"I do not feel hungry as I should. Even if good tasty food is served,
do not feel like eating. Can't eat with full satisfaction as I am
always afraid of post lunch problems. Heavyness in stomach,
tightness or burning sensation in chest and some carbonated drink or
Gasex tablet or Trifla churna are my permanent companions. In last
few weeks I feel light pain around belly button, predominantly on
left side. I know that digestion has gone very poor. I feel that gas
is pressing my diaphragm after every meal. Constipation is not a
problem, semi-loose motions having sticky matter, sometimes mucous
have been there since last week, after the monsoon has set in.
Dependance on Pachnvati (Digestive aid) should not become a habit.
Kindly suggest what I should do. I want to solve this problem on a
permanent basis."

A similar email from another Pune software professional. YOuth in
call centres serves the needs of western countries mainly, and also
gifted with western lifestyle. Though the appended message
from ayurvedaonline member is already answered by two Vaidyas
appropriately, author thought of scribling his opinion, and detailed
formulation of a churna, to be made by Vaidyas or patients. The
importance of life style and diet needs to be impressed upon young
genereation by vaidyas, as youth is no longer under control of
parents!

Most vaidyas would like to class this case under Aamlapitta. or
Vidagdh ajirna. Modern science calls this Gastritis. In ayurveda,
aamlapitta does not mean only accumulation/reflux of acidic fluids in
stomach, but also a swelling on stomach. The part of stomach which
tapers off and joins duodenum gets swelling. This ultimately leads to
truncal obesity and loss of longevity as recently discussed in
post#6958, 7107, 7216. One stumbles into Aamlapitta when in foreign
country(in recent post on Iron rules of health, author had discussed
our affinity to birth place and local food during childhood), it
could be genetic disorder or due to junk food and life style out of
tune with nature. If properly diagnosed and treated, it is curable
disease. Author remembers a proverb told by his friend. The proverb
is in Gujarati language and translation also is provided here. "Jevo
aahar tevo odkar, Jevo aahar tevo aachar ane jevo vihar teva
vichar." This expresses that your belching will reveal what you eat,
Your behaviour will be what you eat and your thoughts will be what
company you keep and what habits you form. To summarise, `you are
what you eat'. As seen in Message 504, Aahar, Vihara, Vichar
(thoughts) and Vartan (behaviour) are governed by our food as one of
the major factors. Purity of food will decide purity of mind. The
health of mind is governed by health of body and vice versa too. The
food is the supporting pillar of life. Stimulants affect physical body first.
They affect mind later, after the habit
becomes vice. Tea, coffee, nicotin, hot and spicy foods, getting
absorbed in busy routine after food, lack of peace and convivial
surroundings during and after food, suppression of natural urges such
as urination, bowel motions, yawns, sneezes, tears, cough, belching,
vomits, sexual desire, hunger, thirst, sleep and encouraging anger,
jealousy, temptation, selfishness, possessiveness, (six enemies –
`shadripu' in sanskrit) causes loss of stomach efficiency or
digestive agni. Taking food within 2-3 hours after last food, mixing
incompatible diet, (for a list of such items see,
http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?Id=397), sedantary
lifestyle, excess sweets and confectionary in food, fried food,
excess of legumes, yogurt, soft floor also cause loss of digestive
agni. That is the reason excess of anything is to be avoided. It has
been this authors observation that now a days, breakfast/lunch of
spicy/fermented/sour items like idli/dosa/upma/uttapa/bisibele
bhat/sambar bhat is washed down by Tea or coffee in South India.
Traffic jams require more travel time and do not permit carrying home
food to work place and nearby fast food joint is the only option for
lunch. The intelligent Indian youth is loosing hard earned health in
lure of soft money.

These life style factors increase acidity of digestive juices in
stomach. The juices are sour in taste in stomach and become slightly
bitter in "grahani" area. Hence increase of salty diet
(termed "farsan" in India) or salt in food increases natural sour
test of gastric juices. When the digestive juices become "Vidagdha"
in ayurvedic language, the effect is similar to adding salt to the
wound, acidity soars further. The result is the swelling of stomach,
reduced hunger, mandagni, which means reduced metabolism and
dhatukshaya ultimately. Reduced hunger and taste tempts patient to
eat more spicy foods. Fermented foods like Idli, dosa, dhokla are
contra-indicated for people suffering from aaml-pitta. Some symptoms
are drowsiness after food, almost static speed of vata in intestines,
mild pain in intestines, swelling and ulceration too. Gastric or
duodenal ulcer is the advanced stage, while "Sangrahani" or lack of
absorption is the end point in very few patients, who do not visit
alternative healers.

Other than correcting life style factors, let us look at some
remedies to help recover from this state.

There are many formulations provided in ayurveda, experienced by
vaidyas for their effectiveness. According to stage of this
disorder, different formulations in different dosages are tried with
success. For instance, those suffering from aamlapitta together with
constipation, Avipattikar Churna suits them better. This is well
known formulation of ayurveda. When patient's colon strength is weak
(results in many loose motions with stronger laxatives) Shatpatryadi
Churna will work better. [Composition of Shatptradi churna will be discussed in
some other post] In Avipattikar Churna some warming herbs are
used. Giger(Zingiber officinale), black pepper(Piper nigrum), Piper
longum, Vidanga(Embelia ribes), Trifla, Cardamom, Tamalpatra
(Cinnamomum tamala Nees or Cinamon leaf), Nagarmoth (Cyperus
Rotadus ) all these ingredients one part, Cloves ten parts, Nasotar
40 parts and Crystal Sugar 100 parts, all by weight. Pound all these together
for
uniform fine mixture and Take the mixture 3 to 6 grams (1 to 2 tsp)
after meals, afternoon and night. The pain in stomach and intestines
will be cured. Pile patients can also derive good relief from this.
It helps urination giving a little diuretic action. This formula of
avipattikar churna suits those who do not have hard constipation. For
those having hard constipation, vaidya needs to add combination of
Giloy(Tinosporia cordifolia), Sutshekhar(Laghu) and Pravalpishti
total 1 tsp (3 grams) for benefit of tackling constipation with
acidity. In later triplet, if Giloy is replaced by Medhavati, this is
often recommended formula by Baba Ramdev for treating Migraine.

But please note that the formulation details given here are
approximate. An expert vaidya can fine tune the profile of the
formulation to suit each individual patient. Author has seen expert
compounders who could make small packets of total medicines to be
taken only thrice a day with proper anupana. The advantage of this
approach was that Vaidya was not overly dependent on pharmacies and
an optimum combination could be worked out for each patient. And
patient can not take one herb and forget another.

Many Vaidyas recommend taking medicines before food so as to increase
digestive fire. Such medicines decrease the swelling of the stomach
too. Cause more hunger, so that stomach can accommodate proper
quantity of food too. Many patients feel heaviness after food and
they feel light only after bowel motion. This avipattikar churna
works well for even such patients. Constipation gets cured, albeit
slowly in addition to acidity. This formulation also causes stools to
be well formed and intestinal strength increased for effective waste
elimination. Follow a rule of six here: skip medicine one day after
every six days (let it be Sunday, rest day), skip for one full week
after six weeks, and one full month after six months, if it is
continued that long in supervision. In ayurveda, use of stronger
laxatives is discouraged. The word emergency looses significance if
emergency exists everyday. Intestines loose their elasticity and
elimination strength, developing gradual spasticity. Businessmen who work on 10
am to 10 pm schedule have no time to visit vaidya, manage with Pachanvati,
Gasex, Harde with Lavan Bhaskar etc and visit Vaidya only after intestines have
lost their tone.

Main component of this formulation is Nasotar, sweet, astringent,
bitter and also hot to some extent with Teekshn vipaka. It is mild
Laxative, Digestive, Purgative and useful in Abscess. Its leaves and
roots are used in medicine. Black variety contains more active
ingredients. Being mild laxative, this herb is used in many other
medicines too. When stools are very hard, the patient should eat the
green leaves in soup or curry form.

Nasotar has use in other diseases too. For instance, a jaundice
patient can take nasotar powder with sugar, this powder when licked
with honey can control the Typhoid fever. There are many such
combination ayurveda offers for controlling and curing pita disorders
like burning sensations in throat, oesophagous, stomach, mouth
ulceration, beeding nose, heat radiation through soles, hot flashes, rashes,
fainting/dizziness, blanking out etc. But
these should be adopted according to region of globe, season, age,
prakruti etc.

Dr Bhate

--- In ayurvedaonline@yahoogroups.com, "chanti_ur5" <chanti_ur5@...>
wrote:
i am working in a S/W company
> in Bangalore. so i haven't adjusted to Bangalore food and i am
getting
> Gas and Stomach Pain. I used so many medicines and i controlled my
> diet also but i am facing the same problem again and again.

>
> Symptoms are:
> 1. Pain in the left side of the stomach
> 2. Continuous Gas with Bad smell
> 3. Heart Burn
> 4. Some times Vomittings and Motions.