Introduction to Ayurveda

Welcome back to the doctor body mind soul podcast. My name is Dr. Jude. And this is a podcast which explores how we can integrate modern medicine and alternative therapies to help you get the holistic health care that you deserve. I will be speaking to healers and seekers, researchers and authors who will share their experiences and the evidence to help guide us all to Holistic Health. Let's do this. Avi is an Ayurvedic nutrition and lifestyle consultant in training. She is passionate about helping people to heal their relationship with food and heal their ailments to reach optimal health and happiness through Ayurveda. So welcome, Avi

Hi, thank you for having me.

It's such a pleasure. I have been so curious about IRB data as a health system and how it works for a really long time. Let's get started where you got started, what was your introduction to Ayurveda? And then we'll go into sort of exploring what AI or beta

is. Yeah. So I think if I, the real beginnings were sort of through my family. So little little bits were trickled down through my grandmother's on both sides. And, but I never knew that it was Ayurveda, and I don't think they knew it was I Ayurveda, either. There was always like talk of foods having this real element or quality of things being to heating or to cooling. And then as I got older, I started to learn about it a lot more. And realize, oh, like, this is what my, my family had been sort of saying to me all these years. But then when I'd go to my mom and be like, Oh, this is i Ayurveda, she'd be like, Oh, what are you talking about? So it, I feel like it kind of got lost in translation a little bit through our family. And then I had been wanting to really understand health, my health, in a better way from being on a roller coaster of different diets, and diet plans, different training, regimens, and things like that. And each time that would happen, I just end up sicker every time. Like my central nervous system would just be completely shocked from this, these two extremes of sort of like, you know, lack in terms of, you know, restricting what I was eating, and then, you know, having these bench cycles get from it, being in a place of healing food relationships, it's now opened up into everything in terms of, like how the things that have been done to us, or the things that we have done to ourselves can also be undone, you know, with a shift in like, awareness and nurture, and care. So that's, it's, it's, it's truly evolved for me from being this aspect that's just about food to being about everything about the whole picture are about, about habits about stress about emotional aspects about all of the whole picture that feeds into everybody's health, how to live in a better way.

So yeah, I love I love that what I'm really getting with higher beta is an entry point, perhaps with food for us to get into for us getting to know ourselves, for us getting to know our body, for us getting to know what it needs, and being able to respond to that. Yes, one way is through food. But I'm also hearing that once you sort of allow you once once you sort of develop this relationship with yourself, learning what it needs, then that opens up into looking at all aspects of your life. Which also Ira WD invites.

Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So

can you explain how Ayurveda does that

so it's not a symptomatic approach to health. It's although the symptoms are important because it can give you a view of what and imbalances in the body in an elemental way, whether it's too much heat, too much dryness, too much mucus or wetness in the body, too much cold. The symptoms are important for that aspect. However, it's more preventative. So the more important aspect of it is finding causative factors. So without eliminating the causative factors, it will still be there, you can take away the symptoms, but the cause is still there. It's like a stream that feeds the pond. So if we look at health in that way, a lot more questions are asked, it's, it's more about, okay, what are the symptoms you're dealing with right now? When did it start? How long have you been dealing with this? What other things are happening with you? And if it's, you know, asking about fertility, asking about what was happening at the time, when they started with you emotionally, were there any significant changes that were going on in your life around that time, and also a breakdown of what you eat? And in on a general day, and from there, we get this, and also your habits? So what is your day? Like, you know, what kind of exercise we do? Do you do a lot of exercise or not enough? Or do you push yourself too hard? Or not enough? Or are you, you know, are you generally a stressed out person? What is your job? Like? What is your lifestyle, like, it's this full picture, which I think often gets left at the wayside. In a Western perspective. A lot of the times, if you go to a doctor, you go there with high blood pressure wasn't as an example. If you asked the doctor, why this is happening to me, they wouldn't be able to tell you and it's not their fault, they've only got 15 minutes to talk to you about what's what's happening, and to prescribe you your medication. But because then I Vedic approach is a lot longer, you have more time, the patient feels like they can actually talk to you a lot more about everything. So that allows you to then go back to where they started and really see and connect the dots as to where these things have manifested from, and to put a plan together to start to reduce these causative factors. So that's really how the approach work,

you know, the symptoms are the clue to where the balance lies. Yeah, the real difference in approach that I'm hearing, from a Western standpoint, and from an Ayurvedic standpoint, is getting to the root of, yeah, I think the first approach GP does make is through lifestyle and diet and with a general advice to lose weight and exercise more, unless you're really getting to the what drives the behaviors, you're not really going to be able to address the cause of the factors, because so many of our behaviors are driven by our emotions, which are driven by our environments.

Absolutely. Because it's all part of the picture. It's all part of the same thing. Which is so key and so overlooked. In life in general, I think people just go, we're just so indoctrinated to this autopilot life, aren't we in not understanding why these things are happening to us? And not understanding? I think this is where the preventative side comes in, that they're not one size fits all, and that certain people are just predisposed to different things and it in either it's, it's the OSHA, it's also the time that you were born, it's also karma past life merits, it's also genetics from your parents. There's all these factors that play into what is most easily in balance, and harnessing what is the strength in your body? You know?

No, I think a lot of people will have heard very basic things very dire. Ayurveda, you've mentioned them extremely briefly, which are the doshas, and actually, I'm getting a sense that these doshas encapsulate these patterns. Yes, we can identify with in order for us to get a sense of how our body is.

Yeah. So there's a whole Sankhya it's called the Sankhya philosophy of creation. It's quite a deep philosophy. I won't go too deep into it. Maybe that's for another time. Another podcast, but it's, it basically feeds down into the theory and the philosophy that of what they call a bunch of Maha Buddha's, which are the five great subtle elements. And there's five great subtle, subtle elements are fire, water, ether, and Earth. And those five elements exist with In everything in this world is present in different animals they are present in in different plant forms, they're present in everything, even to the food that we eat. And those five elements are split off into three doshas. So, the three doshas are vata, Vata is air and ether, beta is fire and water. And then ghafar is water and earth. And these three doshas exist in all of us. So, the earth quality in our bodies is our bones, the structural parts of our body, so, our teeth, our bones, our hair, the air quality is in our lungs. And then the ether is the spaces in between. So the cavities within our bodies, the fire is anything that is about that creates change in the body. So digestion, absorption, assimilation, and then water is like the plasma, and, you know, seminar, fluids and things like that, that pass through the body. And they exist in all different manner of ways within our body, we've got channel systems, we've got tissues, there's seven tissues in the body, and they all correlate and work together with these five elements that exist in is, but the doshas are the characteristic, it actually translates to fault. So it's the thing in you that is more easily it's more easily taken out of balance. So for example, I'm very golfer. So my energy is very earthy, and in general, my my demeanor is quite earthy and grounded and calm. And, and so I'm more susceptible to things like weight gain, and diabetes is diabetes in my family. I used to before Ayurveda, I used to get a lot of colds and coughs and flus and things like that. That would happen to me at least three or four times a year, I'd be down with a cold a lot. But then if you are somebody that is more better, so who's more fiery and has a lot more of that quality, your problem they'll be they'll get something that's more like tonsillitis. Anything that involves inflammation, certain forms of allergies are also a bit the inflammation. Any sort of gastric issues like irritable bowel syndrome, excess stress, high blood pressure, all of that is a form of high, elevated bitter. And then vada is things like constipation, anxiety.

Those sorts of things are more Varda related. So you're, you're more likely to get that or like cracking in the joints, pain in your joints, aches in the body. That's more of a vata imbalance. So, and even towards sort of later stages of life, it moves in cycles in the stages of life. So from a baby to the age of 16, that's the golfer age of life because you're growing in your bones are getting stronger. Your structure is changing and forming and becoming what it is. And then from 16, to the age of 50, you're in the bigger stage of life, that's where you're finding out who you are. That's where you're, you've got drive, that's where you've got, you know, attitude. In some ways. It's where you're sort of really figuring things out in life and you've got this you've got goals, you've got things you want to do and and then from the age of 50 onwards, that's the VOD the stage in life, that's when everything starts drying up. Things like menopause come in. And that's also when people are more predisposed to get involved the type of illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer's, you know that the Air Quality Act in the mind obviously if you know, if your lifestyle is taken into consideration, these things may not happen. But at the same time, it's it is more dominant in the latter stage of life.

That is amazing. Wow. I love that. So are you trying to say that does that does how we respond to the different seasons depend on our Constitution?

Yes, yeah. Yeah, a lot of bitter people really struggle in the summer. They don't like it is too hot for them. My partner, he's very bitter. And if ever he gets too hot in general, if we're driving, and he gets too hot, he can't think straight. He's like, it's just too hot in here for me. Whereas someone who's varthur They love the heat and humidity, they love it because they're naturally so dry. And then there's people like coffee, I love the summer, like dry heat is beautiful for someone like me, I love like dry heat. Or it's like someone who's been there is going to be like, No, this is horrible. So if there's changes that need to be made, and there's ways that, you know, for someone, like who has a bit that imbalance, or but the other thing that I need, I want to sort of make clear as well is that any dosha can suffer from a different dosha toxic imbalance. So for example, before I started the course, I had this really kind of western view on things in that, you know, you go on a diet to get your body back into some kind of balance. And then the view is usually that that's how you eat now you eat like that all the time. Because you've got yourself back into balance, and that's it.

But which never works. No,

no. And that to me, so I think I do have you can also have people who are a little bit of two doshas as mine, I think it goes golfer but it's very closely followed by better I feel. And so I started eating in this way that was like reducing my, my Kapha eating in accordance to my imbalance at the time, which was Glover. And I got myself into a really nice balance, I lost weight, I felt really good. I mean, I wasn't suffering from as many colds and things like that. My body just felt better, I felt stronger. But all of the things that I was eating was so drying and heating, that I ended up giving myself a big that imbalance. So I started suffering from last summer was really difficult for me, I'm never like that, in the summer, usually love it and out in the heat. And it's amazing. But last summer was really difficult. I was like, Oh, God, I can't stand this, this is really hard. It's not like me. And I found myself a lot more angry and irritable and short, which also isn't me. And then I started suffering from mouth ulcers, and really painful, like, really sort of angry around my periods and things. And then speaking to the doctor and telling her about it, she was like you've got a bit down balance. So then the journey had to change, I had to sort of cool myself back down again. So it's really about getting yourself into balance. And then she says on the course as well like, it doesn't mean that and I'm guilty of this. I also thought this before I started the course and I did my own little research online. I thought that because I'm a Kaffir I have to eat a CAFO pacifying diet forever. That's it. But then on the course she was like once you're imbalanced, you can eat whatever you want. Like there's no yard to deprive yourself or changing the way that you eat can also and staying there. And eating that pacifying diet fists for too long, can then cause another imbalance in your body. And so now we've been kind of reining it back in and trying to bring myself back into this equilibrium. So it's really about it's really about balance. And I know that's, that's such a cliche thing to say, because everybody says it right, you know, eat the rainbow. But it's true. It's all about balance. It's all about even sweet things that are so demonized in the world. There's nothing wrong with it. It's you know,

it's about balance. It's taking on a new level of balance. It's like finding your own balance, but the getting to know your your dosha I guess it's like a general guide, but I love how you how you use that example. If you go too extreme with the dosha then you're actually going to bring yourself another imbalance because really the key is balance.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

So it's and it's your own balance.

To take me through just I

don't want to actually to only focus on on food because I think there's a lot of other layers to higher beta than focusing on food. But I'm getting the sense that when you say move with the seasons and respond to the seasons, are you also referring to other other aspects of life? Yeah. ivities that you mean do around different seasons? And example, is that is that then that's, that's considered?

Yes, definitely. So if I use myself as an example again, and when it's sort of wintertime, that's really the time where I choose to build up my digestion. So another thing that I should stress as well is, in Ayurveda, we call it ugly, and ugly is acne is your digestive fire. And it's the most paramount part of I Ayurveda, it's almost like a thing that one should worship really is your digestion, which is quite similar to how, you know the gut microbiome is thought of today, in terms of immunity. And I think it's a really nice parallel to draw between Ayurveda and Western sort of medicine and, and health and having a good digestion. That doesn't mean like too sharp. It means a balance digestion is what creates true immunity in your body. So my digestion naturally as a Kaffir can tend to be a little bit slow. So that's what causes a lot of coughs and colds and things like that, for me, and if you are somebody that suffers in the summer, from heat, there's cooling things that you can do like coriander water is perfect, because it basically it not only cools down the body, it increases circulation as well. And it removes excess heat from the body. So it's a perfect thing to do when there's a lot of heat around. Basically the morning drinks and coriander water to bring your elevated levels back down again, or even soaking coriander seeds and coconut water overnight and then drinking that first thing in the morning in the summer is really going to help to bring those elements down then as you move back into autumn, we obviously it depends where you are in the world. But as we move back into autumn again, and things start getting colder and drier, that's when you start moving back into soups and stews and lots of ginger and heating things to help the body to help him through these different seasons and to help with digestion. Because in some months, it's naturally a little bit more slower than in others.

Oh, wow. I love that. I love that. So knowing your own dosha knowing your own constitution, and then how you respond then to the different seasons allows you to respond in a way that is most of most benefit to you. Yeah, yeah, definitely the idea of bringing you back into balance. Yeah. And as you age, there will be different emphasis on how you respond because your body is changing. Yes. Yes, absolutely love that cyclical nature to Ayurveda. So if you were doing I'm just curious, like when you're putting together an Ayurvedic treatment plan, it talks a lot about the foods that you can use to help bring the body back into balance. What other aspects do you take into consideration when putting a treatment plan together?

Other aspects would be the general day to day has to say for example, somebody who's experiencing a lot of artha. So they've got quite a lot of anxiety. They've got trouble sleeping. They've got pain in their joints. And they've got constipation. My questions would be around, okay, so what is your what do you do for a living? And try to assess maybe whether that is affecting them, obviously, that there's if that's their life's livelihood, then there's we have to look at other ways into making that more manageable for them. But say, for example, a lot of other people are like long distance runners or because they do VOD, there is energy it is. It is the dosha that makes circulation in the body. And so it stimulates the other processes in the body as well. So it's quite easily balanced in some, in some respects. So most people that have either they're very high energy people. And it's those people that you see that are just running all the time. And the first thing I would say is if that was the case, this is an example, this isn't always but if I spoke to somebody who had these vata imbalances, and they were struggling with anxiety and sleeplessness, and constipation, and then they told me they ran for five, six miles every day, the first thing I would say to them is, okay, let's have a break from the running. Because if you're experiencing these things, then your digestion is most probably impaired, and a little bit weak. And doing such high octane activity, on top of a weakened digestion can also lead to an impaired immunity, which is then going to keep this cycle going of you not feeling great. So we have to slow everything down, change what they're eating, because a lot of the time, they're probably eating things too similar in quality to their own makeup. So things that are dry, like lots of salads, and nuts and seeds, and sometimes hardly eating anything at all. Because they can just sustain on prana if they're just generally like naturally able to just sustain themselves on prana. And so it's really looking to just bring them back down to earth. So finding out what it is that they do for a living, how much energy they're expending in the day. What are their habits leading up towards bedtime? What are they eating? What's going on in their life as well? Are they traveling a lot, which is also another thing that is going to contribute to them not feeling grounded, and things like jet lag is just going to send them out in a spin.

And I'm also curious around like, what are they running from,

they just want to be free, they just want to be free and, and then but sometimes that freedom can kind of, they need grounding, a balance, you need balance and grounding. So in that instance, you add more grounding foods into their diet, more potatoes, more butter, more anxious, rich stews. In chicken, it doesn't even have to be vegetarian, it can be chicken or whatever, to really pull them back down to earth and make them feel a bit more grounded. And then

would you ever add other things in other than the food to me to make them feel more grounded as

we add things? So another aspect of Ayurveda is, in order to start helping somebody in their imbalances, we look at two things. It's called Agni, the burner armor bagina. We the burner means balanced the digestive fire, and armor bacino means to eliminate the toxins. So the food aspect is one part of that, that helps to sort of restore that balance. The other aspect is, is prescribing certain herbs, certain herbs that they take something like triphala, which is a really powerful herb, it's, it's so good. It works in so many levels, it works against oxidative stress, it helps to eliminate toxins from the body. It can really sort of calm you down to have a good sleep in the evening. So something that's just going to bring them back down to earth and remove those toxins overnight. And then there's other herbs that they can they can take during the day to sort of make them feel a lot more calmer and more centered, along with the different foods, the correct foods for their imbalance that they're facing. And other practices as well like rather than doing such high octane activity, changing that to something like a yin yoga, or really calming things going for a walk instead of a run, or actually just having, you know, quite nice yoga nidra sessions where it's encouraging this deep grounding relaxation.

I can imagine that being quite confronting for a patient who has who has coped in life in this way Yeah. led them to having the imbalance but to ground someone who has learned to survive by being free II Yeah, I'm imagining enforces a sort of confrontation. So I'm imagining there may be some resistance there. And I'm so curious and how you work with someone, or what your experience has been in working with someone feels quite resistant to, to the change that you're suggesting.

It can be, it can be quite hard, because especially in, in this part of the world, where more is considered the thing, or more is what we aspire to more running, more weight training more, the Ayurvedic approach is gentle and nurturing. And so forcing yourself to, to do these quite stressful things. It doesn't really go. It's up to you what you want to what option you want to take. And there's no judgment either way, maybe this either deck approach isn't what is right for you right now. And but the doors always open whenever you feel like you want to come back and ground.

And that's why, for example, I think the Western system can be the banded that some people would prefer, because it doesn't it means that they don't need to confront necessarily what is actually going on beneath the symptom, they can take this medication and carry on. Have and the numbers will, will will correct to a degree. Yeah, although in general, the trajectory, you're not changing the trajectory, you're gonna add in another pill when it can when it's continuing, because you're not addressing the root problem. Yeah. And there are people who will not want to address the root problem, because the root problem is perhaps what they are avoiding and have been avoiding, for a very long time with all of these compensatory mechanisms that I guess have shoved them into an imbalance over time. And they may not want or be ready to confront that lie, or Vader's really asking of them.

And sometimes you like I've heard it so many times that people go to the doctor, and they get told them, they're borderline with something, or they're borderline with their maybe it's cholesterol, maybe it's blood pressure, maybe it's fibroid, like whatever it is, oh, you just bought an iron, here's some pills, by the way, you're going to be on them for the rest of your life. Okay, great. See here. And I've even had people sort of push back to the doctor and say, Well, can I change this? Is there any way that I can manage this kind of work with you can? Can I lose weight? Can I? Can I change my diet? Can I can I get talking therapy to help with this, you know, because thyroid is in the throat, a lot of suppressed emotions, know you're going to be on them for the rest of your life. That's it. And it's so heartbreaking to see that this is what's happening to a lot of people and then it it just, it's a never ending thing, then isn't it because then this pill is potentially going to keep getting up and up and up and up to locked in its dosage. And then you're going to need another pill to sort of fix whatever the side effects of that pill and then another pill to fix the side effects of that pill. And then you have before you know it, you're on a cocktail and is worrying.

I couldn't agree with you more. I couldn't agree with you more. I am. And I think that the I think that there is a real call from patients to actually intervene is just because doctors haven't been trained in anything other than the pharmaceutical approach. And that's the only tool that they have in their toolbox. And so it's the only approach they know. So although they tell people to fix their lifestyle and their diet in a very sort of superficial way. Then when they see that that doesn't work, the only solution that they have is to rely on the pharmaceuticals that they've been taught is how to manage this condition. This is the whole inspiration for me about Dr. Body, my soul. And the witchy woman is so that I and other doctors can learn there are other approaches to the way we can manage dis ease without necessarily having to rely on pharmaceuticals or working alongside pharmaceuticals. Especially when patients are actually requesting is there anything I can do in the meantime? Is there anything I can do for myself which I hear or for my patients to so I think there are there is a demand for actually wanting to help ourselves.

Empowering people, isn't it as well like, empowering them to take their health in their own hands and get and to get to know their bodies?

Exactly, exactly. I really actually, I love how it seems as though Ayurveda is a real tool. It's an invitation to do just that. Yes, to do just that. And that's just such a lovely system to deepen our self knowledge. So that you can respond to it with with with care, rather than restriction. Yeah, absolutely. I can only take How can I take care of this body? Knowing what it needs knowing. Getting a better understanding of, of how the systems relate to each other how the body mind and soul manifests together when I'm in this imbalance, and how can I use all aspects of my life? To support me in coming back to balance?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 100%.

So I'm really hearing. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom.

Thank you for having me, dude. It's been it's been amazing to talk to you. It's been so nice.

And I just want to let everybody know Abby is joining the witchy women platform. She is going to be one of our witchy women and our resident IRB practitioners. So I really invite you to join us there. I'm super excited to be connecting you with you in there. And I really thank you for the wisdom you've shared with us today.

Oh, thank you so much, dude, it's been lovely.