I discovered a super fine magical herb called triphala a few years back while digging my nose into a book by Kartha Singh Purkh called Herbal Defense. It was said to have amazing healing properties, which it does by cleaning the colon and improving the overall health of the gut as well as the rest of the body.
I mean who doesn’t want clear glowing skin and long flowing hair… a healthy body and mind?
I thought as much....
When I told my mom I wanted triphala from India she made a wry face and asked me why on earth? It tastes horrible she said, apparently she had to have it as a child and grew such immense distaste for it that she never gave it another thought as an adult.
Funny how the very things we try and escape from have a crazy way of coming back to us — mostly to teach us what we need to learn. In fact that is life for you, it has a way of teaching you the same lesson over and over until of course you learn and just like playing a video game you can then commence onto a higher level. But I digress.
My grandmother used to make her own triphala at her home back in India. Nowadays you are lucky enough to find it in nearly every Meena Bazaar outlet – available in the powdered form. You can start by mixing a teaspoon in half a glass of water and leave it to steep overnight. Drink it first thing on an empty stomach in the morning.
What good will that do? Well, simply put, it makes you poop out all the bad substances, literally; in addition to about a thousand other different benefits of course.
This powerful concoction is a combination of three potent fruits known as amlaki, bibhitaki and haritaki. It is a grand mixture that sweeps your colon clean of all leftover undigested matter that may have accumulated there for YEARS.
In short it causes the body to start to detox. It removes dead and leftover tissues and other residual toxins from the body, brings down cholesterol and high blood pressure, improves circulation, balances hormones, improves glandular health (and of course helps you poop better — much much better). Don’t worry if the poop is very weird at first. This too bowls over.
Triphala contains tons of vitamin C, thanks to the amlaki, which enables the body to cool down I.e. lowers pitta dosha — bad temper and anxiety anyone? It helps balance all the three doshas intact. The doshas are traditional ayurvedic classifications of metabolic, mental and physical states – vata is air, pitta is fire and kapha is earth. All of us are a combination of these elements give or take a few. In yoga we view the body differently i.e. in terms of energy, not really bones and muscles or even organs.
Triphala is highly nutritious and reduces inflammatory conditions of the stomach and intestines and no, it will not give you acidity if you have it first thing in the morning.
As a strong laxative, bibhitaki cleans the stomach as well as tones it. It cleans and heals the lungs, urinary system as well and gets rid of parasites, mucous and destroys kidney stones. Haritaki is referred to as the king of medicines in Tibetan medicine. It brings vitality to the heart, improves stomach health – rectifying constipation, diarrhea or indigestion. It lowers high blood pressure and cures asthma.
You might fall sick the first few days of consuming triphala so it is best to increase the dosage slowly. Start with a teaspoon in the morning and build this up to one tablespoon. You can keep using it, there are no side effects. If you do fall sick remember that these are just detox symptoms and will blow over in the next few days leaving you healthier, much more vibrant and did I say beautiful glowing skin? Yeah that too.
Try it! Let me know how it goes…
Anika Rabbani is a certified yoga instructor who teaches at Studio107 and Leela. Drop her a line at [email protected] or find her on Facebook Anika's Yoga or YOGANIKA or twitter @yoganika.
