Yoga For Digestive System Diseases

Digestive system diseases may not be life threatening in most of the cases, but most of us have experienced the burnt of some of these diseases. An upset stomach or digestive system can spoil your evening; prevent you from enjoying your favourite food and a healthy life. Lethargy, loss of vitality and irritability is the natural outcome.

Yoga philosophy lays lot of stress on good digestive health. Type of food and how you eat affects your health and digestion. Most of our health problems have their origins in our digestive system problems. Our digestive system is the engine which provides energy to our body. 

Importance of Healthy Digestion

A healthy digestive system improves your capacity to eat well and derive optimum energy from food you eat. If you take simple nutritious food, less energy is spent by the body to digest food. The energy we get from food depends on body's metabolism, quantity and quality of food we eat, rest and relaxation, food timings and stress levels in our daily life.

Can Yoga Help With Common Digestive System Problems?

If you are suffering from any of the following digestive system diseases, yoga can provide relief or complete cure:

Constipation

Constipation is the most common gift of modern lifestyle and is a result of fast paced life and fast foods. Laxatives can help but their can make the gut dependent on the medicine. Constipation is best avoided through regular exercise and a high fibre diet obtained from whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

Heartburn, Acid Reflux and GERD

Excess stomach acid is what causes heartburn. Heartburn typically involves a burning sensation rising up from the center of the abdomen area and into the chest area. Frequent heartburn is a symptom of acid reflux or gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and needs an urgent visit to your doctor. Anxiety and stress are nervous disorders that affect the digestive tract, increase stomach acid and can aggravate acid reflux symptoms.

Indigestion/ Dyspepsia

Indigestion is a condition of the stomach in which digestive juices are incorrectly secreted, resulting in discomfort, upper abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and abdominal distension. Indigestion is generally caused by overeating.

Flatulence, Gas and Wind Formation

Flatulence refers to presence of an excessive amount of gas in the stomach and intestines. Flatulence is the production of a mixture of gases produced in the digestive tract as a by product of digestion.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBS

IBS is one of the common digestive system diseases and disorders. IBS can entail bouts of urgent diarrhoea followed by chronic constipation. It involves malfunction in how the intestinal system works.

Colitis

Colitis is an inflammation of the colon or large intestine. The common symptoms are abdominal cramps, bloody mucus in the stools resulting in anemia, weight loss, or other symptoms. Ulcerative colitis causes ulcers in the colon and rectum area.

Gall Stones

Gall stones may not give you any real problem/ symptoms till a gallstone get lodged in a duct, which can produce unbearable pain, nausea, vomiting. Obesity is a risk factor for gallstones. Women are more prone to get gallstones compared to men.

Abdominal Obesity

In addition to normal health effects of obesity, abdominal fat especially which is located around the internal organs can damage your health.

Yoga Cure For Digestive System Diseases

Advantage with yoga is that it exercises various abdominal organs and stimulate proper working of endocrine system. This way abdominal health improves long with the body's immunity to fight diseases.

In yoga, your awareness about your body increases and you can assess root cause of your digestive system diseasesproblems and try to remove them. As these stomach problems are a by product of modern life, you need to bring in suitable life style changes also. For chronic digestive problems, follow advice of your doctor to get immediate relief. Meanwhile, also get help from a yoga expert regarding type of yoga suitable for you. A healthy digestive system can be your motivation to do more yoga.

Medicines do not provide a long term solution to various digestive problems. You have to explore the best possible method of treatment. Also, you must be aware of your body and follow the basic don'ts related to a particular disease.

Although yoga practice will remove toxins from your body, you can consider taking other actions also to detoxify your body.

1. Home
 ›
2. Digestive System Diseases