Episode 3
Unlocking Ayurvedic Wisdom: Achieving Balance in Mind and Body
The discussion presented in this podcast episode revolves around the foundational principles of Ayurveda and its application in achieving equilibrium in the realms of body, mind, and emotions. We elucidate how Ayurveda transcends mere herbal remedies to embody a comprehensive lifestyle philosophy that encourages self-awareness and holistic wellness. Our esteemed guest, Dr. Manas Sheer Sagar, a certified Ayurvedic doctor and wellness consultant, brings forth his extensive expertise, shedding light on the significance of individualized approaches to health through diet, yoga, and meditation. We delve into the intricate connections between physical health and emotional well-being, emphasizing the role of Ayurvedic practices in alleviating stress and enhancing overall vitality. Through this dialogue, we aspire to impart practical wisdom that our listeners may integrate into their daily lives, fostering a deeper understanding of their own health journeys.
Takeaways:
- Ayurveda encompasses a holistic approach, integrating physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of health.
- The Ayurvedic concept of detoxification involves not only the elimination of toxins but the nourishment of the body through beneficial practices.
- Understanding Ayurveda requires learning about oneself, which is often neglected in modern education and lifestyle.
- Meditation and mindfulness are essential components of Ayurveda, aiding in stress management and overall well-being.
- The relationship between diet, emotional health, and overall wellness is emphasized in Ayurveda, highlighting the importance of mindful eating.
- Ayurveda offers practical solutions to modern health issues, advocating for personalized lifestyle adjustments and preventative care.
Transcript
Foreign and welcome back to Busy Free Mind, where I truly believe that a healthy mind is healthy.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:I'm your host, Shobna Santosh.
Speaker A:And today we are exploring how Ayurveda helps us find balance in body, mind and emotions.
Speaker A:Joining me is Dr. Manas Sheer Sagar, a certified Ayurvedic doctor and wellness consultant with a background in both traditional and modern healing.
Speaker A:He holds a master's in Ayurveda and integrative medicine and has worked with people across the country helping them restore health through diet, yoga, meditation and detox.
Speaker A:I'm so excited to dive into this conversation and learn how we can all apply Ayurvedic wisdom in our Everyday lives.
Speaker A:Welcome, Dr. Manas.
Speaker A:It's wonderful to have you here.
Speaker A:How are you today?
Speaker B:Thank you, Shobna.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker B:It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker A:Dr. Manas, you have been teaching Ayurvedic wisdom across the country for years.
Speaker A:What inspired you personally to follow this path?
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Well, in medical school, one of the things that they teach you in ethics is not to get too close or too personal with your patients.
Speaker B:And that is completely backwards from what I saw growing up.
Speaker B:Both of my parents are Ayurvedic physicians and they would love these patients to death.
Speaker B:And they knew every aspect about their life, everything about their kids, their work, if there were any stresses in the marriage, finance problems, everything, because this was a collective aspect of what was causing their imbalances.
Speaker B:My parents would, you know, have people pay on a sliding scale and people would, patients would show up at the house and my parents would give out their cell phone numbers so they could get in touch.
Speaker B:And it was just a much different relationship that they had with their patients than the one that I was being taught to foster.
Speaker B:On the contrary, I was told you shouldn't ask too many personal questions.
Speaker B:You don't want to build a relationship with your patients and such.
Speaker B:And so that for some reason just didn't sit right with me.
Speaker B:And as you know, Ayurveda is a completely holistic approach to health and well being.
Speaker B:And so not only are we looking at them from a physiological perspective, but mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, all of these play a hand, play a role in how a person is quote, unquote healthy.
Speaker B:It's very interesting because, you know, I get asked this question quite a bit.
Speaker B:And when I remember growing up, I wanted to be a real doctor, right?
Speaker B:I didn't want to do this hippie medicine that my parents did.
Speaker B:But now you look at every modern Medical research study that comes out.
Speaker B:And it's all about the same four things.
Speaker B:Make sure that you get enough sleep, make sure that you follow a healthy diet, make sure you move your body and make sure that you manage your stress.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Things that Ayurveda has been talking about for centuries.
Speaker A:Yes, true.
Speaker A:A lot of people hear the word Ayurveda but think it's just herbs or detox treatments.
Speaker A:For someone new to this ancient science, how would you describe that Ayurveda really is and how it can help us in today's busy modern life?
Speaker B:Sure, it's in the word itself, right?
Speaker B:The word's definition.
Speaker B:Ayush meaning life, and veda meaning the study or the knowledge of.
Speaker B:And so Ayurveda is simply the knowledge or the study of learning about yourself.
Speaker B:It's something that's not taught in school.
Speaker B:It's something that if you're lucky, your parents will impart wisdom on you in bits and pieces.
Speaker B:But it's our full time job to learn as much about ourselves as we can while we're here on this earth.
Speaker B:And that's why there's an almost spiritual level to Ayurveda, right?
Speaker B:It's not just about diet or herbs or detoxification treatments and panchakarma and things like that, but rather the habits that we form, the patterns that we have that we live with, the relationships that we hold, how we perceive the world around us and the world within us.
Speaker B:And so all of these things have to be taken into account when you go and see a vaidya, right?
Speaker A:So we hear detox everywhere, right?
Speaker A:Like detox drinks, detox diets, even digital detox.
Speaker A:But most of us don't actually know what it really means.
Speaker A:How do you define detox in a more authentic way?
Speaker B:Sure, detoxification is very, very easy.
Speaker B:That's what I like to remind people.
Speaker B:It's very easy to take things away and out of the body.
Speaker B:We can do it, like I said, mechanically, okay?
Speaker B:We can do it physiologically, we can do it mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually, all of it.
Speaker B:But where Ayurveda excels and where it benefits the majority of people is not only are we able to eliminate the negatives, but we're able to nourish the body.
Speaker B:We're able to give back healthy things.
Speaker B:We give people a better outlook on life, right?
Speaker B:We give them hope, we give them joy, bliss, satisfaction, contentment, things that they're not used to feeling on a regular basis.
Speaker B:I always say my job is very easy because I just help people to feel A different type of way.
Speaker B:Whether or not they want to take the time, energy, and effort to feel that way all the time is up to them.
Speaker B:How do you feel after a yoga class or after meditation?
Speaker B:Or how do you feel when you nourish your body with good food?
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:You don't feel sleepy, dull, heavy, like you need to take a nap and you're in a food coma, but you feel light, bright, energetic.
Speaker B:And so if you feel that way and still choose some of these negative patterns, that's up to you.
Speaker A:Okay, so when we do detox diet, how do we know that detox is really happening?
Speaker A:Is that through sweat or excretion through urine?
Speaker A:How do we know that it's really working inside our body?
Speaker B:Well, that's a.
Speaker B:That's a great point is, number one, making sure that all of the eliminated pathways are functioning properly.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I often ask people, do you pee every day?
Speaker B:They say, yes.
Speaker B:Do you poop every day?
Speaker B:The majority of patients say, yes.
Speaker B:And then I ask, do you sweat every day?
Speaker B:They go, no, that's gross.
Speaker B:For a lot of people, it takes them a long time to sweat, right?
Speaker B:They have to exercise or they have to sit in a sauna for a long time before they can actually perspire.
Speaker B:And so this is how we know that there's sluggishness, there's some clogged eliminate of pathways.
Speaker B:And so making sure that all three of those things are happening every day is the first step.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Number two is the easiest thing that anybody can do.
Speaker B:As soon as you wake up in the morning, you stick out your tongue and look at your tongue in the mirror.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And what do you see?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Oftentimes you'll see this thin white film or coating on the tongue.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:This is a sign of ama, or toxicity within the gut, within the digestive system.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And for those of you who scrape your tongue, you'll notice that it comes right off.
Speaker B:And after you scrape, you're left with a nice, clean, clear, pink tongue.
Speaker B:Some of you will notice that that white coloring coating does not come off.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:That's how you know that the ama, the toxins are more deep seated, deep rooted, and you need more stringent classical detoxification treatments in order to eliminate some of those toxins.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:I didn't know that.
Speaker A:This is a new information.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So can you explain the mind and gut connection in a simple way?
Speaker A:Maybe with an example of how or what we eat can actually affect our emotions or anxiety levels?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Again, all of the modern medical research is now just Catching up to Ayurveda in terms of the enteric nervous system and the brain and gut connection.
Speaker B:But Ayurveda has known.
Speaker B:We talk about kitchen pharmacy, spelled with a far M a C y, okay?
Speaker B:As in farm to table.
Speaker B:But the food that you eat has more of a direct impact on your mood than any environment around you.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So there was a fun study that was done with rabbits, and two groups of rabbits were being fed high cholesterol, fatty diets.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:But what was interesting is one group of rabbits, they did not gain weight, and the researchers couldn't figure out why.
Speaker B:And there was a weird outlying marker why these rabbits were not gaining weight.
Speaker B:And they looked at all of their blood work reports, exercise levels, all of it, and there was no consistencies.
Speaker B:What they later found was that the person that was feeding them, this one group, right, loved rabbits.
Speaker B:And he would stroke them and play with them and feed them, you know, hand feed them.
Speaker B:And they were loved while they were eating.
Speaker B:And their body actually changed this high, fatty, high cholesterol diet into nourishing food.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And they did not gain weight.
Speaker B:And so not only is it the food that you eat, but the quality of the environment within your mind while you're eating.
Speaker B:Ayurveda talks about things like making sure you're not eating in front of the TV or in front of your computer.
Speaker B:You're not eating.
Speaker B:When you're upset or mad or sad or, you know, angry, your body is not able to digest that food.
Speaker B:And based on the foods that you eat, it creates another feedback loop.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:There's two hormones that control hunger and appetite and satiation.
Speaker B:And these hormones are responsible for telling your brain how it is doing.
Speaker B:If you eat good food, food that you enjoy, Right.
Speaker B:You will feel better.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And this was something that, you know, by my mother, whenever we would.
Speaker B:We were young, we would go out to eat, and it was always for foods that she never made at home.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And so whenever we would go out to eat, she would ask me, whenever, whatever I ordered, she would ask me.
Speaker B:She's like, do you think that is the chef's favorite dish to make?
Speaker B:Do you think that's his specialty?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Do you think he loves his job?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Do you think he knows who he's making this meal for?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And the amount of love, care, affection, attention that goes into the meal where somebody who loves you is preparing, or if you're preparing your food yourself as opposed to eating out, is completely different.
Speaker B:Even if, macros speaking, it's the exact same meal True.
Speaker B:That's why they say mom's cooking is always the best.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:It's nicely put together.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker A:So where does meditation fit into Ayurveda?
Speaker B:Here, meditation, yoga, Ayurveda, all go hand in hand because they're all avenues, they're all modalities, tools that people use to learn about themselves.
Speaker B:Svastavritti means established in self.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:If you know who you are, it's much more difficult for the external world around you to bother you.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:People always think that ego, ahanka, is a bad thing.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Ego always gets a negative connotation, but ego is what protects you from the outside world.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And so the more you practice yoga, the more you practice Ayurveda, the more you practice meditation, the more resilient you become to allowing other things to break your barrier, break your shell.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker B:And there's a study that was done as to cortisol spikes and how often Americans have a cortisol spike.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Can you guess how long Americans go on average, right, without having a stress trigger in their life?
Speaker A:Maybe like 20, 30 minutes.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:42 minutes.
Speaker B:42 minutes.
Speaker A:So they get into stress every 42 minutes?
Speaker B:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker B:Now, do you know the number?
Speaker B:How long does it take for the stress hormones, right, Cortisol, adrenaline, epinephrine, norepinephrine to leave the bloodstream, to dissipate out of the bloodstream?
Speaker A:Maybe, maybe like one hour.
Speaker A:More than eight hours for one stress.
Speaker B:To go down, for one stress response.
Speaker B:Once these hormones flood the bloodstream, it takes eight hours for them to leave, to be metabolized and eliminated.
Speaker B:So that means you have to go eight hours without having a stress response just to get back down to baseline.
Speaker B:And the average American goes 42 minutes.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:So that should tell you how jacked up we are on these stress hormones all the time.
Speaker B:And meditation is a way.
Speaker B:You know, the example that I give is you brush your teeth.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:You brush your teeth every day?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Now let me ask you.
Speaker B:If you didn't eat, right, if there was nothing bad that you were putting in your mouth, would you still brush your teeth every day?
Speaker A:Of course.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:There's nothing bad that you're putting in.
Speaker A:It's a.
Speaker A:It's a part of cleanliness.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:So we have to keep ourselves.
Speaker B:Well.
Speaker B:There's two different types of toxins, right?
Speaker B:One is external and the other is internal.
Speaker B:Endogenous and exogenous toxins created by the body.
Speaker B:And so your body is continuously eliminating waste.
Speaker B:And the same way in your brain, when you Go to sleep at night.
Speaker B:Your body is going, hey, this is what Dr. Mana said.
Speaker B:That made a little bit of sense.
Speaker B:Let me hold on to that.
Speaker B:I might need that.
Speaker B:This is what he said.
Speaker B:That didn't really make any sense.
Speaker B:I can forget about that.
Speaker B:And so this happens every night when you're asleep.
Speaker B:Your body is, your brain is clearing out these neural synapses.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And meditation is a way to control what you remember and what you forget.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And that's part of the reason it's so beneficial for somebody like PTSD patients.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:War veterans.
Speaker B:You can literally rewire the brain to say a loud sound is not a bomb or mortar going off, but rather a balloon popping or a car backfiring.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And it sounds like a superpower, but that's the power of meditation.
Speaker A:Wonderful.
Speaker A:So meditation does help Ayurveda to work efficiently.
Speaker A:Can we put like that?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:I would say Ayurveda is a part of meditation.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:There's, there's different kinds of meditation.
Speaker B:There's two types, passive and active.
Speaker B:Active meditation is anything where the, the mind is active.
Speaker B:You're focusing on, you know, an app or you're listening to a guided meditation.
Speaker B:You're focusing on your heartbeat, you're focusing on your breath rate, Anything like that.
Speaker B:Where the mind is still active.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Passive meditation is where you're trying to silence the mind.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Try to create as much of a gap in between two thoughts as possible.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And so something like Vipassana, transcendental meditation, primordial sound, These are all passive forms of meditation.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And Ayurveda is, talks about passive meditation in order to create silence and stillness to pacify the vata dosha specifically.
Speaker A:Wonderful.
Speaker A:So Pranayama does help with passive meditation, right?
Speaker B:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker B:It helps to quiet the mind.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Wonderful.
Speaker A:So Ayurveda also treats the mind as part of health.
Speaker A:How do we scientifically study the mind or consciousness when they can't be measured like BPR sugar.
Speaker A:How do we know that it's.
Speaker B:Great question.
Speaker B:Can you go ahead and point to your nose?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Point your left eye, Point your brain, Point to your heart.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And point to your mind.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So some people put their finger back up to their temple.
Speaker B:Some people leave their finger here on the heart.
Speaker B:Some people do one of these.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:For all over.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:The mind is an non local consciousness based approach.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And we have to keep that in mind every time we study the physiology because the mind, the memories that you store are not localized in the brain.
Speaker B:So where are they stored?
Speaker A:Maybe in Our emotions, if it is not in our brain, maybe in our physical body.
Speaker B:Let me put it another way, okay?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Shobna, I don't need you to tell me how old you are.
Speaker B:But do you remember the color of your childhood bedroom when you were 10 years old?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Because did you think you were going to be quizzed on it at some point in your life?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:Do you remember what you had for breakfast?
Speaker B: ,: Speaker A:No idea.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:Yet you remember something from 10, 15, 20 years ago?
Speaker A:Because we are doing the same thing again and again.
Speaker A:We live through the bedroom every single day.
Speaker A:But you don't remember the dates and food.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:It changes every single day.
Speaker B:So now if I was to take the best surgeon in the world, okay.
Speaker B:And I told them that I want you to cut open Shobna and I want you to pick out with your forceps, okay?
Speaker B:The memory that she holds of her childhood bedroom.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:There is not a single neurosynapse, not a heartstring, not a muscle fiber, not a tissue that they can pick and say this is the memory that she's holding on to.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:So then where is it stored?
Speaker B:There is not a single cell in your body that is the same as it was when you were 10 years old.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I have hear that it changes every seven years or so.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:Every seven years.
Speaker B:Brand new body.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So where is this memory stored?
Speaker B:There's actually a list of top 10 universal questions.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And every year, you know, people who win the Nobel Peace Prize are trying to answer these questions.
Speaker B:And that's one of the top 10 unanswered questions is where is the seat of consciousness?
Speaker B:And so if you answer that, you will win a Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker A:Can you answer that?
Speaker B:I cannot.
Speaker B:I cannot.
Speaker B:Chalk it up.
Speaker B:That's why people are so afraid of this word consciousness.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:People think it's.
Speaker B:It's unattainable.
Speaker B:Or we talk about higher states of consciousness and you have to be a saint and go meditate in a cave in the Himalayas somewhere.
Speaker B:That's not at all the case.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:All it means is a higher level of awareness.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So let me ask you, do you know what this is?
Speaker A:What is that?
Speaker A:Is it car key or something?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Why do you know that?
Speaker A:We are seeing it every single day.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You probably have one similar.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Do you know to which car?
Speaker A:Nissan.
Speaker B:No Volvo.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And so unless you know the logo or you know, the car, you probably wouldn't know or recognize the key.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Now my dog thinks that's a very expensive chew toy, okay?
Speaker B:Because he does not have the level of awareness, level of consciousness that is required to understand what that means.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker B:And so when we talk about consciousness, all it means is knowing parts of yourself that are unexplored, right?
Speaker B:And when we meditate, we tap into what's called a field of all possibilities, okay?
Speaker B:Pure potentiality.
Speaker B:And we allow the mind to come up with these revelations, right?
Speaker B:Brand new pieces of information that have been so stored away that all of our distractions that we have every day keep us from accessing those parts of our body.
Speaker B:And that's all that consciousness is, okay?
Speaker B:It's a level of awareness that is much greater the more you practice the digger, you.
Speaker A:Excuse me?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The deeper you dig, the more aware you become and the higher states of consciousness you attain.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Sometimes emotional pain shows up as body pain like tension in the shoulders or heaviness in the chest can.
Speaker A:Body based therapies like massages in Ayurveda can, can help release those emotions even without.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:About them.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:We call them the issues in your tissues.
Speaker B:You know, I say, I say it jokingly in my book, but that's all it is.
Speaker B:Your, your thoughts, feelings, moods, emotions are all held in physical.
Speaker B:There's physical correlates in your body.
Speaker B:And every time we do physical manipulation, whether it's a treatment, whether it's steam, whether it's scrub, whether it's oil massage, we are physically unlocking some of these stored emotions, right?
Speaker B:We have a Panchakarma center here in Santa Cruz.
Speaker B:And when people receive the treatments, we have a whole range of emotions.
Speaker B:Some people get angry, right?
Speaker B:Some people start burst out in tears, right?
Speaker B:Some people fall asleep, they're so content and happy, right?
Speaker B:And so there's certain areas and aspects that hold on to these emotions.
Speaker B:And every thought, every emotion that you have has a physiological correlate in the body.
Speaker B:And so depending on the tendencies that you have, for example, if a person is very angry all the time, okay, it will manifest as high pitt though or high heat and inflammation.
Speaker B:They will suffer from things like ibs, Crohn's, gerd, hyperacidity, skin conditions flare ups, rashes, right?
Speaker B:All of the, the so, so quote unquote inflammatory conditions in the body.
Speaker B:If a person is depressed all the time, right, they will physically feel heavy, dull, lazy, lethargic.
Speaker B:Their body will start to hold on to a lot of water weight.
Speaker B:They will have poor elimination, they will have oily skin.
Speaker B:And so those same eliminated pathways are not functioning properly.
Speaker B:And so they will be very kapha aggravated.
Speaker B:And so all of these thoughts and emotions have direct correlates to the body.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:Some people, you know, they, they, they'll be shy or scared to express their emotions, right?
Speaker A:Maybe like crying or talking about their opinions.
Speaker A:So most of the time, due to the society, they have to control their emotions.
Speaker A:So that does reflect on their body, right?
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Okay, so what is panchakarma actually means?
Speaker A:Is that a massage or is that a meditation?
Speaker A:Or combined together, what is exactly that?
Speaker A:Punch, punch.
Speaker A:Karma.
Speaker B:Panchakarma has a few different aspects to it.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:But the Panchakarma is literally the art and science of detoxification, purification and rejuvenation.
Speaker B:So it's a systematic breakdown of your body and a systematic buildup of the body.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And so the example that I give is instead of going in for an oil change for your car, we take the whole car apart and we put it back together after cleaning everything out.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:We're not just draining one little oil pan and refilling it with oil.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And so there's three stages of PK Urvakarma, which is even before you come in for the physical treatments.
Speaker B:It's like a prep for your body.
Speaker B:You eat a lighter diet, more restrictive diet, you are eating healthy fats in order to create lubrication in the body.
Speaker B:And you're moving your body a little bit more to make sure that those eliminated pathways still remember how to function.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Number number two is called pradhan Karma, which is the actual treatments themselves.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And this, like I said, could be everything from abhyanga, shirodhara, udvartana, udgarshana, busties, enemas, scrubs, full body exfoliations, oil massage, steam treatments, facials, all of it.
Speaker B:And each one is tailor made, custom made plan based on what that patient's needs are.
Speaker B:And that's exactly what we do here at the clinic.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:They come in for these treatments.
Speaker B:We have therapists who work on them.
Speaker B:Every day they're receiving three, four different treatments.
Speaker B:And your body is being detoxified in ways that you've never experienced.
Speaker B:Okay, yeah, but like I said, you can't always take, take, take from the body.
Speaker B:You have to give something beneficial back.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And so not only are we removing the toxins from your body, but we're also nourishing it with healthy food, healthy, healthy oils, you know, good forms of meditation, music, things that will.
Speaker B:That your senses will enjoy.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:You have to keep in mind that aha.
Speaker B:Diet In Ayurveda is defined as ahad.
Speaker B:Not just the food that you eat, but everything you take in through your senses.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:The movies that you watch, the music that you listen to, God forbid.
Speaker B:The news that you see on tv, the relationships that you hold, what someone says to you, all of this is food.
Speaker B:And your body has to digest, assimilate, and eliminate the same way that we do our food.
Speaker B:So the third stage of panchakarma is paschat karma is after the actual treatments, we send you home.
Speaker B:And this is your take home protocol.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And this is to elongate the benefits of the treatments that we just performed.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:So it's not a celebration to where you get to go home and eat a nice big juicy steak and have a glass of champagne.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker B:But you continue that same light diet, you continue that same PK diet for the next seven days.
Speaker B:You slowly reintegrate yourself back into society.
Speaker B:You don't jump back into work, you don't jump on an airplane and go travel.
Speaker B:You.
Speaker B:You know, the longer you can prolong the benefits of, of these treatments, you know, the more successful and happy the body will be.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker B:And as far as the.
Speaker B:The five sense therapy goes, that is to nourish all of the senses of during pk.
Speaker B:And so each day there'll be, you know, nose drops, ear drops.
Speaker B:Sorry.
Speaker B:Ear drops, eye drops.
Speaker B:There'll be different foods with all six tastes.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Sweet, sour, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, astringent.
Speaker B:And so you will receive all six tastes every day at every meal.
Speaker B:And so these are the ways that we use to nourish those senses during panchakarma.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So that means we have to also change the lifestyle when you do panchakarma.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:Because you said you cannot go and have a champagne or go and do anything active sports or something.
Speaker A:So that means we have to modify our lifestyle also while doing the Panchakarma massage, Is that right?
Speaker B:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker B:And that's why, you know, having an in residence center like this is so important, is because people can come, they stay here.
Speaker B:You know, we don't have any TVs in the room.
Speaker B:We don't have any radios.
Speaker B:We don't have music playing.
Speaker B:It's very quiet, serene atmosphere where people are focused only on health and healing.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:You go and get a massage and then you come out and there's a bustling Palladio and there's people and Starbucks next door, cars and traffic.
Speaker B:And you are automatically transported back into this sort of hustle, bustle, busy Mentality.
Speaker A:True, true.
Speaker A:So what is your thought on this?
Speaker A:Can Ayurveda and modern medicine work together?
Speaker B:They do and they have been some of our biggest jobs responsibilities are teaching doctors, nurses, PAs, nurse practitioners, all of the concepts of Ayurveda because these are the people who get to spend the most time with the patients.
Speaker B:And so we teach them how to integrate.
Speaker B:You know, the diagnostic tools that allopathic medicine has is unparalleled.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And we're seeing it in many different forms.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Both good and bad.
Speaker B:I always tell patients, if you break an ankle, break a bone, don't come and see me.
Speaker B:Go to the hospital, go to the er.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But with the advent of these diagnostic tools, what we're seeing is a shift in the culture.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:So let me give you an example.
Speaker B:We're seeing kids as young as 3, 4 and 5 years old being diagnosed with ADD and ADHD.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:That's all thanks to technology, lack of focus, concentration.
Speaker B:We're seeing girls start their periods at ages 7, 8, 9 and 10, much younger than ever before.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:We're starting to see women start perimenopause as early as their late 30s.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Early 40s.
Speaker B:We're seeing men have a decline in testosterone and go through andropause.
Speaker B:All of the things erectile dysfunction, hair loss.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:The hormonal changes that used to happen in your 50s and 60s are now happening in your 30s and 40s.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And so part of this has to do with the diagnostic tools and mechanics that we have in order to diagnose these things.
Speaker B:But the other part, the recommendations and tools that Ayurveda provides is a better template than some of the medications that are being offered.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Instead of starting a 3, 4 year old on Aderall or something to help them focus, you give them a massage Abyanga every single day and you will notice how much more grounded and centered they are.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:You make sure that a woman is avoiding things like a lot of alcohol and high stress environments and making sure that her hormone, her cycle is regular and she will stave off menopause into her 50s.
Speaker B:And these are all things that Ayurveda provides.
Speaker B:We call them low tech tools for high tech solutions.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Because every recommendation from an Ayurvedic standpoint doesn't have a side effect, but it has a side benefit.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So that once, that same recommendation will give you multimodality approach to health.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So one of my friends, she had this hip bone pain.
Speaker A:I think there is connective tissue problem in her hip bone.
Speaker A:And doctors here told that she had to go to surgery.
Speaker A:But when she go to, when she went to Kerala, they said surgery is not needed, just with pure massages and retreat, she is completely cured.
Speaker A:And past month, my mom went to a massage retreat for like 25 days.
Speaker A:And even before the treatment starts, they told her that we are not going to treat your knee problem, but this retreat is going to help alleviate your pain, but not for curing that.
Speaker A:So my question is I'd rather really treat the disease or does it help to just alleviate the pain?
Speaker A:Because in that case it's, it completely eradicated the surgery.
Speaker A:And in another case, even before the start of the therapy, they said it's going to, we are going to help with your pain, but it's not going to eradicate completely.
Speaker A:Completely.
Speaker B:So, and so when you started off telling both of those stories, Right.
Speaker B:You gave me a specific location for the symptom.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:When you go to the doctor and you tell them you have pain, what is the first question they ask?
Speaker A:Where do you have the pain?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And unless you can point and say it hurts here, they can't do anything for it.
Speaker B:Imagine if you told your doctor, well, one day it hurts here, another day it hurts here, sometimes it hurts here.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:They'll look at you like you're crazy.
Speaker B:And there's six stages of disease.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:According to Ayurveda, and stage four is called localization, once it is localized, there is symptomology.
Speaker B:That means you can point and say, this is where I notice pain or rash inconsistencies, whatever it is, at that point there have, there has been enough change, enough imbalance in the body.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:For three stages of disease to occur.
Speaker B:And now you are finally paying attention to it.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:If you have a sour burp.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Once a week, you probably wouldn't think anything of it.
Speaker B:Yeah, once a day, maybe.
Speaker A:Maybe.
Speaker B:Yeah, once an hour.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oftentimes, especially in today's world, we ignore these symptoms until they are unignorable, until they get to the point where now you need surgical intervention or you need some sort of physical treatment.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Or you need pain medication.
Speaker B:And so like I said, Ayurveda has three stages of disease prior to that.
Speaker B:And according to that, Shat Krita, the six stages, you have to reverse each disease progress by those stages.
Speaker B:So you can't go from stage four to stage one.
Speaker B:It has to go from stage four to stage three to two.
Speaker B:And that's why Ayurveda is so beneficial Is because if you can find the root cause and eliminate the root cause, you will not only cure the disease itself, but create a much healthier overall physiology.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And so I'll give you an example.
Speaker B:This is a very sort of drastic, dramatic example, but it tells you the story.
Speaker B:We had a patient come in with plaque psoriasis.
Speaker B:Do you know what that is?
Speaker A:Skin disease?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But his skin would peel and flake, and he would.
Speaker B:He would come in with compression gear so he wouldn't flake and leave his skin all over the.
Speaker B:The clinic.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And we came in, he had his consultation, we talked about everything.
Speaker B:He had a very unique job.
Speaker B:He worked here in the Bay Area, and he only worked five days out of the month, and he got paid almost a quarter of a million dollars a year.
Speaker A:What is the job?
Speaker B:His only job was to fly from San Francisco to Japan.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:To do a training for all of the new hires.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And fly home.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Every time he would return from a trip, he would flare up.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And so we told him.
Speaker B:I told him, I was like, you need to quit your job.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:I know exactly what's causing your problem.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:It's the stress, it's the travel, it's the food, and you have to quit your job.
Speaker B:He's like, that's silly.
Speaker B:I can't do that.
Speaker B:I work five days a month.
Speaker B:There's no way that I'm gonna let this go.
Speaker B:And so we gave him some topical oils and creams and internal supplements to take.
Speaker B:Cleaned up his diet a little bit.
Speaker B:Didn't hear from him for probably about six to eight months.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:We wanted him to come in for a follow up.
Speaker B:Never came in.
Speaker B:And then the pandemic hits and all travel shuts down.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so his company got him this great big globe camera that he mounted in his living room.
Speaker B:And so he could see everybody.
Speaker B:Everybody could see him.
Speaker B:And they started doing things virtually.
Speaker B:And literally within three months, his skin cleared up and he came.
Speaker B:Next time he came back into the clinic, he came back wearing shorts and a T shirt, and he says, Dr. Manas, I'm gonna quit my job and start my own consulting business.
Speaker B:And that's what he did.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:But like I saying, if you can figure out what the root cause is, the biggest factor that is impeding your health and eliminate it, every aspect of your life will get better.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Oftentimes people don't have that ability.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:If it's stress, if they're worried about work or their health or their kids or you Know, whatever their stressors are, those continue to be there.
Speaker B:They will always be there.
Speaker B:And so you have to figure out things that you can do to allow your body to become more resilient to that stress.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker B:And then obviously, if somebody has vices, I'll give you another, another example.
Speaker B:I had a young lady, not young, but she was maybe 45, 50 years old, and she was having terrible hot flashes, night sweats, hot flashes all day long.
Speaker B:And so we went through everything and I told her, I was like, look, you have to stop having a glass of wine every night.
Speaker B:She was like, impossible.
Speaker B:I can't do it.
Speaker B:I was like, why?
Speaker B:And she said, well, my husband owns a vineyard, okay?
Speaker B:He owns a wine company.
Speaker B:And so we have a glass of wine every day.
Speaker B:I said, all right, you know, again, I gave her some supplements, recommendations, changed her diet, gave her pranayam.
Speaker B:She pranayam to do things like that.
Speaker B:She comes back for her follow up and she says, Dr. Manis, I hate you.
Speaker B:What happened?
Speaker B:What's going on?
Speaker B:She's like, well, me and my husband fight all the time now because I've lost the taste for wine.
Speaker B:I stopped drinking and all of my symptoms went away.
Speaker B:And so I stopped drinking wine.
Speaker B:He opened, our son graduated and he opened up my favorite bottle reserve and I spit it out.
Speaker B:I thought the wine had gone bad.
Speaker B:My body no longer had the taste for wine.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And so again, when you're able to address the root cause of an issue, you will be able to successfully treat almost any disease and disorder that the body can take a hold of.
Speaker A:So Ayurveda talks about three things, Vada, kapha and pitta.
Speaker A:So can people understand their body type by their own?
Speaker A:Is there any possibility or do they have to come to a clinic to find what is their body type?
Speaker B:A pulse diagnosis is the most accurate way to figure out what your dosha prakriti is.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:You know, my, my.
Speaker B:My teacher always said patients can sometimes lie to you, but the pulse will never lie.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker B:They have these dosha quizzes that you can take online that will give you your dosha type.
Speaker B:But my recommendation for that is to have somebody, a loved one, take it on your behalf.
Speaker B:So have a partner do it, or your kids or a parent or your best friend, somebody who knows you as well as you know yourself because they will have a more objective view.
Speaker B:You know, some of these questions there on the quizzes, they ask, well, what is your skin type?
Speaker B:Well, I have perfect skin.
Speaker B:I have, you know, gorgeous skin.
Speaker B:Sometimes people are a Little bit too nice, too kind to this, to themselves or if you ask about their mental states.
Speaker B:Well, yeah, I'm always focused.
Speaker B:I'm always, you know, sharp.
Speaker B:And my mind is very accurate here where, you know, your parent might think, oh no, you.
Speaker B:You forget quite a few things, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so when you take it yourself, it's not quite as accurate as if you have somebody else take it for you.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:But the best way is to go see a vaidya and do a pulse tongue diagnosis.
Speaker B:And they will give you two things, right?
Speaker B:They'll give you your prakriti, which is your innate body constitution.
Speaker B:That's something that never changes.
Speaker B:It's your parents fault.
Speaker B:You're born with it, you're stuck with it.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And they will tell you what your vikriti is.
Speaker B:Your vikriti is your current imbalance.
Speaker B:It's what's happening in the body at any given moment.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So for someone who is watching from home without fancy spa treatment, what's an easy and safe way to do a simple detoxifying massage or a steam bath at home like they can do every single week?
Speaker B:Yeah, very easy.
Speaker B:Number one is eat light the day before.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Or skip dinner altogether.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:The next morning you wake up and you do a full body oil massage.
Speaker B:You can use coconut oil, sesame oil, almond oil, whatever you want.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And you do it yourself.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Oil on every inch of your body.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:If you want to take it a step further, you want to make sure that all of the strokes go towards the heart.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And this creates lymphatic drainage and lymphatic circulation.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And then you follow that oil massage with a nice hot bath or shower.
Speaker B:Something that will create and induce sweat.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And that's one of the easiest ways to reset the body immediately.
Speaker A:Wonderful.
Speaker A:So it's every week, we can do that.
Speaker B:You can do that every day.
Speaker B:Abhyanga self.
Speaker B:Well, massage is indicated for almost everybody every single day, as often as you take a shower.
Speaker A:Wow, wonderful.
Speaker A:So your final words about Ayurveda for our viewers.
Speaker B:Ayurveda, like you said, Shobna, is more than just herbs and treatments.
Speaker B:It's a.
Speaker B:It's a way of life.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:It's learning about yourself.
Speaker B:It's cutting out things in your life that are not good for you.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Whether that's a specific food, whether it's a specific person, whether it's a job, whether it's a stress.
Speaker B:You know, all of these things.
Speaker B:We've told people that they need to sell their house and move.
Speaker B:We've told people to quit their jobs.
Speaker B:We've told people to get a divorce or leave their relationship.
Speaker B:Because if that is the biggest factor that is causing you worry and stress and impacting your health, you have to eliminate it.
Speaker B:And it doesn't have to be something so dramatic.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It can be something as simple as coming home after work and instead of grabbing a beer from the fridge, you go for a walk first thing when you wake up in the morning.
Speaker B:Drinking hot water before drinking coffee.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:These small changes are what will help you feel better.
Speaker B:And once you feel better, your body will naturally get into a rhythm.
Speaker B:When I travel, okay, and I don't have control over the food that I eat, right.
Speaker B:I automatically miss leafy greens.
Speaker B:I will go out and search for a kale salad or sog, or, you know, cooked steamed veggies, something like that, just to make sure that my body feels grounded.
Speaker B:And so you, you will naturally make these changes when you feel better.
Speaker B:And that's all Ayurveda is, is learning more and more about yourself and how to adopt these changes and live mindfully on a daily basis.
Speaker A:Wonderful.
Speaker A:Beautifully said.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:Thank you so much, Dr. Manas, for sharing your knowledge and wisdom with us today.
Speaker A:I really loved how you connected ancient Ayurvedic concepts with practical, modern science.
Speaker A:It's such a refreshing perspective.
Speaker A:And viewers, I hope you found this.
Speaker A:And viewers, I hope you found this conversation really helpful.
Speaker A:And if you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe.
Speaker A:This is Shobna and you have been listening to Busy Free Mind.
Speaker A:Until next time, Stay calm, stay happy.
Speaker B:Yeah, take care.
