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5 Yoga Asanas To Relieve Bloating and Gas

Relieve BloatingMost of us feel bloated after a heavy meal or when we have some digestive problems or when we are stressed out. There is a feeling of fullness and tightness in the abdomen which may cause abdominal pain. Practising yoga improves digestion by increasing blood flow to your digestive tract and twisting poses compress and massage your internal organs, which help relieve bloating and gas. 

Poses To Aid Digestion and Relieve Bloating 

Try the yoga asanas below to help improve digestion and relieve bloating: 

1. Apanasana
This asana is also known as the ‘wind relieving pose’. It not only helps to release the build-up of gas and improve digestion but also helps in detoxifying the entire system.Apanasana

  • Lie down on your back and place your hands on the knees
  • As you exhale, hug your knees to your chest
  • Rock your knees from side to side to maximize stretch
  • Do this for five to ten breaths and release your knees
  • When you inhale, loosen your grip to allow your legs to move away from your stomach 

2. Supta Matsyendrasana
Also known as the Spinal Twist, this pose is great for digestion as it helps your blood flow through your body, especially your gut.Supta Matsyendrasana

  • Lying on your back, bring your arms out to the sides with the palms facing down in a T position. Bend the right knee and place the right foot on the left knee
  • Exhale and drop the right knee over to the left side of your body, twisting the spine and lower back
  • Gently push your right knee using your left hand to touch the ground
  • Make sure your right arm is extended out to the side at shoulder height
  • Breathe and hold for 6-10 breaths
  • To release, inhale and roll the hips back to the floor, and exhale the leg back down to the floor. Repeat the same process on the other side.

3. Malasana
Also known as the Garland Pose, it is good for digestion as it helps you release all the gas out of your system that is blocking your intestines from functioning normally.  Malasana Relieve Bloating

  • Begin in the Mountain Pose (Tadasana), with your feet slightly wider than hip distance apart
  • Bend your knees deeply, sinking down until your hips are lower than your knees, a few inches off the floor
  • Bring your palms together at heart center and wedge your elbows one at a time, to the inside of your knees
  • Push your elbows into your knees to open your hips and gently press the inside of your knees into your elbows
  • Stay in this pose for 30 seconds to a minute
  • To get out of the pose, either sit back onto your buttocks or push back up to standing

4. Setu Bandha Sarvangasana
Also known as the Bridge Pose, it will open up your gut, allowing blood to flow smoothly and subsequently, will help relieve bloating and pain. Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

  • Lying on your back, place your feet flat on the floor
  • Fold your knees and keep your feet hip distance apart on the floor, 10-12 inches from your pelvis, with knees and ankles in a straight line
  • Keep your arms beside your body, palms facing down
  • On inhalation, press the back of your shoulders and your feet into the floor and lift your hips up
  • Lengthen your tailbone, slide your shoulder blades down your back and keep your neck neutral
  • Keep your bottom firm up in this pose; Keep your thighs and feet parallel
  • Hold the pose at the top for 30 seconds each time before releasing
  • To come out of the pose, release the arms and roll your spine down while breathing out

5. Chakravakasana
This pose, also known as the Cat-Cow Stretch, helps relieve bloating by stretching and contracting the abdomen with each motion.Chakravakasana

  • Keep your hands and knees in the table pose, and your spine neutral
  • First begin with the Cow Pose by inhaling as you drop your belly towards the mat. Lift your chin and chest, and look up towards the ceiling
  • As you exhale, come into the Cat Pose while rounding your spine outward, tucking in your tailbone, and drawing your pubic bone forward
  • Release your head toward the floor, but don’t force your chin to your chest
  • Inhale as you come back into the Cow Pose and exhale as you return to the Cat Pose
  • Hold each pose for a breath before moving into the other one. Do this for 15-20 breaths

We hope these yoga asanas help you relieve bloating, gas and any other associated pains. Before you begin any yoga practice, do consult your doctor, physician or personal trainer. Kindly ensure that you perform these asanas under proper guidance if you’re a beginner. 

For more on yoga, check out Healthy Reads or speak to a certified expert by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce 

Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog is for general awareness and educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for personalised medical guidance or concerns related to your health.

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Learn about your Poop and Gut Health

bowel-health

Most of us wake up and proceed to the loo. Over a period of time, this becomes a habit and we just do it blindly!

Have you ever noticed or given a thought about how is your bowel movement?

What does your poop say about your health? This may sound like a joke, but you can actually learn a lot about your health from your daily poop.

Hippocrates says…ALL DISEASE BEGINS IN THE GUT. So, we want to be sure that what’s coming out of the gut looks good.

Let’s understand more about it.

Three things to look for:

  1. FREQUENCY
  2. FORM
  3. COLOR

Frequency: Best bowel movement: It’s best to have at least one complete bowel movement a day. This should leave you feeling like you’ve fully emptied your bowels.

If you are having 2-3 bowel movements in the day then you may have a faster metabolism or good robust bacteria or it depends on the quantity of food you eat.

Going to the bathroom more than three times a day may suggest you’re approaching the diarrhoea zone.

So, having a clear bowel movement once a day daily is must as it’s one of our body’s greatest ways to eliminate toxins, acids and other stuff.

FORM: When our poops are properly formed, it ensures that we have digested and assimilated the nutrients from our food and are eliminating acids and toxins properly.

The BRISTOL CHART helps to categorize and gauge our bowel movements well:
Bristol-Stool-Chart-What-Your-Poop-Says-About-Your-Health-Mama-Natural-1024x576

Image Credit: mamanatural-mamanatural.netdna-ssl.com

Type 1: Separate hard lumps, like little balls (hard to pass)

Type 2: Sausage-shaped, but lumpy (lack of fibre and hydration)

Type 3: Like a sausage but with cracks on its surface

Type 4: Like a sausage or snake, smooth and soft

Type 5: Soft blobs with clear cut edges (passed easily)

Type 6: Fluffy pieces with ragged edges, a mushy stool

Type 7: Watery, no solid pieces. Entirely liquid

Where do you fall on this chart?

If you are between 1-3 then it shows that your diet lacks the right amount of fibre, bacteria are missing and there is nothing to retain water. This is a sign of constipation. The lumps are hard and abrasive and may sometimes lead to anorectal bleeding.

If you are at Type 4, then you are right, It’s nice tubular shape. Think long bananas that don’t break apart when you flush. The Perfect poop comes out with ease, smells more like super-ripe fruit than something terrible and you barely need to wipe.

If you are between 5-7—then you have diarrhoea. This may also give rise to malabsorption as there is no proper assimilation of nutrients.

If your stool is too LOOSE, SOFT, watery, MUSHY then – it indicates a lack of fibre and thus you can go for BRAT Diet.(Banana, rice, apple and toast). These foods have qualities like tannins that can actually help firm up a stool for better bowel movements.

If you find your stool is TOO HARD or infrequent, add more of soluble fibre and add magnesium-rich foods to your diet. Magnesium draws water into the bowel, making the stool softer and easier to eliminate. It also relaxes the muscles in the intestinal wall, which helps with constipation.

Apples and Pears are also wonderful – two a day will keep things moving. Yoga and abdominal massage are great tools. Another trick you can try is to drop 1 drop of Peppermint essential oil into your toilet and sit down. It will stimulate your bowels and often result in a movement.

If your poop…Floats instead of sinks- You have excess gas in your digestive tract. “If you’ve been eating lots of beans, sprouts, cabbage, or very large meals, it’s perfectly normal for stool to float because of gas, and it’s not a cause for concern. However, if floaters become more common for you or you spot an oil-slick appearance, it could mean something is preventing your body’s ability to absorb fats from food. For instance, inflammation or an infection in your pancreas could prevent you from producing enough digestive enzymes. A food allergy or infection could be damaging the lining of your intestines that’s affecting absorption, too.

What does Colour indicate?

Believe it or not, colour matters!  We want our stool to be a nice medium – to dark-brown colour (Think milk chocolate). Poop is normally brown. The colour is the result of what you eat and how much bile is in your stool. Bile is a fluid your liver makes to digest fats. It starts out as a yellowish green colour. But as the pigments that give bile its colour travel through your digestive system, they go through chemical changes and turn brown.

Black Poop: If your stool is black, it could be a sign of blood in your upper GI tract.

Yellow poop: This shade is also normal for many people. It’s common for babies, especially those who breastfeed. But if you have yellow poop that looks greasy and smells very bad, it may have too much fat. That could be a sign your body isn’t digesting food properly.

Green poop: If you have green poop for many days, the colour of your food may not be to blame. It’s likely that your meal moved through your gut too quickly, so the fat digesting bile didn’t have time to turn brown. It could be from fat malabsorption or liver or gallbladder stress.

PS NOTE: Keep in mind if you eat certain foods or food dyes your stool colour may change. For example, if you eat lots of beets, your stools could take on a reddish hue. And eating tonnes of leafy greens may explain why your poop is green but this colour change is temporary.

White Poop: Medicines for diarrhoea like bismuth sub-salicylate can sometimes cause pale or clay coloured poop. A more serious cause is a lack of bile in your stool. As bile gives its brown colour

Bright red: If it’s bright red, the blood likely comes from the lower part of your digestive tract. It could be due to inflammation in the colon, haemorrhoids, diverticular disease or tumour.

So, where do your poops fall on the Bristol Stool Chart? Do you have an to oy tips or practices to optimise your daily poop? Share them in the comments below. For more health-related content, explore Healthy Reads or for further guidance speak to a certified expert by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog is for general awareness and educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for personalised medical guidance or concerns related to your health.

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Effective Ways To Improve Gut Health

How to improve gut healthGut health is a familiar concept, and it’s widely recognized that maintaining a healthy gut is beneficial for our overall well-being. Beyond just aiding digestion, a healthy gut supports our immune system, heart health, brain function, weight management, and numerous other facets of health.

How Do We Know That Our Gut Health Is Optimal?

A healthy gut requires a balanced interaction between beneficial and harmful microbes within our digestive system. Our body’s microbiome, which includes trillions of bacteria, fungi, yeast, and other microbes—with bacteria being the predominant group—is vast. In fact, bacterial cells outnumber our own human cells! It’s accurate to consider the microbiome as an essential organ, critical to maintaining our overall health.

When our gut health suffers, we may experience a variety of symptoms such as indigestion, bloating, constipation, acidity, acid reflux, chronic fatigue, acne, joint inflammation and pain, as well as anxiety and depression. It’s crucial to identify and address the underlying causes of these symptoms instead of merely resorting to temporary solutions.

Effective Ways To Improve Gut Health

improve gut health

  • Include Fibre in your diet: Fibre helps to regulate bowel movements by absorbing water into the colon, making the stools soft and easy to pass through the intestines. Good sources of fibre include – fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and pulses.
  • Have foods rich in Prebiotics: Prebiotics are basically food for the gut microflora that humans cannot digest but keeps the gut bacteria healthy. These include fibre from legumes, beans, oats, banana, berries, asparagus, apples, garlic, onion and leeks.
  • Include Probiotics in your daily diet: Probiotics are live bacteria found in certain foods and supplements. These include Curd, Yogurt, Fermented food items like Kombucha, Kimchi, Sauerkraut, Kefir and Pickles. Before taking probiotic supplements, it is advisable to consult your physician first.
  • Drink plenty of water: Drink eight glasses (about 2 litres) of water each day to keep yourself hydrated during the day. This is a general guideline, the exact water requirement depends on your body weight, activity levels and the environmental condition.
  • Reduce/Manage stress levels: Stress can have a major impact on our gut health because it affects the regulation of hormones and neurotransmitters that control your gastrointestinal function. So, if you are feeling stressed, seek help or try to manage it with meditation, yoga, exercise, pursuing a hobby, talking to family and friends.
  • Avoid Processed/Sugary food items: Sugar feeds bad bacteria in our gut which can cause bloating, discomfort and gas. So avoiding or reducing sugar intake can help promote good bacteria growth. Similarly, processed foods are stripped of the majority of nutrients and are loaded with artificial colours, preservatives, sweeteners, trans fats, all of these increase inflammation in the body and impact gut health.
  • Exercise regularly: Regular exercise is one of the best ways to improve your gut health, as it helps build immunity to fight against viruses and bacterial infections. So, the more active you are, the healthier gut you will have!
  • Sleep well: The quality of your sleep can affect your gut health, so get your 7-8 hours of good quality sleep. Follow a good sleep hygiene, avoid using electronic gadgets before sleep and avoid caffeine late in the day. You can also practice deep breathing or meditation to induce sleep.
  • Antibiotics: Avoid taking antibiotics unnecessarily, as they kill the bad as well as good bacteria in the gut. In case it is unavoidable, do include probiotics in your diet, to replenish the lost good bacteria.
  • Avoid Alcohol: Alcohol causes depletion in the gut bacteria and inflammation, so it is better to avoid or limit your intake.

These simple yet very effective ways will help you keep your gut healthy and contribute to your overall wellbeing. If this article helped you, let us know in the comments below!

For more on maintaining and improving Gut Health, check out Healthy Reads. You can also speak to an expert by subscribing for GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog is for general awareness and educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for personalised medical guidance or concerns related to your health.

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Your Gut Health: Why It Matters More Than You Think

You would have heard of the saying, ‘Almost all diseases begin in the gut’. Well, it’s true. Maintaining the right ‘microflora’ (balance of good bacteria) in the gut is crucial for great health, immunity and even preventing, healing and recovering from serious diseases like cancer.

Your intestines (gut) contain pounds of good bacteria that help with the absorption of nutrients from the food you eat. These ‘good bacteria’ determine the strength of your immunity, regulate weight loss, aid recovery, support colon health, manage body toxicity, and handle several other functions.

The gut also contains yeast (fungals), which, if exceeds in number compared to the good bacteria, cause serious digestive issues, affect nutrient assimilation, and can cause leaky gut, vaginal rashes, IBS and other bowel and GI tract disorders. It is crucial to maintain the proportion of good bacteria, especially in children.

A shortage of good bacteria can lead to allergies, skin problems, headaches, migraines, inability to lose weight, and even contribute to fat accumulation. Energy levels can fall when there is an imbalance.

Everything we eat and drink passes through the gut along the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. This tube-like GI tract, lined with a thin, sticky mucous, is embedded with millions of bacteria that live, grow, and metabolize (digesting and absorbing) in a complex ecosystem comprised of both beneficial and harmful bacteria.

Maintaining gut health is one of the most important and least addressed aspects of overall health. Many lifestyles choices deplete the gut of the ‘good’ bacteria’, leading to health problems ranging from acne to deadly diseases like cancer.

If you have more bad bacteria (fungus) than good bacteria in your gut, even the healthy food you eat will not be assimilated the right way. Even if you eat clean, organic, or expensive foods, it does not matter if your gut microflora is out of balance. This is where probiotics come in.

Probiotic bacteria do several things that contribute to good health and immunity.

Their most basic function is to fight harmful foreign substances that enter the body by detoxifying them and easing their elimination. Probiotics can prevent the growth of harmful bacteria, which thrive and grow within a neutral pH environment, by producing organic acids such as acetic and lactic acids that, in turn, lower the pH of the large intestine.

This lower pH also prevents the metabolism of cholesterol and bile acids in the colon. Since cholesterol and bile metabolites act as cancer-causing agents, they can play an important role in the prevention of cancers of the GI tract and other organs as well. These helpful bacteria can even lower serum cholesterol levels along with cardiovascular disease risk by preventing the activity of an enzyme involved in the synthesis of cholesterol.

Inside the gut are about 100 trillion live microorganisms that promote normal GI (gastro intestinal tracts) function, protect the body from infection, and regulate metabolism and the mucosal immune system. They comprise more than 75% of the immune system.

Also important is their role in maintaining and protecting the GI barrier. An intact GI barrier maintains gut health, while a problem with its microbiota composition will affect the body’s defense systems and can create a condition known as leaky gut syndrome, which can compromise gut health and lead to diseases such as inflammatory breast cancer, obesity, chronic fatigue syndrome, and depression.

Your diet is the most important element for building gut health. Include curds or probiotic supplement if you are vegan or cannot have yogurt. Some top natural probiotic-rich foods include:

  • Yogurt (plain kind)
  • Miso
  • Sauekraut
  • Kimchi
  • Kefir
  • Kombucha tea
  • Pickled gherkins
  • Spirulina
  • Chlorella

Ensure your diet is rich in complex carbs, fiber, fruits, vegetables, and omega – 3, with a healthy water intake and low intake of sugar, processed foods and red meat.

Avoid sodas, processed foods, and sugar as they quickly depletes the gut of good bacteria, dropping immunity almost instantly, making it the worst thing your child or you can consume. I constantly tell parents that giving your child aerated drinks is worse than drugs.

Your gut health plays a pivotal role in your overall well-being. By maintaining a balanced gut microflora through a healthy diet and probiotics, you can prevent diseases, boost immunity, and ensure optimal nutrient absorption. Prioritize your gut health to experience better health and vitality.

We hope this article helps you. For further information or guidance, reach out to our certified experts by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog is for general awareness and educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for personalised medical guidance or concerns related to your health.

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