Balanced diet and lifestyle are the key to avoid or decrease female issues. Women cross different periods with age and are more prone to wide range of health issues due to changes in her body.
Health and lifestyle, especially during fertile period of woman will have impact on her pregnancy and progeny.
So maintaining healthy lifestyle and diet for a woman is utmost important for now, future and her family.
The management of Vata dosha is really important because imbalances of vata dosha is the main cause for various health issues in women.
The causes of Vata imbalances
Wrong habits to avoid:
- Excessive physical strain activities such as exercises for long hours,
- Wrong Yoga postures,
- High heel footwear,
- Travelling for many hours on daily basis
- No break from all the day
- Aways moving
- Delaying sleeping time with smartphone engagement
- Skipping meals,
- Having very little amount of foods for weight management,
- Habitual suppression natural urges such as hunger, thirst, urination, defecation continuously
In short time many complaints will occur such as body ache, headache, bloating, nausea menstrual pains, back pain, anxiety, heavy bleeding, constipation, etc…
Psychological factors
Stress, anxiety, fear, depression, phobia, emotional volatility and more lead to physical and mental health disorders.
All those emotions will have impact on physical health in long run mainly due to vata dosha imbalances.
Wrong food habits to avoid:
Dry fish, dry food in general, raw food, highly spicy food, cold refrigerated water and food items, sour, junk food, canned foods, uncooked, spoiled, contaminated, previous night left over food, repeatedly re cooked food, skipping meals, untimely taken food, alcohol, packed food, industrial prepared food…
All of that are our worst enemies to maintain good health…without speaking about all the food additives and preservatives you find in artificial and not fresh food
Lifestyle changes during menstruation
During menstruation
- Avoid heavy food difficult to digest. (meat, junk foods, oily, junk food restaurants…) and prefer diet including wheat, barley, guard, green gram, mung bean…easy to digest.
- Avoid spicy
- Avoid excess salt consumption during this period
- Don’t drink cold water or other refrigerated food items, it increase vata and can cause painful periods.
- Drink warm water and take warm food along the day
- Avoid sour, salty food this can increase the flow in those who have heavy menstrual bleeding.
- Avoid excess walking, travelling, talking, standing or other physical strain which cause imbalance in vata dosha which in its normal state helps easy menstrual flow.
- Avoid stressed mind full of thoughts.
Ideal food during Pregnancy
- Choose food easily digestible, freshly prepared, wholesome and delicious
- Include ghee, milk with turmeric or saffron, leafy vegetables, sweet potatoes, banana, pomegranate, custard apple, walnuts, almonds, avocado, fennel, cumin, coconut water, …
- Avoid raw papaya, raw pineapple, castor oil, raw meat, caffeine, liquor, excess asafoetida, uncooked, spoilt, canned, junk food and left over food.
- Avoid heavy thinks, travelling, climbing stairs or hill, standing on height, staying near places of loud noise, stay in peace.
During menopause
During this period, cessation of menstruation is there and cause imbalances in all three doshas.
You could feel various symptoms so it is the period where utmost care of health has to be taken to form balance in doshas.
Treatment should be done according to the presenting symptoms and dosha involved.
For vata symptoms can be mood swings, fear, constipation, insomnia, anxiety, body aches and more then should avoid intake of dry, cold food items and activities such as excess exercise, travelling and stay grounded as much as possible.
For pitta dosha dominance symptoms cen be hot flushes, anger, burning sensation, excess bleeding, … Such person should take coolant, bitter, sweet taste food ( guard, green gram, barley, sugarcane juice, coconut water etc). Avoid spicy, salt, sour food, pickles, chilies etc
In kapha symptoms like obesity, depression, indigestion, …then avoid taking excess sweet, oily food, heavy, raw food, junk food, day sleep …
General Therapies To Improve Women Health
Oil massage (Abyanga)
- Daily body oil massage before warm bath balances vata dosha
- Improves skin health
- Moisturizes the skin, removes dryness, improve complexion
- Lubricates joints, relaxes muscles thereby reduce body aches and joint pain
Regular exercise (Vyayama)
- Controls body weight
- Reduces excess body fat
- Maintains bone and muscle health
- Relieves stress, anxiety, fear, depression
Maintaining normal movement of vata dosha (Vatanulomana)
- Drinking warm water maintains normal movement of vata also improves digestion processes and maintains appetite
- Drink water soaked overnight with raisins, early morning in empty stomach.
It will brings back vata movement in normal direction. It acts as mild laxative to ease bowel movement.
Meditation and Yoga
Those play important role in all phase of women’s life.
- Helps to relieve stress, anxiety, and stabilize emotional flows
- Improve attitude facing life
- Bring positive mind with regularity
- Improves disease tolerance capacity of body.
- Maintains physical and mental dosha in balance
- Maintains normal digestive strength.
- Strenghten muscles, bones and mind
- …
Medicines for women health
Medicines mainly used for Women Health with the with the supervision of a physician and according to your life history
Shatavari Gulam: used in almost all the gynecological complaints, PCOD, menstrual pain, irregular menstrual cycles, heavy menstrual bleeding, urinary tract infections, …
Ashwagandha Churna: for anxiety, leucoderma, depression, insomnia, weight gain, weight loss, immunity, muscle strength, body building, anti-oxidants, sexual stimulant.
References
- As per the research conducted by Department of Psychology H.N.B Garhwal Central University Garhwal Uttarakhand, India on stress among employed women and housewives and its management have concluded stress management techniques such as meditation, yoga, hypnosis, guided imagery, muscle relaxation, mindfulness breathing etc. have shown improvement in positive coping skills.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5843960/
- As per the research conducted on effect of massage therapy during pregnancy and labor, concluded that massage therapy is effective during pregnancy and labor. There was reduced depression, anxiety, decreased leg and back pain in pregnant women who underwent massage therapy and on labor pain women experienced significantly less pain, and their labors were on average 3 h shorter with less need for medication.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2870995/
- Menstrual cycle and food habits:
The evidence indicates that women eat more food per day during the 10 days after they ovulate than during the 10 days before
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7282607/
- Menopause and exercise:
A research study concluded that 12-weeks of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise may result in small improvements in sleep quality, insomnia and depression in midlife, sedentary women.