Gut Health Part 2-The Gut and the Chakra System

In this episode, we are exploring how blocks on your Chakras cause digestive symptoms.

Let's explore the potential consequences of blockages in the solar plexus, sacral, and root chakras, and how they might lead to conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, and diarrhea. From the crown chakra's link with the pineal gland and its influence on your appetite to the root chakra's association with survival emotions, we decode the chakra system's role in regulating your digestive health.

Ever wondered how emotional health can lead to physical ailments? As we journey from the chakra system, we reveal the fascinating connection between our emotions and physical symptoms like heartburn and fatty liver. We discuss how disruptions in the throat chakra could result in dysphagia or even esophageal cancer and how a blocked heart chakra might manifest as heartburn. Uncover how emotional blockages in the solar plexus and sacral chakras can disrupt digestive health. 
Tune in as we continue to unravel the complex topic of the digestive system's interplay with our chakra energies and emotional well-being. Your health is a holistic endeavor, and we're here to help you navigate it.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:53

Hello and welcome back to the Art of Healing Podcast. This is Charlize, and thank you, as always, for joining me for this episode. We are in the second part of a series discussing good health and or digestive health. In this episode, we'll be covering the good health and the chakra system and we're going to review each major energy center and how disruptions there might show up in the digestive health. Part one of this series is the week before this episode, and I would recommend listening to that episode prior to listening to this one, although you could jump right in here. In that previous episode, we did a deep dive of the digestive system, from the mouth to the anus, and we covered all of the basics of physiology and what happens whenever we eat and digest and eliminate our food. So I would recommend listening to that episode first, just to make sure that your understanding of what we're covering now all matches up.

Speaker 1: 2:03

Let's review the chakra system briefly before we get into the various disorders that may show up depending on which energy center is being disrupted. So the chakra system originates from Ayurveda, which is a medical healing system that comes from India. It's a medical system that's over 6,000 years old and it turns out that modern science is confirming much of the knowledge that comes from that ancient healing system. The chakras are energy centers, so they don't necessarily exist as physical substances. Most of us now think of these energy centers as being a collection of a major nerve complex or a nerve plexus, a place where endocrine glands or glands that make hormones, as well as major vascular structures, may all exist together and interact heavily. And in several books, including Dr Richard Gerber's Vibrational Medicine, there's some science that shows that the chakra system interacts with the meridian system. That's in traditional Chinese medicine. And where we are currently in science right now is that probably these energy centers have some real physiology and science will probably find some way to document it. But the one thing we can explore is that within the chakras are major organs, major glands, nerve plexus and possibly parts of the vascular system that can influence how we feel, and that these centers also integrate with our emotions and our lived experience, and that may be an explanation of some of the common maladies that many of us experience.

Speaker 1: 4:03

For the rest of our discussion, we will review seven of the major energy centers, we will discuss how those disruptions can show up as symptoms or diagnosis and then next week we'll practice meditative practice together. At some point we may revisit this and discuss balancing those, but that's probably too big of a topic right now but we can revisit that sometime later as far as balancing those in the digestive system, but for today's episode we'll just start with each energy center. We'll review what's associated with it and then how blocks show up. We'll start our discussion with the crown chakra. We'll start from top to bottom, because in our previous episode we followed the path of digestion from ingestion of food to the elimination of waste products. So it would be best to match that with starting with the crown chakra.

Speaker 1: 5:11

So the crown chakra is often called the seventh chakra or the energy center of the higher self. So just a brief review. This energy center is physically not located within the body. It's actually above the body and it is associated with spiritual awareness, spiritual openness, insight and the link between your spiritual multi-dimensional self and your physical body. So as far as physical physicality associated with this energy center, we really don't have one, because most of the ancient texts would localize this energy center outside of the brain, actually above the head about one foot. For the sake of our discussion we'll relate the crown chakra to the brain to the highest centers in the brain, which would also link to the pineal gland, which is also associated with sleep regulation and basically the higher energy centers of the brain. So if we had a disruption there, how would that affect our digestion?

Speaker 1: 6:29

So the way that I think of this when I'm working with my patients is if someone has a disruption in their crown chakra so, for instance, maybe there's too much energy going there or they're too focused there this may be being externalized as far as their thoughts, being externalized as far as their spirituality, having trouble finding their spirituality or finding the connection to their higher self. And I would translate that real world to basically being stressed, being anxious, being overwhelmed, and what we might see as far as the digestive system, how that would cause an impact, would be stress, overwhelm could lead to either a very poor appetite. So, as we've reviewed in the first episode, that the appetite or hunger is actually the precursor to eating, and so if we don't feel well in ourselves or we're feeling stressed or having trouble with higher issues or existential crisis, it wouldn't be unusual that we may simply have no appetite, that we couldn't get that hunger and the chemical reactions to inside hunger fired up For some of us. We may also find that if we are blocked in our crown chakra, that we may have too much of an appetite and we may be relying on food to feel the gap of spirituality. So someone who's having real troubles with their spiritual life, with their higher self, questioning God, anger with God, may be finding that the gap that they feel there is being filled with food. So it's showing up in the form of stress, eating or overeating or choosing the wrong foods, so that I would suspect that an energy block in the crown chakra would probably show up with unexplained weight losses or an anticipated weight gain.

Speaker 1: 8:43

Some energy healers and metaphysical experts would localize the pineal gland to the crown chakra. The pineal gland is a very small gland that sits deep inside the center of the brain. It makes several hormones. The one that we hear about and discuss the most is melatonin, which is the hormone that induces drowsiness. And we do know and there's more and more science that showing that disrupted sleep whether it's intentional, someone who's purposely not sleeping enough because they have a busy schedule and they're trying to accomplish things, or someone who's having trouble sleeping and they're not trying to do that commonly occurring in women going to menopause, that the longer their sleep is disrupted and the shorter and lower quality their sleep is, the more likely they are to have cravings for sweets. So as far as our digestive system, sweet cravings are often associated with making too much insulin. So that's the hormone, one of the hormones that the pancreas produces. So in a way, sleep disruption could be a manifestation of being blocked in a crown chakra, causing sweet cravings. So kind of the same thing of maybe trying to feel a gap with something, but it's being filled with food rather than the thing that's really needed.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Moving on to the next energy center, we will come down to the sixth chakra, or what's sometimes called the third eye chakra. So this does have a physical location which is thought to be deep within the brain and possibly is correlating with two of the major glands in the brain, which are the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. So these two glands govern the function of all the other glands in the body. So they have a controlling effect on the thyroid gland, the adrenal glands, the ovaries, the testes, and they influence how much those glands will produce their active hormone or compound. Both of those area also make other hormones and products that affect both the digestion, how the vagus nerve is operating. So for that reason, the pituitary gland is often known as the master gland, because of its role in controlling the other glands.

Speaker 1: 11:15

On the metaphysical side, the third eye is thought to be the seat of our intuition and fuels, or is fed by our perception, our organs of perception. So this is where we would, this energy center would localize sight, sound, smell and taste. So almost all of our senses. Of course, our sense of touch is our whole body, but almost all of our senses are thought to correlate with this energy center. So how would a block or disruption in the third eye show up, both in life and how you're feeling, as well as in the digestive tract? In the previous episode we explored how our senses play a role in digestion, so how our sense of sight can induce appetite by seeing a food that we perceive will taste good, how our smell actually can trigger appetite and eating by helping and encouraging the production of salivation. And I forgot to mention.

Speaker 1: 12:26

But even hearing, depending on your upbringing, your culture, upbringing, your uprising, hearing could play a role. Hearing certain music may think. You think about a meal that you thoroughly enjoyed, or it may be something like being at a wedding, in the music makes you think of the food that'll be served there. So if our third eye is blocked for some reason, how that would show up is your senses may not be as strong. So having weak senses, such as hearing loss, can be profound and devastating. Many times hearing loss might be associated with vertigo, several conditions in which the hearing and the balance are both disrupted. So of course, if you're having a disruption there, you won't have a good appetite, because when you have vertigo you very well could have nausea from having seasickness.

Speaker 1: 13:24

Having a disruption in your sight maybe just makes food not appeal as appealing, appear as appealing. Also, sight plays an important role as far as meals that have color or rich in color and variety are often perceived to be tastier, and we certainly know that a colorful meal is going to have more of an appeal and it's going to have a lot more good stuff for you. A lot of the compounds and things that your body needs is, whereas a meal that's maybe all one color, like all kind of beige or all kind of red, is more likely to be a more processed food that maybe won't be as good as having something that has multiple colors and then, of course, disrupted taste, disrupted taste buds, can occur for many reasons. That was one of the issue that many sufferers dealt with with the COVID pandemic, and unfortunately many people still have taste that hasn't returned to normal. Without taste and smell, which are closely linked, the food just doesn't have the same appeal and so there may be a loss in appetite For some of us, maybe having too much energy there.

Speaker 1: 14:36

It may be that for some reason that we're stressed or feel out of control or don't feel that we're comfortable in our bodies, we may be inadvertently putting too much energy into our third eye, in which these senses may be turned up, and so it would taste be too strong, almost so strong that you can't tolerate a food. Possibly this has been shown that taste and texture can greatly affect people on the spectrum disorder and many other disorders, and in unfortunate way, in that the taste and textures that food that they prefer aren't the healthiest foods for their body, and sometimes they have to work with a specialist to retrain their, their mouth and their senses to appreciate healthier foods. If your taste buds have maybe been tuned to a diet that's not very good for you, so, for instance, the standard American diet if your taste buds are tuned to that. Your taste buds may seek foods that have too much sugar and too much salt and too many bad fats, and that would lead you down the path of picking unhealthy foods, although you might know that a food that's fresher and has a different texture is better for you. If, for some reason, you're blocked in this area, that maybe that you continue to subconsciously subject foods for the taste and texture, even if they're not good for you.

Speaker 1: 16:10

The next energy center is the throat chakra, really fifth chakra, and this is the energy center that resides within the throat or the neck and it is associated with the thyroid gland and on the emotional energy side of it. This is the site that we're thought to hold our empowered selves, our truth. This is also the center that we communicate from, and of course, in that throat chakra would be the thyroid gland, the vocal cords and then also the esophagus. So if you were blocked in your throat chakra, the most common ways that would show up emotionally and in your life is trouble speaking your truth, defending yourself, standing up for yourself, maybe troubles with communication and not feeling very empowered. And in the metaphysical world it's often thought that throat chakra blocks lead to a thyroid disorder. So for some people their thyroid is overactive or it's swollen and it's creating pressure in the neck and the throat and causing discomfort, or it's not working enough, it shrunk in or it's been injured or lost blood flow and that leads to a whole set of metabolic and energy issues with fatigue in those things.

Speaker 1: 17:36

So disruption in your throat chakra how would that show up as far as digestive symptoms? So the first place that may show up would be trouble swallowing. So someone who has maybe too much energy in their throat chakra, so much so that maybe their thyroid gland is inflamed, would notice, or could possibly notice, that the swelling of the thyroid is causing discomfort or trouble with swallowing. So that would be that sensation, because the thyroid gland sits right there in the the throat and for some people when they're developing thyroiditis, as that thyroid enlarges, they may feel pressured downward into the chest or back into the neck. Of course that does require urgent treatment because, beyond being uncomfortable, that can be dangerous and the thyroid needs to be checked for more serious conditions Also being blocked in the thyroid, such as if you don't have enough energy there or don't feel very empowered because part of the digestive system that's passing through the throat chakra is the esophagus.

Speaker 1: 18:46

In the first of this series we talked about how the esophagus works to transit material. That's started the digestion process from the mouth into the stomach, and it has to be carried down through active muscle contractions. So a block in the esophagus how might that show up in your digestion? There are several conditions that we call dysphagia in medicine, and these are basically disordered swallowing. So these could be if the esophagus is damaged, if the muscles can't or won't contract so the food maybe gets stuck. It could also be that the esophagus is, rather than being a nice straight tube, has formed rings in it, and those rings are places that food could get caught up. And then, of course, we have to consider more serious maladies, such as an esophageal cancer, where a growth inside the esophagus is preventing easy swallowing. So a disruption in the throat chakra would most likely affect the esophagus and create trouble with swallowing.

Speaker 1: 20:01

The next energy center is the fourth energy center, or the heart chakra, and this is our energy center for love, gratitude, connecting with others, love for ourselves, love for all things, and of course is located in the center of the chest, not directly where the heart is, but towards the center, which is up into the right of where the heart sits. In humans, the physical structures associated with the heart chakra, of course, are the heart and the lungs, and there's also the thymus gland, and the thymus gland is a gland that coordinates and trains part of our immune system to fight off infections. So how would a block in the heart chakra show up? So the digestive tract that is interacting with the heart chakra, well, really there's two parts, but primarily it's the esophagus and then also, to some extent, the opening or the top of the stomach, which is sometimes called the cardia. So the esophagus is the long, straight tube that's transiting food from the mouth to the stomach, and disruptions in the heart chakra that you might see that will cause digestive symptoms, one that people often don't talk about, but heart disease. Having a heart disease, such as a severe problem with the heart rhythm, or having a large heart, or even a lung disorder where breathing is disrupted, would naturally disrupt the functioning of the esophagus, just from mechanical effect and being near the esophagus. And then, of course, the one that we know of that unfortunately almost all of us will have to deal with at some point, is heart burn, that we call it heart burn and it's called that for a reason. So if, for some reason, the heart chakra is blocked and that could be from grief sometimes we forget that anger can actually manifest in the heart chakra it could be not having enough gratitude or failure to recognize gratitude, which is leading to constricted breathing. One of the things we might notice is that acids displaced from the stomach into the esophagus, causing the discomfort of heart burn, which is the burning sensation which can cause trouble swallowing, trouble with laying down at night because the acid is getting into the esophagus All just very uncomfortable.

Speaker 1: 22:41

Moving on to the third chakra, or the solar plexus chakra, so this is the energy center that primarily governs digestion. So physically, it's located in the belly, it's above the belly button and below the chest. The physically what's associated? There are going to be the organs and glands that are associated with digestion. The adjunic glands can be considered part of the solar plexus, but also the pancreas and the liver, to some extent the spleen but the spleen is not too much involved in everything that we're discussing and then you have the stomach and then part of the small intestines.

Speaker 1: 23:24

So our solar plexus is our source of empowerment, it's our willpower, it's also the source of our mental thought. So in the metaphysical sciences, the aura and its layers. One of the layers is the mental layer and that's thought to originate from the solar plexus layer. So it eventually surrounds all of us and it's where our thought content can come from. And the solar power sorry, solar plexus is our seed of empowerment, it's our willpower, it's our drive and it's our inner fire. And it's also thought of in the metaphysical, spiritual world is how we integrate knowledge, we integrate the world's, how we digest material. And of course, physically, it is where the big work of digestion starts. So we talked about in the last podcast how the digestive organ, the stomach, takes in the food that comes from the mouth. It's been pre-processed by the mouth but now the stomach has to use both motion and chemicals in the form of acid to break that food down in preparation to go into the intestines. So how would a block in the solar plexus chakras show up in digestion?

Speaker 1: 24:47

Having too much energy in the solar plexus chakra can lead to emotions such as being controlling anger, road rage type things, or even a type A personality, and can also lead to maybe wanting to control others and overall just not being a happy camper having too much energy there and what we might see show up is too much energy in the solar plexus chakra might show up with liver issues. One that I don't hear talked about enough, I think, is what role do the emotions play in fatty liver? Fatty liver, which is a metabolic consequence of too much sugar intake, leading to prediabetes, overproduction, insulin, high cholesterol and then eventually fat deposits into the liver. That can make the liver become very inflamed. I've noticed in patients that I work with that very often people with fatty liver don't have a good mood and they often do report trouble focusing, anger issues, emotional upset, all kinds of things that go along with the fatty liver. I don't hear that discussed a lot, but I consider the fatty liver to be a sign of maybe having too much energy in the solar plexus chakra, maybe avoidance of some life issue that needs to be changed or feeling that you don't have the power to change it.

Speaker 1: 26:23

Also, too much energy in the solar plexus chakra can show up in other inflammation processes like pancreatitis. So in the previous episode we discussed how the pancreas plays a role multiple worlds in digestion, not in just the production of insulin but also in the production of digestive enzymes. Putting too much energy there subconsciously could cause it to become inflamed. Having chemical dependencies, particularly alcohol, is one of the common reasons to have an inflamed pancreas, leading to pancreatitis. Not having enough energy. So having a cold solar plexus chakra where you don't have your internal heat or fire might come from not feeling empowered. Also, having a history of childhood abuse or abuse as an adult, being in an abusive or emotionally controlling situation right now may lead to feeling that you don't have your inner fire or have much control in your life and in the digestive system.

Speaker 1: 27:29

That would show up in many ways so it could show up in ulcers in the stomach. The stomach can develop ulcers in the lining from chronic infection, so it's like a weak immune system. That can lead to that. Having a lack of blood flow to the lining of the stomach. So if someone who's in a chronic state of stress, their blood flow is often diverted away from the digestive tract and it's diverted to the limbs and to the senses and that's the fight or flight response. That's when the vagus nerve is not given enough control of the digestive system In the stomach. That means that when there's not enough blood flow the stomach can't do the job of protecting itself from the stomach acid it creates, and the acid can make its way through the mucus lining that's supposed to protect it, into the lining of the stomach and cause ulcerations, not only painful but can't be dangerous, because they can bleed or cause an opening where the stomach perforates and opens up.

Speaker 1: 28:32

Another way that a solar plexus block would show up is, of course, going to be diabetes. So diabetes I consider a just complete disruption of the solar plexus, and when I'm dealing with people that have diabetes, I pretty much consider that at some point they probably had too much energy in the solar plexus. Now they don't have any energy in the solar plexus very little, and the organ that helps to govern blood sugars is taking the full assault. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, but type 1 and type 2 can manifest with very similar symptoms because they really have high sugars. But in type 2 diabetics there's a prolonged stage of insulin production that's too high. Sometimes it's the person doing it to themselves. They're making their pancreas constantly produce insulin with their habits, such as eating the wrong foods, eating food all the time, not allowing for a fasting state, such as midnight snacking, eating foods, of course, that have a high sugar load, so that causes the pancreas to have to bump up its insulin production. So the end result is, of course, the pancreas stops working, the cells that make insulin stop making it and the sugars go high. So disruptions in the solar plexus are naturally devastating to digestion and really have body-wide effects.

Speaker 1: 30:04

Another disruption that you might see is because part of the small intestines resides in the solar plexus and we had talked in the last episode about how the small intestines is the home of our best friends, our microbiome, our buddies, our good bacteria. So if you have a disruption there, you might not be nurturing the gut bacteria or the or bad bacteria has gotten in and it's bacteria that's living inside you and it gets to eat the stuff you eat, but it doesn't give you anything back or maybe even hurt you because it produces byproducts that are toxic. So that's and I think of that as a form of lack of self-love, and lack of self-love could definitely deplete our solar plexus, our energy center. The sacral chakra, which is the second chakra, is the energy center that governs the urinary system, the kidneys, bladder, and then also the reproductive organs, the ovaries and the testicles, and anatomically sits in the pelvis, but beneath the belly button and above the pelvis. So what's located there is primarily going to be the small intestines, and so we explored during the last episode how our small intestines is the home of our microbiome or our good bacteria that help us and that, in a way, we serve as a rooming and boarding center for these bacteria. But they help us because they help us digest our food and they give us back and help us absorb all the things that we need. So the sacral chakra is associated with close relationships. It's also associated with creativity and sexuality.

Speaker 1: 31:49

So when someone is blocked in their sacral chakra, does it show up in digestive symptoms? So, in my opinion, it shows up in digestive symptoms in a number of ways. One way could be in the form of irritable bowel syndrome. So irritable bowel syndrome is a catch-all term not one of my favorites, it's just the best that we have right now that basically there's disruptions and digestion. That causes physical symptoms and disruption with intake and with elimination. It could be constipation or diarrhea or pain or all of them.

Speaker 1: 32:27

Finally, the root chakra, which is the first chakra, is associated physically with the base of the spine. It's located deep within the body and is the energy center that governs our emotions of survival, belonging ego, be here now and is our drive for survival is have heard it described the most, and physically, what would be in the root chakra, or the closest that I would approximate would actually be the organs of elimination. So the rectum, the anus. And we reviewed in the last podcast how, in the digestion process, of course, the elimination is of utmost importance and how elimination is a coordinated event, just like the ingestion of material. The elimination is well controlled. We can control some of it consciously, in which we can decide when to empty our bowels. But also that control can be overwritten, for instance, if there's too much material that collects in the rectum, or inflammation or many other things.

Speaker 1: 33:40

So in our root chakras, when we're blocked there, it may be having too much energy, in which we're heavy, weighted, rooted, moving too slow, just too much sluggish energy. Or if we don't have enough energy, there could be a lack of sense of belonging, lack of a sense of being here, having disruptions in our relationships, much like with the sacral chakra. So, physically, what could show up if their root chakra is not working well as far as digestion? To me, I relate this to having troubles with elimination and also having troubles with the immune system. So troubles with elimination in our digestive health, of course, would be constipation for a lot of people. They don't associate their constipation with stress, but the more I talk to them, the more stress they are, the more they have trouble with elimination.

Speaker 1: 34:36

So this would occur because the process of defecation, having a bow movement, is a coordinated event. It requires certain muscles to relax, certain muscles to contract and if it does not happen a coordinated way, the material isn't safely expelled. On the opposite side of that, for some of us, when our root chakra is not working well or is blocked, maybe not being able to contain the material that's coming in or too much of it getting there, which would transfer to diarrhea although diarrhea loose stools frequently are associated with small intestinal issues, but definitely large intestinal issues such as the colon being inflamed or being infected. The immune system is often associated with the root chakra, since it's a wide system and is associated with our survival, and having a disruption in your root chakra could affect your digestion and that you could develop an immune system issue which your immune system attacks your digestive system, which is called inflammatory bowel disease.

Speaker 1: 35:44

Crohn's and ulcerative colitis are two of the most common and are becoming more common, unfortunately, and I believe that a lot of this is because so many people feel unrooted, don't feel safe in their bodies, and it manifests in an inflammatory bowel condition. So we have just explored the digestive system, both how it should work, physiology, and then what happens when things go wrong. And although we've explored these, I hope you understand that this is a surface covering of these topics, because the digestive system is intense. There's a lot of information there. So I hope this introduction in these two episodes has been helpful. When we get back together next week, we'll perform a meditation that we can use to help us dive into our digestive system and then also discuss what's coming over the next several weeks. Well, I guess I could discuss that now. So this will be the end of this season and we'll be going on a break, and then we'll be returning in the winter time with a collaboration with my friend and also energy healer, kathy Harmon-Luber. She and I are working on a special project and I will make sure to let you know how you can participate and be a part of this sound and energy healing experience, and then the show will be coming back again weekly, probably in January of 2024.

Speaker 1: 37:22

Even when the show takes a break, I am here, so you can always find me at healingarthealthandwellnesscom, where you can find my blog and my courses, because I have several courses for those that are wanting to learn Reiki are ready to start on their meditation journey. I also have ebook downloads, summer free, so you might want to check out my healing arts programs. If you are interested in being a patient, you can go to drcharliescom and that's where you will find my medical practice in ways that you can work with me. Maybe you heard this this episode on digestive health and you want to dig deeper. Then I'm probably the person to work with, because I do have an interest in both energy medicine and I'm a physician. So, drcharliescom, you can find me there, and, of course, you'll find me on social media. So we'll do one more episode for this season, then we'll take a break, but of course, we will stay in touch. So I will see you next week, thank you.