398 Nature Cure has utility but should not end up as fad प्रकृति चिकित्सा ప్రకృతి చికిత్స

398 प्रकृति चिकित्सा कितना शास्त्रीय है ?
398 ప్రకృతి చికిత్స కొంతమేరకు ఉపయోగకరమే, కానీ అది వ్యక్తుల జీవితాల్లో ఒక వేలంవెర్రిగా, కాళ్ళకు బందంగా తయారు కాకూడదు.



Photo courtesy outlookindia.com.

First I shall give a link to a very apt, beautiful, critical piece of article on the fad of Nature cure which is growing influenced by TV preachings.  This article is from Andhrajyothy.com, one of the the top three dailies of Andhra Pradesh.

पहले मैं, प्रकृति चिकित्सा के सनक झक पर, एक मुँहतोड, सुंदर, विवेचनात्मक व्यास के लिंक दे रहा हूँ।  यह तॆलुगु में है।  आंध्रज्योति तॆलुगु अखबार दिनांक २७.११.१४ में छपा हूआ है।  मैं आगे दिनों में इस के अनुवाद और इस पर एक सुदीर्घ टिप्पणि देने के लिये कोशिस करता हूँ।

http://www.andhrajyothy.com/Artical.aspx?SID=53597&SupID=25

The issues raised and answered in this article are worth pondering over everybody who is concerned about finding solutions to the problems of health and medication, amidst the ghastly system of modern medical industry.

इस व्यास में उठाया गया और जवाब दिया गया अंश, आधुनिक वैद्य और चिकित्साशालाओं से थका हूआ, और आल्टर्नेट चिकित्सा या आरोग्य पध्धतियों को खोजनेवाले को  बहुत चिंतना योग्य और महसूस है।

ఒక లోకోక్తి ఉంది.  యముడు ప్రాణాలను హరిస్తే, వైద్యుడు ప్రాణాలనే కాక, బ్రతుకుతెరువు మరియు ఉన్న ఇల్లు వాకిళ్ళను కూడ హరిస్తాడు.  ఆధునిక వైద్య మరియు వైద్యశాలా పరిశ్రమల విషయంలో ఇది అక్షరాలా నిజం.  ఆధునిక వైద్యంతో విసిగిపోయే, ఆధునికేతర వైద్య మరియు ఆరోగ్య రక్షణ పధ్ధతులను వెతుక్కునే వాళ్ళ కొరకు ఇది చాల చింతనీయమైన వ్యాసం.  ఇందులో లేవనెత్తి, జవాబిచ్చిన అంశాలపై ప్రతివారు ఆలోచించి, తామేమైనా వేలం వెర్రిలో ఇరుక్కొని తమ శరీరాన్ని, ఆరోగ్యాన్ని పెనం లోంచి పొయ్యిలో పడేసుకుంటున్నామా అనే విషయాన్ని గురించి ఆలోచించాలి.

నేను కూడ ఈ విషయం గురించి వ్రాయాల్సింది ఒక వేయి పేజీలు దాకా ఉంది.

Today I shall touch one item.  आज एक ऐटम को क्लुप्त रूप से अनुशीलन करता हुँ।  ఈరోజు ఒక అంశం గురించి సృశిస్తాను.

First a slide-show on  drinking water, courtesy: rediff.com.
http://www.rediff.com/money/slide-show/slide-show-1-special-thirst-for-water-images-from-around-the-world/20120323.htm#6

It has become a fad for some health-conscious persons to drink six litres of water per day, because a TV preacher is strongly urging his viewers to drink six litres water per day.  This seems to be unreasonable, because humans need to drink water on the basis of the constitution of their individual bodies.  This need may vary as per seasons, type of food consumed, condition of their skin pores, condition of their kidneys, their body fluids, etc.  Very often, body itself seeks water whenever it needs and sends us signals from brain, we feel thirsty, and drink water as per body's responses.  Unless there is a shortage of water or surfeit of water, the decision on how much water is input into the body, is not a conscious deliberated decision.  This is a part of our natural instinct.

We can say this body-instinct-dictated natural behavior in babies, and very young children.  Howsoever strongly a mother may impose her views on the baby/child it will not drink/eat more than what its body decides and dictates.

I recall my own personal experience when I was a around three years child.  At that time, I didn't allow my grandfather to feed me with dairy products such as yoghurt (curd), butter, cheese.   To deceive me he used to hide a small ball of butter in a morsel of jowar + hibiscus canabinus + clarified butter (ghee), or a small ball of curd in a cud of jowar + garlic-chillipowder + clarified butter (ghee) and thrust into my mouth.  The moment the taste of a dairy product touched the taste buds on my tongue, I used to protest and vomit the stuff.  This hatred for dairy products continued till I was ten.

Then, inexplicably, as a ten year boy, I started consuming dairy products without being pressed by anybody, but my body started repelling onion.  This time it was like a conflict of the Calvin (in the Calvin Hobbes Comic fame) against his baby-sitter and his parents, I too had to fight for my food without onions.  My parents liked onions very much and there were never curries or soups without onions, on any day in the home.  It was a hell for me.  My parents' dictum, it was reasonable for them, was to say:  For your sake, why should we forsake onions?  If you have an abhorrence for onions, you segregate them when you eat, and consume the remaining.   But the segregation work was not easy.  It will be like picking out corrupt employees in an Indian Government Office and segregating them to push them into innocuous seats.  Instead I preferred to segregate the vegetable pieces from the heap of onions.

Fortunately, this hatred for onions disappeared when I went to Hyderabad for livelihood, when I was 17.  May be, the maxims: Necessity is the mother of invention or,  sweet are the uses of adversity.

Suppose, if we persist with this type of choosiness in eliminating unwanted food items from the stuff sold in our hotels, in a plate of puri served with boiled potato curry (different varieties such as kUra, kurma, sAgu etc.), we can find only onions and no potatoes.  When onion prices go up in India, that too happens quite frequently, what we can find in these puri curries?

Incidentally, if a person has to drink six litres per day of clean drinking water (in Guntur tea stalls, its price is Rs. 4 per litre), we have to spend Rs. 24/- on water alone, or carry a big Milton Jug of 6 litres, to wherever we go on our job.  Gone were the days when street taps used to profusely ooze out or shower out water .  In fact, British Government made an Inns Act (equivalent present day Hotels), (still in force, but redundant in our current business-driven world), which says that Inns have to serve free water to one and all including wayfarers, and  cannot refuse if anybody tries to drink free water from its tables.  Mr. Modi's Govt. may repel it now treating it as an obsolete piece of legislation.

The remarks made in the above article, about the habit of drinking water while eating food.  Both Indian Nature cure and Ayurveda Systems discourage it on the ground that digestive juices get diluted when water is drunk with meal, and that meals will not be digested.  A thumb rule is made out that water should not be drunk within 2 1/2 hours prior to and after a meal.  The reasons given in the article to support the idea of drinking water intermittently with meal, against the dicta of the TV preachers not to drink water during meals, are worth considering.

My point of view is: Body knows best when and how much water to drink.  Our bodies are more analytical than our TV preachers.  Body may call for more water when hot foods are eaten (these are UshNa vIryam in Ayurvedic language, eg. pepper, chillies).  Consumption of oily stuff may also warrant drinking of more water.  Madhura rasa foods (sweet taste foods such as sugar, jaggery, honey) have a tendency to satiate thirst and body may not call for more water after consumption of Madhura rasa and tikta rasa (bitter taste).  On the other hand, lavaNa (salt), katu (hot) tasting foods may need more water.  They seem to have a tendency to dehydrate body.

The amount of physical exertion will also influence body's demand for water.   This is because when we do some physical labor, we sweat, and water gets excreted through sweat pores, and we need more water to replenish.   During summer, sweat glands work more and hence we may feel more thirsty.  In winter, kidneys takeover, if they work well, we may feel thirsty.

IMPORTANT AYURVEDIC DICTUM WORTH CONSIDERING AND ANALYSING

50% of body should be filled with solid food, 25% with water and the remaining should be left vacant.  This vacant space will be used by gases released in the digestive process.  Else, there will be no space for gases, if the entire stomach is loaded with food and water.


Water scarcity in Telugu Land

Photo courtesy Outlookindia.com.



To see a beautiful article at the above outlookindia.com, click: अवुटलुकइंडिया में मुद्रित एक सुंदर व्यास को देखने के लिये क्लिक.  పై బొమ్మ ఉన్న అవుట్ లుక్ ఆర్టికిల్ చదవాలనుకునే వారికి లింక్, క్లిక్.


http://www.outlookindia.com/printarticle.aspx?240637

Wherefrom we can get six litres of clean drinking water per day? हमारे को हर दिन छे लीटर पीने पानी कहाँ से मिलेगा? మనకు రోజుకి ఆరులీటర్ల శుభ్రమైన నీళ్ళు తాగటానికి ఎక్కడ నుండి వస్తాయి.
Summary:  We cannot make a hard and fast rule that a person should drink minimum six litres of water per day.  No max. or no min.

To continue सशेष సశేషం.