194 – Ancient Ayurveda Tools to Bio-Hack Inflammation [Podcast with Dr. Shivani Gupta]

On today’s podcast we learn all about Ayurveda with Dr. Shivani Gupta. Dr. Gupta created a Modern Ayurveda program and Fusionary Formulas to fuse east and west practices for self-care, digestion, stress reduction and metabolism.

PCOS Inflammation is a root cause of so many health issues. In this podcast, Dr. Gupta explains at home remedies to reduce inflammation naturally to help with bloating, brain fog, fatigue, skin issues, depression and more. She explains that Ayurveda has three different types of Doshas which are: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Everyone has a dosha that you’re born, knowing your dosha can help you live a healthier and more balanced life. It can provide insite for how you should respond to stress, what you should eat and how to personalize self-care for YOU.

Tune in to learn:

• The 3 different types of dosha & what they mean
• Simple practices of Ayurvedic self care
• How to manage PCOS inflammation with Ajurveda
• How to feel at home in your body & feel whole
• The benefits of Turmeric
• Learn how to come back to your home dosha base

 

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TRANSCRIPT:

Amy Medling:

Dr. Shivani Gupta is an Ayurvedic practitioner who’s spent over two decades studying gurus, leaders and changemakers changemakers and Ira VEDA. She’s also the founder of fusion airy formulas and Ayurvedic supplement company, and she helps patients to improve their longevity and vitality, reduce chronic pain, acute and low grade inflammation and optimize their health. And I’m really thrilled that Dr. Gupta is here with us today because she’s going to be teaching us about ancient tools and strategies from Ayurveda for biohacking our own PCOS inflammation. So welcome to the PCOS diva podcast, Dr. Gupta.

Dr. Shivani Gupta

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

 

Amy:

So I love to lead our podcasts with the background story, because I think most of us health practitioners have our own struggle that we dealt with that. And then we conquered. And we’re here to sort of share what we’ve learned along the way. And I know I read your story, and I know you have one of those. So why don’t we start with your story?

Dr. Shivani Gupta

For sure. So you know, I grew up thank you for asking that I grew up in America, born and raised in a very Indian family that had just immigrated to the US. And growing up no matter what health issue I had, my grandpa would pull out her, we call them a salad honey put this like spice box that we use every night for cooking. And she’d like to say, Oh, you need turmeric or Oh, you need hing or oh, let me make you this tea or this recipe. And so what I loved is she always pull out a solution that was natural, simple and came right from the kitchen. And it took me many, many years to understand how powerful those tools were because I now use them as a mother on my own children. But I remember growing up, I used to get chronically sick, whether it whether it was me going to India every year to visit the grandparents, or just going to school, if someone seized, I would catch it. And so by high school, I had started taking augmentin and antibiotics month after month after course after course, because back then if you go to the doctor with a goal and give you an antibiotic, you get better faster and you move on. That was the thought process. And so it took me going to college to finally realize, Wow, I have to step up and defend my immune system in a proactive way. What does that mean? What do I need to do about that? And then I went to college in India, when I was in college, I got catastrophically sick once and I was so frustrated that I was about to go to the hospital sick and I thought what have I done wrong? Like I tried to do good things I tried to eat well, I tried to exercise I tried to sleep well, I tried to be a good kid. And yet it’s still something missing. And so that’s where I said, You know what? I’m done. I’m gonna go find a new way. And I said, I’m in India, land of Yoga and Ayurveda. And you guys are reaching into the wrong toolkit to try to help me I’m gonna go to discover this one myself. And so I went on this journey. And I realized and learned through all my studies that inflammation is the root cause of most diseases. The Diabetes that was ravaging my family was due to stress, inflammation, obesity and these kinds of issues. And my goal was, how do I reverse it for my family? And how do I build a successful life but never have those things happen to me. And so that’s where I Aveda came in. And, and now as an entrepreneur, and as a mother, I find that I learn more and and embody more in practice more from my RV that every year because I need it more and more year after year. And you have such a unique opportunity I find with our VEDA to dive deep and keep getting more and more tools as you need them through your health journey.

 

Amy:

I am going to just sort of focus on inflammation on this podcast, but I imagine after being on all that augmentin, you must have had some gut issues and I you know, and I Aveda is a great tool. Well, we’ll have to do another podcast talking more about God. Sure.

 

Dr. Shivani Gupta

For sure. I’m still repairing my gut from high school. I swear it’s taking a lifetime but it’s worth it because I am stronger and healthier than ever.

Amy:

Yeah, it’s amazing one course of antibiotics it just really can knock you off for a long time. So for those who are new to Ira VEDA, can you give us like a little 101 explanation about wise Ira data?

Dr. Shivani Gupta:

Yes, so IRB, there’s a system of medicine and health and healing from India that’s over 5000 years old. So to give it reference, just like you have homeopathy, naturopathic medicine, Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, all these amazing systems of medicine. Ayurveda stands alongside them. And within our VEDA, we have multiple modalities that we use to help people. But I evade them means the science of life. It means a way of life that we can live every single day. That’s truly preventive, of diseases and issues. But it also is a way of life that puts us into alignment to feel our best to have our body be so vibrant. A lot of times people are like, how do you look? So yeah, I’m like, I don’t know, I just live this lifestyle and it’s beautiful. And it keeps me feeling like I’m in my 20s energetically. So it encompasses diet, digestive fire, really honoring, honoring digestive system as the primary focus, circadian rhythm, living according to nature’s clock, understanding your own body, constitution and living according to that. So nutrition, detoxification, sleep and self care, and all these things come together to embody a lifestyle. But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. I like to break it down into the simple golden nuggets that people can use that help them make their life easier, make their life healthier, take themselves out of crisis situation, and let the body ultimately heal itself.

 

Amy:

All of that sounds so good. I mean, I think that most women who are listening have kind of tried the conventional medicine route, the Metformin birth control pill, and realize that healing requires so much more than just a pill. And I think that’s why I love ayurveda because it takes into account the whole person and, and suggests a real holistic means of healing. And I was sharing with you before we started recording that, over the last year, I kind of embarked on creating a series of five day mini courses to live in accordance with the seasons. And those are all based on Ira Vedic principles and women with PCOS really need to honor their circadian cycles. And we’re finding out that that circadian cycles are can be dysregulated, and women with PCOS and I have found that living according to your according to the season, in accordance with your dosha I don’t know if I’m saying that. In accordance with I’m not sure that’s the right terminology. But that is really helpful. So maybe you can if this all sounds really interesting to somebody, where does one start exploring Ayurvedic medicine and whether you know how to apply some of those principles in their own lives?

 

Dr. Shivani Gupta

You know, it’s a great question that I, I find, I read that it’d be so vast that sometimes it’s, it can feel impossible to dive in. So I always start with the dosha, I’ve created a dosha quiz on my website, it’s free, you just go to Shivani gupta.com. And it’s right there. And my goal was if I just showed you what your those shot is, and give you some understanding of Ella, mentally who you are, you might be more fire, you might be more wind, you might be more Earth water. That self understanding, just beginning is very important. And once you understand those shots, and you start to adjust your dosha that creates huge shifts in your life and your body. I can fix fixes the wrong word, but I can support people on their health issue journey. With dosha then we go to circadian, then we go to self care rituals, then we go to diet, then we go to data so far. So your dosha is really kind of the key. It’s the center of the circle, before we embark on everything else.

 

Amy:

Yeah, you know, I’m glad that you said that. And I encourage listeners to go to your website and take that dosha quiz. We’ll have the link in the show notes. But that was such an aha moment. So I’m pretty much 100% vata type, I might lean a little more of Sebata is kind of winter. We’re recording this in December, as we’re kind of in the middle of vata season. And I have found, I remember feeling really depressed every, like October into November, and I could never really understand it. I know that the light had something to do with it, but I knew that there had to be something greater than that. Just the light, the light change in daylight savings. And it wasn’t until I discovered I was a vata and I was living really Eat in a way that was aggravating to my dosha. And once I learned how to balance it with the food that I ate, the even the music I listened to the colors I wore, I mean, it sounds kind of crazy, like the colors you wear, it made a huge impact and I don’t have that, that, you know, kind of darkness heaviness that I used to I definitely feel more lighter and brighter at this dark time of year just for balancing my dosha

 

Dr. Shivani Gupta

Sure, it can be profound, you know, I think, I think as we all explore and unfold and develop personally develop spiritually become aware of health implications and health practices, based on the symptoms, or the diagnoses that are kind of put on us, we have that unique opportunity to keep learning and keep diving in deeper. And so like you said, once you understood your dosha vata people, when I give them the Ayurvedic kind of prescription or blueprint of what they should do, it’s like, insanely life changing, because you go from being someone who has a tendency towards being overwhelmed and anxious and all over the place and never finished things like this. Tornado energy is how I kind of feel into the vodka. And you go all Sunday is settled, and nourished and whole, and finishing the things you commit to, and feeling more balanced in your mind and feeling more balanced in your body and getting proper sleep. And so truly, it’s a quality of life issue. I meet a lot of guff about women, so I’m a better and I’m very good at also supporting kappa women, because God for women feel heavy, they feel heavy in their bodies, they feel like they’re too slow and steady to win the race, which supposedly does win the race. But they feel so different in their bodies compared to their original cells. Originally, they were more pitta. And so when they’re more Earth, and Earth water, they crave that bringing back towards center that they had. So my job is always to understand your original dosha and how to help you bounce back to it. And I find, you know, over time, I can’t wait to see in this world, how we correlate science to prove what we as practitioners get to feel into with people, you know, it’s going to be fascinating to see, like, is PCOS inflammation? Or all inflammation based issues? Just a dosha imbalance? Is it the fit that’s going overboard? Is it the What does not balancing these five ways with food? So it’ll be interesting to see that.

 

Amy:

So So we talked a bit about vata and how it correlates with with winter. Can you explain the other two doshas a little bit? Sure, so

 

Dr. Shivani Gupta

Vata is air water, and that element dictates all the traits about the person then in wiry and tends towards, you know, being a busy body doing things all the time. And then there’s certain things that have tended to go to tend to go out of balance. And certain things they can do to balance themselves a bit that person is fire, straight up fire with some water. So a bit this kind of in the middle, medium bodied, tends towards reddish skin, reddish hair, skin erupts with certain tendencies as it does, but does tend to be entrepreneurial go getter, like, tend towards burn out, every word related to fire and burn relates to the bit, we tend to just go at it until we explode like volcanoes on others. That’s a fifth identity. So I advise my mythos to cool the Jets all the time, so they don’t explode their relationships, they don’t implode their life. You have to be careful when you’re a bit that because you can really cause some collateral damage. Then there’s the golfers golfers that Earth, Mother Earth, nurturing, loving, feeds everybody like that. You think of your grandma, like an Italian Grandma, that’s a very Kapha energy. And so Gotha is the loyal the nurturing group, they’re very strong, they’re of the earth, they can be big boned. They have certain beautiful traits to them. Golfer out of balance is very tough, they tend to be depressed and, and low and that kind of thing. So we have these three main archetypes of doshas, and everyone is some combination thereof, and the understanding of why you are way over in another dosha and imbalanced and dysregulated. And doing the work to come back to your home base to your original dosha from birth is really profound work. And I find that that’s oftentimes why we don’t feel well we don’t feel good in our bodies. I remember post kids I was having a major golfer imbalance, and just bringing myself into alignment back into FIFA has been the most profound One thing I’ve done for myself, doesn’t matter how successful I am and all those other things that come with life. The fact that I feel at home in my body is the greatest gift I’ve given myself.

 

Amy:

Yeah, it really gives you such a sense of feeling grounded and balanced and whole. I think for a lot of women with PCOS who suffer from brain fog and fatigue, and you know, anxiety and depression overwhelm, I Aveda is a great tool in your toolbox. And please go figure out what your doshas on Dr. goop is site. So I want to now that we have a kind of a sense of what Ira Veda is, I mean, there’s so much to it, like you said, but how can we use our Vedic techniques to help with inflammation and I think PCOS driven inflammation is I think it’s one of the most the tougher things to treat. Women’s joints hurts you feel bloated? With skin issues, certainly acne, rosacea, all of those things caused by inflammation. How, how do you like to manage it using Ayurvedic techniques?

 

Dr. Shivani Gupta

Oh, that’s a good one. You know, I look at it as layers because no human body living through this time can honestly easily stay perfectly healthy. I love living for vibrant health and optimal health and, and some people see me go to biohacking conferences, because I’m curious, like, what else can we do? And I really believe that, although there is biohacking and pushing the envelope with our health, it’s the return to the simpler, anxious practices, that allows the body to truly win in the area of health. In the sense that we want our body we all have different goals with our health. But let’s say the goal was longevity. Let’s say the goal was a pain free life, a healthy life, to get to that fourth quarter of our lives without horrible chronic diseases that leave us doing medical management of ourselves as opposed to just retiring and living a peaceful life. I like to work on things in layers. I like to assume that no given year am I going to be perfect. Like right now I’m battling my own rosacea. Right now I know I have some leaky gut issues, and I work on my health, kind of on like a full time basis. I’m consistently managing my health practices. So I look at it as seasons and layers, when are we willing to dive in and focus on it? And when we do number one, understanding your dosha is key because it helps you stay balanced. Number two, understanding what is the perfect circadian rhythm for you, based on your dosha based on your lifestyle based on your career based on your setup of your home and life, you might have young kids, you might have older kids, but understanding where you need to give yourself a breaks and the rest periods. Understanding how to optimize sleep is key. So to me reducing inflammation is multipart one. If we don’t sleep well, we’re not going to clear inflammation. So I really do focus on sleep. In my supplement company, which we can talk about, I built a deeply formula and deep sleep tea, just to ensure that we get better quality sleep, that restful sleep that recharges us because we want lymph and we want inflammation to clear overnight, otherwise we don’t win. Then second, I always approach inflammation with turmeric. I did my Master’s in AI or Vedic sciences. But I did my PhD on tumeric. So I happen to be obsessed with Tumeric curcumin, the potency. And so my job for these last seven years has been innovating and formulating and creating ways that we can take you know, a supplement and reduce that inflammation significantly. But after that, I tell people look, you can’t always take a pill for a problem. I’m sorry, we have to do the work. So what is the work? Number three, choosing an anti inflammatory diet, gently adjusting the foods that we eat to not constantly and consistently cause inflammation in us. And thankfully, there’s so much knowledge on that now we see so much about cut the processed foods. You know, look at how much dairy, gluten, alcohol meat and sugar you’re in taking. Find the right diet for your individual body. I am an Indian vegetarian. I eat veggie food all the time. But a lot of my clients I say you should probably be pescatarian you should probably eat white meat we really customized so everyone’s satiated and full and happy and supported. I tell people maybe not dairy cow milk, but goat’s milk is fine for you like let’s self tap. Let’s evolve with it. I like to run a 21 day I already detox so we can clear out the inflammation I understand what those problem foods were. And now take just the foods that are going to support us and keep those in. And then also understand how to ebb and flow and play like we’re in the holiday season. So during these times, I do play a little, I also pay a price for it. And then I have to reduce that inflammation again, and I can see it clearly in my body. Another powerful way to reduce inflammation from Irv, that is the self care aspect. So we have certain rituals that you can do daily is super efficiently, you can use a tongue scraper, for example, that is going to detox that’s going to clear inflammation. Tanks favor cost you six bucks, and you own it for life. And it takes less than 510 seconds a day to do that self care Tip Tip, or I teach Tea Time is me time, like one of my favorite personal self care rituals is I pause, and I enjoy a cup of tea a couple of times a day. And I use that as a powerful anchor that I stopped sip my tea, and I programmed my mind to say, Okay, what do you need today? What are you going to eat today? Are you planning to hydrate? What is your plan to make sure you’re okay, what do you need to adjust in the schedule, so that you are supported. And to just allow your intuition to guide you. And to allow your intuition to say, hey, I need to go for a walk, hey, I need to make sure I fit in my workout, hey, I need to make sure I take my turmeric or whatever. That alone is a profound healing tool that allows us to stop drop into our parasympathetic nervous system instead of being in fight or flight and make the highest and best choice for ourselves. So that we can do all these things that we know are good for us. And that I find reduces the mental inflammation, because we’re constantly I don’t know about you guys who are listening. But I constantly have the list of oh my god, I didn’t do that either. Oh, my gosh, I didn’t do that. And it’s constant, that voice in my mind that telling me what I didn’t do. And I call that mental inflammation. If my own mind is going to cause me stress constantly, then I need to have a workaround that lets me pause and say, Okay, what can I do today? What do I need to write down and assign to the weekend, and then go from there.

 

Amy:

I love all of that, especially the tea time. You know, as I’m sipping on my tea, before I got ready for the interview, that is an important part of my day, several times a day. I think I I like loose leaf tea, because it’s kind of a ritual. But I need to check in with myself in that real deliberate way like you were describing. I take it as more of a pause. But I think you’re right, it’s a great opportunity to check in and ask, okay, what do I need today? I think today, I need a nap this afternoon. That’s what I’m feeling. That’s what my body’s telling me today. But, and it’s hard. I think during this really busy season, I’m not sure when this will probably be airing in the new year. But you know, we push, push, push, and we don’t allow ourselves to rest enough. So yeah, a great way to check in. I’m also a huge fan of Tumeric that I I have a supplement called diva de flame and it has tumeric and ginger and bas Wella in it. And proteolytic enzymes, and it’s really helpful with quelling inflammation. You know, tell us more about some of your formulas in your Fusion every formulas brand, that could that would that might be helpful for women with PCOS.

 

Dr. Shivani Gupta

Sure, so about seven years ago, I had finished my PhD on tumeric. And I was such an evangelist of Tumeric that my family around me was like, if you’re gonna really tell everyone all your everyday for us your life to take it for everything, you should make your own. And I said, Okay, let me go on this journey. And so as I did, you know, in South Florida, where I live, I’m surrounded by surgeons and doctors. That’s who my family is that I married into. And I thought, You know what, why don’t I build something that can be used by doctors in western medicine all day long, because they’re going to give us NSAIDs, they’re going to give us drugs that are going to reduce that inflammation, but at what price because again, my body doesn’t respond well to outside chemicals. And I had tried that when I had plantar fasciitis. I took Advil for a week straight, and then my stomach hurt for weeks and I couldn’t understand why every time I ate my stomach hurt. Or I threw out my back when my daughter was one and they gave me an injection and they gave me a muscle relaxant and an opioid and I almost fainted because again, I don’t tolerate outside things very well. And I thought, Gosh, why can’t you guys give us a natural solution like there are natural solutions for this. So I built turmeric gold and inflammation relief as a way for everyone who has chronic and acute joint pain to take a natural solution. And what I’ve done is it’s in about 100 doctors offices in terms of orthopedics, rheumatology, functional medicine, chiropractic and primary care doctors, that’s where I started, and the doctors are recommending it all day. So let’s say they see 50 patients in an afternoon, they’re gonna give it to all, they’re gonna give the option to all 50 patients to take this natural solution. And then I get to hear the Patient Testimonial. So, so many people have called me hundreds of people, probably 10,000 People have taken it by now that they can walk again, they can walk up the stairs, again, they don’t have back pain, they can sleep better. Most people buy it for their moms for knee pain and joint pain and hip pain. And these things. A lot of people who started to lose function, their hands, their hands got too stiff, they take it and they can keep their function. So that to me is the best part of illusionary and I would say 90% of the time people are coming to us for that potent curcumin that I sourced. That’s in those two formulas. And then after that sleep, so I built a deep sleep tea, that’s a loose tea that’s super decadent. And it’s stuffed with like from me and ashwagandha and osmanthus flower and I basically designed it to be the most decadent sweet tea I could design.

 

Amy:

So I’ve got to have to try some of that. What so what is it is it very herbally like what is the flavor?

 

Dr. Gupta: Because I always try to jam so much I or Vedic stuff into something, I had to use a lot of florals on top to hide the flavors. So it’s a very rose, lavender yummy taste, because I jam so much in there. And then I built another tea called hormone balance for women. And I made it more towards menopause symptoms, because that’s the biggest request I get that has three types of Tulsi it has shut the body, which is a potent adaptogen.

 

Amy:

I love I love that

 

Dr. Gupta

For female reproductive like that the uterus supporter,  I put it as a jasmine green tea because I love Jasmine Green and I wanted to taste to be awesome. But I wanted to deliver like supplement level results through teas really honoring that I Aveda believes that a tea can really fix all. And so it’s that fusion of East and West that fusion of supplement level potency into tea form, but also honoring the full herbal plant in a loose form as well. So that’s fusion Aryan. And you know, my goal is to get visionary out there sold on my website. And I really love that. There’s so many doctors out there MDS DEOs, chiropractors, practitioners functional medicine, who are open to giving us natural solutions and offering an actual tool. So my what I do all day is meet with the doctors and show them how to offer this as yet another tool for the patient to utilize

 

Amy:

That’s honestly amazing to hear. We’ve made such progress, I think. And you know, just in the last, let’s see, I’ve been doing this for almost 14 years. And that would not have been a solution when I was going to doctors.

 

Dr. Shivani Gupta

Yeah, pandemic has changed things I am getting 100 times more likely a Yes, from a doctor post pandemic. So, you know, there’s a lot of bad, but there probably are some good things that came out of this, which is the mindset shift of the consumer of population based but also health practitioners.

 

Amy:

Well, I am going to try those teas. I’m very interested. And I know that you are generous enough to give pieces Steve is a coupon, which I’ll be using after I get off.

 

Dr. Gupta:

Yeah, yes, your code will give them all 15% off.

 

Unknown Speaker 28:57

Awesome. That code is PCOSDiva. So and I will put the link in the show notes, but tell us what the the URL is to get your supplements.

 

Dr. Gupta:

Sure. So it’s fusionaryformulas.com. And then the website earlier was Shivanigupta.com.

 

Amy:

Awesome. And so, you know, in closing, I thought you could just give us a few tips for you know, this this season this far to season and how to, you know for all doshas to kind of bring themselves more into balance.

Dr. Shivani Gupta

Sure, but the season is tough. I feel like I’m battling an uphill battle to stay balanced throughout the season. And honestly, I feel like 90% of people deal with a vata imbalance year round. So although we’re in winter and it’s an acute issue in winter, I actually believe modern day society He has created as a year round issue. So my number one tip is self care rituals, choose the self care rituals that you can fit into your day. I really empower people to do way more self care than they ever believed possible. But I think self care is that jumping off point that allows us to do so much more with our lives than we ever thought possible. So self care includes starting your morning with self care, what is the first thing you do before you get out of bed, doing a meditation, or when you brush your teeth, adding in a tongue scraper, each act of self care is reminding you in your mind that you matter, that you can stay balanced that you deserve to be nourished, and bowl, my number two is to really be conscious of diet. So we tend to live in this very smoothie salad lifestyle where we think that we’re being healthy, when in fact, soups, stews and root vegetables are really key when you’re feeling out of balance, or when you’re feeling that but that imbalance or when it’s winter time, and you want that nourishment and that groundedness. So I encourage everyone eat more healthy fats, add in avocado, or Greek yogurt, or Satsuki, or whatever it means to you nuts to keep you grounded. Another big one is focus on sleep, but make sleep delicious. Like to me I look forward once the evening hits, I’m looking forward to bedtime. I’m like, I’m going to get my amazing sheets. And I’m going to have my deep sleep tea in bed. And I’m going to journal and I’m going to do self care before bed to you know, maybe I’ll do a mask or I don’t know dry brushing up young massage from IRB. There’s a very powerful tool to balance but the two there’s different rituals that we use at bedtime that are your investment into oven called perfectly but amazingly stunning sleep. That then lets you wake up ready. And what I find when the sleep is awesome, we really have a better balance day the next day. But it’s that practice of investing in amazing sleep that gives us the result we want for the next day.

 

Amy:

I love that mindset mindset shift that investment in your sleep it’s so it the rewards pay off tenfold. It’s been an absolute pleasure chatting with you, Dr. Gupta. And again, go check out what your dosha is if you’re listening on Dr Gupta’s website and check out her teas and curcumin I think I might buy some from my mother and mother in law. In a bowl both have joint joint issues.

 

Dr. Gupta:
for Chris let’s call it pain solution bundle. and the pain solution bundle is what all of our chronic joint pain people take. and they’ve taken it for years. they rely on it. they said I can come off of all the other stuff I was taking to take that now, which is why that’s fantastic.

Amy

Well thank you for the work that you do and for joining us on today’s podcast.

Dr. Gupta:
Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Amy:
And thank you for everyone listening I look forward to being with you again very soon. Bye bye.

 

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