Sewa and Vyasa Present Workshop on Diabetes & Yoga
By Sachin Dabir
HOUSTON: Sewa International along with VYASA Houston organized a free community workshop – “Role of Yoga in Managing and Prevention of Diabetes” on July 27. The event was hosted at VYASA Yoga center and was attended by over 50 people. Smitha Mallaiah, a renowned Mind-Body intervention specialist at the MD Anderson Cancer center’s integrative medicine program and Program Director at VYASA Houston, presented the workshop.
The workshop started with a prayer and Smitha Mallaiah and Nikhil Jain of Sewa welcomed the participants. Thereafter Sachin Dabir talked briefly about the activities Sewa International in Houston along with Smitha presenting the activities of VYASA. It was wonderful to see community organizations joining hands to bring such an educative workshop and the community members responding so well on a hot summer day.
Smitha Mallaiah gave a very engaging presentation on yoga therapy as a treatment protocol for diabetes, a global pandemic. She talked about the stress induced diseases and impact of stress on health and wellbeing. She pointed to some of the randomized control and clinical trials carried out to observe the impact of stress from common disease like cold to complex diseases like cancer. “Stress is a big deal, even if you exercise daily and eat well, but if you are stressed, you are going to get affected” She went on to share about 5 layered existence model in Yoga and how we need to start with focusing on mind to address stress. She shared learning’s from her long standing experience in dealing with many diseases included diabetes through yoga and meditation. She talked about specific ways yoga helps in addressing key causes of diabetes.
On the related topic, Nikhil Jain of Sewa shared about the upcoming Stop Diabetes Movement (SDM) Yoga camps being conducted by the certified therapists and medical doctors from VYASA Houston. These camps provide holistic approach to managing Diabetes through Yoga and diet control. Several participants registered for the upcoming SDM camps on site itself. The question answer session was very informative. Participants from earlier SDM camps shared their experiences and spoke very highly about its impact in managing their diabetes.
About the upcoming SDM Yoga camp : Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (SVYASA) a Yoga University, Bangalore has undertaken this ambitious program “Stop Diabetes Movement” to bring down the growth of diabetes worldwide. This is a registered research protocol from VYASA to prevent and manage diabetes in prediabetes and diabetics. In Houston, the SDM yoga camps have been extremely successful with over 300+ participants already attended these in Houston during the past 3 years. The ten-day camp includes daily yoga routine, lectures from experts and doctors in the field on diabetes, stress, food habits, and how to manage demanding lifestyle in a better way.
Sewa & VYASA are conducting the next set of camps in Katy, Sugarland & West Houston simultaneously, from Sep 14 to Sep 23. These camps are FREE of charge. There is a deposit which is completely refundable if participants complete the program in full. For more information and to register please contact info-sdm@sewausa.org or (713) 834-4909. The last day to register for the camp is September 5th 2018.
Sewa USA is 501 (c) (3) Hindu faith-based non-profit, charitable organization. All donations (cash, cars, clothes, securities, etc.) are tax-deductible. (Tax Id# 20-0638718). Sewa serves humanity regardless of race, religion, color, gender or nationality.