Ayurveda and Diabetes - Curated paper 1

What is health? Sometimes it is easy to see someone who is healthy, but often times even people who seem healthy really are not. Is health just one simple attribute, or maybe a summation of different parts? Ayurveda describes a total balance of body, mind and spirit. Obviously there are ways to differentiate health: mental, physical, and spiritual etc. But can we actually effectively achieve ayurveda, or balance of all? The answer is unclear. What does ayurveda even look like? What about people who don’t have any real sense of spirituality? What about someone with perfect mental emotional and spiritual health but was born with a congenital health defect? It seems as though we are left with more questions than answers. However, that might be the perfect place to start.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that all the aspects of ayurveda and health are interconnected. Mental health can influence physical health, and of course physical health can influence how we feel about ourselves. If our diet is completely out of balance and we don’t get enough sleep, of course our mental health will begin to suffer. Human beings get stressed when the body isn’t running smoothly. Likewise, if someone is depressed, their sleep schedule can become erratic, their appetite could increase to an unhealthy point, or completely diminish. Those in a consistent state of emotional arousal such as anger will no doubt have elevated levels of cortisol which cause repercussions throughout the body in terms of hormones. With such interconnectedness of body mind and spirit, it begs the question, is true balance even realistic? Can one really be truly healthy?

I’ll be the first to admit I’m probably not healthy. I spend a decent amount of time sitting on my couch, I consume my fair share of frozen food, and definitely don’t get enough sleep to support a full time job and a full time school schedule. But I’m not actually sick. For now. Just because you’re not sick due to some kind of imbalance in your life, it doesn’t mean that you won’t get sick because of that imbalance. In other words, even though I don’t have a cold due to a weakened immune system this week, I might get sick next week. Additionally, we could call to attention the eventual breakdown of the body’s compensatory mechanisms. Maybe imbalance, at least in the physical regard, can be compensated for for a little while. But eventually if the imbalance isn’t corrected, the body eventually can become diseased. Furthermore, even then that observation can be extended to emotion health, mental health, and even spirituality.

I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Part of our theology dictates the absolute need for the regular practice of scripture study and prayer. I believe that when I don’t do these activities regularly, I experience a form of spiritual suffering. When I’m not actively trying to connect with Deity, my spirit suffers. I find myself feeling bad when my spirit is suffering. That effect isn’t always manifest in physical ways, but sometimes it is. But it certainly plays a factor in my emotional health.

Ayurveda is more than just balance. Ayurveda is about harmony, not just all the different systems being in tune all at the same time. Ayurveda is about engaging in activities, practices, beliefs, and mindsets that stimulate more than one aspect of a person into a more balanced and harmonious state. Some people may identify with this mode of thinking, and others may not. For some people the concept of Ayurveda in its entirety can be a little over the top. However, it’s hard to argue that the body needs to be balanced. I think that at its core, Ayurveda is about creating and maintaining health by addressing the issues that arise in ALL the different aspects of a person: mind, body, and spirit.

To illustrate the effects of imbalance in the body, we can look at diabetes. Diabetes is much more complicated than many people think. There are extremely complex pathways of hormone control and regulation of glucose and insulin. Diabetes is one disease that we can clearly see the problems that arise from the body being out of balance. Whether its type one or two, the effects on the body are ravaging. Diabetes is a major contributing factor to cardiovascular disease and dysfunction. Additionally, diabetes can cause other major issues including tissue necrosis which can lead to blindness, and loss of limb. Who would have thought that a simple hormone/enzyme imbalance could eventually lead someone to blindness?

The causes of diabetes are as complex as the effects. As we talk about balance in life, it’s easy to see how the body can be thrown off that balance. Not just biological issues can throw the body off balance, even though those can be major parts of it. It seems like other factors can directly or indirectly influence the biological issues that can contribute to diabetes risk factors. Certain social circumstances can contribute to imbalance in life, such as obesity. For example, certain parts of the world, particularly in the US have higher obesity rates, but it isn’t hard to see that those areas typically have higher amounts of fatty foods. When I think of the southern US, I think of the food. The food is a major part of the south and its culture. Deep frying everything and drinking gallons of sweet tea every year certainly don’t contribute well to the overall health of the area. But the culture of the south contributes to unhealthy circumstances in its people.

Also I think it depends majorly on how we as a society define what health is. Many people today don’t subscribe to the ayurvedic model. Due to the commercialization of almost everything, we have a skewed idea of what health actually looks like. We all too often we equate health with being thin. Granted, there is a correlation, and obesity definitely isn’t healthy. But health encompasses more than just being a healthy weight. Health involves other things like exercise, proper nutrition (you can be obese and malnourished), and even things like mental/emotional health. We can’t just say that fat people are unhealthy and thin people are healthy. It isn’t that simple.

Furthermore, I know many people who have type one diabetes. Their health isn’t at its best, but people with type one didn’t choose a lifestyle that lead them to diabetes. There is a stigma that comes with being unhealthy, but usually only toward those whose condition is largely influenced by lifestyle/diet. But that begs the question, what does the stigma actually do? What purpose does it serve? Do we actually think that some kind of stigma will motivate people to be more healthy, or are we just finding a way to justify our judgement? If anything, that stigma just makes everything worse. In a world where you’re not attractive if you’re not muscular or bone thin, what kind of effect does that stigma have on someone who might already be depressed? Here we start to explore the mental and emotional repercussions of diabetes and how it relates to balance. Being afflicted with any disease can be disheartening. Simply knowing that your body doesn’t work quite right can be a huge blow to self esteem. But on top of that, there is added stress that complicates life. Constant measure of blood sugar and increasing financial burden can be enough to affect the mental health of any individual. This is just one example of how complications of a biological disease can affect the mental and emotional health of an individual. Little doubt that there are also affects of the subsequent emotional distress on the body in a physical way.

Diabetes is an excellent example of how delicate the body, mind and spirit of an individual can be. Granted, humans are resilient creatures, and we can endure a certain amount of imbalance for a period of time. But if that balance isn’t monitored and maintained, the individual will inevitably suffer. Maybe that suffering will be short term, like in the case of a common cold. But more severe consequences could await those who disregard the need for balance between the body, mind and spirit.