Improve Your Digestion with Yoga

Have you ever had indigestion? What caused it?
1. Did you eat too much, or eat something wrong?
2. Was it caused by stress?

While doing yoga might not be able to address the cause of indigestion in #1 (although it could help you be more aware of your body and hence how much or what you’re eating), yoga may be able to help you improve the general health of your digestive system. Hopefully, that would help you avoid the next bout of indigestion caused by stress.

Stress-Induced Indigestion

This article focuses on indigestion or poor digestion caused by stress. When the digestive system is affected by stress, it is a chronic situation, i.e. it goes on for a very long time. 

To understand how stress can cause indigestion, let's look at how stress affects the nervous system.

Sympathetic vs. Parasympathetic Nervous System

Since ancient times, when confronted with an enemy or predator in a “fight or flight” situation, the body automatically prioritizes activities governed by the sympathetic nervous system.

The effect is to give the body increased strength and speed in anticipation of fighting or running.

Some of the physiological changes and their functions include:

• Increased blood flow to the muscles activated by diverting blood flow from other parts of the body.
• Increased blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugars, and fats in order to supply the body with extra energy.
• The blood clotting function of the body speeds up in order to prevent excessive blood loss in the event of an injury sustained during the response.
• Increased muscle tension in order to provide the body with extra speed and strength.
• The pupils dilate to help see with increased clarity.
• Increased perspiration to prevent over-heating due to the increased metabolic rate.

At the same time, activities governed by the parasympathetic nervous system get de-prioritized. They include sexual arousal, salivation, lacrimation (tears), urination, digestion and defecation.

In short, blood flow to organs that do not have to work during the "fight or flight" situation is reduced, in order to increase the blood flow to the organs that are critical to ensure survival in that sort of situation. (Blood supply is diverted away from those functions that are not relevant to our survival from the immediate threat, and prioritized to those functions that allow us to run away or fight the enemy.)

How does Stress Lead to Indigestion?

The psychological stress that many of us feel does not appear like a "fight or flight" situation on the surface. After all, there are no lions that we need to flee from, in this urban jungle where we live.

However, the body reacts to stressors in the same way, by altering the blood flow in the body.

Since digestion is slowed down in a "fight or flight" situation, we know that stress also causes blood circulation to the digestive system to be reduced. Digestion slows down.

If we’re continually encountering stress during the day, our digestion would be restricted nearly all day!

That’s why many people suffer from indigestion, or digestion-related illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome, as a result of stress.

How does Doing Yoga Improve the Situation?

Since the immediate cause of poor digestion is poor blood circulation, the direct solution would be to attempt to improve the situation by increasing blood flow to the area.

This can be achieved by doing twists, such as the Supine Spinal Twist.

The principle is similar to that of wringing a towel or sponge dry, then allowing the towel or sponge to absorb water by dipping it in water.

While doing the twist , pressure is applied in the abdomen area. This squeezes out “stagnant” or slow-flowing blood in the area. When the twist is released, the pressure is gone, and a fresh supply of blood rushes into the abdomen region.

The major digestive (and other) organs in the abdomen region can benefit from this fresh supply of blood.

In this way, by doing twists regularly, we can help to improve the blood circulation to the organs in the abdomen region, improving digestion.

In the medium to long term, doing yoga regularly can help to reduce one’s perception of and reaction to stress. This is a more fundamental solution for stress-induced digestive ailments.

Summary

Because stress causes the body to restrict blood flow to many organs, including the digestive organs, stress causes poor digestion in many people.

By doing the twists in yoga, such as the Supine Spinal Twist, we can improve blood circulation to the abdomen region. This helps to improve digestion.

In the medium to long term, doing yoga regularly also helps to reduce one’s reaction to stress. This helps stress-induced digestive ailments from a more fundamental level.


Don’t wait until your next bout of indigestion to do something about it. Do some simple twists regularly, and avoid that discomfort altogether.