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Fresh Leaf Forever
Impact of Digestion on Vitality, Healing and Healthy Aging
This episode dives deep into the principles of Ayurveda, focusing on the importance of digestive fire (Agni) in maintaining health and well-being.
Dr. Rekha Radhamony shares her personal health journey, offers insights into common modern health issues, and the significance of adopting an individualized approach to diet & lifestyle for optimal health.
Some highlights -
• Importance of Agni in Ayurveda
• Rising lifestyle diseases and their roots in digestion
• Lifestyle adjustments for optimizing digestive fire
• Significance of eating fresh food, maintaining Ojas.
Our conversation transitions thoughtfully into how our fast-paced, technology-driven lifestyle often distances us from the natural world. We delve on the impacts of altering our body's natural processes and the importance of consuming fresh, nutrient-rich foods for maintaining "ojas," the vital energy linked to anti-aging and vitality. Listen in for practical advice on eating that aligns with natural principles, helping you retain the life energy of your food & enhancing your overall well-being.
Understanding how Ayurveda's everyday rituals can support healthier transitions into old age, especially for women(into menopause), can be transformative. Derive actionable insights as we underscore the importance of nurturing both physical & emotional health, for graceful aging.
Follow @vaipkumar on Instagram, YouTube(videos), Substack(articles) for more illuminating content.
*Notes: "Vata" in Ayurveda refers to air, space(ether) tendencies ; "Pitta" is fire, water and "Kapha" is earth, water. "Prakrithi" means 'at the time of creation(birth)'. Other episodes in this podcast on Ayurveda have covered body types in detail. This episode highlights it.
DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for informational purposes only, & is not intended to be medical advice nor is it a substitute for it.Consult your physician for your individual needs.
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Welcome to Freshly Forever, a podcast that gives you fascinating insights week after week. Here's your host, vaikumar. Hey folks, welcome to another episode on Podcast Freshly Forever. What if the key to your well-being lies in improving your digestive fire? Ayurveda is an ancient Indian system of medicine and, simply put, it is the science of life. We have our guest here today, rekha Radamani, who unpacks the wisdom of ancient practices for modern health issues. Dr Rekha Radamani is a globally acclaimed Ayurvedic doctor with practice reaching patients in over 60 countries. She is known for her expertise in skincare, hair care, gut health, hormonal health, women's health and chronic disease management. She is renowned for her work to bring global acceptance to Ayurveda and has won various awards and accolades for her contribution towards the goal. One of her recent achievements is winning the Digital Health Award for the Best Ayurvedic Doctor. It's with great joy that we welcome her here to podcast Freshly Forever. Hey, dr Rekha, how are you today?
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, vai. I'm very happy to be here. I'm very good, thank you.
Speaker 1:So you are like a family of Ayurvedic practitioners and you are fourth generation. Is that correct? Yes, fourth generation.
Speaker 2:Ayurvedic doctor.
Speaker 1:Oh, why don't we get started about your own journey? And you had some personal health issues as well, if I recall. Is that right, and how kind of Ayurveda helped you, even from a personal health journey standpoint?
Speaker 2:So basically I'm born to an Ayurvedic family. As you said, my father, grandfather were all Ayurvedic doctors. I have grown up seeing, feeling, touching. You know Ayurveda but I've never really realized the importance of it unless I was forced with my own medical condition. After finishing my 12th I joined Ayurveda college. So I did my BMS, which is a five and a half year course of Ayurveda. While doing I was in a hilly area in Ayurveda, what we call something like a Vata increased area.
Speaker 2:And then in our college we had hectic schedules. We didn't have a good lifestyle because everything was about studying, remembering the shlokas, reproducing it, because now things have changed. But at that point if you have to write about, say, diabetes, you have to write the shlokas reproducing it, because now things have changed. But at that point if you have to write about, say, diabetes, you have to write the shlokas about diabetes. You have to also write the modern part of diabetes. You have to also compare the different acharyas viewpoints about diabetes. So it was all complicated. It was not a easy process studying Ayurveda. It was also like you know 18 hours of study, then you have literally no exercise, because if you exercise, if you take a little time under the shower, you will lose time to study Ayurveda. Oh, yes, yeah. So it was extreme, it was hectic.
Speaker 2:And then, over a period of two years, I got diagnosed with a condition called rheumatoid arthritis. Initially it was diagnosed as rheumatic fever. Every day I would go to college but then come back because I was not able to sit properly. My joints were swollen, there was pain all over my body. I couldn't even hold a pen was pain all over my body. I couldn't even hold a pen.
Speaker 2:And slowly the condition became deteriorated where I had to literally lie down and you know, and not move at all. Even for going to the washroom I had to get somebody's support. It was an alternating kind of condition where every day one joint, alternate joints are affected. So it is a weird combination of rheumatic fever and rheumatoid arthritis and I was literally bedridden. I had to take a break from my college and then, finally, what I did was I went to a modern doctor while I was diagnosed with this, because I knew that if I go to my hometown and get my father involved in any ways, then I will be given Ayurvedic medicines for me. According to me, it was time consuming, it was not cool, it was taking a long time and all of that.
Speaker 2:So I didn't really think that I should go ahead with Ayurveda. So I went to an allopathic doctor near my college with my friends. He told me I will end up in wheelchair. My heart valves are already leaking, so you have to be on injections for the rest of your life. And I was given the first shot of even pencil injection the second month when I was supposed to go for the injections, I realized no, I can't do this again and again I went home and I told my father about everything that has happened and what I was going through, and at that time I was literally, you know, I couldn't move at all.
Speaker 2:So everybody came and then for the next one year it was completely about how to get rid of this condition. The treatments about how to get rid of this condition, the treatments every day would start with treatment in the morning, treatment in the afternoon, treatment in the evening and then for the exams I would go back to my college. In the college, in the college hospital, I will get admitted. In the morning, I will go for the treatment and then go to the exam or whatever, and then in the evening again, you know, again back to the hospital. It was actually a hospital visit here, in fact hospital stay here, and then by the end of one year I got recovered.
Speaker 2:It was intense treatment, but that reinstated my faith and belief in Ayurveda. My heart is working perfectly these days. Touch wood. I don't have any problems now, just this one finger which got bent due to the arthritis. It is still bent. Other than that, everything is fine and I have never gotten it back ever since. But I have been quite careful with whatever I have been doing and it's been good so far. So that is why I realized if I could get better with Ayurveda. Anybody can. Anybody can.
Speaker 1:I'm glad things worked out for you. Definitely not a fun story being a student and having to go through all of this, right, and, like you said, we all tend to think when we are at that age that certain things are not cool and we just cannot resort to. But definitely, going back to certain first principles, going back to certain basics, I think couldn't be reinforced better about what Ayurveda does. It's really the science of life, right? It's just wonderful that you were able to recover from that and you're doing really well. What about the root cause of all illnesses that you see these days and pretty much, what are some common conditions that you're now seeing arising in this world? Dr Rekha?
Speaker 2:So I primarily see a surge in lifestyle diseases, especially diabetes. So when I do consults in, say, I announce consults in Dubai and I do face-to-face consultations every two months. I do face-to-face consultations every two months. Whenever I do consultations in Dubai, if I have 10 patients, at least eight of them have diabetes or at least you know starting stage of diabetes. That is something which is more common. And in our programs we have patients from common cold to you know, people who are on cancer rehabilitation programs. Goal to you know, people who are on cancer rehabilitation programs. What we address is we don't really do acute disease management or emergency diseases, but everything other than that. We focus on, starting from digestive issues, like you know, acidity, acid reflux, gerd, ulcerative colitis, crohn's disease, celiac disease and then to skin diseases, psoriasis, arthritis, all the rheumatoid, rheumatic conditions, then all kinds of chronic diseases like your diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol.
Speaker 1:All of those conditions are also treated Is Agni, the root cause of everything Is setting digestion right. Agni, as Ayurveda, you know, refers to digestion. That way, is that the root cause of all illnesses and is that the starting point for you whenever you try to get someone back into homeostasis, or equilibrium, if you will?
Speaker 2:or equilibrium if you will. Yeah, so basically what we believe in ayurveda and my core principle that I use for treating any diseases is roga sarve api mande agno. That means every disease is because of an imbalanced low digestive fire. So when the digestive fire is imbalanced, that is when you get many of the diseases that we see today. By correcting agni we can actually correct so many diseases without correcting agni. Even if you correct a disease, it is just suppression. That is why I focus so much on food is medicine and food as medicine, because food is something that you have every day. It can improve, improve your digestive fire. But if you rely on medications and supplements, how long you will rely on that's not your everyday, everyday thing to do. You take medicines to reduce the imbalances, bring it to a certain point, and then food is your medicine.
Speaker 1:Okay, so what is it that you find people commonly doing, you know incorrectly, Like is it say, we all live in a day and age where people tend to resort to intermittent fasting, juicing and so on and so forth. Right, when it comes to conserving and preserving agni, the digestive fire, and for body to work optimally, how should people go about their day?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So every single thing that you do in a day counts. Everything that Ayurveda mentions to do, starting from the time you wake up till the time you go to bed, whatever you eat, how you go about your entire day, your morning routine, your night routine, how you eat your entire day, your morning routine, your night routine, how you eat, everything counts in terms of improving your agni. That is why what we do as the community, in our community, that we have the people in our programs and who come to us for transformation programs, what we primarily do is we monitor them, advise them. We, we work very closely with their lifestyle, from morning to evening to improve their agni, starting from the time they wake up, what practices they do. And everybody's practice is also individualized.
Speaker 2:Ayurveda is all about individualized treatment. So there is no one thing that is universally acceptable to everybody. There are. Even if you read ayurveda, you will see 10 percent or less than five percent of ayurveda talks about something very general to the entire population, say, ayurveda says rice is good for the entire population and it can be consumed every day, and we see very few references like that. So everything a person has to go through, every routine and everything that the person does throughout his day. All of these counts towards improving agni and all of these has to be customized for the patient and individualized to that kind of person. The reason being Ayurveda is a lot about individualizing things, because how you feel, how you operate, how you are born, your genetics, your thoughts, everything is entirely different from anybody else.
Speaker 1:Okay, great. So when it comes to personalized approach, right, that's what you're saying. But when it comes to the world resorting to, say, practices like intermittent fasting or juicing, what are your thoughts on that, dr Rekha?
Speaker 2:your thoughts on that, dr Rekha? Intermittent fasting yes, ayurveda has mentioned about fasting, or laghana, as one of the very powerful treatments that anybody can go through, and it is mentioned for specific conditions, for a specific set of people. It did not use the word intermittent fasting or any such fancy words, but the ayurvedic way of intermittent fasting is having an early dinner by 6, 6, 30 and breaking it the next day morning by 10 o'clock. This is how, traditionally in india, we used to eat food.
Speaker 2:If you see, by 6.30, 7pm, if you look at nature, you will see all the animals, all the birds, even trees and plants. They are just trying to wind down and sleep and we are nothing but part of the same universe. The more we aligned with the universe, the more balance we have in our body. So we have to wind down by that time and then the next morning, by 930, 10 o'clock, you can have your breakfast and if you do that, you're actually doing so many hours of fasting, which is actually good for the body, especially if you are somebody with a lot of kapha in your body, somebody who is like obese, somebody who has pcos, diabetes, someone who has hypothyroidism, somebody who has fibroids, all of those conditions. If you do this kind of fasting, which is the natural way we used to live, we have to live. It is beneficial for your body.
Speaker 1:Great. Staying in tune with nature. You just brought that up. That's very important, and we see a lot of people going against the tide of nature, right? So where exactly are we missing the point? What is it that you see with people's lifestyle that is kind of causing them to drift away from this normal process? Or rather, what common mistakes are people making when it comes to that?
Speaker 2:You know, the more advanced we are becoming in terms of technology, in terms of comforts of life, it is natural to be carried away by these things. You know there are people who ask me about can I do botox? Can I do you know fillers? Can I do this? That, because this is something which everybody wants to do.
Speaker 2:What I tell people is in this day and age, there are a lot of things which we are influenced to do, but the more we are aligned to our roots and nature, the more we live closely with nature, the better.
Speaker 2:At least, what I tell them is not to manipulate your insights. Even if you do something externally to look good, or you know you do something very peripherally, which is still fine, but manipulating your insights by you know you do something very peripherally, which is still fine, but manipulating your insides by you know, like you're injecting your platelets. Or you know, if you see people are injecting their son's platelets, things like gastric ballooning, inserting a balloon inside your stomach so that it doesn't taking medicines that will help you with losing weight, which is actually affecting your gastric emptying, and you're completely manipulating your insides. As long as you don't do that, it is still okay, but in this day and age. It's a message that needs to be reinstated, retold, and we have to keep that communication going because, as humans, we always tend to lose track of our roots. Because this is something that we have to be more aware and take actions to live close to nature. That is a struggle of today's world. Also, you know, we have to literally remind ourselves no, this is not what we want to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we all tend to just think, oh okay, you know, though, it's something artificial. We just tend to think, oh, that's like we said, it just feels so cool to do it. One and number two it's just like sometimes it's convenience that helps people just go for certain things, which just tend to then finally take them away from the path of being in tune with nature. Right, like we all eat leftovers, we do batch cooking, and what are your thoughts on all of that, dr Rekha?
Speaker 2:Yeah, just imagine a fruit, a fruit that you're keeping in the fridge and after some time you're consuming it. Just imagine the taste of that fruit. Now imagine the taste of the fruit if you have kept outside, you have not kept in the fridge, and now you are eating it for the first time. Now imagine the taste of the fruit which you have kept somewhere out for a very long time. If you see, everything in nature tells us something thing the first fruit which was kept in the fridge, it wouldn't taste so much or as good as a fresh fruit freshly plucked from the tree. A fruit that is kept outside gets stale quickly and the taste is very disgusting. What is the message that these fruits are giving us? Fruits are actually what they are our food. The taste in the food is also telling us that it is good to eat. It is not good to eat. It is secondary in its quality to eat. These are actually messages which don't get conveyed or we don't really realize.
Speaker 2:Ayurvedically, any food that is kept for a long time, which is like a stale food, cooked and kept for a long time becomes tamasik or loses its ability to be digested properly. So it is not something which has. It basically loses its prana or life energy. If you really see, every food has that life energy. That is why certain foods, when you eat fresh, the energy that you get from it, the positive feeling that you have on your mind, sometimes it is lost when you have foods which you have kept for a long time. And also these days people talk about anti-aging. Right, what is the most important anti-aging thing that ayurveda mentions? It's called ojas. Ojas is the anti-aging thing that ayurveda mentions. Ojas is vitality. The more you have ojas, the less you age.
Speaker 2:Any food that is kept for a long time, say a frozen food Just imagine when was it harvested? How long did it stay in your fridge? And now you are taking it out and you are eating it. By this time, the ojas in the food is absolutely nothing or it has died to zero. Yeah, it has been lost, but in terms of nutrition it is nutritious. But is nutrition the only thing? If you're not able to digest the food? Or if you're not able to digest and absorb the food well, completely, what is the point in having all the nutrition in it? So, primarily, any food that is kept for a long time loses its ojas.
Speaker 2:So anything that you put in your mouth, make sure that it is fresh. But I understand it. I have a lot of patients in my programs who are in this rat race who is trying to prep meals. You know, batch cook. What we tell them is we tell them to do it in a much more simpler way and not in a complicated way. A complicated way is batch cooking for an entire week. A more simpler way, for your stomach is okay, match cooking for like one or two days max.
Speaker 1:Okay, what about fruit consumption? Different people say different things. Right Again, we all live in a technology-dominated world where there are so many so-called influencers on Instagram who just come and propagate different messages. Influencers on Instagram who just come and propagate different messages. The goal of you and me sitting down today is you are one of those sources who can be relied upon and who has authentic Ayurvedic knowledge. So, from that standpoint, dr Rekha, what is the best time to consume fruit? Because some people say you should not consume it closer to your big meals and that you need to isolate it. What would be the message that you would like to tell our listeners?
Speaker 2:Again, coming to fruits. Also, it has to be based on your digestive capacity. Which fruit to have is also very individualized to your body type. That is the ideal way, but still I can tell you in general, fruits have to be consumed at a time when you can still digest it. Ayurvedically, fruits and vegetables are not super digestive, so it has to be placed at certain times and eaten at certain times where it is still digestible for you. So don't mix many fruits and consume together. Have fruits in isolation, as I said. Don't mix fruits with a meal. Have it at a different time, no, and not your main meal times. And try not to have fruits in the evening, late evening. Try not to have fruits in the morning.
Speaker 2:Why it is said that in Ayurveda that we cannot have fruits in the morning is primarily because fruits are cold and cold increases and too much of mucus means increase of kapha. And when is the kapha time of the day? 6 to 9 am. And you're doing, whenever you do, things which are similar, we say vritti, samanir, sarvesham, viparithir, vipariya. Anything that you do similar to a certain thing, it increases. So it is a kapha increasing activity if you have fruits in the morning. But if you have fruits in, say, 3 pm every day, doesn't matter, it's fine, you can have. So fruits have to be consumed depending upon your body as well. So few fruits that are extremely beneficial to the whole population of the world. As I said, those 5% of Ayurveda is pomegranate, amla grapes. All of these are good for everyone, especially pomegranate.
Speaker 1:Okay, perfect. But a lot of people tend to go for the banana, right? Because everyone thinks it's potassium. Everyone thinks, oh, you know, I get a lot of energy from a banana, but that's probably kapha inducing for certain folks, right?
Speaker 2:Bananas also have different varieties of banana. We have Nendran banana, we have banana called Elaichi banana. If you come to Ketla you will see some 15-20 different varieties of banana which are good for different Prakritis. But it is not like every single every type of banana is going to give you, you know, energy the same way or make you put on weight the same way. Nothing like that. It depends upon the particular banana that you're consuming, but banana in general, the most particular banana that you're consuming, but banana in general, the most common banana that we have, the chiquita banana, is that the one that you get mostly yeah, we see a lot of it here in the us in dubai also, I've seen this banana, which is most common.
Speaker 2:See, any food that you have consumed for the first 15-20 years of your life is favorable to you by habit. It will not cause any digestive issues. It will not work opposite to you, even if it is a banana, even if it is a jackfruit, even if it's mangoes. Who exercises well, who consumes food based on agni and you don't have digestive issues, you can still have a banana without thinking twice, or any fruit for that matter, without thinking twice. But if you have digestive issues, if you have chronic diseases, if you have skin diseases, it is good that you consult an ayurvedic doctor and figure out what is good for you, so that it is pacified and then you are able to eat better after that.
Speaker 1:Then you have more options to eat from okay, yeah, because you have at that point identified what's best for your body, what's best for your body.
Speaker 2:And also, you know, it is all about optimizing your digestive fire. Everybody is born with a certain quality of digestive fire, but it can be optimized to its best potential. That can actually help you feel better. The energy feels so much better. You will not have any skin issues, you will have good hair, you will not have chronic diseases, no problems with your blood work. Everything can be perfected by optimizing your agni. Whether you are a vata person, pitta person, kapha person, doesn't matter and it is possible. And when we optimize the agni, what happens? Your doshas balance. Once your doshas are balanced, you are in that perfect health. You know, even weight loss, weight gain happen during this. We don't force anybody to lose weight or gain weight, but once the doshas balance, the body optimizes to its ideal weight, which is ideal for your body, which gives that perfect state of health for your body. And we have so many people who have transformed their health with just by improving Agni and not just health. I'm saying all facets of health, every single facet of health. You feel good mood is a good facet of health. Yes, good mood is also something that comes after optimizing your Agni.
Speaker 2:So once you optimize your Agni, then you could eat this much varieties of food before like you could tolerate this. Now you have a whole platter of foods which are now you can tolerate. You will not be able to have double thoughts. Should I eat this? Will it cause any digestive issues for me? You know, if you look at Pitta people of the world, they have mostly stomach issues. Any food that come in front of them they'll be feeling, oh my God, will it cause any stomach issues for me? You know those kind of conditions and kapha people. Whenever food comes in front of them they feel, oh, am I going to put on weight? So all of these things can be worked on by just simply optimizing the agni what about autoimmune illnesses?
Speaker 1:you talked about vata pitta kapha. Again, that's kind of what each one is born with at the time of their birth and certain times it can fluctuate and people tend towards one type or the other, because that's kind of how Ayurveda categorizes person into those type of body types, right? So what are the causes for autoimmune illnesses, dr Rekha?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started practicing in 2011, july to be exact. When I started practicing, in the initial years of my consultations, I never came across so many autoimmune conditions like I see today. Today, every other person has autoimmune condition, primarily because of one simple thing how does autoimmune conditions happen? The thing with autoimmune condition is, if you just look at the definition of autoimmune, it is the body attacking your body because you have never let your body repair and rejuvenate by itself. I will give you an example of somebody who is like a pitta person. And this pitta person, in spite of knowing he is pitta, he is drinking alcohol. He is not taking care of his diet. He is eating everything he wants. He has some skin diseases. He also has certain acidity and such kind of issues. When it comes, he takes an antacids and ignores it. He has elevated LDL and low HDL. He has some discrepancies in his SGOT SGPT, which is your liver parameters but he is just chilling, not taking care of the Pitta. In such people, what happens is, if you really see, if you really closely examine the inside of the body, you will see his liver is crying.
Speaker 2:Ayurvedically, liver is the seat of pitta. If you have a little bit increase in pitta in the body, the liver gets affected and liver cannot do its functions optimally. What are liver's main functions? Detoxification, which is the primary function, and secondary function is fat metabolism. When the liver is constantly detoxifying, detoxifying, detoxifying because of all the things that you have eaten your normal food, junk food, your thoughts, your emotions, everything has to be detoxified. The liver is in bad shape, the liver is overloaded and you are ignoring the high pitta body that you have. So the liver is already in so much pain it is crying.
Speaker 2:Now Our body has an innate ability to bounce back and heal without any medicines, but when your internal organs are crying like this, especially the liver, which is your most important digestive organ, the body gives up. The body tries to attack its own systems and most of the time, just by bringing that balance back, giving some real good time for the body to rest and relax. Your internal organs have to be given that reset time. So that's why our programs are three months. So three months.
Speaker 2:We take people through a reset journey where we are not, we are not thinking about anything else, but how to reset and undo all the things that you have done in so many years. And when we reset the whole system. What happens is your body will start loving you. The body will feel happy Because you are giving the body what your body always wanted to feel. And when you do that, and when you give that environment to the liver, it will give you back. You know, at the end of the day we really see what do we have in this life? We have this body and we are just torturing it. If we just take care of very simple thing, of what we put inside through our mouth, inside the body, we can build a like, we can bring a world of difference. Then there will not be autoimmune conditions.
Speaker 1:So that is how you get autoimmune conditions yeah, but so many people do juicing and things like that, thinking oh, I can reset my body on my own right. So is that a good approach for anyone? Or, again, does it have to be a personalized one where it can work for some, it cannot work for the other?
Speaker 2:A gut reset or, if you want to like, rebuild your digestive fire and make all your organs work normally again and undo all the things that you have done in the past. It cannot be one juice or one food item If you just start eating rice and ghee thinking that, okay, this is going to help you. No, it's not going to help you. It is the sum of every single thing and activity and lifestyle that you have that you take, all those choices that you take throughout the day, that brings that difference. You know, if you really see, in ayurveda we have a routine called oil pulling and you may wonder why oil pulling? Why is it so important? Is it for your oral health? If you really see, all of these practices has an underlying connection to agni. Your mouth is where your digestion starts. You have your diet, stevens and tylen, which is there in your mouth, which gets the food digestion process started when you eat. That's why you have to do oil pulling. It is also for the improvement of your health, of your teeth and your jaw and your mouth and oral cavity. But it is also important to do oiling of your mouth for producing good amount of styling that helps with digestion. So every single practice adds up and it has a meaning. Everything has a meaning and some logic to it and the more you understand the logic behind a certain practice, you will be able to do it better. Most people today have no awareness about Ayurveda, but the moment you take that step to understand a little more, find the logic and you start incorporating it in small little ways in your everyday life, you will see a world of difference and people have seen world of difference. I started as one person army, you know, in this today if I have some 24 000 plus patients from across the world and 64 plus countries patients from 64 plus countries, patients from 64 plus countries, 13 team doctors, 24 nutritionists, if all of these people are working and if it's growing. You have to understand that we have given so much of transformation to people and people's health can be transformed without medicines, without any strong ingredients, ingredients, without putting your body through surgeries like gallbladder removal or removal of any any part of the body for no reason. All of these are unnatural things you can do to the body. When you do natural things and bring that, bring that balance back, you will realize that even your mind is changing.
Speaker 2:Even in autoimmune conditions, the mind plays a very big role. You know, for us all, the patients who have autoimmune conditions, we take extra effort to support their mind. We have counseling sessions. I have a therapist who used to be my patient in my three-month program. Now she's taking care of the mental health of my patients, especially the ones with autoimmune conditions. Because unless and until the mind is fixed, you are not going to reduce your autoimmune condition and come out of it. Because at the end of the day, as I said, liver is your most important organ and liver stores your emotions. Detoxification is not just for the body. Detoxification you should do for the mind also, because you have years and years of emotions that is stored in your liver. Unless and until you detoxify it, it will never be able to work in its full potential.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's just beautifully said. I think we all again wrestle with so much of emotions, and bringing that back to a balance is very, very significant. And mental health that's just center stage these days. Did you know? Podcast Freshly Forever is on YouTube as well. Be sure to check out youtubecom v-a-i-p-k-u-m-a-r dot com for blogs, athlete shops and much more. Take advantage of some discounted rates on some amazing products pertaining to lifestyle, wellness and digital media. Is eating a diverse palette, the solution to reversing a lot of conditions, right from diabetes to heart health and so much more. And then women's health that's another whole topic, but is eating a diverse palette, a solution to overcoming all illnesses?
Speaker 2:eating a diverse palette is good. Just imagine our great grandfathers how they used to eat. They would sit on the floor. The whole family will be sitting on the floor, everybody in Padmasana, and they will have their big plates like a thali with food, all those cooked vegetables, so many dishes. Today our plates have reduced so much and of course digestive issues are also there for people. Of course digestive issues are also there for people.
Speaker 2:But if you look at those plates, they used to have sources, all these sources every day. You know even the trace minerals, everything they used to get from that whole plate. But these days we are not really getting it. But how to get it? Even eating by normal food, even even by eating normal food? How to get it is by eating normal food, even by eating normal food. How to get it Is by optimizing your agni. If you have good agni, even the trace minerals from the little dal, rice and sabji that you are having, all that nutrition will be absorbed by the body. If you have bad digestion or bad absorption, even if you have all the supplements in the world you have nutritious, multicolored vegetables, juices, fruits, everything in one go Still you will be deficient. Still you will not feel good and you will not be healthy. So it is all about optimizing your digestion.
Speaker 1:That is when magic happens yeah, absorption of vitamins, minerals, everything. That's just again. You brought that out beautifully. What about women's health period problems? So many girls go through menstrual issues. In a nutshell, is menstrual issues, pcos and all those things also arising out of a lack of digestive fire?
Speaker 2:yeah, if you really look at people with PCOS insulin resistance, diabetes their digestive fire is mandagni. That means low digestive fire. When we say low digestive fire means their digestion is sluggish, their digestion is slow. So we have to like, optimize the digestion, make it working, make it stimulated, and that is very important and it is mostly kapha related. If you see, anything that is related to growth or building up is about kapha. If you look at small kids, from the time they are born till the time they reach puberty, they are in the growth phase. They are chubby, they are growing you will see a lot of kapha in them. So whenever there is growth, there is buildup.
Speaker 2:If you look at PCOS, what is PCOS? You have multiple cysts, buildup of cysts in the body. If you look at fibroid, you are building cells and making it into like masses in the body. So all of these building up even cancer, for that matter build up of cells. People who are obese same category they put on weight. They are also in the process of building up with every single thing that they eat. So this is all a cluster of conditions because of the high kapha in the body. So you have to literally break down the kapha. If you really look at kapha, it is the earth element which is more. When the earth element is more, you naturally have that sluggishness, that heaviness, lack of motivation. You have to really work against that kapha and break down the kapha and do things opposite to the earth. How to do things opposite to the earth? If you feel like lying down on the couch and just relaxing, just get up and start.
Speaker 2:You know so such kind of things when you do you break kapha and in ayurveda we have beautiful formulations, combination of foods, things like that that can really help you break down that kapha. Certain ingredients has the property to shrink the kapha in the body. So these we make the medicines at the clinic and we compound these medicines and give to the patients. Kapha treatment requires medicinal formulations because sometimes it is not very easy just with food, because their body is like resistant to food because of eating so much food, you know. So for food to act as medicine also it takes some time. So for kaphar conditions, because it can be long-standing, it can go on for years. All these menstrual irregularities, fibroids, mostly women's health, all of these issues, it has to have a support of ayurvedic medicines, but customized and safe for people. This is one thing that I want to emphasize. When you say ayurvedic medicines, when you take ayurvedic medicines, exercise extreme caution whenever you get ayurvedic medicines prescribed or when you're, whenever you're taking, because one man's medicine could be another man's poison. It has to be made for you number one, number two. Whenever a medicine has this name like rasa or ras at the end of it, tell your doctor don't give me this, because it doesn't have a problem as a medicine, medicine, but if you change a little bit of dosage, or if you change a little bit of frequency of taking it, or if you take it one more day extra than the days that is prescribed to you, or if you have brought this from a commercial brand which really did not purify it in the specified purification forms mentioned in ayurveda, you are inviting trouble for yourself. So try to avoid those kind of medications. Work heavily on food, exercise, lifestyle and very simple herbal formulations. Make sure you know if you have menstrual irregularities. Something that I have completely removed from my practice is the use of shatavari. Most of the medicines that we have for menstrual health, menstrual irregularities, has shatavari in it. So over a period of time it can cause you a lot of issues, and this I'm telling you from my experience of treating patients in the last 13 years. So be very careful when you take ayurvedic medicines.
Speaker 2:Double check the quality of medicine. What you put inside your body is very important because, as I say, at the end of the day it is your liver that takes a load for every single thing that you eat, even normal food, junk food, medicine supplements, emotions, everything. Don't force your body to go into that extreme torture by taking strong medications. That is why even in our programs, first 15 days, we allow certain medicines. After 15 days, 90 percent of the medicines. We don't allow people modern medicines we try to reduce them, remove them. Some medicines have to be tapered down. We do that because the body has to have its most natural, balanced, easy way. You know that is what the body wants it has to be a tailor-made approach.
Speaker 1:In other words, right it. It's not a one-size-fits-all. If you were to give listeners. We have referenced a lot about pitta kapha. What about vata? Just so people have an idea of what vata, pitta kapha is from Dr Rekha, how would you put it across?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this is something funny that I post regularly on Instagram in my handle, dr Rekha, so in my page I personally am a Vata Kapha person and my mind is too Vata. My body is Kapha, whenever I do things, whenever I come across things, or you know, I have these Vata traits. I post about Vata a lot on my page and most people who come to me think that they are Vata seeing my posts, which is actually not true. Basically, vata is actually supposed to be Ayurvedically. If you see the textbooks, samhitas, you will see very bad things about Vata. But you ask me, vata is actually good. Vata has helped me to be this person that I am today and I'm grateful for being this vata person that I am. You know, at least in my mind, because when you're vata, you have that creative energy. You have that creative juice flowing in you. You take action. You don't manifest. You know you don't manifest and wait for something to happen. You take action right then. And there, even in Bhagavad Gita, it is written no, even Krishna says that we have to do our work. We should work without bhala ichcha. Bhala ichcha means wanting to have a certain outcome from what we are doing. Manifesting is what we are wanting a certain outcome. We want results, yeah, we want a certain results, and we are looking at result, result, result. No, that is not the Indian way or the Ayurvedic way of looking at things. So that is how, if you are a vata person, you are that person who won't manage. You won't sit and just manifest. You do your actions. And being vata person has also helped me.
Speaker 2:I am a doctor who sees suffering. Every single day of my life. I go through patients who come from different levels of emotional status. You know a lot of people cry in front of me. I am an empathetic person by nature, but at the same time and I do care I feel sad. I have those days where I feel bad, feel sad. Everything happens. But at the same time, what I've realized is being Vata. I can switch emotions quickly. I'm sad this moment, I can be happy. The next moment I can be excited and doing something. The next moment, the next moment, I can be like sitting thinking, oh my god, what am I doing with my life, you know? So that is something which Vatas are amazing about. Vata people are very good about all of those things, and so Vata is not a bad thing.
Speaker 2:If you are already Vata, you know you are Vata and you read the Samhitas, you will feel depressed. There is nothing, not even one thing, which is mentioned which is good. You know you'll have dry hair, dry skin, crackling joints all of that is there. Have dry hair, dry skin, crackling joints all of that is there. But still vata is something which is really. It is a villain.
Speaker 2:Because in ayurveda what we say is that means if you really see, pitta is lame, kapha is lame. Lame means like it has disability or it is disabled or it is not good enough. But vata is more powerful than pitta and kapha. Vayuna yatra niyande. That means it is air that moves even the clouds. It is vata that moves even the pitta and the kapha. That means vata is stronger than pitta and kapha.
Speaker 2:So the conditions that you get because of vata is stronger than any pitta or kapha related condition and it is hard to treat and it takes time to get better. Even with a little bit of neglect it can flare up the vata related conditions. That's why, if you really look at the three phases of life after your menopause, after many years after menopause, your vata time starts. Everybody in the world you will feel joint pains, cracklings on from joints, pains everywhere in the body. At that point, if you want good, easy, healthy bones, you want to run, you want to do things, you have to act now. All the practices that ayurveda mentions, that everyday oiling, abhyanga, doing things for your, for building your muscles, all of those things will count to a better old age and all of that will help take care of Vata, which we are all going to face at some point later in our life, because we can't escape that Vata time and that Vata time is real and that is going to come.
Speaker 1:So though people are born with, as either a combination of doshas or types, vata kapha, like you pointed out about yourself, happens right. So is that the the later stage of life, so it can change as well. It doesn't remain as is from birth no, it is not like that.
Speaker 2:So basically, birth or garbha right, what we say in Ayurveda is Shukla, shonita, garbhashya Astham Atma Prakriti Vikara Sammurchitam Garbhya Ityuchithi. That means Shukla and Shonita, which is your sperm and ovum, come together. Atma Prakriti, vikara. Prakriti is decided at that time itself, when your Garbha is decided, your Prakriti is decided. When your Garbha is decided, your Prakriti is decided. Whether you are going to be a Vata Pitta person or a Pitta Kapha person is decided at that moment of that sperm and ovum coming together and it is never going to change until you are 100 years of age.
Speaker 2:But what I mentioned before was, in spite of that, we have three phases in our life. We have a growth phase, kapha phase, and from your puberty till your menopause you have a pitta phase. And from a few years after menopause till you die you have the vata phase. So at these phases you will feel an increase of those respective doshas phases. You will feel an increase of those respective doshas, but the same time, at any given point in time, you can have even if you are a vata prakriti person you can have a kapha imbalance, you can have a pitta imbalance.
Speaker 2:So the imbalances are called vikaras or vikritis and that can vary, that can change okay, a lot of people cannot really identify what prakriti they are because they are always having some imbalance and the prakriti that you're born with say you're 20 years of age. After 20 years. That is when you really see the manifestation of your original prakriti. Some people say I was very thin when I was small. This is not my original nature. My original nature was being thin, but now I have put on weight. No, your prakriti has now, like after 20s, how you are is basically the original manifestation of your prakriti. That has happened, yeah, so that keeps changing.
Speaker 1:Okay, we talked about menopause really quickly on that. How can women ease into menopause? Is there like anything specific that they can do? You talked about abhyanga and all that even prior to reaching that phase. Right, why don't we talk about ayurvedic rituals, everyday rituals? So is that the key to people transitioning to a healthier old age?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. If you see, in Ayurveda we have two different sections. One is Swastha Vrita, which is how to preserve the health of the healthy person and to prevent disease in future, and all these dinacharya, rithucharya, daily routine, night routine, seasonal routine, all of this come under this section. And then we have the diseases section, how to treat diseases. That's another thing and this is something very special about Ayurveda, because you will not see a section so elaborate and so vast like in Ayurveda in any other medical system. And if you take care that's what I said before that we all know that we are going to have a period of Vata coming in future, coming in future. So if you start practicing all of those rituals abhyanga, oil pulling nasya, all of those on a regular basis, eating food that your body is able to digest, doing exercises In the past people used to do, you know, they used to push the bullock cart, now we are doing sled push.
Speaker 2:People used to like carry logs of water, now we are doing farmer's walk. You know we are doing all of these things because we are no longer doing those kind of activities which we used to do in the past. So we have to incorporate those kind of strength training and workouts in our daily routine, and that has to be a part of our life, because we are no longer doing all of those things. We are sitting in front of the laptop and doing everything. So if you do that strength training, if you work out, if you practice mindlessness every day mindfulness is a messed up word if you practice mindlessness, meditation, if you do all of that, you will realize that you have a better old age compared to others. Okay, and prevent so many disease conditions by just by focusing on these few things that I mentioned. You don't need medicines for that, you just have to incorporate these Ayurvedic practices.
Speaker 1:Great Skin health, and Ayurveda is very a culprit when it comes to skin health. And what does Ayurveda talk about when it comes to skin health? Skin?
Speaker 2:health is the reflection of your inside, absolutely. How well is your digestion, how well is your elimination? Both are equally important. You have to eliminate every single day of your life. If somebody tells you it's natural for some people to not pass three, four days together, it may be natural, but it also shows an impaired agni. Just don't disregard a major sign the body is giving you, saying this is natural to me. I have been having this since childhood. No, it means you have an impaired agni since childhood which you have never worked on and it needs to be corrected. It needs to be correct. You have to eliminate every day.
Speaker 2:What does your poop contain? It contains every single thing all of those metabolic waste, digestive waste, waste from processes and physiological functions happening in the body. If you are not pooping a single day, what happens is a part of it is reabsorbed. Everything reabsorbed is a toxin in your body and in Ayurveda we are all about detoxification, detoxification, detoxification. So it is opposite to the Ayurvedic principles to have toxins added back to your system every single day by not pooping.
Speaker 1:What about dairy? Is it contributing to any conditions? Possibly when it comes to, say, any psoriasis or any conditions like that with skin conditions like that with skin.
Speaker 2:No, the quality of milk that you get has definitely changed a lot. So milk is definitely something that is no longer digestible by most number of people because of the things that has happened to milk. But if you have a good cow around your house which you see, your cow you have to see. You have to make sure that you see the cow and we are not giving any hormones, injections, anything. Make sure the cow also has healthy mothers and grandmothers. If you follow all of that and you live in a village and you get that kind of milk, milk can be amrit, but unfortunately in today's day and age it is impossible to find that and everything is adulterated.
Speaker 2:Quality of anything that you put in your body is extremely important. I wouldn't suggest anybody to take chance and have something which doesn't have quality input inside the body. So that is the thing with milk. But milk, if you get the good quality, original, like pure from a real cow with all the qualities that I mentioned, you can have milk. It is good for you. It is nourishing, it is enlivening. It is gorgeous building it is good for you. It is nourishing, it is enlivening. It is gorgeous building. It is good for the mind. It gives you happiness and positivity, according to ayurveda. But today we don't have access to good milk. Try to stay away from it. But you can have buttermilk every day. You can have cheese and paneer once in a while, but don't make it an everyday thing, it's okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, and in closing, dr Rekha, we have spent a lot of time and I really appreciate that. It was wonderful chatting with you here and we absolutely loved it. Thank you so much again.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you so much, bai. It was lovely having this session. I really appreciate how thoughtful the questions were and looking forward to more chats like this. Thank you, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, dr Rekha. Listeners, as always, follow the podcast, rate the podcast, leave a review from your podcast app of choice. Follow me on Instagram and YouTube at YP Kumar. That's V-A-I-P-K-U-M-A-R. Also on Substack, where I write articles For all things digital media and lifestyle. You will just get enlightened, I hope, with all of the information that we put out here on the podcast and on Substack and on YouTube as well. Until next time, with yet another interesting guest and yet another interesting topic. It's me Vai saying so long.
