Return To Good Health

How detoxing can help you eliminate lifestyle disorders and rejuvenate your life.

- Dr Sujal Patil Torgal

To detox, literally, means to remove toxins from the body. Well, where do these toxins come from? In today’s era, where don’t the toxins come from! The air that we breathe, the food we eat, the environment we live in, the water we drink, everything is heavily loaded with dirt, chemicals, radiation and junk.

Attempts to consume organic, homegrown food become wary soon and we realise that nothing much can be done on this front. So we resume consuming anything available, praying for our health and safety. Haphazardous lifestyles add to the already gloomy situation and we end up with unknown disorders and syndromes that slowly kill our body’s engine. This engine needs regular servicing just like any other heavily (ab)used gadget and that is precisely what a detox would do.

When our digestive energies – known as agni (fire) – are robust, we create healthy tissues, eliminate waste products efficiently, and produce a subtle essence called ojas. Ojas, which may be visualised as the innermost essence of our psycho-somatic wellbeing, is the basis for clarity of perception, physical strength, and immunity.

On the other hand, if our agni is weakened, digestion is incomplete and creates toxins that get stored in the body. This toxic residue is known as ama, which blocks the flow of energy, information, and nourishment throughout the system.

Ayurveda considers this build-up of toxins the underlying cause of all diseases. A common example of this is the accumulation of saturated fat and cholesterol that is beyond the body’s capacity to metabolise. Over time, this leads to blockage of blood vessels and arteries and, ultimately, to heart attacks.