Thanks to automation in the name of convenience and comfort, living style in modern times has become detrimental to human physical, emotional and spiritual health, giving rise to new branches of Medicine known as Life Style Medicine and Mind-Body Medicine. With fast-paced life and excess use of junk foods and modern electrical and electronic gadgets namely the car, TV, cell phone, air-conditioning, microwave oven, refrigerator etc. and cordless & remote controls and environmental pollution distanced the man away from nature, causing number of lifestyle health problems causing life threatening morbidity and even death. Lifestyle factors such as tobacco smoking and chewing, alcohol, stressful living and electromagnetic radiation seem to cause clinical infertility (IJEB, Aug 09).
Lifestyle Medicine is the use of Lifestyle interventions such as nutrition (diet), exercise, stress management, smoking cessation and a variety of other non-drug modalities in the treatment of disease. The field of Lifestyle Medicine (LM) has been growing by leaps and bounds over the last two decades. LM is becoming the preferred modality for not only the prevention but the treatment of most chronic diseases, including type-2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, obesity, insulin resistance syndrome, osteoporosis and many types of cancer. While LM interventions typically do not emphasize prescription medications, they frequently require re-titration and/or reduction of medications prescribed before the lifestyle intervention. The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the first national professional society for clinicians specializing in the use of lifestyle interventions in the treatment and management of disease. Recent clinical research provides a strong evidential basis for the preferential use of lifestyle interventions as first-line therapy eg. The Lifestyle Heart Trial. The research is moving lifestyle from an intervention used to ‘prevent disease’ to an intervention used to ‘treat disease’. The presence of morbidity constitutes a sufficient medical indication for applying an intervention proven to improve, reverse or ameliorate the disease or its symptoms. Recently published articles illustrate the abundance of scientific evidence that lifestyle intervention can be as effective as pharmaceutical interventions, but without the risks and unwanted side effects of more invasive interventions eg. a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and low fat dairy foods in lowering blood pressure in stage I hypertension. Comprehensive lifestyle changes may be able to bring about regression of even severe coronary atherosclerosis after one year, without use of lipid-lowering drugs (www.lifestylemedicine.org).
Mind-Body Medicine is an approach to healing that uses the power of thoughts and emotions to positively influence physical health. Most ancient healing practices, such as Traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine emphasize the important links between the mind and the body. Today, there is renewed interest in age-old traditions such as Yoga and Meditation. No longer viewed with suspicion, mind-body programs are now established at prestigious medical schools in the United States and around the world. The key to mind-body technique is to “train” the mind to focus on the body without distraction. Most commonly practiced techniques are 1. Biofeedback for tension / migraine headache and chronic pain, 2. Cognitive behavioral therapy for changing dysfunctional thought patterns, 3. Relaxation techniques (mindfulness meditation for stress reduction), 4. Hypnosis for treating people with addiction, anxiety disorders, phobias etc. and 5. Spirituality (qualities like faith, hope, forgiveness and prayer) on improving health and healing.
The goal of mind-body techniques is to activate the relaxation response and reduce the stress response. When relaxed, the levels of stress related hormones are reduced and immune system becomes more efficient improving resistance to infection. Thus the mind-body medicine is helpful in treating High Blood Pressure, Asthma, Coronary heart disease, Obesity, Cancer (pain and nausea / vomiting related to chemotherapy), Insomnia, Anxiety, Diabetes, Stomach and Intestinal disorders, Fibromyalgia and Depression (www.umm.edu/mind-body-000355.htm). Rates of depression have risen in recent decades in spite of multibillion – dollar antidepressant industry. Is there something about how we have today that’s actually toxic to our mental health? The fact earlier generations somehow less susceptible to depressive symptoms point to lifestyle factors that will help rebuild our resilience and emotional well being.
Wellness Institute of Cleveland Clinic has started Life Style 180 programme addressing 25 million Americans with a chronic disease, to reclaim their health and vitality by making positive changes in their lifestyle. The program lasts six weeks with shared learning and support for a fee of
$1500. Groups of 10 to 16 people meet and engage in four-hour sessions twice a week taken by medical wellness experts on nutrition education, exercise and stress management with setting specific achievable goals for personal health and well being (http://my.clevelandclinic.org/wellness/reclaim_your_health.aspx).
National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is one of the 27 institutes and centres that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of USA. NCCAM is exploring and promoting research in Naturopathy, Traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, Meditation, Prayer, Mental Healing, Art / Music / Dance therapy, Reiki, Electromagnetic therapy etc.
US Federal Government’s Integrated Neural Immune Programme will spend
$16 million on mind-body research next year and private foundations will spend millions more. Hospitals are opening Mind-body clinics and yoga / meditation classes are spreading from health clubs into shopping malls. According to a recent government survey, nearly half of all Americans used Mind-body interventions in 2002 (Newsweek, Sept. 2004).
Food, sunshine, air, rest, exercise and creativity, when consciously inculcated into our lifestyle, it can become the bridge between how we nurture ourselves and how nature intended us to be. This is the key to wellness reflecting Oneness of Nature, says Dr. Vijaya Venkat. Yoga is Science and Art of Living defining the best lifestyle as simple and spiritual living with moderation in food intake, adequate exercise and positive thinking in harmony with Nature and thinking as part of and with concern to whole Universe.
