TREATMENT OF DIGESTIVE AND ELI MINATORY DISORDERS

HERBS AND THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS

Ayurveda aims at treating the root of disease, not merely at alleviating symptoms. Its treatment methods involve the main factors of our daily living, as it is what we do every day that determines who we are and how we feel. The most basic of these daily factors is our diet.

The physical body is built up by the food we eat, which is divided into three portions. The gross part becomes feces, the middle part becomes the bodily tissues, and the subtle portion becomes the mind. Hence most physical or even mental disorders are caused by or accompanied with digestive disorders. While such digestive disorders may appear mild relative to the other disease symptoms we may experience, even mild digestive system disorders can over a period of time cause severe health problems to arise.

For example, if we eat excess Kapha-forming food as in the case of too much dairy, sugar, oils, or animals facts, Kapha will eventually accumulate in the system causing such problems as atherosclerosis and heart disease. The digestive tract symptoms that underlie this condition may be no more than a feeling of heaviness and occasional nausea after meals, yet the disease caused by such dietary indiscretion can prove fatal in time, even without any major digestive systems symptoms.

If even a small fraction of the food we take daily is not converted properly into bodily tissues, but instead accumulates as toxins, over a period of time a large toxic mass can be formed. If, for example, only one drop of the food we eat daily is not digested properly, this amount will accumulate in a month to thirty drops-quite enough an amount to damage the organs or clog the channels. This is just like how one little hole in the roof can damage the whole ceiling of a house. Hence we should not overlook the role of apparently minor, but ongoing digestive dysfunctions to cause severe diseases.

In the same way, correcting wrong eating habits can cut off the root of many health disorders and even cure diseases over a period of time. However, several months to a year or more may be required for diet alone to cure manifest diseases, as its curative factors work by the same gradual method that produced the condition in the first place. Similarly, if dietary therapy does not accompany our healing methods, then these methods may be ineffective. If our diet is contrary to our herbs or medicines, we cannot expect them to work.