January 9, 2025 • 58 mins
Join us for an enlightening episode as Dr. Shivani, a renowned expert in autoimmune and inflammation, reveals the secrets of Ayurveda and its profound impact on health. Discover the ancient wisdom of this 5,000-year-old healing practice, which harmonizes the body, mind, and spirit with nature. Dr. Shivani shares her personal journey into Ayurveda, detailing how her family’s natural remedies in India inspired her path. Prepare to uncover the medicinal powers of turmeric, curcumin, and cinnamon, and how these potent spices have treated ailments like inflammation and sleep disorders for centuries.
If you've ever wondered about the connection between gut health and autoimmune conditions, this episode is for you. Our discussion ventures into understanding how Ayurveda can restore gut health and immune function, especially after the overuse of antibiotics. I share my personal story of rejecting Western medicine and finding healing through Ayurveda during my time in India. Dr. Shivani highlights the importance of holistic approaches and lifestyle changes in managing conditions like thyroid disorders, emphasizing the need for a balance between Western and Eastern medicine.
In our final segments, we dive into the practical aspects of Ayurvedic self-care rituals that align with natural circadian rhythms. Learn about the significance of morning routines, from using a copper tongue scraper for detoxification to incorporating herbs like ginger and turmeric into your daily diet. We also explore the science behind turmeric and curcumin's powerful benefits as anti-inflammatory agents, supported by personal anecdotes and scientific interest. Whether you're interested in adopting Ayurvedic practices or curious about functional medicine, this episode offers valuable insights into achieving holistic wellness.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
But by doing this you're really going to clean
everything out.
So some people will take theirmorning shower while they're oil
pulling.
They'll go for their morningwalk outside.
But make sure when you spit outthat oil you spit it out in the
trash, not your sink, toilet orshower, why It'll clog the
pipes.
So it's one of those things.
We use a lot of oil in Ayurveda.
So you have to be nice to yourhouse and not clog up everything
(00:22):
.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hello everyone.
Today's amazing episode waswith Dr Shivani.
Now, Dr Shivani is anautoimmune and inflammation
expert who specializes inAyurveda medicine, which is a
traditional Indian way ofhealing.
It has been around forthousands of years.
We talk about anything relatedto Ayurveda medicine and healing
our body, including our body,microbiomes, our gut, health,
autoimmune diseases, thyroid,particularly colds, flus.
(01:02):
We did get into the six pillarsof Ayurveda medicine and she
breaks down all of them, butwhat I take away from this
entire podcast is the spices andhow they're related to medicine
.
Everything that we have had intraditional medicine.
It's in our cabinets, ourkitchen cabinets from turmeric,
curcumin, cinnamon to all thesespices, and the way she breaks
(01:26):
it down and explains what eachspice does and how healing it is
is phenomenal to me, Backed upby research and thousands of
years of individuals using thesespices and healing themselves,
whether it's ulcers, whetherit's inflammations, whether it's
a leaky gut, whether it'ssleeping dilemmas.
I promise you you're going tolove this episode with Dr
(01:48):
Shivani.
She's also done her PhDdissertation on turmeric, has
studied it for over 10 years andwhat she has to bring is
phenomenal.
Enjoy with Dr Shivani.
All right, Dr Shivani, it's sonice to connect.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Absolutely.
It's an absolute honor.
I adore your work.
I am obsessed with yourInstagram page of how helpful it
is.
So much beautiful information,by the way, and it's so
insightful, and I'm just sograteful that there's people
like you spreading awareness sothat people can learn on how to
(02:25):
treat themselves.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Thank you.
I really appreciate that.
It's a labor of love to teachonline, but it's so worth it
because everyone who finds meneeded to find this wisdom from
Ayurveda, so it's reallyexciting.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So talk to me a little bit about what is it
called Ayurveda?
How do you pronounce that?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
A lot of people pronounce it are you veda?
Because that's easier, uh-huh I.
I call it ayurveda a y u r.
But ayurveda is this ancientsystem of wisdom and health and
healing and medicine from indiathat's over 5 000 years old and
within that wisdom we taughtabout a lifestyle that you can
(03:04):
live every single day that keepsyour whole body, mind and
spirit in alignment.
That's the point of Ayurveda isto show us how to live a
preventive lifestyle and how tolive in rhythm with nature so we
can have vibrant health.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
That's beautiful.
How did you get into thatlifestyle?
Or learning about Ayurveda?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Sure, well, growing up, I would go to India every
year to see my grandparents andmy cousins, and I would see that
people would practice yoga.
I would see that my grandmawould use all sorts of spices to
heal us whenever we were sick.
And when I came back to theUnited States it was oh, you're
sick, go to the pediatrician,get your antibiotics.
And then you're clear.
And I always thought who'sright?
(03:44):
Like, why are both systemsbeing used?
What's the better one?
And so by the time I got tocollege, I had so many health
issues I had really destroyed mygut taking really strong
antibiotics.
Through high school I waschronically sick and couldn't
figure out why.
And in college I finally saidenough is enough, I have to find
a different way.
And we were in India and Ilooked at this doctor and I said
(04:07):
you know what?
I'm not taking your antibioticsand your crazy stuff.
I can't do all this medicationanymore.
And I went on a journey and aquest through India and I
studied Ayurveda and I reallyjust wanted to know does this
work?
And I was patient number one.
I tried it on myself and Ihealed my gut.
I built an immune system thatworked again and I realized, wow
(04:29):
, this system really works.
Why are we not all learningabout it?
Why are we not all applying itto our lives?
And I realized that Ayurvedajust kind of sucks at marketing.
It sucks at sharing the wisdomin a way that people will use,
and so that's been my missionfor the last 20 years is to keep
distilling that wisdom andknowledge in ways that we will
actually use it.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, that's so beautiful and I love how.
I mean, is it safe to callAyurveda traditional?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
medicine you can.
It's ancient traditionalmedicine.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Absolutely.
Now I wanna ask you thisquestion.
I know that a lot of physiciansand clinicians they tend to be
very dismissive of this questionbut do you feel like
antibiotics really do damage onthe body versus heal the body?
What's your perspective as aprofessional?
(05:23):
Great, question.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So I think antibiotics have their time and
place.
I think they're phenomenal forwhat they do.
When we have a problem and weneed to kill off something
that's bacterial in the body,antibiotics will do that job.
The problem is, until recently,in pediatrics.
A lot of times even my ownkid's pediatrician was trying to
do this with me.
She's like here's prophylacticantibiotics, it'll just cut the
(05:46):
time of your cold down.
And I kept saying you can testthe kid and if it's not
bacterial, we will not start acourse of antibiotics.
I do not want to obliteratetheir gut microbiome.
We're not doing that.
And she'd say yeah, but you canjust get better faster.
And I'd say if it isn'tbacterial, how are we getting
(06:10):
better faster?
That logic has been found to becompletely illogical now, and
so, thank goodness, doctors arerecognizing much more that we
need to just be really carefulwith our use of antibiotics.
We can't just jump to itbecause we just want to get
better faster.
That's not logical.
The gut microbiome, the gut, isthere, with 80% of our immune
system residing in the gut, andthus the better answer is what
are we going to do to supportgut health and the immune system
(06:33):
to fight off whatever we'redealing with, and unfortunately,
that time period of my lifewhere I was just sick all the
time through my childhood led tosuch heavy antibiotic use.
It took me until decades laterto realize it was leaky gut.
I had a leaky gut.
I was basically an autoimmunepatient.
Right, exactly, I'm basically.
I was an autoimmune patient forall those years kept saying,
(06:55):
guys, I have no immune system, Ihave no immune system, can you
help me?
And no one had any terminologyor language back there for that.
So now I'm really grateful wehave so many tools in the
toolkit around autoimmunity andthen gut health, leaky gut,
inflammation.
We've.
We have a lot more options.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
You know I love, I love this.
Oh my gosh.
I want to talk to you aboutthis because I want you to open
up the doors for anybody tolearn about this Now.
Here in in America, whensomebody says, when a physician
says there's an autoimmune issueand there's a leaky gut issue,
immediately we, we tend to go toum medications and um, you know
(07:38):
, the most famous one of allit's your sugar glucose.
It's a glucose issue and it'sreally hard to follow that type
of diet.
How do you think that Ayurvedacan help this kind of healing to
heal your autoimmunetraditionally, versus cutting
(07:58):
glucose and taking all thesemedications, particularly
thyroid?
It's just skyrocketed amongwomen as the leading autoimmune
disease right now.
So what are your perspectiveson that?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Sure.
So you know, I have asister-in-law who was suffering
with a thyroid condition and shewas new to the country, and so
I took her to theendocrinologist and when we went
, the endocrinologist said look,you are definitely on your way
there.
I will be prescribing youchronic, long-term thyroid
medication for the rest of yourlife.
You're not quite there yet,you're not quite at Hashimoto's
level, so just wait and you'llget there and then call me and I
(08:36):
said is there anything she cando in the meantime to reverse
out of this Diet, give up gluten, anything she's like no diet
will have no impact, there'snothing she can do.
And I just looked at the doctorin shock and was like, okay,
there's obviously many differenttypes of practitioners out
there.
I think it's so important rightnow that practitioners go and
(08:57):
look into the world offunctional medicine, where
there's so much data, validatedscience you know clinical trials
on a completely differentapproach to that question and
there's so much data, validatedscience you know clinical trials
on a completely differentapproach to that question and
there's so much publishedscience if you just look on what
is inflaming us and howinflammation is the root cause
that's causing so many of theissues that we're struggling
(09:18):
with, especially as women, andwe know that clinical trials
weren't even done on women upuntil very recently when it
comes to Western medicine.
So it's so important to take alook at the situation and say,
ok, thank you, doctor, for thesolutions you're giving.
I love Western medicine, I go toWestern medicine and I think,
as I age, I'll be reaching intotheir toolkits more than I
(09:39):
thought I would.
That's been my year.
Right now, unfortunately, I'mlike wow, I needed your tools
more than ever, so I can't railagainst them.
But I do think that it's soimportant that we as women are
empowered, that we as women arereally our own sovereign
advocates for our own health.
And the minute we're getting ananswer, that's like oh, that's
(09:59):
your entire toolkit.
You're offering me drug A anddrug B and telling me, as an
autoimmune patient, to just dealwith it.
Okay, now I'm going to takethis other road and say thank
you for the diagnosis, what aremy options?
And so Ayurveda teaches us thateverything starts in the gut.
Gut health is the center of allhealth, and that gut microbiome
(10:21):
, gut, brain access, as we callit now.
We now know your gut health isyour brain health, your gut
health is your mood, your guthealth is your skin, your gut
health is everything, and so guthealth is the immune system.
So if we're not going to honorand revere gut health practices
daily, we're always going tofall behind.
Then we talk about inflammationand how the body can be
(10:43):
chronically inflamed if we'realways under a toxic burden
based on our lifestyle.
So it might be the foods we eat, might be poor sleep, might be
poor detoxification methods,might be exposure to toxins and
environmental toxins, which is apretty big deal.
So any of those things that wedo create this residue called
ama, things that we do createthis residue called ama.
(11:06):
And if we're not going to stopevery quarter, at the
intersection of seasons, or atleast once a year, and do a big
detox, we're not going to cleanand clear that out of our system
.
And then the body is alwaysgoing to be battling with itself
, and that battle with itself isautoimmunity.
That's the body battling withitself, not realizing that the
enemy is not the body.
The enemy is all the thingsthat we've done.
So the body isn't recognizinghow to stay healthy and balanced
(11:28):
.
So in Ayurveda we reach into acouple toolkits.
We reach into circadian rhythm,living in alignment with your
circadian rhythm to nature.
We teach about.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Oh, so it's not only sleep.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, circadian rhythm is not only sleep.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
That's right.
So I wanted to bring that upbecause I mean, especially for
my audience we're really intolike science, but what's
explained in the circadianrhythm is your sleep habits.
But there's deeper meaning tothat as well that you're saying.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yes.
So when it comes to circadianrhythm, I read the teachers that
we are meant to be in alignmentwith nature's clock.
Ayurveda teaches that we aremeant to be in alignment with
nature's clock, and if we're inalignment with nature's clock,
that's where we are flowingdownhill with the river of life,
as opposed to battling uphilland constantly fighting to feel
well.
And so, yes, sleep is a bigpart of it.
From 10 to 2 on the circadianclock, ayurveda teaches that
(12:20):
it's pitta time of day or firetime of day, and so that time at
night 10 to 2, is when thefires come out.
In the daytime it's high noon,high sun, but in the evening
that energy comes through andclears out all that doesn't
serve.
So I think of it as theselittle garbage trucks that come
out.
They clear up all the gunk inmy mind and my brain that I
accumulated, that did not serve.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Well, interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Wait a minute, this is interesting that we did not
serve.
Then the throat maybe lots ofthings in the throat chakra that
we said or didn't say that weneed to clear In the heart, any
emotions, in our gut, all thethings we possibly consumed that
were pesticide ridden orchemical ridden, that we didn't
think about, and then it clearsit out in the morning.
But if we don't sleep 10 to 2,if we sleep after midnight, for
(13:05):
example, we won't clearinflammation, we will not
rejuvenate, we will not heal thegut.
All the benefits that we wantfor our health are bypassed
completely, and we know inmodern science that we can
collect up to three pounds ofglymphatic waste in our brain
throughout the year.
So imagine walking around withthree pounds of garbage inside
your head all day because youchose not to sleep before
(13:28):
midnight forever, which a lot ofpeople do, and even people in
my household do that, and I'mlike that's wrong.
The closer you sleep to 10, thecloser you are to letting the
body clear and clean all thatout of you so that you're less
inflamed and healthier the nextday.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
So the circadian rhythm is not only sleep, but
it's the energy cleansing ofyour body, and this happens from
10 pm to 2 am in the morning.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Correct.
And then you should sleep therest of your morning.
And then when you wake up wesay rise with the sun, move
first thing in the morning, getyour best work done in the
morning.
We teach that 10 to 2 duringthe day is the best time to eat
your lunch, so high noon is thebest time to eat a lunch that's
so nutrient dense, so you getall the best benefits out of it.
(14:16):
We say 2 to 6 is a differenttime of day, more vata time of
day.
So get your tasks done, butyou're not going to be able to
focus as well, but your smallto-do list tasks, get them out
of the way.
And then six to 10, as the sunsets.
You are meant to set with thatsun.
(14:38):
So winding down your activities, not winding up Dinner by seven
, wrap up work and activities byeight, wrap up your house and
responsibilities by nine.
And nine to 10 should beself-care rituals and sleep
hygiene rituals to ensure veryhigh quality sleep and being
asleep by 10.
So there's a whole clock aroundcircadian rhythm, 24 hours of
the day.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
That's.
That is a beautiful, beautifulritual, but here's my thing.
What's interesting is that thecleansing time is 10 to 2 pm,
but majority of people in theUnited States of America wake up
around 2 and 3 am in themorning, and those are usually
(15:17):
the people that are very anxiousand are struggling with
depression.
Yeah, have you noticed that inyour practice, the two to 3am
wake up time?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Sure, I've seen it a lot.
And that's where I talk to myclients and say how much are you
moving and exercising?
Is the body physically tiredenough to get a full night's
sleep?
Oftentimes we don't have enoughsleep pressure.
And then, secondly, what timeare you eating and what are you
drinking before bed?
If it's wine, alcohol and sugarand we're pushing up sugar
before bed, that's a problem.
If we're eating too late andstill digesting it, that's a
(15:49):
problem.
But it's really a systemicissue.
That's why IRV that teachesabout all six pillars of health
what we're eating, when we'reeating, our mind-body
constitution, gut health,circadian rhythm and then super
spices and self-care.
So all the pieces come togetherto give us what we want, which
is great health.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Can you take us back to those six pillars of health
in Ayurveda?
So what's the first one?
Speaker 1 (16:15):
I know we talked about sleep First we talked
about circadian rhythm, whichincludes sleep.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Beautiful.
So that's the first one.
What's the second?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
one Second one I would say is gut health.
So having true gut healthpractices throughout the day
really matters.
We talk about having gingerlemon tea in the morning to
ignite the digestive fire.
We talk about using Consume,yeah or room temperature water
even before that to hydrate thecells, create peristalsis.
(16:42):
So we have that first, reallygreat bowel movement of the day.
Oftentimes in the West peopleare constipated and in Ayurveda
we never want that.
We want the body clearing everymorning out and us to have a
rhythm around what needs to go.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
So the lemon and ginger is going to stimulate the
gut.
So the second pillar is guthealth.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yes, yes, and we have a lot of other practices spices
.
We recommend using a tonguescraper in the morning to gently
stimulate peristalsis as well.
That cleans all the toxins ofthe body.
It also supports oralmicrobiome, which we know
supports gut microbiome, and soin Ayurveda we recommend that
copper tongue scraper.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Copper tongue scraper before you consume lemon and
ginger, correct, yeah?
And I heard that that's reallygood for the lymphos too.
Is that correct?
Yeah, I read that somewhere.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, because what we teach is that all the organs of
the body are reflected on thetongue, just like they're
reflected on the bottom of thefeet, and so, because of that,
you're gently massaging all theorgans of your body and detoxing
them.
So I've had people whoseconstipation is cleared up, we
know, from a deep dive.
Yeah, I know I was shocked too.
Sometimes I makerecommendations and I'm like wow
(17:54):
, it does all that for you.
I have people who lose 15pounds and I'm always like will
you say it back to me?
Whatever I said to you that wasso effective.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
What was that?
What does the tongue have thatthe scraper does?
Can you, can you tell us that?
What is?
How is it beneficial?
Speaker 1 (18:10):
So basically, all the organs of the tongue, all the
organs of your body arereflected on the tongue.
So scraping it is going togently massage and gently detox
all those organs.
That's one.
Secondly, it helps clear ourtaste buds so we taste our food
better.
Thirdly, when you have a whitefilm on your tongue that
indicates a toxin accumulationin the body.
(18:30):
And if you stick your tongueout, most of us have a white
film on the tongue, differentdiscolorations and issues.
And so using that copper tonguescraper as your way of gently
detoxing it's pretty much free,because one tongue scraper will
last you 10 years and then youdon't have to do as big huge of
detoxes later on.
And then finally, for the gut,we teach that it ignites that
(18:50):
digestive fire and we teach thatthat campfire, that gut agony,
is a campfire and your job is toignite it in the morning, get
it started so it's ready toprocess all the foods you're
going to eat, and then settle itdown at night so that the body
can focus on other thingsovernight and not be processing
food.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Do you recommend scraping the tongue for children
and, if so, how old?
Speaker 1 (19:16):
I'd say five or six onwards, as soon as they know
how not to hurt themselves.
A metal tongue scraper, ifyou're not capable, can cut you,
so you just have to know how togently do that.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Why do you recommend a copper tongue scraper versus
metal?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
So in a lot of stores they sell only the steel tongue
scraper.
But if you go on Amazon andcertain websites they'll sell
you the copper version.
Copper is already inherentlyantibacterial so it's pretty
self-cleaning.
It stays cleaner longer, andthen copper also has
mineralizing benefits.
So in Ayurveda we used to teachto take a copper-lined cup and
(19:50):
put water in it overnight, putit by your bedside and start
your day with that water firstthing in the morning, and it's
not only hydrating to the systembut it's mineralizing as well.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Where have you been?
This is amazing information.
So wait, copper cups.
It's healthier to drink waterin and you can leave it, because
I have copper cups and my sonputs it next to his bedside and
just consumes it when he'sthirsty at night.
So it's actually doing great.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yes, and copper, if you think about it again, is
antibacterial.
So they knew if we put it incopper it's not going to get
gross, it's not going to getdirty or bad.
And then nowadays we know thatwe really need more minerals.
Now, if you are high copperbeware, I do the test for copper
in my blood and I'm great andin range, but it's one of those
things where we're irondeficient.
A lot of us were mineraldeficient, so this is just
(20:40):
another great way to bring thatin.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yes, okay.
So we talked about thecircadian rhythm, we talked
about the gut health.
What's the third pillar inAyurveda?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Third would be dosha, your mind, body, constitution.
So we teach that when you takea dosha quiz you'll come to
understand if you are more air,more fire or more earth.
And knowing that constitutiontype really drives how you
manage yourself, how you eat,how you manage your schedule,
how you manage kind ofeverything.
(21:11):
Because it leads to certainpersonality traits.
So a vata person is more thinand wiry.
This is someone who's morecreative.
They go really fast, they'refast paced, they're more air.
They need more grounding tools.
Bitta people are fire.
So when we take a dosha quizwe're all fire.
I'm a bitta.
We're passionate, driven,ambitious.
(21:32):
We have a tendency to get burntout, explode and erupt and we
tend to be hangry.
And so Bitta people have toself-manage a lot with cooling
tools and eating long time andthings like that.
And then Gaffa people arebigger, boned, stronger.
They have round features,oilier hair, curly hair.
(21:52):
They have a tendency to liftheavier, they're much stronger,
they're caretakers, they're veryloyal.
And so the kapha nurturing bodytype needs support with eating
easy to digest foods, not rawfoods, and support with getting
their energy moving for the day.
So they have a tendency to bereally sluggish and they want to
(22:13):
move more.
So we have to get Kafa movingin the day.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I can just tell you right off the bat learning all
these, I'm a beta.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, and so knowing that's really important.
The angry and the hangry yeah,I get angry and hangry all the
time unless I'm like actively.
That's why I teach.
Tea time is me time.
I have to like hydrate everytwo hours.
I have to eat on time or theworld goes crashing down.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, so this is the.
This is the quiz.
What are their?
What are their levels?
Are there in the quiz thatpeople rank.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
So I have this dosha quiz on my website, so it's at
drshvanicom, and when you takethe quiz you'll see it'll give
you your primary dosha and then,if you want a more detailed
quiz, I have the bigger detailedquiz.
Then you can come to understandyour primary and your secondary
dosha and that really helps youunderstand.
Okay, I'm really like that, butmaybe my mind or emotions are
more like this one, like I'm apitta, but I have a kind of vata
(23:10):
mind.
I can be all over the place andsuper creative and I have to
rein in my mind.
And so then you understand howto use the circadian rhythm, gut
health practices, food, dietpractices and self-care
practices to stay the mostcentered within your
constitution.
So most people who take thatquiz are like how did you know
(23:31):
that about me?
That's insane.
I'm like this is ancientAyurvedic wisdom.
It's said this for 5,000 yearsand it knows that we are made of
nature and these are theelements that dominate us and
what that repercussion is whenit comes to our health, because
each of those doshas has certainhealth tendencies as well.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Wow, and I think it's incredible.
Can people fluctuate between afew of them in the Doshik quiz,
or is it just like a bit andthat's it?
There's people that havemultiple yes.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
So you could be three Doshik.
You could have a strong primaryand a strong secondary.
You're born with your Doshiktemplate, but life happens and
so I always ask like are therecertain life traumas, big events
that happen in your life thatcaused the shift that you're in
now?
And then, how are we going toshift you back into your
original dosha, so you feel athome in your body, so everything
(24:23):
feels good again?
A lot of times when I meetwomen in their fifties and
sixties, they're like I justdon't feel like myself and I
haven't felt like myself for areally long time.
And when you look it's a kaphaimbalance.
And if you bring them back totheir bitta selves all over, all
of a sudden they're like theFerrari that they once were and
they're ready to go.
So that's always the goal isbring you back to your dosha.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Kapha balance.
Does that in Englishtranslation mean equilibrium and
balances in humans?
Because, you know, sometimes wecan also lose that.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah Well, like, for example, after kids, I became
more guffa than I normally am.
I gained weight.
Everything was slower, mymetabolism was slower.
I was very.
One thing at a time Made sense,though, as a mother, you're a
caretaker.
Your whole world is to bemother earth to those kids, and
so I was that for a period oftime, and then I was ready to go
(25:14):
back to work, and I couldn'tfigure out how.
How come I can't launch acompany?
Where's my energy, my brain,all the things I need to be on
fire?
Well, I had to balance backinto my primary fire element,
and then I got the energy andeverything back the way I'm used
to functioning, and so each ofus has our own specific template
, and Ayurveda is just trying toshow us how to find ourselves
(25:35):
again and be at home again,bring body, mind and spirit into
alignment so we can feel ourbest.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
What are people supposed to be naturally born in
?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
You're naturally born into your own dosha, into your
own combination.
You could be like how do wefind that out, though?
It's by taking a dosha quiz.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
So it's still by the quiz, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah, by the quiz you'll know.
And then oftentimes, sittingdown in a consultation, the job
of the practitioner is really toascertain.
Ayurvedic doctors If you haveone in your city they use pulse
diagnosis, they use tongueanalysis.
They're going to look at yourtongue, they're going to look at
your fingernails, your eyes,your hair.
A lot of times, just throughphysical assessment we will know
what someone is.
(26:16):
But it's also so important totake a really big history,
because what if I'm meeting younow and you were completely
different 20 years ago?
So we're trying to reallyascertain what were you as a kid
?
What was your template?
Coming in?
And let me figure out how tobalance you back to that.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yeah, I think that this quiz is and I want
everybody to reach out to you.
I mean, I have a huge familyfollowing and I love this
because you're right, when youdo become a parent whether that
is a first time dad or a firsttime mom you tend to be knocked
out of your kind of naturalrhythm and it's hard to kind of
get back and I have people justmaybe going to therapy and
(26:54):
sometimes there's thisdisconnection, you're like I'm
not feeling better and sometimesyou know it's like not an
emotional thing, maybe it's aphysical, physical symptom
instead, and this is why thesetypes of practices are essential
.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Absolutely.
We have to learn every toolthat will affect us, and what I
love is integrative medicine hasso many.
So when I was struggling, I waslike, well, is it chiropractic
That'll put me in alignment?
Is it functional medicine?
Do I need to heal my gut andget my body on track, which is
part of the puzzle a lot of thetime?
Or in Ayurveda, it's just webring you back to your dosha.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah, so that's the dosha.
Yeah, so, um, so that's the so,that's the dosha.
Is the fourth one, I believe.
Right, what's the fifth?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
What's the fifth Then ?
The next one would be, I wouldsay, self-care rituals from
Ayurveda.
Our Ayurvedic self-care ritualstie into circadian rhythm,
because we teach a daily rhythmthat you can build every day.
That's detoxing, that's healing, that's supportive, and it
starts first thing in themorning.
So we talk about you know,touch the ground, touch your
(28:00):
forehead and set an intentionfor the day.
They say thank you and set anintention.
So my intention is usually canI please have peace today?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Beautiful, so just practice, gratefulness Simple.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Exactly, very simple.
And then we teach to have thatcopper lined cup of water.
Make sure you're hydrating fromfirst thing, because if you're
not and you don't have thatbowel movement, we've got some
problems.
Then we teach that after youbrush your teeth, use the tongue
scraper.
We teach about oil pulling.
So that's just taking about oneto two tablespoons of any food
grade organic oil.
You put that in the mouth Likeolive oil, things like that.
(28:36):
Yeah, coconut oil, olive oilsesame oil.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Why is that?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
essential.
So basically, oil pulling meansthat oil in the mouth as you
swish it around is going tocollect all the bacteria and
toxins that have accumulated inyour mouth overnight, and when
you spit it out into the trashcan you're getting rid of all of
that.
And we know oral microbiometies to heart health.
We know it ties to gut health,and so oil pulling is kind of a
(29:01):
weird one.
I didn't do it for many yearsand finally I was like you can't
teach it unless you do it.
And I tried it and it's notthat bad.
And you can find oils online nowthat have some mint in them,
because we're used to mintythings being part of our oral
hygiene.
But by doing this you're reallygoing to clean everything out.
So some people will take theirmorning shower while they're oil
pulling.
They'll go for their morningwalk outside, but make sure when
(29:22):
you spit out that oil, you spitit out in the trash, not your
sink, toilet or shower, whyIt'll clog the pipes.
So it's one of those things weuse a lot of oil in irv this.
You have to be nice to yourhouse and not clog up everything
it's called oil pulling.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
So basically you're just rinsing your mouth with oil
.
How long does it have to be inthe mouth?
Speaker 1 (29:43):
so you keep it in your mouth for about 5 to 20
minutes, and that sounds like along time, but again, you can
have it, stack it, you can doanything else.
You're just keeping your mouthshut while you're moving the oil
around.
Do you practice that?
I do, I do.
I do it on the weekends usuallybecause with kids we've got to
get through the morning and getout the door.
I can't be silent.
I feel you, yeah, from theminute I wake up we're trying to
(30:05):
get out that door.
So on the weekends I can do iton Saturday and Sunday easily.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Now Shivani.
In Chinese medicine, mostdoctors believe that you need to
drink water that's equivalentto the weather.
Is this in Ayurveda as well,that cold water is not really
permitted on the gut.
It's very bad for you to drinkice water.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Correct.
We don't permit it at all.
We don't like ice.
We don't like ice water.
We forbid anyone from drinkingwater any time around your meals
.
We don't want water within.
We forbid anyone from drinkingwater anytime around your meals.
We don't want water within 30minutes of your meals, on either
side.
So if you're eating, it shouldbe about eating and not ice
water and iced tea and all thesethings going down the system
(30:48):
that are going to shut off thatcampfire.
We want that campfire 100%focused.
All those enzymes, everythingfocused, all that acidity
focused on the digestive processso we don't have toxins formed
because we have undigested foods.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Now is ice water um.
Does it harm the microbiomes?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Why is it a hard no basically the body is warm, and
so in Ayurveda we teach to sipwarm water throughout the day,
like I drink herbal teas all daylong and then I drink a few
green teas in there and that'sall the water you consume Pretty
much.
I wish I was a better hydrator.
I carry a water bottle aroundwith electrolytes but if you
(31:31):
told me I had to hydrate, mybest bet for hydrating is herbal
teas, cause I love that.
I know it's beneficial.
It feels so good to me.
Um, ayurveda teaches that themore we sip warm water, the more
we're going to supporthealthier tissue and detoxing.
But if we're going to do itthrough ice water, you can do
that, cause it's hot and youwant to just cool down.
But it's kind of like anassault to the body.
(31:53):
It's not received well by thebody.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Okay, that makes perfect sense.
Now, the sixth one, which is myfavorite one, was the herbs.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yes, so super spices, which is huge.
I when I when I was sitting inherbology class I was doing my
master's in Ayurvedic sciencesand in herbology class they
started talking about turmeric,ginger, cardamom, cilantro, uh,
which we call coriander, right,coriander seeds are cilantro um,
fennel, cumin, and I sat thereand I was like wait a minute,
(32:25):
you're telling me the spicesI've eaten every day of my whole
life are that beneficial?
I thought they were just partof food and they were, were like
no, the Indian cooking isAyurvedic cooking and Ayurvedic
cooking has all of thesebenefits.
And I fell deeply in love withturmeric because I thought, with
my family history of diabetes,heart disease, parkinson's
(32:46):
stroke, everything horrible inmy family you're telling me that
turmeric could have helped usthis whole time.
So I embarked on a dissertation.
My PhD dissertation was onturmeric.
I studied it for years.
Now there's over 17,000scientific studies on curcumin
in PubMed, which is reallyexciting.
And so I teach about turmericall the time because I think if
(33:06):
we understood how powerfulturmeric is, we wouldn't have
health going the direction it'sgoing right now.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
What do you?
Why do you think turmeric isessential piece of uh?
Is that an?
Speaker 1 (33:18):
herb?
Yeah, it's an herb, it's aspice.
It's actually a spice becauseturmeric is a sister plant to
ginger, it's a rhizome, so it'snot an herb or spice.
And then when you take gingeras the plant and you dry it, we
make it the spice.
And then when you take thatspice, turmeric, which has a lot
of benefits, it's important totake it with black pepper or a
(33:39):
healthy fat to increase theabsorption.
And then, out of that turmericplant, only 3% is the
curcuminoids.
Of those three curcuminoids,curcumin is the most effective
at reducing inflammation and soa lot of people are out there
eating turmeric as a spice,thinking it's going to help with
their joint pain.
It's not, it's not enough,because only 3% of it is doing
the heavy lifting.
(34:00):
Then, when it comes tosupplements, a lot of times
people are buying supplementsthat say curcumalonga or they'll
say turmeric curcuminoids, butif it's not curcumin
standardized to 95%, we're notgoing to drive that significant
reduction in inflammation thatwe want.
And we know that turmeric is avery powerful anti-inflammatory
(34:23):
antioxidant.
It's immune modulating, so it'santiviral, antibacterial,
antifungal.
We know it's anti-obesity.
We know that it really is avery powerful anti-aging tool.
So, as we're aging and we havethis oxidative stress that makes
us feel like we're rusting fromthe inside.
Curcumin goes in there.
It's supportive of the gutmicrobiome.
It helps extend our telomeres,which is the ends of our DNA
(34:46):
strands, so it is anti-aging inthat way.
It also has a positive impacton sirtuins, ampk pathways.
It kills off zombie cells in thebody.
So a lot of times we have thesecells that form that just run
into everything and cause damagelike zombies, and curcumin just
comes in there like a janitorand cleans house.
It causes cell apoptosis, socells that don't belong in the
(35:09):
body.
It causes cell death.
So those things clear out ofthe way because oftentimes, as
we're aging, the problem is thateverything is just slowing down
.
But if we keep clearing out,everything's slowing down, then
we can keep having the cellrenewal that we need to have
that energy and that vitalitythat we want.
So now that I'm in my mid 40s,I'm looking at aging like, okay,
(35:30):
how do I keep brain functiononline, gut function online,
energy online, as I've alwayshad it, and I know that turmeric
and a lot of the super spicesfrom Ayurveda will help us get
there.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Now, how are turmeric and curcumin related?
Speaker 1 (35:46):
So turmeric is the plant.
When you take it in fresh form,like a lot of people juice it,
that's fine.
When you take it fresh and youdry it into a spice which we buy
it at the grocery store, thatturmeric spice is really
beneficial.
But take it with black pepperor a healthy fat.
And then when you take thatturmeric spice and extract from
(36:06):
it the 3% that you can extractout of it that we know is the
most beneficial is calledcurcuminoids, and out of the
curcuminoids, curcumin is themost effective extract out of
turmeric.
And so my world for the last 10years has been putting curcumin
into people and seeing what itdoes for chronic joint pain,
inflammation, gut issues,autoimmunity, all these kinds of
(36:29):
things.
I personally am obviously a bigfan.
I high dose on turmeric becauseit holds my immune system
together, so I really rely on it, Do you?
Speaker 2 (36:39):
I mean, I mix first of all, I had no idea curcumin
was so powerful and I use it inmy spices, my soups, my dishes
with a mustard seed and like,all the time, and I think that
we do in in the Armenian kitchentoo.
We use all these spices, butit's important to know what
these spices do.
(36:59):
What I'm hearing you say isthat curcumin replaces kind of
like the NAD supplements thatpeople take, because it kind of
helps with aging.
You're saying Correct, andthat's what people are taking
NAD for.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
It's just self-aging correct, and that's what people
are taking nad for.
It's just stop aging.
I think we're all on this racetowards what will help us as we
age, because aging is quite areckoning.
This year has been quite amoment for me where I was like,
wow, I have to reach into myayurvedic toolkit time at a 3x
to pull out what I need to holdmy brain and energy function.
(37:35):
But curcumin has a positiveeffect on mitochondrial health
and cell death, so I think of itas the anti-aging tool, and
then I'm going to reach into theother ones too.
I'm going to try everything Ican find.
But curcumin is so wellreceived by the body.
Turmeric is a plant from mothernature.
The body knows how to use it.
(37:55):
I've been working with a I wasgoing to say DNA professor, a
genetics professor out ofClemson, and we were both having
, we were creating a studyaround.
Why is it that so many cellsand so many pathways in the body
receive turmeric so well?
It's almost kind of nuts howthat's true, and so I think
that's why the scientificcommunity is really clamoring to
(38:16):
understand why is it thatturmeric works so well and how
else can we use it?
Because they're already usingit for joint pain.
That's an obvious one.
Pain and inflammation, gutissues but it just affects so
many pathways that there's thescience on it is exploding.
It has so many benefits.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I'm going to tell you a little story.
My neighbor years ago, um, hewas struggling with a stomach
ulcer.
Okay, and my mom's like, withher beautiful Armenian accent,
she's like you need to drinkturmeric with your tea, you know
, and for a month, Shivani, thisman would just drop a teaspoon
(38:55):
of turmeric in his tea, wouldmix it and just would drink it
with a little bit of sugar andhe healed himself.
Amazing, and I've seen so manypeople I have actually had a far
, far relative that healed braintumor from turmeric.
I mean, it decreasedsubstantially based on eating,
(39:16):
consuming turmeric.
If I were to just readsomething, I would be like, all
right, it's just basic research,but to hear personal stories of
turmeric, I'm just blown away.
That you know, people are juststarting to recognize how
wonderful it is.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
And here we have our people that have been using it
for thousands of years, all ofour cultures right Iraq, iran,
middle East East Asia, china.
I mean, it's not like Chinesemedicine didn't use turmeric, it
did.
They used ashwagandha, ginger,a lot of the adaptogens we use.
These are all science's whohave said for millennia nature's
(39:56):
toolkit is incredible.
Just reach into it and use it.
You don't need these drugs thathave side effects.
These drugs have a time andplace.
They're that hammer when youneed that hammer for the problem
.
But way before you use such abig, strong hammer on the body,
why don't you reach for the nice, natural, simple tool that the
(40:16):
body will receive so well?
And I've seen stories like that.
I've had people whose allergieswent away.
They used to sneeze 20 times ata time and that went away.
Back pain, knee pain, hip pain.
People who are losing handfunction over time they keep
their function.
People who have brain fog,migraines it helps.
So it's got very far reachingcapabilities.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, definitely.
If there was three spices thatyou would pick in the world to
consume, which ones would theybe?
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Turmeric is my number one, always on earth.
My number two is ashwagandha.
Ashwagandha is a powerhouseadaptogen.
It's for neurocognitivefunction.
If you're anxious and stressed,it'll calm you down.
If you're depressed and low,it'll lift you up.
So I really think ofashwagandha as like my second
favorite to turmeric.
Um, and then I would say in mycase in my case, because my gut
(41:10):
has always been my life problemI would pick hing.
So there's a spice calledasafetida or hing.
It's really pungent and stinky,but if you make a tea out of it
, all gas, bloating, indigestionand pain will go away.
So I've used that about athousand times in my life, maybe
more, and I still use it,sometimes on my kids or myself.
So that would be my numberthree, but I have many more I
(41:31):
love.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
What is the one thing that you discovered during your
dissertation about turmericthat blew your mind away?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Antiviral.
Turmeric is antiviral.
That sold me Anti-inflammatory.
I got it.
I was like, wow, we can preventchronic inflammation.
That's key to everything.
Antioxidant you're talkingabout reversing oxidative stress
in the body.
It'll go after the things thatcause oxidative stress.
Wow, that'll be anti-aging.
But I was studying it over adecade ago, so aging wasn't as
(42:03):
top of mind.
But antiviral is a big deal.
I have little kids they bringhome they have historically
brought home the grossest coldsand viruses and to be able to
have a defensive shield againstall the garbage out there even
now I can travel for business,go to conferences, shake a
hundred hands and come back andI'll take a hit.
Like I'll feel it.
(42:23):
My entire system's like, ohgosh, we're going to have to
battle this and then theturmeric will just handle the
problem.
It's so strong as an immunesupport that I have a defensive
shield and that, to me, is wortha million bucks.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
How do you think that the parents and the families
that are watching this podcastwill say well, it's not easy to
consume turmeric, especially forkids.
What is your advice as a Avedaspecialist?
How can we do this?
Speaker 1 (42:53):
So I take turmeric myself as an extract, as a
supplement, and I built my ownbecause I was really curious can
we build one for the marketthat's so strong that doctors
will use it every day?
And so that's been my body ofwork for about 10 years is
working with orthopedics andfunctional medicine.
When it comes to my kids, Igive them a capsule and I just
open it in half into theirIndian food.
(43:14):
So I have to hide it in a foodthat will hide the flavor really
well.
A lot of times I just don't,yeah, so I just open it
underneath the dish, mix thedish.
I'm like there's your dinnerand they're like this tastes
different and I'm like too bad.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
And then I know that we are at least fighting off
whatever it is that they'rebringing home.
How much of it do we consumefor our immunes to be properly
managed?
Speaker 1 (43:40):
and not compromised.
The recommended dose ofcurcumin is a thousand
milligrams a day.
We know we can take up to eightgrams a day safely.
So you can take 500 milligramsin the morning, 500 milligrams
in the evening and if someonehas like a really big issue they
can take a third capsule laterin the day as well.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Do you recommend capsule versus powder or fresh?
Speaker 1 (44:02):
In my case, based on all the studying I've done, I
think a curcumin capsule is thebest way to take it, because you
know what you're getting,you're delivering a very exact
result and you're pullingcurcumin at the highest dosage,
at the highest potency to drivea specific result.
So I eat turmeric in my foodevery day.
I consider that spices forgeneral benefits, but not
(44:23):
anywhere in the hemisphere ofinflammation reduction that I
need because as I age we havemore weight gain.
Metabolism slows down,everything slows down.
Brain health slows down.
Gut is always impacted bystress and toxins.
So a high dose of curcumin iswhat's going to really do the
job versus the spice is notgoing to get you there.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Okay.
Now when we go to like agrocery store like Whole Foods
or Sprouts, they have it on thespices shelf.
Does it matter if you get anorganic turmeric or a
non-organic, because I know it'sseparate.
There's curcumin too.
What do people buy?
How does that work?
Speaker 1 (45:00):
I buy regular turmeric powder.
When it comes to my fruit, myveggies, my eggs, the bigger
things, milk, dairy, I try to beorganic as much as possible.
But when it comes to my spices,I don't think too hard about it
.
So I don't typically buyturmeric organic.
I buy it in three pound bags atthe indian store.
And when it comes to mysupplement, yeah, fresh spice
(45:22):
turmeric, the dried spiceturmeric, I don't buy fresh
turmeric.
Yeah, the fresh turmeric.
I buy fresh ginger but I don'tbuy fresh turmeric.
I don't have a use for it.
And then, when it comes tosupplementation, I take my
supplements daily.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Okay.
Now, when you say you buy yourspices, is it like pound that
you buy in the Indians, becausewe have so many Indian grocery
stores here in California.
It's amazing.
So, like, guide us there, so wego and we just, is it that you
scoop it right?
It's the powder and you scoopit into a bag.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
No, when we go to the Indian store there's a whole
aisle of spices and they'll sellyou the spice in the whole form
, in the ground form.
They'll sell it in small bagsor big bags.
In my house we're cookingIndian food every day, so we buy
cumin in a big bag, coriander,red chili powder, turmeric all
these things in three-pound bags, ready to go, and then we keep
them in the fridge and we keeprefilling our.
We call it a masal dhani, thespice mix holder, right in the
(46:22):
kitchen.
Yes, I've seen that, thebeautiful gold.
Yes, it's round and it hasround little tins in there.
Yeah, and that's what we cookfrom every day.
And so when someone has aproblem, I'm always like can I
just give you some, you know,hing, some spice with some
purple salt we call it hing withkala namak mixed together into
(46:45):
a tea, and it'll soothe the gutright down.
A lot of people post COVID havehad weird gut issues, so I've
given them that tea andeverything settled.
So I just reach into IRV, thistoolkit for teas, and it
completely works.
And I even designed some teasaround sleep, menopause and
unwinding, because to me theadaptogens from Ayurveda are
really powerful, so taking themdaily can be a really beautiful
(47:08):
way to give yourself the herbs,but then also have like, have
what I talked about, which istea.
Time is me time, taking amoment to yourself, tune into
yourself.
Ask yourself some beautifulquestions Like how am I feeling?
What do I need to do today tofeel better?
Am I going to eat on time andtake care of myself today and
then shifting your dayaccordingly so that you're
(47:28):
living by your best rhythm?
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah, that's beautiful, shivani.
Do you recommend forindividuals to buy the spices at
grocery stores, like the glassones, or do you recommend it
from other places?
What's like the best brands oranything?
Any advice?
Speaker 1 (47:48):
I think grocery stores are great.
I think when it comes to spicesyou get what you pay for.
So certain spices I'm going tobuy at three pounds a bag
because we're just so high use.
But certain spices for me Idon't use often, like cinnamon.
So when I go to the health foodstore I'll buy a cinnamon from
maybe there's a brand that'sreally beautiful.
I don't know what it's called,but it comes in little glass
(48:09):
bottles and I'll buy my cinnamonthat way, cause it'll take me a
year or two to use up mycinnamon and things like that.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Okay, um, what do you as, as somebody who's in
Ayurveda medicine, what is thewhat?
What advice would you givewomen or men Like, what's a one
thing that you've picked upthat's such an essential to
incorporate in your life?
Speaker 1 (48:33):
I think the number one thing that you've picked up
that's such an essential toincorporate in your life.
I think the number one thing isreally focus on sleep and your
circadian rhythm as the key toeverything, because if we can
fix sleep, we can get the brainback online, we can get gut
health cleared up, everythinginflammation cleared, the body
can rejuvenate.
But if we're going to defycircadian rhythm all the time
(48:56):
and we're going to sleep late,wake up late and live this
really disorganized life, thenwe're not supporting the body to
be optimal and then we're nevergoing to win at our health.
Like when I started studyingturmeric, I thought, okay,
everyone will just take turmericand we will win.
And then I realized, wow,there's a large group of people
who don't sleep well, so they'llnever clear their inflammation
(49:18):
overnight.
So I started really focusing onsleep and teaching about sleep
and creating solutions aroundsleep, because even for myself,
if I don't sleep well, mood,energy, happiness everything is
gone.
So sleep is, I think, the nextbig bedrock to talk about, after
we understand what chronic,low-grade, persistent
inflammation is doing in thebody and the damage that
inflammation causes.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Wow, that's powerful and it's so important, my gosh.
It just makes up for everythingthat's happening in your body.
Yeah, it does.
It's hard when there's new momsand that process is hard, but
yeah, I feel you it's anessential.
Are there any excitingbreakthroughs in autoimmune
(50:00):
research that could change theway we treat these conditions?
These autoimmune conditionsbesides Ayurveda Is there?
Are there any otherbreakthroughs or anything that
you've read?
I think?
Speaker 1 (50:11):
there's a lot actually.
So if you look at the world offunctional medicine right now
within functional medicine, Ipartner with so many functional
medicine doctors.
I've gone to many over theyears.
I'm always actively workingwith a doctor on optimizing for
my health.
We've learned so much about how, if you just got diagnosed with
an autoimmune condition it justhappened to someone on my team
(50:33):
I always sit down and say, okay,what's the diet?
Where are we going to go?
Anti-inflammatory and get ridof things that might be the
culprit.
Maybe it's gluten, maybe it'ssugar, maybe it's dairy.
We have to figure out what thatis.
Then let's look at that guthealth.
Let's get a stool test.
You never know what is causingdamage.
I just read a stool test onsomeone and they had parasites.
It was all leaky gut and I waslike, wow, we've got work to do
(50:56):
there.
Then we can kind of go furtherfrom there.
Blood work what are yourmicronutrient deficiencies?
Are you severely vitamin Ddeficient?
In my case, I have a lot ofdeficiencies and so it's
important to focus on those andoptimize for that and get back
online.
Then we can go even further andsay is this a mold problem?
Is this something else?
(51:21):
Is this heavy metal?
Is this food intolerance that'sdriving your whole body to be
in a haywire type situation allthe time?
Is it vagus nerve toning that'sneeded?
Is it that we're too stressedso we're in fight or flight all
the time and we're never in restand digest?
So the body's never gettingwhat it needs, and so we're just
going to stay autoimmuneforever.
And so Ayurveda has a lot oftools, and so I like treating
with spices first cause.
I like to just get the job done, and once we've got that
(51:44):
inflammation down and we'refeeling better, then okay, now I
have a little bit of leveragewith you to talk about.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
Okay, let's take some action around sleep some action
around gut health, and then wecan go on down the line from
there.
Wow, that's phenomenal.
Now, as far as parasites go,how often do you recommend?
I mean, does Ayurveda medicineallow cleansing for parasites,
and do they do it with herbs andspices, or there's capsules?
Speaker 1 (52:09):
Yes.
So Ayurveda has been a sciencethat has taught detoxification
forever, and so I've been toIndia many times, lived in-house
in detoxification centers.
A lot of times people findAyurveda when they're at their
death's door and they've beensick forever, and Ayurveda can
usually detox and clear out whatdoesn't serve, rebuild and
(52:31):
rejuvenate.
So yeah, I mean, we are allabout gut health and gut health
cleansing.
So I've beenjuvenate.
So yeah, I mean we are allabout gut health and gut health
cleansing.
So I've been to India and doneenemas colonics they do really
rigorous types of massage topush everything out of the cells
so you can clear it out A lotof walking in nature, hydration.
Yoga is a sister science toAyurveda.
So everything they teach inyoga Ayurveda is just really
(52:54):
teaching the physical side ofhow to implement that so you can
have a yogic spiritual life andthen pranayama, deep breathing.
So any one of the tools cancreate a profound result.
We're just iso-bio individuals,so our job is to journey to
figure out which tool is thebest for us.
For me, turmeric was the best,so I'm always turmeric first,
then I know from so many andmyself gut health second, sleep
(53:17):
third, and then we can keepgoing down that list.
Speaker 2 (53:20):
Yes, are cleansing permitted for children as well?
Speaker 1 (53:26):
Absolutely.
If you have a parasite, youhave to cleanse it out.
There's no choice.
What are the symptoms?
Speaker 2 (53:30):
How would we know our children have parasites though
choice?
How would we know our childrenhave parasites though you know
it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
My son recently was having some health struggles and
I couldn't figure out what waswrong with him and it's hard
when it's your kid, cause you'realways too close but his diet
narrowed a lot.
He all of a sudden was sayingno, I'm not eating that anymore.
I'm not eating that anymore.
And I thought I'm in ahousehold cooking you the most
fresh, organic, healthy,ayurvedic food on earth and
(53:58):
you're saying no to everything.
And it was all of a suddenwithin a year.
And his behavior looked reallyhypoglycemic, so like eating
crashing, eating crashing.
And I couldn't figure out whatwas wrong.
So I took him to two doctors.
I took him to pediatricendocrinology for a big blood
work to understand what theissue was.
But I also took him tofunctional medicine in order to
stool test.
And I'm so glad I did.
My intuition said just do astool test, just check.
Turns out he had Giardia, hpylori, massive leaky gut and I
(54:22):
thought well, okay, first of all, that could be all of us.
We all went to India togetherthis year and we all went to
Italy.
That could be me, that could beanyone in the household, okay,
so it was surprising to me, Ididn't expect it, but anytime we
travel internationally weshould expect that possibility.
And anytime you see anybehavior changes all of a sudden
, our gut issues.
(54:43):
I've had a disrupted gut a fewtimes this year.
I should have put those puzzlepieces together and said you
know, anytime you go to Indiaany country like India you
should check.
You never know what was in thewater or food you consumed.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
That's right.
So those are just the basiclike behaviors to look out for,
like you know lack of sleep,lack of appetite, yeah, and then
the stool test is an essentialfor sure, at least.
Constipation, constipation,yeah, yeah, that's another good
idea, is a good recommendationfor a parasite cleanse for a
whole family.
Speaker 1 (55:14):
I think so.
I think I don't think we shouldparasite cleanse unless we know
there's a parasites.
That's why, for myself, Iordered a stool test because I
don't think I have it.
But I certainly won'tprophylactically send all these
things down the gut to kill offsomething that doesn't exist.
I have a gut in a system that Ihave to treat really carefully.
So I'm going to test, know thetruth and then only treat
(55:35):
accordingly, and same for anyoneelse in the household.
I don't think we should doprophylactic treatment.
But can we annually detox?
Yes, Just general gentle.
Detoxing is very effective toclean and clear the
accumulations that happen eachyear.
Speaker 2 (55:49):
Now, if there are families that have children that
have been.
I just want to understand thisso that people have a place to
go.
I do have a large following offamilies that have kids from
vaccine damage and they arealways reaching out.
You know, do you know anyone?
Any functional medicines?
(56:10):
Anything that can help IsAyurveda, right for people that
have children that have beendamaged by vaccines.
Speaker 1 (56:17):
Oh my gosh, it's a great question.
It's a tough one.
I've had many friends who havesuffered from that.
It made me very, very carefulwhen it came to my own kids'
time.
I think functional medicinefirst.
It's so important to get an MDon board who understands you and
goes down the line of testing.
The way I see it is.
Functional medicine is going toanswer all the questions.
(56:40):
They're going to tell youwhat's wrong.
They're going to figure it out.
They know great protocols toaddress it and address it very
completely.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
Because it reaches the gut right.
Speaker 1 (56:50):
They'll understand a lot from the gut yeah, they're
going to do the stool test.
There's so many great companiesright now that have parasite
related products or gut healingproducts.
I have certain supplementcompanies for probiotics and gut
that I trust and love, butAyurveda is a lifestyle.
Ayurveda is what comes afterwe've dealt with the problem.
Or if you're an adult, then yes, I can detox you and things
(57:11):
like that, but I don't work withkids, so you would have to find
an Ayurvedic practitioner whoworks with kids and typically
it's funny.
Ayurveda's tools are usuallynot yummy or fun, and so I've
never been able to get my ownkids to do them.
I'm always like let's do thisand they're like no.
So if you have a compliant,great, organic, happy kid, sure
(57:33):
maybe, but not always, becauseour our processes take more time
and our processes areoftentimes spices and things
like this that might not tastegood.
Speaker 2 (57:43):
Wow.
Well, thank you so much fortoday.
I appreciate you and the workthat you do.
It's amazing and I can't waitfor this to air so that people
are just learning all about itand they're reaching out to you
for their needs.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
Thank you, thank you so much, thank you Thanks for
having me on, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (58:02):
Absolutely.
But by doing this you're really going to clean
everything out.
So some people will take theirmorning shower while they're oil
pulling.
They'll go for their morningwalk outside.
But make sure when you spit outthat oil you spit it out in the
trash, not your sink, toilet orshower, why It'll clog the
pipes.
So it's one of those things.
We use a lot of oil in Ayurveda.
So you have to be nice to yourhouse and not clog up everything
(00:22):
.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hello everyone.
Today's amazing episode waswith Dr Shivani.
Now, Dr Shivani is anautoimmune and inflammation
expert who specializes inAyurveda medicine, which is a
traditional Indian way ofhealing.
It has been around forthousands of years.
We talk about anything relatedto Ayurveda medicine and healing
our body, including our body,microbiomes, our gut, health,
autoimmune diseases, thyroid,particularly colds, flus.
(01:02):
We did get into the six pillarsof Ayurveda medicine and she
breaks down all of them, butwhat I take away from this
entire podcast is the spices andhow they're related to medicine
.
Everything that we have had intraditional medicine.
It's in our cabinets, ourkitchen cabinets from turmeric,
curcumin, cinnamon to all thesespices, and the way she breaks
(01:26):
it down and explains what eachspice does and how healing it is
is phenomenal to me, Backed upby research and thousands of
years of individuals using thesespices and healing themselves,
whether it's ulcers, whetherit's inflammations, whether it's
a leaky gut, whether it'ssleeping dilemmas.
I promise you you're going tolove this episode with Dr
(01:48):
Shivani.
She's also done her PhDdissertation on turmeric, has
studied it for over 10 years andwhat she has to bring is
phenomenal.
Enjoy with Dr Shivani.
All right, Dr Shivani, it's sonice to connect.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Absolutely.
It's an absolute honor.
I adore your work.
I am obsessed with yourInstagram page of how helpful it
is.
So much beautiful information,by the way, and it's so
insightful, and I'm just sograteful that there's people
like you spreading awareness sothat people can learn on how to
(02:25):
treat themselves.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Thank you.
I really appreciate that.
It's a labor of love to teachonline, but it's so worth it
because everyone who finds meneeded to find this wisdom from
Ayurveda, so it's reallyexciting.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So talk to me a little bit about what is it
called Ayurveda?
How do you pronounce that?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
A lot of people pronounce it are you veda?
Because that's easier, uh-huh I.
I call it ayurveda a y u r.
But ayurveda is this ancientsystem of wisdom and health and
healing and medicine from indiathat's over 5 000 years old and
within that wisdom we taughtabout a lifestyle that you can
(03:04):
live every single day that keepsyour whole body, mind and
spirit in alignment.
That's the point of Ayurveda isto show us how to live a
preventive lifestyle and how tolive in rhythm with nature so we
can have vibrant health.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
That's beautiful.
How did you get into thatlifestyle?
Or learning about Ayurveda?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Sure, well, growing up, I would go to India every
year to see my grandparents andmy cousins, and I would see that
people would practice yoga.
I would see that my grandmawould use all sorts of spices to
heal us whenever we were sick.
And when I came back to theUnited States it was oh, you're
sick, go to the pediatrician,get your antibiotics.
And then you're clear.
And I always thought who'sright?
(03:44):
Like, why are both systemsbeing used?
What's the better one?
And so by the time I got tocollege, I had so many health
issues I had really destroyed mygut taking really strong
antibiotics.
Through high school I waschronically sick and couldn't
figure out why.
And in college I finally saidenough is enough, I have to find
a different way.
And we were in India and Ilooked at this doctor and I said
(04:07):
you know what?
I'm not taking your antibioticsand your crazy stuff.
I can't do all this medicationanymore.
And I went on a journey and aquest through India and I
studied Ayurveda and I reallyjust wanted to know does this
work?
And I was patient number one.
I tried it on myself and Ihealed my gut.
I built an immune system thatworked again and I realized, wow
(04:29):
, this system really works.
Why are we not all learningabout it?
Why are we not all applying itto our lives?
And I realized that Ayurvedajust kind of sucks at marketing.
It sucks at sharing the wisdomin a way that people will use,
and so that's been my missionfor the last 20 years is to keep
distilling that wisdom andknowledge in ways that we will
actually use it.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, that's so beautiful and I love how.
I mean, is it safe to callAyurveda traditional?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
medicine you can.
It's ancient traditionalmedicine.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Absolutely.
Now I wanna ask you thisquestion.
I know that a lot of physiciansand clinicians they tend to be
very dismissive of this questionbut do you feel like
antibiotics really do damage onthe body versus heal the body?
What's your perspective as aprofessional?
(05:23):
Great, question.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So I think antibiotics have their time and
place.
I think they're phenomenal forwhat they do.
When we have a problem and weneed to kill off something
that's bacterial in the body,antibiotics will do that job.
The problem is, until recently,in pediatrics.
A lot of times even my ownkid's pediatrician was trying to
do this with me.
She's like here's prophylacticantibiotics, it'll just cut the
(05:46):
time of your cold down.
And I kept saying you can testthe kid and if it's not
bacterial, we will not start acourse of antibiotics.
I do not want to obliteratetheir gut microbiome.
We're not doing that.
And she'd say yeah, but you canjust get better faster.
And I'd say if it isn'tbacterial, how are we getting
(06:10):
better faster?
That logic has been found to becompletely illogical now, and
so, thank goodness, doctors arerecognizing much more that we
need to just be really carefulwith our use of antibiotics.
We can't just jump to itbecause we just want to get
better faster.
That's not logical.
The gut microbiome, the gut, isthere, with 80% of our immune
system residing in the gut, andthus the better answer is what
are we going to do to supportgut health and the immune system
(06:33):
to fight off whatever we'redealing with, and unfortunately,
that time period of my lifewhere I was just sick all the
time through my childhood led tosuch heavy antibiotic use.
It took me until decades laterto realize it was leaky gut.
I had a leaky gut.
I was basically an autoimmunepatient.
Right, exactly, I'm basically.
I was an autoimmune patient forall those years kept saying,
(06:55):
guys, I have no immune system, Ihave no immune system, can you
help me?
And no one had any terminologyor language back there for that.
So now I'm really grateful wehave so many tools in the
toolkit around autoimmunity andthen gut health, leaky gut,
inflammation.
We've.
We have a lot more options.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
You know I love, I love this.
Oh my gosh.
I want to talk to you aboutthis because I want you to open
up the doors for anybody tolearn about this Now.
Here in in America, whensomebody says, when a physician
says there's an autoimmune issueand there's a leaky gut issue,
immediately we, we tend to go toum medications and um, you know
(07:38):
, the most famous one of allit's your sugar glucose.
It's a glucose issue and it'sreally hard to follow that type
of diet.
How do you think that Ayurvedacan help this kind of healing to
heal your autoimmunetraditionally, versus cutting
(07:58):
glucose and taking all thesemedications, particularly
thyroid?
It's just skyrocketed amongwomen as the leading autoimmune
disease right now.
So what are your perspectiveson that?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Sure.
So you know, I have asister-in-law who was suffering
with a thyroid condition and shewas new to the country, and so
I took her to theendocrinologist and when we went
, the endocrinologist said look,you are definitely on your way
there.
I will be prescribing youchronic, long-term thyroid
medication for the rest of yourlife.
You're not quite there yet,you're not quite at Hashimoto's
level, so just wait and you'llget there and then call me and I
(08:36):
said is there anything she cando in the meantime to reverse
out of this Diet, give up gluten, anything she's like no diet
will have no impact, there'snothing she can do.
And I just looked at the doctorin shock and was like, okay,
there's obviously many differenttypes of practitioners out
there.
I think it's so important rightnow that practitioners go and
(08:57):
look into the world offunctional medicine, where
there's so much data, validatedscience you know clinical trials
on a completely differentapproach to that question and
there's so much data, validatedscience you know clinical trials
on a completely differentapproach to that question and
there's so much publishedscience if you just look on what
is inflaming us and howinflammation is the root cause
that's causing so many of theissues that we're struggling
(09:18):
with, especially as women, andwe know that clinical trials
weren't even done on women upuntil very recently when it
comes to Western medicine.
So it's so important to take alook at the situation and say,
ok, thank you, doctor, for thesolutions you're giving.
I love Western medicine, I go toWestern medicine and I think,
as I age, I'll be reaching intotheir toolkits more than I
(09:39):
thought I would.
That's been my year.
Right now, unfortunately, I'mlike wow, I needed your tools
more than ever, so I can't railagainst them.
But I do think that it's soimportant that we as women are
empowered, that we as women arereally our own sovereign
advocates for our own health.
And the minute we're getting ananswer, that's like oh, that's
(09:59):
your entire toolkit.
You're offering me drug A anddrug B and telling me, as an
autoimmune patient, to just dealwith it.
Okay, now I'm going to takethis other road and say thank
you for the diagnosis, what aremy options?
And so Ayurveda teaches us thateverything starts in the gut.
Gut health is the center of allhealth, and that gut microbiome
(10:21):
, gut, brain access, as we callit now.
We now know your gut health isyour brain health, your gut
health is your mood, your guthealth is your skin, your gut
health is everything, and so guthealth is the immune system.
So if we're not going to honorand revere gut health practices
daily, we're always going tofall behind.
Then we talk about inflammationand how the body can be
(10:43):
chronically inflamed if we'realways under a toxic burden
based on our lifestyle.
So it might be the foods we eat, might be poor sleep, might be
poor detoxification methods,might be exposure to toxins and
environmental toxins, which is apretty big deal.
So any of those things that wedo create this residue called
ama, things that we do createthis residue called ama.
(11:06):
And if we're not going to stopevery quarter, at the
intersection of seasons, or atleast once a year, and do a big
detox, we're not going to cleanand clear that out of our system
.
And then the body is alwaysgoing to be battling with itself
, and that battle with itself isautoimmunity.
That's the body battling withitself, not realizing that the
enemy is not the body.
The enemy is all the thingsthat we've done.
So the body isn't recognizinghow to stay healthy and balanced
(11:28):
.
So in Ayurveda we reach into acouple toolkits.
We reach into circadian rhythm,living in alignment with your
circadian rhythm to nature.
We teach about.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Oh, so it's not only sleep.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, circadian rhythm is not only sleep.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
That's right.
So I wanted to bring that upbecause I mean, especially for
my audience we're really intolike science, but what's
explained in the circadianrhythm is your sleep habits.
But there's deeper meaning tothat as well that you're saying.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yes.
So when it comes to circadianrhythm, I read the teachers that
we are meant to be in alignmentwith nature's clock.
Ayurveda teaches that we aremeant to be in alignment with
nature's clock, and if we're inalignment with nature's clock,
that's where we are flowingdownhill with the river of life,
as opposed to battling uphilland constantly fighting to feel
well.
And so, yes, sleep is a bigpart of it.
From 10 to 2 on the circadianclock, ayurveda teaches that
(12:20):
it's pitta time of day or firetime of day, and so that time at
night 10 to 2, is when thefires come out.
In the daytime it's high noon,high sun, but in the evening
that energy comes through andclears out all that doesn't
serve.
So I think of it as theselittle garbage trucks that come
out.
They clear up all the gunk inmy mind and my brain that I
accumulated, that did not serve.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Well, interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Wait a minute, this is interesting that we did not
serve.
Then the throat maybe lots ofthings in the throat chakra that
we said or didn't say that weneed to clear In the heart, any
emotions, in our gut, all thethings we possibly consumed that
were pesticide ridden orchemical ridden, that we didn't
think about, and then it clearsit out in the morning.
But if we don't sleep 10 to 2,if we sleep after midnight, for
(13:05):
example, we won't clearinflammation, we will not
rejuvenate, we will not heal thegut.
All the benefits that we wantfor our health are bypassed
completely, and we know inmodern science that we can
collect up to three pounds ofglymphatic waste in our brain
throughout the year.
So imagine walking around withthree pounds of garbage inside
your head all day because youchose not to sleep before
(13:28):
midnight forever, which a lot ofpeople do, and even people in
my household do that, and I'mlike that's wrong.
The closer you sleep to 10, thecloser you are to letting the
body clear and clean all thatout of you so that you're less
inflamed and healthier the nextday.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
So the circadian rhythm is not only sleep, but
it's the energy cleansing ofyour body, and this happens from
10 pm to 2 am in the morning.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Correct.
And then you should sleep therest of your morning.
And then when you wake up wesay rise with the sun, move
first thing in the morning, getyour best work done in the
morning.
We teach that 10 to 2 duringthe day is the best time to eat
your lunch, so high noon is thebest time to eat a lunch that's
so nutrient dense, so you getall the best benefits out of it.
(14:16):
We say 2 to 6 is a differenttime of day, more vata time of
day.
So get your tasks done, butyou're not going to be able to
focus as well, but your smallto-do list tasks, get them out
of the way.
And then six to 10, as the sunsets.
You are meant to set with thatsun.
(14:38):
So winding down your activities, not winding up Dinner by seven
, wrap up work and activities byeight, wrap up your house and
responsibilities by nine.
And nine to 10 should beself-care rituals and sleep
hygiene rituals to ensure veryhigh quality sleep and being
asleep by 10.
So there's a whole clock aroundcircadian rhythm, 24 hours of
the day.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
That's.
That is a beautiful, beautifulritual, but here's my thing.
What's interesting is that thecleansing time is 10 to 2 pm,
but majority of people in theUnited States of America wake up
around 2 and 3 am in themorning, and those are usually
(15:17):
the people that are very anxiousand are struggling with
depression.
Yeah, have you noticed that inyour practice, the two to 3am
wake up time?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Sure, I've seen it a lot.
And that's where I talk to myclients and say how much are you
moving and exercising?
Is the body physically tiredenough to get a full night's
sleep?
Oftentimes we don't have enoughsleep pressure.
And then, secondly, what timeare you eating and what are you
drinking before bed?
If it's wine, alcohol and sugarand we're pushing up sugar
before bed, that's a problem.
If we're eating too late andstill digesting it, that's a
(15:49):
problem.
But it's really a systemicissue.
That's why IRV that teachesabout all six pillars of health
what we're eating, when we'reeating, our mind-body
constitution, gut health,circadian rhythm and then super
spices and self-care.
So all the pieces come togetherto give us what we want, which
is great health.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Can you take us back to those six pillars of health
in Ayurveda?
So what's the first one?
Speaker 1 (16:15):
I know we talked about sleep First we talked
about circadian rhythm, whichincludes sleep.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Beautiful.
So that's the first one.
What's the second?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
one Second one I would say is gut health.
So having true gut healthpractices throughout the day
really matters.
We talk about having gingerlemon tea in the morning to
ignite the digestive fire.
We talk about using Consume,yeah or room temperature water
even before that to hydrate thecells, create peristalsis.
(16:42):
So we have that first, reallygreat bowel movement of the day.
Oftentimes in the West peopleare constipated and in Ayurveda
we never want that.
We want the body clearing everymorning out and us to have a
rhythm around what needs to go.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
So the lemon and ginger is going to stimulate the
gut.
So the second pillar is guthealth.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yes, yes, and we have a lot of other practices spices
.
We recommend using a tonguescraper in the morning to gently
stimulate peristalsis as well.
That cleans all the toxins ofthe body.
It also supports oralmicrobiome, which we know
supports gut microbiome, and soin Ayurveda we recommend that
copper tongue scraper.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Copper tongue scraper before you consume lemon and
ginger, correct, yeah?
And I heard that that's reallygood for the lymphos too.
Is that correct?
Yeah, I read that somewhere.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, because what we teach is that all the organs of
the body are reflected on thetongue, just like they're
reflected on the bottom of thefeet, and so, because of that,
you're gently massaging all theorgans of your body and detoxing
them.
So I've had people whoseconstipation is cleared up, we
know, from a deep dive.
Yeah, I know I was shocked too.
Sometimes I makerecommendations and I'm like wow
(17:54):
, it does all that for you.
I have people who lose 15pounds and I'm always like will
you say it back to me?
Whatever I said to you that wasso effective.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
What was that?
What does the tongue have thatthe scraper does?
Can you, can you tell us that?
What is?
How is it beneficial?
Speaker 1 (18:10):
So basically, all the organs of the tongue, all the
organs of your body arereflected on the tongue.
So scraping it is going togently massage and gently detox
all those organs.
That's one.
Secondly, it helps clear ourtaste buds so we taste our food
better.
Thirdly, when you have a whitefilm on your tongue that
indicates a toxin accumulationin the body.
(18:30):
And if you stick your tongueout, most of us have a white
film on the tongue, differentdiscolorations and issues.
And so using that copper tonguescraper as your way of gently
detoxing it's pretty much free,because one tongue scraper will
last you 10 years and then youdon't have to do as big huge of
detoxes later on.
And then finally, for the gut,we teach that it ignites that
(18:50):
digestive fire and we teach thatthat campfire, that gut agony,
is a campfire and your job is toignite it in the morning, get
it started so it's ready toprocess all the foods you're
going to eat, and then settle itdown at night so that the body
can focus on other thingsovernight and not be processing
food.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Do you recommend scraping the tongue for children
and, if so, how old?
Speaker 1 (19:16):
I'd say five or six onwards, as soon as they know
how not to hurt themselves.
A metal tongue scraper, ifyou're not capable, can cut you,
so you just have to know how togently do that.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Why do you recommend a copper tongue scraper versus
metal?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
So in a lot of stores they sell only the steel tongue
scraper.
But if you go on Amazon andcertain websites they'll sell
you the copper version.
Copper is already inherentlyantibacterial so it's pretty
self-cleaning.
It stays cleaner longer, andthen copper also has
mineralizing benefits.
So in Ayurveda we used to teachto take a copper-lined cup and
(19:50):
put water in it overnight, putit by your bedside and start
your day with that water firstthing in the morning, and it's
not only hydrating to the systembut it's mineralizing as well.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Where have you been?
This is amazing information.
So wait, copper cups.
It's healthier to drink waterin and you can leave it, because
I have copper cups and my sonputs it next to his bedside and
just consumes it when he'sthirsty at night.
So it's actually doing great.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yes, and copper, if you think about it again, is
antibacterial.
So they knew if we put it incopper it's not going to get
gross, it's not going to getdirty or bad.
And then nowadays we know thatwe really need more minerals.
Now, if you are high copperbeware, I do the test for copper
in my blood and I'm great andin range, but it's one of those
things where we're irondeficient.
A lot of us were mineraldeficient, so this is just
(20:40):
another great way to bring thatin.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yes, okay.
So we talked about thecircadian rhythm, we talked
about the gut health.
What's the third pillar inAyurveda?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Third would be dosha, your mind, body, constitution.
So we teach that when you takea dosha quiz you'll come to
understand if you are more air,more fire or more earth.
And knowing that constitutiontype really drives how you
manage yourself, how you eat,how you manage your schedule,
how you manage kind ofeverything.
(21:11):
Because it leads to certainpersonality traits.
So a vata person is more thinand wiry.
This is someone who's morecreative.
They go really fast, they'refast paced, they're more air.
They need more grounding tools.
Bitta people are fire.
So when we take a dosha quizwe're all fire.
I'm a bitta.
We're passionate, driven,ambitious.
(21:32):
We have a tendency to get burntout, explode and erupt and we
tend to be hangry.
And so Bitta people have toself-manage a lot with cooling
tools and eating long time andthings like that.
And then Gaffa people arebigger, boned, stronger.
They have round features,oilier hair, curly hair.
(21:52):
They have a tendency to liftheavier, they're much stronger,
they're caretakers, they're veryloyal.
And so the kapha nurturing bodytype needs support with eating
easy to digest foods, not rawfoods, and support with getting
their energy moving for the day.
So they have a tendency to bereally sluggish and they want to
(22:13):
move more.
So we have to get Kafa movingin the day.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I can just tell you right off the bat learning all
these, I'm a beta.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, and so knowing that's really important.
The angry and the hangry yeah,I get angry and hangry all the
time unless I'm like actively.
That's why I teach.
Tea time is me time.
I have to like hydrate everytwo hours.
I have to eat on time or theworld goes crashing down.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, so this is the.
This is the quiz.
What are their?
What are their levels?
Are there in the quiz thatpeople rank.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
So I have this dosha quiz on my website, so it's at
drshvanicom, and when you takethe quiz you'll see it'll give
you your primary dosha and then,if you want a more detailed
quiz, I have the bigger detailedquiz.
Then you can come to understandyour primary and your secondary
dosha and that really helps youunderstand.
Okay, I'm really like that, butmaybe my mind or emotions are
more like this one, like I'm apitta, but I have a kind of vata
(23:10):
mind.
I can be all over the place andsuper creative and I have to
rein in my mind.
And so then you understand howto use the circadian rhythm, gut
health practices, food, dietpractices and self-care
practices to stay the mostcentered within your
constitution.
So most people who take thatquiz are like how did you know
(23:31):
that about me?
That's insane.
I'm like this is ancientAyurvedic wisdom.
It's said this for 5,000 yearsand it knows that we are made of
nature and these are theelements that dominate us and
what that repercussion is whenit comes to our health, because
each of those doshas has certainhealth tendencies as well.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Wow, and I think it's incredible.
Can people fluctuate between afew of them in the Doshik quiz,
or is it just like a bit andthat's it?
There's people that havemultiple yes.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
So you could be three Doshik.
You could have a strong primaryand a strong secondary.
You're born with your Doshiktemplate, but life happens and
so I always ask like are therecertain life traumas, big events
that happen in your life thatcaused the shift that you're in
now?
And then, how are we going toshift you back into your
original dosha, so you feel athome in your body, so everything
(24:23):
feels good again?
A lot of times when I meetwomen in their fifties and
sixties, they're like I justdon't feel like myself and I
haven't felt like myself for areally long time.
And when you look it's a kaphaimbalance.
And if you bring them back totheir bitta selves all over, all
of a sudden they're like theFerrari that they once were and
they're ready to go.
So that's always the goal isbring you back to your dosha.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Kapha balance.
Does that in Englishtranslation mean equilibrium and
balances in humans?
Because, you know, sometimes wecan also lose that.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah Well, like, for example, after kids, I became
more guffa than I normally am.
I gained weight.
Everything was slower, mymetabolism was slower.
I was very.
One thing at a time Made sense,though, as a mother, you're a
caretaker.
Your whole world is to bemother earth to those kids, and
so I was that for a period oftime, and then I was ready to go
(25:14):
back to work, and I couldn'tfigure out how.
How come I can't launch acompany?
Where's my energy, my brain,all the things I need to be on
fire?
Well, I had to balance backinto my primary fire element,
and then I got the energy andeverything back the way I'm used
to functioning, and so each ofus has our own specific template
, and Ayurveda is just trying toshow us how to find ourselves
(25:35):
again and be at home again,bring body, mind and spirit into
alignment so we can feel ourbest.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
What are people supposed to be naturally born in
?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
You're naturally born into your own dosha, into your
own combination.
You could be like how do wefind that out, though?
It's by taking a dosha quiz.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
So it's still by the quiz, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah, by the quiz you'll know.
And then oftentimes, sittingdown in a consultation, the job
of the practitioner is really toascertain.
Ayurvedic doctors If you haveone in your city they use pulse
diagnosis, they use tongueanalysis.
They're going to look at yourtongue, they're going to look at
your fingernails, your eyes,your hair.
A lot of times, just throughphysical assessment we will know
what someone is.
(26:16):
But it's also so important totake a really big history,
because what if I'm meeting younow and you were completely
different 20 years ago?
So we're trying to reallyascertain what were you as a kid
?
What was your template?
Coming in?
And let me figure out how tobalance you back to that.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yeah, I think that this quiz is and I want
everybody to reach out to you.
I mean, I have a huge familyfollowing and I love this
because you're right, when youdo become a parent whether that
is a first time dad or a firsttime mom you tend to be knocked
out of your kind of naturalrhythm and it's hard to kind of
get back and I have people justmaybe going to therapy and
(26:54):
sometimes there's thisdisconnection, you're like I'm
not feeling better and sometimesyou know it's like not an
emotional thing, maybe it's aphysical, physical symptom
instead, and this is why thesetypes of practices are essential
.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Absolutely.
We have to learn every toolthat will affect us, and what I
love is integrative medicine hasso many.
So when I was struggling, I waslike, well, is it chiropractic
That'll put me in alignment?
Is it functional medicine?
Do I need to heal my gut andget my body on track, which is
part of the puzzle a lot of thetime?
Or in Ayurveda, it's just webring you back to your dosha.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah, so that's the dosha.
Yeah, so, um, so that's the so,that's the dosha.
Is the fourth one, I believe.
Right, what's the fifth?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
What's the fifth Then ?
The next one would be, I wouldsay, self-care rituals from
Ayurveda.
Our Ayurvedic self-care ritualstie into circadian rhythm,
because we teach a daily rhythmthat you can build every day.
That's detoxing, that's healing, that's supportive, and it
starts first thing in themorning.
So we talk about you know,touch the ground, touch your
(28:00):
forehead and set an intentionfor the day.
They say thank you and set anintention.
So my intention is usually canI please have peace today?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Beautiful, so just practice, gratefulness Simple.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Exactly, very simple.
And then we teach to have thatcopper lined cup of water.
Make sure you're hydrating fromfirst thing, because if you're
not and you don't have thatbowel movement, we've got some
problems.
Then we teach that after youbrush your teeth, use the tongue
scraper.
We teach about oil pulling.
So that's just taking about oneto two tablespoons of any food
grade organic oil.
You put that in the mouth Likeolive oil, things like that.
(28:36):
Yeah, coconut oil, olive oilsesame oil.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Why is that?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
essential.
So basically, oil pulling meansthat oil in the mouth as you
swish it around is going tocollect all the bacteria and
toxins that have accumulated inyour mouth overnight, and when
you spit it out into the trashcan you're getting rid of all of
that.
And we know oral microbiometies to heart health.
We know it ties to gut health,and so oil pulling is kind of a
(29:01):
weird one.
I didn't do it for many yearsand finally I was like you can't
teach it unless you do it.
And I tried it and it's notthat bad.
And you can find oils online nowthat have some mint in them,
because we're used to mintythings being part of our oral
hygiene.
But by doing this you're reallygoing to clean everything out.
So some people will take theirmorning shower while they're oil
pulling.
They'll go for their morningwalk outside, but make sure when
(29:22):
you spit out that oil, you spitit out in the trash, not your
sink, toilet or shower, whyIt'll clog the pipes.
So it's one of those things weuse a lot of oil in irv this.
You have to be nice to yourhouse and not clog up everything
it's called oil pulling.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
So basically you're just rinsing your mouth with oil
.
How long does it have to be inthe mouth?
Speaker 1 (29:43):
so you keep it in your mouth for about 5 to 20
minutes, and that sounds like along time, but again, you can
have it, stack it, you can doanything else.
You're just keeping your mouthshut while you're moving the oil
around.
Do you practice that?
I do, I do.
I do it on the weekends usuallybecause with kids we've got to
get through the morning and getout the door.
I can't be silent.
I feel you, yeah, from theminute I wake up we're trying to
(30:05):
get out that door.
So on the weekends I can do iton Saturday and Sunday easily.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Now Shivani.
In Chinese medicine, mostdoctors believe that you need to
drink water that's equivalentto the weather.
Is this in Ayurveda as well,that cold water is not really
permitted on the gut.
It's very bad for you to drinkice water.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Correct.
We don't permit it at all.
We don't like ice.
We don't like ice water.
We forbid anyone from drinkingwater any time around your meals
.
We don't want water within.
We forbid anyone from drinkingwater anytime around your meals.
We don't want water within 30minutes of your meals, on either
side.
So if you're eating, it shouldbe about eating and not ice
water and iced tea and all thesethings going down the system
(30:48):
that are going to shut off thatcampfire.
We want that campfire 100%focused.
All those enzymes, everythingfocused, all that acidity
focused on the digestive processso we don't have toxins formed
because we have undigested foods.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Now is ice water um.
Does it harm the microbiomes?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Why is it a hard no basically the body is warm, and
so in Ayurveda we teach to sipwarm water throughout the day,
like I drink herbal teas all daylong and then I drink a few
green teas in there and that'sall the water you consume Pretty
much.
I wish I was a better hydrator.
I carry a water bottle aroundwith electrolytes but if you
(31:31):
told me I had to hydrate, mybest bet for hydrating is herbal
teas, cause I love that.
I know it's beneficial.
It feels so good to me.
Um, ayurveda teaches that themore we sip warm water, the more
we're going to supporthealthier tissue and detoxing.
But if we're going to do itthrough ice water, you can do
that, cause it's hot and youwant to just cool down.
But it's kind of like anassault to the body.
(31:53):
It's not received well by thebody.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Okay, that makes perfect sense.
Now, the sixth one, which is myfavorite one, was the herbs.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yes, so super spices, which is huge.
I when I when I was sitting inherbology class I was doing my
master's in Ayurvedic sciencesand in herbology class they
started talking about turmeric,ginger, cardamom, cilantro, uh,
which we call coriander, right,coriander seeds are cilantro um,
fennel, cumin, and I sat thereand I was like wait a minute,
(32:25):
you're telling me the spicesI've eaten every day of my whole
life are that beneficial?
I thought they were just partof food and they were, were like
no, the Indian cooking isAyurvedic cooking and Ayurvedic
cooking has all of thesebenefits.
And I fell deeply in love withturmeric because I thought, with
my family history of diabetes,heart disease, parkinson's
(32:46):
stroke, everything horrible inmy family you're telling me that
turmeric could have helped usthis whole time.
So I embarked on a dissertation.
My PhD dissertation was onturmeric.
I studied it for years.
Now there's over 17,000scientific studies on curcumin
in PubMed, which is reallyexciting.
And so I teach about turmericall the time because I think if
(33:06):
we understood how powerfulturmeric is, we wouldn't have
health going the direction it'sgoing right now.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
What do you?
Why do you think turmeric isessential piece of uh?
Is that an?
Speaker 1 (33:18):
herb?
Yeah, it's an herb, it's aspice.
It's actually a spice becauseturmeric is a sister plant to
ginger, it's a rhizome, so it'snot an herb or spice.
And then when you take gingeras the plant and you dry it, we
make it the spice.
And then when you take thatspice, turmeric, which has a lot
of benefits, it's important totake it with black pepper or a
(33:39):
healthy fat to increase theabsorption.
And then, out of that turmericplant, only 3% is the
curcuminoids.
Of those three curcuminoids,curcumin is the most effective
at reducing inflammation and soa lot of people are out there
eating turmeric as a spice,thinking it's going to help with
their joint pain.
It's not, it's not enough,because only 3% of it is doing
the heavy lifting.
(34:00):
Then, when it comes tosupplements, a lot of times
people are buying supplementsthat say curcumalonga or they'll
say turmeric curcuminoids, butif it's not curcumin
standardized to 95%, we're notgoing to drive that significant
reduction in inflammation thatwe want.
And we know that turmeric is avery powerful anti-inflammatory
(34:23):
antioxidant.
It's immune modulating, so it'santiviral, antibacterial,
antifungal.
We know it's anti-obesity.
We know that it really is avery powerful anti-aging tool.
So, as we're aging and we havethis oxidative stress that makes
us feel like we're rusting fromthe inside.
Curcumin goes in there.
It's supportive of the gutmicrobiome.
It helps extend our telomeres,which is the ends of our DNA
(34:46):
strands, so it is anti-aging inthat way.
It also has a positive impacton sirtuins, ampk pathways.
It kills off zombie cells in thebody.
So a lot of times we have thesecells that form that just run
into everything and cause damagelike zombies, and curcumin just
comes in there like a janitorand cleans house.
It causes cell apoptosis, socells that don't belong in the
(35:09):
body.
It causes cell death.
So those things clear out ofthe way because oftentimes, as
we're aging, the problem is thateverything is just slowing down
.
But if we keep clearing out,everything's slowing down, then
we can keep having the cellrenewal that we need to have
that energy and that vitalitythat we want.
So now that I'm in my mid 40s,I'm looking at aging like, okay,
(35:30):
how do I keep brain functiononline, gut function online,
energy online, as I've alwayshad it, and I know that turmeric
and a lot of the super spicesfrom Ayurveda will help us get
there.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Now, how are turmeric and curcumin related?
Speaker 1 (35:46):
So turmeric is the plant.
When you take it in fresh form,like a lot of people juice it,
that's fine.
When you take it fresh and youdry it into a spice which we buy
it at the grocery store, thatturmeric spice is really
beneficial.
But take it with black pepperor a healthy fat.
And then when you take thatturmeric spice and extract from
(36:06):
it the 3% that you can extractout of it that we know is the
most beneficial is calledcurcuminoids, and out of the
curcuminoids, curcumin is themost effective extract out of
turmeric.
And so my world for the last 10years has been putting curcumin
into people and seeing what itdoes for chronic joint pain,
inflammation, gut issues,autoimmunity, all these kinds of
(36:29):
things.
I personally am obviously a bigfan.
I high dose on turmeric becauseit holds my immune system
together, so I really rely on it, Do you?
Speaker 2 (36:39):
I mean, I mix first of all, I had no idea curcumin
was so powerful and I use it inmy spices, my soups, my dishes
with a mustard seed and like,all the time, and I think that
we do in in the Armenian kitchentoo.
We use all these spices, butit's important to know what
these spices do.
(36:59):
What I'm hearing you say isthat curcumin replaces kind of
like the NAD supplements thatpeople take, because it kind of
helps with aging.
You're saying Correct, andthat's what people are taking
NAD for.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
It's just self-aging correct, and that's what people
are taking nad for.
It's just stop aging.
I think we're all on this racetowards what will help us as we
age, because aging is quite areckoning.
This year has been quite amoment for me where I was like,
wow, I have to reach into myayurvedic toolkit time at a 3x
to pull out what I need to holdmy brain and energy function.
(37:35):
But curcumin has a positiveeffect on mitochondrial health
and cell death, so I think of itas the anti-aging tool, and
then I'm going to reach into theother ones too.
I'm going to try everything Ican find.
But curcumin is so wellreceived by the body.
Turmeric is a plant from mothernature.
The body knows how to use it.
(37:55):
I've been working with a I wasgoing to say DNA professor, a
genetics professor out ofClemson, and we were both having
, we were creating a studyaround.
Why is it that so many cellsand so many pathways in the body
receive turmeric so well?
It's almost kind of nuts howthat's true, and so I think
that's why the scientificcommunity is really clamoring to
(38:16):
understand why is it thatturmeric works so well and how
else can we use it?
Because they're already usingit for joint pain.
That's an obvious one.
Pain and inflammation, gutissues but it just affects so
many pathways that there's thescience on it is exploding.
It has so many benefits.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I'm going to tell you a little story.
My neighbor years ago, um, hewas struggling with a stomach
ulcer.
Okay, and my mom's like, withher beautiful Armenian accent,
she's like you need to drinkturmeric with your tea, you know
, and for a month, Shivani, thisman would just drop a teaspoon
(38:55):
of turmeric in his tea, wouldmix it and just would drink it
with a little bit of sugar andhe healed himself.
Amazing, and I've seen so manypeople I have actually had a far
, far relative that healed braintumor from turmeric.
I mean, it decreasedsubstantially based on eating,
(39:16):
consuming turmeric.
If I were to just readsomething, I would be like, all
right, it's just basic research,but to hear personal stories of
turmeric, I'm just blown away.
That you know, people are juststarting to recognize how
wonderful it is.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
And here we have our people that have been using it
for thousands of years, all ofour cultures right Iraq, iran,
middle East East Asia, china.
I mean, it's not like Chinesemedicine didn't use turmeric, it
did.
They used ashwagandha, ginger,a lot of the adaptogens we use.
These are all science's whohave said for millennia nature's
(39:56):
toolkit is incredible.
Just reach into it and use it.
You don't need these drugs thathave side effects.
These drugs have a time andplace.
They're that hammer when youneed that hammer for the problem
.
But way before you use such abig, strong hammer on the body,
why don't you reach for the nice, natural, simple tool that the
(40:16):
body will receive so well?
And I've seen stories like that.
I've had people whose allergieswent away.
They used to sneeze 20 times ata time and that went away.
Back pain, knee pain, hip pain.
People who are losing handfunction over time they keep
their function.
People who have brain fog,migraines it helps.
So it's got very far reachingcapabilities.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, definitely.
If there was three spices thatyou would pick in the world to
consume, which ones would theybe?
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Turmeric is my number one, always on earth.
My number two is ashwagandha.
Ashwagandha is a powerhouseadaptogen.
It's for neurocognitivefunction.
If you're anxious and stressed,it'll calm you down.
If you're depressed and low,it'll lift you up.
So I really think ofashwagandha as like my second
favorite to turmeric.
Um, and then I would say in mycase in my case, because my gut
(41:10):
has always been my life problemI would pick hing.
So there's a spice calledasafetida or hing.
It's really pungent and stinky,but if you make a tea out of it
, all gas, bloating, indigestionand pain will go away.
So I've used that about athousand times in my life, maybe
more, and I still use it,sometimes on my kids or myself.
So that would be my numberthree, but I have many more I
(41:31):
love.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
What is the one thing that you discovered during your
dissertation about turmericthat blew your mind away?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Antiviral.
Turmeric is antiviral.
That sold me Anti-inflammatory.
I got it.
I was like, wow, we can preventchronic inflammation.
That's key to everything.
Antioxidant you're talkingabout reversing oxidative stress
in the body.
It'll go after the things thatcause oxidative stress.
Wow, that'll be anti-aging.
But I was studying it over adecade ago, so aging wasn't as
(42:03):
top of mind.
But antiviral is a big deal.
I have little kids they bringhome they have historically
brought home the grossest coldsand viruses and to be able to
have a defensive shield againstall the garbage out there even
now I can travel for business,go to conferences, shake a
hundred hands and come back andI'll take a hit.
Like I'll feel it.
(42:23):
My entire system's like, ohgosh, we're going to have to
battle this and then theturmeric will just handle the
problem.
It's so strong as an immunesupport that I have a defensive
shield and that, to me, is wortha million bucks.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
How do you think that the parents and the families
that are watching this podcastwill say well, it's not easy to
consume turmeric, especially forkids.
What is your advice as a Avedaspecialist?
How can we do this?
Speaker 1 (42:53):
So I take turmeric myself as an extract, as a
supplement, and I built my ownbecause I was really curious can
we build one for the marketthat's so strong that doctors
will use it every day?
And so that's been my body ofwork for about 10 years is
working with orthopedics andfunctional medicine.
When it comes to my kids, Igive them a capsule and I just
open it in half into theirIndian food.
(43:14):
So I have to hide it in a foodthat will hide the flavor really
well.
A lot of times I just don't,yeah, so I just open it
underneath the dish, mix thedish.
I'm like there's your dinnerand they're like this tastes
different and I'm like too bad.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
And then I know that we are at least fighting off
whatever it is that they'rebringing home.
How much of it do we consumefor our immunes to be properly
managed?
Speaker 1 (43:40):
and not compromised.
The recommended dose ofcurcumin is a thousand
milligrams a day.
We know we can take up to eightgrams a day safely.
So you can take 500 milligramsin the morning, 500 milligrams
in the evening and if someonehas like a really big issue they
can take a third capsule laterin the day as well.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Do you recommend capsule versus powder or fresh?
Speaker 1 (44:02):
In my case, based on all the studying I've done, I
think a curcumin capsule is thebest way to take it, because you
know what you're getting,you're delivering a very exact
result and you're pullingcurcumin at the highest dosage,
at the highest potency to drivea specific result.
So I eat turmeric in my foodevery day.
I consider that spices forgeneral benefits, but not
(44:23):
anywhere in the hemisphere ofinflammation reduction that I
need because as I age we havemore weight gain.
Metabolism slows down,everything slows down.
Brain health slows down.
Gut is always impacted bystress and toxins.
So a high dose of curcumin iswhat's going to really do the
job versus the spice is notgoing to get you there.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Okay.
Now when we go to like agrocery store like Whole Foods
or Sprouts, they have it on thespices shelf.
Does it matter if you get anorganic turmeric or a
non-organic, because I know it'sseparate.
There's curcumin too.
What do people buy?
How does that work?
Speaker 1 (45:00):
I buy regular turmeric powder.
When it comes to my fruit, myveggies, my eggs, the bigger
things, milk, dairy, I try to beorganic as much as possible.
But when it comes to my spices,I don't think too hard about it
.
So I don't typically buyturmeric organic.
I buy it in three pound bags atthe indian store.
And when it comes to mysupplement, yeah, fresh spice
(45:22):
turmeric, the dried spiceturmeric, I don't buy fresh
turmeric.
Yeah, the fresh turmeric.
I buy fresh ginger but I don'tbuy fresh turmeric.
I don't have a use for it.
And then, when it comes tosupplementation, I take my
supplements daily.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Okay.
Now, when you say you buy yourspices, is it like pound that
you buy in the Indians, becausewe have so many Indian grocery
stores here in California.
It's amazing.
So, like, guide us there, so wego and we just, is it that you
scoop it right?
It's the powder and you scoopit into a bag.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
No, when we go to the Indian store there's a whole
aisle of spices and they'll sellyou the spice in the whole form
, in the ground form.
They'll sell it in small bagsor big bags.
In my house we're cookingIndian food every day, so we buy
cumin in a big bag, coriander,red chili powder, turmeric all
these things in three-pound bags, ready to go, and then we keep
them in the fridge and we keeprefilling our.
We call it a masal dhani, thespice mix holder, right in the
(46:22):
kitchen.
Yes, I've seen that, thebeautiful gold.
Yes, it's round and it hasround little tins in there.
Yeah, and that's what we cookfrom every day.
And so when someone has aproblem, I'm always like can I
just give you some, you know,hing, some spice with some
purple salt we call it hing withkala namak mixed together into
(46:45):
a tea, and it'll soothe the gutright down.
A lot of people post COVID havehad weird gut issues, so I've
given them that tea andeverything settled.
So I just reach into IRV, thistoolkit for teas, and it
completely works.
And I even designed some teasaround sleep, menopause and
unwinding, because to me theadaptogens from Ayurveda are
really powerful, so taking themdaily can be a really beautiful
(47:08):
way to give yourself the herbs,but then also have like, have
what I talked about, which istea.
Time is me time, taking amoment to yourself, tune into
yourself.
Ask yourself some beautifulquestions Like how am I feeling?
What do I need to do today tofeel better?
Am I going to eat on time andtake care of myself today and
then shifting your dayaccordingly so that you're
(47:28):
living by your best rhythm?
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah, that's beautiful, shivani.
Do you recommend forindividuals to buy the spices at
grocery stores, like the glassones, or do you recommend it
from other places?
What's like the best brands oranything?
Any advice?
Speaker 1 (47:48):
I think grocery stores are great.
I think when it comes to spicesyou get what you pay for.
So certain spices I'm going tobuy at three pounds a bag
because we're just so high use.
But certain spices for me Idon't use often, like cinnamon.
So when I go to the health foodstore I'll buy a cinnamon from
maybe there's a brand that'sreally beautiful.
I don't know what it's called,but it comes in little glass
(48:09):
bottles and I'll buy my cinnamonthat way, cause it'll take me a
year or two to use up mycinnamon and things like that.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Okay, um, what do you as, as somebody who's in
Ayurveda medicine, what is thewhat?
What advice would you givewomen or men Like, what's a one
thing that you've picked upthat's such an essential to
incorporate in your life?
Speaker 1 (48:33):
I think the number one thing that you've picked up
that's such an essential toincorporate in your life.
I think the number one thing isreally focus on sleep and your
circadian rhythm as the key toeverything, because if we can
fix sleep, we can get the brainback online, we can get gut
health cleared up, everythinginflammation cleared, the body
can rejuvenate.
But if we're going to defycircadian rhythm all the time
(48:56):
and we're going to sleep late,wake up late and live this
really disorganized life, thenwe're not supporting the body to
be optimal and then we're nevergoing to win at our health.
Like when I started studyingturmeric, I thought, okay,
everyone will just take turmericand we will win.
And then I realized, wow,there's a large group of people
who don't sleep well, so they'llnever clear their inflammation
(49:18):
overnight.
So I started really focusing onsleep and teaching about sleep
and creating solutions aroundsleep, because even for myself,
if I don't sleep well, mood,energy, happiness everything is
gone.
So sleep is, I think, the nextbig bedrock to talk about, after
we understand what chronic,low-grade, persistent
inflammation is doing in thebody and the damage that
inflammation causes.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Wow, that's powerful and it's so important, my gosh.
It just makes up for everythingthat's happening in your body.
Yeah, it does.
It's hard when there's new momsand that process is hard, but
yeah, I feel you it's anessential.
Are there any excitingbreakthroughs in autoimmune
(50:00):
research that could change theway we treat these conditions?
These autoimmune conditionsbesides Ayurveda Is there?
Are there any otherbreakthroughs or anything that
you've read?
I think?
Speaker 1 (50:11):
there's a lot actually.
So if you look at the world offunctional medicine right now
within functional medicine, Ipartner with so many functional
medicine doctors.
I've gone to many over theyears.
I'm always actively workingwith a doctor on optimizing for
my health.
We've learned so much about how, if you just got diagnosed with
an autoimmune condition it justhappened to someone on my team
(50:33):
I always sit down and say, okay,what's the diet?
Where are we going to go?
Anti-inflammatory and get ridof things that might be the
culprit.
Maybe it's gluten, maybe it'ssugar, maybe it's dairy.
We have to figure out what thatis.
Then let's look at that guthealth.
Let's get a stool test.
You never know what is causingdamage.
I just read a stool test onsomeone and they had parasites.
It was all leaky gut and I waslike, wow, we've got work to do
(50:56):
there.
Then we can kind of go furtherfrom there.
Blood work what are yourmicronutrient deficiencies?
Are you severely vitamin Ddeficient?
In my case, I have a lot ofdeficiencies and so it's
important to focus on those andoptimize for that and get back
online.
Then we can go even further andsay is this a mold problem?
Is this something else?
(51:21):
Is this heavy metal?
Is this food intolerance that'sdriving your whole body to be
in a haywire type situation allthe time?
Is it vagus nerve toning that'sneeded?
Is it that we're too stressedso we're in fight or flight all
the time and we're never in restand digest?
So the body's never gettingwhat it needs, and so we're just
going to stay autoimmuneforever.
And so Ayurveda has a lot oftools, and so I like treating
with spices first cause.
I like to just get the job done, and once we've got that
(51:44):
inflammation down and we'refeeling better, then okay, now I
have a little bit of leveragewith you to talk about.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
Okay, let's take some action around sleep some action
around gut health, and then wecan go on down the line from
there.
Wow, that's phenomenal.
Now, as far as parasites go,how often do you recommend?
I mean, does Ayurveda medicineallow cleansing for parasites,
and do they do it with herbs andspices, or there's capsules?
Speaker 1 (52:09):
Yes.
So Ayurveda has been a sciencethat has taught detoxification
forever, and so I've been toIndia many times, lived in-house
in detoxification centers.
A lot of times people findAyurveda when they're at their
death's door and they've beensick forever, and Ayurveda can
usually detox and clear out whatdoesn't serve, rebuild and
(52:31):
rejuvenate.
So yeah, I mean, we are allabout gut health and gut health
cleansing.
So I've beenjuvenate.
So yeah, I mean we are allabout gut health and gut health
cleansing.
So I've been to India and doneenemas colonics they do really
rigorous types of massage topush everything out of the cells
so you can clear it out A lotof walking in nature, hydration.
Yoga is a sister science toAyurveda.
So everything they teach inyoga Ayurveda is just really
(52:54):
teaching the physical side ofhow to implement that so you can
have a yogic spiritual life andthen pranayama, deep breathing.
So any one of the tools cancreate a profound result.
We're just iso-bio individuals,so our job is to journey to
figure out which tool is thebest for us.
For me, turmeric was the best,so I'm always turmeric first,
then I know from so many andmyself gut health second, sleep
(53:17):
third, and then we can keepgoing down that list.
Speaker 2 (53:20):
Yes, are cleansing permitted for children as well?
Speaker 1 (53:26):
Absolutely.
If you have a parasite, youhave to cleanse it out.
There's no choice.
What are the symptoms?
Speaker 2 (53:30):
How would we know our children have parasites though
choice?
How would we know our childrenhave parasites though you know
it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
My son recently was having some health struggles and
I couldn't figure out what waswrong with him and it's hard
when it's your kid, cause you'realways too close but his diet
narrowed a lot.
He all of a sudden was sayingno, I'm not eating that anymore.
I'm not eating that anymore.
And I thought I'm in ahousehold cooking you the most
fresh, organic, healthy,ayurvedic food on earth and
(53:58):
you're saying no to everything.
And it was all of a suddenwithin a year.
And his behavior looked reallyhypoglycemic, so like eating
crashing, eating crashing.
And I couldn't figure out whatwas wrong.
So I took him to two doctors.
I took him to pediatricendocrinology for a big blood
work to understand what theissue was.
But I also took him tofunctional medicine in order to
stool test.
And I'm so glad I did.
My intuition said just do astool test, just check.
Turns out he had Giardia, hpylori, massive leaky gut and I
(54:22):
thought well, okay, first of all, that could be all of us.
We all went to India togetherthis year and we all went to
Italy.
That could be me, that could beanyone in the household, okay,
so it was surprising to me, Ididn't expect it, but anytime we
travel internationally weshould expect that possibility.
And anytime you see anybehavior changes all of a sudden
, our gut issues.
(54:43):
I've had a disrupted gut a fewtimes this year.
I should have put those puzzlepieces together and said you
know, anytime you go to Indiaany country like India you
should check.
You never know what was in thewater or food you consumed.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
That's right.
So those are just the basiclike behaviors to look out for,
like you know lack of sleep,lack of appetite, yeah, and then
the stool test is an essentialfor sure, at least.
Constipation, constipation,yeah, yeah, that's another good
idea, is a good recommendationfor a parasite cleanse for a
whole family.
Speaker 1 (55:14):
I think so.
I think I don't think we shouldparasite cleanse unless we know
there's a parasites.
That's why, for myself, Iordered a stool test because I
don't think I have it.
But I certainly won'tprophylactically send all these
things down the gut to kill offsomething that doesn't exist.
I have a gut in a system that Ihave to treat really carefully.
So I'm going to test, know thetruth and then only treat
(55:35):
accordingly, and same for anyoneelse in the household.
I don't think we should doprophylactic treatment.
But can we annually detox?
Yes, Just general gentle.
Detoxing is very effective toclean and clear the
accumulations that happen eachyear.
Speaker 2 (55:49):
Now, if there are families that have children that
have been.
I just want to understand thisso that people have a place to
go.
I do have a large following offamilies that have kids from
vaccine damage and they arealways reaching out.
You know, do you know anyone?
Any functional medicines?
(56:10):
Anything that can help IsAyurveda, right for people that
have children that have beendamaged by vaccines.
Speaker 1 (56:17):
Oh my gosh, it's a great question.
It's a tough one.
I've had many friends who havesuffered from that.
It made me very, very carefulwhen it came to my own kids'
time.
I think functional medicinefirst.
It's so important to get an MDon board who understands you and
goes down the line of testing.
The way I see it is.
Functional medicine is going toanswer all the questions.
(56:40):
They're going to tell youwhat's wrong.
They're going to figure it out.
They know great protocols toaddress it and address it very
completely.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
Because it reaches the gut right.
Speaker 1 (56:50):
They'll understand a lot from the gut yeah, they're
going to do the stool test.
There's so many great companiesright now that have parasite
related products or gut healingproducts.
I have certain supplementcompanies for probiotics and gut
that I trust and love, butAyurveda is a lifestyle.
Ayurveda is what comes afterwe've dealt with the problem.
Or if you're an adult, then yes, I can detox you and things
(57:11):
like that, but I don't work withkids, so you would have to find
an Ayurvedic practitioner whoworks with kids and typically
it's funny.
Ayurveda's tools are usuallynot yummy or fun, and so I've
never been able to get my ownkids to do them.
I'm always like let's do thisand they're like no.
So if you have a compliant,great, organic, happy kid, sure
(57:33):
maybe, but not always, becauseour our processes take more time
and our processes areoftentimes spices and things
like this that might not tastegood.
Speaker 2 (57:43):
Wow.
Well, thank you so much fortoday.
I appreciate you and the workthat you do.
It's amazing and I can't waitfor this to air so that people
are just learning all about itand they're reaching out to you
for their needs.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
Thank you, thank you so much, thank you Thanks for
having me on, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (58:02):
Absolutely.
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