No Guts no Glory! : The word “guts” has two meanings The more common way in which the word is used, guts means courage . Gut actually is short form for gastrointestinal tract, the long digestive tube, about 25-30 feet long, that is about five times our height It starts at the mouth and ends at anus. Usually there is wisdom hidden in idioms; “No guts, no Glory” seems to indicate that our courage emanates from our guts, just as thinking and memory supposedly originates from our brain. Does a strong willed person’s self belief ,courage, and ability to cope with stress ,come from gut part of the body or is the brain responsible ? Can one part of body, gut, with its bacterial colony , impose its will on our brain ? Who hasn’t experienced butterflies in gut, or urge to pass urine or experience bowel movement ,when faced with a challenging situation ? In the present article, the word gut is used to mean specifically the small intestine, the major portion of the gastrointestinal tract.
Travelling in interiors of India : After graduation, my first job, as sales engineer, meant I extensively toured the interiors of Western India. I was drinking water, from different regions of western India like MP, Gujarat, rural Maharashtra Those were the times, before bottled water was successfully marketed in India by Bisleri. Until then, water was supposed to be a free commodity, Water has become now a marketable resource in India . No one imagined some day Indian consumer could be persuaded to buy filtered water @ almost at 50% of price of milk
Travails of travelling A Marathi proverb says that “ One who drinks water from twelve different places becomes a wise man”! It simply means that travelling makes one worldly wise. I am not sure my travel made me wise but soon travails of my gut caught up with me, due to combination of many factors. I enjoyed my tours to hinder lands of India , tasting diverse cuisines from different parts of India, that too at company expense! Any big sales win used to be celebrated with my colleagues, over beer or such alcoholic drinks With such abuse, my delicate gut progressively became worse .I would at times, throw up after our drinking parties. I also frequently suffered bouts of dysentery, colic pains . The stool test, barium meal , etc revealed presence of cysts of Giardia lamblia for causing amoebic dysentery. I was prescribed a course of antibiotics to get rid of amoeba from intestine. The antibiotics did not give much relief. In any case, as a policy, I have always avoided allopathic medicines, as far as possible , unless in a life and death situation. This is due to an intrinsic Indian belief that allopathic medicines treat only the symptoms of an ailment In addition one suffers side effects of medicines Modern medicine does not go to the root cause with a holistic view unlike ancient therapies Ayurveda. This was the reason , I did not opt for MBBS (medical college ) admission even though I was eligible , after passing XII science I chose to be an engineer without knowing much about engineering ! (That’s another story !!)
Holy grail of alternate medicine therapies To avoid outside food, I considered changing my job from sales to a desk job, that did not require any travelling. I began practicing Yoga Asanas. I also explored Ayurvedic OTC (over the counter ) medications like Kutajarishtha with no results One of the Ayurvedic doctors from Nasik, I consulted, advised me to enhance the fire element (ie acid) in my gastric juices, to address problems of amoebic dysentery. The Ayurvedic therapy, Yoga Asanas went in vain, without any permanent relief from colic pains.
Lifelong pursuit in holistic wellness: They say, “You have to lose something, as important as personal health, to value its importance.Even though I did not choose to be a medical doctor by education, my frail personal health was behind my quest for alternate wellness therapies I decided to explore a longer, holistic route to repair my health problems. Homeopathy, Magnetic water therapy, Acupressure therapies were tried, one by one and discarded as mere placebos, with no tangible physical relief. Then I was introduced to Pranayama, a Yogic breathing practice, as a panacea for all health problems Swami Poornanandaji Tirtha, who taught Mudra Pranayama, He once philosophized that spiritual people usually have delicate tummies! Even though Pranayama gave mental peace, stress relief, colic pains had not left me As a result of practice of Pranayama, I voluntarily became teetotaler As a result of Pranayama practices, I did derive unexpected rewards on spiritual front However my stomach had yet not settled down to “Nirvana”, the enduring and everlasting peace.
Searching for panacea : Then by sheer coincidence, I met Shri Balakrishna Nalawade, proponent of biofeedback , a nature cure therapy (Fig 2) As a result of biofeedback ,I went through process of catharsis, whereby the toxins accumulated in digestive system got eliminated Slowly and surely my gut ecosystem settled down to a peaceful coexistence with gut parasites that antibiotics wanted to banish! Later Dr B V Khare, Urologist and nature cure practitioner gave scientific basis to the biofeedback nature cure therapy. Dr B V Khare, termed all bakery products (cakes, biscuits, pastries, pizza) as bekar (means useless) products to be avoided at all times. He recommended eating whole grains with sprouts, seasonal fruits, to get better results from biofeedback nature cure. He advised that Moong dal (Fig 3) is easily digestible protein and sprouts add to its vitamin content. I benefited from nature cure therapy which complimented practice of Yoga, Pranayama.
Suffering deleterious side effects of antibiotics treatment : This fairy tale however did not end without a twist in the script ! When all seemed well, one fine day I contracted Typhoid, called as enteric fever by medicos. The doctor prescribed particularly strong dose of antibiotics treatment . He also forgot to prescribe vitamin supplements with antibiotics I dutifully took the full course of antibiotics , almost on empty stomach as I had lost appetite due to illness, without any vitamin supplements. This seemed to create havoc in my entire system, particularly as my system was not used to any allopathic medicines. I thought that every 500 mg antibiotic pill that I gulped, went down like a nuclear bomb through my virgin gut, destroying the intestinal flora I completed the treatment. Soon after it ended , I simply went into delirium, euphemism for going crazy ! I had lost my mental balance. I was diagnosed as suffering from mental disorder, that affects dopamine neurotransmitters in brain . As per Hindi movie, Munnabhai sequel, Lage Raho Munnabbhai, there was a chemical locha ( imbalance ) in my brain ! After consulting a psychiatrist, and two month long treatment, I thankfully recovered without much long term damage to my health and psyche. Even though no doctor who treated told me about what could have caused this, I intuitively believed that the antibiotics would have caused havoc with my mental balance. There may not be previous records that interlinked mental disorder to antibiotics treatment .
Picking up the pieces: No other illness shakes one’s confidence and self belief like mental illness. As per Osho, we perceive our mind closer to self identity than our body. Hence losing mind, seems unacceptable to one’s ego. I come out of episode of mental illness with a stronger self belief that I am the sole maker of my health (or disease) destiny. I resolved to get back my total health I continued practicing Pranayama . biofeedback nature cure , Hapkido, a Korean martial arts to restore health .
Food as medicine : I started reading on nutrition , concluding that food .itself is a medicine, if we remove mental blocks about it. In childhood we were asked to chant one shloka,before eating food It says that food is not to be viewed as filling up tummy but to propitiate the fire in the belly, as a sacred duty. (उदरभरण नोहे जाणिजे यज्ञकर्म )(Udar Bharan Nohe, Janije Yajna Karma) I always believed that food is meant to be enjoyed unlike popping pills, vitamin or hormonal supplements, injections All supplements tend to supply more than necessary quantity of desired nutrient, causing an imbalance and other problems We must choose natural food that we can learn to relish, in order to digest and assimilate nutrients .
You are what you eat; Discarding long held choices on food I came across books by Dr Malati Karwarkar , (Doctor , What I should eat) which helped me to understand about basic nutrition. Dr Karwarkar followed works by American nutritionist, Dr.Adelle Davies. I disassociated my spiritual beliefs from my choices about food I continued to update and discard long held beliefs when presented with new facts For example, when I discovered blood thinners like garlick, onions for their sulfur compounds are great for health, I included them as part of my daily diet Onions, and garlic have been condemned by many Yoga practitioners as Tamasi (making one lazy and indolent )food.There after I bid good buy to many self imposed restrictions on non vegetarian food like eggs, fish, meat . I cultivated a taste for sea fish, eggs, bits of chicken, not only for Omega 3 and Omega 6 fat oils ,but also for Vitamin B-12. Lack of B-12 vitamin can cause mental illness and depression. I also included seasonal fruits, oil seeds, dry fruits like Almonds, walnuts, sprouts of Moong and dollops of ghee in my diet.
Combination therapy :Nutrition, Biofeedback, Yoga : In addition to biofeedback, following better nutrition , Yoga/Pranayama gave me much needed relief from colic pains. I concluded any good therapy must use the trinity, Food/nutrition, Yoga/Exercise and biofeedback/nature cure for comprehensive and holistic cure to restore natural health, that is everyone’s right .
Journey towards a positive state of health : I no longer have any rumbling issues with my digestive system In fact I have never been sick since a long time I do not need to take any medications including vitamin supplements I have coped successfully with stress of working in IT industry . I particularly practice the Yoga-Asanas that work on digestive system like Mayurasana Dhanurasana, Bhujangasana, Padma-Mayurasana(See Fig 4 note 1) Now it seems that modern medicine is ready to accept the holistic truths about our miraculous body. Dr Deepak Chopra, the wellness Guru, is leading us to unknown realms of life. Deepak Chopra has postulated that gut bacteria listen to and are affected by our thoughts. Dr Enders , author of book titled Gut, goes one step more to say that gut bacteria and brain communicate in a bidirectional way.Gut bacteria seem to be causing of our moods , emotions, pain and general feeling of well being . There is deep correlation connection between enteric nervous system and the central nervous system. The gut bacteria influence state of brain in many ways. The old puzzle of rumble in stomach and mental imbalance was solved !
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