Sama mamsa pramanastu sama samhanano narah ,
Drudendriya vikaranam na balenabhibhuyate .
Ch.su.21/10
Importance of a healthy body can be well understood by the person who is not in a state of well being. As per above quotation, person having proportionate musculature & compactness of body possesses very strong sensory & motor organs & as such they are not overcome by the onslaught of diseases.
On a wider scale of understanding, one can presume that being healthy just does not mean having a stout body. Whether the flesh we have over our bony cage providing us a better protection from the external biohazards, or the fat beneath the skin is doing a great job by storing tons of ATP molecules to produce energy for us in case of feminine, and what exactly the immunity means, are some questions for which either we don’t want to find out an answer at right time or most of the times skip ourselves from them. Today obesity has become a burning question with least answers from all those weight reduction clinics which have grown like rainy mushrooms in the every nook and corners. Big packages and trimming programs are not being enough and so called health keeps on going well every passing day. To get rid off the yellow yolk we have collected, understanding the same is only important factor that can lead us towards the health. One who is healthy can withstand hunger, thirst, the heat of the sun, cold, and tolerate physical exercise. They can digest and assimilate properly (1). Taking here an opportunity to go into a deeper aspect of some unanswered questions so as to find out how possible it is to get away from the deadly, and mass destructive evil of obesity.
Causes of obesity
Causes for obesity in texts are an exhaustive list. For the sake of better understanding it can be classified as food and life style related, and other factors that generate the unwanted fat to accumulate. Tabular form is given below to differentiate the causes
| Food origin | Life style origin | Other factors |
| Ati sampoornat | Avyayamat | Beej swabhavat |
| Guru | Avyavayat | |
| Madhur | Divaswapnat | |
| Sheet | Achintanat | |
| Snigddha | Harsnityatvat | |
| Shleshmaahar sewino | Adhyayan sheela | |
Excessive corpulence is caused by over intake of food, intake of heavy (guru), sweet, cold, and unctuous food, lack of exercise, abstinence from sexual intercourse, day sleeping, uninterrupted cheerfulness, lack of mental exercise, and heredity(2).
Whatever the causes may be, all above causes leads to increase in kapha content of body, which is prime factor for the body tissue formation, it is the responsible dosha which helps in dhatugata sandhibandha so as to make body stout. But in case of not being controlled by any other factor i.e. vata or pitta, it goes on adding its above qualities just to end up in sthoulaya (corpulence). Trend of consuming chocolates, pizza, and butter stuffed roti, and tongue which is always at work of tasting and experimenting has been considered as the prime factor of excessive corpulence. Adding to it is our hectic life style give origin to well ignored bodies. Late night parties with drinks and unusual time of sleeping is an adjunct to belly beast. Food related causes when associated with other factors like lack of physical and mental exercise adds onto it like petrol in fire. Day sleep is a major factor for the increase in cough and moreover reduces the body metabolic rate remarkably leading to the sluggish body movements. This simple practical can be done and results can be felt individually. One another factor which is mentioned, at last but not the least is beeja swabhavat i.e. hereditary origin. It is an important factor which should be considered by the physician at the time of assuring the patient about the weight reduction.
Some other reasons which are not directly mentioned in ancient texts but carry a great deal of importance are constitution (prakritti), place of origin (desha) etc. kapha individuals are born stout, while kapha predominance is common in anupa desha. Such obesity is a bit difficult to deal with.
