The act of eating is life-giving. All human beings & even non – living things required food or fuel to work properly. But the requirement is not just the food but the correct time, quantity & quality of taking that food. The most important thing need to be considered is that the above things are not same for everybody. Ayurveda differentiates the people according to the 3 main components of the body – Vata, Pitta & Kapha. Presence of these elements defines the prakurti of a person & the kind of food required by his/her body. But tragedy is that people are getting very well educated of outside things except about their own body.

It is true that slowly people are getting health conscious but as we say half knowledge is more harmful than no knowledge, people either follow the nutritious diet or lifestyle of some healthy people or just follow some diet instructions available at internet. Then, they keep complaining that they are suffering from digestion problem in spite of having a well balanced diet & lifestyle. They must know that everyone has its own food requirements according to their body components & lifestyle. Sometimes, digestion disorder can occur due to heavy intake at special occasion or due to skipped meal because of some reason. It is a general problem & can be sorted with the help of some home remedies, popularly known as Daadi maa k Nuskhe. But if you are suffering from a regular digestion disorder, it’s better to consult a good Ayurvedic physician in time to find the root cause of it rather than doing self medication as it can convert a simple curable problem to a serious health issue.

Various digestion problems faced by the people

Constipation: It refers to the bowel movements that are infrequent & hard to pass. But constipation is actually a symptom & not a disease so treatment of it lies in first finding its actual cause. It can be improper diet, hormonal imbalance or any other thing.

Hyper acidity/Heartburn/GERD: chest burning, pain & cough are the symptoms a person face in this problem. Best way to prevent this problem is to avoid various triggers such as certain foods, medications, obesity, or even stress in few people. Improvement in your food habits & herbal treatment is the best way to prevent it.

Gallstones: gall bladder is a small organ located beneath the liver which stores the bile, a product produced by the liver. After taking the meals, gallbladder contracts & put this bile into intestines to aids in digestion. But sometimes due to high cholesterol level in bile, it becomes hardened & not easily passed to intestines & blocks the exit from gallbladder. It can cause jaundice, indigestion, gas, vomiting & various other digestion problems.

Diarrhea: viral or bacterial infection leads to frequent loose or liquid bowel movements in a day. It often lasts for a few days and ultimately causes dehydration due to loss of excess fluids from the body. This dehydration in turn leads to various other problems like skin dryness & itching etc.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): IBD is a group of inflammatory conditions of small intestine & the colon. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are the principal types of inflammatory bowel disease. Most important is that Crohn’s disease not just affects the small & large intestine, but also affects the mouth, esophagus, stomach and the anus. On the other side, ulcerative colitis primarily affects the colon and the rectum.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or spastic colon: It is a symptom-based diagnosis that includes chronic abdominal pain, discomfort, bloating, and alteration of bowel habits. Diarrhea or constipation may predominate, or they may alternate (classified as IBS-D, IBS-C, or IBS-A, respectively). As a functional gastrointestinal disorder, there is no known organic cause for IBS; however, excessive cell activation has a central patho physiological role in the disorder.

Appendicitis: Appendicitis occurs due to the blockage in the appendix often by stool or cancer. Blockage may also occur from infection, since the appendix swells in response to any type of infection inside the body. It is an emergency condition that calls for prompt surgery to remove the appendix as an inflamed appendix will eventually burst or perforate, spilling infectious materials into the abdominal cavity. This can lead to serious inflammation of the abdominal cavity’s lining (the peritoneum) that can even cause death unless it is treated quickly.

Bowel obstruction: Blockage in small or large intestines is called bowel obstruction. Blockage can be partial or complete but it prevents food & fluids to pass through intestines with difficulty which causes severe pain.

Celiac disease a condition in which the absorptive surface of the small intestine get damaged by a substance called gluten which results in body’s inability to absorb nutrients from the food required for the growth of body.

• Various symptoms of digestion disorders

1. Few bowel movements
2. Straining – Trouble in having a bowel movement
3. Small or hard stools
4. A sense that everything didn’t come out
5. Swollen abdomen or abdominal pain
6. Vomiting

Factors responsible for causing various digestion problems

Dietary habits: Ayurveda always focuses on eating food according to the prakurti of a person as well as in right quantity at right time as the eating habits are always the major cause behind almost all the health related problems. Avoidance of junk food & non-vegetarian diet can attribute to the improvement in digestion process. Poor diet can cause stomach cramps, bloating & general discomfort in the stomach areas. Avoidance of junk food or oily food can help. Proper intake of water & fluids is also very important for good digestion. Light meals should be taken at night time & at least 2hours before sleeping as the digestion process become very slow while sleeping. Long intervals must be avoided between meals and fruits & fibrous food can be taken in between main course meals. These are the few factors one must keep in mind to avoid unnecessary digestion disorder.

Less physical work : Personal, education & professional burdens are so much these days that have hamper the physical activeness all of us to a great extent. One not get enough time to do some physical work. Even if we are doing exercise & physical work, it just includes legs & hand most of the times. But the exercise of stomach & its nearby parts didn’t happen. This leads to inactiveness & weakness of muscles there which not able to handle the digestion process effectively & hence leads to various digestion problems.

Lifestyle: Lifestyle of the people has changed very much. Stress & electronic gadgets have taken the place of relaxed fresh walk in natural air. This has impacted the body hormones & made the immune system weak due to which food don’t get digested properly. Due to professional reasons, many people these days live far away from home & consume unhealthy food from local shops. This is the most prevalent reason for digestion problems especially in big cities these days.

Overeating: Many people have the habit of overeating. They just eat according to taste & not according to the hunger or requirement of body. This excess eaten food gets stored in the stomach which has its limited storage capacity. Actually, our stomach has three parts, one for storing food, second for gas & lastly, there is some space for churning movements for food as it needs some space to move inside the stomach & get processed. But in case of overeating, stomach get overburdened, food didn’t get enough space to move & this way it can’t get properly digested & acidity also occurs.

Frequent meals: Many people think that frequent meals of less quantity food is a better idea than to eat more food at one time which is not actually true. Normal food we eat at one time takes around 3-5hours in digestion & till that time, it remains in our stomach. If we’ll eat another meal in between, the old food will remain in stomach for more time & get hit by harmful microbes present there which creates toxins & acidity inside the stomach & this ultimately results in various digestion related problems.

Biological clocks for eating: Ayurveda is the medical practice which best describers the importance of following biological clocks for eating food. Agni(fire), being one of the panchamahabhoota is responsible for the proper digestion of food. This Agni is associated with sun & works accordingly. This way Ayurveda seeks to connect the environment with our body & mind. Ayurveda recommends that sun is at its peak during 12p.m. to 2p.m. & so our digestive agni power which is strongest at this time & working at its maximum potency so largest meal of a day must be the lunch. Dinner should be lighter & should ideally before 8 p.m. as the digestive power of agni goes down with the sun. Late night meals after 10p.m. creates toxins which get accumulated in the body & not just cause tiredness on next day but also cause various other problems.

Sitting postures: The process of eating, according to ayurveda, is something very crucial for the development of consciousness as well as our physical health. Sitting posture greatly improve the digestion as while sitting, our stomach is in a relaxed posture and our awareness is fully on the taste, texture, and smell of the food. This helps in proper secretion of digestive juices which helps in healthy digestion of food.

Seasonal food intake: Cold storage food is very easily available these days. One can get all types of fruits & vegetables during whole year. But this cold storage food is very harmful for our digestion system. Nature has selected the food according to seasons very carefully. Cucumber is very useful in summers but the same cause digestion problems during winter season as it increases the Kapha element in the body. Similarly, peas are beneficial in winters but the same cause health issues during summers. So, it is always better to consume seasonal food items to avoid any kind of digestion issues.

Intake of incompatible food: These days restaurant culture is very famous. People out there just mix & match different food items to increase taste & texture without bothering about its compatibility. People don’t have the knowledge of right combination of food to eat at one time. Even if they have the knowledge, they just ignore it & eat according to the comfort & taste. Intake of any kind of cold drinks or cold water must be avoided with meals as it reduces the Agni’s digestive power. Similarly, sour things must be avoided along with milk products which create many digestion problems.

Indulgence in other activities while eating: These days electronic gadgets have become an inseparable part of our life. We not leave our cell phones even for a second. While eating, it is very important to concentrate fully on eating process only so that it can get digested easily. It’s one reason is that full concentration improves chewing of food. More the food will get chewed inside the mouth before going to the stomach, more easily it’ll get digested & absorbed.

GMOs (genetically modified organisms): Due to natural imbalance, production of crops, food & vegetables has decreased drastically. Also more demand than supply has forced the corporate to follow another way to fulfill market demand. Immature food item is injected with harmful chemicals to make it ready for immediate use. So, what will the use of having nutritional diet then if the food we eat is itself harmful & toxic. These chemicals just increase the size of the crop but not its nutritional qualities. In this way, these food products just fill our stomach with lot of fiber & create nutritional deficiency in the body which not get digested properly & generates stomach problems.

Ayurvedic treatment for digestion related problems

Balancing the digestive Agni is the core principle of Ayurveda which not just solves the digestion problems but various other problems also which get affected by the digestion. It always aims to destroy the root cause of the problem.

Deep Ayurveda provides very effective & genuine ayurvedic medicines for Indigestion & other digestion related disorders which are formulated & manufactured only after actual clinical trial and research work at our clinics.

Following Ayurvedic medicines are very beneficial in the above mentioned disorders

1. Livclear Herbal Capsule/Powder 
2. GA Care Herbal Capsule/Powder
3. Triyog Herbal Capsule/Powder
4. Avipattikar Churan
5. Shivakshar Churan
6. Agnitundi Vati
7. Mahashankh Vati
8. Giloy Herbal Capsule

Various panchkarma therapies are also very effective to cure digestion related problem which are also available at deep ayurveda wellness centers for digestion related issues

1. Vaman & Virechan – for detoxification & cleansing
2. Vasti (Enema therapy) – very beneficial therapy

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Author declares there are no conflicts of interest.

None.