Yoga In Holistic Rehabilitation of the Ageing, Carer and Cared

Abstract

Ageing and co-morbidities go hand-in-hand with a greater need for rehabilitation and care. There is dementia, a neuro-disorder, that is further posing new challenges with high, global incidence. India’s greying population already facing social and economic burden is rising that necessitates a dire need to offer facilities of rehabilitation and skilled care for them as well. With lack of access to affordable facilities of healthcare, it is imperative to provide methods of intervention in neurorehabilitation that are non-pharmaceutical and, yet integrative to mainline treatment, holistic, economical, non-invasive and low-risk. Yoga is popularly considered universally as a lifestyle discipline and practiced all over the world with knowledge and training of breath control, meditation and gentle form of postures in flowing sequences as an approach to maintain good health and treatment for various physical and mental disorders. Yoga has advantages that are valid as a tool of prevention and rehabilitation and can be trained and exercised individually or in groups for both old and young. Yoga as therapy is being deployed more so with satisfying results not only on the aged, persons with dementia and other neuro-disorders, but also families and caregivers as their burden of caregiving is tough and need therapy for managing their mental, psychological and social health. Medical Yoga, Yoga that is applied as holistic integrative and adjunct therapy with mainline medical treatment, is yielding encouraging, improved, positive and qualitative impact on rehabilitation, Quality of Life (QoL) and wellbeing