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Digestive diseases were the 13th leading cause of Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) globally in 2019, responsible for 8 million deaths. Recent statistics show more incidence of gut problems, but generally diseases of the gut are being treated better than they were 10 years ago. Treated not cured. When people suffer thinking there is no cure, Ayurveda sits quietly, waiting for the curious health-seeker to arrive.

Decade of the Brain

During the 1990s––declared the Decade of the Brain, a big discovery was the existence of the gut microbiome, an ecosystem of bacteria that share the real estate of the lining of the lower gut. While some scientists had discussed the importance of certain bacteria living in the gut through a person's life, the dominant thinking in mainstream medicine was that bacteria are germs, and the cleaner the gut could be, the healthier a person would be. Bacteria was the source of diseases, so people were given regular courses of antibiotics as preventive and health promotion measures. 

When anti-microbial resistance started rising, in which antibiotics needed for severe infections did not work, the role of the gut bacteria which were being killed was re-examined. Maybe they provided some protection to the body against other "bad" bacteria, the disease-causing ones.  Research showed that fatty acids from food played a big role in helping bacteria good for the body to grow well in the gut and protect the real estate from being invaded by parasites. In addition, there were molecules that talked with our immune system and our brain. The idea of a gut-brain axis developed. Multiple studies from different angles gave data that confirmed the communication between gut and brain. Phrases like "my gut instinct told me" and "my gut knew" found new meaning.

The Second Brain

The second brain or the gut brain is a large network of nerve cells––more in number than is found in the brain––that work seamlessly to identify, digest, shuttle, absorb, reject, transform, feed bacteria, and push out whatever you eat. The gut brain also influences you by taking chemicals or nutrients in the foods you eat and informing the brain, which responds through your emotions.  Unhappy food digestion produces unhappy emotions. Dead food produces dead emotions and dysfunction.  

Ayurveda and Gut Health

Ayurveda has been highlighting the importance of the gut for millennia. Food rules of Ayurveda can be summarised as follows: 

1) Know where your food comes from

2) Eat fresh food taken recently from the earth  

Modern society violates these two rules because food producers live in the illusion that food is a business, and not a thing of worship. What we digest becomes our bodies and minds. Eating consciously raises our consciousness and yokes our body with our mind, else paves the way for imbalances and ailments.

The condition of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has been on the rise, with approximately 40% of university students having strong symptoms of swinging between loose motions and difficult-to-pass motions. IBS is treated systematically by Ayurvedic physicians by first focussing on the gut-brain axis. By cleaning the residues, stopping intake of processed foods, resurrecting a healthy gut fire, and nourishing the gut lining, most digestive diseases can be shifted and ameliorated.  

Diseases Start in Gut, Mind

Ayurveda is a master at the mind and the gut, and advises that 85% of all diseases start in the gut or mind. Yet, most people do not even know that excellent Ayurvedic options are available and effective to treat gut conditions.

Among the inconsequential symptoms dismissed by the conventional doctor are constipation, gas, bloating, belching, post-food cramps, and swinging between loose motions and difficult-to-pass motions. 

A patient complaining of gas may be told fermentation of undigested carbohydrates or sugars like lactose, or swallowing air while eating could be the causes.  But modern physiology knows it takes 24-72 hours for a food to get to the large intestine from the time it is eaten, depending on how well you digest. Fermentation then produces gases that create flatulence and bloating. How could fermentation be the culprit when a person complains of gas just after having a meal? But generally, the response is often to suggest an endoscopy or acid blockers. 

Improve digestive fire

However, Ayurveda considers gas, bloating, belching, and post-food cramps to be ajeerna, or inability of the gut to digest properly. The solution is almost always to improve the fire in the gut, to regulate the acids and digestive enzymes that do the work of transforming food into nourishment. Foods that increase the gut fire include ginger, and many of the kitchen spices. Another category of spices and herbs burns the undigested food in the belly by cutting up the food, or assisting the gut's fire with chemicals that amplify the various components of digestion, such as increasing heat, cleaning the metaphoric soot from the fire, increasing motility, and holding the fire in place so that it can transform food. 

Ayurveda has solutions for inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis, or gallstones, liver diseases, cancers of the gut, irritable bowel disease and other gastric ailments. 

The power of positivity

The effect of psychologic bias is centred not only in the mind, but also in the brain-gut axis, with the mind's beliefs strongly affecting the gut, and the gut's digestion also affecting the stillness and strength of the mind.  

Just as the placebo effect is the suggestive induction of an effect by a person who creates a positive expectation or belief, the nocebo effect is the negative prediction by a respected someone that creates a negative effect in a person. The nocebo effect is so powerful that while placebos can be used as a gold standard in human research that is considered psychological, unscientific and a form of bias, the nocebo effect is not used in clinical research.

Treasures of Ayurveda

Why don't most people know Ayurveda's approach? For 200 years, people have been taught that Ayurveda has no evidence or systematised treatments. Ayurveda however understands gut physiology effectively because it understands the embryology of the gut and how it grew. It has watched people eat, how, when, where, what, which combinations, with whom, and in what conditions. Ayurvedic wisemen recorded what works well and what does not. These are the detailed rules of Ayurvedic nutrition, kalabhojanam, Ahara vidhi, all dietary guidelines.  

Excellent Ayurvedic options are available and effective for gut diseases. You simply need to find an ayurvedic wiseman who has practiced clinically and is healthy in her/his own body

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