Agni, our digestive fire

Agni is a very important aspect of Ayurveda. The word agni means fire. In our case, it denotes our digestive fire, our capacity to digest food. "We are what we eat." But in reality, a better saying is, "We are what we digest." Our agni resides in the first part of our small intestine called the duodenum, situated right after our stomach. When we eat food, it reaches our stomach and is acted upon by stomach acid and other enzymes. All these digestive juices are controlled by our agni. When our agni is strong, our digestive capacity is good and our food gets broken down the way it should. Food that is correctly broken down is easy for our body to absorb and assimilate. If our agni is weak or dull, the food does not get digested and leaves us with a feeling of fullness, discomfort and even indigestion. Sometimes the agni is variable, meaning it works well at times and at times it is very dull. This also results in difficulties with digestion. An overactive or sharp agni will "burn" our food instead of "cooking" it. All the nutrition is burnt out of the food, again leaving us with digestive issues.

According to Ayurveda, all diseases originate from some form of agni derangement. If a perosn has good agni, they can withstand any infection, disease or disorder. This is because a well balanced diet contains all the ingredients needed for nourishment, body building, immunity and strength. If we can digest this wholesome food properly, we can extract the most from all these ingredients and use them to build up our tissues. On the other hand, if the agni is out of balance (dull, variable or sharp), we cannot get all the vital nutrients we need to maintain health and well being. Not only that, incompletely or improperly digested food results in the production of toxins called ama. This ama or toxins circulate in the body and clog up channels and tissues. This will in turn damage the tissues and block the free flow in the various channels in out body causing disease. So maintaining a healthy agni or restoring an unbalanced agni is an important part of all Ayurvedic protocols. More about ama and how to maintain your agni in coming posts.

#Ayurveda #Agni