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Protecting the liver.

The liver, a large organ on the right side of our body under the rib cage has a big task to perform.  Everything that we take in through our mouth passes through the portal vein to the liver where major transformation takes place.  All the "dumb food" we eat has to be transformed into intelligent blood.  What do I mean by "Dumb Food"?  It is food that has lost its life force. Food that has been poisoned by being grown with herbicides and pesticides.  Food that has been cooked, then frozen and then reheated in a microwave.  Food that has been cooked and then kept in the fridge for days and then reheated.  The best most vital food to nourish our body is the food that is freshly prepared and eaten within 4 hours.  Impossible you say!  Not really. It takes planning and determination. Look ahead for 1 week.  Breakfast can be simple and light and easy to digest.  Highly recommended is stewed apples of pears with 3-4 cloves.  These cooked fruits have malic acid in them w

Detox Soup

Harsh detox protocols can be very dangerous and many modern day toxins are "hot" or can burn the delicate fine channels of elimination in the kidney and other tissues.  Shaka Vansiya Ayurved teaches that there are 4 categories of toxins. Ama or undigested food that is sticky and cold and we need hot spices to eliminate this type of toxin. So ginger and pepper and fenugreek and other heating spices would work well. However once that toxin has been sitting around for a long time it becomes hot.  We might call it a "free radical" in modern scientific terms. Shaka Vansiya Ayurved (now referred to as SVA) calls this Amavisha.  This type of toxin needs a different approach to detox. Before moving the toxins out of the body we need to bind them with mucilaginous food like barley, okra, tapioca, arrowroot, taro root and others.  I find zucchini and other summers squashes are most readily available, even though they are not extremely mucilaginous.  Then you can start moving

Detox tea with Indian Sarsaparilla

Start with good quality water. Water that has not been chlorinated is best. Spring water. However if that is not available then take a large glass container or water and leave it out in the sun and the moon for a few days so that it picks up the vibrations of Nature and the chlorine evaporates. I usually do a gallon at a time. Take 1 litre of Spring Water add 4 pinches of Indian Sarsaparilla ( this is a perfect dosage measure - larger fingers bigger pinches) then add 1/2 teaspoonful of Coriander seed and 1/2 teaspoonful of Fennel seed. I keep a jar of coriander/fennel equal quantities and then just 1 teaspoonful of the mix. Boil this for 2-3 minutes and pour into a thermos with a mint teabag or a few leaves of fresh mint if you have some in the garden. Sip this through out the day. I usually drink a cup at breakfast and then another mid morning and mid afternoon and sip whenever I remember. Then what I don't finish by suppertime I pour out and make a fresh batch the next day

Body types and exercise

https://www.boloji.com/articles/1256/exercise-the-ayurvedic-way Here is a link to an article by Vaidya Mishra on how much to exercise for different body types. Vata types would do better to walk rather than run. Pittas would benefit from swimming and Kapha types need the most exercise of all the body types. Of course we can see that children needs the most as they are predominantly Kapha. They have so much energy and are always on the move. As we get older and we have more Vata in our physiology we need to have a gentler routine.  Vata already is air and ether so we don't want to add to that and cause an imbalance in that dosha.  Also the seasons would effect the amount of exercise. Spring is the best time to exercise. But everyone needs a bit of exercise every day to keep things moving an lubricated.

Autoimmune diseases, Multiple sclerosis.

There is no question that autoimmune diseases are on the rise.   Diseases where our own immune system gets confused and starts attacking our own tissues rather than foreign invaders.   Our immune system is built to recognize, attack and dispose of bacteria, viruses, fungi and anything “not its own”   It is even able to remember what has been an invading organism in the past and create antibodies for future attacks. So how would we explain that our own immune system starts attacking our body?   What has created the confusion?   I was inspired to explore this topic after reading Dr. Marianne Teitelbaum’s piece on Multiple Sclerosis.   According to Dr. Teitelbaum in this particular autoimmune disease of MS, she has unearthed several common causes for why the immune system starts destroying the myelin sheath on the nerves in the brain and spine.   Her work is primarily based on the ancient healing system of Shaka Vansya Ayurved.   This lineage of Ayurved was brought to the west by Dr.

Asparagus Soup

We all know that when we eat asparagus we can smell it in our urine.  Asparagus helps to channel toxins out of our blood through our kidneys.  The kidneys act as an amazing filtration system, filtering about 1/5 of the blood that enters the kidney each time.  Here is a bit from Wikipedia telling us what things the kidney filters. So if you want to give less work cut back on processed meats that are high in salt, cut back on sugars and fruit high in sugar because the kidney needs to filter all that glucose. Also "eat clean". Less processed foods and foods difficult to digest.  "The kidney participates in the control of the volume of various body fluid compartments, fluid osmolality, acid-base balance, various electrolyte concentrations, and removal of toxins. Filtration occurs in the glomerulus: one-fifth of the blood volume that enters the kidneys is filtered. Examples of substances reabsorbed are solute-free water, sodium, bicarbonate, glucose, and amino acids. Exampl

Why we should Not Eat AND Watch TV

Why we should Not Eat AND Watch TV He always wore his Indian garb when seeing clients. He was representing a lineage unbroken for thousands of years.  And he was always late for his first client because he had to say all his prayers before starting healing recommendations. She had been waiting impatiently. A busy woman with so many demands on her time. As she strode into the consultation room he could feel the tension around her energy field as she proceeded to outline her serious medical condition. He sat calmly looking at her with deep brown soulful eyes. “Please give me your arm , ” he said. Placing three fingers on her wrist he went into a silent space where he found the knowingness.  “Other arm please.” He was still and meditative. She was tense and anxious. “Do you watch TV while you eat?”   he asked. “What?!!”   she exploded. I just paid $150 dollars for a medical consultation because I have an autoimmune disease and you want to know my TV watching habits?”    He

Liver issues

If I say liver what do you think of,   fried onions or the seat of the soul?   I was one of those weird kids who loved my mother’s fried liver and onions.   But it was only much later in my life that are really started loving the liver.   Not on my plate but because of all the amazing things it does in our body.   I was sitting in an Ayurvedic workshop with one of the wisest men I had ever met.   He was kind, funny, and carried the wisdom of the Shaka Vansya Ayurved lineage that dated back 5000 years.   They even say that his ancestors were the wise men that arrived with gifts for the baby Jesus.   I was fortunate to be sitting listening when Vaidya (wise man/healer) said that all the dumb food we eat, the liver has the big job of turning it into intelligent blood. That was the start of a long journey understanding digestion and all it various components.   Starting with the 6 tastes of the foods as they are chewed and blended on their way to the stomach to the final destination i