Interviewer: Good afternoon DR Vikram.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : Good afternoon
Interviewer : Thank you for sparing some time from your busy schedule and today, we want to know about obesity because this is a very common problem these days. Now a day’s almost everyone is suffering from this obesity. So, please tell us what this problem obesity is.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : Basically, being overweight called obesity. Now a day, you know the lifestyle has changed a lot from last 25 years. You can see our lifestyle, our working style, our food habits, and our sleeping pattern, everything we have changed a lot. We are now different people what we used to be 30 -40 yrs. back. You can see a lot of lifestyle changes are there, lots of food habits they have changed. This is the reason why people are getting bigger and bigger and obese.
So these two are the major causes people are going to work and they sit at the computers all the time and some snack, packed foods, frozen food or some fast food, drinking coca cola and things like that, Too many snacks so this is the major cause of obesity. Lack of exercise.
Interviewer : So, it is a basically lifestyle disease, so is it a disease or it leads to some other diseases.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : It, itself is a disease also and it leads to so many other diseases as well.
Interviewer: What are those?
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : There are so many diseases like diabetes, because diabetes is insulin resistant disease, because insulin is not able to open up the channels of the cells, like this is cell and this is blood vessel if there is insulin and sugar and in between the blood vessels and cell there is wall of fat in obese people so this fat cells they stop, they block the channels in obese people so sugar level in blood it is always raised if there is no fat then channels insulin it is easy to open up the channel, insulin is the key of the cells it opens up the channels and sugar goes in. cells they need energy. It is a two edge sword, too much sugar in the blood it causes problem, too less sugar in the cells it causes their death and their atrophy, problem in their metabolism, they will not get the energy, they will not get the glucose. They are dying lack of glucose and here things are getting complicated because of too much sugar.
Interviewer : That is why, I think obese people they generally get slow, they are not very active.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : Diabetes is one thing which is a side effect of obesity and another is blood pressure. Just imagine a piece of land 1 acre land and a small pump to irrigate that land, 1 acre land and small pump at the site. So this is heart is becoming very small if this land size increase. If your body size increases, the heart cannot become bigger it can just muscle has to be stronger. But muscle size increases and heart size increases and muscle strength don’t increase, so ultimately that is called, there is limited to that. That leads to hypertension, congestive heart failure mainly. The arteries become narrow and they become plagued so that causes hypertension and too much weight causes congestive heart failure.
Interviewer : So generally obese people also have a cholesterol problem.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : Yes, of course, because liver becomes fatty and liver is not able to metabolize so many things like cholesterol. So this cholesterol is cholesterol level rises in blood. So they more prone to heart problems, heart attacks and blood pressure and congestive heart failure, even stroke. So many, there is even one more problem like osteoarthritis, these people you know this body, they are not able to bear too much weight. See, this is the bone, this is the upper bone femur, and this is tibia the lower bone, and there is the sheet in between.
Interviewer : So you are talking about the knee joint.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : There is sheet called synovial sheet, there is lubricant in that and if there is too much weight that sheet become ruptured and collapsed and these two bones they rub against each other and even the bone pieces, fragments they come out and when they stuck in between the bone then this become very difficult and very painful. And they rub like this. This is osteoarthritis. So you see many problems with obesity. I want to show you this picture. This is what the man has become; this is the evolution of man I want to show you. You see, this what we have become, what we are becoming. You see, this is called central obesity. The tummy comes out because of too much fat deposition in the abdominal area. Man holding cola glass. Drinking too much calories. The fast food has an impact. This is evoluting what we are becoming. So this should be avoided.
Interviewer : Obesity leads to so many problems so we can overcome this very dreadful disease.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : As I told you, it’s like depositing a money in your bank and it grows. You keep on adding calories in your body, you keep on eating food, junk food and other things and you don’t spend, and body gives you interest in the form of adipose tissue in the form of fat cells, so too many fat cells, they got deposited, they keep on increasing in size. So this is obesity. The best way is not giving too much fat to your body. Just give food which is less in calories, but good in nutrition. Having too much of nutritional value rather than calorific value. All fruits and all vegetables. Mainly fruits, vegetables and salads should be taken in abundance everyday.2-3 servings. Fruits should be there. One should increase fruits and salad intake; water intake should also be increase. Stop all the artificial foods like chips, French fries, burger, pizza, soft drinks, beer, alcohol be in moderate quantity and too much of food that is the key. And exercise is very important because you know people they, one more important tip is get up early in the morning. It is just like turning on your machine early in the morning. At a certain level, the BMR basic metabolic rate, when we lie down and we sleep it is very low. When we are, when we get up it is at this level, when you are sleeping at this level.
When you get up at this level and when you exercise it is at this level. So if you turn on your machine early in the morning and start from this level exercise a bit or may be just morning walk and you set up the calorie burning rate or BMR at this level. And for the full day you are burning your calories at this rate. If you get up and don’t exercise you burning your calories for a full day at this rate and if you get up early in the morning and set the metabolism rate at a higher level than you are burning at this rate. So it is better to get up early in the morning and set the higher the BMR.
Interviewer : That’s why, people say rise early in the morning.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : If you cannot exercise, cannot run, or cannot jog, or cannot do anything, at least get up early in the morning walk and do some yoga and pranayama breathing exercise or may be some simple exercise on the bed itself, moving the legs, rotating the legs, rotating the arms, it is very good for elderly people.
Interviewer : That’s very fine and one more thing I want to know DR Vikram like many females they have a thyroid problem and they generally feel that due to thyroid level increase they are getting obese so is it true or it is just a myth?
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : I would say some, obesity is also the leading cause of thyroid. So, obesity can also lead to thyroid also with other hormonal imbalances even the gynecological system is disturbed because of obesity. Thyroid hormone is disturbed, the female reproductive hormone they are disturbed. Endocrine system this diabetic hormone is disturbed. So, so many hormones are disturbed because of obesity. Because hormones they don’t get, they don’t get any way to move. They get stuck. According to ayurveda this is called strotoabrodh, channel blockage. So it leads to so many diseases.
Interviewer : Dr. Vikram please helps us on this, also like many people are not able to do more exercise, follow some good lifestyle or food habits. So are there any supplements to improve this metabolic rate?
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : This should not focus on BMR increasing, should be increasing the functionality of liver improving the functionality of organs so they are able to burn the fat cells or dissolve directly act on the fat cells to dissolve them or burn them. So there are some herbs in ayurveda which are very effective in burning the fat cells and moving stubborn cellulites from the body. Guggul I would say there are some supplements like this guggul. This guggul is tree, the resin of this tree is concentrated to make the extract and then capsules are made of that, in ayurveda physician word over there use guggul in hypercholestremia too much cholesterol and weight loss and even in body pain also it is very useful. So it helps in melt down stubborn fat so this is one herb guggul. Another is garcinia.
Interviewer : This is a very popular thing.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : Yes, it is very popular in southeast Asia and it is a fruit growing over there, it contains certain natural alkaloids natural things which are causing the dissolution of the fat cells. The fruit cover or fruit rind is called the extract of that rind is made into garcinia capsules. And this is another formula, trim formula combination of some like Mustak, and Triphala, and garcinia itself. So these three herbs they work together to reduce the weight. So this another combination I have, this is called stholyantak churna, this is traditional medicine
Interviewer : The name itself shows that it is a traditional medicine, stholyantak churna.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : Stholyta is sthulta means heaviness means obesity. So this is for overweight people. It can be taken by everybody, even elderly people it is very effective. It is a mixture of 13 various herbs, very rare herbs so we are giving the powder form. So why I am giving so many supplements.
Interviewer : Then need to be used all together or separately?
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : It’s better to use them together, because you know there are so many companies promoting a single product or one product for obesity. But obesity is stubborn disease. So many people come to me they are saying, we run for every day for so many years and still not able to lose weight.
Interviewer : Yes, it is problematic.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : Yes, it is problematic and stubborn fat is there so we have to use all the herbs in combination and there is no harm in using them. If used together they don’t cause any side effects or something.
Interviewer : These are purely herbal.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : Purely herbal, natural, no preservative. We can use them even someone is suffering from blood pressure, diabetes or other disease or along with any other medicine.
Interviewer : They are purely herbal and can be used.
Dr. Vikram Chauhan : Yes.
Interviewer : So people who are having more weight and not able to do exercise, they generally need some supplements also to get rid of the obesity. So Dr Vikram thank you very much for sharing this very useful information.
