The gut is considered the seat of good health in Ayurvedic medicine. The first step in Ayurvedic treatment for any disease is to correct the imbalances in the large intestine. G.G. Gangadharan, joint director, Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, Bangalore, goes one step further, “In Ayurveda, the large intestine is considered even more important than the brain.”
Western medicine is now confirming this with research evidence. Over the past two decades, research has found connections between an unhealthy gut and several diseases, many of which you wouldn’t imagine have anything to do with your stomach. Disorders like irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis are associated with an unhealthy gut, and surprisingly, so are diseases like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, and obesity. So much so that in a review of the literature on gut health and its impact on metabolic diseases like diabetes and obesity, authors S.A. Joyce and C.G. Gahan concluded that new therapies for metabolic diseases should be designed keeping gut health in mind. The review was published in the March issue of the journal Current Opinions in Gastroenterology.Read More
Sujata Kelkar Shetty, PhD, writes on public health issues and is a research scientist trained at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, US.