Digestive Disorders (1)

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DIGESTIVE DISORDERS
Digestive System Just like the face turns red
when one is angry, the stomach lining turns red
too. And it pours out large amounts of acid and
enzymes. Anger, fear, jealousy, anxiety, tension
etc, are emotions which influence not only the
quality and quantity of secretions in the stomach
and intestine but also alter the blood flow and
the mobility of the intestine.
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There is a well-organized vigilant control
mechanism operating through your automatic
nervous system to receive and send information
from and to every part of the digestive tract. In
other words your brain (in turn the subconscious
mind) knows every thing that happens in the
digestive system and vice versa. Thus, each one
of your emotions and thoughts are perceived by
the digestive organs producing necessary changes
in their functions. Many ailments of the
digestive system, starting from mouth to rectum
are traceable to stress and modern lifestyle. A
stressful erratic life style with suppressed
negative emotions, unexpressed fears and wrong
habits of eating, sleeping, drinking, smoking
etc., over long periods, can permanently disturb
the balance resulting in common ailments like
repeated mouth ulcers, hyperacidity, peptic
ulcer, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative
colitis etc. What protects the stomach in normal
health from self-digestion?
Proteins are the chief nutrients contained in
meat, milk, egg, pulses etc. Pepsin is the enzyme
secreted by the stomach that digests these
proteins in the presence of hydrochloric acid. If
the protein in the meat that we eat can be
digested by the stomach juices, why does the
stomach not digest its own lining which is also
a protein? In the dynamic healthy living state,
the stomach lining is well protected. A slimy
thick coating of mucus and a thin layer of
alkali (bicarbonate) under the mucus, prevent the
acid and pepsin from reaching the stomach
lining. The small quantity of the strong acid
that may pass through the
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mucus barrier, gets neutralized by this alkali.
Further, if the acid passes through even this
alkaline barrier, a healthy lining with good
blood flow offers natural resistance and the few
cells that may get digested are soon replaced by
the capacity of the gastric lining to repair
quickly. These protectors are always in a
dynamic balance with the aggressors. What are
Aggressors? Smoking, alcohol, and medicines like
aspirin, pain killers etc., that are known to
induce excessive acid production (hyperacidity),
are called aggressors. All these substances are
related to one's life style and habits. That is,
these are what you do against the natural healthy
ways of living. What is Indigestion? Almost
everyone experiences occasional attacks of
indigestion, which are usually quite brief. We
may feel blown out or distended after a large
meal and get some relief when we bring up wind.
Most of the wind that we bring up is a result of
swallowing air as we eat, but some is produced
by a chemical reaction in the stomach or from
carbonated, fizzy drinks. The solution for this
type of gas problem is to eat less, eat slowly
and go easy with fizzy drinks.
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More persistent indigestion is usually linked
with the acid produced by the stomach. If the
valve at the lower end of the oesophagus becomes
weak or defective, the acid juices in the stomach
may be pushed back upwards into the oesophagus
causing a burning sensation (heart-burn). This
is often troublesome at night, when you lie flat.
The underlying condition is called
gastro-oesophageal reflux. Minor digestive
disorders have become a part of our present day
living style, which is a malady of affluent
society with sedentary habits. And, peptic ulcer
is one - inflammation of the inner lining of the
stomach due to acid peptic digestion. Peptic
ulcer that occurs in the duodenum is more common
in India and the USA, and occurs at a younger age
group (20-40 yrs.). Gastric ulcer (ulcer in the
stomach itself) is more common amongst Japanese
showing up at a later age (40-50 yrs.).
Yogic management of digestive disorders- What are
the practices of IAYT for these problems of
digestion?
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We have understood that many of the problems of
digestive system are related to stress or a
disturbed lifestyle. It is the deep rest to the
nervous system that restores normalcy in any cell
or organ or tissue. It is the excessive speed at
the manomaya kosa level that has resulted in
imbalances to settle down in the annamaya kosa as
Acid Peptic Disease, or IBS or Ulcerative
colitis or any erratic bowel habit. This has to
be tackled by deep relaxation to the digestive
system. Let us now go on to see how these yoga
practices have to be used to bring about
corrections at all the kosas to reach a stable
healthy balanced state of functioning of the
entire digestive system. Annamaya Kosa
practices Annamaya kosa level practices include
yogic diet, kriyas and asanas. Since the
digestive system has to deal with all that is
ingested in the form of food, it is important to
look into what we eat, how much we eat and how
often we eat so that the imbalances caused by
wrong eating habits and stresses can be
corrected. Thus the yogic management emphasizes
the role of sattvic diet. What is Yogic diet
and how does it help in digestive disorder?
Our concept of diet according to modern science
of nutrition has looked at the material content
of the foods that we eat i.e. proteins,
carbohydrates, fats, iron, calcium, vitamins (A,
B1, B6, B12, C) etc. With a total of 2,000 to
3,500 calories, a modern American diet consists
often of hot
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dogs, coke, cornflakes, cookies, cheese, whiz and
crisco. The modern urban palate has become so
acclimatized to a barrage of these brash tastes
that it is no longer satisfied by the more subtle
flavours of the traditional cuisine. Yoga looks
at the effect of diet on mind. Accordingly all
foods are classified into 3 categories (similar
to the classification of human beings) namely
Tamasik, Rajasik and Sattvik foods. Tamasik
foods That which is stale, tasteless, stinking,
cooked overnight, refuse and impure is the food
liked by the Tamasiks. Rajasik foods Foods that
are Katu - bitter, Amla - sour, Lavana - saline,
ati Usna - steaming hot, Tiksna - burning,
Ruksha - fried, Vidahinah - generating thirst,
are the ones liked by Rajasiks. Sattvik
foods Those food which increase the Ayuh - life
and vitality, Sattva - purity, Bala - strength
stamina, Arogya - health, Sukha - happiness and
Priti - Cheerfulness, are termed Sattvik. These
foods are Rasyah - savoury, Snigdhah -
oleaginous, Sthirah - substantial, hrdyah -
agreeable and are liked by the Sattviks. How
do Yogasanas help in digestive disorders? Yogasana
s are techniques to bring about very deep rest to
different parts of body. This is achieved by
performing the postures as per the two major
hints given by Patanjali. By definition
yogasanas are postures that are maintained with
ease and for some time (Sthira Sukham Asanam).
In the first step of learning the final position
of different postures, it is the surface (limb
and trunk) muscles that are stretched or
contracted to achieve the final posture. After
getting to the final posture you move on to the
second step wherein you relax all the
unnecessary contractions by 'Prayatna
Saithilya-release of effort', says Patanjali. In
this phase when you pass your awareness to all
parts of the body and check whether the muscles
are all relaxed you may notice that many
unnecessary muscles such as those of face, neck,
back, arms thighs were all tightened. Once you
relax all these muscles except that set of
muscles required to maintain the final posture,
your practice will improve further. This reduces
the energy expenditure and helps you to maintain
for longer duration without exhaustion. At this
stage, your attention has already shifted to the
intra-abdominal organs. You may now move on to
the third stage to experience 'Anantasamapatti -
expanded awareness' at the point of stretch or
pain. You may visualize a feeling of expansion,
diffusion and 'let go' without changing the final
posture.
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This is similar to moving from Dharana to Dhyana.
In the first phase your attention is completely
focused on to the point of pain (Dharana) and in
the next phase you defocus or expand or merge in
surrounding space and become one with the 3D
awareness of the entire body resulting in
effortless free flow of a single thought of
attention on the stretched zone (Dhyana).
In GID we use those asanas which need to bring
deep rest to the stomach and intestine and
release the prana blocks. Hence the asanas used
under special techniques for GID either stretch,
compress, or twist the abdominal area, so that
you may bring your awareness to the part, focus
and then defocus to give very deep rest to
intra-abdominal structures.
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