By: Ivan Palijan |
Ama - when toxins cause disease |
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A disease may have several causes.
Some blame the foreign invaders - viruses, bacteria and parasites.
Others argue that the diseases are coming from the "inside", that we are affected when the balance in our body is disturbed.
Our health can be ruined by stress, unhealthy lifestyle, toxins in our environment, and unbalanced diet.
Ayurveda emphasizes the importance of diet and claims that the diet is the cause of most ama diseases - toxins produced in our digestive tract spread further, causing disturbance and disease.
What is ama
While Western medicine does not recognize the term ama, ayurveda recognizes it as the cause of almost all disorders and diseases in our body.
Ama is a toxic by-product that is produced in the digestive tract when our digestive fire is not strong enough or is overloaded with overeating, bad food combinations and unhealthy food.
According to ayurveda, our digestion consists of seven digestive fires (dhatavagnis), which is important in ayurveda for diagnosing diseases.
Unfortunately, modern medicine usually does not seek for such causes and usually only deals with the symptoms of the disease when the disease has already fully developed.
Six stages of disease
The accumulation of toxins over a long time causes diseases and disorders in six stages.
- Sancaya or accumulation, occurs when the ama is accumulated in a particular physical channel, causing blockage and preventing the supply of nutrients.
- Prakopa or deterioration, occurs when there is a disturbance of doshas due to a blockage in their channels.
- Prasar or spread, occurs when a blocked dosha continues to expand into other channels, which it normally does not belong to and causes disruption.
- Sthan-samsraya or localization, occurs when, due to the blockade, diverted doshas are accumulated in sufficient quantity in a body part in which they usually do not reside and are the first symptoms of the disease start to appear.
- Vyakti or manifestation of the disease, occurs when the disease is manifested with all its symptoms.
- Bheda or differentiation, occurs when the disease gets features of vata, pitta or kapha diseases.
Ama symptoms
We all, to a greater or lesser extend, have ama in our bodies. It is good to know how to recognize its symptoms.
Ama symptoms include:
- white sediment on the tongue
- feeling of sluggishness, bloating and drowsiness, especially after meals
- craving for "junk food" and sweets
- bad skin appearance
- halitosis
- excessive sweating
- gases and constipation
- distinctly unpleasant stool odor
- grayish skin and dull whites of the eyes
- yellow teeth
- lack of concentration and depression
How to prevent the creation of ama
Ama creation can be prevented via moderate diet.
Eat slowly, chew slowly, recognize when your body tells you that you are full.
We usually swallow the food and do not know the feeling of satiety; we get "cluttered" instead.
Any undigested food that remains in us after every meal turns into ama.
Divide your daily meals into smaller meals. Nutritionists recommend us to eat five times a day (breakfast, lunch, brunch, dinner, and a night meal if necessary).
Consume smaller amount of food during each meal – so it will be completely used every time.
Foods that you should be careful to include candy, bread made from white flour, pasta, and dairy products and meat.
All these food items create ama and should be avoided as much as possible.
Eat more ingredients that eliminate ama, such as green leafy vegetables and whole grains.
How to eliminate ama
The best remedy for regulating ama is fasting.
A few days on a diet that consists of fruit and vegetable juices will heal your body.
I recommend you to fast whenever you have the opportunity.
But, resolving existing illnesses requires a long-term treatment. In this case it is best to contact an Ayurvedic doctor, who will give you instructions regarding diet in accordance with your dosha and recommend you ayurvedic preparations.
Drugs and spices that stimulate the digestive fire are another way of removing ama from the body.
Among them are ginger, pippali fruit (piper longum) and black pepper. These three herbs are the ingredients of the preparation for regulating digestion called trikatu.
For removing ama from our bodies we can also use triphala - a popular Ayurvedic medicine that helps balance the doshas and the excretion of toxins from the body.
Ayurvedic treatments (ayurvedic massage, svedana, snehana) can also help cleanse the body of ama.
Bacteria, viruses and parasites can actually cause many diseases, but they cannot attack a healthy and strong body.
Strengthen your organism and defend yourselves from illnesses by establishing a natural balance with the help of proper nutrition and by regularly cleaning your body of toxins.
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