Ayurvedic Medicine

07/20/15 • 42 min

Ayurvedic Medicine - Podcast #5 I interview Naturopath and Ayurvedic lifestyle consultant Lisa Costa-Bir about Ayurvedic medicine and how she incorporates her knowledge from this into her practice as well as her personal life. Podcast Breakdown: 1.18 A bit about Lisa Costa-Bir, her Indian background and her first experience with Ayurveda in treating her skin condition. 3.24 What is Ayurveda/Ayurvedic medicine? 4.00 The origins of the Ayurvedic word: Life Knowledge 4.43 How does Lisa blend her Ayurvedic knowledge into her Naturopathic practice? 5.22 About the Prakruti, or the individual doshas Vata, Pitta and Kapha 6.30 Want to work out your own prakruti? http://ayurvedadosha.org/doshas/ayurveda-dosha-test 8.35 Lisa discusses what dosha she is, a Vata-Kapha and talks a bit more about Vata 9.56 Pitta people often love spicy foods even though it’s not so great for them. 10.36 Kapha people usually love ice cream and other dairy, but its often too damp and mucous promoting for them. 11.04 A bit more about Kapha and Pitta 13.16 Everything that we do in our diet and our lifestyle influences our health: “As is the atom, so is the universe As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm As is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind”. 13.45 What are the main Ayurvedic teaching Lisa has incorporated into her life personally? Mostly they are around digestive function. 15.30 Food should be body temperature. Spices for Vata and Kapha. 16.10 Combining foods and spices to negate the negative effects of foods. 17.35 Start the morning with a spice mix to get the digestion going. 18.00 Classic ayurvedic recipes Lisa loves: Ginger tea with herbs and spices, 19.40 Golden milk and Benefits of turmeric, plus how to get more benefits out of turmeric such as adding black pepper, fat and using heat. 21.00 Avoid heating honey as it destroys the ‘vitality’ of the honey 22.30 How to look after your spices 23.20 Chai tea 24.00 Spice milk 21.19 The benefits of dates: A rejuvenating tonic, also known as rasayana which is often consumed after giving birth or after intercourse 25.00 Some health and lifestyle techniques that have their origins from Ayurveda such as self massage with sesame oil (great for all the constitutions) or coconut oil. 27.00 Tongue scraping and tongue diagnosis 29.17 Oil pulling 30.20 Seasonal eating 32.45 Some dessert ideas for winter 33.47 Dahl for breakfast? Yes! 34.45 Other techniques to adjust to the season: oil massage for the body and hair 35.25 Pranayama: A series of breathing exercises, a great way to start and/or finish the day. 36.10 Practise the breathing exercise along with Lisa. 38.00 We discuss our favourite Ayurvedic herbs: Shatavari, Ginger and Tribulus for Lisa, Holy Basil and Withania for me. 40.35 How to get in contact with Lisa.

Previous Episode

Stress and the Nervous System

It’s time for podcast number four, and in this one I talk with fellow naturopath Laura Burton from http://www.burtonhealth.com.au about stress, neurotransmitter health, adrenal health, ways to deal with and reduce stress via diet and lifestyle techniques. Want to subscribe to get podcasts automatically? You can do that here: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/health-wellbeing-podcast/id1006574743 Podcast Breakdown: 4:27 What have Laura and I been up to? Laura has been busy with her Tea Club and clinic life, and I have been busy in the clinic as well. I also have the Stress Talk coming up this Saturday at Windsor. 5:50 Stress has a big impact on our everyday life and it can be difficult to recognise stress because it comes in so many different forms. Sneaky stress! 7:00 The impact of over-exercising or the wrong forms of exercise on stress and adrenal health. 8:22 Stress impacts on nervous system balance. 8:54 The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. 9:24 Serotonin 10:45 Histamine 12:52 GABA 14:14 Dopamine 14:46 Adenosine 15:26 Laura talks about diet and nutrients for neurotransmitter and mood health 17:30 Digestive health is important in neurotransmitter health because we need to be able to breakdown our foods to absorb the nutrients required for neurotransmitter production 18:22 Vitamin C and other nutrients required for neurotransmitters and adrenal health 21:28 Iron supplementation risks, haemochromatosis and anxiety 22:40 Laura sums up how a balanced diet can usually provide the variety of 22:11 Adrenal health: How norepinephrine and epinephrine work in the body, and why high cortisol can impede muscle gain from exercise. Chronic stress can suppress out immune system and reduce our ability to heal from injuries. 24:50 Adrenal fatigue symptoms we’d look for in clinic. 26:36 Saliva testing for adrenal fatigue 28:00 Diet and lifestyle ways to deal with adrenal fatigue 29:29 Hugs for relieving stress! 30:39 Meditation increases dopamine and serotonin 31:09 Mindfulness, meditation and breathing exercises. One moment meditation video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6eFFCi12v8 35:29 Changing our mindset and ways of thinking 37:43 Gratitude practice 40:31 Our favourite stress herbs

Next Episode

Crazy 2 Calm With Melinda King

In this podcast episode I interview Naturopath Melinda King about her stress management program Crazy 2 Calm, and we chat about her recent New York trip where she explored healthy restaurants, attended a seminar by Gabby Bernstein, Spirit Junkie and generally had a good time. Podcast Breakdown: 0:55 A bit about Melinda and her personal health journey and how she got into Naturopathy. 6:23 What has Melinda been getting up to lately? She discusses her New York trip and her mission to find healthy places to eat while there. 12:18 Melinda talks about her experience attending the Gabby Bernstein - Spirit Junkie seminar. 15:54 How Melinda developed the ideas for her Crazy 2 Calm program with a 'Think Week' in Bali. 18:26 A bit more about the Crazy 2 Calm program 19:44 Step 1- Unwind 20:26 Step 2 - Nourish 20:52 Step 3 - Breathe 21:12 Step 4 - Accept 21:34 Step 5 - Surrender 22:19 Step 6 - Slow 22:45 Step 7 - Refresh 23:03 Step 8 - Connect 23:22 Step 9 - Love 24:00 Step 10 - Create 27:40 Some of the effects stress can have on our health, in particular the way stress affects our nervous system balance which can impede digestion, hormone health, skin health and more. 31:30 The importance of addressing stress as the root cause of ill health 33:06 The ability to heal from injuries and illnesses is affected by stress 33:41 What do you do when you're too time poor to meditate? 34:42 the 4:2, 6:2 breath as a quick and easy way to pull out of sympathetic nervous system dominance 35:55 How to deal with negative/draining people. 37:19 How to pull yourself out of a bad day. 41:52 Affirmations to get through a bad day and when you feel pressured to be a certain way. 43:50 Why you should set your happiness around gratitude rather than goal achievement 46:55 Stress busting diet 48:51 The importance of blood sugar control for stable mood 50:50 Balanced blood sugar levels for stronger willpower to reduce emotional eating 52:15 Getting on top of the basics: Sleep, stress, whole food diet. 56:08 Our favourite calming herbs 59:28 How to connect with us