Risks associated with Kunjal Kriya (Vaman Dhauti)

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

So I’ve been practicing Kunjal daily for the last month or so. I personally have not noticed any ill effects. The water has been coming out completely clear after the first 5 days or so. I generally use 3 liters of warm filtered water with around 4 teaspoons of salt. I don’t have any ulcers or any kind of ailment that might cause kunjal to be contraindicated. So that’s my situation at this point.

Now, yesterday, I came across an article. I don’t have 15 posts so I can’t post the URL, but if you google “kunjal kriya dental erosion” it should be right up there.
I only read the abstract since the full article was pay-to-read, as are most articles from peer-reviewed journals. However, it seemed completely plausible that the stomach acids could damage the teeth if the kriya is done daily over a long period of time (in this man’s case, it took 12 years, although it doesn’t say in the abstract how often he practiced).

Now I’ve personally noticed that the water has much less of an acidic taste if I use more salt. However, I also noticed that my teeth still “feel” different right after I do kunjal, regardless of how much salt I use. When I say feel, I mean that when my grind my teeth lightly it seems like they’re coated in something. So I’ve been brushing my teeth after the practice, and today I didn’t do kunjal at all.

So on the one hand, most yoga resources claim that kunjal has no dangers and gives only benefits once you get over the prejudice of vomiting (which hasn’t been a problem for me). At the same time, the idea of regularly washing your teeth with stomach acids doesn’t sound like the best idea by far.

What are you experiences? Do you think adding salt plays a crucial role in diluting the acidity? If so, do you think it would make enough of a difference to prevent dental damage?

EDIT:
I should add that overall I’ve had great experiences with yoga practices and would prefer not to discontinue any of them. Jala Neti and Simha Kriya in particular have been great. However, this one really jumped out at me as a potentially bad idea.

#2

There is a lot of stomach acid rushing past the teeth here. I did a lot of studies in university on bulimic individuals, and dental erosion is extremely common, and it does not take a long time to have an effect. The dilution of salt and water helps, but I’m not sure if the amount of salt plays a big role in changing acidity. Baking soda would be more likely, but I don’t know if that would affect the results of the practice.

Are you practicing this under the guidance of a teacher who you can speak to about it? In the first school I trained in, healthy individuals were only recommended to do this for 1-7 days, every month or so. The only time they prescribed up to 30 days were for their therapy clinic patients (who stayed in the ashram and practiced with their teachers). In the second lineage I trained in, they don’t use most of the kriya-s at all except in very rare cases, as there almost always ways to accomplish the same results, and they can be detrimental if practiced incorrectly.

It’s not recommend that you brush your teeth right away afterwards. The stomach acid softens the tooth enamel and brushing can damage it. I’ve heard this from some people with morning sickness, and in the bulimia studies too, but you might want to check with a dentist to make sure it’s true. There might be something he can recommend as well, like if there is something you can rinse with afterward to reduce the effects.

#3

I don’t have a teacher, unfortunately. The only yoga we have here is Power Yoga (it’s a small town). I’ve been doing the lessons from “A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya” by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. I like that it actually includes meditation and pranayama, not just the asanas like most classes do. I’ve worked my way up to lesson 4, with really good results.

I’m just going to stop doing kunjal, I don’t think it will be a big deal. My diet is pretty clean and I don’t eat any junk food or drink soda anyway. I’ll just stick to doing Neti as far as the cleansing practices go, and triple-cross-check the other extreme-ish things they might suggest.

EDIT: And you’re probably right about not brushing right afterwards, now that I look back on it. I remember reading that brushing your teeth right after food may actually be bad for the enamel because your saliva makes it softer, so you should just floss instead. It’s probably a similar situation with stomach acids but much worse.

#4

There is another kriya that involves drinking salt water and allowing it to flush your digestive system. I know a lot of people who do that every few days in the morning and have great results (as long as you don’t have high BP or anything contraindicated). The first time I tried to do vamana dhauti, I failed, and it turned into that kriya. haha. My teacher was like, 'if you don’t drink fast, you won’t vomit, and you’re going to regret that". Regret it like two cups of salt rocks my stomach, slowly moving through my intestines… yech.

But like I said… people say the ‘glass of warm salt water for breakfast’ does them well. I don’t think I’ll try it. Too many terrifying vasana-s from yoga teacher training. :slight_smile:

#5

Yeah I’ve heard about that one. Sounds like it would have the same effect, except it would clean the whole system and go out the other end. That seems a lot more appropriate. :sunglasses:

I’m pretty sure the book I’ve been learning from covers that a bit later on, although I try not to read ahead too much so as not to tempt myself into the more advanced stuff until I have the basics down. The thing is, I always thought drinking salt water wasn’t much better for you than drinking it and vomiting it back out. Maybe it depends on the proportion of salt.

#6

I don’t think that drinking it regularly is any good for you, that is for sure, but I can vouch for it’s ‘cleansing’ effect on the digestive system. The quality of salinity makes a huge difference in neti and vamana dhauti, and is specific to each person really and is hard to generalize.To drink it safely and comfortably it would need to follow the same guidelines.

[B]I just read that one teaspoon of table salt has 2300 milligrams of sodium in it.[/B]
(Holy wah. I’m never using a salt shaker again).
If I were to ever try this again,[I] in some last ditch emergency effort[/I], I’d probably do 1/4 tsp of salt in a big glass.

Now I’m curious to figure out exactly how much salt I took in when I tried to do vamana dhauti that first time! Drinking two huge hand-buckets of salt water? BLECH.

#7

I wonder if the amount of actual sodium differs per teaspoon if you use regular grocery store salt or sea salts. I tried doing neti with sea salt, but the one I got was so natural that it actually had dirt in it and it just made my nose more clogged. So I switched back to the regular no-brand no-iodine type for the time being.

Hmm, I read up about shankaprakshalana (the salt water drinking/cleansing) and apparently the salt is what keeps the water from being absorbed by the intestines, so its almost the same function as with neti. But now I’m wondering why the same thing doesn’t happen when people drink from the ocean. Wouldn’t you just go insane if you drank a bucket of seawater? Is it different from regular “table salted” water?

#8

The amount of sodium does not differ in any type of salt, whether kosher, table salt from rock mines, or sea salt. It’s all the same, but the source is different so there are differences in minerals and additives. Sea salt is generally larger, and so it might seem like you are using more, but by weight they all have about 2300-2400 mg. Source: like ten websites I just looked up. I usually just use regular salt, or maybe morton sea salt which is pretty fine, for my neti pot. If I use anything really course, it takes up more space and I usually mis-measure. Annoying.

That thing about salt keeping the water from being absorbed makes sense logically as far as I know. It would draw water from the body into the intestines to balance salinity, which is probably how it flushes the system.

Seawater:
[I]“The average ocean salinity is 35 ppt. This number varies between about 32 and 37 ppt. Rainfall, evaporation, river runoff, and ice formation cause the variations.”[/I]

[I]Tears: 9ppt, according to several websites.[/I]

All I know for sure is that my neti concoction of 1t salt and 1.5 c water is perfect, but accidentally snorting sea water hurts like nothing else. I have this horrible memory of snorting contact lens cleaner in the Caribbean after getting creamed by a giant wave.

Beyond that though, I haven’t drunk a bucket of seawater. Whether or not it has a laxative effect is knowledge I do not want to know first hand.

#9

I have this horrible memory of snorting contact lens cleaner in the Caribbean after getting creamed by a giant wave.

Why contact lens cleaner?

#10

[QUOTE=Etheros;67997]Why contact lens cleaner?[/QUOTE]

Nothing else nearby of adequate salinity to thoroughly rinse out my nasal passages and sinuses. The sea was incredibly harsh, and plain water wasn’t helping at all, so I flushed all the seawater out with a bottle of saline. haha.

#11

Nice. Could you see better with your nose afterwards?

#12

Hahahahaha. Yes.