Rakesh Sethi, BS, CAHP
Wellness Speaker/ Author/
Ayurvedic Practitioner
What is Ayurvedic Consultation?
Archive for the ‘Ayurvedic Medicine’ Category
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!
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Change the Definition of Health and Your Approach
What is your definition of health? When are you really healthy? You should no longer think of health as being one dimensional—as just pertaining to maintaining physical (body) health. You are not just a physical body. Health, as defined in conventional terms, has to be redefined. You must take into account all the components constituting the whole being. Collectively all the components work together to create balance in an individual. According to the Ayurvedic medical system, balance for each individual is unique. Therefore, health in one word can be defined as “balance.”
This balance in you exists:
- when you get hungry at the right times and to the right amount, not too little and not too much.
- when your body produces the right quality and quantity of muscle, fat, and other tissues per your body’s constitution.
- when your body systems function in balance, absorbing the proper amount of nutrition and discarding the proper amount of waste at the right times.
- when all three energies—air, fire, and earth—are in the right proportions for your body constitution.
- when your mind deals with the ups and downs of your emotions without losing balance.
- when your intellect is fully available to exercise self-control over whims and make good decisions.
- when your spirit is full of bliss (calm and peaceful).
When all of the conditions listed above exist simultaneously, you are an embodiment of total health and happiness. You live in true wellness. You attain balance in your equation of Health + Happiness = Wellness.
This true wellness, no doubt, is a tall order to maintain on a continuous basis. The best way to look at your wellness is to imagine that you are walking on a high wire and not on solid ground. You have to work continuously to maintain your balance. A small gust of wind or any mental distraction can throw off your balance. A little mistake can cost you your balance. The reality is that, in spite of your best efforts, there is always some disturbance that could rock your balance. It could be overeating and drinking at a party or an emotionally charged argument with your partner at home, or some conflict at work, or an unfavorable turn in the stock market, or any number of other things that could throw you off your physical and/or emotional balance. You need to make constant adjustments to keep your balance.
Dynamic Model of Health
When you participate in maintaining your balance every day, you begin to live a new dynamic model of health. The old way is the static model where you simply go about living your life and only participate to maintain balance after you become sick. In the static model, sometimes it may be too late for the adjustments to work. The dynamic model is where you truly practice prevention and enjoy its benefits.
You may find it easier to live in the static model of health today, but you will pay with your health and wallet tomorrow. Can you really afford to live in the static model? I would like to introduce you to simple knowledge and strategies in the “Health + Happiness = Wellness” book that will make it easier for you to live in the dynamic model of health.
The above article is part of the Section I taken from the book.
“Health+Happiness=Wellness” will help you discover your unique nature and use that information to design your personalized wellness plan that will not only help you stay away from diseases for the rest of your life; it will also save you a lot of money on healthcare. Click on the book to read more.
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Preventive Care: You Are Your First Doctor
Wouldn’t you agree that no one person on this planet cares more about you than you? Even if the health care system provided disease prevention, health promotion, education to keep both mind and body healthy, and excellent disease management capabilities, you would still need to be your first doctor. Unfortunately, today we do not have a good health management and preventive care system; thus, it is even more important for you to be your first doctor.
What I am saying is that no matter how good health care reforms take place, you still need to be your first doctor. Therefore, start with what you control. Reform yourself to start taking charge of your own health. You need to start understanding your own body’s disease and wellness tendencies. You need to start paying attention to what foods agree with you more and what foods are problematic. You need to become familiar with herbs and spices that are friendly to your body. You need to create a suitable (to you) menu of foods in your daily regimen. The idea here is to use food as your first medicine and the kitchen as your first pharmacy. You will discover how in the next chapter.
The purpose here is for you to heal yourself at the first signs of imbalance (a dynamic model of health). Here, healing means removing the cause behind the symptoms, not just removing the symptoms as is typically done in conventional medicine. If you only remove the symptoms and not the cause, then the cause continues to fester underneath while you continue to suppress symptoms on the surface. This strategy only delays the onslaught of a disease in its more ferocious form. Later, you would require stronger measures to deal with the problem like surgery, stronger medicine, and perhaps developing a lifelong dependency on medication with a risk of side effects.
A recent study conducted by the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and by Lori Knutson, executive director at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing, pleasantly surprised everyone: 76 percent of healthcare workers, 3 out of every 4, selected from a wide range of complementary and alternative natural methods rather than conventional medicine to stay healthy. Could it be that they see firsthand the side effects of prescription medicine in their patients? Or could it be that they know the medicine will only suppress the symptoms but not remove the cause? Whatever the reason, the important point to note is: Acting as their first doctor, healthcare workers selected natural alternative remedies to stay healthy.
So far, the focus has only been on the physical. What about the mental part? From a holistic point of view, the root cause of the disease primarily lies in the mind. Conventional medicine, for the most part, doesn’t address the mental part of health care; however, to stay healthy, you need to discover the weaknesses and strengths of your own mind. You need to become aware of what situations can trigger an adverse reaction in you. Only you, as your first doctor, can prepare to diffuse the situation and not carry mental “heaviness” or stress from it.
In addition, your spiritual part plays a very important role in helping you shift negative mental attitudes such as selfishness, greed, vengeance, etc. that are causing trouble to your mind. As you develop your spiritual side and become more aware of your mind-body and spiritual connections, either consciously or unconsciously, you discover the capacity to heal (balance) yourself from within. Different sections in “Health + Happiness = Wellness” book cover this subject in more detail.
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Women’s Health and Ayurveda
The goal of Ayurvedic medical system is to maintain your health throughout your life through suitable diet, lifestyle, detoxification, and balancing and rejuvenating natural foods, spices, and herbs. However, wrong foods, wrong lifestyle, living with anxieties and stress can take a toll on your body systems. Generally, as we age, Vata energy in all of us increases. Increase in Vata means body becoming colder, drier and lighter (anxious, nervous, insecure). Women in particular experience this more than men. Based on this fact, women’s health and Ayurveda system are wonderfully matched. Ayurveda offers specific recommendations suited more for women’s health than any other system.
Changes in Women’s Body
Women particularly Vata and Pitta body types, tend to lose more juices. Body moves towards dryness. The loss of “juices” leads to lack of lubrication in joints, lack of fluids in endocrine system creating hormonal imbalance, and vaginal dryness. As a result you experience, lack of energy, joint pains, fatigue, painful or irregular periods, nervousness, and anxiety. All these signs are of (aging) body becoming colder, drier and lighter. Your goal is to keep yourself warm, moist, and grounded.
Steps to Keep You Healthier, Happier and Younger
Food as Your First Medicine: First, Ayurveda considers food as your first medicine. If taken right, it is the effective means to prevent diseases or to even treat them. As a general guideline, Ayurveda for women suggests food should be warm, cooked, easy to digest, and moist. Your food should contain whole-grains, mostly cooked vegetables, cold pressed oils like sesame and olive, Ghee (clarified butter) and honey. Include these suggestions in your regimen to not only maintain, but to rebuild your tissues and restore lost juices. Especially use of Ghee in moderation replenishes and lubricates all tissues, reproductive tissues in particular. Both honey and Ghee facilitate absorption of nutrients and act as a conduit to deliver the nutrients to very small hard to reach tissues and keep them nourished and juicy. Limit or avoid cold, dry, and light processed foods.
Ayurvedic Massage: Second, along with regular exercise, include Ayurvedic massage in your lifestyle. A loving Ayurvedic massage in your weekly regimen using warm sesame oil or herbal Ayurvedic massage oil with nourishing, cleansing, and soothing aromatic herbs will nourish, replenish juices, and cleanse your body of toxins. As a result, you slow down your aging and build good immunity.
Herbal Supplement: Third, Ayurveda offers herbs specifically targeting women’s health like Shatavari. There are other herbs for women as well but Shatavari is the most rejuvenating herb for women’s physiology. It increases milk, fertility, and sexual juices. It balances hormones and makes it easier to go through difficult period of menopause. For best menopausal support, include Shatavari in your regimen regularly long before you enter the menopause. In addition Shatavari is detoxifier, builds immune system, acts as laxative, and enhances physical strength.
By simply following above-mentioned regimen, women who frequently experience difficult monthly cycles with headaches, constipation, swelling of the breasts, anxiety, nervousness, or irritability, will find these symptoms slowly disappearing. Use herbal formula Smooth Cycle that include Shatavari to help you smooth out the roughness in your monthly cycle. This formula will also help if you have vaginal discharge of brownish sticky kind or yellow colored with burning sensation or thick and white mucus kind. Another formula Hot Flash Relief which also has Shatavari offers natural Hot Flash relief. You can purchase these herbs in our online store.
No doubt today’s fast paced, stressful, and demanding lifestyle is extremely taxing. But with recommendations from Ayurveda on creating a suitable diet and lifestyle routine, women can live happier, healthier, younger, and enjoy quality of life longer in all areas of personal, family, and professional life.
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What is an Ayurvedic consultation?
The initial Ayurvedic consultation could last 90 minutes or more. During the first Ayurvedic consultation, the complete focus is on you. Who you are, what makes you unique, and why you have symptoms, if any? In fact, unlike doctor’s visit, you can and should visit Ayurvedic practitioner without any symptoms. The goal here is health promotion and disease prevention.
During the consultation, an Ayurvedic practitioner will:
- Uncover your unique mind-body constitution
- Discover your health history and family medical history
- Learn about state of your current health
- Get into details of your daily diet
- Learn about stresses in your life
- Get to know your lifestyle, exercise regimen, etc.
In Ayurveda you and your health are at the heart of the health care system. Every health recommendation is based around your uniqueness. Shouldn’t a medical system work this way, rather than revolving around a disease? Thus a very important first step in Ayurvedic consultation is to uncover your unique mind-body constitution. It gives Ayurvedic practitioner a clear picture about your unique physic, physiology, and psychology. Your original constitution is your true self in balance and health. When you have any physical or mental health issues, you are out of balance or in altered constitution. The Ayurvedic practitioner’s job is to uncover and remove the cause and restore you back to your original (constitution) balance. Imagine if a health practitioner has no clue what your original unique balance is, how can he/she help restore it?
Receive Your Diet and Lifestyle Chart
From Ayurvedic consultation, you receive diet and lifestyle chart created specifically to address your health issue and restore balance. After the issue is resolved, a new diet and lifestyle chart suitable for your original mind-body constitution is created. In Ayurvedic medicine, food, spices, and herbs are used as your first medicine. I would suggest you keep this chart in your kitchen and follow it to participate in your health every day.
The goal of initial Ayurvedic consultation is to fill missing healthy links and eliminate unhealthy revolving around your unique constitution. If you have no issues, visit your Ayurvedic practitioner 1-2 times per year to make adjustments otherwise visit as recommended by practitioner per your situation. Following is an example of Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle chart you receive after the consultation: [View larger version]
“The other day one of my clients told me Rakesh what you are teaching is going to make me self sufficient. I will have no reason to see you again. It seems as if you are working yourself out of business.” Isn’t that what a health practitioner should do- to make you self sufficient?
You can schedule your consultation over Skype, phone or in person. Read what is included in different Ayurvedic Wellness Coaching services here.
Testimonials
“For four years I suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. These diseases are debilitating with flu-like symptoms and extreme fatigue – I needed 14 hours of sleep each day!My illness took over my life, making it impossible to work, take care of my family, and play with my 10-year-old son. After a whopping 15 minutes of analysis, my doctor gave me sleeping pills and antidepressants. He concluded my illness was all in my head! I spent months trying specialists, vitamins, and medications – with no cure in sight. Now I truly was getting depressed and losing hope. A few months ago, I decided to try a more natural approach. I began a program that would take my entire mind, body, spirit, and lifestyle into consideration. My Ayurveda journey with Rakesh Sethi gave me a complete understanding of what my body was going through, why it was responding with this illness, and how to change it. Rakesh guided me through a detoxification process and a new diet, including natural foods, spices, and herbs that were right for my body type. I also incorporated breathing techniques, meditation, and yoga. After only four months, I was a changed person! I feel vibrant and energetic. I feel like ‘me’ again, and it feels fantastic! There is no greater gift than to have quality of life. Thank you, Rakesh!” – L.W., Staffing recruiter
“I had the privilege of being treated by Rakesh Sethi for my anxiety and stress matters. I was working with a major oil corporation and had a lot of things going on in my personal life. The stress became too much, and I was contemplating taking pharmaceuticals for my sleep disorder, panic attacks, and mood swings. I approached Dr. Rakesh, and we spoke about how I could resolve this hardship. Rakesh is very personable. While he encouraged me to reflect on matters in life from a spiritual perspective and continue my meditation with the zeal of a warrior, he also gave me herbal supplements. I continued to take these supplements regularly for more than a year. As a result, my mood swings and periodic bouts of panic and depression are gone, and my level of anxiety is much lower. Rakesh is an engineer from UC Berkeley, and he has given up a lucrative career in engineering to do something that is far more necessary and relevant for today’s world. He wants people to be truly healthy and not go back to doctors again and again. His Ayurvedic way of looking at illness is impressive. He is definitely a doctor for everyone, because he wants us all to be well.” – P.P., Oil and natural gas engineering executive
“I met with Rakesh several times over the course of five months to help me apply Ayurveda to my life. It was such a relief to find someone to address my actual health and wellness needs instead of prescribing a pill or giving general advice. Rakesh used skill and patience to determine my individual nature, and I was very confident in his findings. These findings helped me take control and improve my physical health as well as my state of mind. Rakesh gave me concrete suggestions to improve my health and lifestyle. And they were easy to implement! He truly gives you individual, specific tools to live your best life. Rakesh taught me the relationship between my body and mind. Ayurveda has given me insight and understanding of why I am the way I am – and how to use this knowledge to create a happier, more productive life for myself and the people around me. I cannot say enough positive things about Rakesh. He is a talented teacher and an empathetic and analytical listener. He shows a real enthusiasm and passion for his work, and he truly desires your improvement and satisfaction with your life.” – T.J., Homemaker
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How is an Ayurvedic Practitioner Different from a Doctor?
A good Ayurvedic practitioner and a doctor have one thing in common- both must be patient, good listeners, and understand you. However, the similarity ends here. Doctor has a different approach to health. In a typical visit, doctor spends about 15-20 minutes. His primary focus is on your disease symptoms and how to remove them. Doctor successfully removes them. In this short time the cause of the disease is never discovered or eliminated. So you go on living the same way as before. Without making changes to diet or lifestyle the symptoms come back, perhaps more severe than before. You again go through the same process and get same, or may be even stronger, medication for it. Until one day the medication no longer works and stronger measure like a surgery is the solution.
When you have to, you must use the surgery as a solution. But before you reach that far, why not take a different approach to health. Ayurvedic medical system offers a very different but complimentary approach to conventional medicine.
An initial visit to Ayurvedic practitioner could last about 90 minutes or more. A good Ayurvedic practitioner is
interested in learning who you are, what makes you unique, your body, your mind, your diet, lifestyle, current health, and past health history. The focus is completely on you and the cause of disease symptoms but on not the disease itself. The notion is if you remove the cause(s) and promote health in mind and body, the disease symptoms will disappear.
The other part is promoting health in one person is different from another. You are unique and so is everyone else. Thus in a very first visit an Ayurvedic practitioner uncovers your original unique mind-body constitution. Your constitution gives insight to Ayurvedic practitioner about what makes you, your physiology and psychology unique. Your original constitution is your true self in balance and health. Your disease condition alters your constitution and you start to live out of balance. An Ayurvedic practitioner’s approach is to remove the root cause of the disease and restore you back to your original (constitution) balance.
Can you imagine, if your health practitioner doesn’t know your unique balance, how can he/she help restore it? Schedule a visit with Ayurvedic practitioner and you will change how you approach your health forever. You will slow down your aging, keep your quality of life longer, and save money on health care.
Be Well
Rakesh Sethi, BS CAHP
Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner in San Ramon, California 94583 USA
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