Indian Country Today: Transcendental Meditation Combating Diabetes

I just was introduced to a website that I found quite interesting: Indian Country Today Media Network. 

My mother was adopted, and on her birth certificate for her birth father are the words "part Indian." How often I've wondered about that. How much of my genetic heritage is Native American Indian? What tribe?

Websites such as Indian Country Today provide resources for me to learn about my heritage in a contemporary, living context.

One interesting article I read was about diabetes and one way Native American Indians are dealing with it: Transcendental Meditation Combating Diabetes in Indian Country.

Ahmed Mohammed, medical director at the Winnebago Indian Hospital in Nebraska, estimates that up to 66 percent of the Winnebago served by the facility are either type 2 diabetic or pre-diabetic. He knows that the right diet and exercise can diminish diabetes symptoms but notes that stress is often the precipitating factor for those losing the battle with the disease. To change that, some tribal members began practicing TM.

The article provides an overview of how some Indian communities are using the Transcendental Meditation program as a means of battling diabetes--and of the other benefits of the program, especially in school and in enlivening an interest in Native American spiritual heritage.

Shortly after his first trip to the Maharishi University of Management, Waukon [a member of the Winnegego Tribe] brought several elders to Fairfield to learn TM; the elders reported that in addition to lowering their blood glucose and blood pressure levels, they began to remember some of the traditional songs they had forgotten. “TM has helped them get in touch with the sacred again,” he says.

Below is a video where Prosper Waukon talks about the journey to health and wholeness his community is engaged in.





I am especially enthusiastic to see how suffering is being attacked from all sides. It is important to see that there are means to not just deal with a disease but to also find a way to move toward wellness and prevention.

Copyright 2012 by Thomas L. Kepler, all rights reserved