Weight loss herbs

OBESITY

Causes and Symptoms

Obesity or corpulence is a condition of the body characterized by over-accumulation of fat under the skin and around certain of the internal organs. While the state of health differs from per­son to person, other things being equal, the fatter a person is, the slower he will be. In some cases fat per­sons are slow of wit. Doctors and actuaries have calculated the weight that a person of a particular height should have and anybody having a weight much above the average is likely to be unhealthy and would have a lower life expectancy. Insurance companies hesitate, and in some cases refuse, to insure the lives 6f people who are too fat. It has been proved from experience that the obese have a- greater chance of dying early than those of average weight. Recorded cases exist where extremely overweight people did not live beyond their thirties, some of them passing away even before they entered middle age.

Corpulence is ascribed to many causes. It may be due to the disturbances of some of the endocrine glands, like the thyroid, pituitary and the sex glands. some families obesity is transmitted from one generation to the other, but in most cases it is the direct result of a life of easy and over-eating. A luxurious inactive or sedentary life is a well-recognised predisposing cause. The more immediate cause is over­feeding and excess of liquor. The indulgence in food beyond what is required to repair the daily waste goes towards the increase of fat: Those addicted to liquor arc particularly affected if they eat a normal diet since what is not generally realised is that alcohol meets the immediate energy needs of the body and the food that is eaten is deposited in the form a fat. Alcoholic liquors, particularly beer, contain sugar and contribute to the deposition of fat on the body.

Women are more prone to obesity, particularly. after child birth. In our country, this is especially true because the new mother is fed on fatty and starchy foods under the impression that the blood loss attendant on delivery must be made up by extra-rich diet.

Health cannot be long maintained under excessive obesity, for the increase in the bulk of the body, rendering exercise more difficult, leads to tension and defective nutrition or the muscle, while the accumulations of fat in the chest hinders the functions of the various organs of the body. The mental activity! of the corpulent tends to be impaired, although there have been exceptions to this rule.

The obese succumb much more readily to serious diseases like diabetes, gall-stone, arterial disease, high blood pressure and varicose veins. Life insurance statistics show that an increase of 25 pounds above standard weight reduce the life expectancy of a man of 45 by 25 per cent.

Nature gave men a balanced body, but by wrong! food habits some of us tend to make cartoons of our. selves. There being a weight-energy ratio, the IDO~ obese a person is, the more energy his body consume! merely to maintain itself and the sum of energy left for other activities is proportionately reduced. You wo­uld notice that those who live by manual labour seldom suffer from corpulence: it is the leisure4 class, with no­thing much to do but too much to eat who' become fat.

Corpulence is like constipation; just as waste accu­mulates in the gut, matter which should have been thrown out of the body tends to gather in the form of fat on the various organs. Skin being stretchable, fat accumulates in layers upon layers under the epidermis.

Treatment

One. would agree that not to become fat. is better than reducing when you have attained a certain degree of corpulence. One would not have be­come obese if he had attended to his food habits and had taken exercise. The battle against obesity has, therefore, to be fought with courage and fortitude. Weight could be reduced by fasting in a limited time but that is not advisable. Sudden and total fasting may help the poison accumulated in the body to attack it. Fasting has to be gradual and ,controlled. The best course is to make fruits and boiled vegetables the main­stay of your diet. A diet of fruits and vegetables will give you the vitamins and the mineral salts for the sustenance of rife, but would tend to reduce the amount of fat that has already been accumulating. The other method (if reducing the fat is vigorous exercise. Foods tending towards acidity like meat, fish, eggs, refined flour, lentils, fats, polished rice should be totally banned in the case of obesity. Whatever the patient eats should be bland, because seasoning and condiments tend to make the food. more palatable increasing the danger of overeating. The fruits recommend are of angles, pineapples, raspberry, tomatoes, apples, pears, papaya, musk .melon and melon, in that order .The vegetables should be greens of all type, cucumber, gourds, ect. Tuberous edibles should be avoided. Only carrot may be taken with advantage.

After a fortnight of the diet prescribed above, the patient can be allowed to take whole meal bread, a pat of butter and milk. The first thing in the morning that the corpulent should take is a glass of water to which a lime has been added. Salads should be permitted pro. vided that salad oil or eggs have not been added. The best reducing agent in the present author's experience has been the juice of cucumber, gourd (bottle gourd­ lauki) and tomatoes to which a lime and a spoonful of honey has been added. In between meals, snacks should consist of cucumber and tomatoes in any quantity.

If the above regimen is adopted the weight will start going down, but the patient should not lose heart if the progress is slow in the beginning. A speedy reduction of weight is possible by vigorous exercise coupled with inadequate diet, but that might prove harmful to the general health of the patient. The best exercise I would recommend is skipping the rope, and other exercise which strains the muscles can be undertaken with advantage.    .

A hip bath for 15 to 20 minutes in the morning and evening along with the diet and the exercise recommended would speed up the process of losing fat. Mud packs can also help, as can sun-bathing for long enough to produce a sweat. Steam baths for the purpose of reducing corpulence are not recommended by any knowledgeable naturopath since the benefit is not per­manent and too much of exposure to steam is likely to harm the nerve ends under your skin.

The best season to start slimming in India and other tropical conditions is the summer when a large variety of stresses help in the reduction of fat in the body. The appetite is reduced because heat makes you thirsty all the time. You take a little bit of food and are eager to slake your thirst. And then it is during summers that the body has a natural tendency to shed fat.

Some slimming exercises are recommended below

Sit on a low stool; the lower the stool the better it would be. Sit up with a jerk. Stand on your feet while your knees touch each other. Now tense your mu­scles and move your neck as back as you can and resu­me the former position. Sit on the stool again and re­peat the process as many times as you can. Continue it till you feel tired. Do it 50 to 100 times it you want real benefits. Relax your body after each time that you get up and move your neck and shoulders back.

Sit with your buttocks on the edge of the low slung stool. Extend your legs as far they will go and keep your hands on the rear end of the stool for support. Then stand up with a jerk, inhaling deeply in the process. And then resume your position.

Try taking your shoulders back with a jerk as you sit down. That will strengthen your spinal column.

Try skipping a rope for as long as you can. It helps in keeping the fat down. Remember that the boxers do it every day to increase their stamina.