Stages, Root Causes, And Prevention Of Chronic Disease

Stages Of Disease

While modern medicine is excellent in dealing with acute injuries and saves countless lives, it falls short in the treatment and prevention of chronic diseases. However a more holistic approach truly excels at this. Let’s take Ayurveda for example. Ayurveda is the traditional preventive medicine of India that has been around for over five thousand years.

Ayurveda focuses on balancing and nourishing the body and mind; removing ama (toxins); addressing the root causes of health issues; addressing how the elements, seasons, and nature affect us; and preventing disease. Ayurveda has a unique 6 stage model for disease development. This model helps us to recognize the early signs of disease, the root causes of disease, and thus prevent and cure disease. (1)

This contrasts greatly with modern medicine. In which disease is not typically classified until the 5th and 6th stage. (1) After which the root cause and lifestyle of the patient is not addressed and the patient walks away with drugs to treat their symptoms.

So what are these 6 stages?

Stage 1: Sanchaya (The Stage of Accumulation)

In this stage ama (mucus and toxins) accumulate in the digestive track. This usually happens as a result of a poor diet, weak digestion, suppressed emotions, toxin exposure, and an unhealthy lifestyle. This results in mild symptoms like bloating, acid reflux, loss of appetite, lethargy, etc. that typically go away with in a few hours to a day. (1)

An example of this would be eating a large heavy meal late at night and overeating. The next morning you have no appetite, a weak digestion, and a heavy bloated feeling. This is a sign that your body is out of balance.

Fasting until your hunger returns later that day and then eating a light healthy meal to support digestive health and also making an effort to avoid overeating and eating late in the future would help correct this imbalance and prevent disease.

However, the symptoms in this stage typically go away fairly quickly and many people return to the bad habits that caused this aggravation in the first place. Many also ignore their bodies cues, thus furthering ama accumulation and the progression of disease. In this case that’d be eating despite being full.

Stage 2: Prakopa (The Stage of Aggravation)

If the habits that cause the ama accumulation in stage 1 of disease are not corrected, the disease progresses to stage 2. In this stage “ama amasses to such a degree that it begins to get active or provoked in the site of its production in the GI track, leading to the third stage.” (1)

Stage 3: Prasara (The Stage of Migration)

Prasara means “to leave and spread.” (1) In this stage ama has accumulated so much that it can no longer be contained by the GI track. Ama then over flows into other tissues, where it’s lodged in and stored. The sticky nature of ama makes it difficult to remove. However cleansing can help to loosen and remove it. (1) The tissues ama is stored in often correlate with our Achilles’ heel (like I talked about in this instagram post).

Stage 4: Sthana Samshraya (The Stage of Disease Augmentation)

If our habits are still causing ama accumulation, the disease progresses to cause dysfunction and structural damage in the tissues that are overwhelmed with ama. This is the stage where the specific tissue and disease is chosen. (1)

Stage 5: Vyakta (The Stage of Symptom Manifestation)

Vyakta means “that which can be seen” and in this stage clear symptoms of a specific disease are first seen. (1) The disease process overwhelms the body’s ability to maintain immunity and healthy functioning. This is when modern medicine usually first classifies the disease based on symptoms.

Stage 6: Bheda (The Stage of Complications)

The final stage is the full and severe manifestation of disease. This stage has serious health consequences, since by this point the diseased tissue has undergone much damage, and thus this stage is much more difficult to treat. (1)

Root Causes Of Diseases

A disease or chronic illness isn’t something you just randomly wake up with one day. It’s a results of continuously ignoring signs and symptoms of imbalance which leads to a toxin build up in the tissues over time.

But what exactly does this look like?

This typically starts in the GI track. The gut is the gate keeper that decides what comes into the body (nutrients from food) and what exits the body (toxins, pathogens, dead cells, and waste). When the gut is over burdened with plant toxins, environmental toxins, too much food, unhealthy foods, and stress, its ability to function as gate keeper becomes compromised.

This can cause leaky gut, IBS, constipation, loss of appetite, bloating, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, nutritional deficiencies, and more. In leaky gut, gaps form between your epithelial cells that line your intestinal wall. This allows unwanted things (like toxins, large clumps of food, and pathogens) to travel into your blood stream and body.

This in turn causes autoimmune diseases, worsens digestive issues, increases inflammation, and allows toxins to travel to other tissues in your body. In excess these toxins can be stored in these tissues and cause disorders and diseases with time.

Another cause of tissue damage and disorder is nutrient deficiencies. Macronutrients (fat, carbs, and protein) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) are key for every system in our body to function and for building and repairing all our tissues.

It should be noted that different macro- and micro-nutrients are needed for different functions and every single one is not needed for every system but rather some of each category are needed for each system and tissue.

Anyways when you do not get enough of a certain (or multiple) nutrients, you do not supply the body with the materials it needs to function properly. This can lead to the breakdown of less important tissues to acquire the nutrients for more important tissues.

For example, if you’re deficient in calcium, your body often breaks down bone to get the calcium needed for muscle contractions, or if you’re deficient in amino acids, your body often breaks down muscle to get the amino acids needed to repair tissues or make immunoproteins.

As you can see, if you don’t regularly supply your body with all the nutrients it needs, certain systems and tissues begin to weaken and decrease in function. Overtime this can have serious consequences such as osteoporosis, low fertility, loss of muscle mass, low hormonal levels, diseases, and more.

It should also be noted that a weak digestive system cannot fully break down food, and your body cannot absorb large chunks of food. Therefore nutrient deficiencies can also result from poor gut and digestive health.

To sum up this line of thinking, some of the root causes of disease are:

• Gut And Digestive Disorders
• Toxin Overload
• Nutrient Deficiency
• Not Listening To Your Body

How To Prevent Disease

1) Eat A Healthy Nutrient Rich Diet

Eat foods like high quality dairy, meat, organs, bone broth and marrow, eggs, seafood, and seasonal fruits and veggies. Avoid (or better yet eliminate) vegetable oils, refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, and processed foods. Reduce grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. And when you do eat them, be sure to soak, sprout, ferment, or roast them first.

This will supply your body with the nutrients you need to rebuild tissues and support optimal function of all the systems in your body. It will also decrease the intake of toxins from unhealthy foods.

2) Detoxing and Cleansing

This will help eliminate stored toxins, reset your health, and cure any early manifestations of disease (such as a stage 3 or 4 disease). For more info on detoxing, check out my “In Depth Guide On How To Detox And Cleanse Your Body.”

3) Get Enough Sleep

About 8 hours a night is good for most people, but everyone’s a little different so experiment to find what’s right for you. Adequate sleep gives your body time to repair and rebuild damaged tissues.

4) Have A Bowel Movement Everyday

This is crucial for eliminating toxins. If you get backed up, toxins can get reabsorbed into your body.

5) Listen To Your Body

Your body is really smart and if you listen to your hunger cues, cravings, sleepy cues, and other signs your body gives you, you will better balance your health. This is assuming you are coming from a healthy place. When your body is out of balance you may start to crave things that aren’t good for you. So learn to distinguish the two.

6) De-stress

Stress has many negative health effects like decreasing hormone production, impeding digestive function, nutrient wasting, and worsening disease. Having a regular de-stressing routine (walks, baths, and reading are some great options) can do wonders for your health and reducing disease risk.

7) Address The Root Cause Of Your Symptoms

Headaches, bloating, fatigue, constipation, acne, rashes, stubborn fat, low fertility, PMS, low libido, etc. are not normal! If you have any of these symptoms try to find the root cause. It’s often something you’re eating, toxins you’re exposed to or storing, stress, a habit that’s not working for you, lack of sleep, damaged gut, or something else of this nature. I encourage you to do more research, tune into your body, and to experiment with dietary and habit changes till you resolve these symptoms.

* If you want help getting to the root of your health problems in order to prevent disease and optimize your current and future health, I can help you with that in my program: Ancestral Gut Healing! If you’re interested and want to know more, click here to set up a free discovery call with me!

Works Cited

1. Joshi, Sunil. Ayurveda and Panchakarma. Wisconsin: Lotus Press. 2009. Print.