Digesting The Core of Wellness (1)

Digestive fire
is of paramount importance
but often neglected

Along the years of learning a holistic lifestyle
I gradually come into realization of
the pivotal role of our digestive system
in our overall wellness.

The realization gets more prominent
when I do cross referencing
among ancient wellness teachings and
modern medicine.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine,
by the perspective of the 5-elements theory （五行）,
the digestive system (stomach+spleen) behaves like "Earth" （脾胃属土）
which is claimed to be the mother of all entities （土生万物）.
Hence, the wellness of our body
relies significantly on the wellness of mother "Earth" ie the digestive system.

In Ayurveda,
digestive fire (Agni) is heavily emphasized on day-to-day basis,
to ensure all meals are fully digested and transformed properly.
Otherwise, any left-over undigested food in the digestive channel
will form into toxins (Ama)
in turn kicking off a cascade of detrimental effects in our body.

In modern settings,
we see a zillion daunting diseases
-- be it among the young, the old, the weak or even the strong;
many of which
could be prevented/cured via a good digestive system.
Simply, the digestive tract is
  a major gateway to administering proper nutrients and medicine
  and also
  an easily accessible interface to intervene any organ/system in the body.

While many who are veterans in the wellness circle
may not find this topic new,
certainly, there are still substantial crowd out there
  who do not appreciate the potentials of a good digestive system in preventing diseases;
  who do not understand the pressing need of maintaining a peak performing digestive system
  who do not foresee how the a poor digestive system brings about the wilting of wellbeing

With a good digestive system,
one does not only nourish one's body
but will also be able to specifically transform nutrients
to serve specific functions appropriately in the body.

For example,
if one were to build body mass,
proteins will need to be consumed
-- no doubt.

However, in the course of body mass building,
there is a pre-requisite
that these proteins are digested properly
and specifically transformed in muscle.
This renders a good digestive system very critical in the process.

If one's digestive system
were to be under-performing (e.g being low in digestive fire),
not only that the proteins consumed do not get transformed into muscle;
the undigested proteins will stay in the digestive channel
and get putrefied into toxins,
causing liver, kidney and allergies.

This is why, very often we hear some people complaining
not achieving the desired results
after consuming certain prescribed foods/nutrients.
It always seems that these prescriptions
will only work on other people,
but never on themselves...
-- The clue is with digestive system.

Exactly how to maintain a peak performing digestive system
we will discuss a myriad of strategies and techniques
in the next post :)

Toast to a better digestive health in 2015!

Many blessings,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}