PRANYOGA

This is performed with a rubber tube, about a yard long, its circumference being nearly equal to one's little finger. Formerly, they used to use an adventitious root of Banyan tree, a yard or so long , or a rib of banana leaf of the same size. 

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PROCEDURE :
    One first drinks as much warm saline water as possible (say , 4 - 5  pints) and then , after washing one's hands quite clean, one takes the rubber tube and coaxes it  down the gullet making swallowing movements every now and then and also pushing it down the throat slowly. Water will start to flow out only after the tube has reached the stomach and, thereafter, the flow is  maintained because of siphon action.

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BENEFITS :

     Warm water itself has , due to its heat , a reflex liquefying influence over all secretions. When one passes the tube ('danda') through the esophagus (gullet), it also stimulates the walls of the trachea ( windpipe). The esophageal action is reflected on the trachea  and helps to bring out the sputum from the chest. Thus, this procedure is not only helpful as a gastric lavage but also as a good expectorant. The vomiting reflex relaxes the bronchial walls and open them to let the secre- tiones come out. We can use soda bicarb solution for this , tube help not only to dissolve the mucus , but also, the carbonic acid gas that is freed from it would help stimulate the walls to higher activity .