Saturday, August 2, 2014

Hyperacidity and Ayurveda: Symptoms


Amlapitta: Symptoms



Symptoms:
Weakening of digestive fire (agnimandya), Heart & chestburn (retrosternal burning), & nausea are the three initial symptoms of ‘Amlapitta’ ,the other symptoms are as mentioned below :
  • Indigestion
  • Sour or bitter belchings
  • Heartburn
  • Throatburn
  • Aversion towards food
  • Heaviness in abdomen
  • Distention of abdomen
  • Pain in abdomen
  • Chest pain
  • Headache
  • Nausea, vomiting
  • Bad breathe
  • Foul smelling loose motions
  • Itching all over the body
  • Fainting
  • Giddiness
Chronicity of the disease may further lead to gastric ulceration

Next: Hyperacidity and Ayurveda: Prevention and remedies



Hyperacidity and Ayurveda: Causes


Hyperacidity and Ayurveda: Causes

To understand the disease amla pitta, one has to understand the concept of 'agni'. Ayurveda has described this agni as fire of life. It has been given a pivotal place in the delicate balance between health and disease. In other words, 'agni' is the fire that cooks or digests the food.
A normal 'agni' means a healthy person and conversely, an abnormal agni is a sure pointer to disease.
At times, this 'agni' may be impaired due to intellectual blasphemy (prajnaaparaadha), unwholesome conjunction of sense organs with their objects (asaatmyendriyaartha samyoga) and vagaries of weather and time (kaala or parinaama). This impaired 'agni' shows effect on 'pitta', the fiery energy of the body responsible for transformation. 'Amla pitta' is the by-product of this defective process.
“It is difficult to produce fire either without fire logs or with too many fire logs occupying the whole furnace.”
The same is the case with digestive fire. This will be hampered either with low amounts (mandaagni) or with high amounts (teekshnaagni). Amla pitta is the resultant of teekshnaagni, says Ayurveda.

Causative factors for Teekshanaagni:

  • Stressful daily routine.
  •  Insufficient sleep at night.
  •  Irregular meal times or skipping meals.
  •  Eating too late at night.
  •  Spicy food habits like pizza, burger, chinese food.
  •  Oily foods, pickles.
  • Salty and sour foods like chips .
  • Over eating of stale, fermented foods(bakery foods, idli, dosa, etc).
  • Sleeping immediately after meals.
  • Lack of rest , fast moving lifestyle.
  • Suppression of urges
  • Too much of worries.
  • Walking for long hours in hot sun very often, or working near hot areas .
All these above factors result in excessive increase of ‘Pitta dosha’ which tries to find its way out of the body either through oral or rectal pathway and along with it exhibits symptoms of Amlapitta.

Next: Hyperacidity and Ayurveda: Symptoms

Next article: Hyperacidity and Ayurveda: Preventive measures and remedies 

Hyperacidity and Ayurveda: Introduction



 Hyperacidity and Ayurveda: Introduction
Excessive secretion of acid from the stomach leads to hyperacidity. Inside the stomach, nutrients are broken into small units for the purpose of assimilation. The stomach can digest things similar to its own structure and composition—like a piece of meat. But, then how come the stomach does not digest itself? The process of digestion takes place because of many different gastric secretions, which are highly acidic. What prevent the stomach from digesting itself are the cells, which form its inner lining? These cells have a special permeability barrier, which does not let anything permeate. If this is challenged with certain foods like too much tea, coffee, alcohol or certain chemical drugs, especially some pain-relieving and anti-arthritic drugs, then this will be weakened or damaged.
As a result, the highly acidic medium, which prevails in the stomach, traverses the stomach wall, thus causing pain and discomfort. If the same thing is repeated again and again, it may give rise to acidity and gastritis thereby inflaming the lining of the stomach. Ayurveda calls this condition as 'amla pitta'.
When pitta aggravates and gets excess of acidification, it gives rise to condition Amlapittla.