Medoroga & Obesity.

MEDOROGA. (OBESITY).

1)   NIRUKTI:- Obese = very fat, corpulent;

Corpulent = bulky in body, fat.

2)   VYAKHYA: - The disease in which one acquires a bulky or fatty body is called as Obesity. Obesity is a state of excess adipose tissue mass.

                              The state in which BMI; i.e.; Body Mass Index =weight/ height (in kg/m ) is more than 30. BMI between 25 or 27 to 30 is termed as overweight.

3)   HETU: - Absence of physical exercises, day sleeps and excessive intake of kapha-provoking or sweet substances.

                     Physiologically, Obesity results when caloric intake exceeds utilization. The imbalance of these two components can occur in the following situations: -

a)   Inadequate pushing of oneself away from the dining table causing overeating.

b)   Insufficient pushing of oneself out of the chair leading to inactivity and sedentary life style.

c)    Genetic predisposition to develop Obesity.

d)   Diets largely derived from carbohydrates and fats then protein rich diet.

e)    Secondary Obesity may result following a number of underlying diseases such as hypothyroidism, Cushing’s disease, insulinoma and hypothalamic disorders.

4)   PURVARUPA:-

5)   RUPA: - With the accumulation of fat, the person finds himself incapable of doing every type of activity. It is associated with dysponea on exertion, thirst, drowsiness, sleepiness, sudden obstructions to respiration, bodyache, voracious appetite, excessive sweating and bad odour from the body. His life expectancy as well as sexual potency are decreased.

                     In all human beings physiologically there is a tendency for the fat to accumulate in the abdomen and in the bones in the form of bone marrow; so pathologically in an obese person there is an excessive enlargement of the belly due to fat accumulation.

6)   PRAKARANURUPA RUPA :-

7)   SAMPRAPTI: - In a person doing no physical exercise, enjoying day sleeps and taking kapha-provoking diet, sweet substances in the food juice are generally converted into sneha (lipids) which leads to increase in fat. Consequently other body tissues do not get properly nourished in him because of the channels being blocked with fat.

8)   UPADRAVA: - The Saman Vayu active in abdominal cavity stimulate the Jatharagni to carry out the digestion so that the ahar-ras produced will nourish all the dhatus in the body. Now, in case of an obese person, all the channels are blocked by the excess of fat. So, most of the nourishment leads to meda dhatu keeping other dhatus under nourished. For e.g. The Raktagni present in Raktavaha srotus converts nutritional part coming from Rasa dhatu into Rakta; but what if Raktavaha srotus gets blocked preventing the mechanism between nutritional part and Raktagni? There will be deficiency of Rakta dhatu produced and so on. In this condition in order to maintain homeostasis through proper development of all the dhatus through nutrition, the person feels hungry very quickly. In Medoroga; Vayu and Jatharagni are the main culprits for producing the complications. They burn the obese as the jungle fire burns the forests.

                                Also blocking of the channels by Meda leads to vitiation of vata followed by other doshas producing various complications which may even lead to a quick death; since there are complications such as diabetes mellitus, reproductive disorders, cardiovascular diseases, pulmonary diseases, cancer, bone-joint and cutaneous diseases due to blocking of the channels.

In Medoroga; since most of the nutrition gets forwarded to Medagni; the unbreakable compounds or the nourishing elements of the previous dhatus remain undigested by the Medagni. At the same time Medagni acts over the meda nourishing part which is converted into sthayi meda dhatu, asthi nourishing part and sweda as the mala. Out of these sthayi meda aquires its position, sweda gets excreated out and asthi nourishing part remains circulating within the body channels in the form of ama since the most of dhatu channels are already blocked. Also the fate of undigested part is unknown which surely will add to the complications of the Medoroga.

10) UDARKA:-

11) ARISHTA LAKSHANA:-

12) VYADHI VYAVACHCHHATI: - Excessive increase of fatty and other tissues of the buttocks, abdomen and breasts become pendulous and vigour is in  proportion to the body bulk are some of the diagnostic features in the over obese person.