Y0GA FOR DIGESTIVE DISORDERS

Abstract

In the late 19t h Century, a teen-aged boy named Tom had a bullet shot injury in his abdomen. When the wound healed, he was left with a permanent hole in the stomach. Doctors, who were interested in understanding the mechanisms of how the nervous system learns to control body functions, requested Tom to co-operate in their experiments. They collected the gastric secretions through this hole in his abdomen, during different times of the day and analysed them. They found that the digestive juices secreted from the stomach increased when Tom felt hungry, when he thought of food, when the food was kept in the mouth and, of course, when the food entered the stomach. The interesting part of the experiment was that there occurred a heavy surge of acid from the stomach when Tom was irritated, frustrated and anxious. This gave a big clue about the effect of emotions on acid production from the stomach.