BNCHY Wellness Medispa

Do you know about the various benefits of yoga for your body and health? Yoga is the answer for a lot of aspects which everyone desires, such as a peaceful mind, a strong and flexible body and a healthy, glowing skin. It is commonly perceived that yoga aims at weight loss, but there are numerous benefits, which you can get by practicing yoga regularly. Here are the various ways in which yoga is ideal for your everyday life. It covers lots of aspects associated with your health and body functioning.

Yoga for overall fitness
You need to be physically fit, as well as perfectly balanced emotionally and mentally. This ensures that you are healthy in the true sense. Health is like a dynamic expression of life based on how happy, loving and enthusiastic you are in life. The various postures of yoga help in maintaining overall fitness, and balance both your mind and body in an ideal way.

1. It helps in improving health.
2. It gives you enhanced strength of mind.
3. Your physical power and stamina gets boosted.
4. Your body is perfectly detoxified.

Yoga for weight loss
Yoga is excellent for weight loss purposes. The Kapalbhati Pranayama and the Sun Salutations are effective yoga practices, which help you to lose excess weight. With regular yoga practice for a long time, you become extra sensitive to the types of food your body demands. This is effective for keeping a check on your weight.

Yoga for stress relief
Some minutes of yoga every day is a good way of eliminating stress that you experience in daily life. It refers to both physical and mental stress. Certain yoga postures, meditation, and Pranayama are ideal practices for getting rid of stress.

Yoga and inner peace
In today’s hectic world and the hustle bustle of daily life, every person desires some peace. This peace can be found within your own self and you do not always need to escape to the mountain to breathe freely. Practicing yoga regularly will give you immense inner peace, which is equivalent to a mini holiday to some nice, serene place. Yoga is very essential for calming your disturbed and troubled mind.

Moreover, yoga poses massage your organs and help in strengthening your muscles. The various breathing exercises and meditation forms associated with yoga are great for releasing unwanted, undesirable stress from your system. This, in turn, improves your immune system and prevents you from getting affected by frequent diseases and health conditions.

Psoriasis is an inflammatory skin disorder. Although it is non-contagious, the disease is quite complex. Erythematous plaques with silvery scales appear on skin layers, which basically characterise the disease. This excessive increase of cell division in the basal layer of the skin, results in increased proliferation on skin layers.

Symptoms

The symptoms of psoriasis vary from person to person. Some of the common symptoms of psoriasis are the following:

1. Raised, red patches of skin topped with loose, silvery scales, usually on the knees or elbows
2. Thick, red patches known as plaques, and dry, silvery scales appearing on the scalp, face, elbows, knees, palms, and soles of the feet.
3. Dry, cracked skin that may bleed
4. Joint swelling, tenderness, and pain
5. Thickened, pitted or ridged nails

Causes of Psoriasis According To Ayurveda

Acharya Charak has described the involvement of vata and kapha in ekkushtha or psoriasis. Accumulation of toxins or ama could also lead to this condition.

1. Viruddha Aahar (Opposite diet or contradictory foods) and Mithya Ahara (Improper Diet)
2. Excessive intake of yogurt, seafoods, salty foods, black gram and sour foods, spicy foods, fermented foods, maida (fine flour), and bakery products, junk foods and fast foods, refrigerated and cold foods may contribute to psoriasis.
3. Mithya Vihara (Improper Lifestyle)
4. An irregular lifestyle disrupts the digestive process and creates imbalance in the doshas.
5. Adrista Hetu (Unknown Cause)
6. Excessive Physical and Mental stress
7. Leading a stressful life or too much consumption of alcohol and tobacco can also trigger psoriasis.

Ayurvedic Treatment for Psoriasis

Ayurvedic treatment of psoriasis includes counseling, lifestyle management, diet management and ayurvedic external and internal treatment. In the case of scalp psoriasis, shirodhara with proper oils is also a very effective treatment. Treatment may also include stress management, oral Ayurvedic medicines, immunomodulators for immunity, topical treatments, regular follow up appointments and yoga and meditation to relieve mental stress. The blend of natural herbs and elements, which are extremely beneficial for the health and skin. The panchakarma therapy in Ayurveda is strong enough to cure psoriasis effectively. The therapy includes a thorough detoxification of the whole body system and removal of all harmful toxins from body fluids. Thus the main aim is to purify the blood system and restore the digestive system in order to prevent the disease.

It is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle in order to adapt to this condition. Regular exercise is also very important. Yogic asanas and pranayam can help to keep the mind and body fit and healthy.

Few precautions for psoriasis patients:

• Psoriasis patients should say no to acidic food products like urad dal, radish, sesame, jaggery etc.
• Patients with psoriasis should practice yoga on a regular basis to prevent the disease.
• Psoriasis patients should not use chemical skin products. Instead, they should use natural cleansers like besan.
• Picking, scratching or peeling of skin should strongly be avoided.
• Usage of cotton clothes is recommended.

Here are some natural Ayurvedic home remedies, which are helpful for psoriasis patients:

• Cover the affected part with a banana leaf to fade the reddish patches.
• Soak 15 sesame seeds overnight in a glass of water and drink it early morning on an empty stomach.
• Consume half a glass of bitter gourd juice in the morning for 5-6 months.

For more information, you can consult a professional Ayurvedic practitioner.

Aromatherapy is an ancient practice that dates back to ancient times across many cultures. This is a practice where concentrated oils are used to treat many imbalances and disorders within the body. The oils emit a fragrance or aroma, through which many important molecules enter your blood stream which have a healing effect. The oils can be applied on the skin and the aroma is then absorbed directly into the body through it. They can also be used as an aromatic agent where you need to sniff them in order for the molecules to get inside the body and then be absorbed into your blood.

What kind of oils are generally used in aromatherapy?
Aromatherapy uses essential oils similar to the ones used for massage in many other forms of alternative medicine such as Ayurveda and Chinese medicine. These oils have the organic compounds within the plants or respective sources concentrated into a small dose so it can pass on the benefits of those compounds to you, healing your body. Some of the types of oils used in aromatherapy are –
1. Peppermint oil
2. Tee tree oil
3. Lavender oil
4. Frankincense oil
5. Lemon oils among many others

How are essential oils made?
Essential oils are made from natural ingredients such as herbs and resins of different plants. These can be extracted from the following sources of a plant, tree or herb:
1. Flowers
2. Seeds
3. Fruits
4. Leaves
5. Bark
6. Roots
7. Stems etc.

Aromatic oils tend to be powerful as a lot of ingredients go into the making of a small quantity of oil. It is estimated that it takes multiple kilos of an ingredient to make only a few milliliters of an essential oil. Due to the immense concentration of the powerful organic compounds created by this, organic oils are very effective and thus potent in curing ailments. The compounds are separated through a distillation process that separates the oils from the other components.

How and where are essential oils in aromatherapy effective?
Aromatherapy is very effective in dealing with lesser ailments and also as a supplementary form of treatment for other larger problems such as recovery form surgery and pain relief. Some of the more common areas where aromatherapy is very helpful are:

1. Relieving and reducing stress
2. Relief from joint pain
3. Resisting Cold and flu like infections
4. Building the immunity of the body
5. Improving the appearance and health of your skin by fighting wrinkles, skin infections and inflammation
6. Reduce pain from inflammation and other disorders
7. Corrects and properly regulates hormone production within the body
8. Helps with gastrointestinal problems as well as improving digestion among many other such benefits

Certain specific types of essential oils and their benefits in aromatherapy
1. Lavender oil: Helps heal burns and cuts quicker, relaxes your body and improves your mood
2. Peppermint oil: Helps with digestion, builds up immunity, and helps with the ability to focus among others
3. Rosemary oil: Helps build hair strength, improves memory and brain function in general
4. Sandalwood oil: Improves skin quality, fights inflammation and wrinkles and also acts a as a libido booster
5. Rose oil: Extremely effective for combatting skin problems as well as for natural glow of the skin
6. Tea tree oil: An excellent immunity booster, Tea tree oil also has antifungal and antimicrobial properties which can fight off infections and cure the ailments much quicker. 

In order to know the benefits of abhangya, it is important to understand what exactly abhangya is. We do, at times, massage ourselves unconsciously. However, the practice of massaging oneself from head to toe with nice and warm oil lovingly is known as abhangya. According to Ayurveda, like being loved by another person, abhangya too provides individuals with a deep sense of stability. Ayurveda states that daily practice of abhangya helps in restoring the balance between the three doshas of our body - the pitta dosha, kapha dosha and vata dosha.

Ayurveda states that the individuals who practice this self massage technique regularly become vey less affected and even less subjected to accidental injuries. These individuals also tend to become charming and very less affected by age. Now that we have discussed a bit of what abhangya is, here is a list of the benefits that come with it. 

1. This self massage technique helps in nourishing the body and slowing down the ageing process considerably.
2. This technique helps in bestowing individuals with good vision.
3. This process helps in stimulating the internal body organs and increases and improves blood circulation. This results in lesser blood pressure and a healthier body.
4. This technique helps in imparting a sort of firmness to the limbs and hands, thereby strengthening the body’s tolerance.
5. This technique also benefits the skin. Well, the thing about our body is each organ in our body is interrelated with each other. So when any one organ starts working perfectly, everything else follows suit. It has been seen that this technique helps impart a sort of tone and vigour to the tissues of the body itself.
6. Abhangya helps pacify the vata and the pitta doshas.
7. If applied to the scalp, it helps in growing luxurious, soft, thick and really glossy hair.
8. This is also said to reduce wrinkles on the face.
9. When applied to the ears, stiffness of neck and jaw can be eased.

We have discussed how this practice benefits us, but here are some of the situations when we aren’t supposed to perform abhangya.

1. During menstrual cycle
2. During pregnancy
3. In swollen or painful areas
4. Over skin that has any sort of rash or infection
5. During any acute illnesses
6. During any health condition until and unless the doctor said that it was perfectly fine to do abhangya

All in all, Abhangya is a process that should definitely be carried out for personal well-being.

Osteoarthritis is a common disorder that affects the joints in the body. It is characterized by wear and tear of the cartilage present in the bones which lead to pain and mobility issues. The disorder mostly affects the joints in the hips, spine, knees and the hands. This disorder can’t be cured; the symptoms, however, can be managed.

Symptoms

The symptoms of osteoarthritis are progressive in nature and tend to worsen with time. You will experience pain in the affected joint, leading to limited mobility. Joint stiffness occurs when you wake up in the morning or when you have been inactive for a long period. You will also experience a grating-like sensation when the respective joint is being used.  

Causes

This condition occurs when the protective cartilage around the bones tend to deteriorate. The function of the cartilage is to allow the joints to move without friction. In this disorder, the surface of the affected cartilage turns rough, ultimately resulting in complete damage. This leads to loss of the protective cushion of the bone, making the bone rub on other bones. There are certain factors that make you prone to osteoarthritis, some of them are:

1. Aging increases the risks of this disorder.

2. Women are more prone to this disorder as compared to men.

3. Obesity puts added stress on the joints.

4. It might be hereditary as well.

Ayurvedic Treatment

Ayurveda is a holistic system of medicine that balances the different energies in the body to keep you healthy. Ayurveda believes in the fact that a disorder in the body occurs when there is an imbalance in the respective doshas – Vata, Pitta and Kapha. The idea is to get the doshas in order in order to get relief from the symptoms of this disorder. Osteoarthritis, or for that matter any disorder occurs due to the imbalance of the ‘Vata dosha’. The Ayurvedic treatments for this condition is Pachkarma therapy.

Panchakarma is the elimination of doshas from the body. It is one of the peculiarities of Ayurveda. Since according to Ayurveda, disease is the result of imbalance of doshas, when the increase of dosha is in a large quantity the best way to get cured faster is expelling the doshas out. These procedures (Karmas) are five (Pancha) and hence they are described as Panchakarma i.e. five procedures. These are to be performed not only by the patient for getting them cured but even by healthy persons for maintaining the health. 

1. Vamana: This is the elimination of doshas by the process of emesis. This is particularly useful for diseases arising from kapha and also from pitta. Diseases like chr. bronchitis, asthma, skin diseases, allergies, herpes, diabetes, sinusitis, osteoarthritis, hyperacidity are best dealt with this procedure. The best season for doing this procedure is ‘ Spring’ or even ‘Autumn’.
2. Virechana: In this procedure, loose motions are produced to eliminate the doshas. This is very useful in diseases caused by pitta dosha e.g. Hyperacidity, herpes, gulma (Type of tumor) jaundice, osteoarthritis, anemia, skin diseases etc. The best season for this procedure is ‘autumn’.
3. Basti: The procedure is important for the Vata dosha mainly, but can be used for Kapha and pitta and for all sorts of diseases also. In this procedure enema with herbal decoction, oil, honey and salt is given. Since it has a direct action over the large intestine, which is the main site of Vata dosha, it acts instantaneously. The procedure is especially useful for all kinds of diseases caused by Vata Dosha e.g. back ache, arthritis, osteoarthritis, dystrophies, multiple scherosis, muscle waisting etc. The best season for this procedure is the rainy season.

Neurological disorders may creep in due to many reasons. It may be due to degenerative diseases, accidents, other health conditions, birth defects or genetics. The most common form of disorder occurs due to non-functional brain cells in some parts, and loss of myelin sheath in neurons, which protects the nerve signals in their complete transfer from origin to destination.

These losses are irreparable, but further degeneration can be avoided with Ayurveda. Panchakarma, the branch of Ayurveda, which deals with detoxification of the body and mind, specially helps. Over a period of time, it can bring back the lost sensation in nerves. Yoga, pranayama and Ayurvedic treatments lead to recovery and relief to a huge extent.

Important facts about Panchakarma
There are 3 important steps in Panchakarma, which are followed one after another to get the result. The main objective of Panchakarma is to detoxify the body. Virechanam, vamanam, sneha vasti, nasyam and kashaya vasti are the 5 folds in Panchakarma.

• Poorvakarma or preparing the body, followed by Abhyangam or massage, followed by Elakizhi or herbal paste massage, and finally podikizhi, or steam bathing makes the body ready for receiving further treatments.
• Njavara Kizhi is the special treatment done in Panchakarma where the body is given a rice bolus massage to improve the joint and neuro functions.

What is Njavara Kizhi?
Njavara is a variety of rice, which is specially used for Ayurvedic treatment and massages. In this treatment the rice is made into a pudding by boiling it with milk. This pudding is then made into boluses. The boluses are filled in muslin cloth, and then using these muslin bolus dabs, the whole body of the patient is massaged.

This full-body massage has excellent effects on neurological and joint functions. The deep tissues within the body are rejuvenated. The treatment is carried on for 45 minutes to 60 minutes by therapists or experts. Another form of the treatment requires the rice to be made into a paste, and then the paste is applied all over the body. But this is more preferred for beautification.

Other effective therapies
Siro Vasti, Kati Vasti, Ela Kizhi and Nasyam are all different forms of Panchakarma treatment, which detoxify the body and mind and rejuvenate the body and nerve functions. But these treatments cannot be conducted on the body on your own. You need a masseur who must be a specialist in Ayurveda to do this for you. Hence contacting Ayurvedic doctors or experts would be the best to start the treatment.