Inside Yoga 125

Last week a report into our health revealed that 50 per cent of women and 43 per cent of men regularly took prescription drugs. Dr Clare Gerada was quoted: “I think what we’re doing now… is over-treating and over-diagnosing”.

How have we become such a drug dependent nation? It is a Western malaise, as a glance across the pond towards the USA shows they also have similarly high figures when it comes to prescription drugs.

I was shocked to hear someone – I think she was a doctor, who works for one of the country’s private health care providers, speaking about the figures adding her own sort of spin. She said that the figures show that a lot more people these days have access to health services! In other words they are able to push more drugs to more people than ever before.

Since I was a teenager I have been against the way doctors very readily give drugs to patients, especially after witnessing when I was a teenager one of my best friends slide into prescription drug dependency after going to the doctor for depression.

I do accept that many people do need the support of prescription drugs, but the report does indicate that the numbers are too high and I suspect the numbers of those using prescription drugs regularly is rising.

My experience as a teenager did leave me with a firm idea of what I wanted to do with my health, and then as an adult I found that the yoga (the whole eight limbs, from ethical guidelines and asanas, to meditation) and Buddhist meditation offer a way out of this unhealthy need for chemical solutions to our health.

There are legions of stories of how people have used yoga exercises, meditation and so forth to improve their health, to cure themselves of dependency on drugs, and in some cases cure themselves without the need of intervention from doctors with their drugs.

That’s all I want to say for now, as the message is depressingly clear: that too many of us take drugs to stay healthy – or ‘healthy’ the correct word here?

To see the stories from last week, see BBC report, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30411246

GOC (15/12/14)

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