Improve Digestion and Metabolism with Yoga Poses

Digestion can be classified into two types:

1. Mechanical Digestion: In this type of digestion, food is broken down into small particles physically. This is the first step of digestion, and we do it by chewing.
2. Chemical Digestion: This digestion takes place inside our body, where food is chemically broken down using enzymes and acids into simpler molecules.

The 4 main functions of the digestive system are as follows:

1. Motility: Peristalsis is a process in which food flows through the digestive tract. Motility involves everything from breaking down and mixing absorbed nutrients to eliminating undigested waste from your body.

2. Secretion: Secretion means releasing hormones, enzymes, among other substances that help digest eaten food. Hormones are the ones that instruct the body when digestive juices need to be produced and also give signals to the brain about your full or empty stomach.

3. Digestion: Minerals, fats, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, and other ingested nutrients are decreased into very small molecules that can easily pass through the gut lining, getting into the bloodstream.

The digestive system’s role is to break down the food consumed by us, and the body uses it for cell repair, energy, and growth. Here’s an overview of this function:
1. Proteins divide into amino acids.
2. Fats get divided into glycerol and fatty acids.
3. Carbohydrates get breakdown into simple sugars.

4. Absorption: It’s time for digested nutrients to pass into the blood from the gut to transfer to the lymph system or circulatory system to the remaining body for usage or storage. Vitamins and fatty acids are absorbed by the lymph system. Glycerol, simple sugars, amino acids, salts, and some vitamins are carried to the liver by the blood. These nutrients are stored and processed by the liver and delivered when needed by the body.

A person’s metabolism is affected by genetics. Fast metabolism can be built over time by creating lean muscle mass and maintaining a record of calorie intake daily. Here are some of the factors that can affect metabolic rate:

● Physical activity
● Sex
● Muscle mass
● Hormone disorders
● Body composition and size

Here are a few factors that can cause temporary metabolism:

● Fighting infection
● Cold temperatures (as the body makes efforts to keep you warm)

Metabolism has two types:

● Catabolism
● Anabolism

Catabolism means breaking down organic matter.
Anabolism constructs cell components like nucleic acids and proteins using energy.