127-What is Ayurvedic Medicine?

Immerse yourself in the wisdom of Ayurveda with our guest, Dr. Shivani Gupta, an expert Ayurvedic practitioner. Tune in to understand the profound implications of this ancient healing system, as Dr. Shivani illuminates the importance of diet, detoxification, circadian rhythms, and self-care tools in enhancing our overall health. You'll also gain insights into her intriguing journey of discovering Ayurveda and her in-depth research on the potent anti-inflammatory spice, turmeric.

Venture deeper into the realm of Ayurveda as we navigate through its profound impact on gut health, inflammation, and overall wellbeing. Discover the secrets of the sattvic diet, the importance of circadian rhythm, and the power of natural, unprocessed foods in nourishing our bodies. We discuss the wonders of moderate fasting, a cleanse for our gut and a promoter of optimal health. We also uncover the benefits of time-honored self-care rituals such as tongue scraping and oil pulling, revealing how they can nourish organs, detoxify the system and ignite the digestive fire.

Delve into the extraordinary world of inflammation-fighting compounds like ashwagandha, turmeric, ginger, and black pepper, their roles in health improvement and their anti-inflammatory properties. Dr. Shivani enlightens us on the powerhouse properties of turmeric and its extract curcumin. We wrap up our enlightening discussion understanding the significance of addressing the root causes of medical issues and adopting lifestyle practices to resolve them. Embark on this fascinating journey with us to uncover profound insights into health, longevity, and the holistic approach of Ayurveda.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to the Health and Longevity Secret Show, and I'm your host, dr Robert Lufkin. Today we'll be speaking about the important and really underutilized science of Ayurvedic medicine and how it can dramatically improve our health and longevity. We're going to learn how to pay attention to gut health as well as circadian rhythms to dramatically lower our inflammation. Be sure, and stay through to hear it at the end. Our guest for this discussion is Shivani Gupta, phd.

Speaker 1: 0:35

Dr Shivani is an Ayurvedic practitioner and expert, infusing Eastern and Western practices that help our bodies achieve equilibrium. She completed her master's in Ayurvedic sciences and her PhD in turmeric. She is also the founder of Fusionary Formulas, an Ayurvedic company that helps people with inflammation and pain. If you are enjoying this program, please hit that subscribe button or, even better, leave a review. Your support makes it possible for us to create the quality programming that we're continually striving for. Also, let us know if there is a certain topic that you would like to see covered or a particular guest that you would like to hear from. And now, please enjoy this conversation with Dr Shivani Gupta. Hey, shivani, welcome to the program.

Speaker 2: 1:38

Thank you, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:41

So let's dive right in. Tell us what is Ayurvedic health or Ayurvedic medicine, and how can that help us live Better lives? Sure.

Speaker 2: 1:57

So most people have not heard of Ayurveda, and it's my mission to spread awareness of this incredible science. Ayurveda means the science of life. It's a whole system of health, healing and medicine from India that's over 5,000 years old and typically here in the West we just haven't heard of it yet. But if you dive into Ayurveda, it's a lifestyle. It's a way of life that we can live every single day. It encompasses diet, nutrition, detoxification, circadian rhythm, self-care tools that are so profound for our overall health and detoxing of our body. It covers how we should sleep, how we should eat, herbs and spices that I call the super spices that can help us really up level our health in a profound way. So to me it's like this treasure chest and I just want everyone to know it so we can pull tools from it as needed and build that vibrant health and that longevity that we all want.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Okay, let me try it again and see if I can pronounce it correctly. Are you Veda, right?

Speaker 2: 2:58

Yeah, everyone pronounces it differently Ayurveda, ayurveda.

Speaker 1: 3:03

That is great. Well, I'm so looking forward to hearing about this today and diving deep with Ayurveda. But before we do, you have such a fascinating story and your backstory, how you got interested in this area. You're the only person I've ever met or I've been heard of who has a PhD in turmeric. So turmeric, so I'm really. You're a world expert on that, so I'm looking forward to doing that too. But maybe tell us a little bit about your background.

Speaker 2: 3:35

Sure. So I grew up in Houston, texas, to an immigrant family, like so many of us who have that American dream story, and my parents worked so hard to give us an incredible life, and we'd go to India every year to see my grandparents, my cousins, and every time I went to India I would get disastrously sick, Like that kind of sick that a lot of people get when they go to India, because they ate the wrong thing or had a bite of chutney and it took you down. And so I remember growing up thinking why does everyone else have an immune system that works, a body that works, but I've been given this defective body. Something has to change, and I saw that and a lot of horrible family history. So every time I went to India, people in my family would have diabetes and end up having like the end stages of that, with their leg being cut off, with heart attacks, like just too many bad signs. And so I kept thinking something has to be done, like I have to do something active for my health. I'm not like everyone, and if that's the train wreck that's coming for me, I better create a change.

Speaker 2: 4:36

And so, luckily, on those trips to India, I finally discovered Ayurveda and I was like, wow, there's a whole system around building gut health and building an immune system that works. I need this thing. And once I applied it to myself and fix my gut health and built an immune system of steel, I realized, okay, this, this is my passion. Now Let me take it further. And so I did my masters in Ayurvedic sciences. And then when I learned about turmeric which I know, turmeric is great but when I learned about how potent turmeric is for all of the issues I saw for immune health, for inflammation as a root cause issue I was like I have to study this thing. So now I'm a turmeric evangelist. I like to tell everyone turmeric is the best thing.

Speaker 1: 5:20

Well, that's so fascinating. So Ayurveda is? It arose in India, as you say, thousands of years ago, and now you, you, you have an advanced degree in turmeric and Ayurvedic studies, where obviously we talked before the podcast about your your husband is a medical doctor and you've many family members and medical doctors as well, so are, are you Veda in in India? Is it? Is it like a parallel system, sort of like Chinese medicine in China where you have Western doctors and then are you Vedic doctors? Is that? Is that the way it it's done, and sort of the combination of those and the crossover? Then yeah it's interesting.

Speaker 2: 6:10

It's interesting that you ask it. So Ayurvedic medicine was always there. It's our traditional, classic form of medicine. And then, I think, when Britain moved into India and colonized which it did across the world the British system was adopted, which is the Western allopathic system that developed, and so that was the way for a long time. And then now, in this last decade or so, you're seeing this huge resurgence of respect and following homeopathic medicine. Again, looking to Ayurveda, so there are Ayurvedic hospitals, there are Ayurvedic medical doctors in India and there are hospitals that have the hybrid of both, and so it's really cool to see how much people are turning back and saying you know, yoga is so important, pranayama and breathing is so important, and Ayurvedic's wisdom, ayurveda's wisdom, and yoga is a sister science to Ayurveda. So that same philosophy around who we are and bringing alignment to body, mind and spirit is in yoga and Ayurveda both.

Speaker 1: 7:08

Yeah, now with, with. Are you VEDA? You talk, you've mentioned about some of the components of it and how that can help, and one of the one of the ones you mentioned is circadian rhythm, and that's that's something we think about from Western medicine. But how does that tie into? First of all, what is circadian rhythm for?

Speaker 3: 7:26

our audience.

Speaker 1: 7:27

And then how does that tie into? Are you VEDA?

Speaker 2: 7:31

Sure. So IRVEDA created circadian rhythm, and that's part of my mission is to give IRVEDA the credit where it's due. Irveda created tongue scraping, oil pulling a lot of these things we're talking about in modern day times as bio hacks and fun tools. They came from this ancient wisdom. We're just pulling from these treasure chests of knowledge.

Speaker 2: 7:50

And so circadian rhythm is chronobiology. It's the study of the fact that our cells have a clock. We are, we are living according to nature's clock and we believe that we are just free to live by any clock we choose. But we're seeing so much disease that now people are studying and realizing, wow, nature's clock, the clock by which nature, animals, every other being lives by, also applies to us. And so there's three Nobel Peace Prize winners who proved that the circadian clock is valid, and that's when it became that much more of a topic of study and understanding across the world.

Speaker 2: 8:27

But IRVEDA always taught us we should sleep by 10. 10 to two is the most important time on that clock for regeneration, for clearing out the old and bringing in the new, for clearing the lymphatic system, for clearing inflammation. They teach us how to wake up in the morning with the sun, how to eat when the sun is highest. So there's a lot of tips and tools and guidance that comes from IRVEDA that very much is a longevity minded focus in our health that we can apply. And then once we apply that rhythm like I really like to teach people how to build a rhythm in their life around their teas and their supplements and all the things that we can do our diet and once we have that rhythm, we're so vibrant in our health that the moment we get out of rhythm we can tell something's wrong and we quickly can calibrate and fix it.

Speaker 1: 9:16

Now I love what you said about the rhythms and in particular, the circadian rhythm. Let's say, is it the same for, or is it similar for, everybody? I mean, I get what you're saying. Oh, I come up, I get up, when the sun rises, I go to bed when the sun goes down, but some people say, hey, I'm a night person, you know I'll sleep till noon, or is it something about that? Is there a health benefit for all of us doing similar types of chronological or circadian landmarks in our lifestyle choices?

Speaker 2: 9:54

You know, there are certain landmarks in the circadian clock that are true for all. You know where we live according to our seasons. We are meant to live according to the seasons, the rhythm of the day, the rhythm of the moon, the rhythm of the planet. Those are kind of fixed laws that many of us try to defy. But then our health symptoms stack up and we quickly realize we need to make some changes.

Speaker 2: 10:15

Now in Ayurveda there's a concept called the Doshas, which are our individual mind-body constitutions, and so everyone does have a customization. That happens in there, where not all of us are meant to jump out of bed at five, six in the morning and push straight through the day. Some of us have a more guffa nature, some of us are more pitas. We have these three mind-body constitutions and it's important to know yours, honor yours, have that self-understanding and then run the rhythm of your day accordingly. So there is some customization there. But when people share that they're night owls. I usually say look, you're just harnessing, bit that energy, fire, energy, which is what's strongest from 10 to 2. And if you go past midnight, of course you're going to have a second wind to keep going. But it's our job to discipline ourselves and wind back the clock and move ourselves as close to a 10 to 11 bedtime as possible so that we can give the body that rest and rejuvenation we need, or we're never going to win at our inflammation and health.

Speaker 1: 11:15

So we have these rhythms and there's a sense of consistency and these rhythms and I know another thing that you've mentioned and brought up was an important part of this is also gut health, and what role does that play? I mean, we all know how important gut health is, but what is the RUV, the perspective on gut health, and what is RUV to be able to contribute on that?

Speaker 2: 11:48

So Ayurveda has always taught us that gut health is all health. Like gut health is the most central tenet of all of the things that we teach. And so gut health we think of it as a campfire in our center and that fire is to be tended, it's to be loved, it's to be managed carefully because it is the center of life, it's our immune system, it's our energy, it's our metabolism, it's all the processes that matter most. It's assimilation and absorption and excretion. So it's something to be honored and revered and not taken for granted.

Speaker 2: 12:22

So I love that about Ayurveda because we have tools, we have gut resets, we have certain spices, we use certain foods we use Based on the issue that comes to me. I'll tell people look, this is the protocol for three days, this is the protocol for a week. But if we can heal our gut, then we've done the majority of the work towards having that vibrant health and that longevity that we want. So really, gut health is the most important central tenet that comes out of Ayurveda and I think we have one of the biggest toolkits to deal with it compared to a lot of the other systems.

Speaker 1: 12:55

And with gut health. There's an increasing number of voices about gut health, saying that one way to improve gut health is through just not eating all the time and giving your gut a rest. Is this are you there to have a position on fasting? Is that a tool there, and what is the viewpoint of fasting, or not necessarily what you eat We'll talk about that in a minute. But when you eat is what is the position there on that?

Speaker 2: 13:29

Sure, fasting is definitely a piece of Ayurveda, so naturally we teach in the daily rhythm three hours before bed, stop eating. So normally if you have to sleep by 10, you're done with dinner by seven. So if you're done by seven and you don't start your day or start eating before seven the next day already a 12 hour fast is naturally built into the Ayurvedic system. You can push that further 12, 14 ish. The other thing about Ayurveda, though, is we believe in a more moderate lifestyle, so sometimes I see people taking concepts like fasting and getting really extreme with it. I think that really comes down to your constitution, your body, your digestion. So fasting for a day has definitely been part of Ayurveda and the Indian culture. For a health standpoint, give the gut a rest is fine, but we don't believe in being so extreme that we are causing more problems Like we're putting a tax or stress on the body. So it's built in but respected. It's both.

Speaker 1: 14:32

And so that's when we eat. What does Ayurveda say about what we eat and what are the tools available for gut health with the supplements or spices and that sort of thing with Ayurveda?

Speaker 2: 14:48

Sure. So we teach that there's so much opportunity to look at what we eat and how we eat it to give us that optimal health that we crave. So Ayurveda teaches about the Sathvic diet. It's spelled S-A-T-T-W-I-C. Sathvic, but what it means is eating this very yogic diet where we look at are we eating foods that are natural from the earth? Are we eating processed foods? Don't microwave your food. Don't damage your food. Don't eat old food, cold food, don't eat leftovers that aren't good anymore, that are dead, that are lacking in prana. So there's so much wisdom around, like, if you're in my house, we have fresh food every day and I don't allow leftovers past a day. I prefer that we only reach for frozen food in emergencies. Like food is honored as that nutrient density, seasonal food and love that we need to put into our body if we want our body to love us back. So there's so much there.

Speaker 2: 15:44

In terms of how you eat, I teach people never consume water within 30 minutes of a meal, before or after You're going to turn off your digestion. You're basically pouring water on the campfire, asking the campfire to do its job at the same time. It doesn't work that way. So if you want to optimize digestion. There's simple habits that we can adopt from Ayurveda that will be a game changer, regardless of what you're eating, because in modern day times a lot of us are going to eat our fun foods, our inflammatory foods. But Ayurveda also gives us powerful herbs and spices turmeric, ashwagandha, cumin there's so many spices that can support the digestive process, fix our digestion, fix our inflammation, and then let us move forward healthy.

Speaker 1: 16:28

Yeah, I'm hearing you say there are many benefits of Ayurveda on eating, but one is the type of foods that are natural from the earth, I'm hearing avoid junk food and processed foods, which most of us eat all the time, unfortunately.

Speaker 1: 16:55

So we mentioned the circadian rhythm a little bit and the importance of the rhythms of life, and then we've talked about gut health a little bit, and each time you've mentioned the word inflammation, and I think many of our guests have talked about inflammation as a fundamental underlying driver of almost all the chronic diseases that ultimately determine the longevity for most of us. So inflammation is pretty important. How does, are you Veda, view inflammation and how we can improve it?

Speaker 2: 17:36

You know, I, in all my readings of the ancient texts, never saw the word inflammation. I think it's a word that we have created or studied and understood in recent, more modern times. But in Ayurveda if you just lived the lifestyle, you would not be inflamed Like it's inherently built that you wake up with nature. You are doing self care. That's detoxing. You are eating a beautiful, nutritious diet that is blessed, that you have put, chosen to put inside of you. You are consuming healthy teas and herbs all throughout the day that assist with the digestion of your food. You are honoring that sleep is so important and you're sleeping on time. So it's almost like if you build the rhythm, you shouldn't have the inflammation.

Speaker 2: 18:17

But in this modern day society we're living in between the processed foods, the stressors, the toxins, the toxic burden the body is holding.

Speaker 2: 18:26

There's so many aspects that come into play and so the way I look at it is our body is under attack at all times between the chemicals that are produced, between the chemicals we're consuming, and between the mental inflammation caused by the sheer stress and work and burdens we take on as a society.

Speaker 2: 18:47

And so I educate people on we must actively reduce inflammation every day. We must actively take turmeric, take herbs, do things that are going to simmer down that inflammation, get it into check so we're not all running around with chronic, low grade, persistent inflammation that's wreaking havoc in our bodies. And then we're saying, oh, woe is me. I have this stack up of symptoms, this is aging. A lot of people tell me I'm aging and I say no, no, no, that's inflaming, that is inflammation wreaking havoc in your body and you're complaining about it. But really, if you just reduced inflammation, you would see, all of a sudden things would feel lighter, things would feel better. So that's how I like to teach it is let's all choose to live an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, to see what's possible when our body is in the right homeostasis and state.

Speaker 1: 19:35

Yeah, now the anti-inflammatory lifestyle. I want to drill down on some of the herbs and supplements you mentioned. But before that, what about stress? Obviously is an important factor. What about? What is RUV? That I say about mental, dealing with mental things and the psychological aspects of stress in our lives.

Speaker 2: 20:04

Well, the thing is IRV that taught us to be in harmony.

Speaker 2: 20:09

It's really a system of health and healing that says if we could be in harmony with ourselves, with others, if we can understand our individual mind-body constitution and thus see that in others and understand how to work with them, if we could keep our spiritual health on point, then our mental health and emotional health will be that much better.

Speaker 2: 20:30

If we were eating foods that were sothic, we have this piece from within us created. If we're eating foods that are causing anxiety and stressors and angst, then we need to adjust our own diet to be healthier. The gut, brain access was not mentioned in IRV, but IRV said heal the gut to heal all, and so when people tell me they have mental health issues, I'm like, of course there's lots of ways to handle it, but I would always just start with some gut health, because maybe we need to support from within while we do therapy and all the other modalities that support it. So yeah, irv that said look, we have an ability to be in harmony with nature, with the world around us. If we're in disharmony, that's going to be causing that dis-ease and dis-alignment that happens with the world around us.

Speaker 1: 21:20

And India as a country and the culture associated with it, has a huge tradition of meditation and that sort of thing, and I just signed up for my first week-long intensive meditation retreat, which I've never done before. So I'm very curious, I'm perking up about meditation now and also, does meditation play a role in our UVeta and what does our UVeta say about meditation?

Speaker 2: 21:54

So within IRVeta, we teach the 12 self-care rituals to do every single day for vibrant health, and we call that din na jahdi, the daily rituals that we should live by. One of them is wake up and meditate Like it's part of our daily rituals. Wake up, meditate. You brush your teeth, use a tongue scraper, do oil pulling. Oral health is all health. We dive into yoga, we dive into self-massage, which is a pyong massage, which is very grounding. So there's these 12 steps.

Speaker 2: 22:24

I can't do them all in the morning because I have kids to get to school, so a lot of times I take them and I put them in the evening as my bedtime ritual, as part of my sleep hygiene and sleep ritual, to invest in better sleep.

Speaker 2: 22:35

But meditation, deep breathing, prana yam, all these things are meant to be daily and I think if we can build the rhythm of doing them at some point in the day, I teach everyone look, let's make it easy, let's make it doable, let's not make it about perfection. I don't meditate every day, I am not perfect, but I make sure that at some point I could be blow-drying my hair and I forgot to meditate. In the morning, I'll say you know what? Right now I'm going to get to the next minute and tune in and re-center and ground and get that piece you need, or I'll be driving and I'll say, ok, I'm not taking any phone calls or music for this 20-minute drive, I'm just going to totally zen out and tune into my intuition. So a lot of IRV that's teaching us. Your own intuition has the answers. You just need to train yourself and your intuition to communicate that with you.

Speaker 1: 23:27

You're about the third person I've talked to recently that's mentioned tongue scraping, which is something, I have to confess, has been completely off my radar for a long time, but I'm going to look closely at it. Any pointers for beginning tongue scraper? Yes, like myself.

Speaker 2: 23:43

I think I will be more well-known on this planet about tongue scraping than turmeric, which is going to be funny, but I mentioned it and it's an easy habit to adopt. So, tongue scraper, you just buy one on Amazon or anywhere. I have one on my website, but there's copper tongue scraper. We recommend copper because it's an antibacterial metal so it stays clean over time, not these like toothbrushes and modern plastic ones we're coming up with nowadays. Metal tongue scraper, please. It can be steel, it can be silver, it can be copper.

Speaker 2: 24:12

You take it and you gently scrape the tongue. Don't gag yourself. So you gently scrape the tongue seven to 14 times in the morning and on the tongue. Any IRV practitioner would deep dive into looking at your tongue and making sure do you have this white film on your tongue? That white film indicates ama.

Speaker 2: 24:31

Ama is AMA, but AMA means toxins in the body. This accumulation of toxins that most of us have is they're sitting on the tongue, and so by scraping the tongue, we're actually gently massaging all the organs of the body. Similar to reflexology on the feet is thought to impact all the organs of the body, and so when you do tongue scraping, you're massaging all the organs of the body, you're detoxing them and you're removing that toxin film that exists inside of all of us. So it's a very powerful self hygiene ritual. It's pretty much free. You can buy that one tongue scraper and it lasts for life. It also ignites the digestive fire in the morning, so it opens up that campfire and gets it ready to churn and burn what we're going to eat and use all day.

Speaker 1: 25:17

So the practice would be in the morning before or after brushing your teeth.

Speaker 2: 25:22

I do it after.

Speaker 1: 25:23

After and I get that all the toxins accumulate from the night before and that's great. So the tongue scraping definitely going to go to your website and we'll talk about your website later at the end and how to get there. But the one thing I haven't heard other people recommend, to me at least, is oil pulling, although I've seen ideas. I think I know what that is, I've seen it, and are you Veda practices before? Is that something that you do yourself or is someone do to you? Or what is the setup for oil pulling and what? What do you recommend for that?

Speaker 2: 26:00

The oil pulling is easy. You take any food grade oil. Any organic oil could be almond oil, coconut oil in IRV, that we love. Sesame oil for everything. We think it's the king of oils. It's antibacterial, it's very good for the body, it's very nourishing, it has vitamin E, so it has a lot of properties to it. So we use sesame oil for everything. You can buy sesame oil that's not been like there's like cooked sesame oil. You want like raw, filtered, clean sesame oil that's organic, which you can buy at the health and store.

Speaker 2: 26:32

But basically you take about two tablespoons of oil, put it in the mouth and hold it in your mouth for five to 20 minutes. Somewhere towards the end of that timing you're going to swish it around the mouth, so you're just going to move it through your gums, through your teeth, and what it's going to do is it's going to collect all those toxins. Our oral microbiome ties directly to our gut microbiome and so the more you keep this clean, the more you're supporting your gut microbiome as well. You're supporting how you eat, how well you taste your food, according to Ayurveda, and so I recommend every day if you can do it, but make sure when you spit out that oil you don't throw it in the sink, the shower or the toilet. Has to go in the trash because you will ruin the pipes of your home. You'll clog up the pipes. So that's like a little pro tip. But oil pulling is very beneficial because we're going to take all that toxins and junk and accumulation and get rid of it. So we're thus reducing that toxic burden of the body.

Speaker 1: 27:28

Yeah, that I was. I was imagining oil dripping on my forehead on a massage table or something. But oil, I get it. Oil pulling to pull the toxins out, and I like the fact that, that that you spit it out at the end with the toxins, because, yeah, people who are concerned about seed oils and linoleic acid may, may not want to use, may not want to swallow some of those, but but, but either way. So that's, that's great, and that's just in the morning, right Once a day. Is that what you recommend?

Speaker 2: 28:02

That's what's preferred. Irv, that's hot, all these things for the morning. But again, I believe in being practical. So if, if it's on the weekend only, and that's when you start and that's when you have time, fine. If it's only in the evenings before bed and that's your nightly ritual, also fine. But yes, it's taught to be a habit for the morning.

Speaker 1: 28:21

Yeah, I mean we're learning so much about the mouth now they all the evidence is coming out with. I know I've Committed that I've stopped using mouth washes because of their anti bacterial effect and these, these oils. This seems like a much more benign way of Giving your mouth health that doesn't destroy your nitric oxide production or the bacteria of your normal flora. So that's that's. That's really appealing there, so I'm gonna Put that on there as well on my list. Now, as far as anti inflammation, you mentioned several Possible things we can consume. Maybe you could go through some of them and or maybe just start with ashwagandha. That's one of my favorite words, I love saying it and it's such an amazing, amazing compound. Anyway, tell us about, tell us about that one, then we can go to some of the other ones.

Speaker 2: 29:18

Sure. So ashwagandha is an adaptogen, and adaptogen just means that the body knows how to take it and use it where it needs to go. So adaptogens like ashwagandha if we're stressed and anxious, they'll calm us down a couple notches. If we're suffering from the blues or Depressed, it'll lift us up a couple notches. It truly goes in there and functions like a thermostat to do what it needs to do. And ashwagandha is like one of those Very powerful, potent adaptogens that we have available to us that supports people in different ways.

Speaker 2: 29:48

For some people that supports their sleep because it's so calming. It helps them relax for sleep better. For some, they can take it in the morning and it's going to calm you down a few notches to deal with the stresses of the day and help you stay focused and calm to get your list done. So everyone takes these things differently. I think ashwagandha so powerful, turmeric is so powerful, ginger is so powerful, so we can have like a mindful medicine chest. I call it a pharmacy F-A-R-M, so this pharmacy that's available, that has all these natural tools in it, and then we can make a tea out of it. We can make this, you know, we can take a supplement for it. We can reach for what we need to, based on the phase of life where we're in or the week that we're dealing with.

Speaker 1: 30:29

Yeah, I love the idea of an adaptogen. It's sort of like a gensing in Chinese Medicine is sometimes classified as an adaptogen. It's sort of like you say it goes in and fixes whatever needs to be fixed, and ashwagandha is similar to that. Now the other, the other drugs you mentioned, or drugs or Compounds you mentioned, talk about those. How do those help with inflammation and what do you recommend? What does our uveida say about those?

Speaker 2: 31:03

Sure. So you know, whenever people talk about superfoods, I kind of laugh because as an American, I am super into superfoods as well, and whenever I went through the list of superfoods to look up the benefits, I was like, okay, you want me to eat makaroo, you want me to eat all these weird things I've never had before? And I bought all of them and they look kind of gross sometimes. So I'm always like, well, let me go look up the benefits. A lot of times it's antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and I always read that and I was like, okay, I find, why am I taking 10 different things that give me an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant benefit? Like, what is one thing that can get me there? So that's why, when I studied turmeric, I was like, okay, if this one thing will give us all that benefit, then we're winning. Just by taking the one thing Makes it easier because we can't always do every single health habit. So turmeric the reason I'm so passionate is not only a very powerful anti-inflammatory and a very potent antioxidant, it's also antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral. It does so much in the body. I'm part of a team that's researching. Why is it so well received from our body? Like, why is it showing up that every receptor in the body can receive it almost. But to me it does the job so well I just rely on the turmeric to do it. Then I don't have to do this whole superfood chasing thing that that a lot of us are Doing, putting everything in our shakes. So turmeric to me is a powerhouse. Ginger is another great powerhouse.

Speaker 2: 32:28

When people take their turmeric, I want them to take it with black pepper or a healthy fat for absorption. The way I I explain it is fresh turmeric has benefits. A lot of us are into the fresh solutions. But when you dry it and put it in spice form, it's more potent. And when you take the extract out of it curcumin it's that much more potent. And so a lot of people are spending their time sprinkling turmeric on their chicken but not using black pepper, not adding the healthy fat consciously. So we're not getting the results that we want. Or there's this modern trend like make it a latte. Well, if it's a skinny latte, it's not absorbing. We're just wasting our time, wasting our effort. So I really want everyone to know termics a powerhouse. You can totally win taking turmeric, but take it in that very potent form. It will drive the result you want reduce that inflammation, and then we're winning at our health.

Speaker 1: 33:18

So for the turmeric and and as we said earlier, your PhD is in turmeric I have to ask what did you do your thesis on?

Speaker 2: 33:27

It was literally it was literally on turmeric and all the different ways it can impact each disease pathology of the body. So we went into all the different systems Brain health, heart health, gut health and now British medicine journal. British Journal of Medicine just published a new study on turmeric and PPI's and how they're equal. So to me I loved diving into the science of how does turmeric impact wound healing, because then plastic surgery can use it. How does it impact our chronic joint pain than orthopedics can use it? Okay, how does it affect a lot of the autoimmune people issues that people are dealing with? Okay, let's talk to rheumatology who, to me, I love understanding how, how we can push forward science to prove what I RV that already said thousands of years ago. I already said all this. We're just catching up with the science to validate what we've been practicing.

Speaker 1: 34:21

And so for turmeric, you mentioned our curcumin, and some people don't understand the relationship between those two. Are they? Are they the same thing? Different formulations? Could you talk about that?

Speaker 2: 34:32

So out of the entire plant, only 3% of turmeric is the curcuminoids. Out of that 3%, the one curcumin is the most effective at reducing inflammation. So a lot of times people are buying supplements and when they read the label it'll say curcuma longa and they're like amazing 1500 milligrams curcuma longa. Sure, curcuma longa just means turmeric, it's the name of the plant. So it's funny if you really finally read the label, some people forget the black pepper.

Speaker 2: 35:01

Some people are giving you curcuma noids and a lot of turmeric. To me I was very focused on if we're going to take turmeric, let's take it in the dosage that'll like really drive a result, so that we're really going after the issues that we have in our lives and then we're truly going to prevent inflammation from running rampant. Because what people don't realize is chronic, low grade, persistent inflammation is kind of like this forest fire, and if we aren't going to take a fire extinguisher and go after it, we're just going to leave this fire unchecked and then we've got this permanent damage and then we're trying to backtrack from it but it's too late.

Speaker 1: 35:36

Yeah, and I would suspect that a lot of the common drivers that that tumor and curcumin help that affect all of the chronic diseases almost. Is inflammation right and so if you turn down inflammation there's a there's a dramatic effect on that. Do you use any markers for inflammation on in your patients that you in now getting getting onto sort of your practice? Do you? Do you follow, like see reactive protein or anything, or is it more subjective and how they're feeling that kind of thing? So you know that the dose is right for the tumor, I guess, and the other, the other medications or the other supplements.

Speaker 2: 36:18

When I sit down with people for IRV, the, it's more of an IRV thick lifestyle practice. So I look at what are the issues going on. If there's a serious medical issue, I send it out. I know such incredible doctors across every subspecialty Like you need to go to them, go get that data, go get the, your diagnosis and go get a treatment plan. Like let's, let's be honest about what's happening here and understanding what's really going on under the hood. And what's interesting to me is, once you understand what's wrong, there's still an entire lifestyle practice that needs to be put in place or we will keep causing the problem. That's there.

Speaker 2: 36:53

We all come in with certain templates, certain genetic predisposition, certain habits that we've learned from our parents around sleep and food, and so I like to look at that and say, okay, you're inflamed, so let's start you on an anti inflammatory protocol. That's easy. I can show you eat food, sleep supplements, herbs, tease, how to approach that, how to build the right rhythm, and then we can go from there. So, for me, women come to me with all sorts of health issues a lot of it menopause, peri menopause, chronic joint pain, auto immunity and look, if you have the right tool kit, you can really resolve this and put your body back into homeostasis. But I like to do it in partnership, a lot of times with great practitioners.

Speaker 1: 37:34

Yeah, and you mentioned a lot of lifestyle things and also for the turmeric, the dosage there were. I want to just emphasize those again. There's certain ways that we should take those to be most effective. What dose do you recommend, or is there, is there a standard that someone should do it? And could you go over that just one more time?

Speaker 2: 37:55

Sure, the literature says 1000 milligrams of curcumin a day, with eight milligrams of curcumin a day, and so in my formulations that I developed I did 500 milligrams of curcumin per capsule with the four milligrams of black pepper extract and we got a very good standard dose to get a result. Now if someone's dealing with massive joint pain, sometimes I'll talk to them and say look, you can increase, we can take. The literature shows that. They've done studies. We can take up to eight grams of curcumin a day safely. Eight milligrams, eight milligrams, eight milligrams. So because we can take so much 8000 milligrams we have wiggle room. So, based on who I'm dealing with, if I'm seeing they want to keep their hand function, like their joint pain is so bad, they can take it up to three times a day or play with how much they're taking. But if you want to just be standard for everyone and be safe, you just start at the 1000 milligrams a day.

Speaker 1: 38:49

Yeah, that makes. That makes sense and this is in your. You have a practice. This is available on on your website and formulations. Is your practice available through telemedicine or do people have to be in Florida?

Speaker 2: 39:04

I do both. I do both. Now I have people calling from California and different places To me. Each person is like I like to investigate and understand. What is that root cause issue you're dealing with? How does I or Vita support you? If I or Vita can support you, if not, let's use you know, a functional medicine practitioner to dive in. And then, once you know what's going on, we still have to address the root, which is that lifestyle that has to shift.

Speaker 2: 39:28

And eight years ago I developed my supplement company, fusionary formulas, because I felt like, if turmeric is going to be the thing I want everyone to have, I need to go find it in a form that I trust, that I know works. And so I went seeking like a really potent form of curcumin. And once I found it, that's what I've been doing is just sharing. Look, take it in the right form, in the right potency to drive that result that you want. And then let's also talk about that anti inflammatory diet lifestyle, because you can't just take a supplement. You can use it to solve the current issue Fine, get that inflammation down, but let's put the practices in place to maintain that result. Now.

Speaker 1: 40:08

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's, that's wonderful. Well, how can people find, how can people find your website and follow you on social media? Shivani.

Speaker 2: 40:19

So my website is Shivani goop that calm. My other website is fusionary formulas calm f us. I own a r y. I have a podcast, the fusionary health podcast, where I dive into health issues like this, and we made a special code for your podcast. It's left in 15. And so your listeners can get 15% off their first order at fusionary formulas.

Speaker 1: 40:41

Oh, great. Well, this, this has been so, so interesting and I definitely want to have you back again so we could dive deeper in in these areas. But thanks for spending this time with us today, shivani, and thank you so much for all the great work you're doing.

Speaker 2: 40:58

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 3: 41:02

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