Posts filed under 'Ayurveda'
Ayurveda, the traditional Indian science of healing, attaches great importance to fasting when it comes to detoxifying yourself. An overwhelming number of people who come to me for advice on their diverse health problems need to fast before they are put to an appropriate regime of yoga exercises.
Fasting has been found to be quite beneficial in toning up your digestive tract and complete system.
When you skip a meal the first thing you get is hunger pangs. During this time digestive enzymes and gastric acids flow from the epithelial lining of your stomach wall into your stomach.
In the absence of food the stomach wall comes in contact with the digestive enzymes and gastric acids which are mainly utilized in breaking down proteins into amino acids. Amino acids being smaller molecules can get readily absorbed by the epithelial cells of the digestive tract.
The digestive enzymes and acids first break down the food particles from the previous meal and digest them. This is followed by the digestion of dead bacteria and even dead cells that are invariably clinging to your stomach wall.
Thus the whole digestive tract cleanses itself when there is no fresh supply of food. Hunger pangs originate from the action of digestive juices on the stomach wall, amongst other factors. The pangs subside over an hour or two and so does the appetite for food.
As a result of digestive cleansing, our body can digest, assimilate and process food more efficiently.
Therefore even a healthy person without major health problems is advised to fast for at least half a day each week. This keeps him in good shape throughout the week.
You may choose your day of fasting. Some people like Fridays for fasting so that they can prepare themselves for a dining binge over the weekend. Some prefer Mondays after they have taken liberties with their digestive tract over the previous days.
The first time you choose to fast you may feel quite uncomfortable. the second time may not be as bad. The third time could be easier and you may even feel light and cheerful.
Happy fasting.
September 28th, 2006
Written By: lalitgambhir
As part of our continuing investigation with different aspects of yoga and ayurveda, a group of patients of serious and chronic constipation were put on the diet of bottle gourd.
According to ayurveda, bottle gourd is not only rich in essential minerals, iron, protein and trace elements; it is also rich in fibre. Fibre is known to be missing in the modern diet, the absence of which is the cause of not only constipation but other digestive disorders like flatulence and even piles.
The patients who volunteered for the study were served different preparations made from the vegetable.
For breakfast the juice of bottle gourd was served. Its pulp was boiled and served dipped in skimmed yoghurt. For lunch the vegetable was sparingly cooked with a dash of turmeric and salt.
For dinner the bottle gourd preparation had ginger chopped into pieces, about 5 mm in size. Ginger is carminative and helps in the digestion of food.
To get the best out of vegetables they must be cooked in such a way that they retain a bit of their hardness; soft cooked vegetables are rather a burden on the digestive tract. So the best way to ensure the hardness in cooked vegetables is chopping them into fairly big pieces. Each piece should be big enough to fill up a table spoon and should need to be chewed.
The idea is to allow a morsel to stay in the mouth long enough to complete the carbohydrate digestion, which is possible with the salivary amylase, present only in our mouth.
The patients were kept on this diet for six weeks. Ninety nine percent of the patients responded positively. While more than 50% had had their bowel movements regulated within a week, about 20% could get relief after five weeks. They started getting bowel movements once a day. The 30% of the patients had bowel movements twice a day, morning and evening, which according to ayurveda, is considered to be ideal.
According to ayurveda, the traditional system of medications and treatments the evening meal should be had after you have digested the food you have had during the day and have cleared your bowels.
August 23rd, 2006
Written By: lalitgambhir
Cow holds a special place both in ayurveda and Indian culture. When it comes to ayurveda, the traditional system of Indian medications and treatments primarily uses gobar or cow dung and gomutra or cow urine for their special properties.
According to ayurveda both cow dung and urine are anti-septic. They have anti-bacterial and fungicidal action. Thus a filtrate of the suspension made by thoroughly mixing cow dung and water forms one of the main ingredients of skin ointments, which are useful in serious skin conditions like psoriasis, eczema and gangrene.
Even cow urine is quite effective in treating various skin and gastrointestinal problems. Problems concerning stomach and intestines are gastrointestinal in nature.
A number of cases of the skin conditions that I came across in the various yoga camps in the country were successfully treated with formulations based on cow dung and urine combined with yoga.
“I have been doing yoga and applying ayurvedic formulations for the last six months; the chronic psoriasis patches on most of the places on my body have disappeared,” told a young patient to the participants of one of the biggest yoga camps held outside India, in Leicester, UK. The patient, a doctor herself, had lived with her skin condition for more than two decades.
Both cow dung and urine are also used for their cleansing properties. Cow urine is particularly used to treat severe constipation. A dose of 10-40 ml of cow urine, which is filtered and refined, is given as medication to patients with serious constipation. Cow urine is given to children suffering from worms in their intestines. Hence it has wormicidal properties as well.
Cow dung is used in traditional Indian homes to paint earthen floors for its anti-insect and anti-bacterial qualities. Holy fire lit up during the worship of Indian deities is made from dehydrated cow dung, refined butter made from cow milk and camphor. The fire produced thus is believed to act as an air cleanser. It can drive away the house flies and other common household insects.
More than 70% of India population lives in rural areas. A survey points out that more than 80% of this population uses dehydrated cow dung, with or without wood, to fire their basic cooking burners.
In the tribal district of central India where I have my integrated agricultural project, the local tribals mix fresh cow dung with the ashes from the previous day fire. The mixture is turned into round semisolid portions that are dried up in the sun. This serves as an exclusive source of fuel for cooking in a majority of households in the tribal and poor rural India.
Thus cows in India sustain not only the oldest medical system in the world, they maintain a culture and a religion as well.
August 15th, 2006
Written By: lalitgambhir
Ayurveda is a holistic science of well being and medication based on the correct food, herbs, formulations, therapies and life style. It is about living with nature, of nature and for nature. The system is about understanding and following laws of nature.
The system has developed methods to say natural from the unnatural, healthy from the unhealthy and wrong from the right in all facets of life. For ayurveda evolved through research and practice over millennia.
A simple facet of life sums up the spirit of ayurveda, as my teacher often mentions. Ayurveda starts as soon as you get set to go to bed. Every animal has a sleeping posture according to its frame and size. So do we have. There are certain ways to lie down as prescribed under ayurveda.
Every animal has a definite food – it’s a myth of the modern medical science that the nutrients must come from different food sources to make for a complete diet.
Ayurveda and other living creatures establish that food has to be definite. It’s the medicines which are sourced from different plant species – hence the food sourced thus is what an ayurvedic medicine is all about. We humans too can live in perfect health while on a restrictive but balanced diet.
Our body, just like that of animals, is equipped to make its own micro and macro nutrients which need not be sourced from outside. This is ayurveda extended to yoga. The practice of yoga restores body’s capacity to manufacture its own stock of nutrients from very frugal and restrictive food diet; even ayurvedic medicines are not needed in most of the cases.
But before food, it is the time when you leave your bed which, according to ayurveda, is very important. So my teacher would say - a donkey does not get up after the sun is up.
We do not find a dog sleeping after twilight breaks. The birds have no choice but to get up before the dawn. They do not eat normally anything other than what is their staple or comes closest to the natural. Thus a cow will not touch chocolate or monkey will not have coffee. See a tiger smoke a cigarette and it will make a headline news worldwide!
The natural discipline, and it is very important, gives the animals the capacity to self-heal when they are sick. Ayurveda recognizes the potential in its elaborate treatise of Pashu Ayurveda.
We humans lose the power to self-heal as we fiddle with our biological clocks about sleeping, eating, getting up and going about different aspects of life. We go against the tenets of nature. With the pattern of modern development, we have gone completely unnatural in our lifestyle.
No wonder we have so many problems.
Ayurveda and yoga have the power to save us, if we choose.
June 18th, 2006
Written By: lalitgambhir
