Being on the road a lot, eating street food and food in doggy restaurants I now and then suffer from diarrhea. Ever since a parasite devastated my intestines, I’m pretty vulnerable anyway. Luckily yoga helps, because there is yoga to cure diarrhea.
All the asanas (the yoga poses) are actually designed to heal our body. To realign us physically, but also the help our intestines function properly, to improve our respiratory system, to improve our heart, to cure us from old injuries, to let go of old emotions and old stress that is trapped in our body.
How yoga benefits digestive health
Yoga has demonstrable effects in alleviating and preventing digestive distress. Yoga is perhaps most helpful for its ability to reduce the stress, anxiety, and the pain of chronic illness. Regular practice will indisputably improve your physical and mental fitness, promote relaxation, and give you a sense of control over your health and well-being. As with other stress management techniques, the more you practice, the more powerful the change. Yoga gives relief from symptoms such as constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, and pain. Yoga is also tremendously beneficial for preventing or minimizing menstrual cramps, which often exacerbate digestive distress.
Constipation versus Diarrhea with Yoga Poses
It is important to note that there are different poses that are good for constipation/diarrhea.
All poses listed here are beneficial for constipation as they will help to get the stagnation of energy moving down in what is known as ‘apana vayu’. Master yogis suggest that if you suffer from constipation and do a daily forward folding practice for a week, you will see an immediate and marked increase in bowel activity.
They are each beneficial for diarrhea as well, as they promote consistancy, ease, and regularity. But if you are in an active state of diarrhea, it is best not to practice intense forward folds (such as seated forward folds.) These poses will increase the downward flow of energy which might increase the flow of bowel activity.
Yoga Poses for Diarrhea
The practice of yoga will also depend on whether you have chronic digestive issues that leads to diarrhea or is it a one off thing. If the condition is chronic, then you need to check with your doctor before practicing yoga. Often most poses in yoga come with contraindications. Contraindications are conditions in which the pose or the asana might not do its job as effectively. If the diarrhea is a one off thing, yoga or the practice of the poses will not affect it but if it is chronic, you should get your doctor’s approval.
In some instances, the type of yoga also acts as a deterrent. Bikram Yoga, for instance, is very rigorous and people with diarrhea shouldn’t practice it. This form of yoga tends to be exacting on the body and even under normal circumstances, sometimes the person could even develop diarrhea as a result of doing yoga. In such cases, therefore, it becomes important that people suffering from diarrhea do not try the newer forms of yoga.
These abdomen inverted postures slow bowl motility and promote fluid absorption. Add the hip opening and back bending poses if the condition is chronic. Avoid squatting poses and postures that compress the abdomen.
If you choose to do yoga with diarrhea, you need to start slow as a precaution. As you feel stronger you can increase the intensity of the workout. There are some of the poses that can be done to help cure diarrhea:
- Reclining Bound Angle Pose
- Reclining Leg, Foot and Toe Stretch
- Headstand
- Inversion
- Reclining Hero Pose
- Upward plank
- Revolved triangle pose
- Camel Pose
