various literatures Ayurveda is a science of life. Moreover I would like to add it is a technology for wellbeing of human being. Technology is the applied aspect of science. The very first aim of Ayurveda is to maintain health of a healthy person. One does not have to believe or disbelieve Ayurveda he just have to learn how to use the basic techniques mentioned in Ayurveda by availing help from experts in that field so as to maintain physical, mental, social as well as spiritual health. As in our day to day life we use number of gadgets without ever understanding how it works, likewise we can use various principles and simple remedies offered by Ayurveda for wellbeing of mankind. Ayurveda's most important principle and unique contribution for understanding personality of an individual is the knowledge of "Prakriti". We can correlate the concept of Prakriti by temperament. As per Ayurveda it is essential to understand the Prakriti of a person even before suggesting him do's and don'ts of diet and lifestyle. As a particular seed demands specific environment and season to blossom into a full-blown tree, different types of Prakriti persons needs different diet and environment as well. If you essentially follow them you will remain healthy. There are specific recommendations mentioned in Ayurveda regarding the type and quantity of diet, frequency of diet according one’s own Agni. Agni is nothing but the power of conversion. As long as assimilation takes place efficiently, one remains healthy.

Remember regarding concepts of Prakriti, Agni and Koshtha Ayurveda is a technology and proper use of technology will produce results irrespective of who you are. Undue stress must be tackled by following Aachar- Rasayana i.e. behavioural does and don’ts while living in society. Additionally one may get benefitted by proper incorporation of suitable Yoga in daily regimen. In nutshell from the long term perspective I would like to say that along with treatment aspect of existing diabetic population we (the healthcare provider community) must focus on the preventive side of the disease. For that purpose we must develop-

• An approach to treat and deal with the problems of existing diabetic population with present modalities of treatment along with proper diet and exercise so as to provide a better quality of life.
• An approach to deal with pre-diabetic for reversal of disease if possible and education and transformation of population which are more prone to develop diabetes in near future.
• And overall awareness and education of population at large regarding proper diet and dealing positively with the stress caused by day to day challenges.