IGNIS – The Fire In Your Belly-By Dr.Afroz Fathima

Hippocrates apparently claimed that ‘All disease begins in the gut’ – was he right ? HOW

UNANI SCIENCE is More practical with logical reasoning to this deep thought , as it Defines the term IGNIS – The Fire Principle in the body in latin according to the greek philosopher . Ignis is agni in ayurveda and yang Ho in chinese medicine which has a significant role to maintain body homeostasis, body functioning, metabolism and proper functioning of body. IGNIS has many forms within the organism.  In the Vital Faculty(Quwate Haywaniyah) Ignis manifests as the Innate Heat and Thymos, which confer energy and immunity on the organism.  In the Natural Faculty(Quwate Tabiyah) Ignis manifests as the Digestive Fire and the Metabolic Heat, which digests the food into chyle, concocts the humors, assimilates and metabolizes them into living tissue, and neutralizes and eliminates the toxins and wastes.

YESS I M THE KING !!! The liver concocts the chyle into 4 humors through the process of PEPSIS ,it is to this process of pepsis that we must look to understand humoral disorders.This Process of pepsis is just like COOKING , To generate balanced ,healthy humors we must COOK THEM RIGHT IN THE BELLY ! with the right measure of metabolic heat .If the metabolic heat i.e IGNIS is too low ,the humors are undercooked which is like a half baked bread partially raw . Such undercooking of humors tends to generate too much phlegm ( Balghum) and not enough blood .

On the other hand if the metabollic heat (IGNIS) is too high ,the humors are charred and burned producing morbid ,toxic byproducts in an individual.This charring process has a new name called OXIDATION , the end product is mainly morbid ,toxic forms of sauda (black bile) and safra (yellow bile ).This metabolic heat can also be erratic and deranged ,fluctuating between the extremes of hypo-pepsis and hyper-pepsis which inturn creates a similar derangement of 4 humors ,combining raw residues with toxic ash .

The 4 Humors like any other component of body can be subjected to exogenous distemper with cold(BURUDATH) congealing them , heat (HARARATH) hyperexciting their movement , dryness(YABOOSATH) thickening them and moisture or wetness (RUTUBATH) diluting or attenuating them.The analysis explains that once the process of pepsis gets affected by the inappropriate metabolic heat and the quality -quantity of ingested food within the range of exogenous climatic factors or the activity performed by the body with an external force , ALL THE FOUR HUMORS IN THE BODY BECOME UNBALANCED AND DERANGED .

THE Basic distinction of humoral disorders we can make is between QUANTITATIVE DISORDERS and QUALITATIVE DISORDERS of humors .A simple quantitative disorders involve only an alteration or imbalance in a humor’s quantity where as qualitative disorders involve some morbid alteration of a humor’s texture , composition or consistency .

QUANTITATIVELY(KAMIYATH) , an excess or buildup of certain humor either locally or systematically is called a PLETHORA .Conversely there can also be a deficiency of certain humor ; for ex – a deficiency of blood is known as aneamia .If a humor is not only quantitatively in excess but also altered or morbid in quality as well it is called qualitative plethora .

Quantitatively (KAIFIYATH) there are various kinds of changes or alterations that a humor can undergo .The chief ones are as follows : in terms of texture and consistency , a humor may be too thick and viscid or it may be too thin and attenuated .Humors that are too thick and congealed tend to have slow or impeded circulation whereas those that are too thin tend to seep out of their proper channels and vessels too easily or not nourish sufficiently .

Morbid toxic humors can loose this purity and integrity and amalgamate or bond with other humors to mutual disabling and detriment of all humors involved .putrefaction is rotting or spoiling of a humor much like FOOD SPOILS on a hot summer day .It happens when excessive moisture and stagnation within a humor allows a foreign heat or metabolism and immunity is also involved .Nowadays putrefaction would be called as sepsis or infection : a common symptom or side effect of putrefaction is FEVER , with different types of fevers resulting depending on the particular humor involved.

SO BE CAREFUL WITH WHAT YOU GONNA EAT !!!

STOP THOSE CHUNKY ,GREASY MEALS , OR YOU SHALL PAY A PRICE WITH YOUR HEALTH – NOT A WISE OPTION INDEED .

CHOOSE THE BEST !

BY DR. AFROZ FATHIMA

Write to me on drafrozfathima8@gmail.com