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According to Shaka Vansya Ayurved toxins fall into 4 categories. Ama or undigested food that is clogging and leaves that white sticky substance on the back of your tongue. It also clogs other tissues. After Ama is in the body for a long time it becomes Amavisha. Then there is Garavisha or chemical toxins that are rapidly on the increase in modern society. An last but not least there are the electromagnetic toxins that interfer with pranic flow. When teaching about nourishing the body, hydration is at the forefront. One gift of SVA and Vaidya Mishra is his "Garavisha-Tea" for daily detox.  The following is off the label of the tea. Everyday we are exposed to environmental and other factors (mental, emotional, dietary, etc) that may create a build-up of toxic waste in our physiology. When left unattended, such toxic waste can interfere with the functioning of the physiology resulting in imbalances and eventually chronic ill-health. Just as we intake nourish ing on a da

We had another very successful cooking class last Saturday. Again turmeric took the lime light and the blending of spices with turmeric to reduce its negative side effects and bring up its benefits. We watched 2 short videos of my Ayurvedic teacher, Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra on you tube: "Benefits of Turmeric" and "How to use Turmeric Properly"  The main point that stuck out was that if you have a powerful machine you have to know how to drive it safely or you can get into an accident. Similarly we understood that turmeric is a very powerful herb, a sacred herb that is revered in Ayurvedic medicine. The safe and best way to use it is to cook it into your food with an unctuous substance like ghee and blended with other spices like coriander, fennel and cumin. The ratio of 1 part Turmeric to 6 parts Coriander and 6 parts Fennel and 1 part Cumin.  That is the best standard recipe for the spice mix that you add to your veggie stir fries, your dhal and your chicken or fish

Years ago when I was still a newby to meditation, yoga and Ayurved,  I had a bad cold. I was at the meditation centre in Winnipeg and a lovely elderly gentleman who had been doing yoga all his life taught me the benefits of doing the Lion Pose for cold symptoms. This pose opens all the Nadis or channels in the upper respiratory tract. Simple to do. Sit cross legged or in a chair with your hands on your knees and fingers spread as wide as you can. Stick out your tongue hard and open your eyes wide. Hold as long as you can. Repeat several times. Be sure you have some tissue near by so catch the draining sinuses.

The "common cold" from an Ayurvedic perspective is a build up of Kapha which are excess of cool and moist Kapha qualities and at the same time not enough digestive fire. Ginger tea is a great remedy for colds.  My favourite recipes I have seen move through my communities for over 30 years. Use ginger root which you get from the grocery store. Cut 3-4 slices about the thickness of a coin - a quarter. Then put them in 3-4 cups of water and boil for 2-3 minutes. Then steep for 5 minutes and strain out the root and keep the tea in a thermos and drink about 1/4 or 1/2 cup at a time through out the day. I have seen some other recipes ( Dr. Lad's book on home remedies) which also add a bit of cinnamon and cardamom  or cinnamon and lemon grass to the ginger. I have also had great success with Elderberry (Sambuca). You can buy it in some drug stores and most health food stores.  I have also found a great clump of elderberry bushes growing in the Okanagan - harvest the berries

One of the best ways to achieve healthy bones is a diet rich in fresh, whole foods like vegetables, which maximizes natural minerals. Fermented vegetables using special starter culture designed to optimize vitamin K2 is one of your best strategies for maintaining healthy bones and preventing bone loss New research shows eating the seeds of the fennel plant had a beneficial effect on loss of bone mineral density, as well as bone mineral content. Researchers indicated that fennel seeds show potential in preventing bone loss in postmenopausal osteoporosis I watched my little 5 foot 1 mother shrink as she grew older. Osteoporosis is a disease that baffles modern science. My friend a detail pharmacist who goes around educating doctors about the scientific research on drugs told me a amazing fact. When the scientific data is properly interpreted, only 3 women out of 100 benefit from taking the biphosphonates ( Fosamax, Actonel and others). That is startling considering the millions tak

Prescription on a Plate is the title of my new website and also the tag I amusing for my upcoming cooking class. I will be highlighting some of my favourites.  My best medicinal tea, green protein to build your hemoglobin, cilantro chutney to detox heavy metals, making our own spice mix blend, how to make ghee which is very nourishing for the brain, how to get the most out of the benefits of walnuts. This is just a preview. I have some new ideas I want to share too. See you on Sept 21 at 10 AM Yum Yum

Turmeric has so many benefits that now people are coming into the drug store and buying empty capsules and filling them with Turmeric and taking them as medicine!!! Wow you say. That is amazing, yes and no. Life is full of paradoxes. It is most important to remember that in India where Turmeric is a staple and considered a sacred herb, children are taught to eat with turmeric at a very early age. Here in the west, most of us only have turmeric in our food if we happened to end up at an Indian restaurant on a Saturday night out. That is a big difference. So if you start loading yourself with large amounts of Turmeric it will stimulate your liver to much and could send you into a detox crisis. What I have learned is that we can start small with 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoonful a day and increase it gradually over time until we are taking a full teaspoonful a day. I cook with turmeric daily so I get my allotted amount on a daily basis mixed with other spices and unctuous ghee or olive oil. Howeve

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-eCloNSEV8&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1 Vaidya Mishra speaking on the 20 benefits of Turmeric A must see.

If you have tried many things to get your bowel function balanced and it still is not ideal then it might be time to add this delicious smoothie to your routine. Pineapple and Papaya are both known for their wonderful enzymatic action and off course prunes are famous for keeping you regular. Put them together and your have a fabulous combination for supporting your digestion and elimination. Start with 1/2 cup of cut up pineapple chunks and add about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of papaya and then 3-5 prunes that have been soaked and are well hydrated. Blend these 3 ingredients together in your small blender. The best time to drink/eat this smoothie is mid-afternoon or about 1/2 an hour before bed. You will notice the gentle and thorough cleansing of your digestive tract.  This combination is also beneficial for balancing your hormones.  

In the next few days I will be working long hours and will not always have access to good snacks. Working in a pharmacy I will have access to all kinds of chocolate bars and chips and pop. Not my ideal nourishment. Luckily I remembered this wonderful suggestion from my teacher. Take a small jar and put in just enough walnuts and raisins for a good snack. Cover with good spring water and take it with you. When you get hungry drain the water and eat the soaked nuts and fruits. Walnuts are a great food for the brain and they even look like the brain!!! Hmmm. Raisins are high in many nutrients especially iron and are a good source of natural sugars that are easily assimilated.  The reason we need to soak the walnuts is that they are very dense energy and this also applied to the raisin. If you can imagine a walnut has a whole tree condensed energetically within its shell. So my soaking them we make that energy more accessible for our bodies.

Joint pain.  Hips, knees and ankles - those wonderful mechanisms that allow us to move gracefully through life. We can dance, do yoga, go hiking and bend down in gratitude in front of our alter. When they get inflamed or dry they let us know. What can we do to take care of them? We can massage with Sesame oil in a clockwise fashion. I had a friend who was schedule for knee surgery. She had been an athlete all her life and in her 40's her knees started to let her know they needed help. She regularly massage her knees with sesame oil for 10-20 minutes twice a day and after 2 weeks started seeing results and within a month she did not need surgery. Also there are various herbal glyceride and herbal formulations available that support the joints. Best to talk with your Ayurvedic practitioner for recommendations.

Nutmeg is one of the best spices for increasing absorption especially in the small intestine. Adding a bit of cardamom and ginger work synergistically with nutmeg. It reduces Vata in the colon that can manifest as diarrhea and is one the best medicine for calming the mind. Taking 500mg ( that is about 1/10 of a teaspoonful in a warm drink before going to bed has been found to calm the mind and promote sleep. However taking too much can have a dulling effect on the mind. (source - The Yoga of Herbs - by Frawley and Lad)

The Japanese where first to use Serrapeptidase. It was an enzyme that was developed from the silk worm. The enzyme that the silk worm uses to get out of its cocoon. My experience with it is that it helps to dissolve scar tissue and swelling and bruising.  However it you to to the internet they also say it is beneficial for dissolving plague and for inflammation and pain. I have no experience with that.  Wikepedia says there are no clinical studies showing it is beneficial but if you are troubled with scar tissue interfering with functioning it is worth a try. I would start with 90,000 units once a day on an empty stomach about 30 minutes before your first meal. My last client who tried this had a scar on her fore arm with accompanying bruising that had been there for months. Within 10 days of starting on the Serrapeptidase the bruise and scarring were barely visible. She was extremely happy.

Chandi markets two wonderful abyanga oils - for men and women. Rasayana Oil for Women and Rasayana Oil for men. Daily oil massage is recommeneded especially for Vata constitution with special attention to the limbs where Vata gets stuck. Vata is movement and what are we moving most? Arms and legs. Also there has been very good results with the new oils with Magnesium which support detox.  If you are being frugal you can add some cured sesame oil to the above oils.  Applying the oils and leaving them on for about 20 minutes and then taking a warm shower is an excellent way to balance the doshas and nourish while doing detox protocols. If you are new to the terminology "Abyanga" It means oil massage of the body. Long stroke on the long bones and circular motion on the joints. Head oil massage is also great. 

On the 9th day of Navaratri Vaidya RK Mishra did a conference call on the Shaka Vansya Ayurved protocols for supporting the natural detox that occurs in the spring.  The channels (nadis and shrotas) open and start to flow.  You can here the call by going to his website but here are the highlights. When doing detox - we also need to nourish and also if the detox become to rapid when need to pacify it or slow it down.  For example if diarrhea due to excess bowel detox - we can use the "Rehydration Drink" ( from Chandi) to pacify the apana vata. Nourishing foods would include Asparagus soup ( especially beneficial for the kidneys) and white Diakon radish. Making a "Kichiri soup" which is ming dahl with rice. Also Kulki lentils would be very beneficial. Always good to add beneficial bacteria in the form of lassi drink which is 20% yogurt and 80% water. Including pre-biotic drops before taking the yogurt helps to stabilize the beneficial bacteria on the intestinal

Interesting statistics about breast cancer diagnosis "Over the past 30 years, an estimated 1.3 million American women have been overdiagnosed with breast cancer that posed no threat to their life. In 2008, an estimated 70,000 women were overdiagnosed with breast cancer in the US, which accounts for 31 percent of all breast cancers diagnosed that year According to Dr. Northrup, women who tend to be most at risk for breast cancer are those who have difficulty nurturing themselves and receiving pleasure. Nurturing self-love and self-acceptance is an important part of creating optimal health, especially for women Dr. Northrup’s Top 10 health tips for women include: getting enough sleep, meditation and positive affirmations, practicing self-love and self-acceptance, exercising regularly, breathing properly, optimizing your vitamin D levels, cultivating your social life, taking Epsom salt baths, and keeping a gratitude journal." from Dr. Mercola's newsletter. Dr Christi

SVA recommends starting the morning with stewed fruit - cooked with cloves.  Cloves are gently heating and help open channels.  So cooking apples or pears with 5-6 cloves until the apples are gently cooked and steamy and delicious is a great way to start the morning - it wakes up your digestive fire.  Then when you feel hungry you can have your warm breakfast meal - cooked oats is a good start to the day. You can make then delicious with raisin or other dried fruits and a bit of milk added to the cooking water.  A gentle start for your digestive tract first thing in the morning. Also both apples and pears contain malic acid which is wonderfully beneficial to the liver. You might already have in your routine drinking warm water with lemon or lime first thing in the morning to cleanse the liver. Adding cooked apples and pears with cloves is also beneficial. This is mostly recommended for those who are not hungry when they wake up - that means the digestive fire is not ignited. Howeve

According to Shaka Vansya Ayurved there are certain foods that are clogging and also block the vibrational channels.  The subtle channels or nadis are vibrational (like meridians in chinese medicine) and the physical channels are arteries, veins and micro-channels in all the cells and tissues. If these get compromises, clogged or shrink then toxins cannot get out and nutrients cannot get in.  So we see all kinds of problems develop - cysts, lumps, swellings, etc. So what to eliminate that might contribute to this problems: large beans - garbanzo, kidney, lima etc. The only beans recommended are Mung, Red Lentils, French Lentils. These are easy to digest and not clogging and they best be cooked with Turmeric, coriander, fennel and cumin. all soya products nights shades - potato, tomato, bell peppers and eggplant bananas - all except the tiny baby ones You might have to look at the kind of grains your are eating. If using milk products they must be used according to certain

Now a days everyone seems to be carrying a water bottle because the news is out, hydration is important. However even if you drink lots of water you cannot be guaranteed that it is getting deep into your tissues and into the cells to hydrate and also remove toxins so they can be excreted via the kidney. Also hydration is essential for good bowel function and almost all functioning. According to Ayurved the tissue formation starts with the plasma that needs water and then cascades to red blood cells, muscles, fat, bone, bone marrow and reproductive tissues. Also the finest tissue is called Ojas which can be called "liquid light".  So if we do not have water it effects all tissue formation. One simple and effective way to hydrate the body efficiently and deeply is to drink a special herbal tea that was developed by my teacher Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra.  He has called it "Smart Water" because of its ability to enter the tissues efficiently and effectively. Here is th

Oil Massage or Abhyanga  - with the cold and dry winter months upon us, the nourishing and lubricating oil massage called abyanga is highly recommended.  Essential for Vata mind/body type on a daily basis as much as possible - every second day for pitta and at least twice a week for kapha types. Organic Sesame Oil is great but might be a bit to heating for Pitta body type which might prefer almond oil.  Coconut oil might be too clogging at this time of year. It is best to "cure" an oil before using. This is done by taking your bottle of oil and putting it in a pot with one drop of water.  As soon as the oil is heated enough the water will crackle. This prevents over heating of the oil. I have known people who heat the oil so much that it explodes into flame - not a good idea. So once your oil is gently warmed. Cool is back down and put it back in your bottle. You can warm up a bit of oil as you need it for your massage of abyanga but you do not have to re-cure it ev

After the heat of summer and the body's response to the cold weather, we start to build up more Agni (loosely translated as heat or fire) in the body. All the Agnis in the body (stomach, liver, pancreas) become more active to compensate for the heat loss to the cold environment. Therefore we need richer food to feed the Agni or fire to maintain it. But the food should not be clogging as the channels of the body naturally shrink in the winter.  Clogged channels prevent flow of prana or life force. If this increase in Agni or fire is not fed then the lubricating elements (Kledaka Kapha) are burned up, Vata increases fanning the fire which begins to burn higher and the proper formation of tissues is effected: all 7 tissues - plasma, blood, muscle, fat, bone, bone marrow, and reproductive tissues. One very interesting point is that the plasma (clear blood ) supports the nourishment of the skin so if plasma is "burned or drying " by excessive Agni then the skin becomes d