When you put something into your body, it must be digested and transformed. The body must do something with it. When Agni is good, your digestion is healthy. Your body creates nutritious, life-supporting nutritious juice (Rasa) from the food you eat, and easily eliminates the parts not transformed into Rasa. When Agni is imbalanced, digestion is not good. Especially when digestion is slow or weak, food stays in your stomach for way too long and your body cannot produce the right quantity or quality of Rasa. Wastes begin to accumulate and ferment in your stomach and your body produces a heavy, sticky, slimy substance called Ama. This morbid, toxic substance causes blockage and stagnation, leading to doshic imbalance. Ama then further weakens the digestive function, which in turn produces even more Ama… creating a truly nasty cycle indeed.

You may have learned that Ama is undigested food. This is partially true. My revered teacher, Dr. Karthik Krishnan, explains that “Ama is something that is not yet life… Ama is something that’s trying to come into being but not yet there.” Ama is a substance that is unable to be metabolized. Ama is a toxic substance that cannot be digested so it is unable to nourish the body. Instead, Ama vitiates the doshas and causes disease.

 The Sanskrit meaning of Ama clearly illustrates this:  A = till it becomes - Ma = life

When digestive Agni is weak, Ama is produced and disease begins. This is why we look at Agni and Ama together. The two go hand in hand. Just like when you see smoke you know there is fire. When you see Ama, you know there is imbalanced Agni. It’s very important to continually monitor your Agni and Ama. When Ama is in the digestive tract, it’s easier to address, but if Ama spreads beyond the GI tract into the deeper tissues, it becomes increasingly more difficult to remove and serious diseases can manifest.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE AMA?

Many signs of Ama are congruent with symptoms of increased Kapha, however there are often multiple doshas out of balance when Ama is present, so symptoms of Vata and Pitta aggravation can also indicate existence of Ama. Be aware of any of these signs of Ama, especially if any of these symptoms become chronic:

SIGNS OF AMA

~  feeling weak, heavy and/or sluggish

~  low energy/loss of endurance

~  lack of enthusiasm

~  bad breath, sour taste in mouth

~  lack of taste and smell

~  smelly body odor, smelly gas and stools

~  indigestion, acid reflux, excessive burping

~  increased salivation/secretions in the mouth

~  gas, bloating and constipation

~  cloudy thinking, memory loss

~  swelling, fluid retention

~  pain, inflammation

~  a feeling of general exhaustion

~  coating on the tongue that lingers... for example, it you eat a heavy meal or a bowl of ice cream, your tongue will have a filmy coating afterward. But if your digestion is healthy the coating will dissipate as you metabolize your food.

At the earliest signs of Ama, you must correct imbalanced digestion.

Check in with yourself each morning and determine if everything you consumed yesterday has been properly digested. Sip hot water or ginger tea until digestion from yesterday is complete and your Agni has strengthened.

The state of your digestive Agni will till tell you not only what to eat but when… since feeding a disturbed agni that has not properly digested the previous days food will lead to the buildup of Ama, the source of all disease.

I'm here to support you and help you create a beautifully balanced life through the Ancient Wisdom of Ayurveda. It's important to me to help you bring Ayurveda into your daily life so that you can stay balanced, youthful, free of disease and live your very best life.

If you're curious about how Ayurveda can help you, please contact me. I welcome your questions. 

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Thanks for being here! I'm looking forward to helping you look and feel vibrantly healthy, happy and

ETERNALLY RADIANT!