7 Tips to Ignite and Maintain Your Digestive Fire

The gut, gastrointestinal (GI) tract, is the foundation of good health or disease. This has been a healthcare staple of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and even more so with Ayurveda, India’s ancient medicine. But somehow, modern medicine has strayed from this premise.

We have to take responsibility for nurturing our own digestion, or as the ancient Asian practices assert, ignite our oun digestive fire. Protein foods need to be broken down into amino acids, fats need to be broken down into fatty acids, and carbohydrates need to be broken down into glucose.

Digestion involves the whole GI tract, from top to bottom (literally). It’s not just the stomach that handles it all. The digestion train begins in the mouth, then the stomach takes over churning the food with gastric acids.

The small intestines handle nutrient absorption into the blood stream with enzymes from the pancreas, and the large intestine contains most of those friendly gut bacteria that aid digestion and support the immune system throughout the body.

So you may be able to see a little bit now why digestion is so important for overall health and well-being.

Read: How to Improve Digestion Naturally – 5 Tips

7 Tips to Help Provide Good Digestion

  • 1. Take antibiotics only if there is no choice, otherwise, avoid them. Antibiotics destroy friendly gut bacteria in the small intestines that are vital for maintaining a functioning immune system. So if you’re in a compromised situation and forced into taking antibiotics, make sure you take a strong probiotic an hour or two after each dose to restore the good guys.
  • 2. Don’t drink cold liquids while eating or just before or afterward. This literally dampens or cools your digestive fire, according to TCM and Ayurveda.

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