Hijama, IBS and Squatting

I attended a presentation on hijama (cupping) yesterday, fascinating stuff.  The guy doing the demonstration was very knowledgeable in Islamic healing as well as Chinese Healing methods like Qigong (aspect of traditional Chinese healing involving breathing patterns). 

He gave me some advice to help my Irritable Bowel Syndrome, he said if I follow his advice it can be cured in 3 days!

• Watch my diet (obviously), avoid snacking in between meals.
• Don’t drink any liquid with my 2 main main meals.  Either drink water 45 mins before or after the meal.  The meal usually contains enough water, mixing liquids with solids in the stomach doesn’t help with digestion.
• Don’t do any other activity whilst eating, such as watching TV, working etc.  Focus on the food, thank Allah for blessing you with the food. 
• Eat slowly, chewing properly and do not put more food in your mouth whilst you are still chewing.
• When you have finsihed your first plate, get up go to the kitchen or get up and do something non-food related.  then come back to the table.  If don’t feel hungry don’t eat anymore.  Your brain doesn’t receive the signal from the stomach that it is full until a bit after you stop eating.  If you still feel hungry eat a bit more as it menas you are genuinly hungry.
• Recite the various adhkar before and after meal.
• Drink the following concoction everyday - mix with a little bit of water these powdered spices - 1 teaspoon of Turmercic, 1 teaspoon of Ginger and 2 pinches of Hing.

The sunnah method of going to the toilet was greatly emphasised.  The way most traditional cultures handled their toilet bidnizz was the squating position.  It is the optimum method to get rid of your wastage and up until relatively recent times it was practiced by almost all the people on earth.  

The seated toilet was originally made for Queen Victoria’s royal posterior and didn’t go down too well when first introduced.  Toilet habits actually changed since the introduction of seated toilets,  not all of the stool was released so people needed to visit the toilet bowl more often.  Thus normal toilet visits went up from once a day (normal and healthy) to 2-3 a day.  Holding on to that excess waste i snot doing your body any good. 

Incidentally the countries where the squating method is still used have the lowest cases of colon cancer.

I field tested the squatting technique last night at the ominous looking traditional toilet (or hole in the floor) in the local masjid.  Without going into too much detail it was the best visit to the kazi I’ve had in a long time!  Your legs may need to get used to the postion at first (this way is closest to fitra, all children instinctively sit in this position when they go) but once you are comfortable you should immediatley feel the difference.

My bloatedness from IBS actually reduced by half!  Alhamdulillah.

Its still day one,  I intend to put into practice the advice given, hope and pray I can finally relieve myself (no pun intended) of this condition, or at least get rid of the worst symptoms, insha Allah.