While the government has put its weight behind popularising yoga, many doctors have also been incorporating it in their treatment for various illnesses, to augment the benefits of regular medication.
An increasing number of doctors are recommending yoga to their patients, to go along with their regular medication, as a way to help them heal faster.
Ratna Patel (32) would have frequent panic attacks that would leave her sweaty and have her heart pounding hard. Mother to a young child, she was mostly confined to her home. While regular medication helped her, it was yoga that played an important role in bringing down her stress levels.
Dr Ira Dutta, a consultant psychiatrist at SL Raheja Fortis Hospital in Mahim, who treated Patel, said: "Anxiety, panic attacks and cases of depression are fairly common now. While we do put the patients on medication, we also use variations of yoga, especially deep breathing and relaxation techniques."
While the government has put its weight behind popularising yoga, many doctors have also been incorporating it in their treatment for various illnesses, to augment the benefits of regular medication.
Dr Shirish Hastak, a neurologist at Wockhardt hospital in Mumbai Central, said: "I see a lot of patients who've suffered a stroke, which at times causes some sort of physical impairment in some patients. I find that yoga helps stabilise them emotionally and, in some cases, works better than conventional physiotherapy."
Doctors also feel that brining in variety in exercise routines keeps patients more engaged and motivated to continue their physical activities.
Hastak has also found yoga to work well for patients who have suffered head or spine injuries.
For Aabha Padgaonkar, yoga was a boon post a sleeve gastrectomy procedure, which left her 44kg lighter, but with a lot of sagging skin. "Yoga helped me tone my body after the surgery," said the 26-year-old media professional. She added, "People who have put on a lot of weight also have anxiety issues and yoga helps them deal with that."
Her doctor Jayshree Todkar, a bariatric surgeon at Hiranandani Hospital in Powai recommends yoga to all her patients. "I have seen the attitude of patients towards a change in their disease and their confidence levels improve when they practise yoga," Dr Todkar said, adding that it helps patients emotionally and spiritually.
Not just doctors dealing with physical ailments, but those treating patients with mental illnesses or addiction, too, feel that yoga helps deliver results. Dutta said, "We had done a research project to see if yoga can help alcoholics. We ensured that not just the patient but the entire family learnt yoga and noticed that yoga led to better outcomes in dealing with addiction." She added that even with patients suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorders who are being rehabilitated, yoga as a addition to treatment improved social functioning.
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