3-minute read. Posted by Dr. Shallu Garg (BAMS, MD).
1 in 5 people suffer from acidity every week. There are many symptoms, but Ayurveda focuses on discovering the root cause. In this blog, let’s look at Understanding Acidity As Per Ayurveda and 8 Remedies To Manage Acidity that you can try at home.
Understanding Acidity As Per Ayurveda
There are many symptoms associated with acidity that include heart burn, sour burps, food reflux, excessive sweating, mouth ulcers, itching, rashes on the body, pimples and sometimes foul smell from the body. According to Ayurveda, acidity is the result of an imbalance of between Pitta & Vata dosha.
Watch a 3-minute video to learn what is Vata, Pitta & Kapha?
Common Causes For The Pitta-Vata Imbalance
Dietary causes
- > 80 ml of coffee and tea per day. Excessive coffee or tea, especially in the empty stomach, aggravates Pitta.
- > 1-2 times intake of spicy and deep-fried food per week. This is fine for someone with normal digestion (with clear bowels). A higher frequency, or if the person has issues related with the bowel, can cause the imbalance.
- Regularly eating artificial preservatives. Such a food item increases Pitta
Waking up after sunrise
Our digestion is closely tied to the position of the sun. When we sleep late, we tend to wake up after the sunrise. However, the Pitta in our body increases as the sun is rising to digest the food while we are still asleep. Over time, this increases the acidity in the body.
Not moving for at least 10 minutes every hour
When we don’t move for an extended period (> 1 hour), the blood circulation slows down and this leads to improper digestion again resulting in acidity.
Don’t ignore your bowels
Many of us are not conscious of our bowel movements, such as did we clear our bowels every morning? How frequently do you have constipation etc. We need to ensure the waste is duly pushed out and not accumulated within our body. If you’ve constipation, address it.
Antacid?
I don’t recommend antacid as it suppresses the acid instead of taking it out from the body. There is an excessive formation of acid deposits in the body that becomes toxic and leads to long term problems. Hence, it is important to take these toxins or imbalanced pitta out from the body.
8 Remedies To Manage Acidity.
If you’ve acidity, you could try the following remedies.
Meal Pointers
#1 Have multiple mini meals (a fruit or a snack) every 2 hours and avoid heavy food that are hard to digest
#2 Avoid tea, coffee, spices, beverages, fried food and dry food like bread, sandwiches and sprouts.
#3 Walk a few steps post a meal to improve digestion
#4 Avoid cold-water immediately after a meal
Regulating bowel movement
#5 Start taking 2 tsp of ghee in an empty stomach in the morning.
#6 Simple haritaki (Terminalia chebula) powder with milk at bed time.
Other factors
Remedy #7 Meditation or yoga to regulate stress as stress slows down the healing process
Remedy #8 Avoid smoking and alcohol intake
However, if the symptoms are severe or the condition persists over 15 days, please consult an Ayurvedic expert. There are effective Ayurvedic supplements. An expert can recommend them based on the cause.
Wishing you an acidity free life with Ayurveda!
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