How Ayurveda Helps
Author: Linda Sinden Date Posted:11 December 2017
Partnering with people as they restore balance is so inspiring.. Today I’d like to share a recent clients journey with you.
Anita came to me in quite some discomfort. For 18 months she had been experiencing acid reflux where the junction between the stomach and the esophagus does not close properly. This allows the stomach contents to come back up into the oesophagus causing a burning chest pain or heartburn that was with her most of the time.
Nothing seemed to work to stem the tide of the discomfort so her brother suggested she see if Ayurveda could help. Ayurveda has a very complete understanding of what can be causing this discomfort. Although increased heat is clearly a symptom of Pitta imbalance, my question was ...what is causing the stomach contents to come back upwards? Why is the oesophagus not closing properly?
To get started I felt Anita’s pulse and explored Anita’s daily food choices and current lifestyle. This helped me to identify factors that may be contributing to her symptoms. Often with the best of intentions a person’s choices may be working against their recovery.
- In this case Anita was taking a morning smoothie of healthy raw greens and couldn’t understand why they weren’t making a difference. It made sense to her when she learnt that spinach and silverbeet had a heating effect when digested. In addition a cold drink first thing was overloading her system causing her body to throw additional acid to the rescue.
- Anita’s digestive system was struggling. Food, even good food was being processed impurely and ama or impurities had accumulated. This was in part due to the traditional focus of her main meal being in the evening when digestive power was naturally reducing as the sun was setting. Heavy to digest foods such as meats were also taken at this time.
- The sluggishness felt in the pulse was being aggravated by a sedentary job as her day started early and there was little time for exercise.
- The pulse also showed the build-up of stress overtime was part of the mix to be addressed.
Anita was a happy and positive person who was ready to make some changes. This is what she did...
- Anita changed her breakfast to freshly stewed apple and pear with figs or prunes.
- She ate half first thing and took the other half with her for morning tea.
- Lunch became her main meal of the day. This was the time to eat heavier proteins such as meat or poultry. The recommendation was made to reduce red meats and to favour white meats and fresh water fish.
- Evening meal was lighter and earlier so that her food was comfortably digested before bedtime.
- First thing in the morning Anita exercised for 15 minutes on a stationary cycle. This was enough to warm her up and to create a light sweat.
- Meditation once again became part of her morning routine.
- She took the following helpful herbals:
- Amrit Kalash Nectar and Digest Tone prior breakfast and evening meals.
- Be Trim II after main meals three times a day and Worry Free 30-60 minutes after breakfast and evening meals.
- Be Trim Tea sips every 30 minutes through the day - 1.5-2 L per day.
- As needed Anita had Aci Balance to take if she felt heartburn.
Two weeks later Anita reported that she had been symptom free since the first visit. One month later she reported the change was maintained.
Today when I saw her we talked about how Ayurveda is helpful in restoring wellbeing when we are at the bottom of the cliff. Ayurveda also aims to prevent us from getting there in the first place. We made a plan that we would do seasonal pulse checks to help her stay well going forwards.
In addition we started to address the underlying imbalance of Vata that had caused the problem in the first place.
I’m reminded of a client over 20 years ago who said they considered their regular or seasonal pulse checks or skype consults to be a form of health insurance.
Click here for the first part of this article
Wishing you the bliss of balance!
Linda Sinden and the Get Balance Team
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Linda Sinden has been a practising Maharishi Ayurveda Consultant since 1990 and is a regular contributor to our weekly Insights. She has a practice in Auckland, New Zealand and also provides phone or Skype sessions for those who need assistance, but don’t have a consultant in their vicinity. Email: lindasinden@orbislife.co.nz Skype: Linda.Sinden |
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