I have always suffered from digestive issues since childhood. My mother would blame it on the unhygienic street food I would eat discreetly without her knowledge and conclude that I had a weak system (she raised me in a very sterile environment. Cant blame her, she is nurse).
Years later, I was put on the purple pill, Nexium by my doctor for acid reflux. But I weaned off the pill shortly after since I was pregnant with my first child and never went back to the pill. The problem persisted and from IBS, acid reflux, candidiasis to H-Pylori, I experienced them all. The discomfort lead me to begin research on my health issues and soon began to find a link between anxiety and digestive issues seeing how food played a major role in it.
Through my quest for an answer, I came across a book called PRIME that spoke about the relationship of diet with the malady of chronic illnesses I faced. It was in that book that I was introduced to the topic of ENS, the gut-brain.
What was once believed to be a one way street where the brain sends signals to the gut, modern research now points that the ENS (enteric nervous system) is a system that has a mind of its own. ENS has the authoritative choice to ignore the signals from the brain and spinal cord and influence the brain to alter its choices. The ENS system is made up of the same gray cells that are found in our brain and our food choices and cravings are very much influenced by the optimal functioning of our ENS.
Have you ever experienced butterflies in your stomach or what we sometimes call a funny feeling when anxious? Thats your ENS along with the release of stress hormones at play. It is no secret therefore that stress and cortisol have an immediate and adverse effect on the ENS. Processed and gluten rich foods further compromise the ENS in some individuals like myself. It was no wonder then that the moment I eliminated gluten from my diet, most of my digestive and emotional issues resolved in time.
Through my research on gluten, I learnt about the gut micro-biome and the leaky gut syndrome and realized my symptoms were classic leaky gut. The book Prime explains how leaky gut has an impact on the blood-brain barrier, the barrier near the opening on the brain that prevents toxins from entering the brain. Studies now show that If this barrier is compromised, toxins enter the brain and are responsible a host of issues like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Our gut micro-biome is responsible for a healthy digestive system. The gut micro-biome is responsible for healthy digestion and elimination of waste material from our system. We are not just our human body cells but are made up of trillion microbial cells that reside in a symbiotic relationship within us. Our food choices ensure that a healthy bio diversity is maintained.
I come from a family of farmers. My ancestors shared a deep connection with the land, mother earth. It is from her womb that they reaped nourishment to sustain their physical bodies (annamaya kosha). It is from the wisdom of my ancestors I learned that Prakriti or nature knows what is best for us and provides us seasonal nourishment. Growing up we always ate what was locally grown and available. We ate fermented foods like idlis and yogurt and pickles (all homemade) that contributed to a healthy micro-biome. Food was always cooked in ghee or coconut oil or cold pressed oils (kachhi ghani tel). Nothing was processed but rather was churned and reaped from love. We lived richer and fuller lives.
But diet alone didn’t help me since I still suffered symptoms. It was then that I saw my feelings (anxiety and fear) contributing to my issues. Stress and the stress hormones constantly hold us in a fight or flight mode. Deadlines are always looming over our shoulders. Modern lifestyle may have made our lives comfortable. But we are also getting comfortable being in our uncomfortable bodies and minds. There is no balance in our lives and lifestyle anymore.
Lawrence Anthony was a conservationist who shared a beautiful relationship with a family of elephants he helped rescue and shelter on his game reserve. He described them as highly intuitive and majestic beings. As I shared my admiration and awe of their intuitive power, it dawned on me that elephants have a very strong ENS. They eat mostly alfafa leaves, are extremely rooted and grounded in their environment (mud baths), they use their trunk to engage in the sense of smell and at a subtler level use their trunks to feel vibrations that foretell of danger or other information. And they use their gut for a special technique of communication: they transmit infrasound vibrations through unique stomach rumblings that can be received over vast distances.
To me an elephant is a symbol of perfect balance of the masculine (embodiment of strength and power) and the feminine (matriarch families, and love) within them. Balance of Shiv and Shakti. Ida and Pingala. Yin and Yang. For us to return to that state of balance (samata), we will have to find our connection back to nature (prakriti) and live in sync with her cycles.
When I take a peek at the digestive system, I see its influence on all our koshas (the five sheaths that make up a human). At the gross level or the physical body (the Sthula Sharira), I see how digestion and assimilation of food connects with the anamaya kosha.
On a subtler level of the sukhshma sharira, we also digest and assimilate our perceptions/experiences that make up our reality. The kleshas and vriitis play a major role in affecting these subtle koshas.
Fearful situations (kleshas) and the mental afflictions (vrittis) alter our breathing making it erratic. This majorly influences our pranamaya kosha or our energetic layer. The vijyanamaya kosha is our faculty of educated discernment and is governed by right knowledge (pramana) and wrong knowledge (viparyaya). Fantasy (Vikalpa), sleep (nidra) and past memories (smriti) affect our manomaya kosha, the faculty of our mind and emotions). How we react or respond to our situations that makes up for the health of our subtle koshas.
The manipura chakra is our seat of power that houses not just the digestive system but also the ENS which is a communication pathway between the manipura and the sahasrara chakra (our higher reality). It is only through a balanced diet for all the above koshas that one can reach the state of bliss in Anandamaya Kosha.
Lawrence Anthony said, “A gut feeling is a strange and advantageous thing. It comes from nowhere and is often illogical. Yet it is very real and in the bush is infinitely valuable.” May our guts rule!
Below are some resources which were referenced for writing this article: