Episode 208 - The Transformative Power of Ayurvedic Medicine with Dr. Nick Bitz of Neurohacker

Dr. Nick Bitz is a Naturopathic Physician who specializes in Ayurvedic medicine. He is an expert in the natural products industry and is the Senior VP of Product Development at Neurohacker Collective. His expertise includes nootropics, anti-aging medicine, biohacking, herbology, nutrition and dietary supplements.

In our latest dialogue, we delve into the ancient art of Ayurvedic medicine. Imagine a life where your unique body type is the compass that guides every health and wellness decision you make. Through our in-depth discussion, you'll discover the foundations of Ayurveda and how tapping into the Kapha, Pitta, and Vata doshas can be the key to unlocking a vibrant, balanced lifestyle. Dr. Nick reveals how you can weave these time-tested principles into your modern life.

Dive into the heart of Ayurveda with us and grasp how the language of Sanskrit connects us to the universe, how Ayurvedic philosophy transcends diet to touch every aspect of our lives, and how understanding your dosha can shape your path to well-being. I illuminate the importance of aligning lifestyle choices with your body's needs with personal anecdotes and practical advice. We touch on the synergy of Ayurveda and yoga, the therapeutic cadence of "ohm," and how practices like pulse diagnosis can offer insights into your health that transcend what any online questionnaire can provide.

To try Neurohacker's highly advanced and researched products, go to https://neurohacker.com and use my code SANDYK for a discount.

Past Episodes with Dr. Nick and Neurohacker:
Episode 162 on Senolytics & Aging:  https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sandy-k-nutrition-health-lifestyle-queen/id1496677282?i=1000612129322
Episode 203 on Gut Health:  https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sandy-k-nutrition-health-lifestyle-queen/id1496677282?i=1000643338637

This podcast episode is sponsored by Sigrid Glucose Stabiliser.  Sigrid Blood Glucose Stabiliser:  Go to https://sigridstabiliser.com/  and use code SandyK15 for a discount.

My Essential Thyroid Guide is now available on all Amazon stores!
US:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CW4X3WJD
Canada:  https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CW4X3WJD

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hi everyone. It's me, sandy Cruz of Sanique, nutrition, health and Lifestyle Queen. For years now, I've been bringing to you conversations about wellness from experts from all over the world. Whether it be suggestions in how you can age better, biohacking, alternative wellness, these are conversations to help you live your best life. I want to live a long, healthy and vibrant life, never mind all those stigmas that, as we reach midlife and beyond, we're just going to shrivel up and die with some horrible disease. Always remember balanced living works. I really look forward to this season. Hi everyone, welcome to Sandy Cane, nutrition, health and Lifestyle Queen.

Speaker 1: 1:04

Today with me for a third time, dr Nick Bitts of Neurohacker and I are going to be talking all about Ayurvedic medicine. I'm sure most of you have heard of this. You know, like body types, whether you're a kafa or a pitta I'm sure most of you have heard of this but Dr Nick goes into such amazing detail to show us how we can really just add in Ayurvedic practices and Ayurvedic medicine into our holistic, whole approach to wellness. Neurohacker is the maker of very high quality products to optimize your wellness, and everything they make has high quality ingredients with scientific studies to back everything up. Use my code, sandyk for a discount. Neurohackercom.

Speaker 1: 2:07

I have a huge announcement, you guys my essential thyroid guide is out now. Anywhere that you buy, whichever Amazon store you buy from, it's worldwide and it is in English. Sorry, it's not translated if you're looking for another language, but it is on Amazon stores worldwide. I am so proud of this, you guys, because I have not seen anything like this out. I've seen clinical books, I've seen very light guides that just give you the coals notes Well, mine kind of is the coals notes, I guess but I really provide you with important information to optimize your thyroid health from a body, mind, spirit and soul perspective, which I haven't seen anywhere else. All you got to do is search for essential thyroid guide on Amazon and you should find it easily. I'm also going to ask you if you do buy it, please review it. It just helps it to be found in this giant pile of thyroid books that are out Now.

Speaker 1: 3:28

One of the things I do mention in my thyroid guide is I talk about how the thyroid can be linked to insulin resistance. Most of you know insulin resistance can cause weight gain, and then add in the fact that if you're a menopausal woman, well, I think you've got a perfect storm here. So I do mention a glucose stabilizer using a glucose stabilizer, and just so happens that one of my amazing podcast sponsors is Sigrid Stabilizer. They are going to be linked in the description. I do have a discount code I believe it's Sandy K 15, but check my, check my description to be sure. This is one of very few scientifically proven glucose stabilizers. I see a lot of stuff out there, you guys especially because I am a holistic nutritionist and I'm also a certified metabolic balance coach and I'm going to tell you that a lot of this stuff doesn't work. So I want you to check out Sigrid Stabilizercom and use my code and give it a try and see if it helps you, and I also want you to check out their white paper and check out the research that they have done behind their product.

Speaker 1: 5:09

Now two last things I'm going to ask of you. Please go and rate and review and subscribe wherever you listen to my podcast. This ensures that you get each and every week delivered straight to you, whichever means you listen to, whether it's Amazon or Spotify or Apple, and when you review it, it just helps me to be found, just like my book. That's going to be very helpful to get reviews. Also, go and follow me on all of my social media accounts.

Speaker 1: 5:43

This entire interview will be posted on rumble. I am growing very tired of censorship on YouTube, as are many other creators, and very, very large creators are going to rumble. So follow me on rumble. Just look for Sandy Cane Nutrition. All of my interviews will be posted there. I will still have to post on YouTube, but please kind of try and shift your activity to rumble, because we all want to encourage information that is useful and free and just information that's there If you want to use it. Nobody's forcing anything down your throat, but it's important that we allow for this information to come to us so that, should we choose to use it, it's there to educate us, to optimize our wellness and help us to age better.

Speaker 1: 6:45

And now let's cut on through to this amazing interview with Dr Nick Bitz of Neurohacker. Hi everyone, welcome to Sandy K Nutrition, health and Lifestyle Queen. Today with me, I have a special guest. Well, he's not that special anymore. I'm sorry, nick, you've been on my show three times. This is the third time. I love our conversations and Dr Nick Bitz. He is a naturopathic physician and his specialization is in Ayurvedic medicine. He is a leading voice in the natural products industry and currently serves as Senior Vice President of Product Development at Neurohacker Collective. His areas of expertise include Nutropics, anti-aging Medicine, Biohacking, herbology, nutrition and Dietary Supplements. Our talk today is going to be all about Ayurvedic medicine and how we can maintain wellness according to its principles. Now, dr Nick and I we chatted about this the last time. I'm like you know what I really need to learn a little bit more about Ayurveda and its practices, and who better to talk about it with than Nick. And so here he is, and with that, welcome Nick. Thank you so much for coming back.

Speaker 2: 8:10

Yeah, thanks for having me on again. I really appreciate it. I think this should be really fun. I love talking about.

Speaker 1: 8:16

Ayurveda, yeah, and I don't know how much input I'm going to have, because I don't know enough about Ayurvedic medicine other than you know the body parts. You know like body shapes so, and I think a lot of people are familiar with that. But you have to let us know how you got involved in Ayurvedic medicine.

Speaker 2: 8:37

Yeah, where to even start? You know, I think my journey into natural medicine as a whole began when I was about 12. I fell out of a tree throwing snowballs at cars, like all little boys do, and I landed in a way that really hurt my back.

Speaker 2: 8:58

I was paralyzed for probably five minutes and I surrounded, lying there staring up at the sky and slowly sensation was coming back into my fingertips and my feet and eventually I recovered and I was able to walk that day. But the lingering pain was unbearable. And so I was 12, you know, I was active, I was playing sports, I skied, I played basketball. You know I was on my feet running around constantly, but I was in pain and so I had to go to different physicians trying to get diagnosed, trying to get treated. But but ultimately they did all the imaging, they did all the testing and they were like you're fine, and so I think it was. You know, I really had an inflamed nerve or nerves throughout the body because of that fall, and so I led me into a journey to heal myself. You know there was nothing that traditional allopathic physicians in the US could really do for me, and so I just changed how I was eating. I had to start working with botanicals. You know I ventured into acupuncture. You know I understood my body type. I started really just working with the different tools around me to heal myself, and so that's really what I started doing a deep dive in the natural medicine. You know I started applying these tools to myself and ultimately, you know I think I healed myself. You know I became stronger on the other end and very healthy, without any pain. And so that's that's where it all started.

Speaker 2: 10:34

I think you know it led me into the world of naturopathic medicine. You know I was on, I was, I was moving towards traditional allopathic medical school here in the US. But along the way I had a conversation with Dr Andrew Weil, who's the godfather of natural medicine, at least in the US. You know he was an early mouthpiece, but he he had said to me, he said, yeah, it depends on how you want to practice. If you want to practice medicine in this specific way where you diagnose and treat using pharmaceuticals, yeah, continue along that path. But if you really want to get into botanicals and diet and really begin to understand people and take time to understand people, he's like I would highly recommend going to naturopathic medical school. And so I didn't even know what that was, but I looked into it and this was, you know, sometime during high school. And then I visited Seattle Bastia University up in Seattle.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Is that where you went? That is where I went. Oh, Bastia is known, See, even I know that here in Canada that Bastia is amazing.

Speaker 2: 11:47

Yeah, it's interesting, I mean it, the early 1900s there were 30, 40, 50 different naturopathic medical schools in the US and then in 1911, there was something called the Flexner report that came out, where this group basically had recommended that there's one model of medical school that they wanted to recommend for the US and this was the John Hopkins Okay. And so this became traditional allopathic medical practice in the US, that specific model, and they kind of pushed aside all the naturopathic medical schools. They got defunded and they ultimately disappeared. But in the 70s they had this resurgence of natural medicine and Bastia was established, and then from that there's been a couple other schools in the US. There's a couple other schools, maybe just one up in Canada, so there's still few and far between, but they're very focused and they tend to be kind of the hotbed of integrative medicine. You get some of the best thinkers in terms of the tannical medicine, in terms of higher beta, in terms of nutrition, and they all gravitate towards these little epicenters, and so Bastia is one of them. It really was one of the early mergers of naturopathic medicine in the States and I think in part because it aligned itself with science, and so Bastia is really known for its science, heavy curriculum, but I loved it. That was my intro to higher beta.

Speaker 2: 13:19

I was practicing yoga for many years and didn't really know about higher beta, which is its sister science. But because I had a good understanding of yoga, I had a decent understanding and grasp of Sanskrit and I started learning more and more. And then when I heard about Ayurvedic medicine my first year at the Bastia, I was absolutely enthralled. I had studied with a doctor named Dr Robert Sphoboda. He's one of the first Westerners that had graduated from an Ayurvedic medical school in India, I believe in the 70s. And then he came back and just became this amazing teacher. He's written a lot of books, he's a mentor to many, he teaches everywhere, but he for me just turned on the light switch and I became absolutely enthralled with Ayurveda as a whole and that became my focus. Really when I was at Bastia I was really known as the Ayurvedic student. Overall there weren't a lot of us, but that was my focus and I got into pulse diagnosis, face-tongue diagnosis, I got into the botanical aspect. I moved over to India, studied over there.

Speaker 1: 14:37

You did, yeah, that is so cool, nick.

Speaker 2: 14:41

And the nice thing is Dr Sphoboda had recommended this one school that caters to the Westerners. So a lot of Westerners from Australia, from England, from the US, they come over there because they speak English and they really cater to the Western audience. And so I was one of the early phases into this program and plugged in there, practiced in an Ayurvedic hospital and just put my roots down into the medical system and so I brought that back to Seattle, eventually graduated from Bastia and then just from there everything's kind of moved and it's been amazing.

Speaker 1: 15:28

So what that's so interesting Because I don't know. Correct me if I'm wrong, because, again, I'm truly I don't know much about Ayurvedic medicine. Is this the main medical system practice in India?

Speaker 2: 15:47

Yeah, so great question. So what is Ayurveda? Yeah, what is it Like? Yeah, a lot of people are asking that right now. So, in short, ayurveda is the traditional healing system of India. It's considered the oldest form of medicine in the world, so all medicines came from Ayurvedic medicine. And so it's again. It's more than 5000 years old. It's still alive. It's still flourishing today, especially in India, and now we're starting to see this influx into the US, probably Canada as well. But it is the sister science to yoga. They kind of go hand in hand. Yoga is all about the spirit and.

Speaker 2: 16:28

Ayurveda is all about the body. Ayurveda comes from two Sanskrit words. One is IU, that means life, and then there's Veda, and Veda means science, and so Ayurveda, then, is the science of life. So it's much more than just a medical system about diagnosis and treatment. It's about how we live, how you interact with nature, how you interact with yourself all of that just to live a better life overall. And, of course, inherent in that is the medicine as well. That's inherent to the overall philosophy, but it's a philosophy, it's a worldview about how life created and where we are in the universe and how you can optimize your place in the universe, giving this kind of unique understanding.

Speaker 1: 17:17

It sounds like I don't really see a lot of science in there. Am I wrong? It seems you're talking about kind of how life like your lifestyle like. To me it sounds very holistic.

Speaker 2: 17:33

Yeah, well, and you need to understand how you define science. At least how we probably define science right now is informed by what science is today. It's a very modern thing, you know. It's the scientific process that you either can prove or disprove. Yes, and but 5,000 years ago it was framed very differently. Science was almost something that was experienced and then defined, and so Ayurveda was really kind of delineated by the saints and sages that that meditated, that were in touch with the universe and the universal laws and their body, and they could describe these things and put them into a group of books that are called the Vedas, and so I think they had a very different way to look at science. But for them it's just what is true. And you know, they tested it. They tested it on them self and they discovered what's true. Yeah, and then, through different applications and a lot of people practicing it, they said, okay, this is in fact a universal truth.

Speaker 1: 18:46

Okay.

Speaker 2: 18:46

That became, you know, kind of the core, some of the core principles of Ayurveda.

Speaker 1: 18:50

So N of one matters, part of then the collective. When other people say oh yeah, me too I felt that same way, and then you start to develop the principles Is that, does that make sense?

Speaker 2: 19:03

Absolutely yeah, and I think that that defines Ayurveda. And you know, again, this 5000 year old medical system, or lifestyle system as it is, is now being supported by science, or modern day science, and you're finding that little by little, so it is slowly becoming more modern. But what?

Speaker 2: 19:25

I like about it is that it's still as old and it's different than how we view the world presently. And I think it's needed, because I think the way modern individuals view the world is is skewed in a lot of ways and it's out of touch with with nature. Yes, larger universal principles, and so Ayurveda, for me is just it's a return back to nature, it's a return back to basics and that's the most important thing If I can experience the benefits of that. For me, that's truth.

Speaker 1: 19:59

Oh my gosh, I love what you're saying, just because you know, when some it's just like somebody saying, well, this doesn't count because it's N of one, so you know, and I've heard that before, I'm like, well, it counts for me and and it actually makes me healthier. And you know, I don't know if I have to prove that I'm healthy, but I feel pretty good at you, get what I mean, like it's just so fast. So what are the main principles, then, of Ayurveda? It's estimated that one in three Americans have what's called metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of symptoms that together raise your risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other diseases that we certainly don't want. The good news is, if you pay attention to these symptoms, they do not have to result in these diseases, and you can be preventative and proactive with your health. Some of these symptoms might be high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, high blood triglycerides, a lower HDL and a poor waist to hip ratio.

Speaker 1: 21:31

In October 2022, I actually reached an HBA1C of 6.1. In technical terms, if you look at these ranges, this is a pre-diabatic state. Now, as I'm recording this, in January, the last time I checked, my HBA1C is down to 5.5. I never did get the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Medications are not necessarily needed, and I did not require medications, and here is where Sigrid's Glucose Stabilizer comes into play.

Speaker 1: 22:18

Sigrid's Glucose Stabilizer uses Cypor Technology, a natural silica-based solution that is 100% natural and backed by 10 years of clinical research. This all-natural supplement is specifically designed to help lower blood sugar levels, curb after meal bloating, keep you feeling fuller for longer and, yes, aid in weight loss too. So you might ask how did I go from a 6.1 HBA1C to a 5.5? Well, number one is actually paying attention to what you put in your body, and then, of course, sometimes you need a little bit of help, and this is where Sigrid can come into play. Now I'm personally using Sigrid to just level up even more, and I have my own personal goal that I am going to achieve using Sigrid Glucose Stabilizer. Go to SigridStabilizercom and use my code, sandycruise, for great discount. The link will also be in the show notes.

Speaker 2: 23:37

Yeah, great question. There are several. Let's see how many we can touch.

Speaker 1: 23:41

Okay, okay.

Speaker 2: 23:43

I think the first one is this idea of body types.

Speaker 1: 23:45

Yes.

Speaker 2: 23:47

And I think people have heard this idea, and if they know about Ayurveda, they know that there are body types and you know there's. I think there's a lot of misinformation there, and so it's always hard to talk about it because I don't want to, I don't want to provide more misinformation, but the topic is so deep and so wonderful and amazing, and so if you can get that, then you get the real information, which is fantastic. But so people have probably heard about Vata, pitta and Kafa.

Speaker 1: 24:17

Yes.

Speaker 2: 24:18

And those are Sanskrit words. They're very foreign to the Western mind.

Speaker 1: 24:23

But can you define Sanskrit Like? What does Sanskrit mean?

Speaker 2: 24:28

Yeah, so Sanskrit is just like Latin, just like English, it's, it's a language oh see, I didn't know that, yeah, and so, again, when you get back into it, many consider Sanskrit to be one of the first languages Interesting. You know like, everybody has heard the word ohm, yes, and people chant ohm, and that is a Sanskrit word and it has really profound meaning. But the saints and sages that lived thousands of years ago, they discovered that that is the sound of the universe and so by doing that, you can align yourself with the energy of the universe, and so the word has that, that, that energy and that meaning. And so Sanskrit words are words, but they also have these kind of these vibrational charges that have effects on the body and can ignite the mind in certain ways. And so Sanskrit is yeah, it's the basis of, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the basis of yoga. It's the basis of Ayurveda, and all of the textbooks that are written about yoga and Ayurveda are usually in Sanskrit.

Speaker 1: 25:35

Oh, thank you for clarifying. I had no idea, because I've heard that word, but I didn't really understand the meaning of it. Perfect, okay, so we were talking about the body types.

Speaker 2: 25:47

Yes, so Vata, pitakafa, so. So essentially those are the three main body types, but people can be a mix of those three and so, in essence, there are seven body types. That gets very complicated, but you can be a Vata and a pitakafa, or you can be a Vata and a kafa, or you can be a purely Vata, as it were. So it's easy, when I'm kind of just talking about it, just to to really focus on Vata, pitakafa and kafa, and and they're they're what we see in nature. When you look at a group of individuals, you can identify who is Vata, who is pitakafa, who is kafa, and the best way to get a diagnosis is through pulse diagnosis, that, and working with somebody who really understands Ayurveda. You know, you can figure out your body type doing questionnaires online and, and they can be accurate to some degree, but they're not 100% accurate, they're loosely accurate. So if you're intrigued to find out if you are a Vata pitakafa, you certainly can. You can Google a questionnaire online and see if you can delineate exactly where you fall. But Vata, just in short, I'll just lay this out just just for for easy reference.

Speaker 2: 27:10

Vata body types tend to be slender individuals, often taller. So they're they're light. They're thin, they're dry, they tend to be a little bit more nervous and restless, and so you see that in people. Then you have the pitas. The pitas tend to be more muscular. They tend to always exude warmth, either emotionally, or they're actually just really hot at the temperature level, and they're intense. You know they're, they're, they're very fiery overall. And then there's kafas. Kafas are big, boned individuals. They're very heavy, they're very solid, they have very slow metabolism. You know they're prone to weight gain, congestion and these things.

Speaker 2: 27:59

And so once you understand your body type, that opens the door to Ayurveda, because every body type Vata, pitakafa is a combination of the five elements. And so this gets back to kind of another core principle of Ayurveda, which is the five great elements. And so Ayurveda, because it's a philosophy of life, it's much more than just medicine. It talks about the origins of life and it basically says that everything comes from pure consciousness and eventually it becomes more dense in the physical matter and through that you get these five universal elements and their space, air, water, fire and then earth. And so those five elements really move from very subtle, from the space and air, to the very dense, which is like earth. And so humans, then, are a combination of those five different elements.

Speaker 2: 29:08

So Vata tends to be space and air predominantly. It lacks water, fire and earth, so it's predominantly, again, these are the slender, skinny people. They're mostly space and air. So the pitas are fire and water, and so they're lacking the space and air. They're lacking the earth, they tend to be those two elements. And then the kafa is water and earth, very dense, and so those five elements make up everything in the human body, and those five elements also make up everything that we consume, so botanicals and food.

Speaker 2: 29:53

And so if you want to create balance in the body, you basically need to consume the right botanicals and the right foods, according to Ayurveda. And so your body type is set at the moment of conception and you're always, forever, throughout your entire life, you're trying to maintain that original body type, so that specific ratio of Vata, pitakafa in your body. You're always trying to maintain that balance. So if you are, for example, if you are, a pitta right, pitas are known to be fiery you don't want to add more fire in what you consume, whether it's on TV, whether it's the friends that you hang out with, whether it's your career, whether it's fiery foods. You know, alcohol, coffee, red meat, onions, garlic, spices these things add fire to the body, and so the only way to create balance for a fire individual is to do the opposite.

Speaker 2: 30:55

So the golden rule of Ayurveda is that like increases like and opposites create balance. So once you understand your body type and you understand the elements that make up your body, you basically need to know. You then know what you need to avoid and what you need to consume. So opposites create balance. So pitas do the opposite of fire, so everything that they consume should be cooling, as it were. You should be putting out the fire element. So they should be doing meditation, they should be doing calming yoga, you know they should move out of the city, potentially move to the Pacific Northwest, where it's cool, you know, doing cooling botanicals every day there's.

Speaker 2: 31:43

These things create balance in the body, and so for pitta individuals, we know exactly what they need to do to stay healthy, to create balance, and that's true for all of them. Once you're a vata, you do anti-vata protocols. Once you know you're a kafa, you do anti-kafa protocols. And so like increases, like opposites create balance. And so Ayurveda, in essence, is a medicine of energetics, and it breaks everything down into its energetic components and that describes exactly what you should consume and exactly what you should avoid.

Speaker 1: 32:21

That's so interesting and you know what? There's a little bit of similarity between that and Chinese medicine, you know, right, do you see that too? Because I was doing acupuncture for a while there for migraines and the Chinese medicine doctor he was actually. He studied in China, he knew so much and he was talking about the yin and yang. I know they say yang like probably not, I won't pronounce it right and how, if you have too much yin, you want to add more yang yang. I know I'm going to say it wrong, but you know, forgive me for that. But it's more about just trying to rejig and create that balance and I found it fascinating that you were explaining. So you're born one of these and, right, you're born that and you don't change Like.

Speaker 1: 33:21

So here's a good example, and maybe this is a, because a lot of my listeners are perimenopausal, menopausal women. They are thin and they might appear to be, let's say, let's say pit up. It does like kind of even. I see I might be wrong, but I see it kind of as the middle, like the middle one, right, you know how. You have one that's much thinner, maybe one that's a little bit heavier. Pitta seems to be the middle.

Speaker 1: 33:54

I think I was a pitta my whole life. Then I had my thyroid removed and and I've had a Chinese medicine doctor say I can't work with you because you no longer have the master gland. Seriously, I was like whoa, okay, well, maybe you're not that great of a Chinese medicine doctor if you can't work with me then. But I was like kind of thrown back. But when I saw it in that way, that once that master gland was gone it threw off my balance, is there anything? An Ayurveda that kind of speaks to that time where you know you lose balance Because you have a sickness or a surgery or something like that and you're no longer what you were before.

Speaker 2: 34:44

Yeah, you know, and there are phases of life too where you know, early in life is a kafa Predominant phase, then you move into a pitta and eventually, as we age, you move into a vata, which that dry essence Just just overtakes us. Yes, and so again, I mean it's, it's. We're always changing. The seasons are changing, our food inputs are changing, our life circumstances are changing, but your body type is still the same. You're just getting different elemental inputs on a daily, weekly, yearly basis. And so if you really are intimate with that knowledge, you then know what you need to increase or decrease in order to maintain your original body type. That was you know again, at the point of conception. And so, yes, later in life, if you have some, some, some, let's say you have a surgery or you have a health setback or a death in the family, it certainly will push some of those elements out of place, but but they are easy to bring them back into place. So, but you know, again, I, the important thing is here is just to recognize that you have a body type and you need to befriend your body type, right?

Speaker 2: 36:04

So if you are a vata and you have trouble putting weight on and then suddenly you start doing protein powders and creatinine Lifting and you're eating you know, chicken, you know seven times a day in order to hit like 500 grams of protein, like you're doing yourself a disservice because you're trying to basically create a pitta body type which is not your body type. So you need to befriend your body type and really own it and try to create balance within your own body type. So if you're a kafa, it's gonna be hard to lose weight. So doing like laxative therapies and not eating and doing like just be careful, you, you aren't a vata, you know. You're not a skinny mini. You are a big bone, solid, human and that is your nature. And so all of the body types have their, their, their, their downsides, their challenges, but they certainly have their virtues and some of their positive aspects. So just know where you are and really try to own it.

Speaker 1: 37:12

So I'm, I can, I can pretty much say with confidence, because I think I have a book somewhere on my bookshelf on this, on the body types, I'm pretty sure I'm a pitta, yeah, and I Would you say, is there one body type that is more common with the general public?

Speaker 2: 37:38

No, no, no, I would say there's, there's, there's Some common attributes to imbalances that we're seeing right now.

Speaker 2: 37:45

Okay, yeah, yeah and so you know, obviously. So vata is air and space. Vata rules any kind of communication or movement in the body, and I'm thinking that, or I'm seeing that, with social media, people are consuming these things and their minds going crazy like this, their nervous system is activated, you know, and and you're increasing vata, you're increasing that, that out, that body type. So it's important then, I think, given the modern world that we live in to, to do things that help to lower vata and and so to consume anti vata foods, to do these lifestyle things as well. So I think that's that's critically important.

Speaker 2: 38:32

People that are driven professionally Are are certainly consumed by pitta and that fire, and so you need to make sure that you're offsetting that. And so we are seeing imbalances at different ages, different demographics, but it's fairly easy to identify them overall, and and it's interesting because if I know your body type, I can tell you what diseases you will have in life, and it's that you have a propensity given your, your body type, you know. So if you are pitta, you are going to be more prone to hyper acidity, skin rashes, ulcers, high blood pressure, a hair loss, grain of hair.

Speaker 2: 39:18

If you're a vata, you're going to be more prone to weight loss, especially later in life, and sarcopenia which is muscle wasting, joint pains, headaches, constipation, often mental illness, and then if you're a kafa, you're obviously prone to more weight gain and obesity, colds, upper respiratory congestion, heart disease, diabetes. So those are all really already delineated. If you know your body type, you know what you're prone to and it's pretty easy to offset that, which is a beautiful thing. So, opposite, to create balance, it's all about Offsetting your tendencies, knowing your individual body type.

Speaker 1: 40:07

And you know, that makes a lot of sense to me because I the one thing I have a big believer in is is that unless you're quiet, you're never going to really have a lot of self-awareness and understand, like what, what really resonates and what suits you. So for me, I Really need to get out and go for a walk. I take my dog and I, and I'm always like that's my way to To decompress to ground, because I do feel I get very fired up and then I'll, you know, I'll go to sleep and it'll I'll hear things. I'll, you know, think about things from that day that I should have done different, you know, and if I don't take that time, so I do a few things, I'll do my Nature.

Speaker 1: 40:56

Walk with my dog, I'll do. I have a really hard time with meditation, like really hard time, just to take the day and Turn off. So I'll make it happen by using Newcom or brain tap or something that's gonna make my brain do it, because it's hard for me to do it on its own. Does this make sense to you, nick?

Speaker 2: 41:22

Yeah, absolutely, I mean, and for you, that's balancing? I certainly don't think that's balancing for everyone, right? Not, as an example, a kafa. They need to do completely the opposite. They need to, you know, be active and they need to do things that are stimulating and, and you know, they, they almost shouldn't meditate like they. Just they just need to get out in the world and just be energized, and that's balancing.

Speaker 2: 41:46

Because yes they're typically doing the opposite they're sitting down and they're just. You know so. So, yes, it's understanding yourself and knowing what brings balance, and when you get into it, it's you can actually start teasing apart the five different elements, which is a beautiful thing.

Speaker 1: 42:03

And again I was gonna say, also Relative to Feng Shui and the elements in Feng Shui. Well, you and I were talking about just now, offline right, the balance between fire and earth, and you know, in Feng Shui they always say not to have too much fire in your home, right, and you know, I study the annual stars, the flying stars, annually, and where to put fire, where not to put fire. I'm I'm big on all of that because it's what you said. It creates the balance, which is where everyone feels good. Who doesn't feel good when they're balanced?

Speaker 2: 42:44

Yeah, I mean. So that's the essence of Ayurveda right there and and and I alluded to it earlier but you become more of a Vata as you age, regardless of your body types, and so one of the main tenants in Ayurveda is to offset that, that dryness. So I often use the analogy and I we have made maybe spoke about this before, but I use the analogy of we all start as a great, you know, plump, full of water, full of vitality, and slowly, over the course of time, as we age, we turn into a raisin mmm and so that is, I think, a really good analogy for the human body over time.

Speaker 2: 43:24

And so Ayurveda is all about injecting the body with, they say, juice, but it's kind of the water element. It's something called ogis, another Sanskrit word, and ogis is Really the key to life. It's, it's what gives you vitality, that she or that piranha, it's helps people live 220, and so, in part, ayurveda is a medicine of longevity, and it's about promoting ogis so that people are plump full of water and they can stand the test of time and live to 120 as well. And so there's a lot of different therapies and food recommendations to, to, to offset the aging process and to boost ogis inside the body as well.

Speaker 1: 44:14

Yeah, and even, even you know, there's all these studies of the blue zones and I Hear people. They're like I forget what was the name it's it's the documentary that just came out, not not long ago, it was. It was about the blue zones. Anyway, what I always say, and and this is what I think, ayurveda is kind of cool. So people are like you have to eat this one way and if everyone eats like this, then you're gonna live to 120. I'm like that doesn't make sense to me and I'm not an Ayurvedic medicine doctor, but it doesn't make sense to me because we're all bio individuals. So, you know, maybe a lot of the people live that long because they're all similar body types. Right, a lot of them are similar body types, they come from a similar area, they eat in a similar manner.

Speaker 1: 45:09

Right, so that, but it might not work for me living in Toronto here, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 45:16

So so it's a Awesome point. It is an awesome point because so everybody talks about oh, you need to eat more salad, right, like that's this universal thing that people are like, oh, in order to be healthy, you've got to just eat more salad, like that's good for you. But when you, again, when you get to the energy of what a leafy green is, it is the essence of Vata. I mean, it is air and space. It lacks Water, it lacks fire, it lacks earth, and so if you are a Vata which I am, and I'm eating a cold salad, I'm adding those two elements, the space and air. So I'm adding Vata in my body and I'm creating an imbalance. So for me, eating leafy greens is absolutely a no-no. And so you know again, there's no one dietary plan that everybody should be on, that's just, it doesn't exist.

Speaker 2: 46:15

I have a to have some recommendations For a diet. It's called the Sotvic diet and it's all about creating balance in the mind. It's also called the yogic yogic diet, and it gets into the energy of the food that you're consuming, not the elements, but the actual Quality of the foods, and there are certain foods that that create the Sotvic energy in the mind. And so I have Vata again. The tenant is you basically Create your mind from the food that you eat, and so there are certain foods that promote Sotva, which is like openness, clarity, peace, and and Ayurveda, as well as yoga, would recommend you choosing those Sotvic foods. They tend to be balancing for all body types and they tend to promote mental wellness as well.

Speaker 1: 47:09

Okay, so you said a couple things there. You were talking about because you said you were a Vata, right. So eating salads may not be ideal for a Vata type, because You're not creating balance, because you already are more the air Right and and that's what lettuce would represent. But somebody like me who is a Pitta would do well with salads because that would have, because I'm more fire, so it helps cool me down, create that balance. Does this make sense?

Speaker 2: 47:43

Absolutely so. For you, salad is balancing, because Pitta is Fire and water, and then the salad that you're consuming is predominantly air and space. So it's not adding more fire, more Pitta to your body, it's actually balancing that out.

Speaker 1: 47:59

Okay, so I shouldn't be having hot sauce at dinner.

Speaker 2: 48:03

No, you shouldn't. But the funny thing about Pitta is is they seek out these intense, hot aspects of life. That's just their nature. Yeah, so you need to undercut that Across the board, including the hot sauce that man, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of touch and go with it.

Speaker 1: 48:21

Anyway, I'm not one of those hot sauce fanatics, okay. So then let's get into this whole energy of the food, because I think that's a really cuz, okay. So you have a lot of these university students. They go out, they eat McDonald's or deep fried or whatever. To me, this is like dead energy. The energy of the food is does this make sense? I know you're going to describe it much better than me, but yeah, and I think everybody understands that.

Speaker 2: 48:58

You know intuitively.

Speaker 2: 48:59

I think so, but again IR Veda has written textbooks on this, which is really cool, and so we talked about body types, we talked about the five elements that make up everything. But even more subtle than those five elements are there called the three primal energies, and these are Satva, rajas and Thomas. I wish I had a visual. It's easier to kind of relay this information visually, but those are again kind of foreign Sanskrit words. But Satva is described as stillness, and then Rajas is movement and Thomas is heaviness, and so those three energies make up everything, and so it's depending on what you consume, from an energetic standpoint, that creates your mind. So foods that are Rajas, you know, like coffee, alcohol, onions, garlic, these things that stimulate the mind, when you consume those on a daily basis, you are creating energy in the mind, you're creating movement in the mind. Foods that are Thomas do the opposite of that. They're doling to the mind, they dole the energy of the mind. Mcdonald's is the perfect example. Beef mushrooms are Thomas.

Speaker 2: 50:26

Oh, we talked about that, yes, yeah, mushrooms everybody's like consumed. With the idea of using medicinal mushrooms From an Ayurvedic perspective they're a big no-no, because they dole the mind and so I personally don't use them that frequently. But they can be beneficial in certain cases. So when Ayurveda mushrooms are not prized, they're not traditionally used because of their effects on the mind.

Speaker 1: 50:57

Yeah, that's the exact opposite of what everybody's talking about. I mean, everybody's talking about all the benefits of Cordyceps and Rishi and Lion's Mane and I actually did a show on it I think it was a year ago on medicinal mushrooms. So it's really interesting that Ayurveda doesn't really think it's the best thing for you.

Speaker 2: 51:23

Yeah, so it fits in that category of a Thomas food. You know, leftovers are doling to the mind, they're Thomas. You know marijuana psychedelics, they're Thomas. Eating after sunset creates Thomas, creates that dull energy in the mind, and so you are. You're. Basically your mind is based and formed on the foods that you eat, and so Safa is what we should all strive for, and so that is a whole nother area that again, textbooks have been written on this. It's what all yogis should be eating. They should be eating this list of saphic foods that create balance specifically in the mind, and so foods that fall in that list are pretty simple. You have water, obviously, fruits and vegetables Most of the whole grains ghee, which is clarified butter falls in that, raw nuts, raw seeds, honey, spices, and then there's a whole mix of botanicals Ashwagandha is one of them. Go to cola, bacopa, turmeric. These things are all saphic in nature, and so Ayurveda definitely recommends balancing your body type, but it also recommends balancing your mind using saphic foods specifically.

Speaker 1: 52:46

So interesting. So where does? Because for me, I listen, I've done every single diet under the sun, I have said in the last 12 years. I've even at one point I was eating a lot of raw food. I was once almost vegetarian, almost didn't quite make it, because then I became almost anemic too. So I had, you know, I had a lot of health issues in my 40s so I kind of tried everything. And where does animal protein fit in? Please don't forget to subscribe and rate and review with a few kind words. This helps me to keep bringing fabulous guests to you each and every week. Thanks so much.

Speaker 2: 53:44

Yeah, so so we can look at it from a body type perspective.

Speaker 1: 53:48

Okay.

Speaker 2: 53:49

There are certain animal proteins that affect the body types differently Vatas they lack fire to digest animal proteins, and so they need to be very cautious about when they're consuming them, how much they're consuming them in the type it does. You have so much fire that you can consume anytime you want, as much as you want, because you can digest it. You have the fire. Caffas are the same way, where they lack the fire element, and so they need to be careful as well. But when you get into the primal energies, the different qualities that we talked about Satva, rajas, thomas, for the most part, animal proteins are not sapphic, which is why, by and large, the yogic diet and the Ayurvedic diet is vegetarian. Right, there are certain proteins that stimulate Rajas or that movement in the mind, and then there are certain proteins that are doling to the mind, such as pork. So you know, that's kind of the basis there. It's all based upon energetics more so than opinions, and you know, yeah yeah, right.

Speaker 1: 55:03

And so, for me, I eat what supports me and my body, and I also choose, you know, not to get on the political side. I choose food that comes from a very healthy source. So you know, I don't support factory farming or all that kind of stuff. I know that's not what this conversation is about, but I'm curious, right, because some would say, in order to follow Ayurvedic principles, you have to be vegetarian, but you don't.

Speaker 2: 55:38

You don't, and so one really good example of that is the Dalai Lama. You know he works with an Ayurvedic physician, potentially even a Tibetan physician, but he does consume meat one time per week as medicine.

Speaker 2: 55:53

Interesting and so you know, again, he uses it with intention. He knows when to consume it, the different forms to consume, you know. So it can be medicinal and again, even if my body type doesn't have the fire capacity to break it down super easy, I need it for its stamina, its energy, its grounding, its nourishing properties. Without that right, I'm just creating more Vata, more of that space and air, and so it does have a grounding effect for me, and so I do consume it, you know, infrequently, but I do consume it in the same way as the Dalai Lama.

Speaker 1: 56:35

It does sound like it's very balanced, though. You know it sounds balanced and it's interesting because I had a conversation about. I recorded a podcast earlier today about nutritional deficiencies and how, you know, our food sources are not what they used to be. We don't grow our own food. We can't go and, you know, eat Meet from the farmer, for that's down the road. You get what I'm saying like it's just, this is not the way life is anymore. So I think with this there is a balance, because even if I look back at my parents, who were farmers back in Croatia, they need me everyday. They didn't eat like they were going to mcdonald's twice a day. They weren't right because anything that's out of balance. So it doesn't even I know we're talking about I or veda, but I'm a big believer that Everything in moderation, everything in balance.

Speaker 2: 57:38

Yeah, I mean it gets. It gets back to the green conversation right and is the same way where, if it's healthy, it depends. It depends on the individual yeah. And so I certainly think it is important to consider that, for for most of not all individuals, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1: 57:59

So what are other than cuz? It sounds to me like I or veda. Medicine is very much Something one can follow and it would be preventative, cuz the whole premise is that you are working to always balance your body and prevent disease, prevent illness, as best as you can, right? So what are options? When somebody comes in and they're really sick, what are treatment options other than you know using food is medicine and trying to create that balance? Do they use supplements? Do they use I know you mentioned ashwagandha do they use botanicals tinctures? I don't know.

Speaker 2: 58:43

Yeah, so it all starts with the body type, but there's so much more beyond that, and again, it's a medicine of longevity, and so oil Is critically important in so many different ways in ayurvedic therapies, because oil Really is the source of health and longevity and it gives you that. That that you know, kind of plumps up the reason, if you will. So there are certain lifestyle things that you can do on a daily basis to promote health, regardless of your body type. One of them is a self massage technique called a bionga, and a bionga is it's an oil massage that you do daily, or as often as you can, for 15 to 20 minutes before you get in the shower. Typically, the oils that you choose are based upon your body type, and so a vodka would use sesame oil, a pit would use coconut, and then coffee would use safflower oil, and you, basically, you start at the head and you massage all the way down your limbs, your joints, your muscles, and then you end up at the feet, and the feet really is is, I think, that where the gold is. You know that's, that's where all of the noughties, the energy channels Both enter and exit the body, and so they recommend spending a lot of time on the feet as well.

Speaker 2: 1:00:07

And so the idea is it, it's this, I think of it anyway as this, as this regiment of self love.

Speaker 2: 1:00:15

You know, it's just a moment where you can kind of focus on yourself, you know, nourish the entire body and what, ultimately, what happens, is that you're loosening all of these different doses the vodka pit to kafa that are embedded in the target, and to loosen them up so that your body then can get rid of them when they're in excess and so I be on guy is a critical element that I have a to recommends as a daily regimen tool.

Speaker 2: 1:00:45

And again, I think the oil piece. Another analogy would be you know, if you look at a piece of leather and if you put that piece of leather out in the sunshine for a couple years Without any kind of application or any care or anything, just keep it out in the sun is certainly will wither away, but if you oil that that piece of leather every single day, it will maintain its integrity over the course of time. And so I have a kind of looks at the body in the same way, if you can just oil the body up every single day, you're going to be able to create health and longevity over the long term, and so they also recommend you can even do like a spoonfuls of olive oil, spoonfuls of tea, on a daily basis To consume that, and so they're not afraid of oil, both inside and out. And so you know another. Another oil therapy is oil pulling, which is interesting, it seems like there's more and more conversations around that right now.

Speaker 2: 1:01:47

Again, this is another practice takes 15 to 20 minutes. You can do it at the same time that you're doing the oil massage, but it's amazing what it can do for the mouth, for the teeth and for the teeth, the gums, for the. You know, breaking up the biofilms of the bacteria, getting rid of the bad bacteria, and Nick with that just is that just with coconut oil only, or can you do it with?

Speaker 1: 1:02:11

olive oil is one of the primary oils for that.

Speaker 2: 1:02:17

But I would say a better oil and probably a more universal oil is sesame seed oil for your, for pulling, for oil pulling, oh really.

Speaker 2: 1:02:24

I did know, that slightly different energetic properties. Coconut oil is cooling. So if you are a pitta, use coconut oil. Yeah, your body for you know your consumption, for your mouth, for the oil pulling, that is a perfectly suitable everyday oil for you. But I would say when you go to India, you work with patients, you're in the hospital. Sesame is pretty universal. Oh interesting. I know that's a good thing, it's a really universal.

Speaker 1: 1:02:52

Oh, interesting, I never heard that, so is it? Sesame is also good for your teeth, like you know how fantastic.

Speaker 2: 1:03:03

It's interesting when you get back into the textbooks and you look at what was written about this A lot of times. Physicians would recommend, as a daily practice, taking a spoonful of either white or black sesame seeds and putting them in your mouth and then just chewing them until they turn into an oil.

Speaker 1: 1:03:22

Wait, black sesame seeds? Ok. No, that's not the same thing. Sorry, I had, I just had a. I just had a thought it's not the same thing. Not the same as black cumin seed oil.

Speaker 2: 1:03:33

No, no, different different, different Different yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:03:37

So that's so interesting. Ok, so that all goes to the whole thing about, you know, drying up like a raisin as we get older.

Speaker 2: 1:03:49

Right, yes, 100 percent. And and again, you're not swallowing the oil when you're doing it, you are spitting it out and the thought process which again is not this isn't proven by science yet. I think it will be, but there is that gap between traditional Ayurveda and modern science. But I think we're starting to prove a lot of these old tenants as being truthful. And the idea, according to the old Ayurvedic texts, is that you do get rid of toxins from the upper region of the body Some say the whole body, but I would say definitely will reduce the excess dosha's that are in the head, the neck and the mind, doing this on a daily basis. So you do spit that oil out. You don't consume it because you are getting rid of bacteria and potentially, these energetic forces that are lodged in your tissues, right?

Speaker 1: 1:04:41

Right. So in terms of supplements, because we're kind of are there recommended? If I came to see you as my Ayurvedic doctor and I don't know what I'd come to see you with, but just say I'm coming to see you and you do have like your doctor's bag of things that you would recommend other than practices- Yep, yes.

Speaker 2: 1:05:12

So there's plenty. There's plenty to be done. The panacea, the kind of cure, all from an Ayurvedic perspective, is a blend of botanicals called triphala. Tri is a Sanskrit word that means three, fallah means fruit, and so it's a blend of three fruits, and the three fruits are perfectly balanced. So there's one that decreases Vata, one that decreases pitta and then one that decreases kafa, and this formula is a digestive system tonic, so it's very slightly laxative, but it tonifies the GI tract. And so, according to Ayurveda and according to most forms of traditional medicine, the GI tract is the center of all health and it's the most important aspect, and so Ayurveda the same way. So you're getting rid of these excess doshas through the GI tract when you're taking this on a daily basis. And so if you walk into any Ayurvedic physician's office, you probably will walk out with a, with a script or a prescription for triphala, and the dose there varies from person to person.

Speaker 2: 1:06:22

Traditionally they use a powder and they put a little bit in water and they stir it up and they let it sit for eight hours and then you drink it before you go to bed. There's a little bit of sludge in the bottom you don't consume, just toss that out and then you make another batch for the morning. I prefer capsules. I, you know I generally will use about 500 milligrams every single night. Some people need upwards of a gram or even a gram and a half on a daily basis. So triphala is. It's a miracle. I love it. I'd highly recommend anybody seek that out as an everyday tonic. So you take that every day, nick, even though you don't.

Speaker 1: 1:07:00

Ok, it sounds like it's almost like a like a, I hate to say the word Detox because it's I feel like it has such a negative connotation to the word, but it's almost like a little mini detox that you're doing, if you're doing it every day or no. It does so many different things, but I would say that is one of the primary attributes of triphala.

Speaker 2: 1:07:22

And then you said it depends, I guess, on what you there. Are they three different formulas, or is it one formula called?

Speaker 1: 1:07:25

triphala.

Speaker 2: 1:07:28

One formula is triphala, so it's usually a third of omla, a third of heritaki and a third of bibitaki, and so they're just in that, perfect. You know, 33 percent ratio when you, when you take it. Very cool, I'm going to have to look that up, and then again it gets into your body types and energetics.

Speaker 1: 1:07:50

I'm a huge advocate of adaptions.

Speaker 2: 1:07:53

You know Ashwagandha, Ashwagandha, Ashwagandha, Ashwagandha, Ashwagandha, Ashwagandha, Ashwagandha, Ashwagandha, Ashwagandha obviously has taken the world by storm. It's now everywhere. People are starting to use it. You just need to understand the energetic properties of certain adaptogens to know which one is right for you.

Speaker 2: 1:08:13

So, you know, I would highly recommend finding one that's suitable for your body type, stick with it every day and get the benefit of an adaptogen that way. So Ashwagandha, as an example, is the perfect antidote to Vata. So for my body type, you know, it's ideal for creating balance. It's heating, it's calming, it's oily, it brings water into my body, and so using it on a daily basis, I'm getting all the benefits that are adaptogenic, but I'm also balancing my body type by lowering Vata. And so all of the different adaptogens you know Rodeola, shazandra, shatavari they all have different energetic properties, and so understanding that becomes essential. Because if you're again, if you're using Rodeola as an example, rodeola is cooling, it's stimulating and it's really drying. It dries a person out. If you already have those same attributes yourself and you're consuming that botanical day in and day out, it's going to create imbalance. So adaptogens are generally non-toxic, but energetically they can be completely toxic. They can throw you out of whack.

Speaker 1: 1:09:27

So oh, interesting. So because a lot of menopausal women, you know it's recommended that they take Ashwagandha and Rodeola. Yeah, but you know, I think it's because, isn't it? Typically Ashwagandha is more for the stressed and wired and Rodeola is more for the stressed and tired, and a lot of menopausal women are both.

Speaker 2: 1:10:00

And energetically, those two botanicals will balance each other out, because they are completely on polar opposite ends yeah. I expect that, and so there is. There's harmony in that. So doing that on a daily basis, you can do something that's neutral, energetically Fantastic. You're still getting all of the benefits of the adaptogens, but you're not pushing yourself either into balance or out of balance.

Speaker 1: 1:10:26

Right. And you know, I just know because I speak to a lot of women who are both, they feel both. They do have times where they're really, you know, feeling stressed out and wired and they need to kind of bring that down. And then there's the ones that are that can't get off the couch and they're that stressed and tired because they just want to kind of put the world away, right. So that happens too. Oh my gosh, okay, what else? Well, we should probably wrap this up, but I mean, there's so much more we could cover off. I just want to make sure that you didn't forget anything.

Speaker 2: 1:11:05

Yeah, you know, I think the last thing that always excites me to talk about and I think that kind of puts a nice bow on all of this is a therapy called Poncha Karma, and again, it's one of those core principles, therapies of Ayurvedic medicine.

Speaker 2: 1:11:23

Poncha Karma, two different words from Sanskrit Poncha means five and karma means action. And so these are five different therapies that get rid of all of the imbalances, the excess Vata, the excess Pitta, the excess Kafa, that we build up in our body. And so Poncha Karma is something that Ayurveda recommends doing seasonally, or at least one time per year, just to kind of push, reset and get rid of these toxins. And so, just in short, without doing, you know, a total deep dive into this area which we could, the five procedures are pregation, which is a laxative therapy, emesis, which is vomiting, a nasal cleansing, herbal therapy, where you inhale herbs, and then you have an enema which of course expels the contents of the colon, and then there's something called bloodletting, which can be practiced in different ways. The traditional way is using leeches on certain parts of the body to get rid of that bad blood so that you create health.

Speaker 1: 1:12:34

Have you done this, Nick?

Speaker 2: 1:12:36

I've done Poncha Karma, yeah, and I've worked in a hospital that performed Poncha Karma, where people would come in with, you know, cancer and really like severe conditions and over the course of 40, 50, 60 days the people were healthy, walking again and cleaner than they were before they came in.

Speaker 1: 1:13:00

Okay, I'm fascinated by this. So there's hospitals where you would go in and have this done, like what. You walk in there like, okay, now we're going to get you to vomit. Okay, now we're going to give you an enema.

Speaker 2: 1:13:14

Well, so, yeah, so it's, it's so. You walk in and they basically just like any hospital, they get to know you, right? Yeah? You take your pulse, you look at your tongue. They understand your condition. They feed you a very simple diet. Usually it's Kichuri, which Kichuri is kind of a satvic, very chili meal in Ayurveda. It's one of my favorite meals. Google Kichuri.

Speaker 2: 1:13:38

I'm going to have to. And so you, basically, you just simplify and remove any problems that people can have and you get them back to basics. The first step then, beyond dietary modification, is oleation. We've talked about oil, right? Yeah, so they recommend doing oil therapies, oiling your skin, consuming oils, doing this on a daily basis just to loosen up those toxins, and so that can take, you know, weeks, days to weeks, and then the next step is sweating. You know, you do either saunas or you do certain kinds of massages, which then mobilizes the toxins and kind of gets them into the GI tract, as it were, and then after that you start moving into those five therapies and do them in a specific order, so that you, you know the energies, the toxins that you've mobilized and moved into the GI tract you then eliminate from the body.

Speaker 2: 1:14:44

So there's a lot more to it. I probably didn't do any justice describing it, but it's. It's incredibly purifying and can be incredibly transformative for individuals that have tried everything else for their health condition just to push reset and then from that that usually is the jumping off point for much deeper therapies. So there's a whole branch of Ayurveda called Rasayana, which means the path of juice. So it's all about rejuvenation. So this is usually when they introduce some really interesting botanicals and substances, such as Shilajit, where you start doing Ashwagandha. You start doing things to really rejuvenate the body because at that point you've cleared the toxins, you've improved your, your agni or digestifier, you're able to consume these and use these plants to form health in the body, moving forward.

Speaker 1: 1:15:38

So that's so cool. I mean you mentioned the like, the oiling. You said olification. Oliation, that to me is kind of like, and you're saying loosening.

Speaker 1: 1:15:52

So one of the things that I always did in my practice was drainage first, I don't know if you've ever heard of Unda out of Belgium. Yeah, unda, it's very old school, but a lot of times people would feel better just from that. It's like what you were saying, like the body. It's almost like we become like stagnant, like everything just kind of gets stuck Right. So a lot of times people would, if they weren't really really ill and really toxic, they would feel better.

Speaker 1: 1:16:23

So, like I would, I would actually put my whole family on an Unda protocol quarterly just to kind of keep things flowing. You know it. Just it was, I think. Now I mean it's harder with two of my kids not at home To make them take their Unda three times a day. It's not going to happen. Um, but even the whole leeches thing. I find this fascinating because not to say that I would ever do it, because I think I would just freak out but have you ever heard this? Tell me this how you know how women, right up until menopause, their risk of heart disease is much lower than a man's, then once they stop menstruating their risk is equal to or higher than a man's. And so I interviewed he's a pharmacologist out of the UK where he was saying everybody like really midlife and onwards should donate blood. Yeah, that whole turning over of the blood.

Speaker 2: 1:17:37

Yeah, and it gets. It gets back to the core essence of what is Ayurveda. I mean women are. You know blood is, is the fire element, it is pitta. You know it's fire and water combined, that's blood. And women are getting rid of that element, you know, every month. Yeah, stop doing that. It changes. That's the essence of the fire element and your body is not used to that and you get that fire element which is expressed as a hot flash, and so it is important either being post menopause, to do it, just to, to you know, push reset, and it's important for pitta individuals as well, because that's the essence of the fire element. So it wouldn't be recommended for somebody who's a Vata body type nor a kafa body type, but definitely recommended for pittas.

Speaker 1: 1:18:27

Very interesting, Just so fascinating. There's so much more we could talk about, but let us know where we can find you and maybe you know, give us your favorite like where to start if you're interested in Ayurvedic medicine.

Speaker 2: 1:18:44

Yes, so so I'm not on social media, but but I work for Neurohacra Collective. We create dietary supplements, mostly for the US market, kind of amazing Neutropic cognitive products or anti aging products, and you can find us and me at Neurohacracom. Yeah, in terms of where to start, I mean, this is this is such a good question. You know, I I often would use the analogy of digging a hole, and I find that most people often will dig a little hole here and then they'll, you know, move over to the side and dig another little hole, but they don't ever become an expert in one thing and keep digging one hole. And so you know, in order to hit the water, you've got to just dig one hole and keep digging. And so, just like anything with, like Ayurveda, you know, just start somewhere and enter that, that, that pool of knowledge, and just keep going, and once you do, it becomes this amazing, vast philosophy and way of living that can really transform your life.

Speaker 2: 1:19:53

And I think the best entry point for anybody is just picking up a book. I know that was for me, that was it. You know, I started with a book called Procreti. Procreti means body type, and it's written by Robert Sphoboda. I've recommended that book to numerous people and it's interesting the feedback that I get. People like inevitably come back and just say yes, what a fun read, Like I'm excited about Ayurveda, I understand my body type, I want to learn more. It's very accessible. It covers, you know, the great principles I think of Ayurveda and so that's a really good entry point. There are some deeper books to you know. David Frawley is is a doctor that's written some amazing books, very technical. Vasant Lod is another doctor from New Mexico who's written a number of books. One of my favorite books and I don't know if you'll be able to see this, but yoga.

Speaker 2: 1:20:55

This is called the Yoga of Herbs, and this was written by Vasant Lod and David Frawley, I think in the 1980s. But the amazing thing about this book is that it breaks all the different botanicals down into their energetic properties and it describes them from the energetic standpoint. So it tells you what's good for a Vata body type or a Pitta or a Kafa, and you know specifically. And so there aren't many books that that really get into the energetic qualities of herbs, but the Yoga of Herbs is, hands down, my favorite that does that.

Speaker 1: 1:21:31

Oh, I'm going to have to get that one because I'm I'm totally interested in all of that. That's awesome. Thank you so much. This has been such a great conversation, Nick. I really appreciate you.

Speaker 2: 1:21:44

Thank you, this was fun. I hope there's some value for your listeners and for yourself. It's such a vast field of study that it's always hard to know where to start. Yeah it is so vast and so ancient, but it's so amazing and it really can be accessible. So start.

Speaker 1: 1:22:03

I'm going to give everyone your email address. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Can you imagine everyone email Nick and ask all your questions? Just teasing you. Thanks again, Nick.

Speaker 2: 1:22:16

All right, I appreciate it, thanks.

Speaker 1: 1:22:20

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to share it with someone you know might benefit, and always remember when you rate, review, subscribe, you help to support my content and help me to keep going and bringing these conversations to you each and every week. Join me next week for a new topic, new guest, new exciting conversations to help you live your best life.