Rakesh Sethi, BS, CAHP
Wellness Speaker/ Author/
Ayurvedic Practitioner
What is Ayurvedic Consultation?
You can Live Happier, Healthier, Younger, and Longer
Online Store
Rakesh Sethi's Blog
How Can You Identify Presence of Ama (Toxins)?
You might ask, what is Ama? In Ayurvedic medicine, accumulation of Ama is responsible for most of the diseases, from a simple bloating/gas to complex and deadly diseases like cancer. So detecting the presence of Ama (beginning of accumulation) in your body is extremely important.
The most fundamental factor in keeping healthy is to have healthy digestion which requires balanced digestive fire for proper optimum digestion. If the digestive fire becomes weak and dull (due to reasons discussed in my book “Health + Happiness = Wellness”), the digestion gets impaired. As a result toxins or Ama is produced and if left unchecked, the accumulation of Ama continues.
Following is a common list of symptoms to look out for in identifying presence of Ama in your body:
- Coated tongue (stays coated throughout the day)
- Weak hunger (Lack of desire to eat)
- Feeling of heaviness in GI Tract
- Gas/bloating almost after every meal
- Gases with foul odor
- Foul odor in sweat
- Heaviness and feeling lazy (Lack of energy)
- Frequently feeling fatigued
- Stiffness in body, lumber region, spine or joints
- Incomplete or unsatisfactory bowl movements
- Sticky, poorly formed stools that usually sink with foul odor
- Frequent urine with foul odor
If you are experiencing any of these symptoms frequently, it is time to do the cleansing or detoxifying. Fasting and exercising (though not together) are the best way to “burn” Ama and cleanse the body systems. You can read more in another article “How to Detoxify Your Body” or in the book “Health + Happiness = Wellness”.
In case you have too much accumulation of Ama, the best course would be to see an Ayurvedic practitioner and perhaps go through “Panchakarma”. Panchakarma is an Ayurvedic protocol for detoxifying the body riddled with toxins in a matter of few days.
Of course your goal should be to catch the symptoms early enough so you can use self practice and less expensive means to detoxify and free your body of Ama or toxins. Wishing you the best!
What is the Future of Personalized Medicine?
Imagine having a “Bio ID” card with your unique characteristics. All your unique characteristics like Phenome, Genome, Micro-biome, Environmentonome, Diet, and Lifestyle are on the card. You could be cross the street or cross the continents, if needed; a practitioner can access your entire bio information and deliver a personalized medicine, necessary care, right there and then.
Imagine, based on your uniqueness, a practitioner mining through Health (IT) Systems like the intelligent evidence based decision support systems to offer you personalized missing healthy links and other preventative recommendations to prevent diseases in the first place.
On the other hand if intervening to address serious diseases, a practitioner will address the root cause rather than just the symptoms and that too using personalized medicine designed to suit your genomic make up which would not produce adverse side effects.
You could participate in your own healthcare every day. You could simply log-in to the health information system and perform what if analysis. Make adjustments to diet, lifestyle, and environment to see how it would impact your health, before making the changes. An intelligent decision support system in the health information system guides you and if you agree to make any changes, they become part of your health record.
Practitioners and people will change the way they approach the healthcare. The system would change from a disease management to a health management system. More emphasis would be on upfront disease prevention and health management.
Healthcare organizations will be rewarded for their performance of keeping assigned population healthy and not just for disease management. I am sure you can think of many other ways how information technology will play a role in our healthcare. We are just beginning. Will it be possible by 2025? What do you think?
How Religion Benefits or Plays Role in Your Wellness
Religion benefits and plays a very important role in our complete Mind Body Spirit wellness. But how? To answer this let us first define religion. The word Religion comes from Latin word religare. Ligare– means to unite and re– means again or back. So the meaning of religion is the one that “units back to your origin”.
What is our origin? Universal consciousness, force, energy, or out of love we have called this energy “God”. No matter what name you give, our origin is one and the same. The purpose of religion is to open our mind and thereby gaining the ultimate experience which merges all distinctions of color, caste, creed, all philosophies, dogmas, our body, mind, & intellect, time, space, and causation in this world & in all other worlds into ONE. Any systematic approach we take to experience this ONENESS is your Religion.
I find the following short story by William Levacy very interesting in illustrating this point. “It seems that God was sitting one day and playfully remarked, “I would like something more enjoyable to do!” So He decided to create a splendid yet complex game for Himself, perhaps a magnificent puzzle. He decided, “I will make this puzzle out of Me! I will break Myself down into all the myriad creatures and creations of existence, and as part of my game, try to bring all the pieces back together into Myself.” God thought for a second (probably eons in our time) and said, “Now since I am God and I can do anything, I will make this puzzle really challenging and fun. I will not only break Myself into all these pieces of creation and bring Myself back together…but I will also make Myself forget that I did this!”
So our challenge, since we have forgotten, is to become aware of who we really are? In words it is easy for us to recognize who we really are but in actions it is entirely different story. When we act identifying only with our physical body, we are like any other machine. When we act identifying with our body & mind, we are a physical being with emotions. When we act identifying with our body, mind, & intellect, we are a physical being with emotions and ability to think & analyze.
In all above instances we act as if we are separate & disconnected entities from rest of the creation. Beyond BMI (Body, Mind, Intellect) is our real Self (God Itself) that is experiencing the creation thru BMI. And it is this real Self when we identify with, we realize that we are not separate & disconnected. However, our BMI can only experience physical objects, emotions, and thoughts but not the Self. It is not possible for BMI to experience the Self as the Self is the subject sustaining the BMI. Just as when we are holding the tweezers, it is not possible for the tweezers to hold the very fingers that hold the tweezers. This is where the benefits of religion come in to takes us beyond our BMI to experience Self (Oneness, God, Energy, Force, and Universal Consciousness).
As long as we continue to identify only with the BMI, we continue to see ourselves as separate beings disconnected from our origin and suffer. Our suffering stops when we start to assert our real Self in all our physical, emotion, & intellectual actions. Any systematic approach that supports our personal efforts in asserting our true Self in all our actions in life is our religion. Does that mean if we do not belong to any religious institution, we do not have a religion and we need to choose one? Absolutely not! Remember your religion is your own personal systematic approach that works for you. It need not have a label of any religion. On the other hand if you belong to a religious institution, does that mean you need to change your religion or quit the institution? Absolutely not! You only need to evaluate and make changes accordingly.
Carefully evaluate your religious path if it does not take you to the experience of oneness, it should be replaced with the path that does take you to the experience of oneness. Your spirit has inherent affinity for this oneness. When you start stuffing your mind with doctrines, ideas, and thoughts that go against this, it creates “indigestion” for your spirit & mind. To live with such “indigestion” creates conflict in your spiritual body which will ultimately manifest as disease in your mind & physical body. All benefits from religion are lost.
A point to note is every one of us has a religion whether or not we belong to any Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or other faiths. Religion is our personal way of living, our routine, our habits, food we take, emotions we take in & give out, thoughts we have, and all actions we do every moment of our life. If we live true to our Self, we will benefit from our religion in promoting health in us. Your religion is a one-on-one relationship between you and your Self (God). Life is a journey back to our Origin. Enjoy & “travel” in good health.
If you liked this article then biggest compliment you can give is by sharing it with others. As always keep in mind natural health tips along with clean eating offer preventive care and promote health and wellness naturally. Be Well!
Share your comments, thoughts and suggestions below. I appreciate your time & will take the time to read every single one!
Thank you for your time and attention. If you liked this article then biggest compliment you can give is by sharing it with others and spread this awareness. Contact me with your results & feedback.
Be Well!
Type 2 Diabetes Prevention or Treatment: The Real Problem Could Be Your Body Type
Type 2 Diabetes prevention strategies are generally based on proper diet and increased physical activity. While these strategies do work, I believe the effectiveness of any Type 2 Diabetes strategy can be greatly enhanced by understanding one’s unique body constitution. This approach, based on Ayurveda principles, for preventing diseases including diabetes is discussed in my new book “Health + Happiness = Wellness: Discover Your Unique Nature and What Specifically Works for You”.
Type 2 Diabetes is on the rise and affects millions of people worldwide, even celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and many others. I thank the recent headlines with stories about high profile celebrities who have openly discussed Type 2 Diabetes in the media and brought this issue to front and center. The problem has become so severe that is almost becoming an “epidemic”. CBS News recently reported about the Diabetes Atlas that projected 10 percent of the world population will have Diabetes by 2035. Forbes, in a story on the same source, called the problem ‘devastating’ and stressed the need for awareness and new medications. That’s the very bad news.
The good news is that Type 2 Diabetes can be prevented. If not prevented, it can be treated using natural, easy to implement home remedies. While many people put forth the idea that a specific type of diet may be the key to preventing Type 2 Diabetes that may not necessarily be the case. I think the real key lies in knowing one’s unique body constitution and using that information to formulate a unique diet and lifestyle plan.
In the Ayurvedic medicine, there are certain body types that have increased tendency of becoming diabetic. However, the trick is to discover who you are early in your life, what is your body type and live the suitable diet and lifestyle AS PER YOUR BODY TYPE. If you do stick to it, you can avoid diabetes altogether.
Once you realize your unique body constitution and live accordingly, you will greatly increase the effectiveness of diabetes prevention and treatment strategies. This however does not stop with Type 2 diabetes – a big bonus here is it holds true in regards to all health care and disease prevention strategies. The book “Health + Happiness = Wellness” outlines the key practical and comprehensive steps in regards to achieving and maintaining optimum health revolving around your unique body type.
Other articles on diabetes: Incredible Veggie for Weight Loss and Diabetes: Bitter Melon, 7 Benefits of Cinnamon When and How Much to Take
The Link Between Food Body and Mind
Everyday research is uncovering that there is a strong link between the body and mind or your physiology and psychology; the different foods you eat, based on your mind-body constitution, interact differently with your physiology. There is a strong relationship between the types of foods you eat and the quality of emotions you stimulate in your mind. Use the following as a guide to fine-tune your diet even further beyond what is just healthy the body to what promotes and supports better quality of emotions.
Foods that invoke Enlightened quality of (mind) emotions:
Milk, fresh fruits, whole grains, fresh vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds are all good for supporting the enlightened quality of mind. However, fresh fruits and dairy products (excluding fermented cheeses) are the best in influencing the enlightened quality of mind. In preparation, use little or no onions, garlic, or red chili. Use just enough oil—not too much.
Foods that invoke Egoistic quality of (mind) emotions:
All meats, bleached flour, chick-peas, onions, garlic, and fermented cheeses. In preparation, when you use lots of onions, garlic, salt, and oil, you change the food’s energy to where it brings out more of the egoistic quality of mind.
Foods that invoke Ignorant quality of (mind) emotions:
All old-spoiled foods, bitter and sour foods, deep fried foods, unripe fruits and vegetables, fermented-old foods, intoxicating liquors, foods that are prepared using sour or spicy hot spices, and/or a lot of oil.
Practical Suggestion: How should you use this information? By combining this information with eating foods based on your unique mind-body constitution, you can design your diet regimen and fine-tune your recipes. A word of caution here! Do not try to shift your diet toward the enlightened quality overnight. You must balance your taste, enjoyment, and health in making a slow transition toward the enlightened quality. This gives you a goal to shoot for so you will make a lasting change.
Read more about selecting suitable foods as per your mind-body constitution in the “Health+Happiness=Wellness” book.
How to Make Powerful Anti-Aging Strategies Part of Your Lifestyle
We try many things to slow down aging – anti-aging foods, anti-aging drugs, hormones, diets, pills and surgery. However let me share the most powerful strategy lies elsewhere.
Everybody wants to slow the aging process and remain healthy. We try many things – anti-aging drugs, anti-aging pills – hormones, foods, diets, pills and various types of cosmetic surgery. Most doctors tell us the key to aging gracefully is to exercise and eat healthy. Regardless of the approach taken, the health benefits achieved by these anti-aging methods can be limited for some people and practically non-existent for others. Anti-aging strategies, if not applied intelligently and with care, can create even more problems than they solve. Why is this so?
Because every person is unique. What is healthy and promotes wellness for one person may not be healthy for another. What works for one person may produce no benefits at all for another. There is no easy, one-size-fits-all answer for everyone. Every person has a unique constitution. Therein lies the real key to success for those who hope to achieve long-term wellness and dramatically slow the aging process.
Healthy living, based on the Ayurvedic medical system can take an individual’s health to a whole new level and slow down the aging process. The key word here is ‘individual’. Every individual is unique. There are 5 key points we must understand:
1. Before you embark upon your healthy living path, you must know what makes your body-mind composition unique. Eating and living healthy revolving around your unique composition creates a personalized wellness path which can really slow down aging throughout your life.
2. Healthy living, utilizing your unique composition, facilitates your body’s inherent ability to heal itself. Your body is self-sufficient. It is the wrong thoughts and foods that compromise its ability to live in health.
3. Once you start to eat and live according to your unique mind-body constitution, you create less stress and toxins in your body systems. You live disease free. That is the underlying secret to really slow down aging naturally.
4. On your personalized wellness path, you promote health and participate in your wellness every day. This is the true definition of practicing preventive care and living disease free. Practicing preventive care is NOT taking tests to find out if you have a disease or not. Prevention is what you practice prior to taking those tests.
5.Your wellness path is your own personal healthcare reform. There is no healthcare reform for you unless you take charge to reform your own health.
When you base your approach to everyday living on Ayurveda as per “Health + Happiness = Wellness” book, you participate in your health every day. Ayurveda is a health-management approach that encourages wellness, rather than a disease-management approach that treats illness. In Sanskrit, ‘Ayur’ means life, and ‘Veda’ means science.
In addition, Ayurveda medical science addresses each individual as an entirely unique person. Unlike traditional Western medicine’s one-size-fits-all approach, the Ayurvedic medical system recognizes that everyone has a unique mind-body constitution. This unique medical science addresses the whole person – not just the physical being. Thus you create a healthy lifestyle personalized to your uniqueness and slow down the aging process.
Ayurvedic Diet Adjustments with Your Seasonal Cycle
What is the Seasonal Cycle?
In Ayurveda the year is divided into three main seasons. Mother Nature changes and her seasons follow each other like clockwork. The changes in Nature affect all living beings living on the planet. For some, these changes have beneficial effects, and for some, they do not. It all depends on the season and your mind-body constitution. A proper seasonal adjustment to your diet will minimize the negative effect on your mental and physical health.
How Do Energies Change with the Seasons?
The Vata, Pitta, and Kapha energies change in each season. One of the energies dominates while the other two virtually have no impact during that season. Vata, Pitta, and Kapha each dominate one of the seasons as shown below.
Kapha energy increases in Nature during the spring season. This means that if you have a Kapha constitution, the Kapha energy in you is likely to be aggravated in spring. Pitta energy increases in Nature during the summer season. This increase means that if your constitution is Pitta, the Pitta energy in you is more likely to be aggravated in summer. Vata energy increases in Nature during the fall/winter season. This means that if you have a Vata constitution, the Vata energy in you is likely to be aggravated in fall/winter. The energy that dominates the season dictates what adjustments you need to make to your Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle. In order to keep your balance, you must change to match the change in energy in that particular season.
My point here is that we need to be mindful of changes in outer Nature and make adjustments in our regimen, diet, and lifestyle accordingly such that our inner nature remains in balance.
One of the best nourishing things you could do during fall/winter seasons is warm oil massage. If you do not make these adjustments, you may develop constipation, joint pains, and nervous system related conditions like anxiety, depression, and loss of memory. Discover more about spring and summer seasonal adjustments in the “Health+Happiness=Wellness” book.
As You Change Your Clothing, So Should Your Diet
A good way to remember about seasonal modifications is to observe how you change your clothing. As the season changes to summer, you change your clothing to lighter, cooler, and softer, more calming colors. As the season changes to fall/winter, you change your clothing to warmer, heavier, and darker colors. And as the season turns to spring, you change your clothing to a bit lighter, brighter, but still somewhat warm colors that are not as cool and light as in summer. Work this pattern into your Ayurvedic diet as well. In this case, what you put on the outside is a guide for what you put in the inside.
Ashtanga Yoga: What is It and its Role in our Wellness
Did you know that yoga is not just a series of different physical exercises? Of course, it is that, but “Health+Happiness=Wellness” book describes it is much more when it comes to promoting health in the body and mind. The word yoga comes from Sanskrit and means “to unite.” But what is it uniting? It is uniting the spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and physical components of you for one single purpose. In our case, it is wellness! You may have heard of another purpose of yoga which is self-realization. Although I will touch upon many aspects that are fundamental to reach self-realization, my focus in this book is to help you reach and maintain wellness.
Yoga is an integral approach made of eight limbs (Ashtanga) working together in harmony for a single purpose of promoting wellness in you. Let’s go through what is Ashtanga Yoga quickly:
Can you imagine a life filled with wrong personal and social conduct, ruled by the five senses, and only guided by the emotions? Can you imagine this life producing peace, health, and happiness? You cannot! It is not possible. The emotions are a good servant but not a good master. The intellect is the master and must take charge. The following analogy out of “Health+Happiness=Wellness” book illustrates this relationship beautifully:
Imagine your body as a chariot, your intellect as a chariot driver, your mind as the reins, your five senses as the five horses drawing the chariot, and your desires as the roads you travel on. Your intellect must at all times be in control of the reins (mind) and direct the horses (senses) to keep the chariot on the right roads (desires) for creating wellness. Otherwise, five horses (your five senses) running wild and out of control would drive the chariot (body) on the wrong roads, creating disease and unhappiness.
Try to understand that yoga is more than just physical exercises. When you practice all eight limbs of yoga, including right thoughts, words, actions, social behavior, physical exercises, self-control of vital life forces, and self-control of mind with vigilant intellect, then you unite your spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and physical components all behind one single purpose, and that is wellness!
Read in “Health+Happiness=Wellness” book what does being healthy really means, why you are your first doctor, what makes you different, and how to design your personalized wellness plan according to your unique body and mind. Discover this and much more in this book. You will change your approach to health and wellness forever.
Click on the book to read more.
Common Herbs in the Kitchen: Your First Pharmacy
Believe it or not, all common herbs you use in the kitchen come with numerous medicinal benefits. There is an extensive trail of research that shows how every one of these common herbs provides some of the similar benefits as pain relieving, antibiotic, or anti-inflammatory medicines, and without the side effects. Using these natural herbs regularly in your diet can keep your physical body pain-free, strengthen its strong immunity, and enhance its vitality.
The following list of herbs are the most common herbs in the kitchen. If you do not use them now, you should seriously think about stocking your kitchen with them. These herbs are used in cooking delicious recipes. Not only will you enjoy delicacies, but you will also enjoy disease-preventing benefits. Significant research has been done on the following herbs with respect to their various disease-preventing benefits. The types and amounts of herbs you use will be as required in the recipes or the dosage written below, and they are for prophylactic (disease prevention) purposes only. You can work with an herbalist or Ayurvedic practitioner to use herbs for therapeutic (disease healing) purposes.
In my practice, I have noticed that people will often question whether an herb will work for them when it comes to natural healing. “Will this really work for me?” they will ask. But they believe in drugs unconditionally. The truth is that you will often hear your doctor say, “Try this prescription and see how it will work for you; if it doesn’t, we will try another one.” It is the same with food and herbs. You have to give them a try to see whether they will work and how well they will work for you.
However, there is one golden rule of Ayurveda you must keep in mind:
List of Herbs and Spices Recommended for Your Kitchen
Get the entire list of herbs and spices in the “Health + Happiness = Wellness” book
Get the book now to discover which herbs are more suitable based on your unique mind-body constitution, which herbs you can use under certain conditions, which herbs you should avoid, or take with certain caution.
Natural Asthma Treatment Can Save Money and Your Wellbeing
Asthma occurs due to obstruction in the respiratory channels. The airways in the lungs tighten up which leads to difficulty in breathing, coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Asthma is a chronic condition. People suffering from it, feel it every day and many suffer for the rest of their lives. While there are many prescription remedies with possible side effects, Ayurvedic approach can minimize asthmatic symptoms or eliminate completely with natural asthma treatment.
In Ayurvedic system asthma is mostly Kapha related aggravation. During period of life, many children exhibit asthma symptoms. However, many grow out of these as they leave Kapha period and enter the Pitta period of their life. If you need to, you can use the following approach to comfort the children going through this phase as well.
To follow the Ayurvedic approach, you need to first recognize and remove the causes from your diet and lifestyle:
- eating cold, dry, heavy, or fried foods
- overeating or sometimes missing meals altogether
- eating excessive sweets or dairy products
- drinking cold or icy cold water and drinks
- living in dusty, smoky, or polluted area
- living in cold and damp environment
- doing excessive travel
- living with stress, anxiety and negative emotions
Carefully look at your diet and lifestyle. Do your best to eliminate any of the causes listed above in your diet and makes changes to your lifestyle accordingly. And then implement the natural Ayurvedic approach. The following diet, herbs, and lifestyle recommendations are for the long term asthma treatment:
- Your diet should include warm, moist, light, and cooked foods. Use chilies, onions, ginger, and garlic in your recipes every day. These are all heating anti-allergy herbs that break down mucus and open channels. Adding these herbs to your food in moderation is great long-term solution for asthma. If you cannot take them in your food, take in capsules with your food.
- Make effort to always drink warm water and warm teas with warming herbs like cinnamon, licorice, ginger, holy basil, or cloves.
- Add peppercorns (black pepper) to your regimen. Peppercorns are warming, break down mucus, detoxify, and support formation of healthy lung tissues. It does a great job of keeping your airways open. You can take them in a capsule form or in your tea throughout the day. Peppercorn is perhaps one of the best herbs for asthma. However, use it in moderation if you have high Pitta energy in your constitution.
- Take turmeric to reduce inflammations in the airways. Turmeric’s anti-inflammatory property reduces inflammations in the respiratory channels. You can take turmeric in capsules after the meals.
- Take licorice to support healthy lung functions. It also aids mucus expectoration without increasing Pitta energy, especially good for constitution with high Pitta.
If you find it difficult to work these herbs into your daily regimen, simplify by getting the Protection Plus
in our herbal store. It is an Ayurvedic formula that combines multiple herbs in one tablet for respiratory system. Besides simplifying in taking the herbs, the herbal formula is keeps your energies balanced.
Make your lifestyle as stress-free as possible. This is very important. Talk to a practitioner to release stress and remove any mental blocks. Negative state of mind can often trigger an attack. There are mind calming and nerve tonic herbs like Valerian, Shankhpushpi, and Ashwagandha to support you temporarily. Do not overexert. Add light exercises into your routine. Try to stay in warm and dry environment. Wear warm clothes.
The above recommended diet, lifestyle, and herbal support are natural solutions for the long term. Follow them and you will minimize the symptoms. But don’t be surprised, you might completely eliminate the asthma altogether.
