June 22, 2025 • 47 mins
In this episode of The Aging Well Podcast, Dr. Jeff Armstrong’s guest is Dr. Shivani Gupta. Dr. Gupta shares her extensive knowledge of Ayurveda, discussing its principles, particularly in relation to aging and health. She emphasizes the importance of turmeric as a powerful anti-inflammatory and its role in gut health. Dr. Gupta explains how Ayurveda views aging differently from Western medicine, focusing on lifestyle practices that promote longevity and well-being. The discussion also highlights the significance of sleep, mindfulness, and stress management in maintaining health and preventing inflammation. In this conversation, Dr. Shivani Gupta discusses the principles of Ayurveda and their application to modern health practices, particularly focusing on gut health, the importance of understanding doshas, and natural strategies for managing autoimmune conditions. She emphasizes the gut-brain connection and how it impacts mood and cognition as we age. Dr. Gupta also shares practical tips for incorporating Ayurvedic practices into daily life, including the use of herbs and self-care rituals to promote overall well-being and… aging well.Learn more about Dr. Gupta at https://shivanigupta.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Welcome to the Aging Walk podcast, where we explore the
science stories and strategies behind living a longer,
healthier, and more purposeful life.
My guest is Doctor Shivani Gupta.
Doctor Gupta is an authority in integrative medicine, blending
ancient Ayurvedic wisdom with cutting edge clinical research.
With over 2 decades of study in both India and the USA, PhD
(00:29):
focused on turmeric's therapeutic power and the number
one best selling book. She's helped shape a modern
understanding of how natural solutions can support energy,
brain health, mobility, and longevity.
In this episode, we explore the Ayurvedic approach to aging
well, from gut health and inflammation to personalized
body type assessments and autoimmune support.
(00:50):
Doctor Gupta's work has been featured on top health podcasts
and stages across the country, And today she's here to share
some of that wisdom with you. Doctor Gupta, welcome to the
Aging Well podcast. You have dedicated over 20 years
to studying Ayurveda. What initially drew you to this
ancient system of healing? Sure.
So I grew up in Texas and I grewup going to India every year of
(01:15):
my life. And when I'd go to India, when I
got sick, my grandma would take some herbs right from the
kitchen, make a tea out of it, make a paste, make something out
of it, some concoction or elixir, and give it to me.
And I'd get all better. And when I was the US, we'd go
to the pediatrician, get a script, go get antibiotics, and
I'd get better as well. So I was living in two worlds,
(01:36):
always wondering who's right. Because here in the US,
amoxicillin tastes like bubble gum and it's really fun.
And when I go to India, her spices are really stinky, but
they do make me feel way better.And so Fast forward, once I got
to 20s age, around 20 years old in college, I realized all the
level antibiotic use I had used through my childhood had damaged
(01:56):
my gut. I went to the nurse at school
and I was like, hey, can you give me an antibiotic?
I'm sick. They're like, no, no, no, we
can't give you anything else based on what you just said, you
just took in India. No, we can't do all that stuff
to you. So basically through heavy
antibiotic use, I realized I haddamaged my gut, couldn't eat a
lot of the foods I wanted to eat, couldn't have orange juice,
which I loved. And I looked at my parents.
(02:17):
I said, you know, if we're in India and we're visiting again
and we're in the land of Ayurveda and yoga, this thing
called Ayurveda, I wanted to go figure out what it is because it
sounds like it has the healing tools I need for my body.
And I went on a quest with my parents for years in college,
post college. And when I realized that
Ayurveda had this wisdom and tool kit inside of it that could
(02:39):
transform our health and give usa healthy immune system, I was
sold. And so from there I studied it.
And then after that, I thought, we all need to understand this.
We all need to use this. And that's been my mission for
the last 20 years. And so your PhD focused
specifically on turmeric. What did your research uncover
that most people don't know about this route?
Sure. So I ended up doing my master's
(03:00):
in Ayurvedic sciences. My dream was, OK, you learned
Ayurveda in India, but why don'tyou formally study this science,
this medical wisdom, and understand it so you can write
books about it, so you can teachabout it.
So I did my master's and when I was sitting in herbology class,
the teacher started to explain all the benefits of all the
spices, turmeric, ginger, ashwagandha, all the adaptogens
(03:24):
and what they could do. And I thought, wow, I'm Indian.
Like you're talking about what'sin my spice cabinet in my
kitchen and you're saying it cando all that.
That's superfood level benefits.But then why aren't we using
these superfoods? Like we use superfoods in the
West. In the West we're using maca
powder and matcha and we're using blueberries and salmon and
we're reaching into a lot of goji berries, chia seeds, like
(03:45):
we're reaching for everything that's anti-inflammatory and
antioxidant. And so if you're saying all the
spices do that, how, how do we not, how are we not using this
toolkit that's readily availableto us?
And so my advisor at the time was like, you should do a PhD.
And I was like, I don't have thetime or interest to do a PhD.
And he's like, I'm telling you for the way you want to impact
(04:05):
APHD would be great. What topic would you like to
cover? I said, well, I'm really
obsessed with turmeric. I can't believe turmeric can do
everything they're saying it cando.
It's kind of astounding. He's like, OK, well, let's get
started. If that's not the topic, we'll
figure it out pretty quick. But let's see.
So at that time there about 10,000 scientific articles and
clinical trials and published papers in Pub Med.
(04:25):
Now 10 years later, 7 to 10 years later, it's at 17,000.
So the science is exponentially growing on turmeric.
And what most people don't know is out of the entire turmeric
plant, only 3% is the curcuminoids.
And of that 3% that's giving youthe maximum benefit, only the
one curcumin is the most effective at reducing
(04:46):
inflammation. And so I say that because a lot
of people will think, oh, I can just add more turmeric to my we
can, but it doesn't deliver the biggest result.
Now you ask, what are the benefits?
Turmeric has a million benefits.The the favorites that I talk
about are it's a very powerful natural anti-inflammatory.
So it's being studied heavily because of the number of
pathways it impacts from an inflammatory standpoint and the
(05:10):
fact that it can help with jointpain naturally and we don't have
to take a lot of big drugs and things is a pretty big deal.
Then it's a very powerful antioxidant and it reverses
oxidation in the system. So when we talk about aging and
rusting in the system, turmeric,in my opinion, is one of those
primary ways we can support antioxidant benefits into the
system. Then it's antiviral,
(05:30):
antibacterial and antifungal. That's where turmeric had me
sold because I needed an immune system that works.
So now I use it as my guard in the world just to keep healthy
and never get sick. Then it's also very gut
supportive. So turmeric really functions
like this ultimate janitor. It comes into your body, cleans
everything out that doesn't belong there, and leaves what's
(05:51):
good inside. Antibiotics don't do that.
Antibiotics will kill everythingoff.
So I needed to find a new solution that would help me,
defend me, but also support me in the long run when it came to
gut health. So turmeric is supportive of the
gut microbiome, helps with rebuilding the gut lining,
clears out any cells that need to be cleared out, causes
autophagy, causes cell death, apoptosis.
(06:14):
It's a very powerful tool. Also for liver, it's a hepato
supportive. It's also very good for anti
aging. So I'm trying to like think
through my PowerPoints. I have a lot of PowerPoints I
present from on this topic. So it impacts our sirtuins, our
telomeres and a lot of the anti aging pieces as well.
So I love that it's anti-inflammatory.
We know that's important. Most of us are suffering from
(06:36):
inflammation. I love that it's antioxidant.
We're all, not all, but most of us are worried about aging and
aging well and aging in a healthy way, which is what your
podcast is about. And then that third piece of gut
supportive, immune supportive isreally important to me as well.
And then finally, longevity. We, you know, we talk so much
about longevity and living for along time.
(06:57):
I actually don't need to live till 100 or past a certain
number, but I do care about thatquality of life.
And so the fact that it's so supportive to all the aging
markers in the body that can be slowing us down, to me makes it
the best super food that exists.So I'm not doing a bad thing by
putting it in my coffee in the morning.
No, not at all. Any amount you take is good.
(07:19):
I think it's so important to take some when I finished my
PHDI was like, well, why is no one using this in orthopedics,
in rheumatology, in all of medicine?
Like if if it's such a good anti-inflammatory.
And what I realized is the supplement world is not really
trusted, which happens right that we know that supplements
can be they're not regulated. Supplements sometimes are made
(07:41):
just to be sold on the shelf. They're just marketed well.
And so I went out and built my own supplement line because my
dream was, can I convince all ofWestern medicine to use a
supplement in their office? And so now thousands of people
take it by opening in their coffee and and doing things like
what you're saying, using it in their food as well.
Yeah, I just have a bag of powder of it and I just kind of
put a big, relatively big scoop,probably too much because it
(08:03):
settles down in the bottom. And yeah, I got to be careful
what I touch. Stain my white cup, my coffee
cup a little bit yellow, but. Just doesn't.
Stain clothing so. Yeah, I mean you can wash it out
of your clothes. Just make sure you use black
pepper or a healthy fat. I know that black pepper
increases the absorption by 2000%.
(08:25):
I worked in the lab in Houston where the scientists discovered
that when I was in high school, which was pretty cool.
And then we know that healthy fat helps that tumor cross the
blood brain barrier and helps with absorption as well.
So just make sure that you know,that's why Bulletproof coffee
was with fat in our I mean, he did it because of fasting
purposes and keeping us full, but you could also add ghee or a
fat to the coffee to help that absorption.
(08:46):
So would coconut oil be OK? Yeah, MCT coconut would be
great. That's what I do.
So I haven't ventured into the pepper.
I just, I don't know how much pepper and what that's gonna do
to my coffee, but it tastes great.
I mean, I barely taste it in thecoffee.
It's just, it just gives it a little bit more of a smoothness
to it. And we also put a little bit of
flaxseed, ground flaxseed when we brew the coffee, we have a
(09:10):
little bit extra Omega threes. And so that hopefully is
supportive as well. That's awesome.
That's great. And I'm actually 100 years old,
so it seems to be working like what?
Right. We'll be 62 in a couple weeks
here. So how does RU Veda view aging
differently than kind of modern Western medicine?
I'm sure there's a big difference.
(09:31):
There's a huge difference. Such a beautiful question,
really. So I review this whole goal is
to bring body, mind and spirit into alignment.
The entire lifestyle that IR Veda teaches is a preventive
lifestyle. So it's a lifestyle that shows
you how to age well every singleday.
The goal is every day you wake up, you align to your circadian
(09:52):
rhythm. Nature's clock is the clock, and
if we can live in alignment withthat clock, our body, every
system, every cell can function better, which is part of the
aging process. If we're going to define
nature's clock and go against it, all of a sudden that's where
we 'cause dis ease inflammation and all those different
problems. Ayurveda also talks about how we
eat and when we eat, not just what we eat.
(10:15):
The modern day cultures obsessedwith food and and are you
carnivore? Are you vegan or are you this,
are you that paleo? Like pick a plan.
We've, we've most of us have alltried so many of them, but
Ayurveda teaches it's actually about how you eat and when you
eat and whatever you are going to eat, eat it with love.
Eat it fresh, Don't microwave itand kill it.
Like just pay attention to the love you're putting in that food
(10:37):
and that and the blessings you put on the food is actually as
important as what it is. Doesn't matter what it is, as
long as you made it with love, sourced it with love and it
really are doing your best. So I teach everyone, sit down
when you're eating, when you're about to eat.
Don't chug a glass of ice water in a restaurant.
Have a hot tea instead. Sip a few sips of it if you're
really thirsty because you forgot to hydrate outside of
(10:58):
your meals. But IRV, the teachers don't eat
within 30 minutes of your meals before or after.
So the IRV, the toolkit for whatyou're talking about, which is
aging well and and having that longevity is about circadian
rhythm alignment, sleeping well,investing in really phenomenal
gut health. Gut health is a big key piece of
everything I teach. Then we talk about how you eat
(11:20):
and when you eat. We talk about the Sothvik diet,
which is a everything in the world that is made by nature is
fine to eat, but make sure it's cooked fresh, make sure we're
really paying attention to that quality.
Then I teach about the daily self-care rituals that we can do
in a rhythm. And a lot of those self-care
rituals are actually detoxing because the world is going to
cause some level of toxic burdenin the system.
(11:43):
And our job is to do a seasonal circadian detox to help cleanse
that out and move that out and move it along.
So little habits like using a tongue scraper or doing oil
pulling or hydrating well to make sure you have a daily bowel
movement. Simple things really that are
pretty free actually or nearly free are good at detoxing the
body for our longevity and for aging well.
(12:05):
And then finally, I teach a lot about about how we can fuse all
these things together and build a rhythm and lifestyle around it
that creates peace and that helps us stay grounded.
And then one final big piece, which I should have said first,
is our doshas or our elements. We teach that each one of us has
an individual constitution or either vata, Pitta, or guffa.
(12:27):
The first one vata is Aaron Ether.
The middle one, Pitta is fire. The final one is earth with
water guffa. And so each of us, if we take a
dosha quiz, we'll see what our constitution is and then we can
navigate all those things that Italked about more on an
individual basis customized to us and our body.
And so that's kind of the spectrum of topics from Ayurveda
(12:48):
that I like to teach about for our longevity, for prevention,
for us to age well and to, to stay healthy and vibrant.
The goal of Ayurveda is vibrancy.
So, you know, we believe in karma.
And so I can't control what my destiny is.
I don't know if I get to live till 50607080 or 90, but
whatever that age may be, my entire focus is my vibrant
(13:09):
health. How is my gut brain access?
How is my level of energy? How's my level of joy?
Am I doing the things in my lifeto have that absolute level of
joy and peace that I crave? And when I do, I know that I'm
doing everything right in my daily life.
So I've actually been following Ayurveda pretty well without
really intending to. I mean, I, we talk sleep a lot
(13:31):
on this podcast and you know, mymost recent doctor's
appointment, my cholesterol was high and they're immediately
wanting to put me on statins. And I'm no, not going to do
statins. I know my sleep has been
disrupted because I've been tracking that for a while.
I've been asking it's it's takenme a year to get tested for
sleep apnea and another week anda half before I actually get my
(13:53):
C pap. But you know, I'm focused on,
you know, get that sleep in order, you know, eating earlier
in the day, going more of a circadian fast and getting to
bed early, getting good quality sleep, getting that restorative
sleep, do my turmeric in the morning and, you know, just
trying to eat the foods that aregoing to promote that, you know,
healthier system. Getting my cortisol.
(14:14):
I mean, I think cortisol is something that we don't talk
about a lot. You know, we'll talk about
testosterone therapy and all that for our old parts like
myself, but we don't talk about what are you doing to get your
cholesterol in order. And it sounds like everything
that we need to do is there in Aruda.
Yes, yeah, everything is there and it's it's just about
(14:34):
implementation. It's just about the desire to
put that plan in place. Is it easier to take a pill?
It controls the number and the blood works fine.
Yeah, that's easier. I I don't disagree that some
things are easier. But in the long run, did you
address the root cause? And so Ayurveda is looking for
what are your root causes? Where did you get disharmonious
with your circadian rhythm, withyour constitution, with your
(14:56):
lifestyle? And how can we bring you back
into the alignment? Because once we do, these
numbers should fix themselves. Whenever my blood work comes
back like that, I'm like, are you walking enough?
Are you moving enough? Are you just sitting in your
chair all day, 8 hours a day? And then you pick up the kids
and then it's dinner and then you're done.
That is a choice. I make that choice very
consciously 'cause I'm building my business and I love it.
(15:18):
But I also have learned every time it's a pre interview call,
every time it's a phone call, start walking.
Every time it's a meeting walk. We don't have to do everything
on Zoom. We have an opportunity to to
shift things. We can build in a morning walk
and an evening walk. So really it's about how are you
rebuilding your lifestyle in thenatural way to win at these
goals? And we talked a lot on this
podcast about inflam aging and, and that kind of stuff.
(15:40):
And inflammation is often considered to be the root of
chronic disease. And that's certainly the the
stance we take on the Aging Wellpodcast.
So how does Aruba address inflammation and why is that so
important for Aging Well? Sure.
So Ayurveda looks at inflammation as the cause to our
(16:01):
behavior not being right. So it's the the symptom, it's
the end result of not doing the IRA the lifestyle.
And so according to IRA the lifestyle, we would sleep really
well. We would have self-care rituals
for bed. We would cut off dinner 3 hours
before bed. So a lot of times I teach 7:00
dinner be complete next hour, wrap up your house life,
(16:23):
whatever it is you have to get done and prepare for the next
day, unwind, relax, self-care. And so that's actually the start
of reversing inflammation is thenight before.
We think of it so much as what we're going to put in the belly
on the day of. And I think of it as, let's
start with your evening. If your evening routine can line
up to deep sleep according to the circadian clock from
(16:45):
Ayurveda, people think circadianrhythm is a new concept.
It's not. It's a 5000 year old concept
from Ayurveda that says that 1:50 on that circadian clock is
the most important time to sleep, and that sleep is twice
as valuable as the sleep you're going to get after it.
Because 9:50 to 2 is when the janitors come out in your body
and clear off the glymphatic system in your brain.
(17:07):
Clear your lymphatic system around your gut, clear out the
body, clear any excess emotions and thoughts and mindsets that
we had through the day that didn't serve us, that needed to
be cleared out of the system. And so if you don't let the
janitor do his job, you're not going to win at your health.
And I've noticed that when I travel sometimes if my sleep is
crap, the next day, my brain is so foggy and I'm like, you know
(17:29):
what you did? You cut off the janitor's
ability to do his job. And this is the price you're
going to pay so you can drop your inflammation.
You know how to take a potent turmeric and win at that job.
You need to fix this tonight. And so I'll take my own sleep
gummies that I developed or my sleep teeth.
Like for me, sleep is the first step.
Then the next day we have opportunities.
I think turmeric, of course, since I studied it, is the most
(17:50):
powerful way to reduce inflammation.
Is everyone on the planet going to benefit the most from
turmeric? No, some people are more ginger
people, some people are more allthe other anti inflammatories
foods we know about people. But for me, turmeric has worked
for 99% of who I've spoken to. And so I always tell people you
can add turmeric into your life three times a day and allow it's
anti-inflammatory effect to support you because life is
(18:13):
inflammatory, this life we're living.
This cup could be made with lead.
I should probably test it because I I never know with all
the things I buy. I drink out of glass water
bottles. I try not to have plastic water
bottles. I don't want the microplastic
effect. Our cleaning products, our air
quality, our water quality or food quality or pesticides,
right? So there's, there's a whole
category called things that willcause trouble in the body.
(18:36):
The body has to fight it and thus we're creating
inflammation. And So what I like to do is have
a preventive like guard in place.
So I use a lot of sleep solutions as needed.
I try not to use them every day.And then I use a lot of turmeric
throughout my day to keep that inflammation down.
And then I really do implement a, an Ayurvedic diet into my
(18:57):
life where it's eating on my circadian clock, It's living
according to my circadian rhythm.
I think one big problem we have nowadays as we push ourselves so
hard, you mentioned cortisol, stress hormone.
If we're going to be stressed, we're going to be creating
inflammation. And so every time a topic comes
along that really stresses me out, sometimes it's like
politics, World News, any of that stuff, I'll be like, Oh my
(19:18):
gosh, I don't have to stress everybody out.
If the collective is stressed, we're all stressed.
If we're all stressed, we're allinflamed.
If we're all inflamed, we're allgoing to create disease.
And so really when we when people talk about mindfulness
and meditation and all those practices, they sound hard to
do, but your job is just to findthe one you love the most.
So for me, walking in nature is the best way to clear my mind,
(19:40):
clear my energy. I'm not a good meditator.
I'm not a good like sit still and think about nothing person
because a million thoughts run through.
You didn't go to the take the kids to the dentist, you didn't
whatever those thoughts are. And so if walking does it for
you, walk 3 miles a day in nature and just do your deep
breathing and relaxation then. But that is a big part of.
(20:02):
Inflammation. So we can't just take really
cool awesome anti inflammatories.
We have to invest in sleep. Sleep is when you clear that
inflammation. That's the janitor's job.
Clear inflammation and create all the healing and rejuvenation
and regeneration we need throughout the day.
Eat an anti-inflammatory diet based on your current health
issues, take the right supplements, and then finally
add in the practices to reduce stress and any toxic burdens so
(20:26):
that you don't create more inflammation as well.
So don't watch the news. Don't watch the news.
I don't watch the news. It's not worth it.
I don't either. No, it's just a stress causing
box is how I look at it. Yeah, it doesn't help me.
So you talk about a 72 hour gut reset using Arubic principles.
What does that look like and howdoes IT support longevity?
(20:47):
So in Ayurveda, we taught about intermittent fasting.
We were pretty gentle about it compared to how we look at it
right now. And in Ayurvedic fast, you would
do 12 to 12, like a 12 hour fast.
You'd finish dinner by 7, not really eat before 7.
And you could extend that a bit by two to three more hours.
I don't think Ayurveda would have taught us the 16-8 fast
(21:08):
that a lot of people do. I know a lot of people are
getting benefits from it which is fine, but Ayurveda was
actually more about moderation and more about being gentle with
our system and not being so harsh and setting such harsh
boundaries. So a 72 hour gut reset in my
mind is whenever your gut is offbecause a lot of times people
don't understand the level of gut dysbiosis and gut issues
(21:30):
they have. I really do wish everyone got a
stool test annually in addition to annual blood work and got
that report card because every other year I do a stool test and
every time the report cards likewhat the heck have you been
doing over there? Because that's what my doctor
said to me a few weeks ago. What are you doing?
90% of your gut microbiome is gone.
I was like, I don't know. So we investigated and it was
(21:51):
mold and we learned, OK, Shimanihad mold in her house.
It affected her gut. Now we're going to put a leaky
gut protocol in place. So I love fusing modern science
with the ancient wisdom because when you have these diagnostics,
they're very black and white andthey show you what's going on
from the IR Veda perspective. Earlier than that, we should
have been able to recognize the slow symptoms that were
accumulating. Did you have brain fog, green
(22:13):
fog We can tie to gut. Did you have gut disruption?
Was your bowel movement off? Well, that would have indicated
a problem. Were you having stomach aches
after you ate? Is your body like not able to
digest things like it normally does?
That indicates a problem. And so anytime your gut is
feeling off and you're like, I don't know what's wrong with me,
but something is up, I always take 1-2 or three days and just
(22:33):
do a gut reset. I take the time to eat very
light, easy to digest foods. We have one of those foods in IR
Veda, it's called khichdi. It's just taking split mung
beans and rice. Put it in a pressure cooker,
minimal spices, just like salt, human turmeric, simple.
And that dish is like a porridge.
It's very easy to digest. So the goal is give the gut a
(22:56):
day of rest. For some people, you could
probably do a water fast and you're fine.
I just did a three day water fast.
I wouldn't call that easy but I did it as a huge almost harsh
gut reset, but a full on reset with Ayurvedic herbal teas and
things like that. If the if the prognosis is big
enough, you can go up to that level, which I really needed a
(23:18):
gut healing in place. But in IR VE though, we would
have done Quichridi 3 times a day or just nothing hard to
digest, no cold foods. It would be something hot.
You can do a soup fast all day, eat soup all day and all of a
sudden the gut got a break. It got a chance to not have to
deal with roughage and food that's hard to digest.
Nothing inflammatory. So the top five inflammatory
(23:39):
foods are gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol, and I add red meat in
there, which is not true for everybody, but it's harder to
digest. So I always ask everyone to cut
the inflammatory foods, make space in your life, eat
something easy to digest all dayand then the next day re enter
nicely. So that's Ayurveda's perspective
(23:59):
is let's give the gut a break sometime so it can heal itself.
The body has everything it needsto heal itself.
We just get in the way. So what are some of the key
Ayurvedic herbs and supplements that you recommend for energy,
cognitive clarity, joint mobility in those types of
things? Well, my favorite favorite above
all is turmeric. I do think it does the job
really well. I've been in the turmeric world
(24:21):
for 10 years working alongside doctors showing them how
effective it can be for chronic joint pain and for their
patients. So turmeric first is always my
game plan with people. Try this now if you don't get
the maximum benefits that you wanted.
I actually created 2 turmeric formula so they can stack those.
Now once we move past turmeric, which I do think is the number
one, then we start talking aboutother super spices.
(24:44):
So ginger is really powerful. It's a sister plant to turmeric.
So you can take ginger, have ginger tea, ginger lemon tea.
You can incorporate more ginger in your food.
It's also a good digestive support.
It lines the gut. It helps most people take it for
nausea, but it's actually very good for gut and inflammation as
well. Even other spices like cilantro,
(25:06):
we use cilantro a lot in Indian cooking.
It's a heavy metal detoxer. So taking that everyday and just
putting it into your food. We buy coriander seeds and grind
them and then use that into almost every dish we cook.
So imagine if every day you are getting a gentle heavy metal
detox so that heavy metals couldn't accumulate.
That would be beneficial. Another one is cumin seeds.
(25:27):
So anytime you're going to heat up leftovers, you can take oil,
put it in the pan, butter key, anything you use to heat your
food food and add cumin seeds and wait till they're kind of
dancing in the pan and then put the food on it.
And what that's going to do is it's going to remove the gassy
party, the gassy tendencies of that food.
So a lot of times we eat old food and then we're like, Oh, I,
(25:49):
I don't feel that great. I don't feel energy from it.
So what that cumin does is it removes the, the difficulty of
digesting that food. It makes foods easier to digest,
so cumin is another one of my favorites.
We use cumin seeds at the base of every lentil and bean we cook
in the Arabic kitchen. So you're always going to take
oil and heat those cumin seeds and then start the cooking
(26:10):
process because lentils and beans are hard to digest.
Another great one, which is not for cooking but for taking in
supplement form, is ashwaganda. Ashwaganda is neurocognitive
support. It's an adaptogen.
It's kind of the king of all theadaptogens.
If you're stressed and anxious, it calms you down a few notches.
If you're depressed and feeling low, it lifts you up a few
notches. It calms down the mind and calms
(26:32):
down the system. So right after turmeric, my next
favorite is special Ganda. So that's why I built that one
into two of my teas and unwind tea in a deep sleep tea.
So I was like, we could all justunwind a notch.
We might not crave a lot of the chocolate or wine or the things
we're craving just to help us take life down a few notches.
We could just get that from the herb from the plant itself.
(26:53):
So yeah, those are some of my favorites when it comes to the
spices of Ayurveda. So let's kind of go back to the
concept of the doshas that you talked about earlier.
How does knowing your type help tailor your health choices as as
we age? So as we're aging, it's so
important to know what your constitution is.
On my website at Doctor shivani.com, I have a those
(27:13):
showbiz. I encourage everyone to take it.
Once you take it, it'll fire right back at you and answer.
And it's so funny because peoplewill e-mail me and they're like,
how did you know all that about me?
I'm like, this is ancient wisdom.
I just get the honor of teachingit.
But if you are a vet that person, you are more air and
ether You might be more tall or short than your demographic.
You might be thin and wiry, small bones, small frame, long
(27:38):
Oval face, dry, brittle hair. These are some of the
characteristics of a vet that person.
And a vet that person is someonewho's a busy body.
They're always in motion. Imagine like a ceiling fan.
They just never stop. And so they have this soundless,
beautiful energy, but if it's not channeled right, it leads to
insomnia, leads to anxiety, leads to really disrupted gut
(27:58):
with Constipation and dryness inthe system.
And so our goal in Ayurveda is to support the Vata to be more
grounded and feel more whole so that they can finish what they
start, so they can use all that energy towards good and
creativity and the work that they're desiring without always
being caught in cycles of anxiety and stress.
Then you have fit the people. That's what fit the person is
more medium bodied, tends to have reddish, reddish hair,
(28:21):
reddish skin, tends to have early graying, tends to be a
very sharp person, ambitious, focused, very passionate person.
A bit the person also tends to get hangry and when imbalanced,
they're kind of like a volcano. They just erupt on everyone.
They're like a molten mess. They are angry, frustrated and
they take that out on everyone. And so and bit does tend to run
(28:44):
more inflamed because it's all about fire.
So they'll have heartburn and and a lot of inflammation in the
system is our job is to keep thebit does cool down so that they
can focus that energy on their passions and on their dreams and
what they're creating. And then finally of guffa, A
guffa person is grounded. This person is like bigger
boned, stronger, maybe heavier set.
(29:06):
They can lift heavier. They have that constitution of
like strength and resilience. This is someone who may have a
round face, round eyes, curly oily hair, rounder features, but
this person's also their nature is like Mother Nature.
They're that loyal person, the person who cares about everyone
around them and just stoically takes care of everyone.
(29:28):
They're that grandmother who nurtures and takes care of
everybody and feeds everyone with love.
And so guffaws are the sweetest friends.
They love everyone around them. They're only drawbacks that they
struggle with are slower metabolism.
They're very one thing at a time.
And society right now wants us to be 200 things at a time for
no good reason. So their nature is one thing at
(29:49):
a time and then guffas just struggle with once their day is
over and they sit down, they're not going to get up off the
couch again. They're just not.
They can't it's like Mother Earth sat down for the day.
And so my coaching with clients all the time is around.
OK, you're a bit darabatta, but you married a guffa.
Can you honor the beauty and awesomeness of having a guffa
(30:10):
treat, you know, rooted tree energy husband or partner and
accept that everything they do is amazing and once they sit
down, please don't ask them to get up like show love.
And so a lot of my coaching is this is your constitution.
This was your constitution at birth.
Let me get you back into alignment so you feel like
you're health in your body and then also let's understand the
(30:32):
people around us so we can support our families, so we can
support our kids. When people are of other dosha,
sometimes we just don't understand them.
But if you understood them, you could support them better as
well. Sounds like I'm going to take
that test today. Yeah, it helps.
It does help. Like for example, I'm married to
a guffa man, but he is somewhat fit that he's like go, go, go.
So if I'm leaving on the weekendto go to a conference, I will
(30:54):
feed him and the kids. Like, how about everyone's fed?
Then I know there will be peace when I leave.
That's my investment in my kids and him.
And I can do that with love because I understand the nuance
of what's needed in the situation.
So that's where I find that dosha quiz so cool.
I'm probably a bit leans a little bit go far.
Yeah, I could sense it meeting you.
I was like but he's probably somewhat bit that makes sense.
(31:16):
Yeah, and it's probably why sometimes I have the
inflammation problems and the sleep issues and all that kind
of stuff. Yeah, it can happen.
So you've worked with patients with autoimmune conditions.
What natural strategies have youfound most effective in managing
or reversing some of those symptoms?
It's interesting. I was just working with 1A
(31:37):
member of my team who has an autoimmune condition.
And I said, you know, here's thedeal.
Ayurveda says no matter what disease we create, we can
reverse it. And it's interesting being
American and living in the United States here, we're told,
oh, you have that. That's for life.
And and I always look at them like, are you kidding me?
You don't think the body can heal from anything?
(31:58):
And you don't think food is a part of that equation.
And so I'm always like, wow, youare never going to treat me or
my family, so goodbye forever. But when it comes to autoimmune,
I really look at that as what ishappening in the gut and why is
the gut revving up the immune system?
What are we doing that's put us into this position?
And when it comes to autoimmune,my own body has been like an
(32:20):
autoimmune body my whole life. That's what I suffered was gut
issues, felt like I had no immune system, felt like
everyone, someone's, every time someone sneezed, I'd catch a
sickness. And so my work has been, how do
you consistently honor the gut and build a gut microbiome
that's so robust and so healthy?How do you intuitively build a
(32:40):
system so that when something isawry, something is off, you're
quickly calibrating to it and giving your body what it needs?
How do we build nourishment and replenishment into the system?
I find that really difficult actually, because I'm
vegetarian. And so for me, it's a job to
focus on my supplementation in my food to really hold a body at
(33:01):
replenished. And as I age, I'm finding that's
even more of a job with more of a focus than it ever was before.
And so autoimmune, I really think of it as you, your body is
battling with itself for a reason.
And your job is to go dig, dig and dig until you figure out
what that is. Either it's got could be trauma
whole nervous system is in a in a dysregulated state and gear
(33:22):
and you got to shift that gear back for yourself.
Maybe it is you are high cortisol in your life.
You're always built to be perfectionist and going 200
miles an hour and that doesn't serve you.
And so how do you build the self-care rhythm from IR Veda
into your life? Non negotiable.
So that, yeah, you're going to be pretty intense, but can you
(33:43):
also be completely chill at different times of the day so
the body can recover and be in the parasympathetic?
And that might take work, that might take homework.
A lot of my clients are women. And so a lot of times I'm like,
hey, this is the new rhythm. They're like, that's weird that
I, I'm putting myself 1st and they're like, I have a little
doctor Shivani on my shoulder who reminds me all day, choose
me, do self-care. And I'm then I've won.
(34:06):
If that's the way you hear me Perfect.
And those are some of the key pieces.
Now, can we use super spices forautoimmune?
Of course, anti-inflammatory, gut healing, firm ginger, some
of those spices, ashwagandha that I mentioned are all
beneficial, but it really startswith all the pieces I mentioned
and food. And so one big message I gave to
my employee today was you need to make sure you're cutting all
(34:28):
the inflammatory foods out of your life and allowing the gut
to heal. And those are those inflammatory
foods I mentioned. So really, putting yourself on a
protocol, maybe it's two weeks, maybe it's three weeks, but cut
out the insults to your system to let your body heal itself and
get on the right path towards reversing it.
And so how does it a more digestive health, gut brain
(34:48):
connection impact our mood, our cognition and the aging process?
That's a great question. I'm pretty obsessed with brain.
It's been a obsession of mine for maybe 10 years and I've
always leaned on my intelligencefor doing and creating
everything I want. But having kids change things,
all of a sudden I was like, wait, I only have access to like
(35:09):
60% of my brain. Something changed.
Then I got it back through gut healing, building a healthy
microbiome, reducing stress, allthe things I've talked about so
far. And then now perimenopause.
Wow. And menopause is coming around
the corner. Whole different ball game when
we talk about aging and we look at these huge endocrine brain
shifts that happen. And there's so much science
(35:32):
coming out right now around thattopic.
Doctor, I think her name is LisaMoscone, just published a book
talking about how menopause is not just menopause and it
happens to your uterus. It is an entire system shift and
it's a huge shift to the brain. And so that's where HRT, hormone
replacement therapy and these things are coming online to say,
hey, if you want to actually agewell, you need to give your body
(35:54):
estrogen over the long haul because the the deficit and the
the lowering of your estrogen will have such a catastrophic
effect on a multi system standpoint.
And so when we talk about brain,I think about are we giving our
brains food? Walnuts are brain food.
So I try to incorporate a few walnuts every day.
Are we incorporating an anti-inflammatory gut diet
(36:15):
that's gut supportive? Because the gut brain access is
100% connected. I love talking on Alzheimer's
summits and things like that because the level of the level
of support spices like turmeric and ginger can give to the brain
over the long haul are kind of astounding to me.
Because every time I, I dive into the science, I'm like,
(36:36):
wait, the, I'm forgetting all the names this morning.
But there's the glial cells and the microglia, amyloid plaques,
Tau tangles, curcumin from turmeric has an effect on all
those aspects of the brain. And so I really do look at it as
Ayurveda showed us an entire lifestyle that's brain
supported. We should live that beautiful
(36:57):
lifestyle, the preventive healthy lifestyle, circadian
rhythm, sleep, all these things we just spoke about.
And turmeric can be that much more of a level up, an upgrade
in our approach to brain health and really preserving that brain
health over the long term. As a woman, I really do think
about it a lot like brain healthis one of my main desires to
(37:19):
have. I was telling my employee today,
I said, you know, my number one reason for a lot of things I'm
doing is for my brain because I know my brain is what's letting
me teach my my mission. It's letting me do all this
work. Would I like a beautiful fit
body? If that's muscular at all times,
sure. But if that's not going to be
the thing I get to have and I get to keep my brain firing on
all cylinders to get to do my work and and live my life at the
(37:41):
highest level, I will always choose brain 1st.
And I get there by investing in gut first because Ayurveda said
your gut is every single system.If you can have a healthy,
robust digestive fire, a fire that's strong, that metabolizes
everything you eat, that takes every thought, emotion and
consumes it for you, and the residue you're given is what we
(38:02):
call Ojas, this vitality and energy and vibrancy, then you're
doing right. And then when you have moments
in your life where a surgery or a trauma or things in life that
happened, maybe someone passes, you have grief, you get kind of
knocked off your pedestal and all of a sudden everything goes
down. It's OK, you, you've lost the
fire. Let's, let's rekindle it.
Let's bring it back up. Get that energy back at that
(38:22):
vitality back. Then you'll have brain online
and everything else online. So it's just Ayurveda is a very
different vantage point and viewpoint into health, into
preventive health and into alignment of all systems.
Instead of thinking of ourselvesas 100 different parts.
And if my uterus is useless, youcan take that and my
gallbladder's useless and you can take that.
We really look at it as how do you bring the whole system
(38:45):
online at once and then hold andmaintain that beautiful
lifestyle. So for someone who's new to
Ayurveda, who's intrigued by this approach to aging, well,
what is 1 simple place to start today?
One simple place to start that Ilove is with a copper tongue
scraper and a copper tongue scraper.
Sounds kind of random, but by starting your morning and
(39:08):
brushing your teeth and then gently scraping the tongue 7 to
14 times, you're going to igniteyour digestive fire.
You're going to clear out all the organs of the body from
having this toxin residue that forms in all of us.
And you're going to taste your food better, which is 1 big step
towards eating better and eatingwell as well.
And that's one of the simple things we can bring online that
(39:28):
I love from Maya Vida. That's the first self-care
reminder before you start the rest of your day.
So I always use my tongue scraper and then I'm like, OK,
what am I going to do for my gut?
Oh, I'm going to start my day with warm water.
I'm going to have warm water before I caffeinate.
OK, That's my next good thing I'm going to do OK, I'm going to
start my day. I'm going to remember my
supplements. Perfect.
I'll take my turmeric, I'll do all the good things and then it
(39:50):
goes on from there. So I like to kick off the day
with a distinct self-care habit that then leads to all the
others I want to do. Is there a phrase for baby
steps? I don't know it that's so funny
though. It is.
Baby steps. You know, Ayurveda is all about
self love and vibrancy. And so it's just saying, look,
(40:12):
you have the capacity within youto heal anything.
You have the capacity within youto have any level of energy and
vibrancy you want. It's all up to you.
It just comes down to your ability to really tune into
yourself, tune into your intuition, and build that
lifestyle for yourself. So you've alluded to some of
this already, but in addition tothe turmeric, the
(40:35):
supplementation, the diet, the sleep, what else are you doing
personally to age well? Good question.
I have one habit that I didn't mention that's one of my
favorites called Tea Time is Me Time.
I built this one into the Ayurvedic self-care rituals
because at this moment, at about45 years old, I'm a mom, I'm an
entrepreneur, I'm an author. I have a Hay House book coming
(40:57):
out next year. I'm a speaker.
And then I try to just stop right there because once I add
too many things on the plate, I,I get really dysregulated.
And so I have a beautiful team of women around me who are
working so hard to help with my mission to share term work with
the world. But I also acknowledge that
working way too hard and pushingevery boundary with my body has
(41:19):
a contradictory effect compared to what I get to teach.
And it's contradictory for my own body.
So every year I look at my seasons and I say, OK, January
through May, I'm going to let you work really hard.
You're going to focus you're on your racetrack, but yourself
care and diet has to be dialed in.
So I have all my systems in place for sleeping well.
I have my blackout shades. I have my rhythms for great
(41:41):
sleep. I have my supplement drawers
ready and organized that show melike this is your plan for today
in order I have I have fresh food made in my house four days
a week, which is really important to me because food is
the center of everything. And as a wife, my main job in my
opinion is feeding these kids great food and my husband.
So I make sure the food is organic fresh.
(42:04):
It's not always local. That's a goal I have is to shop
more at the local market. But implementation of healthy,
good food and everyone getting nutrient density and nutrient
variety, including me, is a really important key piece to my
aging well plan. Because if I'm not giving my
body the the building blocks, then I don't get to have
anything I want in my life because I will be running on
(42:26):
empty. And then every once in a while
when I go to functional medicine, I get these report
cards that are not good and I'm like, OK, there's work to be
done still. That's fine.
I know there's always work to bedone.
I'm living in a place where the food is kind of stripped of its
nutrition. So I'm eating well, but I might
not be getting everything. So then I usually take the
summer season to really recalibrate.
(42:46):
I'm a bit the dosha. I'm a fire.
So summer is when it's burning hot in South Florida and I take
that time and I always travel with my kids and I sit down and
say, OK, what detox can I do? How can I support my health?
What are the new supplements I need to put in place?
Where am I going to take these things for three months and then
test blood work again and see where I got to?
So for me, it's very much a planning systems.
(43:09):
Do it with love, but also pause,have tea time is me time and
just check in with myself every day.
How are you doing today? Everything OK?
Is energy on .0? You haven't moved your body yet?
OK, let's go move so it can be as simple as tuning in to get
the most important answers that we need to move forward.
That's really one of those many practices of mindfulness that we
(43:31):
can do in a daily basis. Exactly.
And it can be with coffee, it can be with tea.
But it it's an opportunity. I can't chug hot tea.
I'm going to have to sip it. And so because I have to sip my
beverage, I'm actually taking a moment to tune into myself.
Could I do it while watching TV and staying distracted?
Of course, but I, I choose five times a day to pause and take
that moment. And a lot of times my intuition
(43:53):
gives me really interesting answers, like you forgot to pay
for the pool guy. Random thoughts.
Or it'll be like you forgot to take your supplements today.
The schedule you just made for this week is really bad.
You need to change that. You can't do that to yourself or
you said yes to this and this where you gonna have dinner.
And so just things like that arereally insightful because our
(44:14):
own intuition knows the answers.We are just ignoring it.
And so that's where I love this habit.
So simple, but so effective. So how can our viewers and
listeners connect with you? I know you've mentioned a couple
times different websites and things like that, but more
important, can you tell us a little bit more about this
upcoming book and where our viewers and listeners can find
it? Definitely.
So my website is my name, shivanigupta.com.
(44:37):
So it's SHIVANIGUP, ta.com, and on that website is my dosha
quiz. I have a lot of different guides
for sleep. I have a seven day inflammation
challenge. Everything is there.
And from that site you can get to my supplement company,
fusionaryformulas.com. And I made a special code for
your audience aging well. We'll give them 15% off at
(44:59):
Fusionary to try out my turmeric.
We'll make sure that people get to that and we have all those
links in the description notes. Thank you.
Is there anything we missed talking about today?
I mean, I, I'm excited that is as we go through this and we've
had several different guests andI'm going to probably connect
some of those. Like Jeremy Rocksmith is a chef
who really has incorporated Aruba practices into his cooking
(45:25):
and his meditation, his practiceand everything.
It was a really great episode. We had a, a dentist and I'm
trying to blank on her Nami, Nami Patel, who is a, a green
dentist and she, you know, incorporates a lot of these same
practices. And it's just like, you know, as
we go, you know, I tend to distance myself much more from
(45:45):
Western medicine and I'm starting to latch on to just,
you know, just a natural healingfrom within the body.
The things that we can change isto sleep, regular exercise, good
diet, maintaining healthy body composition, not smoking, having
good relationships, ships, all these things that can really
heal us. And in reality, I've with the
(46:06):
exception of maybe some of the foods and the spices because
I've grown up in the United States and I have a much more
Western diet, which I need to fix.
But in in general, a lot of these practices really kind of
fall under arubic practices. And so I'm really kind of
excited to have you on today to get this out to our listeners
(46:27):
and our viewers. And, you know, just keep diving
into it. We'll probably have to have you
back on for some more follow up information.
But yeah, I just appreciate whatyou're doing and just kind of
keep aging well. Thank you, thank you for having
me and, and thank you for summarizing that so beautifully.
You're right. So many of us are teaching all
these different aspects of agingwell and using some of these
(46:50):
Ayurvedic principles. And so my mission is just to
share. Look, this is Ayurveda and we
all have this opportunity, like you said, to just build an
amazing lifestyle. And that lifestyle will prevent
us most likely from having to goto the doctor.
When I go to the doctor, I do appreciate that they have the
tools that they have when I needthem, I need them.
But if I can sit here and do thework to never have to go, that's
(47:12):
also my biggest dream. So it's just about building that
that beautiful lifestyle to age well.
So thank you for having me. You're welcome, and I'll work on
practicing how to pronounce Ayurveda.
Sounds good. Thank you for listening.
I hope you benefited from today's podcast and until next
time, keep aging well.
Welcome to the Aging Walk podcast, where we explore the
science stories and strategies behind living a longer,
healthier, and more purposeful life.
My guest is Doctor Shivani Gupta.
Doctor Gupta is an authority in integrative medicine, blending
ancient Ayurvedic wisdom with cutting edge clinical research.
With over 2 decades of study in both India and the USA, PhD
(00:29):
focused on turmeric's therapeutic power and the number
one best selling book. She's helped shape a modern
understanding of how natural solutions can support energy,
brain health, mobility, and longevity.
In this episode, we explore the Ayurvedic approach to aging
well, from gut health and inflammation to personalized
body type assessments and autoimmune support.
(00:50):
Doctor Gupta's work has been featured on top health podcasts
and stages across the country, And today she's here to share
some of that wisdom with you. Doctor Gupta, welcome to the
Aging Well podcast. You have dedicated over 20 years
to studying Ayurveda. What initially drew you to this
ancient system of healing? Sure.
So I grew up in Texas and I grewup going to India every year of
(01:15):
my life. And when I'd go to India, when I
got sick, my grandma would take some herbs right from the
kitchen, make a tea out of it, make a paste, make something out
of it, some concoction or elixir, and give it to me.
And I'd get all better. And when I was the US, we'd go
to the pediatrician, get a script, go get antibiotics, and
I'd get better as well. So I was living in two worlds,
(01:36):
always wondering who's right. Because here in the US,
amoxicillin tastes like bubble gum and it's really fun.
And when I go to India, her spices are really stinky, but
they do make me feel way better.And so Fast forward, once I got
to 20s age, around 20 years old in college, I realized all the
level antibiotic use I had used through my childhood had damaged
(01:56):
my gut. I went to the nurse at school
and I was like, hey, can you give me an antibiotic?
I'm sick. They're like, no, no, no, we
can't give you anything else based on what you just said, you
just took in India. No, we can't do all that stuff
to you. So basically through heavy
antibiotic use, I realized I haddamaged my gut, couldn't eat a
lot of the foods I wanted to eat, couldn't have orange juice,
which I loved. And I looked at my parents.
(02:17):
I said, you know, if we're in India and we're visiting again
and we're in the land of Ayurveda and yoga, this thing
called Ayurveda, I wanted to go figure out what it is because it
sounds like it has the healing tools I need for my body.
And I went on a quest with my parents for years in college,
post college. And when I realized that
Ayurveda had this wisdom and tool kit inside of it that could
(02:39):
transform our health and give usa healthy immune system, I was
sold. And so from there I studied it.
And then after that, I thought, we all need to understand this.
We all need to use this. And that's been my mission for
the last 20 years. And so your PhD focused
specifically on turmeric. What did your research uncover
that most people don't know about this route?
Sure. So I ended up doing my master's
(03:00):
in Ayurvedic sciences. My dream was, OK, you learned
Ayurveda in India, but why don'tyou formally study this science,
this medical wisdom, and understand it so you can write
books about it, so you can teachabout it.
So I did my master's and when I was sitting in herbology class,
the teacher started to explain all the benefits of all the
spices, turmeric, ginger, ashwagandha, all the adaptogens
(03:24):
and what they could do. And I thought, wow, I'm Indian.
Like you're talking about what'sin my spice cabinet in my
kitchen and you're saying it cando all that.
That's superfood level benefits.But then why aren't we using
these superfoods? Like we use superfoods in the
West. In the West we're using maca
powder and matcha and we're using blueberries and salmon and
we're reaching into a lot of goji berries, chia seeds, like
(03:45):
we're reaching for everything that's anti-inflammatory and
antioxidant. And so if you're saying all the
spices do that, how, how do we not, how are we not using this
toolkit that's readily availableto us?
And so my advisor at the time was like, you should do a PhD.
And I was like, I don't have thetime or interest to do a PhD.
And he's like, I'm telling you for the way you want to impact
(04:05):
APHD would be great. What topic would you like to
cover? I said, well, I'm really
obsessed with turmeric. I can't believe turmeric can do
everything they're saying it cando.
It's kind of astounding. He's like, OK, well, let's get
started. If that's not the topic, we'll
figure it out pretty quick. But let's see.
So at that time there about 10,000 scientific articles and
clinical trials and published papers in Pub Med.
(04:25):
Now 10 years later, 7 to 10 years later, it's at 17,000.
So the science is exponentially growing on turmeric.
And what most people don't know is out of the entire turmeric
plant, only 3% is the curcuminoids.
And of that 3% that's giving youthe maximum benefit, only the
one curcumin is the most effective at reducing
(04:46):
inflammation. And so I say that because a lot
of people will think, oh, I can just add more turmeric to my we
can, but it doesn't deliver the biggest result.
Now you ask, what are the benefits?
Turmeric has a million benefits.The the favorites that I talk
about are it's a very powerful natural anti-inflammatory.
So it's being studied heavily because of the number of
pathways it impacts from an inflammatory standpoint and the
(05:10):
fact that it can help with jointpain naturally and we don't have
to take a lot of big drugs and things is a pretty big deal.
Then it's a very powerful antioxidant and it reverses
oxidation in the system. So when we talk about aging and
rusting in the system, turmeric,in my opinion, is one of those
primary ways we can support antioxidant benefits into the
system. Then it's antiviral,
(05:30):
antibacterial and antifungal. That's where turmeric had me
sold because I needed an immune system that works.
So now I use it as my guard in the world just to keep healthy
and never get sick. Then it's also very gut
supportive. So turmeric really functions
like this ultimate janitor. It comes into your body, cleans
everything out that doesn't belong there, and leaves what's
(05:51):
good inside. Antibiotics don't do that.
Antibiotics will kill everythingoff.
So I needed to find a new solution that would help me,
defend me, but also support me in the long run when it came to
gut health. So turmeric is supportive of the
gut microbiome, helps with rebuilding the gut lining,
clears out any cells that need to be cleared out, causes
autophagy, causes cell death, apoptosis.
(06:14):
It's a very powerful tool. Also for liver, it's a hepato
supportive. It's also very good for anti
aging. So I'm trying to like think
through my PowerPoints. I have a lot of PowerPoints I
present from on this topic. So it impacts our sirtuins, our
telomeres and a lot of the anti aging pieces as well.
So I love that it's anti-inflammatory.
We know that's important. Most of us are suffering from
(06:36):
inflammation. I love that it's antioxidant.
We're all, not all, but most of us are worried about aging and
aging well and aging in a healthy way, which is what your
podcast is about. And then that third piece of gut
supportive, immune supportive isreally important to me as well.
And then finally, longevity. We, you know, we talk so much
about longevity and living for along time.
(06:57):
I actually don't need to live till 100 or past a certain
number, but I do care about thatquality of life.
And so the fact that it's so supportive to all the aging
markers in the body that can be slowing us down, to me makes it
the best super food that exists.So I'm not doing a bad thing by
putting it in my coffee in the morning.
No, not at all. Any amount you take is good.
(07:19):
I think it's so important to take some when I finished my
PHDI was like, well, why is no one using this in orthopedics,
in rheumatology, in all of medicine?
Like if if it's such a good anti-inflammatory.
And what I realized is the supplement world is not really
trusted, which happens right that we know that supplements
can be they're not regulated. Supplements sometimes are made
(07:41):
just to be sold on the shelf. They're just marketed well.
And so I went out and built my own supplement line because my
dream was, can I convince all ofWestern medicine to use a
supplement in their office? And so now thousands of people
take it by opening in their coffee and and doing things like
what you're saying, using it in their food as well.
Yeah, I just have a bag of powder of it and I just kind of
put a big, relatively big scoop,probably too much because it
(08:03):
settles down in the bottom. And yeah, I got to be careful
what I touch. Stain my white cup, my coffee
cup a little bit yellow, but. Just doesn't.
Stain clothing so. Yeah, I mean you can wash it out
of your clothes. Just make sure you use black
pepper or a healthy fat. I know that black pepper
increases the absorption by 2000%.
(08:25):
I worked in the lab in Houston where the scientists discovered
that when I was in high school, which was pretty cool.
And then we know that healthy fat helps that tumor cross the
blood brain barrier and helps with absorption as well.
So just make sure that you know,that's why Bulletproof coffee
was with fat in our I mean, he did it because of fasting
purposes and keeping us full, but you could also add ghee or a
fat to the coffee to help that absorption.
(08:46):
So would coconut oil be OK? Yeah, MCT coconut would be
great. That's what I do.
So I haven't ventured into the pepper.
I just, I don't know how much pepper and what that's gonna do
to my coffee, but it tastes great.
I mean, I barely taste it in thecoffee.
It's just, it just gives it a little bit more of a smoothness
to it. And we also put a little bit of
flaxseed, ground flaxseed when we brew the coffee, we have a
(09:10):
little bit extra Omega threes. And so that hopefully is
supportive as well. That's awesome.
That's great. And I'm actually 100 years old,
so it seems to be working like what?
Right. We'll be 62 in a couple weeks
here. So how does RU Veda view aging
differently than kind of modern Western medicine?
I'm sure there's a big difference.
(09:31):
There's a huge difference. Such a beautiful question,
really. So I review this whole goal is
to bring body, mind and spirit into alignment.
The entire lifestyle that IR Veda teaches is a preventive
lifestyle. So it's a lifestyle that shows
you how to age well every singleday.
The goal is every day you wake up, you align to your circadian
(09:52):
rhythm. Nature's clock is the clock, and
if we can live in alignment withthat clock, our body, every
system, every cell can function better, which is part of the
aging process. If we're going to define
nature's clock and go against it, all of a sudden that's where
we 'cause dis ease inflammation and all those different
problems. Ayurveda also talks about how we
eat and when we eat, not just what we eat.
(10:15):
The modern day cultures obsessedwith food and and are you
carnivore? Are you vegan or are you this,
are you that paleo? Like pick a plan.
We've, we've most of us have alltried so many of them, but
Ayurveda teaches it's actually about how you eat and when you
eat and whatever you are going to eat, eat it with love.
Eat it fresh, Don't microwave itand kill it.
Like just pay attention to the love you're putting in that food
(10:37):
and that and the blessings you put on the food is actually as
important as what it is. Doesn't matter what it is, as
long as you made it with love, sourced it with love and it
really are doing your best. So I teach everyone, sit down
when you're eating, when you're about to eat.
Don't chug a glass of ice water in a restaurant.
Have a hot tea instead. Sip a few sips of it if you're
really thirsty because you forgot to hydrate outside of
(10:58):
your meals. But IRV, the teachers don't eat
within 30 minutes of your meals before or after.
So the IRV, the toolkit for whatyou're talking about, which is
aging well and and having that longevity is about circadian
rhythm alignment, sleeping well,investing in really phenomenal
gut health. Gut health is a big key piece of
everything I teach. Then we talk about how you eat
(11:20):
and when you eat. We talk about the Sothvik diet,
which is a everything in the world that is made by nature is
fine to eat, but make sure it's cooked fresh, make sure we're
really paying attention to that quality.
Then I teach about the daily self-care rituals that we can do
in a rhythm. And a lot of those self-care
rituals are actually detoxing because the world is going to
cause some level of toxic burdenin the system.
(11:43):
And our job is to do a seasonal circadian detox to help cleanse
that out and move that out and move it along.
So little habits like using a tongue scraper or doing oil
pulling or hydrating well to make sure you have a daily bowel
movement. Simple things really that are
pretty free actually or nearly free are good at detoxing the
body for our longevity and for aging well.
(12:05):
And then finally, I teach a lot about about how we can fuse all
these things together and build a rhythm and lifestyle around it
that creates peace and that helps us stay grounded.
And then one final big piece, which I should have said first,
is our doshas or our elements. We teach that each one of us has
an individual constitution or either vata, Pitta, or guffa.
(12:27):
The first one vata is Aaron Ether.
The middle one, Pitta is fire. The final one is earth with
water guffa. And so each of us, if we take a
dosha quiz, we'll see what our constitution is and then we can
navigate all those things that Italked about more on an
individual basis customized to us and our body.
And so that's kind of the spectrum of topics from Ayurveda
(12:48):
that I like to teach about for our longevity, for prevention,
for us to age well and to, to stay healthy and vibrant.
The goal of Ayurveda is vibrancy.
So, you know, we believe in karma.
And so I can't control what my destiny is.
I don't know if I get to live till 50607080 or 90, but
whatever that age may be, my entire focus is my vibrant
(13:09):
health. How is my gut brain access?
How is my level of energy? How's my level of joy?
Am I doing the things in my lifeto have that absolute level of
joy and peace that I crave? And when I do, I know that I'm
doing everything right in my daily life.
So I've actually been following Ayurveda pretty well without
really intending to. I mean, I, we talk sleep a lot
(13:31):
on this podcast and you know, mymost recent doctor's
appointment, my cholesterol was high and they're immediately
wanting to put me on statins. And I'm no, not going to do
statins. I know my sleep has been
disrupted because I've been tracking that for a while.
I've been asking it's it's takenme a year to get tested for
sleep apnea and another week anda half before I actually get my
(13:53):
C pap. But you know, I'm focused on,
you know, get that sleep in order, you know, eating earlier
in the day, going more of a circadian fast and getting to
bed early, getting good quality sleep, getting that restorative
sleep, do my turmeric in the morning and, you know, just
trying to eat the foods that aregoing to promote that, you know,
healthier system. Getting my cortisol.
(14:14):
I mean, I think cortisol is something that we don't talk
about a lot. You know, we'll talk about
testosterone therapy and all that for our old parts like
myself, but we don't talk about what are you doing to get your
cholesterol in order. And it sounds like everything
that we need to do is there in Aruda.
Yes, yeah, everything is there and it's it's just about
(14:34):
implementation. It's just about the desire to
put that plan in place. Is it easier to take a pill?
It controls the number and the blood works fine.
Yeah, that's easier. I I don't disagree that some
things are easier. But in the long run, did you
address the root cause? And so Ayurveda is looking for
what are your root causes? Where did you get disharmonious
with your circadian rhythm, withyour constitution, with your
(14:56):
lifestyle? And how can we bring you back
into the alignment? Because once we do, these
numbers should fix themselves. Whenever my blood work comes
back like that, I'm like, are you walking enough?
Are you moving enough? Are you just sitting in your
chair all day, 8 hours a day? And then you pick up the kids
and then it's dinner and then you're done.
That is a choice. I make that choice very
consciously 'cause I'm building my business and I love it.
(15:18):
But I also have learned every time it's a pre interview call,
every time it's a phone call, start walking.
Every time it's a meeting walk. We don't have to do everything
on Zoom. We have an opportunity to to
shift things. We can build in a morning walk
and an evening walk. So really it's about how are you
rebuilding your lifestyle in thenatural way to win at these
goals? And we talked a lot on this
podcast about inflam aging and, and that kind of stuff.
(15:40):
And inflammation is often considered to be the root of
chronic disease. And that's certainly the the
stance we take on the Aging Wellpodcast.
So how does Aruba address inflammation and why is that so
important for Aging Well? Sure.
So Ayurveda looks at inflammation as the cause to our
(16:01):
behavior not being right. So it's the the symptom, it's
the end result of not doing the IRA the lifestyle.
And so according to IRA the lifestyle, we would sleep really
well. We would have self-care rituals
for bed. We would cut off dinner 3 hours
before bed. So a lot of times I teach 7:00
dinner be complete next hour, wrap up your house life,
(16:23):
whatever it is you have to get done and prepare for the next
day, unwind, relax, self-care. And so that's actually the start
of reversing inflammation is thenight before.
We think of it so much as what we're going to put in the belly
on the day of. And I think of it as, let's
start with your evening. If your evening routine can line
up to deep sleep according to the circadian clock from
(16:45):
Ayurveda, people think circadianrhythm is a new concept.
It's not. It's a 5000 year old concept
from Ayurveda that says that 1:50 on that circadian clock is
the most important time to sleep, and that sleep is twice
as valuable as the sleep you're going to get after it.
Because 9:50 to 2 is when the janitors come out in your body
and clear off the glymphatic system in your brain.
(17:07):
Clear your lymphatic system around your gut, clear out the
body, clear any excess emotions and thoughts and mindsets that
we had through the day that didn't serve us, that needed to
be cleared out of the system. And so if you don't let the
janitor do his job, you're not going to win at your health.
And I've noticed that when I travel sometimes if my sleep is
crap, the next day, my brain is so foggy and I'm like, you know
(17:29):
what you did? You cut off the janitor's
ability to do his job. And this is the price you're
going to pay so you can drop your inflammation.
You know how to take a potent turmeric and win at that job.
You need to fix this tonight. And so I'll take my own sleep
gummies that I developed or my sleep teeth.
Like for me, sleep is the first step.
Then the next day we have opportunities.
I think turmeric, of course, since I studied it, is the most
(17:50):
powerful way to reduce inflammation.
Is everyone on the planet going to benefit the most from
turmeric? No, some people are more ginger
people, some people are more allthe other anti inflammatories
foods we know about people. But for me, turmeric has worked
for 99% of who I've spoken to. And so I always tell people you
can add turmeric into your life three times a day and allow it's
anti-inflammatory effect to support you because life is
(18:13):
inflammatory, this life we're living.
This cup could be made with lead.
I should probably test it because I I never know with all
the things I buy. I drink out of glass water
bottles. I try not to have plastic water
bottles. I don't want the microplastic
effect. Our cleaning products, our air
quality, our water quality or food quality or pesticides,
right? So there's, there's a whole
category called things that willcause trouble in the body.
(18:36):
The body has to fight it and thus we're creating
inflammation. And So what I like to do is have
a preventive like guard in place.
So I use a lot of sleep solutions as needed.
I try not to use them every day.And then I use a lot of turmeric
throughout my day to keep that inflammation down.
And then I really do implement a, an Ayurvedic diet into my
(18:57):
life where it's eating on my circadian clock, It's living
according to my circadian rhythm.
I think one big problem we have nowadays as we push ourselves so
hard, you mentioned cortisol, stress hormone.
If we're going to be stressed, we're going to be creating
inflammation. And so every time a topic comes
along that really stresses me out, sometimes it's like
politics, World News, any of that stuff, I'll be like, Oh my
(19:18):
gosh, I don't have to stress everybody out.
If the collective is stressed, we're all stressed.
If we're all stressed, we're allinflamed.
If we're all inflamed, we're allgoing to create disease.
And so really when we when people talk about mindfulness
and meditation and all those practices, they sound hard to
do, but your job is just to findthe one you love the most.
So for me, walking in nature is the best way to clear my mind,
(19:40):
clear my energy. I'm not a good meditator.
I'm not a good like sit still and think about nothing person
because a million thoughts run through.
You didn't go to the take the kids to the dentist, you didn't
whatever those thoughts are. And so if walking does it for
you, walk 3 miles a day in nature and just do your deep
breathing and relaxation then. But that is a big part of.
(20:02):
Inflammation. So we can't just take really
cool awesome anti inflammatories.
We have to invest in sleep. Sleep is when you clear that
inflammation. That's the janitor's job.
Clear inflammation and create all the healing and rejuvenation
and regeneration we need throughout the day.
Eat an anti-inflammatory diet based on your current health
issues, take the right supplements, and then finally
add in the practices to reduce stress and any toxic burdens so
(20:26):
that you don't create more inflammation as well.
So don't watch the news. Don't watch the news.
I don't watch the news. It's not worth it.
I don't either. No, it's just a stress causing
box is how I look at it. Yeah, it doesn't help me.
So you talk about a 72 hour gut reset using Arubic principles.
What does that look like and howdoes IT support longevity?
(20:47):
So in Ayurveda, we taught about intermittent fasting.
We were pretty gentle about it compared to how we look at it
right now. And in Ayurvedic fast, you would
do 12 to 12, like a 12 hour fast.
You'd finish dinner by 7, not really eat before 7.
And you could extend that a bit by two to three more hours.
I don't think Ayurveda would have taught us the 16-8 fast
(21:08):
that a lot of people do. I know a lot of people are
getting benefits from it which is fine, but Ayurveda was
actually more about moderation and more about being gentle with
our system and not being so harsh and setting such harsh
boundaries. So a 72 hour gut reset in my
mind is whenever your gut is offbecause a lot of times people
don't understand the level of gut dysbiosis and gut issues
(21:30):
they have. I really do wish everyone got a
stool test annually in addition to annual blood work and got
that report card because every other year I do a stool test and
every time the report cards likewhat the heck have you been
doing over there? Because that's what my doctor
said to me a few weeks ago. What are you doing?
90% of your gut microbiome is gone.
I was like, I don't know. So we investigated and it was
(21:51):
mold and we learned, OK, Shimanihad mold in her house.
It affected her gut. Now we're going to put a leaky
gut protocol in place. So I love fusing modern science
with the ancient wisdom because when you have these diagnostics,
they're very black and white andthey show you what's going on
from the IR Veda perspective. Earlier than that, we should
have been able to recognize the slow symptoms that were
accumulating. Did you have brain fog, green
(22:13):
fog We can tie to gut. Did you have gut disruption?
Was your bowel movement off? Well, that would have indicated
a problem. Were you having stomach aches
after you ate? Is your body like not able to
digest things like it normally does?
That indicates a problem. And so anytime your gut is
feeling off and you're like, I don't know what's wrong with me,
but something is up, I always take 1-2 or three days and just
(22:33):
do a gut reset. I take the time to eat very
light, easy to digest foods. We have one of those foods in IR
Veda, it's called khichdi. It's just taking split mung
beans and rice. Put it in a pressure cooker,
minimal spices, just like salt, human turmeric, simple.
And that dish is like a porridge.
It's very easy to digest. So the goal is give the gut a
(22:56):
day of rest. For some people, you could
probably do a water fast and you're fine.
I just did a three day water fast.
I wouldn't call that easy but I did it as a huge almost harsh
gut reset, but a full on reset with Ayurvedic herbal teas and
things like that. If the if the prognosis is big
enough, you can go up to that level, which I really needed a
(23:18):
gut healing in place. But in IR VE though, we would
have done Quichridi 3 times a day or just nothing hard to
digest, no cold foods. It would be something hot.
You can do a soup fast all day, eat soup all day and all of a
sudden the gut got a break. It got a chance to not have to
deal with roughage and food that's hard to digest.
Nothing inflammatory. So the top five inflammatory
(23:39):
foods are gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol, and I add red meat in
there, which is not true for everybody, but it's harder to
digest. So I always ask everyone to cut
the inflammatory foods, make space in your life, eat
something easy to digest all dayand then the next day re enter
nicely. So that's Ayurveda's perspective
(23:59):
is let's give the gut a break sometime so it can heal itself.
The body has everything it needsto heal itself.
We just get in the way. So what are some of the key
Ayurvedic herbs and supplements that you recommend for energy,
cognitive clarity, joint mobility in those types of
things? Well, my favorite favorite above
all is turmeric. I do think it does the job
really well. I've been in the turmeric world
(24:21):
for 10 years working alongside doctors showing them how
effective it can be for chronic joint pain and for their
patients. So turmeric first is always my
game plan with people. Try this now if you don't get
the maximum benefits that you wanted.
I actually created 2 turmeric formula so they can stack those.
Now once we move past turmeric, which I do think is the number
one, then we start talking aboutother super spices.
(24:44):
So ginger is really powerful. It's a sister plant to turmeric.
So you can take ginger, have ginger tea, ginger lemon tea.
You can incorporate more ginger in your food.
It's also a good digestive support.
It lines the gut. It helps most people take it for
nausea, but it's actually very good for gut and inflammation as
well. Even other spices like cilantro,
(25:06):
we use cilantro a lot in Indian cooking.
It's a heavy metal detoxer. So taking that everyday and just
putting it into your food. We buy coriander seeds and grind
them and then use that into almost every dish we cook.
So imagine if every day you are getting a gentle heavy metal
detox so that heavy metals couldn't accumulate.
That would be beneficial. Another one is cumin seeds.
(25:27):
So anytime you're going to heat up leftovers, you can take oil,
put it in the pan, butter key, anything you use to heat your
food food and add cumin seeds and wait till they're kind of
dancing in the pan and then put the food on it.
And what that's going to do is it's going to remove the gassy
party, the gassy tendencies of that food.
So a lot of times we eat old food and then we're like, Oh, I,
(25:49):
I don't feel that great. I don't feel energy from it.
So what that cumin does is it removes the, the difficulty of
digesting that food. It makes foods easier to digest,
so cumin is another one of my favorites.
We use cumin seeds at the base of every lentil and bean we cook
in the Arabic kitchen. So you're always going to take
oil and heat those cumin seeds and then start the cooking
(26:10):
process because lentils and beans are hard to digest.
Another great one, which is not for cooking but for taking in
supplement form, is ashwaganda. Ashwaganda is neurocognitive
support. It's an adaptogen.
It's kind of the king of all theadaptogens.
If you're stressed and anxious, it calms you down a few notches.
If you're depressed and feeling low, it lifts you up a few
notches. It calms down the mind and calms
(26:32):
down the system. So right after turmeric, my next
favorite is special Ganda. So that's why I built that one
into two of my teas and unwind tea in a deep sleep tea.
So I was like, we could all justunwind a notch.
We might not crave a lot of the chocolate or wine or the things
we're craving just to help us take life down a few notches.
We could just get that from the herb from the plant itself.
(26:53):
So yeah, those are some of my favorites when it comes to the
spices of Ayurveda. So let's kind of go back to the
concept of the doshas that you talked about earlier.
How does knowing your type help tailor your health choices as as
we age? So as we're aging, it's so
important to know what your constitution is.
On my website at Doctor shivani.com, I have a those
(27:13):
showbiz. I encourage everyone to take it.
Once you take it, it'll fire right back at you and answer.
And it's so funny because peoplewill e-mail me and they're like,
how did you know all that about me?
I'm like, this is ancient wisdom.
I just get the honor of teachingit.
But if you are a vet that person, you are more air and
ether You might be more tall or short than your demographic.
You might be thin and wiry, small bones, small frame, long
(27:38):
Oval face, dry, brittle hair. These are some of the
characteristics of a vet that person.
And a vet that person is someonewho's a busy body.
They're always in motion. Imagine like a ceiling fan.
They just never stop. And so they have this soundless,
beautiful energy, but if it's not channeled right, it leads to
insomnia, leads to anxiety, leads to really disrupted gut
(27:58):
with Constipation and dryness inthe system.
And so our goal in Ayurveda is to support the Vata to be more
grounded and feel more whole so that they can finish what they
start, so they can use all that energy towards good and
creativity and the work that they're desiring without always
being caught in cycles of anxiety and stress.
Then you have fit the people. That's what fit the person is
more medium bodied, tends to have reddish, reddish hair,
(28:21):
reddish skin, tends to have early graying, tends to be a
very sharp person, ambitious, focused, very passionate person.
A bit the person also tends to get hangry and when imbalanced,
they're kind of like a volcano. They just erupt on everyone.
They're like a molten mess. They are angry, frustrated and
they take that out on everyone. And so and bit does tend to run
(28:44):
more inflamed because it's all about fire.
So they'll have heartburn and and a lot of inflammation in the
system is our job is to keep thebit does cool down so that they
can focus that energy on their passions and on their dreams and
what they're creating. And then finally of guffa, A
guffa person is grounded. This person is like bigger
boned, stronger, maybe heavier set.
(29:06):
They can lift heavier. They have that constitution of
like strength and resilience. This is someone who may have a
round face, round eyes, curly oily hair, rounder features, but
this person's also their nature is like Mother Nature.
They're that loyal person, the person who cares about everyone
around them and just stoically takes care of everyone.
(29:28):
They're that grandmother who nurtures and takes care of
everybody and feeds everyone with love.
And so guffaws are the sweetest friends.
They love everyone around them. They're only drawbacks that they
struggle with are slower metabolism.
They're very one thing at a time.
And society right now wants us to be 200 things at a time for
no good reason. So their nature is one thing at
(29:49):
a time and then guffas just struggle with once their day is
over and they sit down, they're not going to get up off the
couch again. They're just not.
They can't it's like Mother Earth sat down for the day.
And so my coaching with clients all the time is around.
OK, you're a bit darabatta, but you married a guffa.
Can you honor the beauty and awesomeness of having a guffa
(30:10):
treat, you know, rooted tree energy husband or partner and
accept that everything they do is amazing and once they sit
down, please don't ask them to get up like show love.
And so a lot of my coaching is this is your constitution.
This was your constitution at birth.
Let me get you back into alignment so you feel like
you're health in your body and then also let's understand the
(30:32):
people around us so we can support our families, so we can
support our kids. When people are of other dosha,
sometimes we just don't understand them.
But if you understood them, you could support them better as
well. Sounds like I'm going to take
that test today. Yeah, it helps.
It does help. Like for example, I'm married to
a guffa man, but he is somewhat fit that he's like go, go, go.
So if I'm leaving on the weekendto go to a conference, I will
(30:54):
feed him and the kids. Like, how about everyone's fed?
Then I know there will be peace when I leave.
That's my investment in my kids and him.
And I can do that with love because I understand the nuance
of what's needed in the situation.
So that's where I find that dosha quiz so cool.
I'm probably a bit leans a little bit go far.
Yeah, I could sense it meeting you.
I was like but he's probably somewhat bit that makes sense.
(31:16):
Yeah, and it's probably why sometimes I have the
inflammation problems and the sleep issues and all that kind
of stuff. Yeah, it can happen.
So you've worked with patients with autoimmune conditions.
What natural strategies have youfound most effective in managing
or reversing some of those symptoms?
It's interesting. I was just working with 1A
(31:37):
member of my team who has an autoimmune condition.
And I said, you know, here's thedeal.
Ayurveda says no matter what disease we create, we can
reverse it. And it's interesting being
American and living in the United States here, we're told,
oh, you have that. That's for life.
And and I always look at them like, are you kidding me?
You don't think the body can heal from anything?
(31:58):
And you don't think food is a part of that equation.
And so I'm always like, wow, youare never going to treat me or
my family, so goodbye forever. But when it comes to autoimmune,
I really look at that as what ishappening in the gut and why is
the gut revving up the immune system?
What are we doing that's put us into this position?
And when it comes to autoimmune,my own body has been like an
(32:20):
autoimmune body my whole life. That's what I suffered was gut
issues, felt like I had no immune system, felt like
everyone, someone's, every time someone sneezed, I'd catch a
sickness. And so my work has been, how do
you consistently honor the gut and build a gut microbiome
that's so robust and so healthy?How do you intuitively build a
(32:40):
system so that when something isawry, something is off, you're
quickly calibrating to it and giving your body what it needs?
How do we build nourishment and replenishment into the system?
I find that really difficult actually, because I'm
vegetarian. And so for me, it's a job to
focus on my supplementation in my food to really hold a body at
(33:01):
replenished. And as I age, I'm finding that's
even more of a job with more of a focus than it ever was before.
And so autoimmune, I really think of it as you, your body is
battling with itself for a reason.
And your job is to go dig, dig and dig until you figure out
what that is. Either it's got could be trauma
whole nervous system is in a in a dysregulated state and gear
(33:22):
and you got to shift that gear back for yourself.
Maybe it is you are high cortisol in your life.
You're always built to be perfectionist and going 200
miles an hour and that doesn't serve you.
And so how do you build the self-care rhythm from IR Veda
into your life? Non negotiable.
So that, yeah, you're going to be pretty intense, but can you
(33:43):
also be completely chill at different times of the day so
the body can recover and be in the parasympathetic?
And that might take work, that might take homework.
A lot of my clients are women. And so a lot of times I'm like,
hey, this is the new rhythm. They're like, that's weird that
I, I'm putting myself 1st and they're like, I have a little
doctor Shivani on my shoulder who reminds me all day, choose
me, do self-care. And I'm then I've won.
(34:06):
If that's the way you hear me Perfect.
And those are some of the key pieces.
Now, can we use super spices forautoimmune?
Of course, anti-inflammatory, gut healing, firm ginger, some
of those spices, ashwagandha that I mentioned are all
beneficial, but it really startswith all the pieces I mentioned
and food. And so one big message I gave to
my employee today was you need to make sure you're cutting all
(34:28):
the inflammatory foods out of your life and allowing the gut
to heal. And those are those inflammatory
foods I mentioned. So really, putting yourself on a
protocol, maybe it's two weeks, maybe it's three weeks, but cut
out the insults to your system to let your body heal itself and
get on the right path towards reversing it.
And so how does it a more digestive health, gut brain
(34:48):
connection impact our mood, our cognition and the aging process?
That's a great question. I'm pretty obsessed with brain.
It's been a obsession of mine for maybe 10 years and I've
always leaned on my intelligencefor doing and creating
everything I want. But having kids change things,
all of a sudden I was like, wait, I only have access to like
(35:09):
60% of my brain. Something changed.
Then I got it back through gut healing, building a healthy
microbiome, reducing stress, allthe things I've talked about so
far. And then now perimenopause.
Wow. And menopause is coming around
the corner. Whole different ball game when
we talk about aging and we look at these huge endocrine brain
shifts that happen. And there's so much science
(35:32):
coming out right now around thattopic.
Doctor, I think her name is LisaMoscone, just published a book
talking about how menopause is not just menopause and it
happens to your uterus. It is an entire system shift and
it's a huge shift to the brain. And so that's where HRT, hormone
replacement therapy and these things are coming online to say,
hey, if you want to actually agewell, you need to give your body
(35:54):
estrogen over the long haul because the the deficit and the
the lowering of your estrogen will have such a catastrophic
effect on a multi system standpoint.
And so when we talk about brain,I think about are we giving our
brains food? Walnuts are brain food.
So I try to incorporate a few walnuts every day.
Are we incorporating an anti-inflammatory gut diet
(36:15):
that's gut supportive? Because the gut brain access is
100% connected. I love talking on Alzheimer's
summits and things like that because the level of the level
of support spices like turmeric and ginger can give to the brain
over the long haul are kind of astounding to me.
Because every time I, I dive into the science, I'm like,
(36:36):
wait, the, I'm forgetting all the names this morning.
But there's the glial cells and the microglia, amyloid plaques,
Tau tangles, curcumin from turmeric has an effect on all
those aspects of the brain. And so I really do look at it as
Ayurveda showed us an entire lifestyle that's brain
supported. We should live that beautiful
(36:57):
lifestyle, the preventive healthy lifestyle, circadian
rhythm, sleep, all these things we just spoke about.
And turmeric can be that much more of a level up, an upgrade
in our approach to brain health and really preserving that brain
health over the long term. As a woman, I really do think
about it a lot like brain healthis one of my main desires to
(37:19):
have. I was telling my employee today,
I said, you know, my number one reason for a lot of things I'm
doing is for my brain because I know my brain is what's letting
me teach my my mission. It's letting me do all this
work. Would I like a beautiful fit
body? If that's muscular at all times,
sure. But if that's not going to be
the thing I get to have and I get to keep my brain firing on
all cylinders to get to do my work and and live my life at the
(37:41):
highest level, I will always choose brain 1st.
And I get there by investing in gut first because Ayurveda said
your gut is every single system.If you can have a healthy,
robust digestive fire, a fire that's strong, that metabolizes
everything you eat, that takes every thought, emotion and
consumes it for you, and the residue you're given is what we
(38:02):
call Ojas, this vitality and energy and vibrancy, then you're
doing right. And then when you have moments
in your life where a surgery or a trauma or things in life that
happened, maybe someone passes, you have grief, you get kind of
knocked off your pedestal and all of a sudden everything goes
down. It's OK, you, you've lost the
fire. Let's, let's rekindle it.
Let's bring it back up. Get that energy back at that
(38:22):
vitality back. Then you'll have brain online
and everything else online. So it's just Ayurveda is a very
different vantage point and viewpoint into health, into
preventive health and into alignment of all systems.
Instead of thinking of ourselvesas 100 different parts.
And if my uterus is useless, youcan take that and my
gallbladder's useless and you can take that.
We really look at it as how do you bring the whole system
(38:45):
online at once and then hold andmaintain that beautiful
lifestyle. So for someone who's new to
Ayurveda, who's intrigued by this approach to aging, well,
what is 1 simple place to start today?
One simple place to start that Ilove is with a copper tongue
scraper and a copper tongue scraper.
Sounds kind of random, but by starting your morning and
(39:08):
brushing your teeth and then gently scraping the tongue 7 to
14 times, you're going to igniteyour digestive fire.
You're going to clear out all the organs of the body from
having this toxin residue that forms in all of us.
And you're going to taste your food better, which is 1 big step
towards eating better and eatingwell as well.
And that's one of the simple things we can bring online that
(39:28):
I love from Maya Vida. That's the first self-care
reminder before you start the rest of your day.
So I always use my tongue scraper and then I'm like, OK,
what am I going to do for my gut?
Oh, I'm going to start my day with warm water.
I'm going to have warm water before I caffeinate.
OK, That's my next good thing I'm going to do OK, I'm going to
start my day. I'm going to remember my
supplements. Perfect.
I'll take my turmeric, I'll do all the good things and then it
(39:50):
goes on from there. So I like to kick off the day
with a distinct self-care habit that then leads to all the
others I want to do. Is there a phrase for baby
steps? I don't know it that's so funny
though. It is.
Baby steps. You know, Ayurveda is all about
self love and vibrancy. And so it's just saying, look,
(40:12):
you have the capacity within youto heal anything.
You have the capacity within youto have any level of energy and
vibrancy you want. It's all up to you.
It just comes down to your ability to really tune into
yourself, tune into your intuition, and build that
lifestyle for yourself. So you've alluded to some of
this already, but in addition tothe turmeric, the
(40:35):
supplementation, the diet, the sleep, what else are you doing
personally to age well? Good question.
I have one habit that I didn't mention that's one of my
favorites called Tea Time is Me Time.
I built this one into the Ayurvedic self-care rituals
because at this moment, at about45 years old, I'm a mom, I'm an
entrepreneur, I'm an author. I have a Hay House book coming
(40:57):
out next year. I'm a speaker.
And then I try to just stop right there because once I add
too many things on the plate, I,I get really dysregulated.
And so I have a beautiful team of women around me who are
working so hard to help with my mission to share term work with
the world. But I also acknowledge that
working way too hard and pushingevery boundary with my body has
(41:19):
a contradictory effect compared to what I get to teach.
And it's contradictory for my own body.
So every year I look at my seasons and I say, OK, January
through May, I'm going to let you work really hard.
You're going to focus you're on your racetrack, but yourself
care and diet has to be dialed in.
So I have all my systems in place for sleeping well.
I have my blackout shades. I have my rhythms for great
(41:41):
sleep. I have my supplement drawers
ready and organized that show melike this is your plan for today
in order I have I have fresh food made in my house four days
a week, which is really important to me because food is
the center of everything. And as a wife, my main job in my
opinion is feeding these kids great food and my husband.
So I make sure the food is organic fresh.
(42:04):
It's not always local. That's a goal I have is to shop
more at the local market. But implementation of healthy,
good food and everyone getting nutrient density and nutrient
variety, including me, is a really important key piece to my
aging well plan. Because if I'm not giving my
body the the building blocks, then I don't get to have
anything I want in my life because I will be running on
(42:26):
empty. And then every once in a while
when I go to functional medicine, I get these report
cards that are not good and I'm like, OK, there's work to be
done still. That's fine.
I know there's always work to bedone.
I'm living in a place where the food is kind of stripped of its
nutrition. So I'm eating well, but I might
not be getting everything. So then I usually take the
summer season to really recalibrate.
(42:46):
I'm a bit the dosha. I'm a fire.
So summer is when it's burning hot in South Florida and I take
that time and I always travel with my kids and I sit down and
say, OK, what detox can I do? How can I support my health?
What are the new supplements I need to put in place?
Where am I going to take these things for three months and then
test blood work again and see where I got to?
So for me, it's very much a planning systems.
(43:09):
Do it with love, but also pause,have tea time is me time and
just check in with myself every day.
How are you doing today? Everything OK?
Is energy on .0? You haven't moved your body yet?
OK, let's go move so it can be as simple as tuning in to get
the most important answers that we need to move forward.
That's really one of those many practices of mindfulness that we
(43:31):
can do in a daily basis. Exactly.
And it can be with coffee, it can be with tea.
But it it's an opportunity. I can't chug hot tea.
I'm going to have to sip it. And so because I have to sip my
beverage, I'm actually taking a moment to tune into myself.
Could I do it while watching TV and staying distracted?
Of course, but I, I choose five times a day to pause and take
that moment. And a lot of times my intuition
(43:53):
gives me really interesting answers, like you forgot to pay
for the pool guy. Random thoughts.
Or it'll be like you forgot to take your supplements today.
The schedule you just made for this week is really bad.
You need to change that. You can't do that to yourself or
you said yes to this and this where you gonna have dinner.
And so just things like that arereally insightful because our
(44:14):
own intuition knows the answers.We are just ignoring it.
And so that's where I love this habit.
So simple, but so effective. So how can our viewers and
listeners connect with you? I know you've mentioned a couple
times different websites and things like that, but more
important, can you tell us a little bit more about this
upcoming book and where our viewers and listeners can find
it? Definitely.
So my website is my name, shivanigupta.com.
(44:37):
So it's SHIVANIGUP, ta.com, and on that website is my dosha
quiz. I have a lot of different guides
for sleep. I have a seven day inflammation
challenge. Everything is there.
And from that site you can get to my supplement company,
fusionaryformulas.com. And I made a special code for
your audience aging well. We'll give them 15% off at
(44:59):
Fusionary to try out my turmeric.
We'll make sure that people get to that and we have all those
links in the description notes. Thank you.
Is there anything we missed talking about today?
I mean, I, I'm excited that is as we go through this and we've
had several different guests andI'm going to probably connect
some of those. Like Jeremy Rocksmith is a chef
who really has incorporated Aruba practices into his cooking
(45:25):
and his meditation, his practiceand everything.
It was a really great episode. We had a, a dentist and I'm
trying to blank on her Nami, Nami Patel, who is a, a green
dentist and she, you know, incorporates a lot of these same
practices. And it's just like, you know, as
we go, you know, I tend to distance myself much more from
(45:45):
Western medicine and I'm starting to latch on to just,
you know, just a natural healingfrom within the body.
The things that we can change isto sleep, regular exercise, good
diet, maintaining healthy body composition, not smoking, having
good relationships, ships, all these things that can really
heal us. And in reality, I've with the
(46:06):
exception of maybe some of the foods and the spices because
I've grown up in the United States and I have a much more
Western diet, which I need to fix.
But in in general, a lot of these practices really kind of
fall under arubic practices. And so I'm really kind of
excited to have you on today to get this out to our listeners
(46:27):
and our viewers. And, you know, just keep diving
into it. We'll probably have to have you
back on for some more follow up information.
But yeah, I just appreciate whatyou're doing and just kind of
keep aging well. Thank you, thank you for having
me and, and thank you for summarizing that so beautifully.
You're right. So many of us are teaching all
these different aspects of agingwell and using some of these
(46:50):
Ayurvedic principles. And so my mission is just to
share. Look, this is Ayurveda and we
all have this opportunity, like you said, to just build an
amazing lifestyle. And that lifestyle will prevent
us most likely from having to goto the doctor.
When I go to the doctor, I do appreciate that they have the
tools that they have when I needthem, I need them.
But if I can sit here and do thework to never have to go, that's
(47:12):
also my biggest dream. So it's just about building that
that beautiful lifestyle to age well.
So thank you for having me. You're welcome, and I'll work on
practicing how to pronounce Ayurveda.
Sounds good. Thank you for listening.
I hope you benefited from today's podcast and until next
time, keep aging well.
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