January 30, 2025 • 62 mins
This episode dives deep into the principles of Ayurveda, focusing on the importance of digestive fire (Agni) in maintaining health and well-being.
Dr. Rekha Radhamony shares her personal health journey, offers insights into common modern health issues, and the significance of adopting an individualized approach to diet & lifestyle for optimal health.
Some highlights -
• Importance of Agni in Ayurveda
• Rising lifestyle diseases and their roots in digestion
• Lifestyle adjustments for optimizing digestive fire
• Significance of eating fresh food, maintaining Ojas.
Our conversation transitions thoughtfully into how our fast-paced, technology-driven lifestyle often distances us from the natural world. We delve on the impacts of altering our body's natural processes and the importance of consuming fresh, nutrient-rich foods for maintaining "ojas," the vital energy linked to anti-aging and vitality. Listen in for practical advice on eating that aligns with natural principles, helping you retain the life energy of your food & enhancing your overall well-being.
Understanding how Ayurveda's everyday rituals can support healthier transitions into old age, especially for women(into menopause), can be transformative. Derive actionable insights as we underscore the importance of nurturing both physical & emotional health, for graceful aging.
Follow @vaipkumar on Instagram, YouTube(videos), Substack(articles) for more illuminating content.
*Notes: "Vata" in Ayurveda refers to air, space(ether) tendencies ; "Pitta" is fire, water and "Kapha" is earth, water. "Prakrithi" means 'at the time of creation(birth)'. Other episodes in this podcast on Ayurveda have covered body types in detail. This episode highlights it.
DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for informational purposes only, & is not intended to be medical advice nor is it a substitute for it.Consult your physician for your individual needs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Freshly Forever, a podcast that gives
you fascinating insights weekafter week.
Here's your host, vaikumar.
Hey folks, welcome to anotherepisode on Podcast Freshly
Forever.
What if the key to yourwell-being lies in improving
(00:30):
your digestive fire?
Ayurveda is an ancient Indiansystem of medicine and, simply
put, it is the science of life.
We have our guest here today,rekha Radamani, who unpacks the
wisdom of ancient practices formodern health issues.
(00:54):
Dr Rekha Radamani is a globallyacclaimed Ayurvedic doctor with
practice reaching patients inover 60 countries.
She is known for her expertisein skincare, hair care, gut
health, hormonal health, women'shealth and chronic disease
management.
She is renowned for her work tobring global acceptance to
(01:19):
Ayurveda and has won variousawards and accolades for her
contribution towards the goal.
One of her recent achievementsis winning the Digital Health
Award for the Best AyurvedicDoctor.
It's with great joy that wewelcome her here to podcast
Freshly Forever.
Hey, dr Rekha, how are youtoday?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Thank you so much, vai.
I'm very happy to be here.
I'm very good, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So you are like a family of Ayurvedic
practitioners and you are fourthgeneration.
Is that correct?
Yes, fourth generation.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Ayurvedic doctor.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Oh, why don't we get started about your own journey?
And you had some personalhealth issues as well, if I
recall.
Is that right, and how kind ofAyurveda helped you, even from a
personal health journeystandpoint?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So basically I'm born to an Ayurvedic family.
As you said, my father,grandfather were all Ayurvedic
doctors.
I have grown up seeing, feeling, touching.
You know Ayurveda but I'venever really realized the
importance of it unless I wasforced with my own medical
condition.
(02:34):
After finishing my 12th Ijoined Ayurveda college.
So I did my BMS, which is afive and a half year course of
Ayurveda.
While doing I was in a hillyarea in Ayurveda, what we call
something like a Vata increasedarea.
And then in our college we hadhectic schedules.
We didn't have a good lifestylebecause everything was about
(02:58):
studying, remembering theshlokas, reproducing it, because
now things have changed.
But at that point if you haveto write about, say, diabetes,
you have to write the shlokasreproducing it, because now
things have changed.
But at that point if you haveto write about, say, diabetes,
you have to write the shlokasabout diabetes.
You have to also write themodern part of diabetes.
You have to also compare thedifferent acharyas viewpoints
about diabetes.
So it was all complicated.
(03:18):
It was not a easy processstudying Ayurveda.
It was also like you know 18hours of study, then you have
literally no exercise, becauseif you exercise, if you take a
little time under the shower,you will lose time to study
Ayurveda.
Oh, yes, yeah.
So it was extreme, it washectic.
(03:39):
And then, over a period of twoyears, I got diagnosed with a
condition called rheumatoidarthritis.
Initially it was diagnosed asrheumatic fever.
Every day I would go to collegebut then come back because I
was not able to sit properly.
My joints were swollen, therewas pain all over my body.
(04:01):
I couldn't even hold a pen waspain all over my body.
I couldn't even hold a pen.
And slowly the condition becamedeteriorated where I had to
literally lie down and you know,and not move at all.
Even for going to the washroomI had to get somebody's support.
It was an alternating kind ofcondition where every day one
joint, alternate joints areaffected.
So it is a weird combination ofrheumatic fever and rheumatoid
(04:24):
arthritis and I was literallybedridden.
I had to take a break from mycollege and then, finally, what
I did was I went to a moderndoctor while I was diagnosed
with this, because I knew thatif I go to my hometown and get
my father involved in any ways,then I will be given Ayurvedic
(04:46):
medicines for me.
According to me, it was timeconsuming, it was not cool, it
was taking a long time and allof that.
So I didn't really think that Ishould go ahead with Ayurveda.
So I went to an allopathicdoctor near my college with my
friends.
He told me I will end up inwheelchair.
My heart valves are alreadyleaking, so you have to be on
(05:08):
injections for the rest of yourlife.
And I was given the first shotof even pencil injection the
second month when I was supposedto go for the injections, I
realized no, I can't do thisagain and again I went home and
I told my father abouteverything that has happened and
what I was going through, andat that time I was literally,
(05:31):
you know, I couldn't move at all.
So everybody came and then forthe next one year it was
completely about how to get ridof this condition.
The treatments about how to getrid of this condition, the
treatments every day would startwith treatment in the morning,
treatment in the afternoon,treatment in the evening and
(05:51):
then for the exams I would goback to my college.
In the college, in the collegehospital, I will get admitted.
In the morning, I will go forthe treatment and then go to the
exam or whatever, and then inthe evening again, you know,
again back to the hospital.
It was actually a hospitalvisit here, in fact hospital
stay here, and then by the endof one year I got recovered.
(06:17):
It was intense treatment, butthat reinstated my faith and
belief in Ayurveda.
My heart is working perfectlythese days.
Touch wood.
I don't have any problems now,just this one finger which got
bent due to the arthritis.
It is still bent.
Other than that, everything isfine and I have never gotten it
(06:40):
back ever since.
But I have been quite carefulwith whatever I have been doing
and it's been good so far.
So that is why I realized if Icould get better with Ayurveda.
Anybody can.
Anybody can.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I'm glad things worked out for you.
Definitely not a fun storybeing a student and having to go
through all of this, right, and, like you said, we all tend to
think when we are at that agethat certain things are not cool
and we just cannot resort to.
But definitely, going back tocertain first principles, going
(07:19):
back to certain basics, I thinkcouldn't be reinforced better
about what Ayurveda does.
It's really the science of life, right?
It's just wonderful that youwere able to recover from that
and you're doing really well.
What about the root cause ofall illnesses that you see these
(07:39):
days and pretty much, what aresome common conditions that
you're now seeing arising inthis world?
Dr Rekha?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
So I primarily see a surge in lifestyle diseases,
especially diabetes.
So when I do consults in, say,I announce consults in Dubai and
I do face-to-face consultationsevery two months.
I do face-to-face consultationsevery two months.
Whenever I do consultations inDubai, if I have 10 patients, at
least eight of them havediabetes or at least you know
(08:12):
starting stage of diabetes.
That is something which is morecommon.
And in our programs we havepatients from common cold to you
know, people who are on cancerrehabilitation programs.
Goal to you know, people whoare on cancer rehabilitation
programs.
What we address is we don'treally do acute disease
management or emergency diseases, but everything other than that
(08:32):
.
We focus on, starting fromdigestive issues, like you know,
acidity, acid reflux, gerd,ulcerative colitis, crohn's
disease, celiac disease and thento skin diseases, psoriasis,
arthritis, all the rheumatoid,rheumatic conditions, then all
kinds of chronic diseases likeyour diabetes, high blood
(08:55):
pressure, high cholesterol.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
All of those conditions are also treated Is
Agni, the root cause ofeverything Is setting digestion
right.
Agni, as Ayurveda, you know,refers to digestion.
That way, is that the rootcause of all illnesses and is
that the starting point for youwhenever you try to get someone
(09:18):
back into homeostasis, orequilibrium, if you will?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
or equilibrium if you will.
Yeah, so basically what webelieve in ayurveda and my core
principle that I use fortreating any diseases is roga
sarve api mande agno.
That means every disease isbecause of an imbalanced low
digestive fire.
So when the digestive fire isimbalanced, that is when you get
many of the diseases that wesee today.
By correcting agni we canactually correct so many
(09:48):
diseases without correcting agni.
Even if you correct a disease,it is just suppression.
That is why I focus so much onfood is medicine and food as
medicine, because food issomething that you have every
day.
It can improve, improve yourdigestive fire.
But if you rely on medicationsand supplements, how long you
(10:08):
will rely on that's not youreveryday, everyday thing to do.
You take medicines to reducethe imbalances, bring it to a
certain point, and then food isyour medicine.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Okay, so what is it that you find people commonly
doing, you know incorrectly,Like is it say, we all live in a
day and age where people tendto resort to intermittent
fasting, juicing and so on andso forth.
Right, when it comes toconserving and preserving agni,
the digestive fire, and for bodyto work optimally, how should
(10:44):
people go about their day?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah.
So every single thing that youdo in a day counts.
Everything that Ayurvedamentions to do, starting from
the time you wake up till thetime you go to bed, whatever you
eat, how you go about yourentire day, your morning routine
, your night routine, how youeat your entire day, your
morning routine, your nightroutine, how you eat, everything
(11:07):
counts in terms of improvingyour agni.
That is why what we do as thecommunity, in our community,
that we have the people in ourprograms and who come to us for
transformation programs, what weprimarily do is we monitor them
, advise them.
We, we work very closely withtheir lifestyle, from morning to
(11:30):
evening to improve their agni,starting from the time they wake
up, what practices they do.
And everybody's practice isalso individualized.
Ayurveda is all aboutindividualized treatment.
So there is no one thing thatis universally acceptable to
everybody.
There are.
Even if you read ayurveda, youwill see 10 percent or less than
(11:51):
five percent of ayurveda talksabout something very general to
the entire population, say,ayurveda says rice is good for
the entire population and it canbe consumed every day, and we
see very few references likethat.
So everything a person has togo through, every routine and
everything that the person doesthroughout his day.
(12:13):
All of these counts towardsimproving agni and all of these
has to be customized for thepatient and individualized to
that kind of person.
The reason being Ayurveda is alot about individualizing things
, because how you feel, how youoperate, how you are born, your
(12:35):
genetics, your thoughts,everything is entirely different
from anybody else.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Okay, great.
So when it comes topersonalized approach, right,
that's what you're saying.
But when it comes to the worldresorting to, say, practices
like intermittent fasting orjuicing, what are your thoughts
on that, dr Rekha?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
your thoughts on that , dr Rekha?
Intermittent fasting yes,ayurveda has mentioned about
fasting, or laghana, as one ofthe very powerful treatments
that anybody can go through, andit is mentioned for specific
conditions, for a specific setof people.
It did not use the wordintermittent fasting or any such
fancy words, but the ayurvedicway of intermittent fasting is
(13:28):
having an early dinner by 6, 6,30 and breaking it the next day
morning by 10 o'clock.
This is how, traditionally inindia, we used to eat food.
If you see, by 6.30, 7pm, if youlook at nature, you will see
all the animals, all the birds,even trees and plants.
(13:50):
They are just trying to winddown and sleep and we are
nothing but part of the sameuniverse.
The more we aligned with theuniverse, the more balance we
have in our body.
So we have to wind down by thattime and then the next morning,
by 930, 10 o'clock, you canhave your breakfast and if you
(14:12):
do that, you're actually doingso many hours of fasting, which
is actually good for the body,especially if you are somebody
with a lot of kapha in your body, somebody who is like obese,
somebody who has pcos, diabetes,someone who has hypothyroidism,
somebody who has fibroids, allof those conditions.
(14:34):
If you do this kind of fasting,which is the natural way we
used to live, we have to live.
It is beneficial for your body.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Great.
Staying in tune with nature.
You just brought that up.
That's very important, and wesee a lot of people going
against the tide of nature,right?
So where exactly are we missingthe point?
What is it that you see withpeople's lifestyle that is kind
of causing them to drift awayfrom this normal process?
(15:08):
Or rather, what common mistakesare people making when it comes
to that?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
You know, the more advanced we are becoming in
terms of technology, in terms ofcomforts of life, it is natural
to be carried away by thesethings.
You know there are people whoask me about can I do botox?
Can I do you know fillers?
Can I do this?
That, because this is somethingwhich everybody wants to do.
(15:37):
What I tell people is in thisday and age, there are a lot of
things which we are influencedto do, but the more we are
aligned to our roots and nature,the more we live closely with
nature, the better.
At least, what I tell them isnot to manipulate your insights.
Even if you do somethingexternally to look good, or you
(16:00):
know you do something veryperipherally, which is still
fine, but manipulating yourinsights by you know you do
something very peripherally,which is still fine, but
manipulating your insides by youknow, like you're injecting
your platelets.
Or you know, if you see peopleare injecting their son's
platelets, things like gastricballooning, inserting a balloon
inside your stomach so that itdoesn't taking medicines that
(16:25):
will help you with losing weight, which is actually affecting
your gastric emptying, andyou're completely manipulating
your insides.
As long as you don't do that,it is still okay, but in this
day and age.
It's a message that needs to bereinstated, retold, and we have
(16:46):
to keep that communicationgoing because, as humans, we
always tend to lose track of ourroots.
Because this is something thatwe have to be more aware and
take actions to live close tonature.
That is a struggle of today'sworld.
Also, you know, we have toliterally remind ourselves no,
(17:10):
this is not what we want to do.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, yeah, we all tend to just think, oh okay, you
know, though, it's somethingartificial.
We just tend to think, oh,that's like we said, it just
feels so cool to do it.
One and number two it's justlike sometimes it's convenience
that helps people just go forcertain things, which just tend
(17:33):
to then finally take them awayfrom the path of being in tune
with nature.
Right, like we all eatleftovers, we do batch cooking,
and what are your thoughts onall of that, dr Rekha?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, just imagine a fruit, a fruit that you're
keeping in the fridge and aftersome time you're consuming it.
Just imagine the taste of thatfruit.
Now imagine the taste of thefruit if you have kept outside,
you have not kept in the fridge,and now you are eating it for
(18:07):
the first time.
Now imagine the taste of thefruit which you have kept
somewhere out for a very longtime.
If you see, everything innature tells us something thing
(18:29):
the first fruit which was keptin the fridge, it wouldn't taste
so much or as good as a freshfruit freshly plucked from the
tree.
A fruit that is kept outsidegets stale quickly and the taste
is very disgusting.
What is the message that thesefruits are giving us?
Fruits are actually what theyare our food.
The taste in the food is alsotelling us that it is good to
(18:52):
eat.
It is not good to eat.
It is secondary in its qualityto eat.
These are actually messageswhich don't get conveyed or we
don't really realize.
Ayurvedically, any food that iskept for a long time, which is
like a stale food, cooked andkept for a long time becomes
(19:13):
tamasik or loses its ability tobe digested properly.
So it is not something whichhas.
It basically loses its prana orlife energy.
If you really see, every foodhas that life energy.
That is why certain foods, whenyou eat fresh, the energy that
(19:34):
you get from it, the positivefeeling that you have on your
mind, sometimes it is lost whenyou have foods which you have
kept for a long time.
And also these days people talkabout anti-aging.
Right, what is the mostimportant anti-aging thing that
ayurveda mentions?
It's called ojas.
Ojas is the anti-aging thingthat ayurveda mentions.
(19:57):
Ojas is vitality.
The more you have ojas, theless you age.
Any food that is kept for a longtime, say a frozen food Just
imagine when was it harvested?
How long did it stay in yourfridge?
And now you are taking it outand you are eating it.
(20:17):
By this time, the ojas in thefood is absolutely nothing or it
has died to zero.
Yeah, it has been lost, but interms of nutrition it is
nutritious.
But is nutrition the only thing?
If you're not able to digestthe food?
Or if you're not able to digestand absorb the food well,
(20:40):
completely, what is the point inhaving all the nutrition in it?
So, primarily, any food that iskept for a long time loses its
ojas.
So anything that you put in yourmouth, make sure that it is
fresh.
But I understand it.
I have a lot of patients in myprograms who are in this rat
(21:03):
race who is trying to prep meals.
You know, batch cook.
What we tell them is we tellthem to do it in a much more
simpler way and not in acomplicated way.
A complicated way is batchcooking for an entire week.
A more simpler way, for yourstomach is okay, match cooking
(21:23):
for like one or two days max.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Okay, what about fruit consumption?
Different people say differentthings.
Right Again, we all live in atechnology-dominated world where
there are so many so-calledinfluencers on Instagram who
just come and propagatedifferent messages.
Influencers on Instagram whojust come and propagate
(21:47):
different messages.
The goal of you and me sittingdown today is you are one of
those sources who can be reliedupon and who has authentic
Ayurvedic knowledge.
So, from that standpoint, drRekha, what is the best time to
consume fruit?
Because some people say youshould not consume it closer to
your big meals and that you needto isolate it.
(22:08):
What would be the message thatyou would like to tell our
listeners?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Again, coming to fruits.
Also, it has to be based onyour digestive capacity.
Which fruit to have is alsovery individualized to your body
type.
That is the ideal way, butstill I can tell you in general,
fruits have to be consumed at atime when you can still digest
it.
Ayurvedically, fruits andvegetables are not super
(22:34):
digestive, so it has to beplaced at certain times and
eaten at certain times where itis still digestible for you.
So don't mix many fruits andconsume together.
Have fruits in isolation, as Isaid.
Don't mix fruits with a meal.
Have it at a different time, no, and not your main meal times.
(22:56):
And try not to have fruits inthe evening, late evening.
Try not to have fruits in themorning.
Why it is said that in Ayurvedathat we cannot have fruits in
the morning is primarily becausefruits are cold and cold
increases and too much of mucusmeans increase of kapha.
(23:18):
And when is the kapha time ofthe day?
6 to 9 am.
And you're doing, whenever youdo, things which are similar, we
say vritti, samanir, sarvesham,viparithir, vipariya.
Anything that you do similar toa certain thing, it increases.
So it is a kapha increasingactivity if you have fruits in
(23:38):
the morning.
But if you have fruits in, say,3 pm every day, doesn't matter,
it's fine, you can have.
So fruits have to be consumeddepending upon your body as well
.
So few fruits that areextremely beneficial to the
whole population of the world.
As I said, those 5% of Ayurvedais pomegranate, amla grapes.
(24:05):
All of these are good foreveryone, especially pomegranate
.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Okay, perfect.
But a lot of people tend to gofor the banana, right?
Because everyone thinks it'spotassium.
Everyone thinks, oh, you know,I get a lot of energy from a
banana, but that's probablykapha inducing for certain folks
, right?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Bananas also have different varieties of banana.
We have Nendran banana, we havebanana called Elaichi banana.
If you come to Ketla you willsee some 15-20 different
varieties of banana which aregood for different Prakritis.
But it is not like every singleevery type of banana is going
(24:49):
to give you, you know, energythe same way or make you put on
weight the same way.
Nothing like that.
It depends upon the particularbanana that you're consuming,
but banana in general, the mostparticular banana that you're
consuming, but banana in general, the most common banana that we
have, the chiquita banana, isthat the one that you get mostly
yeah, we see a lot of it herein the us in dubai also, I've
(25:12):
seen this banana, which is mostcommon.
See, any food that you haveconsumed for the first 15-20
years of your life is favorableto you by habit.
It will not cause any digestiveissues.
It will not work opposite toyou, even if it is a banana,
even if it is a jackfruit, evenif it's mangoes.
(25:35):
Who exercises well, whoconsumes food based on agni and
you don't have digestive issues,you can still have a banana
without thinking twice, or anyfruit for that matter, without
thinking twice.
But if you have digestiveissues, if you have chronic
diseases, if you have skindiseases, it is good that you
(25:57):
consult an ayurvedic doctor andfigure out what is good for you,
so that it is pacified and thenyou are able to eat better
after that.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Then you have more options to eat from okay, yeah,
because you have at that pointidentified what's best for your
body, what's best for your body.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
And also, you know, it is all about optimizing your
digestive fire.
Everybody is born with acertain quality of digestive
fire, but it can be optimized toits best potential.
That can actually help you feelbetter.
The energy feels so much better.
You will not have any skinissues, you will have good hair,
(26:37):
you will not have chronicdiseases, no problems with your
blood work.
Everything can be perfected byoptimizing your agni.
Whether you are a vata person,pitta person, kapha person,
doesn't matter and it ispossible.
And when we optimize the agni,what happens?
Your doshas balance.
(26:57):
Once your doshas are balanced,you are in that perfect health.
You know, even weight loss,weight gain happen during this.
We don't force anybody to loseweight or gain weight, but once
the doshas balance, the bodyoptimizes to its ideal weight,
which is ideal for your body,which gives that perfect state
(27:19):
of health for your body.
And we have so many people whohave transformed their health
with just by improving Agni andnot just health.
I'm saying all facets of health, every single facet of health.
You feel good mood is a goodfacet of health.
(27:40):
Yes, good mood is alsosomething that comes after
optimizing your Agni.
So once you optimize your Agni,then you could eat this much
varieties of food before likeyou could tolerate this.
Now you have a whole platter offoods which are now you can
tolerate.
You will not be able to havedouble thoughts.
(28:02):
Should I eat this?
Will it cause any digestiveissues for me?
You know, if you look at Pittapeople of the world, they have
mostly stomach issues.
Any food that come in front ofthem they'll be feeling, oh my
God, will it cause any stomachissues for me?
You know those kind ofconditions and kapha people.
Whenever food comes in front ofthem they feel, oh, am I going
(28:25):
to put on weight?
So all of these things can beworked on by just simply
optimizing the agni what aboutautoimmune illnesses?
Speaker 1 (28:36):
you talked about vata pitta kapha.
Again, that's kind of what eachone is born with at the time of
their birth and certain timesit can fluctuate and people tend
towards one type or the other,because that's kind of how
Ayurveda categorizes person intothose type of body types, right
(28:59):
?
So what are the causes forautoimmune illnesses, dr Rekha?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Yeah, I started practicing in 2011, july to be
exact.
When I started practicing, inthe initial years of my
consultations, I never cameacross so many autoimmune
conditions like I see today.
Today, every other person hasautoimmune condition, primarily
(29:27):
because of one simple thing howdoes autoimmune conditions
happen?
The thing with autoimmunecondition is, if you just look
at the definition of autoimmune,it is the body attacking your
body because you have never letyour body repair and rejuvenate
by itself.
I will give you an example ofsomebody who is like a pitta
(29:51):
person.
And this pitta person, in spiteof knowing he is pitta, he is
drinking alcohol.
He is not taking care of hisdiet.
He is eating everything hewants.
He has some skin diseases.
He also has certain acidity andsuch kind of issues.
When it comes, he takes anantacids and ignores it.
(30:11):
He has elevated LDL and low HDL.
He has some discrepancies inhis SGOT SGPT, which is your
liver parameters but he is justchilling, not taking care of the
Pitta.
In such people, what happens is, if you really see, if you
(30:32):
really closely examine theinside of the body, you will see
his liver is crying.
Ayurvedically, liver is the seatof pitta.
If you have a little bitincrease in pitta in the body,
the liver gets affected andliver cannot do its functions
optimally.
What are liver's main functions?
Detoxification, which is theprimary function, and secondary
(30:56):
function is fat metabolism.
When the liver is constantlydetoxifying, detoxifying,
detoxifying because of all thethings that you have eaten your
normal food, junk food, yourthoughts, your emotions,
everything has to be detoxified.
The liver is in bad shape, theliver is overloaded and you are
(31:17):
ignoring the high pitta bodythat you have.
So the liver is already in somuch pain it is crying.
Now Our body has an innateability to bounce back and heal
without any medicines, but whenyour internal organs are crying
like this, especially the liver,which is your most important
(31:38):
digestive organ, the body givesup.
The body tries to attack itsown systems and most of the time
, just by bringing that balanceback, giving some real good time
for the body to rest and relax.
(31:59):
Your internal organs have to begiven that reset time.
So that's why our programs arethree months.
So three months.
We take people through a resetjourney where we are not, we are
not thinking about anythingelse, but how to reset and undo
all the things that you havedone in so many years.
And when we reset the wholesystem.
(32:22):
What happens is your body willstart loving you.
The body will feel happyBecause you are giving the body
what your body always wanted tofeel.
And when you do that, and whenyou give that environment to the
liver, it will give you back.
(32:43):
You know, at the end of the daywe really see what do we have
in this life?
We have this body and we arejust torturing it.
If we just take care of verysimple thing, of what we put
inside through our mouth, insidethe body, we can build a like,
(33:06):
we can bring a world ofdifference.
Then there will not beautoimmune conditions.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
So that is how you get autoimmune conditions yeah,
but so many people do juicingand things like that, thinking
oh, I can reset my body on myown right.
So is that a good approach foranyone?
Or, again, does it have to be apersonalized one where it can
work for some, it cannot workfor the other?
Speaker 2 (33:33):
A gut reset or, if you want to like, rebuild your
digestive fire and make all yourorgans work normally again and
undo all the things that youhave done in the past.
It cannot be one juice or onefood item If you just start
eating rice and ghee thinkingthat, okay, this is going to
(33:55):
help you.
No, it's not going to help you.
It is the sum of every singlething and activity and lifestyle
that you have that you take,all those choices that you take
throughout the day, that bringsthat difference.
You know, if you really see, inayurveda we have a routine
called oil pulling and you maywonder why oil pulling?
(34:18):
Why is it so important?
Is it for your oral health?
If you really see, all of thesepractices has an underlying
connection to agni.
Your mouth is where yourdigestion starts.
You have your diet, stevens andtylen, which is there in your
mouth, which gets the fooddigestion process started when
(34:43):
you eat.
That's why you have to do oilpulling.
It is also for the improvementof your health, of your teeth
and your jaw and your mouth andoral cavity.
But it is also important to dooiling of your mouth for
producing good amount of stylingthat helps with digestion.
So every single practice addsup and it has a meaning.
(35:09):
Everything has a meaning andsome logic to it and the more
you understand the logic behinda certain practice, you will be
able to do it better.
Most people today have noawareness about Ayurveda, but
the moment you take that step tounderstand a little more, find
(35:31):
the logic and you startincorporating it in small little
ways in your everyday life, youwill see a world of difference
and people have seen world ofdifference.
I started as one person army,you know, in this today if I
have some 24 000 plus patientsfrom across the world and 64
(35:54):
plus countries patients from 64plus countries, patients from 64
plus countries, 13 team doctors, 24 nutritionists, if all of
these people are working and ifit's growing.
You have to understand that wehave given so much of
transformation to people andpeople's health can be
(36:14):
transformed without medicines,without any strong ingredients,
ingredients, without puttingyour body through surgeries like
gallbladder removal or removalof any any part of the body for
no reason.
All of these are unnaturalthings you can do to the body.
When you do natural things andbring that, bring that balance
(36:36):
back, you will realize that evenyour mind is changing.
Even in autoimmune conditions,the mind plays a very big role.
You know, for us all, thepatients who have autoimmune
conditions, we take extra effortto support their mind.
We have counseling sessions.
(36:56):
I have a therapist who used tobe my patient in my three-month
program.
Now she's taking care of themental health of my patients,
especially the ones withautoimmune conditions.
Because unless and until themind is fixed, you are not going
to reduce your autoimmunecondition and come out of it.
Because at the end of the day,as I said, liver is your most
(37:18):
important organ and liver storesyour emotions.
Detoxification is not just forthe body.
Detoxification you should dofor the mind also, because you
have years and years of emotionsthat is stored in your liver.
Unless and until you detoxifyit, it will never be able to
work in its full potential.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Oh, that's just beautifully said.
I think we all again wrestlewith so much of emotions, and
bringing that back to a balanceis very, very significant.
And mental health that's justcenter stage these days.
Did you know?
Podcast Freshly Forever is onYouTube as well.
(38:02):
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(38:28):
blogs, athlete shops and muchmore.
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products pertaining tolifestyle, wellness and digital
media.
Is eating a diverse palette,the solution to reversing a lot
(38:49):
of conditions, right fromdiabetes to heart health and so
much more.
And then women's health that'sanother whole topic, but is
eating a diverse palette, asolution to overcoming all
illnesses?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
eating a diverse palette is good.
Just imagine our greatgrandfathers how they used to
eat.
They would sit on the floor.
The whole family will besitting on the floor, everybody
in Padmasana, and they will havetheir big plates like a thali
with food, all those cookedvegetables, so many dishes.
(39:30):
Today our plates have reducedso much and of course digestive
issues are also there for people.
Of course digestive issues arealso there for people.
But if you look at those plates,they used to have sources, all
these sources every day.
You know even the traceminerals, everything they used
to get from that whole plate.
(39:50):
But these days we are notreally getting it.
But how to get it?
Even eating by normal food,even even by eating normal food?
How to get it is by eatingnormal food, even by eating
normal food.
How to get it Is by optimizingyour agni.
If you have good agni, even thetrace minerals from the little
dal, rice and sabji that you arehaving, all that nutrition will
(40:13):
be absorbed by the body.
If you have bad digestion orbad absorption, even if you have
all the supplements in theworld you have nutritious,
multicolored vegetables, juices,fruits, everything in one go
Still you will be deficient.
Still you will not feel goodand you will not be healthy.
(40:35):
So it is all about optimizingyour digestion.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
That is when magic happens yeah, absorption of
vitamins, minerals, everything.
That's just again.
You brought that outbeautifully.
What about women's healthperiod problems?
So many girls go throughmenstrual issues.
In a nutshell, is menstrualissues, pcos and all those
(41:01):
things also arising out of alack of digestive fire?
Speaker 2 (41:08):
yeah, if you really look at people with PCOS insulin
resistance, diabetes theirdigestive fire is mandagni.
That means low digestive fire.
When we say low digestive firemeans their digestion is
sluggish, their digestion isslow.
So we have to like, optimizethe digestion, make it working,
(41:30):
make it stimulated, and that isvery important and it is mostly
kapha related.
If you see, anything that isrelated to growth or building up
is about kapha.
If you look at small kids, fromthe time they are born till the
time they reach puberty, theyare in the growth phase.
(41:50):
They are chubby, they aregrowing you will see a lot of
kapha in them.
So whenever there is growth,there is buildup.
If you look at PCOS, what isPCOS?
You have multiple cysts,buildup of cysts in the body.
If you look at fibroid, you arebuilding cells and making it
(42:15):
into like masses in the body.
So all of these building upeven cancer, for that matter
build up of cells.
People who are obese samecategory they put on weight.
They are also in the process ofbuilding up with every single
thing that they eat.
So this is all a cluster ofconditions because of the high
(42:36):
kapha in the body.
So you have to literally breakdown the kapha.
If you really look at kapha, itis the earth element which is
more.
When the earth element is more,you naturally have that
sluggishness, that heaviness,lack of motivation.
You have to really work againstthat kapha and break down the
(43:01):
kapha and do things opposite tothe earth.
How to do things opposite tothe earth?
If you feel like lying down onthe couch and just relaxing,
just get up and start.
You know so such kind of thingswhen you do you break kapha and
in ayurveda we have beautifulformulations, combination of
(43:22):
foods, things like that that canreally help you break down that
kapha.
Certain ingredients has theproperty to shrink the kapha in
the body.
So these we make the medicinesat the clinic and we compound
these medicines and give to thepatients.
Kapha treatment requiresmedicinal formulations because
(43:45):
sometimes it is not very easyjust with food, because their
body is like resistant to foodbecause of eating so much food,
you know.
So for food to act as medicinealso it takes some time.
So for kaphar conditions,because it can be long-standing,
it can go on for years.
(44:06):
All these menstrualirregularities, fibroids, mostly
women's health, all of theseissues, it has to have a support
of ayurvedic medicines, butcustomized and safe for people.
This is one thing that I wantto emphasize.
When you say ayurvedicmedicines, when you take
ayurvedic medicines, exerciseextreme caution whenever you get
(44:30):
ayurvedic medicines prescribedor when you're, whenever you're
taking, because one man'smedicine could be another man's
poison.
It has to be made for younumber one, number two.
Whenever a medicine has thisname like rasa or ras at the end
of it, tell your doctor don'tgive me this, because it doesn't
(44:54):
have a problem as a medicine,medicine, but if you change a
little bit of dosage, or if youchange a little bit of frequency
of taking it, or if you take itone more day extra than the
days that is prescribed to you,or if you have brought this from
a commercial brand which reallydid not purify it in the
(45:17):
specified purification formsmentioned in ayurveda, you are
inviting trouble for yourself.
So try to avoid those kind ofmedications.
Work heavily on food, exercise,lifestyle and very simple
herbal formulations.
Make sure you know if you havemenstrual irregularities.
(45:37):
Something that I havecompletely removed from my
practice is the use of shatavari.
Most of the medicines that wehave for menstrual health,
menstrual irregularities, hasshatavari in it.
So over a period of time it cancause you a lot of issues, and
(45:57):
this I'm telling you from myexperience of treating patients
in the last 13 years.
So be very careful when youtake ayurvedic medicines.
Double check the quality ofmedicine.
What you put inside your bodyis very important because, as I
say, at the end of the day it isyour liver that takes a load
(46:19):
for every single thing that youeat, even normal food, junk food
, medicine supplements, emotions, everything.
Don't force your body to gointo that extreme torture by
taking strong medications.
That is why even in ourprograms, first 15 days, we
(46:40):
allow certain medicines.
After 15 days, 90 percent ofthe medicines.
We don't allow people modernmedicines we try to reduce them,
remove them.
Some medicines have to betapered down.
We do that because the body hasto have its most natural,
balanced, easy way.
You know that is what the bodywants it has to be a tailor-made
(47:05):
approach.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
In other words, right it.
It's not a one-size-fits-all.
If you were to give listeners.
We have referenced a lot aboutpitta kapha.
What about vata?
Just so people have an idea ofwhat vata, pitta kapha is from
Dr Rekha, how would you put itacross?
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Yeah, so this is something funny that I post
regularly on Instagram in myhandle, dr Rekha, so in my page
I personally am a Vata Kaphaperson and my mind is too Vata.
My body is Kapha, whenever I dothings, whenever I come across
things, or you know, I havethese Vata traits.
(47:45):
I post about Vata a lot on mypage and most people who come to
me think that they are Vataseeing my posts, which is
actually not true.
Basically, vata is actuallysupposed to be Ayurvedically.
If you see the textbooks,samhitas, you will see very bad
(48:06):
things about Vata.
But you ask me, vata isactually good.
Vata has helped me to be thisperson that I am today and I'm
grateful for being this vataperson that I am.
You know, at least in my mind,because when you're vata, you
have that creative energy.
(48:26):
You have that creative juiceflowing in you.
You take action.
You don't manifest.
You know you don't manifest andwait for something to happen.
You take action right then.
And there, even in BhagavadGita, it is written no, even
Krishna says that we have to doour work.
We should work without bhalaichcha.
(48:47):
Bhala ichcha means wanting tohave a certain outcome from what
we are doing.
Manifesting is what we arewanting a certain outcome.
We want results, yeah, we wanta certain results, and we are
looking at result, result,result.
No, that is not the Indian wayor the Ayurvedic way of looking
(49:09):
at things.
So that is how, if you are avata person, you are that person
who won't manage.
You won't sit and just manifest.
You do your actions.
And being vata person has alsohelped me.
I am a doctor who sees suffering.
Every single day of my life.
I go through patients who comefrom different levels of
(49:33):
emotional status.
You know a lot of people cry infront of me.
I am an empathetic person bynature, but at the same time and
I do care I feel sad.
I have those days where I feelbad, feel sad.
Everything happens.
But at the same time, what I'verealized is being Vata.
(49:55):
I can switch emotions quickly.
I'm sad this moment, I can behappy.
The next moment I can beexcited and doing something.
The next moment, the nextmoment, I can be like sitting
thinking, oh my god, what am Idoing with my life, you know?
So that is something whichVatas are amazing about.
Vata people are very good aboutall of those things, and so
(50:17):
Vata is not a bad thing.
If you are already Vata, youknow you are Vata and you read
the Samhitas, you will feeldepressed.
There is nothing, not even onething, which is mentioned which
is good.
You know you'll have dry hair,dry skin, crackling joints all
of that is there.
Have dry hair, dry skin,crackling joints all of that is
(50:38):
there.
But still vata is somethingwhich is really.
It is a villain.
Because in ayurveda what we sayis that means if you really see,
pitta is lame, kapha is lame.
(50:59):
Lame means like it hasdisability or it is disabled or
it is not good enough.
But vata is more powerful thanpitta and kapha.
Vayuna yatra niyande.
That means it is air that moveseven the clouds.
(51:20):
It is vata that moves even thepitta and the kapha.
That means vata is strongerthan pitta and kapha.
So the conditions that you getbecause of vata is stronger than
any pitta or kapha relatedcondition and it is hard to
treat and it takes time to getbetter.
(51:43):
Even with a little bit ofneglect it can flare up the vata
related conditions.
That's why, if you really lookat the three phases of life
after your menopause, after manyyears after menopause, your
vata time starts.
Everybody in the world you willfeel joint pains, cracklings on
(52:06):
from joints, pains everywherein the body.
At that point, if you want good, easy, healthy bones, you want
to run, you want to do things,you have to act now.
All the practices that ayurvedamentions, that everyday oiling,
abhyanga, doing things for your, for building your muscles, all
(52:29):
of those things will count to abetter old age and all of that
will help take care of Vata,which we are all going to face
at some point later in our life,because we can't escape that
Vata time and that Vata time isreal and that is going to come.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
So though people are born with, as either a
combination of doshas or types,vata kapha, like you pointed out
about yourself, happens right.
So is that the the later stageof life, so it can change as
well.
It doesn't remain as is frombirth no, it is not like that.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
So basically, birth or garbha right, what we say in
Ayurveda is Shukla, shonita,garbhashya Astham Atma Prakriti
Vikara Sammurchitam GarbhyaItyuchithi.
That means Shukla and Shonita,which is your sperm and ovum,
come together.
Atma Prakriti, vikara.
Prakriti is decided at thattime itself, when your Garbha is
(53:49):
decided, your Prakriti isdecided.
When your Garbha is decided,your Prakriti is decided.
Whether you are going to be aVata Pitta person or a Pitta
Kapha person is decided at thatmoment of that sperm and ovum
coming together and it is nevergoing to change until you are
100 years of age.
But what I mentioned before was,in spite of that, we have three
(54:14):
phases in our life.
We have a growth phase, kaphaphase, and from your puberty
till your menopause you have apitta phase.
And from a few years aftermenopause till you die you have
the vata phase.
So at these phases you willfeel an increase of those
respective doshas phases.
(54:36):
You will feel an increase ofthose respective doshas, but the
same time, at any given pointin time, you can have even if
you are a vata prakriti personyou can have a kapha imbalance,
you can have a pitta imbalance.
So the imbalances are calledvikaras or vikritis and that can
vary, that can change okay, alot of people cannot really
identify what prakriti they arebecause they are always having
(54:57):
some imbalance and the prakritithat you're born with say you're
20 years of age.
After 20 years.
That is when you really see themanifestation of your original
prakriti.
Some people say I was very thinwhen I was small.
This is not my original nature.
My original nature was beingthin, but now I have put on
(55:18):
weight.
No, your prakriti has now, likeafter 20s, how you are is
basically the originalmanifestation of your prakriti.
That has happened, yeah, sothat keeps changing.
Speaker 1 (55:32):
Okay, we talked about menopause really quickly on
that.
How can women ease intomenopause?
Is there like anything specificthat they can do?
You talked about abhyanga andall that even prior to reaching
that phase.
Right, why don't we talk aboutayurvedic rituals, everyday
(55:52):
rituals?
So is that the key to peopletransitioning to a healthier old
age?
Speaker 2 (55:59):
Absolutely.
If you see, in Ayurveda we havetwo different sections.
One is Swastha Vrita, which ishow to preserve the health of
the healthy person and toprevent disease in future, and
all these dinacharya,rithucharya, daily routine,
night routine, seasonal routine,all of this come under this
(56:22):
section.
And then we have the diseasessection, how to treat diseases.
That's another thing and thisis something very special about
Ayurveda, because you will notsee a section so elaborate and
so vast like in Ayurveda in anyother medical system.
And if you take care that'swhat I said before that we all
(56:45):
know that we are going to have aperiod of Vata coming in future
, coming in future.
So if you start practicing allof those rituals abhyanga, oil
pulling nasya, all of those on aregular basis, eating food that
your body is able to digest,doing exercises In the past
(57:06):
people used to do, you know,they used to push the bullock
cart, now we are doing sled push.
People used to like carry logsof water, now we are doing
farmer's walk.
You know we are doing all ofthese things because we are no
longer doing those kind ofactivities which we used to do
(57:27):
in the past.
So we have to incorporate thosekind of strength training and
workouts in our daily routine,and that has to be a part of our
life, because we are no longerdoing all of those things.
We are sitting in front of thelaptop and doing everything.
So if you do that strengthtraining, if you work out, if
(57:48):
you practice mindlessness everyday mindfulness is a messed up
word if you practicemindlessness, meditation, if you
do all of that, you willrealize that you have a better
old age compared to others.
Okay, and prevent so manydisease conditions by just by
(58:10):
focusing on these few thingsthat I mentioned.
You don't need medicines forthat, you just have to
incorporate these Ayurvedicpractices.
Speaker 1 (58:19):
Great Skin health, and Ayurveda is very a culprit
when it comes to skin health.
And what does Ayurveda talkabout when it comes to skin
health?
Skin?
Speaker 2 (58:32):
health is the reflection of your inside,
absolutely.
How well is your digestion, howwell is your elimination?
Both are equally important.
You have to eliminate everysingle day of your life.
If somebody tells you it'snatural for some people to not
(58:52):
pass three, four days together,it may be natural, but it also
shows an impaired agni.
Just don't disregard a majorsign the body is giving you,
saying this is natural to me.
I have been having this sincechildhood.
No, it means you have animpaired agni since childhood
(59:14):
which you have never worked onand it needs to be corrected.
It needs to be correct.
You have to eliminate every day.
What does your poop contain?
It contains every single thingall of those metabolic waste,
digestive waste, waste fromprocesses and physiological
functions happening in the body.
If you are not pooping a singleday, what happens is a part of
(59:37):
it is reabsorbed.
Everything reabsorbed is atoxin in your body and in
Ayurveda we are all aboutdetoxification, detoxification,
detoxification.
So it is opposite to theAyurvedic principles to have
toxins added back to your systemevery single day by not pooping
(59:59):
.
Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
What about dairy?
Is it contributing to anyconditions?
Possibly when it comes to, say,any psoriasis or any conditions
like that with skin conditionslike that with skin.
Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
No, the quality of milk that you get has definitely
changed a lot.
So milk is definitely somethingthat is no longer digestible by
most number of people becauseof the things that has happened
to milk.
But if you have a good cowaround your house which you see,
your cow you have to see.
You have to make sure that yousee the cow and we are not
(01:00:43):
giving any hormones, injections,anything.
Make sure the cow also hashealthy mothers and grandmothers
.
If you follow all of that andyou live in a village and you
get that kind of milk, milk canbe amrit, but unfortunately in
today's day and age it isimpossible to find that and
everything is adulterated.
(01:01:04):
Quality of anything that you putin your body is extremely
important.
I wouldn't suggest anybody totake chance and have something
which doesn't have quality inputinside the body.
So that is the thing with milk.
But milk, if you get the goodquality, original, like pure
from a real cow with all thequalities that I mentioned, you
(01:01:28):
can have milk.
It is good for you.
It is nourishing, it isenlivening.
It is gorgeous building it isgood for you.
It is nourishing, it isenlivening.
It is gorgeous building.
It is good for the mind.
It gives you happiness andpositivity, according to
ayurveda.
But today we don't have accessto good milk.
Try to stay away from it.
But you can have buttermilkevery day.
(01:01:48):
You can have cheese and paneeronce in a while, but don't make
it an everyday thing, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
Okay, and in closing, dr Rekha, we have spent a lot
of time and I really appreciatethat.
It was wonderful chatting withyou here and we absolutely loved
it.
Thank you so much again.
Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Thank you.
Thank you so much, bai.
It was lovely having thissession.
I really appreciate howthoughtful the questions were
and looking forward to morechats like this.
Thank you, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
Thank you so much, dr Rekha.
Listeners, as always, followthe podcast, rate the podcast,
leave a review from your podcastapp of choice.
Follow me on Instagram andYouTube at YP Kumar.
That's V-A-I-P-K-U-M-A-R.
Also on Substack, where I writearticles For all things digital
(01:02:41):
media and lifestyle.
You will just get enlightened,I hope, with all of the
information that we put out hereon the podcast and on Substack
and on YouTube as well.
Until next time, with yetanother interesting guest and
yet another interesting topic.
It's me Vai saying so long.
Welcome to Freshly Forever, a podcast that gives
you fascinating insights weekafter week.
Here's your host, vaikumar.
Hey folks, welcome to anotherepisode on Podcast Freshly
Forever.
What if the key to yourwell-being lies in improving
(00:30):
your digestive fire?
Ayurveda is an ancient Indiansystem of medicine and, simply
put, it is the science of life.
We have our guest here today,rekha Radamani, who unpacks the
wisdom of ancient practices formodern health issues.
(00:54):
Dr Rekha Radamani is a globallyacclaimed Ayurvedic doctor with
practice reaching patients inover 60 countries.
She is known for her expertisein skincare, hair care, gut
health, hormonal health, women'shealth and chronic disease
management.
She is renowned for her work tobring global acceptance to
(01:19):
Ayurveda and has won variousawards and accolades for her
contribution towards the goal.
One of her recent achievementsis winning the Digital Health
Award for the Best AyurvedicDoctor.
It's with great joy that wewelcome her here to podcast
Freshly Forever.
Hey, dr Rekha, how are youtoday?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Thank you so much, vai.
I'm very happy to be here.
I'm very good, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So you are like a family of Ayurvedic
practitioners and you are fourthgeneration.
Is that correct?
Yes, fourth generation.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Ayurvedic doctor.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Oh, why don't we get started about your own journey?
And you had some personalhealth issues as well, if I
recall.
Is that right, and how kind ofAyurveda helped you, even from a
personal health journeystandpoint?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So basically I'm born to an Ayurvedic family.
As you said, my father,grandfather were all Ayurvedic
doctors.
I have grown up seeing, feeling, touching.
You know Ayurveda but I'venever really realized the
importance of it unless I wasforced with my own medical
condition.
(02:34):
After finishing my 12th Ijoined Ayurveda college.
So I did my BMS, which is afive and a half year course of
Ayurveda.
While doing I was in a hillyarea in Ayurveda, what we call
something like a Vata increasedarea.
And then in our college we hadhectic schedules.
We didn't have a good lifestylebecause everything was about
(02:58):
studying, remembering theshlokas, reproducing it, because
now things have changed.
But at that point if you haveto write about, say, diabetes,
you have to write the shlokasreproducing it, because now
things have changed.
But at that point if you haveto write about, say, diabetes,
you have to write the shlokasabout diabetes.
You have to also write themodern part of diabetes.
You have to also compare thedifferent acharyas viewpoints
about diabetes.
So it was all complicated.
(03:18):
It was not a easy processstudying Ayurveda.
It was also like you know 18hours of study, then you have
literally no exercise, becauseif you exercise, if you take a
little time under the shower,you will lose time to study
Ayurveda.
Oh, yes, yeah.
So it was extreme, it washectic.
(03:39):
And then, over a period of twoyears, I got diagnosed with a
condition called rheumatoidarthritis.
Initially it was diagnosed asrheumatic fever.
Every day I would go to collegebut then come back because I
was not able to sit properly.
My joints were swollen, therewas pain all over my body.
(04:01):
I couldn't even hold a pen waspain all over my body.
I couldn't even hold a pen.
And slowly the condition becamedeteriorated where I had to
literally lie down and you know,and not move at all.
Even for going to the washroomI had to get somebody's support.
It was an alternating kind ofcondition where every day one
joint, alternate joints areaffected.
So it is a weird combination ofrheumatic fever and rheumatoid
(04:24):
arthritis and I was literallybedridden.
I had to take a break from mycollege and then, finally, what
I did was I went to a moderndoctor while I was diagnosed
with this, because I knew thatif I go to my hometown and get
my father involved in any ways,then I will be given Ayurvedic
(04:46):
medicines for me.
According to me, it was timeconsuming, it was not cool, it
was taking a long time and allof that.
So I didn't really think that Ishould go ahead with Ayurveda.
So I went to an allopathicdoctor near my college with my
friends.
He told me I will end up inwheelchair.
My heart valves are alreadyleaking, so you have to be on
(05:08):
injections for the rest of yourlife.
And I was given the first shotof even pencil injection the
second month when I was supposedto go for the injections, I
realized no, I can't do thisagain and again I went home and
I told my father abouteverything that has happened and
what I was going through, andat that time I was literally,
(05:31):
you know, I couldn't move at all.
So everybody came and then forthe next one year it was
completely about how to get ridof this condition.
The treatments about how to getrid of this condition, the
treatments every day would startwith treatment in the morning,
treatment in the afternoon,treatment in the evening and
(05:51):
then for the exams I would goback to my college.
In the college, in the collegehospital, I will get admitted.
In the morning, I will go forthe treatment and then go to the
exam or whatever, and then inthe evening again, you know,
again back to the hospital.
It was actually a hospitalvisit here, in fact hospital
stay here, and then by the endof one year I got recovered.
(06:17):
It was intense treatment, butthat reinstated my faith and
belief in Ayurveda.
My heart is working perfectlythese days.
Touch wood.
I don't have any problems now,just this one finger which got
bent due to the arthritis.
It is still bent.
Other than that, everything isfine and I have never gotten it
(06:40):
back ever since.
But I have been quite carefulwith whatever I have been doing
and it's been good so far.
So that is why I realized if Icould get better with Ayurveda.
Anybody can.
Anybody can.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I'm glad things worked out for you.
Definitely not a fun storybeing a student and having to go
through all of this, right, and, like you said, we all tend to
think when we are at that agethat certain things are not cool
and we just cannot resort to.
But definitely, going back tocertain first principles, going
(07:19):
back to certain basics, I thinkcouldn't be reinforced better
about what Ayurveda does.
It's really the science of life, right?
It's just wonderful that youwere able to recover from that
and you're doing really well.
What about the root cause ofall illnesses that you see these
(07:39):
days and pretty much, what aresome common conditions that
you're now seeing arising inthis world?
Dr Rekha?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
So I primarily see a surge in lifestyle diseases,
especially diabetes.
So when I do consults in, say,I announce consults in Dubai and
I do face-to-face consultationsevery two months.
I do face-to-face consultationsevery two months.
Whenever I do consultations inDubai, if I have 10 patients, at
least eight of them havediabetes or at least you know
(08:12):
starting stage of diabetes.
That is something which is morecommon.
And in our programs we havepatients from common cold to you
know, people who are on cancerrehabilitation programs.
Goal to you know, people whoare on cancer rehabilitation
programs.
What we address is we don'treally do acute disease
management or emergency diseases, but everything other than that
(08:32):
.
We focus on, starting fromdigestive issues, like you know,
acidity, acid reflux, gerd,ulcerative colitis, crohn's
disease, celiac disease and thento skin diseases, psoriasis,
arthritis, all the rheumatoid,rheumatic conditions, then all
kinds of chronic diseases likeyour diabetes, high blood
(08:55):
pressure, high cholesterol.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
All of those conditions are also treated Is
Agni, the root cause ofeverything Is setting digestion
right.
Agni, as Ayurveda, you know,refers to digestion.
That way, is that the rootcause of all illnesses and is
that the starting point for youwhenever you try to get someone
(09:18):
back into homeostasis, orequilibrium, if you will?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
or equilibrium if you will.
Yeah, so basically what webelieve in ayurveda and my core
principle that I use fortreating any diseases is roga
sarve api mande agno.
That means every disease isbecause of an imbalanced low
digestive fire.
So when the digestive fire isimbalanced, that is when you get
many of the diseases that wesee today.
By correcting agni we canactually correct so many
(09:48):
diseases without correcting agni.
Even if you correct a disease,it is just suppression.
That is why I focus so much onfood is medicine and food as
medicine, because food issomething that you have every
day.
It can improve, improve yourdigestive fire.
But if you rely on medicationsand supplements, how long you
(10:08):
will rely on that's not youreveryday, everyday thing to do.
You take medicines to reducethe imbalances, bring it to a
certain point, and then food isyour medicine.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Okay, so what is it that you find people commonly
doing, you know incorrectly,Like is it say, we all live in a
day and age where people tendto resort to intermittent
fasting, juicing and so on andso forth.
Right, when it comes toconserving and preserving agni,
the digestive fire, and for bodyto work optimally, how should
(10:44):
people go about their day?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah.
So every single thing that youdo in a day counts.
Everything that Ayurvedamentions to do, starting from
the time you wake up till thetime you go to bed, whatever you
eat, how you go about yourentire day, your morning routine
, your night routine, how youeat your entire day, your
morning routine, your nightroutine, how you eat, everything
(11:07):
counts in terms of improvingyour agni.
That is why what we do as thecommunity, in our community,
that we have the people in ourprograms and who come to us for
transformation programs, what weprimarily do is we monitor them
, advise them.
We, we work very closely withtheir lifestyle, from morning to
(11:30):
evening to improve their agni,starting from the time they wake
up, what practices they do.
And everybody's practice isalso individualized.
Ayurveda is all aboutindividualized treatment.
So there is no one thing thatis universally acceptable to
everybody.
There are.
Even if you read ayurveda, youwill see 10 percent or less than
(11:51):
five percent of ayurveda talksabout something very general to
the entire population, say,ayurveda says rice is good for
the entire population and it canbe consumed every day, and we
see very few references likethat.
So everything a person has togo through, every routine and
everything that the person doesthroughout his day.
(12:13):
All of these counts towardsimproving agni and all of these
has to be customized for thepatient and individualized to
that kind of person.
The reason being Ayurveda is alot about individualizing things
, because how you feel, how youoperate, how you are born, your
(12:35):
genetics, your thoughts,everything is entirely different
from anybody else.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Okay, great.
So when it comes topersonalized approach, right,
that's what you're saying.
But when it comes to the worldresorting to, say, practices
like intermittent fasting orjuicing, what are your thoughts
on that, dr Rekha?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
your thoughts on that , dr Rekha?
Intermittent fasting yes,ayurveda has mentioned about
fasting, or laghana, as one ofthe very powerful treatments
that anybody can go through, andit is mentioned for specific
conditions, for a specific setof people.
It did not use the wordintermittent fasting or any such
fancy words, but the ayurvedicway of intermittent fasting is
(13:28):
having an early dinner by 6, 6,30 and breaking it the next day
morning by 10 o'clock.
This is how, traditionally inindia, we used to eat food.
If you see, by 6.30, 7pm, if youlook at nature, you will see
all the animals, all the birds,even trees and plants.
(13:50):
They are just trying to winddown and sleep and we are
nothing but part of the sameuniverse.
The more we aligned with theuniverse, the more balance we
have in our body.
So we have to wind down by thattime and then the next morning,
by 930, 10 o'clock, you canhave your breakfast and if you
(14:12):
do that, you're actually doingso many hours of fasting, which
is actually good for the body,especially if you are somebody
with a lot of kapha in your body, somebody who is like obese,
somebody who has pcos, diabetes,someone who has hypothyroidism,
somebody who has fibroids, allof those conditions.
(14:34):
If you do this kind of fasting,which is the natural way we
used to live, we have to live.
It is beneficial for your body.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Great.
Staying in tune with nature.
You just brought that up.
That's very important, and wesee a lot of people going
against the tide of nature,right?
So where exactly are we missingthe point?
What is it that you see withpeople's lifestyle that is kind
of causing them to drift awayfrom this normal process?
(15:08):
Or rather, what common mistakesare people making when it comes
to that?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
You know, the more advanced we are becoming in
terms of technology, in terms ofcomforts of life, it is natural
to be carried away by thesethings.
You know there are people whoask me about can I do botox?
Can I do you know fillers?
Can I do this?
That, because this is somethingwhich everybody wants to do.
(15:37):
What I tell people is in thisday and age, there are a lot of
things which we are influencedto do, but the more we are
aligned to our roots and nature,the more we live closely with
nature, the better.
At least, what I tell them isnot to manipulate your insights.
Even if you do somethingexternally to look good, or you
(16:00):
know you do something veryperipherally, which is still
fine, but manipulating yourinsights by you know you do
something very peripherally,which is still fine, but
manipulating your insides by youknow, like you're injecting
your platelets.
Or you know, if you see peopleare injecting their son's
platelets, things like gastricballooning, inserting a balloon
inside your stomach so that itdoesn't taking medicines that
(16:25):
will help you with losing weight, which is actually affecting
your gastric emptying, andyou're completely manipulating
your insides.
As long as you don't do that,it is still okay, but in this
day and age.
It's a message that needs to bereinstated, retold, and we have
(16:46):
to keep that communicationgoing because, as humans, we
always tend to lose track of ourroots.
Because this is something thatwe have to be more aware and
take actions to live close tonature.
That is a struggle of today'sworld.
Also, you know, we have toliterally remind ourselves no,
(17:10):
this is not what we want to do.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, yeah, we all tend to just think, oh okay, you
know, though, it's somethingartificial.
We just tend to think, oh,that's like we said, it just
feels so cool to do it.
One and number two it's justlike sometimes it's convenience
that helps people just go forcertain things, which just tend
(17:33):
to then finally take them awayfrom the path of being in tune
with nature.
Right, like we all eatleftovers, we do batch cooking,
and what are your thoughts onall of that, dr Rekha?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, just imagine a fruit, a fruit that you're
keeping in the fridge and aftersome time you're consuming it.
Just imagine the taste of thatfruit.
Now imagine the taste of thefruit if you have kept outside,
you have not kept in the fridge,and now you are eating it for
(18:07):
the first time.
Now imagine the taste of thefruit which you have kept
somewhere out for a very longtime.
If you see, everything innature tells us something thing
(18:29):
the first fruit which was keptin the fridge, it wouldn't taste
so much or as good as a freshfruit freshly plucked from the
tree.
A fruit that is kept outsidegets stale quickly and the taste
is very disgusting.
What is the message that thesefruits are giving us?
Fruits are actually what theyare our food.
The taste in the food is alsotelling us that it is good to
(18:52):
eat.
It is not good to eat.
It is secondary in its qualityto eat.
These are actually messageswhich don't get conveyed or we
don't really realize.
Ayurvedically, any food that iskept for a long time, which is
like a stale food, cooked andkept for a long time becomes
(19:13):
tamasik or loses its ability tobe digested properly.
So it is not something whichhas.
It basically loses its prana orlife energy.
If you really see, every foodhas that life energy.
That is why certain foods, whenyou eat fresh, the energy that
(19:34):
you get from it, the positivefeeling that you have on your
mind, sometimes it is lost whenyou have foods which you have
kept for a long time.
And also these days people talkabout anti-aging.
Right, what is the mostimportant anti-aging thing that
ayurveda mentions?
It's called ojas.
Ojas is the anti-aging thingthat ayurveda mentions.
(19:57):
Ojas is vitality.
The more you have ojas, theless you age.
Any food that is kept for a longtime, say a frozen food Just
imagine when was it harvested?
How long did it stay in yourfridge?
And now you are taking it outand you are eating it.
(20:17):
By this time, the ojas in thefood is absolutely nothing or it
has died to zero.
Yeah, it has been lost, but interms of nutrition it is
nutritious.
But is nutrition the only thing?
If you're not able to digestthe food?
Or if you're not able to digestand absorb the food well,
(20:40):
completely, what is the point inhaving all the nutrition in it?
So, primarily, any food that iskept for a long time loses its
ojas.
So anything that you put in yourmouth, make sure that it is
fresh.
But I understand it.
I have a lot of patients in myprograms who are in this rat
(21:03):
race who is trying to prep meals.
You know, batch cook.
What we tell them is we tellthem to do it in a much more
simpler way and not in acomplicated way.
A complicated way is batchcooking for an entire week.
A more simpler way, for yourstomach is okay, match cooking
(21:23):
for like one or two days max.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Okay, what about fruit consumption?
Different people say differentthings.
Right Again, we all live in atechnology-dominated world where
there are so many so-calledinfluencers on Instagram who
just come and propagatedifferent messages.
Influencers on Instagram whojust come and propagate
(21:47):
different messages.
The goal of you and me sittingdown today is you are one of
those sources who can be reliedupon and who has authentic
Ayurvedic knowledge.
So, from that standpoint, drRekha, what is the best time to
consume fruit?
Because some people say youshould not consume it closer to
your big meals and that you needto isolate it.
(22:08):
What would be the message thatyou would like to tell our
listeners?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Again, coming to fruits.
Also, it has to be based onyour digestive capacity.
Which fruit to have is alsovery individualized to your body
type.
That is the ideal way, butstill I can tell you in general,
fruits have to be consumed at atime when you can still digest
it.
Ayurvedically, fruits andvegetables are not super
(22:34):
digestive, so it has to beplaced at certain times and
eaten at certain times where itis still digestible for you.
So don't mix many fruits andconsume together.
Have fruits in isolation, as Isaid.
Don't mix fruits with a meal.
Have it at a different time, no, and not your main meal times.
(22:56):
And try not to have fruits inthe evening, late evening.
Try not to have fruits in themorning.
Why it is said that in Ayurvedathat we cannot have fruits in
the morning is primarily becausefruits are cold and cold
increases and too much of mucusmeans increase of kapha.
(23:18):
And when is the kapha time ofthe day?
6 to 9 am.
And you're doing, whenever youdo, things which are similar, we
say vritti, samanir, sarvesham,viparithir, vipariya.
Anything that you do similar toa certain thing, it increases.
So it is a kapha increasingactivity if you have fruits in
(23:38):
the morning.
But if you have fruits in, say,3 pm every day, doesn't matter,
it's fine, you can have.
So fruits have to be consumeddepending upon your body as well
.
So few fruits that areextremely beneficial to the
whole population of the world.
As I said, those 5% of Ayurvedais pomegranate, amla grapes.
(24:05):
All of these are good foreveryone, especially pomegranate
.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Okay, perfect.
But a lot of people tend to gofor the banana, right?
Because everyone thinks it'spotassium.
Everyone thinks, oh, you know,I get a lot of energy from a
banana, but that's probablykapha inducing for certain folks
, right?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Bananas also have different varieties of banana.
We have Nendran banana, we havebanana called Elaichi banana.
If you come to Ketla you willsee some 15-20 different
varieties of banana which aregood for different Prakritis.
But it is not like every singleevery type of banana is going
(24:49):
to give you, you know, energythe same way or make you put on
weight the same way.
Nothing like that.
It depends upon the particularbanana that you're consuming,
but banana in general, the mostparticular banana that you're
consuming, but banana in general, the most common banana that we
have, the chiquita banana, isthat the one that you get mostly
yeah, we see a lot of it herein the us in dubai also, I've
(25:12):
seen this banana, which is mostcommon.
See, any food that you haveconsumed for the first 15-20
years of your life is favorableto you by habit.
It will not cause any digestiveissues.
It will not work opposite toyou, even if it is a banana,
even if it is a jackfruit, evenif it's mangoes.
(25:35):
Who exercises well, whoconsumes food based on agni and
you don't have digestive issues,you can still have a banana
without thinking twice, or anyfruit for that matter, without
thinking twice.
But if you have digestiveissues, if you have chronic
diseases, if you have skindiseases, it is good that you
(25:57):
consult an ayurvedic doctor andfigure out what is good for you,
so that it is pacified and thenyou are able to eat better
after that.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Then you have more options to eat from okay, yeah,
because you have at that pointidentified what's best for your
body, what's best for your body.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
And also, you know, it is all about optimizing your
digestive fire.
Everybody is born with acertain quality of digestive
fire, but it can be optimized toits best potential.
That can actually help you feelbetter.
The energy feels so much better.
You will not have any skinissues, you will have good hair,
(26:37):
you will not have chronicdiseases, no problems with your
blood work.
Everything can be perfected byoptimizing your agni.
Whether you are a vata person,pitta person, kapha person,
doesn't matter and it ispossible.
And when we optimize the agni,what happens?
Your doshas balance.
(26:57):
Once your doshas are balanced,you are in that perfect health.
You know, even weight loss,weight gain happen during this.
We don't force anybody to loseweight or gain weight, but once
the doshas balance, the bodyoptimizes to its ideal weight,
which is ideal for your body,which gives that perfect state
(27:19):
of health for your body.
And we have so many people whohave transformed their health
with just by improving Agni andnot just health.
I'm saying all facets of health, every single facet of health.
You feel good mood is a goodfacet of health.
(27:40):
Yes, good mood is alsosomething that comes after
optimizing your Agni.
So once you optimize your Agni,then you could eat this much
varieties of food before likeyou could tolerate this.
Now you have a whole platter offoods which are now you can
tolerate.
You will not be able to havedouble thoughts.
(28:02):
Should I eat this?
Will it cause any digestiveissues for me?
You know, if you look at Pittapeople of the world, they have
mostly stomach issues.
Any food that come in front ofthem they'll be feeling, oh my
God, will it cause any stomachissues for me?
You know those kind ofconditions and kapha people.
Whenever food comes in front ofthem they feel, oh, am I going
(28:25):
to put on weight?
So all of these things can beworked on by just simply
optimizing the agni what aboutautoimmune illnesses?
Speaker 1 (28:36):
you talked about vata pitta kapha.
Again, that's kind of what eachone is born with at the time of
their birth and certain timesit can fluctuate and people tend
towards one type or the other,because that's kind of how
Ayurveda categorizes person intothose type of body types, right
(28:59):
?
So what are the causes forautoimmune illnesses, dr Rekha?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Yeah, I started practicing in 2011, july to be
exact.
When I started practicing, inthe initial years of my
consultations, I never cameacross so many autoimmune
conditions like I see today.
Today, every other person hasautoimmune condition, primarily
(29:27):
because of one simple thing howdoes autoimmune conditions
happen?
The thing with autoimmunecondition is, if you just look
at the definition of autoimmune,it is the body attacking your
body because you have never letyour body repair and rejuvenate
by itself.
I will give you an example ofsomebody who is like a pitta
(29:51):
person.
And this pitta person, in spiteof knowing he is pitta, he is
drinking alcohol.
He is not taking care of hisdiet.
He is eating everything hewants.
He has some skin diseases.
He also has certain acidity andsuch kind of issues.
When it comes, he takes anantacids and ignores it.
(30:11):
He has elevated LDL and low HDL.
He has some discrepancies inhis SGOT SGPT, which is your
liver parameters but he is justchilling, not taking care of the
Pitta.
In such people, what happens is, if you really see, if you
(30:32):
really closely examine theinside of the body, you will see
his liver is crying.
Ayurvedically, liver is the seatof pitta.
If you have a little bitincrease in pitta in the body,
the liver gets affected andliver cannot do its functions
optimally.
What are liver's main functions?
Detoxification, which is theprimary function, and secondary
(30:56):
function is fat metabolism.
When the liver is constantlydetoxifying, detoxifying,
detoxifying because of all thethings that you have eaten your
normal food, junk food, yourthoughts, your emotions,
everything has to be detoxified.
The liver is in bad shape, theliver is overloaded and you are
(31:17):
ignoring the high pitta bodythat you have.
So the liver is already in somuch pain it is crying.
Now Our body has an innateability to bounce back and heal
without any medicines, but whenyour internal organs are crying
like this, especially the liver,which is your most important
(31:38):
digestive organ, the body givesup.
The body tries to attack itsown systems and most of the time
, just by bringing that balanceback, giving some real good time
for the body to rest and relax.
(31:59):
Your internal organs have to begiven that reset time.
So that's why our programs arethree months.
So three months.
We take people through a resetjourney where we are not, we are
not thinking about anythingelse, but how to reset and undo
all the things that you havedone in so many years.
And when we reset the wholesystem.
(32:22):
What happens is your body willstart loving you.
The body will feel happyBecause you are giving the body
what your body always wanted tofeel.
And when you do that, and whenyou give that environment to the
liver, it will give you back.
(32:43):
You know, at the end of the daywe really see what do we have
in this life?
We have this body and we arejust torturing it.
If we just take care of verysimple thing, of what we put
inside through our mouth, insidethe body, we can build a like,
(33:06):
we can bring a world ofdifference.
Then there will not beautoimmune conditions.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
So that is how you get autoimmune conditions yeah,
but so many people do juicingand things like that, thinking
oh, I can reset my body on myown right.
So is that a good approach foranyone?
Or, again, does it have to be apersonalized one where it can
work for some, it cannot workfor the other?
Speaker 2 (33:33):
A gut reset or, if you want to like, rebuild your
digestive fire and make all yourorgans work normally again and
undo all the things that youhave done in the past.
It cannot be one juice or onefood item If you just start
eating rice and ghee thinkingthat, okay, this is going to
(33:55):
help you.
No, it's not going to help you.
It is the sum of every singlething and activity and lifestyle
that you have that you take,all those choices that you take
throughout the day, that bringsthat difference.
You know, if you really see, inayurveda we have a routine
called oil pulling and you maywonder why oil pulling?
(34:18):
Why is it so important?
Is it for your oral health?
If you really see, all of thesepractices has an underlying
connection to agni.
Your mouth is where yourdigestion starts.
You have your diet, stevens andtylen, which is there in your
mouth, which gets the fooddigestion process started when
(34:43):
you eat.
That's why you have to do oilpulling.
It is also for the improvementof your health, of your teeth
and your jaw and your mouth andoral cavity.
But it is also important to dooiling of your mouth for
producing good amount of stylingthat helps with digestion.
So every single practice addsup and it has a meaning.
(35:09):
Everything has a meaning andsome logic to it and the more
you understand the logic behinda certain practice, you will be
able to do it better.
Most people today have noawareness about Ayurveda, but
the moment you take that step tounderstand a little more, find
(35:31):
the logic and you startincorporating it in small little
ways in your everyday life, youwill see a world of difference
and people have seen world ofdifference.
I started as one person army,you know, in this today if I
have some 24 000 plus patientsfrom across the world and 64
(35:54):
plus countries patients from 64plus countries, patients from 64
plus countries, 13 team doctors, 24 nutritionists, if all of
these people are working and ifit's growing.
You have to understand that wehave given so much of
transformation to people andpeople's health can be
(36:14):
transformed without medicines,without any strong ingredients,
ingredients, without puttingyour body through surgeries like
gallbladder removal or removalof any any part of the body for
no reason.
All of these are unnaturalthings you can do to the body.
When you do natural things andbring that, bring that balance
(36:36):
back, you will realize that evenyour mind is changing.
Even in autoimmune conditions,the mind plays a very big role.
You know, for us all, thepatients who have autoimmune
conditions, we take extra effortto support their mind.
We have counseling sessions.
(36:56):
I have a therapist who used tobe my patient in my three-month
program.
Now she's taking care of themental health of my patients,
especially the ones withautoimmune conditions.
Because unless and until themind is fixed, you are not going
to reduce your autoimmunecondition and come out of it.
Because at the end of the day,as I said, liver is your most
(37:18):
important organ and liver storesyour emotions.
Detoxification is not just forthe body.
Detoxification you should dofor the mind also, because you
have years and years of emotionsthat is stored in your liver.
Unless and until you detoxifyit, it will never be able to
work in its full potential.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Oh, that's just beautifully said.
I think we all again wrestlewith so much of emotions, and
bringing that back to a balanceis very, very significant.
And mental health that's justcenter stage these days.
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(38:28):
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Is eating a diverse palette,the solution to reversing a lot
(38:49):
of conditions, right fromdiabetes to heart health and so
much more.
And then women's health that'sanother whole topic, but is
eating a diverse palette, asolution to overcoming all
illnesses?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
eating a diverse palette is good.
Just imagine our greatgrandfathers how they used to
eat.
They would sit on the floor.
The whole family will besitting on the floor, everybody
in Padmasana, and they will havetheir big plates like a thali
with food, all those cookedvegetables, so many dishes.
(39:30):
Today our plates have reducedso much and of course digestive
issues are also there for people.
Of course digestive issues arealso there for people.
But if you look at those plates,they used to have sources, all
these sources every day.
You know even the traceminerals, everything they used
to get from that whole plate.
(39:50):
But these days we are notreally getting it.
But how to get it?
Even eating by normal food,even even by eating normal food?
How to get it is by eatingnormal food, even by eating
normal food.
How to get it Is by optimizingyour agni.
If you have good agni, even thetrace minerals from the little
dal, rice and sabji that you arehaving, all that nutrition will
(40:13):
be absorbed by the body.
If you have bad digestion orbad absorption, even if you have
all the supplements in theworld you have nutritious,
multicolored vegetables, juices,fruits, everything in one go
Still you will be deficient.
Still you will not feel goodand you will not be healthy.
(40:35):
So it is all about optimizingyour digestion.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
That is when magic happens yeah, absorption of
vitamins, minerals, everything.
That's just again.
You brought that outbeautifully.
What about women's healthperiod problems?
So many girls go throughmenstrual issues.
In a nutshell, is menstrualissues, pcos and all those
(41:01):
things also arising out of alack of digestive fire?
Speaker 2 (41:08):
yeah, if you really look at people with PCOS insulin
resistance, diabetes theirdigestive fire is mandagni.
That means low digestive fire.
When we say low digestive firemeans their digestion is
sluggish, their digestion isslow.
So we have to like, optimizethe digestion, make it working,
(41:30):
make it stimulated, and that isvery important and it is mostly
kapha related.
If you see, anything that isrelated to growth or building up
is about kapha.
If you look at small kids, fromthe time they are born till the
time they reach puberty, theyare in the growth phase.
(41:50):
They are chubby, they aregrowing you will see a lot of
kapha in them.
So whenever there is growth,there is buildup.
If you look at PCOS, what isPCOS?
You have multiple cysts,buildup of cysts in the body.
If you look at fibroid, you arebuilding cells and making it
(42:15):
into like masses in the body.
So all of these building upeven cancer, for that matter
build up of cells.
People who are obese samecategory they put on weight.
They are also in the process ofbuilding up with every single
thing that they eat.
So this is all a cluster ofconditions because of the high
(42:36):
kapha in the body.
So you have to literally breakdown the kapha.
If you really look at kapha, itis the earth element which is
more.
When the earth element is more,you naturally have that
sluggishness, that heaviness,lack of motivation.
You have to really work againstthat kapha and break down the
(43:01):
kapha and do things opposite tothe earth.
How to do things opposite tothe earth?
If you feel like lying down onthe couch and just relaxing,
just get up and start.
You know so such kind of thingswhen you do you break kapha and
in ayurveda we have beautifulformulations, combination of
(43:22):
foods, things like that that canreally help you break down that
kapha.
Certain ingredients has theproperty to shrink the kapha in
the body.
So these we make the medicinesat the clinic and we compound
these medicines and give to thepatients.
Kapha treatment requiresmedicinal formulations because
(43:45):
sometimes it is not very easyjust with food, because their
body is like resistant to foodbecause of eating so much food,
you know.
So for food to act as medicinealso it takes some time.
So for kaphar conditions,because it can be long-standing,
it can go on for years.
(44:06):
All these menstrualirregularities, fibroids, mostly
women's health, all of theseissues, it has to have a support
of ayurvedic medicines, butcustomized and safe for people.
This is one thing that I wantto emphasize.
When you say ayurvedicmedicines, when you take
ayurvedic medicines, exerciseextreme caution whenever you get
(44:30):
ayurvedic medicines prescribedor when you're, whenever you're
taking, because one man'smedicine could be another man's
poison.
It has to be made for younumber one, number two.
Whenever a medicine has thisname like rasa or ras at the end
of it, tell your doctor don'tgive me this, because it doesn't
(44:54):
have a problem as a medicine,medicine, but if you change a
little bit of dosage, or if youchange a little bit of frequency
of taking it, or if you take itone more day extra than the
days that is prescribed to you,or if you have brought this from
a commercial brand which reallydid not purify it in the
(45:17):
specified purification formsmentioned in ayurveda, you are
inviting trouble for yourself.
So try to avoid those kind ofmedications.
Work heavily on food, exercise,lifestyle and very simple
herbal formulations.
Make sure you know if you havemenstrual irregularities.
(45:37):
Something that I havecompletely removed from my
practice is the use of shatavari.
Most of the medicines that wehave for menstrual health,
menstrual irregularities, hasshatavari in it.
So over a period of time it cancause you a lot of issues, and
(45:57):
this I'm telling you from myexperience of treating patients
in the last 13 years.
So be very careful when youtake ayurvedic medicines.
Double check the quality ofmedicine.
What you put inside your bodyis very important because, as I
say, at the end of the day it isyour liver that takes a load
(46:19):
for every single thing that youeat, even normal food, junk food
, medicine supplements, emotions, everything.
Don't force your body to gointo that extreme torture by
taking strong medications.
That is why even in ourprograms, first 15 days, we
(46:40):
allow certain medicines.
After 15 days, 90 percent ofthe medicines.
We don't allow people modernmedicines we try to reduce them,
remove them.
Some medicines have to betapered down.
We do that because the body hasto have its most natural,
balanced, easy way.
You know that is what the bodywants it has to be a tailor-made
(47:05):
approach.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
In other words, right it.
It's not a one-size-fits-all.
If you were to give listeners.
We have referenced a lot aboutpitta kapha.
What about vata?
Just so people have an idea ofwhat vata, pitta kapha is from
Dr Rekha, how would you put itacross?
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Yeah, so this is something funny that I post
regularly on Instagram in myhandle, dr Rekha, so in my page
I personally am a Vata Kaphaperson and my mind is too Vata.
My body is Kapha, whenever I dothings, whenever I come across
things, or you know, I havethese Vata traits.
(47:45):
I post about Vata a lot on mypage and most people who come to
me think that they are Vataseeing my posts, which is
actually not true.
Basically, vata is actuallysupposed to be Ayurvedically.
If you see the textbooks,samhitas, you will see very bad
(48:06):
things about Vata.
But you ask me, vata isactually good.
Vata has helped me to be thisperson that I am today and I'm
grateful for being this vataperson that I am.
You know, at least in my mind,because when you're vata, you
have that creative energy.
(48:26):
You have that creative juiceflowing in you.
You take action.
You don't manifest.
You know you don't manifest andwait for something to happen.
You take action right then.
And there, even in BhagavadGita, it is written no, even
Krishna says that we have to doour work.
We should work without bhalaichcha.
(48:47):
Bhala ichcha means wanting tohave a certain outcome from what
we are doing.
Manifesting is what we arewanting a certain outcome.
We want results, yeah, we wanta certain results, and we are
looking at result, result,result.
No, that is not the Indian wayor the Ayurvedic way of looking
(49:09):
at things.
So that is how, if you are avata person, you are that person
who won't manage.
You won't sit and just manifest.
You do your actions.
And being vata person has alsohelped me.
I am a doctor who sees suffering.
Every single day of my life.
I go through patients who comefrom different levels of
(49:33):
emotional status.
You know a lot of people cry infront of me.
I am an empathetic person bynature, but at the same time and
I do care I feel sad.
I have those days where I feelbad, feel sad.
Everything happens.
But at the same time, what I'verealized is being Vata.
(49:55):
I can switch emotions quickly.
I'm sad this moment, I can behappy.
The next moment I can beexcited and doing something.
The next moment, the nextmoment, I can be like sitting
thinking, oh my god, what am Idoing with my life, you know?
So that is something whichVatas are amazing about.
Vata people are very good aboutall of those things, and so
(50:17):
Vata is not a bad thing.
If you are already Vata, youknow you are Vata and you read
the Samhitas, you will feeldepressed.
There is nothing, not even onething, which is mentioned which
is good.
You know you'll have dry hair,dry skin, crackling joints all
of that is there.
Have dry hair, dry skin,crackling joints all of that is
(50:38):
there.
But still vata is somethingwhich is really.
It is a villain.
Because in ayurveda what we sayis that means if you really see,
pitta is lame, kapha is lame.
(50:59):
Lame means like it hasdisability or it is disabled or
it is not good enough.
But vata is more powerful thanpitta and kapha.
Vayuna yatra niyande.
That means it is air that moveseven the clouds.
(51:20):
It is vata that moves even thepitta and the kapha.
That means vata is strongerthan pitta and kapha.
So the conditions that you getbecause of vata is stronger than
any pitta or kapha relatedcondition and it is hard to
treat and it takes time to getbetter.
(51:43):
Even with a little bit ofneglect it can flare up the vata
related conditions.
That's why, if you really lookat the three phases of life
after your menopause, after manyyears after menopause, your
vata time starts.
Everybody in the world you willfeel joint pains, cracklings on
(52:06):
from joints, pains everywherein the body.
At that point, if you want good, easy, healthy bones, you want
to run, you want to do things,you have to act now.
All the practices that ayurvedamentions, that everyday oiling,
abhyanga, doing things for your, for building your muscles, all
(52:29):
of those things will count to abetter old age and all of that
will help take care of Vata,which we are all going to face
at some point later in our life,because we can't escape that
Vata time and that Vata time isreal and that is going to come.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
So though people are born with, as either a
combination of doshas or types,vata kapha, like you pointed out
about yourself, happens right.
So is that the the later stageof life, so it can change as
well.
It doesn't remain as is frombirth no, it is not like that.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
So basically, birth or garbha right, what we say in
Ayurveda is Shukla, shonita,garbhashya Astham Atma Prakriti
Vikara Sammurchitam GarbhyaItyuchithi.
That means Shukla and Shonita,which is your sperm and ovum,
come together.
Atma Prakriti, vikara.
Prakriti is decided at thattime itself, when your Garbha is
(53:49):
decided, your Prakriti isdecided.
When your Garbha is decided,your Prakriti is decided.
Whether you are going to be aVata Pitta person or a Pitta
Kapha person is decided at thatmoment of that sperm and ovum
coming together and it is nevergoing to change until you are
100 years of age.
But what I mentioned before was,in spite of that, we have three
(54:14):
phases in our life.
We have a growth phase, kaphaphase, and from your puberty
till your menopause you have apitta phase.
And from a few years aftermenopause till you die you have
the vata phase.
So at these phases you willfeel an increase of those
respective doshas phases.
(54:36):
You will feel an increase ofthose respective doshas, but the
same time, at any given pointin time, you can have even if
you are a vata prakriti personyou can have a kapha imbalance,
you can have a pitta imbalance.
So the imbalances are calledvikaras or vikritis and that can
vary, that can change okay, alot of people cannot really
identify what prakriti they arebecause they are always having
(54:57):
some imbalance and the prakritithat you're born with say you're
20 years of age.
After 20 years.
That is when you really see themanifestation of your original
prakriti.
Some people say I was very thinwhen I was small.
This is not my original nature.
My original nature was beingthin, but now I have put on
(55:18):
weight.
No, your prakriti has now, likeafter 20s, how you are is
basically the originalmanifestation of your prakriti.
That has happened, yeah, sothat keeps changing.
Speaker 1 (55:32):
Okay, we talked about menopause really quickly on
that.
How can women ease intomenopause?
Is there like anything specificthat they can do?
You talked about abhyanga andall that even prior to reaching
that phase.
Right, why don't we talk aboutayurvedic rituals, everyday
(55:52):
rituals?
So is that the key to peopletransitioning to a healthier old
age?
Speaker 2 (55:59):
Absolutely.
If you see, in Ayurveda we havetwo different sections.
One is Swastha Vrita, which ishow to preserve the health of
the healthy person and toprevent disease in future, and
all these dinacharya,rithucharya, daily routine,
night routine, seasonal routine,all of this come under this
(56:22):
section.
And then we have the diseasessection, how to treat diseases.
That's another thing and thisis something very special about
Ayurveda, because you will notsee a section so elaborate and
so vast like in Ayurveda in anyother medical system.
And if you take care that'swhat I said before that we all
(56:45):
know that we are going to have aperiod of Vata coming in future
, coming in future.
So if you start practicing allof those rituals abhyanga, oil
pulling nasya, all of those on aregular basis, eating food that
your body is able to digest,doing exercises In the past
(57:06):
people used to do, you know,they used to push the bullock
cart, now we are doing sled push.
People used to like carry logsof water, now we are doing
farmer's walk.
You know we are doing all ofthese things because we are no
longer doing those kind ofactivities which we used to do
(57:27):
in the past.
So we have to incorporate thosekind of strength training and
workouts in our daily routine,and that has to be a part of our
life, because we are no longerdoing all of those things.
We are sitting in front of thelaptop and doing everything.
So if you do that strengthtraining, if you work out, if
(57:48):
you practice mindlessness everyday mindfulness is a messed up
word if you practicemindlessness, meditation, if you
do all of that, you willrealize that you have a better
old age compared to others.
Okay, and prevent so manydisease conditions by just by
(58:10):
focusing on these few thingsthat I mentioned.
You don't need medicines forthat, you just have to
incorporate these Ayurvedicpractices.
Speaker 1 (58:19):
Great Skin health, and Ayurveda is very a culprit
when it comes to skin health.
And what does Ayurveda talkabout when it comes to skin
health?
Skin?
Speaker 2 (58:32):
health is the reflection of your inside,
absolutely.
How well is your digestion, howwell is your elimination?
Both are equally important.
You have to eliminate everysingle day of your life.
If somebody tells you it'snatural for some people to not
(58:52):
pass three, four days together,it may be natural, but it also
shows an impaired agni.
Just don't disregard a majorsign the body is giving you,
saying this is natural to me.
I have been having this sincechildhood.
No, it means you have animpaired agni since childhood
(59:14):
which you have never worked onand it needs to be corrected.
It needs to be correct.
You have to eliminate every day.
What does your poop contain?
It contains every single thingall of those metabolic waste,
digestive waste, waste fromprocesses and physiological
functions happening in the body.
If you are not pooping a singleday, what happens is a part of
(59:37):
it is reabsorbed.
Everything reabsorbed is atoxin in your body and in
Ayurveda we are all aboutdetoxification, detoxification,
detoxification.
So it is opposite to theAyurvedic principles to have
toxins added back to your systemevery single day by not pooping
(59:59):
.
Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
What about dairy?
Is it contributing to anyconditions?
Possibly when it comes to, say,any psoriasis or any conditions
like that with skin conditionslike that with skin.
Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
No, the quality of milk that you get has definitely
changed a lot.
So milk is definitely somethingthat is no longer digestible by
most number of people becauseof the things that has happened
to milk.
But if you have a good cowaround your house which you see,
your cow you have to see.
You have to make sure that yousee the cow and we are not
(01:00:43):
giving any hormones, injections,anything.
Make sure the cow also hashealthy mothers and grandmothers
.
If you follow all of that andyou live in a village and you
get that kind of milk, milk canbe amrit, but unfortunately in
today's day and age it isimpossible to find that and
everything is adulterated.
(01:01:04):
Quality of anything that you putin your body is extremely
important.
I wouldn't suggest anybody totake chance and have something
which doesn't have quality inputinside the body.
So that is the thing with milk.
But milk, if you get the goodquality, original, like pure
from a real cow with all thequalities that I mentioned, you
(01:01:28):
can have milk.
It is good for you.
It is nourishing, it isenlivening.
It is gorgeous building it isgood for you.
It is nourishing, it isenlivening.
It is gorgeous building.
It is good for the mind.
It gives you happiness andpositivity, according to
ayurveda.
But today we don't have accessto good milk.
Try to stay away from it.
But you can have buttermilkevery day.
(01:01:48):
You can have cheese and paneeronce in a while, but don't make
it an everyday thing, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
Okay, and in closing, dr Rekha, we have spent a lot
of time and I really appreciatethat.
It was wonderful chatting withyou here and we absolutely loved
it.
Thank you so much again.
Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Thank you.
Thank you so much, bai.
It was lovely having thissession.
I really appreciate howthoughtful the questions were
and looking forward to morechats like this.
Thank you, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
Thank you so much, dr Rekha.
Listeners, as always, followthe podcast, rate the podcast,
leave a review from your podcastapp of choice.
Follow me on Instagram andYouTube at YP Kumar.
That's V-A-I-P-K-U-M-A-R.
Also on Substack, where I writearticles For all things digital
(01:02:41):
media and lifestyle.
You will just get enlightened,I hope, with all of the
information that we put out hereon the podcast and on Substack
and on YouTube as well.
Until next time, with yetanother interesting guest and
yet another interesting topic.
It's me Vai saying so long.
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