How Yoga Can Improve Digestion and Gut Health

Gas, nausea, bloating, constipation, and other digestive issues can leave you feeling uncomfortable and frustrated. Yoga offers a natural solution to digestive problems. Performing yoga poses eases the passage of food through your gastrointestinal tract by stimulating your digestive organs and improving blood flow.

4 Digestive Advantages of Yoga

Yoga is an ancient mind-body practice that combines specific movements, called poses, with controlled breathing and meditation. More than just a form of exercise, yoga offers important health benefits. Practicing yoga is an excellent way to enhance your digestive health naturally. Yoga's gut health benefits include:

• Better Blood Flow. Your blood carries oxygen and nutrients needed for good gut health to your digestive organs. Yoga improves blood flow to these organs, helping your body digest food and eliminate waste more efficiently.
• Less Constipation and Bloating. Practicing yoga may have a positive effect on peristalsis. During peristalsis, muscle contractions move food through your digestive tract. Twisting poses are particularly helpful if you have constipation or bloating, as are poses that improve core strength. Elderly patients who practiced yoga saw more significant improvements in constipation and insomnia than patients who didn't practice yoga, according to a research study published in the Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapy in 2021. No matter your age, you could enjoy the same beneficial effects of yoga.
• Lower Stress Levels. Your digestive system and central nervous system are linked in a network called the enteric nervous system. Communication between the two systems happens when messages travel back and forth through the vagus nerve, a large nerve that extends from the base of the brain to your gastrointestinal system. Stress doesn't just cause headaches and muscle pain but may also trigger digestive issues, like heartburn, indigestion, nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and bloating. Yoga helps keep stress under control by reducing the level of cortisol, a key stress hormone, in your body. During sessions, your body increases production of serotonin and endorphins, hormones that help you feel calm. Yoga also boosts production of gamma-aminobutyric acid, a brain chemical that improves mood and helps you feel less anxious, according to Harvard Medical School.
• Improved Control of Chronic Conditions and Diseases. Yoga poses strengthen the diaphragm and may improve the function of the lower esophageal sphincter. The sphincter keeps stomach acid from flowing backward into your esophagus, but may not close completely if you have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Practicing yoga may be beneficial for other chronic digestive conditions, like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Yoga may decrease symptom severity in people with IBS and improve quality of life, according to a systematic review published in Neurogastroenterology & Motility in 2023.

Yoga Poses for Better Digestion

Practicing these poses could enhance your digestive health:

• Legs Up the Wall. The legs up the wall pose improves blood flow to your gut, which may improve digestion and reduce stress and constipation. Start this pose by placing the your yoga mat against the wall. Lie on the floor on your back with your knees bent and your buttocks a few inches from the wall. Fully extend your legs, resting them against the wall. Hold the pose for 30 seconds or longer.
• Simple Seated Twist. The simple seated pose keeps things moving in the digestive system and stretches your back, chest, and shoulders. Practice it by sitting on the floor cross-legged. Inhale and put your left hand on your right knee. At the same time, move your right hand slightly behind your body. Exhale slowly as you look over your right shoulder. After a few counts, switch sides by placing your right hand on your left knee and your left hand behind you.

Making yoga part of your wellness routine could help you improve your digestive health and reduce stress. Ready to find out how yoga can help you? Sign up for one of our popular yoga classes.

Sources:

Harvard Medical School: Yoga for Better Mental Health, 4/29/2024

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/yoga-for-better-mental-health

Canadian Digestive Health Foundation: Yoga for Digestion, 6/8/2023

https://cdhf.ca/en/yoga-for-digestion/

Neurogastroenterology & Motility: A Systematic Review of Yoga for the Treatment of Gastrointestinal Disorders, 9/17/2023

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39285826/

PubMed: Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapy, 7/27/2021

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34391308/

Yoga Journal: 8 Yoga Poses for Better Digestion, 11/26/2024

https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/yoga-sequences/8-poses-better-digestion/