Tag Archives: agni

IC and Your Bowel Vacation: 5 Things to Do

bladder, bladder pain, chronic prostatitis, GERD, IBS, IC, Interstiial cystitis, Uncategorized, vulvodynia, , , ,

FireFrom an energy point of view all disease begins in the GI tract  The energetics of the foods taken in can produce flares and the continuing chronic condition of the IC bladder pain syndrome(interstitial cystitis, vulvodynia, fibromyalgia, chronic prostatitis, IBS, and GERD)  This is why nutrition is so important in the management of any chronic disease and as you know particularly with IC  As we have talked about in recent blogs the importance of bowel health and specifically digestive power is a major step in improving not only your general overall health but also to help control the flare symptoms of IC syndrome

The Bowel Vacation

Wouldn’t you think it unusual for someone not to ever take some time off?  To maintain mental strength and creativity we all need breaks from work and a little R and R

So if it’s true for our lifestyle choices shouldn’t it be true for parts of us as well?  However the idea of giving the bowel some time off doesn’t seem to be part of the equation  Trigger words such as water or juice fasting come up for many and cause people to cringe at the thought of going without food

But a bowel vacation means that the heavy foods normally consumed(pizza, rich cream sauces, lots of meat, heavy dairy. ice cream as examples) are removed from the nutritional meals for 3 or 4 days and a more simple diet is taken

You see the enzyme systems(the chemical fire if you will) need to be replenished and if you’re continually asking our agni or digestive power to be used over and over again it becomes overtaxed  These above wet logs as I call then place a heavy strain on your campfire(agni) and at times it is not up to par leading to toxic accumulation  In essence increase of toxic load is what is behind the whole idea of detoxification

How To Go On a Bowel Vacation: 5  Things to Do

1  Make something simple to digest  Kitchari is a time honored energy science nutritional tool to give your bowel enzyme systems a break from their work  You can find it here at this link   Do this for 5 days and notice how your bowel symptoms begin melting away!

2 If hungry snack on a piece of fruit but not in the meal

3  Consider an occasional juice day

4 Use cooling spices(cumin coriander fennel vanila turmeric cardamom)  and avoid hot ones (eg garlic oregano sage rosemary thyme etc)

5 Use 2 handfuls as a guideline as to how much to eat at any one time

These simple things done based on your energy constitutional makeup will go a long ways toward improving your digestive power and enhancing your health

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Benefit of Detoxification in the IC Bladder Pain Syndrome

bladder, bladder pain, chronic pelvic pain syndrome, CPPS, fibromyalgia, GERD, IBS, IC, Interstiial cystitis, Uncategorized, vulvodynia, , , , ,

mental energyIn the last couple of months I have written intermittently to you about the energy science’s understanding of toxic load(called ama) that occurs with all disease  Since this kind of thinking is completely foreign to those of us following the matter science medical model, it represents a radical departure as to how we think about the origin and treatment of disease

The bladder pain syndrome is such a complex of physiologic imbalances composed of CPPS(chronic pelvic pain syndrome), fibromyalgia, GERD, IBS, IC, and vulvodynia that are all associated with ama

As I have said from an energy science perspective ama or this toxic moribund substance is the byproduct of poorly functioning metabolism   Again  the energy science describes poor metabolism as a result of low agni(digestive strength, power, or fire)  This agni is in part the digestive capability of the entire GIT that we are all familiar with  The agni in this part of the body is comprised of all the enzyme systems from the mouth to the rectum including all the bacterial systems as well

But there are other agnis in the body that are involved with the metabolism of the tissues and excretory functions  And most importantly agnis that help us digest thoughts, feelings, and emotions  When you digest well psychologically the result is mental clarity

From an energy perspective the primary purpose of any detoxification protocol is to improve agni or the capability to digest(physical food, thoughts, feelings, emotions)

Physical Detoxification

If you’re tired you rest IF you’re listening to your body  As you know there are many people who don’t listen to their bodies and that’s literally the first step to disease  Eventually you have to listen because the body essentially gives out with resultant disease

If your agni is laboring, not up to par, and as a result your body is producing ama, then it makes sense that one of the first things to do is to give your agni a rest One of the simplest things to do is a monodiet

A monodiet is a certain type of food that is done over a period of time  The type of food chosen for the diet is not as important as the consistency to do the monodiet for the period of time   Some would call this a “fast” and it is in the loosest sense of the term but it’s essentially giving your digestive system rest  Why?  Because you’re using only one group of enzyme systems to digest the same thing over and over again  The monodiet could be fruit, could be rice and yogurt, could be fruit juice  The point is that it doesn’t matter what the monodiet is, as long as it’s repetitive for a period of time

How long?  It depends  If you are Pitta Vata at most 7 days  If PK then 14 days

Psychological Detoxification

I’ve divided the body and mind apart for discussion purposes but we should be clear here that from an energy science perspective the mind and body are intimately spliced  They’re one and the same  What is mind is body and what is body is mind  You can’t separate them  As a matter of fact detoxification of the physical body does psychological detox and psychological detox does physical detox  That’s how intimately spliced we are

Detox of the mind reduces mental ama and involves a form of monodiet as well  But this monodiet is in the form of reducing mental activity  The energy science is very clear that in order to remove mental ama some form of activity that reduces mental activity is most important

Why?  Since we want to improve psychological agni we want to fast from thoughts  The best way to do this is by meditation  There are many ways to meditate  The simplest is probably the most effective and involves watching the breath  If you want you can add a mental instrument to trap the mind’s attention using SO HUM  SO on inhalation and HUM on exhalation

Breathing exercises can be meditative as well as yoga posture practice if done properly

The Benefits of Detoxification

When we improve agni there are great gifts  Probably the most important is mental clarity and therefore peace, less emotional turmoil  When the GIT is given some time off there is improved digestion and elimination  We simply digest food and emotions better  Here are some benefits from improving your agni

Loss of cravings              Feeling of lightness after eating           Good taste perception

Steady weight                  Normal GI elimination                             Vigor vitality strength stamina

Healthy glow                    Mental clarity                                              Sound sleep

Alertness                         Discrimination, intelligence                     Direction  determination courage

Joy cheerfulness           Contentment                                               Affection  enthusiasm

Patience                          Longevity                                                     Confidence

All because we have given our mindbody a break and improved our agni

To Health as a Skill  DB

 

 

incompletely digested impressions, feelings and emotions

 

 

due to nutritional and lifestyle choices that we make

IC and Toxic Load: Where Does It Come From? 5 Things To Do

bladder, bladder pain, chronic prostatitis, fibromyalgia, GERD, IBS, IC, Interstiial cystitis, vulvodynia, , , , , , , , , ,

FireIn the energy science of Ayurveda there can be no disease without the presence of toxicity  In this discipline it’s called AMA(this doesn’t stand for the American Medical Association) which means undigested, unprocessed food  Hmmm, if I have unprocessed, undigested food hanging around in my GIT(GI tract) that must mean that my digestive capability is in some way impaired?  Bingo

Toxicity and Disease

So in the end the root cause of all disease is the presence of bodily AMA  And to heal any disease whether it be the IC(interstitial cystitis) bladder pain syndrome or CPPS(IC, IBS, GERD, chronic prostatitis, vulvodynia, fibromyalgia) or any other disease I must address AMA in the body

AMA physically is a substance that is thick(dense), sticky, heavy, slow to move, cold, slimy, and gross(meaning easy to spot in the body)  Think of a thick plaque in a vessel wall that obstructs blood flow and you have a good idea of what AMA is  And just like that plaque impairs flow of blood to the tissues that it supplies, energetically it impairs the flow of energy in the body

When there is energy stagnation in the physical or mental body there can be pain, either physical or emotional

So when you have pain from a bladder flare it implies that there is energetic stagnation and the free flow of energy has been disrupted

The Importance of Digestive Fire

So if all diseases have AMA and my digestive fire is weak, then if I want to clear the diseases such as IC then I should work on improving my digestive power or agni(the words fire, power, strength, and agni are all used interchangeably here)  This is a radical departure from current medical thinking since the models are so different  But then again that’s why the energy model can be successful since it understands the origin of disease from an energy science view

So the first item on the agenda in healing IC is to improve digestion, absorption, and assimilation of the GIT

1 CCF tea  Cumin, coriander and fennel tea is elemental to improve digestion because it stokes agni  That’s why sipping on this tea all day, everyday is helpful for clearing AMA

2 Stop putting wet logs on your digestion  When I entertain foods that don’t resonate with my energy makeup(Pitta diet or VP diet) or use IFC(incompatible food combinations) it’s like dampening my agni which is all the enzyme systems of the GIT from the mouth to lower rectum including the bacteria which are also part of agni

3 Using other agni enhancers  Fresh ginger tea with a dash of cayenne(agni tea), cardamon, vanilla, cinnamon, turmeric are all excellent agni enhancers that I can use in my cooking or beverages to enhance agni

4  Breathing techniques(pranayama)  Interestingly the yoga tradition has many different ways to physically enhance agni  These breathing techniques can change the course of IC due to the power of clearing AMA

5  Yoga postures  The digestive system is represented in the space of the abdomen and when you do postures that engage this area you literally engage agni and improve it  From a molecular point of view this cannot be understood but energetically it makes perfect sense

So there you have it  A starter sequence that can get you on your way to healing IC   Oh, BTW, people have AMA and because they feel OK, they don’t think they have toxic load  They’re only fooling themselves  Everybody has it, it just depends where it’s going to show up

Another thing  The AMA that occurs in the urinary tract channel has a good chance of getting cleared  When the AMA starts showing up in other places (like fibromyalgia) it’s more difficult, doable but harder

Toxicity and IC

bladder, bladder pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic prostatitis, fibromyalgia, IBS, IC, Interstiial cystitis, Uncategorized, vulvodynia, , ,

bigstock-ecology-42423214The toxicity that we talk about in the environment is no different than the toxicity we create for ourselves The good news is that you can do something about it

The IC bladder pain syndrome is associated with toxicity not just an energetic imbalance As a matter of fact every disease carries toxic load to the tissues  But the matter science molecular model practiced today doesn’t have a concept of toxicity until late in the disease process, when people need dialysis for example And we tend to think of toxicity that comes from the environment, not something we create ourselves But the energy science sees it differently and hence as I have written about earlier, the disease process is seen differently Hence even though the matter science seems not to have an answer, the energy science does

In the IC syndrome IBS shows its toxicity as mucous in the bowel particularly if there is drastic pain  The other form of IBS doesn’t yield to the incredible spasms that occur with the spastic colon varietu  Fibromyalgia has the energy patterns of Vata and Pitta carry toxicity to the muscle and joints  In vulvodynia the toxicity appears in the female vaginal tract; in chronic prostatitis the toxicity  is carried into the male reproductive tract Lastly in IC itself the toxicity is carried into the bladder muscle causing spasm and bladder irritability

The Energy Science Term for Toxicity

The general term for toxicity is ama energy science lingo and it’s present in all diseases

Ama is a sticky cold material that is the endproduct of poor digestion  It doesn’t cause disease right away but by and by with its accumulation it begins to become symptomatic

Symptoms of ama are indigestion, poor appetite, sense of heaviness even though thin, halitosis, body odor, diarrhea, constipation, and of course all the symptoms of the above disease label

The Counter Measure to Ama

If ama is formed it means the digestion is not up to par and most people’s agni is not up to par  Another general term for digestion that is used in the energy science is agni  Agni and ama go hand in hand  If agni is low ama is formed  If agni is high ama is not formed and the person enjoys good health

There are several ways to prevent ama and hence ill health from occurring

1 Don’t overeat…..what one can hold in 2 hands is the volume that should be used at the biggest meal of the day…..the noon meal

2 Eat according to your dominant energy patterns(see foodsheal.com)

3  Use various tools to improve digestion…CCF tea, agni tea, ginger appetizer, trikatu

4  Use tripahala that helps improve bowel health and hence clears ama

5  Some ama is mucousy and the use of licorice as a demulcent(liquifies the mucous) can be helpful

6 Baking soda and dry ginger bath…1/3 cup of each in bath water  helps to eliminate toxic load through the skin

Clear Ama and Clear IC

So this is the top secret in clearing IC for good  Clear the ama  It’s not as easy and simple as it looks on the surface because as some of you may recognize all IC’s are not created equally  Some have had their IC a long time and others not so long  Some have prominent IBS as part of their IC symptoms while others have their ama loculated in different places

Not one size fits all so therefore the treatments tend to vary for each individual but the secret still remains the same: Clear ama and clear IC for good

Good luck on your healing journey      DB

 

 

 

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IC and the Antiinflammatory Effects of Colostrum

bladder, bladder pain, IC, Interstiial cystitis, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , ,

Colostrum from the sourceIC (interstitial cystitis) bladder pain is a result of inflammation and the energy science describes this in terms of the hot quality  As I have talked about in the past there are many different things that people can do to reduce this quality in the gut:  aloe vera gel, CCF tea, spices such as turmeric  fresh basil and ginger, and herbs

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But not only do you want the antiinflammatory effect but it would be great if you could also enhance digestive strength at the same time  Aloe does this but colostrum does this as well and makes this bovine derived product an excellent choice for the treatment of IC

Digestive Strength and Enhancers

I have alluded to digestive strength in the past but not gone into much detail   This week in our webinar series the group will work on agni or digestive strength because it’s so important for gut health

Anything that enhances digestion induces agni (the word ingnite comes from this word)  So spices are important in food preparation because they stimulate agni or digestive strength

Probiotics enhance agni as well as herbs such as aloe vera   Research has shown that colostrum that has been used in IC with excellent results not only reduces the inflammatory response but also helps improve digestive fire

 

 

Colostrum:  A Two Headed Winner

This first milking substance is an amazing resource of substances necessary to support the  development and repair of cells and tissues, assure the effective and efficient metabolism of nutrients and establish and maintain a healthy immune system

Because of its physiologic functions it mimics the activity of growth hormone, a rejuvenative that could build tissues in people with chronic disease    The link has great resource information so you should check it out

In India, where cows are sacred, colostrum is delivered to the home with the milk and is used for medicinal purposes to treat everything from
age-related symptoms to the common cold   This practice began several thousand years ago with Ayurvedic physicians and sacred healers

In the Scandinavian countries, the birth of a calf is celebrated by the making of a pudding for human consumption from the extra colostrum after the calf is fed   This practice has gone on for centuries and is intended to promote good health   Research conducted in these countries as early as the late 18th century showed the benefits of colostrum on the health and development of cattle and laid the groundwork for the early medicinal use of colostrum by humans   The early Amish farmers in America practiced this same ritual

Where Available

Capsules of colostrum can be obtained in health food stores, on Amazon, or on the ic-solutions Amazon store 

Have a great week     To health as a Skill       Love DB

PS  My book Foods Heal is downloadable for FREE this week only on all mobile reading devices by going to http://amzn.to/fLYS3i under Kindle

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