Title of Lecture: …The effect of Panchkarma in Management of Stress Releated Problems in Women

Name of Speaker: …P. Mamgain   

Program Time: …12-1230am

Name of Reporter: …Yeahee Kim

Main Points of the Lecture: .... Dr. Mamgain told the audience that most of her female patients show various symptoms with the common characteristic that they are rooted in stress. Stress is a normal psychological and physical reaction to the demands of life and can be productive or negative. Stress can be productive, in the case of a ‘positive cause’. This happens for example in the case of applying for a new job. In the case of negative causes, stress creates acute or chronic pain. Dr. Mamgain explained that women are more susceptible to stress than men. This results from the combination of a more emotional nature and the multiple roles that women play in life (work, wife, housekeeper, care for children and elderly parents etcetera). The stress response system of the body was explained, as well as the basic causes of stress.

Ayurveda considers a human being (purusha) as a replica of the outer world (loka). In the case of stress there is disharmony with the environment. This is expressed in a disbalance in the tridoshas and the gunas and in an accumulation of the malas (body waste) and ama (toxins). The accumulated toxins go all over the body, especially to the weak points where they create physical and mental disease. 

In the management of stress ayurveda aims to bring about the balance of the tridoshas, trigunas and the elimination of the malas and ama. This is accomplished by first, examining the health status and the disease of the patient and second, by applying panchakarma. Panchakarma is a group of therapies. The main procedures are the purification of the body, the removal of toxins, the treatment of the disease, and changes in lifestyle including the practice of meditation, asanas, joints and glands excercises and walking. In this way not only the stress but also the pain caused by stress can be removed.