Five fascinating facts about the human colon:

1. It’s a Microbial Metropolis: The colon is home to around 100 trillion microbes, mostly bacteria. These gut bacteria aid digestion, protect against harmful microbes, and even play a role in mood regulation by influencing the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin.
2. Water Recycling Champion: The colon absorbs about a quart (roughly a liter) of water daily from the waste passing through, which helps keep our bodies hydrated and turns liquid waste into solid stool. This reabsorption is essential for maintaining fluid balance.
3. Produces Vitamins: Certain beneficial bacteria in the colon produce essential vitamins, especially vitamin K and some B vitamins (like B12). These vitamins play critical roles in blood clotting, energy metabolism, and overall health.
4. It’s Longer Than You Think: The average adult colon is about 5 feet long. It may sound short compared to the small intestine (about 20 feet), but it’s packed with tight twists and turns, providing an essential last stop for digestion and waste processing.
5. Communicates Directly with the Brain: The colon and brain are closely linked through the gut-brain axis. Signals travel via the vagus nerve, which is why stress can lead to colon issues like IBS, and why a healthy gut is often associated with improved mental health.

Yoga & Your Large Intestine

Yoga can be a powerful support for colon health in several ways, helping us stay regular, reducing stress, and fostering a positive connection with our bodies. Here’s a closer look at how yoga benefits the colon physically, emotionally, and mentally:

1. Physical Benefits

Yoga stimulates digestion and promotes efficient elimination, reducing the likelihood of constipation and bloating. Poses that involve twisting, forward bending, and core activation gently massage the abdomen, encouraging the movement of waste through the intestines. Here are a few ways yoga physically benefits the colon:

• Twists (like Revolved Triangle Pose or Seated Spinal Twist) compress and release the abdominal area, stimulating circulation and peristalsis (the wave-like movements that move food through the intestines).
• Forward folds (such as Standing Forward Bend or Child’s Pose) create gentle pressure on the lower abdomen, helping release gas and relieve bloating.
• Core-strengthening poses (like Boat Pose or Plank) tone the muscles around the abdomen, supporting colon health by building strength in the area surrounding the digestive organs.

2. Emotional Benefits

Emotionally, the gut and colon are directly linked to how we feel and process emotions. In fact, the gut is often called the “second brain” because it produces many of the same neurotransmitters found in the brain, like serotonin. Yoga’s ability to help regulate emotions is particularly valuable for the gut:

• Breathwork (pranayama) and mindful movement help calm the nervous system, easing anxiety and stress that can lead to gut problems. Techniques like diaphragmatic breathing stimulate the vagus nerve, which helps control digestion and regulates emotions.
• Restorative and yin poses promote relaxation, reducing stress that can contribute to issues like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other digestive disturbances.

3. Mental Benefits

The gut-brain connection means that mental health plays a significant role in colon health, and yoga is a proven stress-reliever, which positively impacts the gut. Stress can alter the gut’s microbiome, disrupt digestion, and lead to discomfort in the colon. Yoga addresses these issues through:

• Mindfulness practices, like meditation and savasana (Corpse Pose), which promote mental calm and help reduce cortisol, the stress hormone. By lowering cortisol, yoga indirectly reduces inflammation and tension in the colon.
• Awareness-building: Yoga encourages a deepened awareness of bodily sensations and teaches us to listen to our bodies. This awareness can help you identify and address digestive discomfort before it becomes an issue.

Ayurveda and the Colon

In Ayurveda, the large intestine, or “pakvashaya,” plays a central role in both digestion and overall health. According to Ayurvedic philosophy, it is governed primarily by vata dosha, the energy of movement that regulates elimination, communication, and the nervous system. When vata is in balance, the colon efficiently eliminates waste, which is essential for maintaining a clear mind and healthy body. However, when vata becomes imbalanced, often due to dryness, irregular routines, or stress, it can lead to issues like constipation, gas, bloating, and even anxiety, as the colon and mind are deeply interconnected in Ayurveda.

The large intestine is also connected to the seven dhatus, or bodily tissues, specifically the rasa (plasma) and rakta (blood) dhatus, which are nourished by the final stages of digestion. Ayurveda teaches that each tissue layer receives nourishment sequentially, so poor function in the colon can disrupt the nourishment of these tissues. An improperly functioning colon can lead to weak rasa dhatu, causing dehydration and lack of vitality. If this persists, rakta dhatu (blood) may also be impacted, resulting in issues like skin dryness, low energy, and imbalanced emotions. Proper colon health ensures that the body’s tissues are well-nourished, and it allows prana (life energy) to flow smoothly through the system.

Supporting the colon is especially important for balancing vata dosha, but also affects pitta and kapha doshas in indirect ways. When vata becomes imbalanced (as it is in so many of us!), it can disturb pitta in the small intestine, leading to inflammation or hyperacidity, and kapha, which may manifest as mucus accumulation in the colon. The practice of abhyanga (self-massage with warm oil) and nourishing, grounding foods like warm soups, cooked grains, and healthy fats can help pacify vata, supporting colon function and overall balance across the doshas and dhatus.

Tying it All Together

We can connect areas of the body (tissues and organs) to ayruveda’s doshas and to yoga practice for optimal well being. For example, lets take the symptom constipation. Constipation can be rooted in a variety of issues:

• Mental : Stress can contribute to constipation by keeping our nervous system in fight or flight most, so we are switched out of our rest and digest mode. When we don’t properly digest, the food may sit longer than needed in our GI tract. Stress can also cause chemical changes in our body that contributes to poor baterial health in the colon, contibuting to constipation.
• Emotions : Negative emoitions like anxiety and grief contribute to poor motility in our gut, and surpressing emotions can lead to overall tightness in the body which also inhibits proper movement of food through the GI tract
• Physical factors : Fiber in our diet is just one physical mechanism that can inhibit proper digestion and complete evacuation. Also, a sedentary lifestyle removes a critical factor in our body systems, namely, our body is designed to let movement throughout the day help movement internally. When we sit or lie down too much this process becomes diminished. Lastly, medical conditions such as diabetes, hypothyroidism, and neurological disorders may contribute to constipation.

Our symptom in this example can be rooted in mind, body, and spirit concerns, so a mind, body, and spirit solution is in order. Ayurveda brings guidance to us in terms of diet, nutrition, & lifestyle, and yoga brings us physical movement, mental peace, & interoception (so we can feel what’s happening inside on a subtle level). Combined yoga and ayurveda address mind, body, & spirit in a holistic system of self-care for both prevention and therapy.

In this case, ayurveda would tell us to eat easily digestible, unprocessed foods that have been freshly cooked and are consumed warm or hot. In ayurveda, the colon is the seat of Vata dosha which, when out of balance, is ruled by cold, dry, windy elements that can be balanced by warm, moist, grounding foods. We could also use herbal remedies, such as, triphala to help facilitate bowel movements, or for a more dramatic effect we would consume a teaspoon or more of castor oil before bed. Eating our last food 3-4 hours before bed is another ayurvedic suggestion that would support healthy elimination. Yoga asana is a wonderful tool for working with Apana Vayu which is a type of wind element in our lower abdomen responsible for all outward movement from the body. For apana vayu, yoga would have us practicing gentle twists, squats and inversions to physically encourage movement in the intestine and colon. Yoga also would provide breath practice and meditation to address fear, stress, anxiety, sadness, and other mental/emotional sources of our physical issue.