Radical Health Rebel
Welcome to the Radical Health Rebel Podcast, where Leigh, a renowned Functional Medicine Practitioner, CHEK Practitioner, CHEK Faculty Instructor, Active Release Techniques® Therapist, Emotion Code Practitioner, author, and podcast host, takes you on a journey to achieve optimal health, wellness, and happiness. With his extensive training and years of clinical experience, Leigh provides a truly holistic approach to health that has proven effective even when other methods have failed.
Join us every week for insightful discussions and expert interviews focusing on chronic pain, gut health, and skin health. Leigh's diverse background and passion for holistic healing brings you valuable knowledge and practical tips from leading experts in the field. Whether you're struggling with persistent health issues or simply looking to enhance your well-being, the Radical Health Rebel Podcast is your go-to resource for achieving a vibrant and healthy life. Tune in and start your journey to radical health today!
Radical Health Rebel
122 - Overcoming Skin Conditions Using Ayurveda with Sondra Rubin
In this episode, I’m joined by Sondra Rubin, a Board Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner with extensive experience in the ancient healing tradition of Ayurveda. Together, we explore the fascinating connections between skin conditions, autoimmune diseases, and the healing potential of Ayurveda. Sondra dives into the Ayurvedic approach to skin health, shedding light on how internal imbalances can manifest as skin issues and autoimmune responses.
From understanding how diet, lifestyle, and stress impact skin health to exploring Ayurvedic treatments that target root causes, Sondra shares invaluable insights for anyone dealing with stubborn skin conditions or autoimmunity. If you’re interested in natural, holistic approaches to wellness, tune in to discover how Ayurveda can support radiant skin and balanced health from within.
We discussed:
0:00
Healing Skin Conditions With Ayurveda
12:10
Understanding Ayurveda Body Types
18:33
Natural Ayurvedic Eye and Sinus Treatments
25:34
Ayurveda for Skin Conditions
40:06
Ayurvedic Approach to Skin Conditions
48:15
Gentle Detox and Healing Process
58:51
Healing Hormone Imbalances and Autoimmunity
You can find Sondra @:
http://www.anuayurvedahealth.com
https://www.facebook.com/anuayurvedahealth/
https://www.instagram.com/anuayurvedahealth/
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You can find Leigh @:
Leigh's website - https://www.bodychek.co.uk/
Leigh's books - https://www.bodychek.co.uk/books/
Eliminate Adult Acne Programme - https://eliminateadultacne.com/
Substack - https://substack.com/@radicalhealthrebel
YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@radicalhealthrebelpodcast
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What I love about Ayurveda is that it's able to pull out toxins from the body in places that we don't even know they are there. So when we're dealing with skin conditions, we're actually dealing with an imbalance in the body. That's in all three doshas, so it's in the Vata dosha, in the Pitta dosha and in the Kapha dosha.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Radical Health Rebel podcast. I'm your host, lee Brandom. This work started for me several decades ago when I started to see the impact I could make on people, helping them to identify the root cause of their health problems that no doctor could figure out, including serious back, knee, shoulder and neck injuries, acne and e. Back, knee, shoulder and neck injuries, acne and eczema issues, severe gut health problems, even helping couples get pregnant after several IVF treatments had failed, and it really moves me to be able to help people in this way, and that is why I do what I do and why we have this show.
Speaker 2:In this episode, I'm joined by Sondra Rubin, a board-certified Ayurvedic practitioner with extensive experience in the ancient healing tradition of Ayurveda. Together, we explore the fascinating connections between skin conditions, autoimmune diseases and the healing potential of Ayurveda. Sondra dives into the Ayurvedic approach to skin health, shedding light on how internal imbalances can manifest as skin issues and autoimmune responses. From understanding how diet, lifestyle and stress impact skin health to exploring Ayurvedic treatments that target root causes, sondra shares invaluable insights for anyone dealing with stubborn skin conditions or autoimmunity. If you're interested in natural, holistic approaches to wellness, tune in and discover how Ayurveda can support radiant skin and balanced health from within. Sandra Rubin welcome to the Radical Health Rebel podcast. Thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's great to have you here, Sandra, and to kick things off, could you share a little bit about your educational and professional background, the books you've authored and also how you became interested in Ayurveda?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so a little bit about me. I actually got trained at the Southern California University of Health Sciences as an Ayurvedic practitioner, and my background was actually in accounting, so I was a.
Speaker 1:TA for many, many years, and my health journey led me to Ayurveda, to Ayurveda, and what had happened was I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease where the doctors told me that I would be on these heavy hitter medications for the rest of my life and could possibly shorten my life and cause blindness. So I just intuitively knew that there had to be another way. I didn't know what that way was, and that's where I just went down this path of trying to find natural solutions, something that just kind of aligned with my personal, you know, decisions and choices in life, and I just felt like it just felt more, more in tune with how I want to treat my body and it was the only thing that stopped the progression of my disease. And it was the only thing that stopped the progression of my disease. And so after that, I was a huge advocate for Ayurveda Um, and I wanted to just get fully trained and learn more about it and and really be able to help my community, people that I know and um, the people that I live with and um be able to continue to support their health.
Speaker 1:And so I opened up my own practice, and now it is an online practice and I do have several courses available and I do have a few books that I wrote. I wrote one in particular called the Ayurvedic Practitioner's Resource Guide, and it's a mind map guide and a nama study guide which is helpful for people who are studying for the exam the national ayurvedic medical association exam for ayurveda and um. It is available on um, on my website and through amazon and um. That's, that's a little bit about me.
Speaker 2:And that's not your only book, though, right? Do you want to tell us about yours?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have two other ones. I have one for female hormones it is a detox and I also have one for eczema and skin diseases.
Speaker 2:Awesome, yeah, it sounds like we might tap into all three of your books at some point today. So do you mind sharing what autoimmune condition you had?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I was diagnosed with lupus, which is an autoimmune disease that really does affect your kidneys and it does really attack, you know, just like every autoimmune disease, you know the organ and the functionality of the organ, and if it continues to deteriorate the organ, then you start to see a lot of health issues associated with that. So being able to stop the progression of the disease, stop the progression of that deterioration, is really important when we're dealing with autoimmune disease, and that is something that Ayurveda is able to do. So I've seen it with my clients through rheumatoid arthritis, I've seen it with all types of really chronic and degenerative diseases that you know, modern medicine really doesn't have a tool that actually stops the progression. They're able to manage the symptoms and help to manage people's you know everyday well-being, I would say, but it doesn't stop the progression.
Speaker 1:And so what happens a lot of times with autoimmune disease is that one issue is able to be resolved with a medication and then something else pops up because that disease is still progressing. And so that's something that, from a Western medical perspective an integrative approach is really really helpful, because we want to make sure people get the immediate relief that they're looking for when they're dealing with any kind of disease. But looking at that long-term approach, as far as trying to stop the progression and maybe even do some reversal, that is like you know really, um, you know something that can happen, I want to say, all the time, depending on how much the deterioration has happened in an organ or a joint, something like that. But sometimes, if we catch it early enough, you can really start to see that reversal and the body start to heal itself and, um, some really good progress.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I can certainly vouch for that because I've seen what most people would consider miracles happen in front of me with people. Once you give people what they really need, what their bodies or their body minds really needs, the ability of the human body to heal itself is pretty miraculous. So yeah, I definitely concur that, Before we get in any deeper, for anyone who's unfamiliar with Ayurveda, could you explain kind of in simple terms what it actually is?
Speaker 1:Yes, ayurveda is a beautiful medical science that is over 5,000 years old and it uses diet, lifestyle and herbs to help rebalance the body naturally with chronic illness and disease used to like a Western diet or they think that they're eating healthy it may not be the right diet for them, meaning, you know, if you think you're eating salads and you're eating healthy foods, like you know you're not eating any processed food, but you're, you know you're cooking or you're doing like raw juicing, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:It's not for every single person's body type and Ayurveda is a very individualized type of medicine. So we look at the body, we look at your body type. We are able to assess through a very specific set of principles that we go through. It's an eightfold exam where we look at the body as a whole and I know that is a very common kind of practice for a lot of natural health practitioners. But what Ayurveda does and how it looks at food and how it looks at the qualities of the food, how it looks at the qualities of the imbalance in the body, I haven't seen.
Speaker 1:You know, and I've been to different kinds of natural health practitioners I've never seen that approach before, and when I was learning Ayurveda and the effects it had on my body and how everything kind of just made sense to me, that's how I really gravitated towards Ayurveda as the primary way to care for my body. So it is a very old medicine. It is not like this fad diet. You know, it is something that has been kind of intertwined into our lives. We don't even realize, we don't even know. So yoga is actually the sister science of Ayurveda.
Speaker 1:And that is something that's popular, it's very trendy and so people know about it. You know oil pulling, you know that is a practice that is part of our self-care that we do as Ayurvedic practitioners and people who practice Ayurveda. You know that is part of our daily routine. We use oil to very easily treat the body. As far as being part of our self-care routine, we put oil in our nose, in our ears, on a daily basis. These are all things that we do to support and nourish the openings in the body, prevent disease from forming. You know you prevent, you know, tinnitus in the ears by being able to support that, being able to support the nose and the sinuses, being able to support the mouth by doing the oil pulling. All of these things, this practice, that's been kind of, you know, trending or you'll hear about it and you're like, oh, you know what is this and you know you have to be careful.
Speaker 1:Obviously there's different kinds of trends that become very filler and they're actually, you know, contraindicated from an Ayurvedic perspective. But, like you know, the the ice plunging, like that's, that's very, very popular, not really indicated from an Ayurvedic perspective. We wouldn't, we wouldn't say that we should do that, you know, pretty regularly. But you know, things like that are, that are more. I want to also kind of give some, some examples of how you know Ayurveda has kind of, you know, intertwined itself, you know, into you know, our daily lives that we don't even realize. You know, and I feel like you know, yoga and the practice of meditation. These are things that we not, we may not know, not know the origination, but it really does have that Ayurvedic origination.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and am I right in thinking that there's three different types within Ayurveda, three different types of people?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Ayurveda has the three different body types. We call it Vata Actually there's seven, but there are three doshas in the body. So Vata is made up of air and space and it is the biological energy in the body that's responsible for movement, movement. And we sometimes classify people that have a vata body type as like those long, wiry people tend to kind of get anxious, tend to not do so great with changes, tend towards constipation, but they are the people that are very active and they are people who help to kind of move that ball forward. Those people are people that you may know in your life, that are just not, you know, you don't want to those people, you don't want to have them eat salads every day. Those people, should you know, and they're going to be the ones who want to eat salads every day because they think, oh, it's healthy and you don't want to stay skinny and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:The Pitta body type, that is the fire and water principle in the body, and those are the people that are like very, very, you know, strong-willed go-getters. Those are the doctors, the lawyers, the high, you know, goal-oriented people that tend to push themselves very good body type as far as like very symmetrical and muscular, and they tend to go towards getting high blood pressure. They tend towards getting more of those fiery kinds of conditions, maybe looser bowels. You know, those are people that you want to kind of give them some guidance as far as choosing foods that aren't going to aggravate the situation, that aren't going to, you know, not eating spicy food, not eating fried food, because, although you know they could, they tend to enjoy that kind of stuff, but that again, you know, is going. They pretend to enjoy that kind of stuff but that again, you know, is going to make their situation worse.
Speaker 1:And then we have the kapha body type. Those are people who are a little bit heavier set people. It's made up of earth and water and so that if you mix that together it kind of looks like mud, right, and so that's the heavier principle that just generally tends to be more associated with that body type and they tend to gain weight easily. They tend to be the happy-go-lucky people in your life and they will generally get to being lazy if they're not being pushed or motivated. But they are very strong and stable people and they generally don't tend to get sick. They just are like, you know, they're your workhorses. Those are the people that just are reliable and I'm sure you can kind of think of. You know those people that you may know in your life that are like that, but they generally tend to like to overeat or tend to like to eat heavier foods, like ice cream and heavy like meats and hamburgers and steaks and that kind of thing. And those are the people that should be eating the salads, right, their body type, very good, strong digestion, and they can digest the salads very easily and eat the raw vegetables and it wouldn't bother them Doing the juicing diet, that kind of thing. That would be fine for that kind of body type.
Speaker 1:And so those are the three biological energies in the body we call the doshas. But um, you're, as you know, you're born with a very specific body type and um, it generally doesn't change throughout your lifetime unless you get very, very sick or you're old, that kind of thing on your death. But everyone is not generally just one body type vata, pitta, kapha you just generally tend to have more of one or two of those biological energies in the body and that kind of governs who you you know like, emotionally, who you are, or physically what you look like. We all generally have all three. It's very rare to be just like one full body type, but that's possible. So corn to Ayurveda, there's that combination. It could be all vata, all pitta, all kapha. It can be vata pitta, pitta kapha or vata kapha. So those are the you know. Or tridoshak, so meaning you're equally all three. So those are the seven.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's interesting because, as you were talking, I was kind of seeing myself in all of them and I was going to say to you is it a case of you know, you might have a dominance in one, but you've got other elements in you as well? Yeah, I'll definitely say I'm more vata, pitta or pitta vata I don't know if it matters which way around you say it, but yeah, I'd certainly say I'm more those than the others, although I am obviously, if it matters which way around you say it. But yeah, I'd certainly say I'm more those than the others, although I am obviously I'm very reliable and I do eat a lot and I eat a lot of heavy food, but that that tends to work quite well with me. But, um, yeah, it's interesting. Are you, are you familiar with metabolic typing?
Speaker 2:I'm not, so it's. It's a similar concept, but it's. I guess it's a similar concept, but I guess it's a Western version, if you like, for want of a better phrase, of Ayurveda, and it developed over, predominantly over about a 60-year period in the last century. So I guess it started with people like Weston A Price and Francis Barron and Pottinger, royal Lee and George Watson and William Kelly and then the last kind of 40 years, william Walcott. But it's a system that I've been using for like 20 years now and it is kind of similar. There are six main types, but there is a seventh which isn't any of the types, but, um, yeah, it's quite, it's quite interesting. Um, so there's a couple of things you mentioned. You mentioned oil pulling, so I know, I know generally people tend to use coconut oil. Is that what you would tend to use?
Speaker 1:yeah, you can use coconut oil, or you could use sesame oil okay, and you mentioned the nose and the ears as well.
Speaker 2:Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? Litsa was a 30 year old professional woman suffering from severe acne and scarring. She was in utter despair and didn't know where to turn. She worried her partner might leave her because of her skin. Litsa's condition was as bad as I have ever seen. Following testing, it was found that Litsa had toxoplasma, as well as food sensitivities to gluten and soy. Litsa was a great client to work with. She jumped in and followed the program almost 100% to the letter. She cut out the foods that she was sensitive to. She had infrared saunas as advised and used the recommended essential oils. After working with me, litza reported how much her skin had improved and how she now had much more confidence. She has also gone on to marry her partner and started a family. If you're ready to say goodbye to adult acne for good, schedule your acne breakthrough, call with me now at wwweliminateadultacnecom and let's createa customized plan for clear, beautiful skin that lasts a lifetime. Don't wait any longer. Take control of your skin today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so there's. I'm actually doing this treatment right now on a client. So there is something called nausea oil, Okay, and it's a nose oil and it's a part of a daily routine where you can put two drops in your nostril that you want, to lean your head back, put the two drops in and then massage in the oil into your sinuses and that really helps to number one, helps to really prevent any dryness in the sinuses and also helps with wrinkles and it also helps with just nourishing the brain. And so this oil is prepared a very specific way. It's infused with Ayurvedic herbs and it's cooked in a very specific way so that it is considered nasi oil, nose oil. And we have other oils that we use for the body, also infused with Ayurvedic herbs, that are applied topically on the body. You know, just doing an application to the body. So the nose oil is really great for anyone who is.
Speaker 1:I'm doing a very specific treatment for someone who had a twitch that's in the nose, like you know, they're just constantly going like this, you know, and so this treatment is able to prevent that from getting worse. It's able to actually just eradicate the issue altogether, and every year it's just repeated around this. This time this is the fall time, so we generally do detoxification procedures during this time and, from an Ayurvedic perspective, we do this nose treatment. It's a little bit more intense, I would say, than just the daily routine of just doing the nose drops in your nose every day. You just do the two drops every morning. Routine of just doing the nose drops in your nose every day. You just do the two drops every morning. It's good for the detoxification of anything above the clavicle. So anyone who's having issues anywhere in the head region, this treatment is incredible. It could help with sinus headaches, it can help with managing tinnitus, issues with the eyes, and there's a lot of treatments like this, these natural treatments. Actually in India that they won't even prescribe glasses to you unless you've done these types of detoxification procedures If you haven't done the nose treatment and you haven't done, you know we also do like a treatment over the eyes with ghee and we fill these dough rings over your eyes and we pour herbal ghee in there to really clean the eyes. You know, these are really great preventative medicine techniques so that, you know, we don't need to use other artificial ways to kind of get the body back in alignment. So we could do these on a daily basis to maintain, and then if there's any kind of imbalance, we detoxification. You know, we detoxify the area so that we can stop anything that may be progressively getting worse and just manage it that way.
Speaker 1:And so, you know, I love to use we have this ghee, it's called Triphala ghee. I love to use it. I use it in the evening on my eyes before I go to bed. You just line the inner eyelid with the ghee and I've been able to prevent my because I've been wearing glasses since I was in my 20s. But I've read a lot, I'm on the computer a lot. I mean everyone, right, they're on the computer hours. I mean like maybe 10, 14 hours a day I'm on the computer, you know. So I need to protect my eyes. So how can I not, you know, go up in in in glass, you know, in lenses, and and and just keep on getting, you know, progressively worse. So I do this every single night or every other night and I've been able to, you know, keep and maintain my eyes um and, you know, be able to prevent sinus infections, be able to prevent sinus headaches.
Speaker 1:Uh, these are all things that we all could do on a daily basis to kind of just keep and maintain your health.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you were saying you said the inner eyelid, but I think you meant the lower eyelid, right.
Speaker 1:Yes, sorry, yes.
Speaker 2:Just for the listeners that might have wondered what that meant, wondered what that meant. Um, just just so you know, and also anyone listening um, I, I always recommend the bates method for people that wear glasses. So what's that? So the bates method is a way of improving your vision without needing glasses. So I actually did an episode with a lady called lizzie may some time ago, and she's like the that she's the teacher of bates method practitioners here in the uk and I've referred clients to her and their vision has gone from very bad to very good in the space of a few months.
Speaker 1:So that's amazing yeah.
Speaker 2:So again, it's like you know what we do when we're helping people, where we get into the root cause, right, well, that's, that's what the bates method does with people's eyesight. It's pretty, it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2:So you might, you might want to check that out, because that will, that will save you from I definitely will, I definitely will yeah, so you know, we're in that paradigm where if you, if your eyesight's not perfect, you wear glasses, but then what does that do? It makes your eyesight actually worse, and then you need more, stronger lenses and that just perpetuates, which is a great business model. The other thing you mentioned was putting oil in the ear. Do you want to tell us about that as well?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we use ear oil for the ears and it is a wonderful. I mean, you know you could use different, they have different oils, but I would recommend just, if you're going to purchase it, just look for ear oil and you just put two drops in your ear. All you would do is kind of, you know, just follow your nail into the ear canal with the dropper and then just massage it in, you know, around and behind, and then, and then just very gently with a Q-tip, just you know, dry it out. You don't want to leave it in there because it can, you know, if people like shower and get it wet and then it's moist, and then you, you know you can possibly get, you know, fungus, or you know you don't want any of that. So you would just put it, you know, two drops in, leave it in for maybe a minute or so and then just wipe it clean.
Speaker 1:And that is really wonderful for tendonitis, preventing tendonitis, right? So I'm not saying that if you have tendonitis that this is going to help. I'm saying that if you want to prevent it or you notice that you're extremely stressed out at work and that this area tends to get very tight, right, and you could maybe even start to feel like an earache or some pain in the ear. This will very easily resolve that issue for you, and then, if you are experiencing something like tendonitis, you may want to see an Ayurvedic practitioner and be able to get like a full regimen for something like that, Because I know that is a very common kind of condition and people do suffer with it. But I've seen some incredible results in my clinic. So, um, in general, um, it is a very good treatment for prevention, right? So we all about prevention. So if we do these daily practices, we're able to prevent disease from forming in these areas.
Speaker 2:Do you know? Do you know, does that help with vertigo at all? Do you know?
Speaker 1:So for vertigo, um, we can use for vertigo, um, I'm trying to remember there is one very specific oil that we use for, um, for vertigo. So it isn't um, the standard kind of um oil. Um, we would want, we would want a more medicated version okay, gotcha.
Speaker 2:So getting on to what we're actually here to talk about, we're only what? 25 minutes in um. So something that's, you know, really important to me and and something that I work with a lot, is people with skin conditions, predominantly acne, also eczema, to a lesser degree psoriasis, but they tend to be the three conditions that people have that come to see me. So I'm quite interested to kind of get your view on these things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how can Ayurveda help with any kind of skin condition? Yeah, so what I love about Ayurveda is that it's able to pull out toxins from the body in places that we don't even know they are there. So when we're dealing with skin conditions, we're actually dealing with an imbalance in the body. That's in all three doshas. So it's in the vata dosha, in the pitta dosha and in the kapha dosha, okay, and so what that means is is is that there is a dysfunction that's going on in all of those biological energies. Those biological energies all have a very specific purpose in the body. So we need a food to move down the digestive system, so that movement, okay, and that digestive process going into pitta. So we're going from vata to pitta, to kapha, where we're building tissues and bones and processes in the body. All of those biological energies have a function in the body and if there's any dysfunction in the body, then it can't perform its job. So when we're seeing skin conditions, we're seeing an imbalance in all three of those doshas. So that means that there is something that is dysfunctional in all three of those processes. In addition, according to Ayurveda, we have seven tissues in the body, okay, and four out of the seven tissues are disrupted, okay. So we have a very significant imbalance in the body. When we have a skin condition, by the time it's showing up in your skin, you have a very significant imbalance in the body. So you've been basically given an opportunity up until that time to try to address it and you're just not listening. You're eating foods that are not specific for your body type. Your body itself is not able to really cleanse out any, just metabolic toxins that are forming during the digestive process. It's just not able to clean and it's just accumulating and accumulating and accumulating and it's creating these channels and it's going to the skin. So by the time we have a skin condition, we have a pretty significant imbalance in the body. And so what I love about Ayurveda is that there are very specific foods that we can continue to eat and support to help ease the digestion so that we stop, you know, just keep on. You know, compounding the situation, keep on, you know, compounding the situation. But we're also able to do some mild, gentle cleansing of the body, depending on the age, for skin conditions, and then, if that is not effective, then we go for the heavy hitter and we just do a detox and it is something called the Virechina. It's a 14-day procedure and we are able to really get to the root of all of that toxin waste that's in the body. We call it ama. We're able to get to that waste very gently, move it out of the body so that the skin condition can start to heal and stop re-inflaming or creating these eczema patches or any of those types of things, and I've seen incredible results with eczema.
Speaker 1:I have one very, very long-term client of mine and she's been with me and she was, you know, going to all the doctors and she had one, you know, health issue. We were able to resolve it for her. And then she has a family history of eczema in her family. And then so, you know, she's turning a certain age now and you know she's she's, you know, starting to develop this eczema patch and she's like I don't know what this is, and and so we were able to successfully get rid of it for her with a detox. And, you know, we were able to treat all her other symptoms just normal, you know, like all of her other conditions just by diet and doing some herbs, and she was fine.
Speaker 1:But then, you know, this condition did show up, and so we were able to clean out her body and I check in with her Maybe, you know, she'll call me maybe once every two months or so and her skin has been fine and it's been almost a year, so I know that it's very effective. That is just one example, but I've seen incredible examples in my clinic of people dealing with eczema in the face, the entire face being red, the eyes, the whole body, where it's really apparent that you're suffering with a skin condition. Um, people who have told me that you know they, their skin hasn't been this, um, you know, hadn't felt this good since they were a teenager, you know, after getting control of their skin condition. So, um, you know it is. It is something that is a very useful tool for people to be able to manage is by using Ayurveda for skin diseases, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it makes complete sense when you think about it. You know, the largest organ of detoxification in the body is the skin, right? So if you've got a skin condition and you detox the body now, the skin doesn't have to detox so much stuff, right? So for sure it makes complete sense on that level. And what? What frustrates me and saddens me I would say more than frustrates, although definitely both emotions is that, firstly, most people don't don't recognize that the skin is an organ of detoxification and that they're always looking for some magic bullet product that's going to solve the problem, right? Or?
Speaker 2:or they go to someone who's medically trained and the only thing they get offered is some kind of cream or lotion or pharmaceutical right that at best, if it works and often it doesn't at best is going to just reduce the symptoms, maybe a little bit, so in some instances completely. But then what damage is that doing that you know, further down the road? So just just as an example, what I see a lot, or I hear a lot, is that if a female goes to a medical doctor or dermatologist and they've got acne, the first thing they're given or first thing they're offered is oral contraceptive pill, right, which tends to be quite effective for most or for a lot of women not not all women. But then when you consider that some of the some of the um stated side effects are breast cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, endometriosis, you kind of think, well, I'd rather have acne. I don't know about you. You know I I had acne for 18 years. I know how terrible it is. I'm not I'm not downplaying how horrible it is to have any skin condition. I've had eczema as well for about 18 months. So I'm not playing down that.
Speaker 2:But when someone's just looking for this magic bullet product or they're given something just to address the symptom rather than the cause, I just get so frustrated that people don't get that, they don't understand that actually they really need to treat the root cause. And the other issue, as I was alluding to, is that even if you use some topical although generally they don't work or some pharmaceutical, and even if they get rid of the symptoms and you're, you're taking this consistently for decades because you don't want the skin condition to come back, and then you might get to 40, 50, 60, but now you've got heart disease or cancer or something else that this. It might not even just be the pharmaceutical that's caused it. It might be the things that you were doing in your lifestyle that caused the skin condition. But if you don't address that thing that's causing the skin condition, further down the line it could potentially be a life-threatening illness so that 100 accurate, I agree with you.
Speaker 1:I I agree with you 100 because it's just, it makes sense, right like you know that there is this imbalance. Well, just because the symptoms are gone because of this medication doesn't mean that imbalance still isn't there, and that's when you start to see those much bigger problems down the road, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was a question I had earlier and I didn't ask it at the time, but I want to come back to that now. How do you work out what doshas someone has, or what they're dominant in? How do you work that out? Hey there, rebels, I have got something very special to share with you today. Did you know that every month, I release an exclusive no Punches Pulled episode? These are conversations you won't hear anywhere else, with incredible, sometimes controversial guests who expose hidden truths, challenge corruption and bring you to actionable steps to take charge of your health in a world where censorship and restrictions are on the rise. These subscriber-only episodes go deep and, for the price of a single takeaway coffee each month, you can become a paid subscriber to access this extra content. The price of a single takeaway coffee each month, you can become a paid subscriber to access this extra content, the kind of content certain authorities would rather you didn't hear.
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Speaker 1:Yeah, so from an Ayurvedic perspective, we're looking at the imbalance. We call that the Prakruti. So there's the Prakruti, that is, the dosha that you are born with. Okay, so you can take like a little quiz online and see like what you predominantly feel is part of who you are as a person, what you look like, that kind of thing and kind of guide yourself into what dosha you are.
Speaker 1:They're not feeling so great or they're dealing with a very specific health issue, or they're diagnosed with a health issue. Then I'm looking at the vrikriti, the disturbed doshas. So my goal is to try to make sure that the disturbed doshas calm down and that they start to basically behave properly so that you can start to feel better, and so that natural state is where we're trying to get to. A lot of the times, you know, I am going off of their symptoms. I'm going off of the ways that they're aggravating the symptoms and how they're relieving their symptoms. So that gives me an idea of what kind of imbalance is going on in the body. So I'm able to go through just basically a question and answer of their family history and their diets, their digestion, bowel movements, and from there I'm able to really kind of just start to get an idea of what's going on.
Speaker 2:Hmm, yeah, interesting, very interesting. Now you've mentioned you've helped someone with eczema using Ayurveda, is there? Have there been any other skin conditions that you've helped people with?
Speaker 1:yeah, um with cystic acne, um that is really common.
Speaker 2:Um people with regular acne and um psoriasis as well yeah, interesting, and are you familiar with other skin conditions that you know ayurveda is able to help with as well? Maybe you haven't dealt with yourself, but other people have um, yeah, I mean, there is um.
Speaker 1:Some you know, I know a lot of people do you know, suffer with um, vitiligo, the you know the skin condition where you know there's discoloration. Um, I've I've seen people um where, depending on the severity of it, they can go to India to be treated. But there is a way to kind of again same concept really stop the progression of the toxins that are accumulating in the bodies to help stop that disease from progressing, help stop that disease from progressing. So the earlier you start treatment, the earlier you stop the progression of the disease, the better the outcome.
Speaker 1:The longer you wait, the harder it is, the more complicated it gets.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you're familiar with that as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, for sure. So how long? I guess this question is like how long is a piece of string, but I'm going to ask it anyway. How long does it take to heal any kind of skin condition using your approach?
Speaker 1:Um, I would say I like to say between one and three months is where you're going to start to see some improvement, where, if we do a detoxification after that from one to three months after that process that's where the body is starting to rebuild and starting to function properly that we should start to see some improvement.
Speaker 2:And so that might be the start of the improvement. How long might it take to get complete resolution?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it depends on how long you've been suffering with the disease. That will help to determine how long the treatment would need to be. But I've seen it where psoriasis tends to be one that can be very aggressive and a repeated detoxification procedure would need to be done once every six months for maybe a year and a half is generally what I've seen, where it just gets better and better and better. So the you know people are obviously very excited about the fact that their skin is improving. Um, and then, depending on you know, it's a commitment right, and it's hard.
Speaker 1:It's easy to go through these detoxification procedures, but as long as you know the clients are able to handle it and go through it and commit to it you know we consider that as part of the process from an Ayurvedic perspective, the compliance of the Rogi has to be you know where they want to do this and then they're able to see the results. So, and then after that it's once a year just to manage, and that's where I see a lot of my clients, just once a year, go through this detoxification procedure because they want to keep the results.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's not. It's not a million miles away from from how I work with people, actually. I mean, there's a whole series of detox protocols I recommend people do once or twice a year just to maintain optimal health, not even worrying about how their skin is anymore. It's all about getting the most out of your life, right, right, just being at your best all the time you know, having good levels of energy to do whatever it is you want to do.
Speaker 2:I often compare doing a liver gallbladder cleanse to a little bit like in the up. Well, not so much these days, because the technology's changed a bit, but years ago, when you used to go and get your car serviced, you would get your oil filter cleared or changed, right, and I and I liken the liver to the oil filter in your car. Now, if you have one of the older style cars and you never either change the oil filter or got it cleaned, it's going to clog up and the car's not going to run very well. Well, the same thing happens with our liver, right? Our liver has so many things it has to do. It's like a juggler, right, so it's trying to do so many different things, but if it's got so much toxins to deal with. Then some of the other things it's trying to do, you know, balancing your blood sugar and dealing with hormones and all that kind of stuff. It's not going to be able to do it as well. So, you know, it's really important to keep your oil filter as clean as possible. Right, and? And that's just, and I'm just talking about the liver and the gallbladder. That's just two organs in the body. There's, you know, there's a whole, you know, huge system of systems that need to be cleaned on a regular basis. So, you know, when you look at it that way, it's pretty important that you do cleanse at least once a year. You know, otherwise chances are, especially in today's world, that's, you know, we're absolutely bombarded by toxins. It's not like we live in a purely natural environment anymore. You know, we've got hundreds of thousands of man-made toxic chemicals that we're ingesting probably on a daily basis, right, yeah, so, so you've spoken a lot about, you know, when you work with people with skin issues, obviously you look at their diet. You do detox protocols. Can you maybe give us a little insight into what the detox protocols might be like?
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Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's a two week process where you would be taking herbal ghee for mentally larger doses every day and then you would also be following a vegetarian diet during that time. So it's not like a starvation diet or anything like that. Nothing extreme, that nothing extreme. I would just be, you know, touching base every day with my clients during this process to make sure if there's any adjustments that need to be made or any issues that come up, we deal with it right away. And then at the end of the first week we would be doing an aself abhyanga that's an herbal oil application to the body. That is done in a very specific way where I give directions on how to do that. And then on the last day of the week you would be doing a purging, meaning like you'd be taking herbs to actually purge out all of the ghee that's been basically ingested in the body. And so that is basically.
Speaker 1:What we're doing is we're kind of like soaking the pot right With soap and hot water all week long. So that ghee knows where to go, where that toxin is, because it mimics the toxins. It's smelly, it's oily, it mimics what those toxins are in the body. So it goes to it and knows exactly where it is and it attaches to it and it softens it and so when we actually do the purge, the body is very ready to release those toxins from the body. So it's a very gentle, mild approach. It's nothing where you're going to be like, oh, like you know this is harsh and you're feeling, you know you may feel uncomfortable during the process because you know we're actually adding to the imbalance in the body right now.
Speaker 1:So, people generally feel pretty crappy that first week.
Speaker 1:So people generally feel pretty crappy that first week and then the following week you start to feel a lot lighter, a lot cleaner, and that's when the healing begins. So, now that we've cleaned the body, the second week is a restricted vegetarian diet and then after that what we do is go on rejuvenating herbs. Those are herbs that are considered resina herbs. Those are herbs that are that are very supportive for the body, can be taken long term and help with the additional healing and strengthening of your skin and your tissues and your cells in the body, so that everything that you build from that point forward is fully digested and strong and healthy, so that the actual tissues in the body that are getting built are going to be more vibrant, healthier and stronger. And that's really what our goal is. That's what we're trying to do is to make a healthy body, and so that's why it does take a little bit longer, from an Ayurvedic perspective, to heal, because that's what we're doing. It's not a quick fix. It is a slow, methodical process to healing.
Speaker 2:So you mentioned. The second part is to purge the ghee. The thing that came into my mind is which end does the purge happen?
Speaker 1:Well, ideally through bowel movements. That's basically where we're trying to have that, but it depends. Everyone is different, it could go another way, but you know you want to work with an experienced practitioner to guide you through that process, because you know you need to be able to purge out that key and if not, then you could have complications. This day and age, you know everyone has these kind of you know do-it-yourselves. I would say you really want to work with someone who is experienced to make sure you're actually healing right. So I have experience in my clinic a lot where you know people are coming from doing a detox that went south and then they ended up in an emergency room or they had these complications afterwards. And you know it's because you're just, you're not, you don't know what you're doing and or you're following some trend on the internet, and so you really want to work with someone who has experience with detoxification yeah, are you familiar with the Herxheimer reaction?
Speaker 2:No, okay, so the Herxheimer reaction, you probably are aware of it, probably not aware of the name. So a Herxheimer reaction normally happens when you're doing a detox but your body's not able to secrete the toxins fast enough. So you end up with very flu-like symptoms. So your muscles will ache, your bones will start to ache and you've got no energy. You just don't feel very good. I actually think that's what flu is, by the way, but that's a whole other podcast. I think flu is just your body's just trying to get rid of toxins, but that's a whole other rabbit hole that we probably won't go down today. But do you ever have clients that experience that going through the detox and, if so, what do you do in that situation?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I have had clients get sick during a detox. Just depending on you know the symptoms will determine if we can proceed. So you know it's. You know the main thing is obviously making sure that we're able to support their health along the way, their health along the way and, like I said, it's not this very strict kind of guideline where, if something happens that we have to follow, there needs to be some maneuverability with the detoxification procedure if necessary. But I have had people get sick. Just depending on how sick they are, we're able to proceed Generally.
Speaker 1:You know it's hard because if it's during a season where you know everyone is sick, or if you know they're around a lot of people working in the food industry or working in hospitality of any form, you know they're constantly being exposed to people and so you know you're taking a risk. When you're doing a detox, ideally the first I mean honestly the first one generally tends to be the hardest for my clients because there are so many variables going on. They haven't done this kind of detoxification before. Their immune system is at a different point in their life where they haven't really gotten to the point where the next detox. Their immune system is strong. They're dealing with just maintaining. And so you know we're dealing with a different animal by the second time. The first one is always that one that's there's a lot of variables that could happen.
Speaker 1:First one is always that one that's there's a lot of variables that could happen, but for the most part we kind of I 100% try to deal with any kind of illness that could come up naturally, and if it's not possible, obviously they have to go to a Western medical doctor, to, you know, get a prescription. Generally speaking, it's not, you know, the best approach because we have so many tools as natural health practitioners to be able to help people before they get to that point. So, and plus, it's kind of defeating the purpose of what we're trying to do, which is to really rebuild that microbiome into a really healthy environment to digest food. And once you throw you know an atom bomb in there, you know an antibiotic, you're kind of just defeating the purpose of what we're trying to do. Yeah, so, um, for the most part, um, we do kind of just use natural ways to kind of manage any kind of illness along the way, and then, um, and then, uh, yeah, that's just basically what we do yeah, it's interesting my experience of of doing liver gallbladder cleanses.
Speaker 2:The first one I did was by far the worst, and then I did the second one and it was nowhere near as bad and then, since then, I just don't feel anything at all. Um, and I won't tell you how I purged, that would be too much information if I did it. Um, the other thing that's quite interesting so saying that you use ghee for doing, for doing the detox, and obviously in you know the indian subcontinent, obviously, where ayurveda comes from, ghee is is used extensively in the cooking, probably 100% right. And a friend of mine who's been on my podcast I've been on his podcast, dr Ahmed Malik he talks about so he's from his family were originally from Pakistan.
Speaker 2:He grew up in Scotland slight difference there but he was saying when he was young in the 80s, they'd be using ghee all the time and at some point during the 80s his I think it was his mum just said oh, we can't use this anymore because it's so bad for you. We're going to now start using margarine. You know, and you know they completely changed their diet and it wasn't I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't just the ghee, it was lots of other stuff that they stopped using and started using all the advised things to to use. And obviously you know the health, his health, his parents health went went down from that point onwards and obviously in in the modern day. So he was a medical, he was a surgeon for a long time Again, long story. He isn't anymore but it's interesting that you know he's kind of gone full circle. And you know it's quite interesting that you know Ayurveda uses ghee almost almost as a medicine. Right, it's a, it's a food, but it's almost used as a form of medicine.
Speaker 2:That's, that's quite interesting yeah but I suppose, yeah, I suppose certain companies can make a lot more money if uh people are eating things like margarine instead of ghee.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah I know it's, uh, it's really unfortunate, but, you know, hopefully at some point, you know, we're able to subsidize healthy eating and, um, encourage that because, as of right now, the opposite is happening and, um, you know, everyone's health is declining because, of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So we've kind of mentioned these things a little bit, but we might be able to go into a little bit more detail. So you know, there are some skin problems that can be due to hormone imbalances. Acne is one that's quite often due to hormone imbalance, or at least part of it is due to hormone imbalance. Other skin conditions, like we've mentioned eczema and psoriasis they've been suggested as being autoimmune conditions. How do you approach hormone imbalances or autoimmunity from a Ayurvedic position?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you know, I feel like there are so many disruptors in our environment right now, whether it's just food, water. You know you can't be perfect. You can't live in a bubble. You know you can't be perfect. You can't live in a bubble.
Speaker 1:And you know a lot of the times they are very I want to say more now than ever. They're prescribing these synthetic hormones or bioidentical hormones or whatever they want to call it. It's just, it's, in my opinion, not the best way to really deal with the kind of imbalance that's going on in the body. And so we do have ayurvedic herbs that are very specific for supporting hormones, the detoxification procedure, because, like you said, like the liver needs to do so many things, including, you know, digest and metabolize those hormones, and if it's not able to do that, we have to very specifically guide the body to clean out so that we can naturally reestablish this natural hormone balance in the body. And so I like to use very specific herbal gis, one specifically for hormones and reproductive health, and we're able to really just create that balance back in the body.
Speaker 1:I've seen people who are struggling with fertility issues have that cleared up. I've seen people with endometriosis have relief I'm not saying complete reversal, but have relief. And again, it's one of those diseases where you know there needs to be repetition with the detoxification procedure, and a lot of times you know it's hard, you know a lot of people have to, you know, to do that commitment, it's a financial commitment, it's a time commitment, there's the will commitment. You know there's a lot involved and but I've seen I've seen people with aggressive breast tenderness. I've seen people with weight associated with that hormone balance really get resolved. But there is that level of you have to do the work. So Ayurveda puts health back into your hands. So you have the choices. After you're you know, after you know you're, you're given this, this key, this tool to use to manage your health. It's your choice, on a daily basis, to use it. So it's.
Speaker 1:It's sometimes it's a little bit challenging for people who are living, you know, a modern lifestyle, who likes to go out and drink or, you know, go to the restaurants or you know that kind of thing. It's hard to kind of manage your health when you're eating foods like that pretty regularly. And that's the modern lifestyle. I want to say that people, you know, my joke with my family is always like just because you have the money to do it doesn't mean you should, right?
Speaker 1:So people who have all this money and when they want to go to the restaurants, they want to go to takeout, they want to do all this stuff, I'm like that doesn't mean that you should Like you need to actually cook at home. You actually need to put food that you're cooking, that you're providing and the nourishment for, and you're creating that love to cook, into that food and you're choosing those ingredients and you know what you should be eating, you know. So that's the choices that you should be making, and so instead I say spend your money on other things, you know, but not on all this takeout. Like you know, I'll get off my soapbox now but that's what I do.
Speaker 2:So that's hormone imbalances. What about autoimmunity?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so autoimmune same thing. I feel like. I mean I've had success with treating people. You know we call it palliatively. So there's two approaches from an Ayurvedic perspective it's a shamana approach and a shodhana approach. The shamana approach is a palliative approach where we pacify the situation, and then the shodhana approach is a detoxification procedure. So depending on the age of the client, depending on the strength of the disease will determine really, if you know, which approach we go on.
Speaker 1:And so I've had clients who you know detoxification just isn't in their, you know, isn't in their calendar. There's just no way for them to do it. So we do, you know, a palliative approach. So we just pacify the situation. We do very mild detoxification that can be done on a daily basis, mile detoxification that can be done on a daily basis, and watching the diet and being able to kind of just stop basically the progression of the disease. That's the main thing. And then, once we're able to, basically at a certain point, then we can consider a full detoxification.
Speaker 1:But that's the main approach with autoimmune disease that I've seen as the most successful. I've seen where I've had people, you know, getting, you know, injections for pain management due to rheumatoid arthritis and just doing the pacification approach, they were able to delay those injections from once a week to once every other week to once a month, and then not at all right, that's after the detox is not at all right. So you know, you see that progression, you see that healing is happening, but you know it's slower, it's not as apparent. You know it's, it's there but it's. You know, we want to. If we really really want to get to the root, we have to do that detoxification procedure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, really interesting. Yeah, it's been a really really good discussion, sandra, but what's next for you?
Speaker 1:I mean, I just, you know, I'm just continuing to support the community, continuing to, you know, be able to help people, especially, you know, with these kinds of conditions autoimmune conditions, conditions where skin diseases, where fertility issues, where Western medicine really doesn't have a great approach because they're not dealing with the root, and you know we could skin that onion so many different ways with natural medicine. So I just highly encourage people to choose that route first. And if you don't, you know you don't see the results you're looking for, then fine, you know, go to Western medicine and see what they have that are heavy hitters, but know that comes with those side effects, with the, you know the long-term, you knowterm unknown, right, we're just kind of backwards right now. We're going straight to the heavy hitters and then we're making a way backwards into natural medicine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would just say also, if you go the natural route, if you're dealing with the root cause, you need to give it a good go first as well. For sure, as you were saying, ayurveda can take a bit of time. If you're dealing with the root cause, you need to give it a good go first as well, like you know. For sure, as you were saying, you know, ayurveda can take a bit of time. I would say that's the case for all natural treatments. It's not something that you can probably start and all your problems are going to be solved in a week or two. Right, you've got to be consistent and you've got to be persistent and and one of the messages I try and get across to people A it takes time and it's not going to be a smooth road to the end. There's always going to be bumps in the road and you've got to expect them and be ready when that happens, that, oh well, this isn't for me, no, it's just a bump in the road. You've got to keep going. You've got to be persistent.
Speaker 1:For sure, that's great advice.
Speaker 2:Whereas you know the alternative, I'll just pop a pill. That's the easy. That's the easy option, but it very rarely, if ever, is the best option for anybody. Yeah, for sure, awesome. And where can people find you online?
Speaker 1:Sure, they can find me at anuayurvedahealthcom, and that's A-N-U-A-Y-U-R-V-E-D-A healthcom.
Speaker 2:Awesome, sandra, thank you so much. It's been really great chatting to you. I love talking about skin, I love talking about health. So, yeah, it's been really fun for me for the last hour or so. But, yeah, thanks's been really fun for me for the last hour or so. But, yeah, thanks very much for your time. Yeah, thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure. So that's all from Sandra and me for this week, but don't forget to join me same time, same place next week on the Radical Health Rebel Podcast. Thanks for tuning in, remember to give the show a rating and a review and I'll see you next time.
