According to Boston Children's
Hospita', 1-5% of adolescents and 1.1 to 4.2% of females in the United States
are believed to have bulimia nervosa.
The National Health Services, Uk,
says that up to 8% of females probably have had or will have bulimia nervosa at
some time in their lives.
Bulimia is an eating disorder, in
which the person regularly binge-eats and then tries to compensate for that
behaviour by purging / emesis and doing excessive exercises.
Causes:
Bulimia is caused due to
psychological issues. Such factors include:
·
Genetic
·
Neurochemical
·
Traumatic
·
Hormones
·
Cultural factors
·
Emotions
Ayurvedic Treatment for Bulimia:
The holistic approach of Ayurveda to
bulimia(eating disorder), has given an insight as to how bulimia can be
treated. In Ayurveda, it is believed that, maintaining a good state of health
largely depends on the human's mind-body constitution or Prakruti. This simply
means you are what you eat. Thus having the right diet at the appropriate time
would help avoid ama ( a poisonous substance produced because of an impaired
digestive system), and keep the body free from toxins. Eating disorders
are related to agni type, stress response, and food allergies, and thus, an
imbalance in the doshas (vata, pitta, and kapha), can result to bulimia.
Persons with vishama agni readily
forget to eat. Also, people with tikshnagni (pitta agni type) have utmost
difficulty in refraining from eating. Persons with vata would find it easy to
build a pattern of missing meals, thereby making them prone to anorexia/bulimia
or drive and bringe, while an individual with tikshnagni is likely to have a
sweet mouth and potentially debauch on sugar, as such individual cannot skip
meals and is prone to sugar addiction. Persons with mandagni (kapha agni type)
consume disproportionate amounts of food during kapha time of the evening. It's
believed that such person lacks experience and the ethics of eating, as the individual
doesn't have a profound knowledge of what hunger feels like. Such person just
stumbles on any food .
Under stress response, the visha agni
type is a stress under eater, while the Pitta tikshnagni type is fairly
stressed or resilient, but may be a victim of overeating. Mandagni kapha types
are stress overeaters.
Common Food Allergies related to
different agni types:
- Vata vishamagni: Sensitivity to gluten
- Pitta tikshnagni: Yeast, nuts, cheese, milk products
- Kapha mandagni: wheat - gluten, cow dairy
Treatment:
Line of treatment:
Balancing the aggravated dosha, improving metabolism, strengthening immune and
nervous system, body detoxification, improving nutrition, managing stress
levels - counceling.
Treatments -
Ayurvedic Treatment for Bulimia modalities includes Panchakarma, external
therapies, internal medications, Activities, Advice of food and life style
changes.
Panchakarma – Vamana, Virechana,
Basti, Nasya
Externally – Abhyanga, Shiro dhara
Internally – Deepana
(Appetisers)
Pachana (Digestives)
Herbs which help in de-stressing as Ashwagandha (Withania
somnifera), Brahmi (Bocopa monerii)
Activities:
Specific Asanas,
Panayamas, meditation, deep relaxation techniques.
Food:
· Improving on the intake of water
preferably warm water and food which makes digestion easier.
· Eat fibre rich food and plenty of raw
vegetables.
· Timely regular wholesome meals in a
conducible non disturbing atmosphere
Lifestyle changes:
specific to the individuals constitution, nature of work and geographical
conditions.