Episode 84: Ayurvedic Remedies for Digestion: IBS, Constipation, and Reflux with Dr. Amita Jain, AD

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Dr. Amita Jain:

What we call an IRB, there’s Agni, Agni is our digestive fire. So imagine that you have a stovetop, you know, you have the flame on the stovetop, and let’s say that you’re about to cook food. So you want a nice bright flame to come on. And you’re going to cook food three times a day breakfast, lunch and dinner. So you want that flame to be nice and bright and be able to cook your food so that you know, you can properly assimilate and digest it. That flame is a good example of our inner digestive fire, that fire can get either diminished, or it can, it can grow into excess, or it can get deranged. And if we don’t take care of our inner fire, we don’t properly digest our foods. Now some of the things that lead to this would be improper eating habits, skipping meals, over eating, stress, eating, fasting for long periods of time if you’re if you don’t have the health to do it. Extreme excess stress, lack of you know proper circulation and movement. So a number of things can lead to this. It’s I’m seeing it now almost as an epidemic in our society.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

If you suffer from digestive issues such as bloating, gas, constipation or acid reflux, you know how much of a challenge it can be to figure out why it is happening and how to address it. We are excited to offer conversation today with AMITA Jain, a doctor of Ayurvedic medicine, certified hatha yoga teacher, and certified clinical hypnotherapist who works with their patients on long term digestive complications, autoimmune disorders, severe skin problems and much more. My name is Dr. Andrew Huang, co founder of capital Integrative Health. This is a podcast dedicated to transforming the consciousness around what it means to be healthy, and understanding the root causes of both disease and wellness. How our Vedic medicine approaches, digestive concerns, and gut health and the steps that you can take in your diet and lifestyle to address long standing digestive issues. We hope you enjoy this. Welcome Dr. Amit Jain to the podcast today. Thank you so much for coming on.

Dr. Amita Jain:

Thank you for having me.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yes. So Dr. Jain is a doctor of Ayurvedic. I know you listen to the intro that we just did. But Dr. Jain, if you could just tell us a little bit about what drew you to become an Ayurvedic practitioner. And we can talk about what I read is as well, but what do you enjoy most about about what you do?

Dr. Amita Jain:

Well, what drew me to IR Veda is at a young age, I was very much into math and computers. And at the time not knowing anything about AI or VEDA, but I loved it and was drawn to math, because it just made so much sense, you know, a plus b equals c c minus A equals B. And it’s always going to be like that. And you can always rely on that. So, as I got older, you know, being born in an immigrant family, I was the only one Indian in my high school with 2000 kids. And so, you know, you start to question your identity and where you’re from. And so I started to ask questions, you know, to my parents, and they didn’t have too much to say, honestly. So I started looking into our scriptures are ancient scriptures. And that led me to, to realize that we have this wealth of spiritual knowledge coming out of the east. And I kept reading and that led me to yoga philosophy and yoga philosophy led me to the scriptures on Iron Veda and health. And the amazing thing was that it just completely made sense to me. And I Aveda is all on the principles of balance and balance equals health. So if you have, you know, a lot or an excess of some element in your body, it creates imbalance. So like, plus like, equals more of the same. And you know, being mathematically minded, it just, it just drew me in. When I was 18. I knew I wanted to be an ayurvedic doctor, but there were no schools at the time. And so I pursued my education in engineering. And as soon as I got out of engineering school, I went to India thinking I’m, you know, I’m gonna want to study Ayurveda. And instead, I was led to a yoga ashram and I spent time there and then, you know, slowly slowly got into more studies of IR VEDA, but that’s kind of what got me into it is just, it was a medical system that made complete sense.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

And like we’re talking before we started recording, there seems to be some some, a lot of similarities and overlap between our VEDA as a as a whole person, you know, system space medicine, kind of a way of kind of blending the art and science essentially. And some of the things we do in our clinic like functional medicine, you know, looking to the root causes. treating symptoms and root causes is that is that kind of what I read a lot as well,

Dr. Amita Jain:

absolutely. So we, in fact, I Aveda is holistic in the sense that we actually address the mind, the body, the spirit, and the energetic body of a human being almost as the root cause, you know, considering the body as a blueprint of really what’s happening at an energetic level. So, in that respect, we use a number of different modalities to help bring that bring the patient back to balance, you know, it’s not just treating symptoms or treating what we see on the surface. So absolutely, there’s a lot of similarities. It sounds like between what, what we both do,

Dr. Andrew Wong:

and if there’s energetic imbalance, which we can’t always see on lab tests, that’s that’s the thing. You know, it’s hard, you know, sometimes you can catch it sometime, you can sort of like needle in a haystack. Even we do like cortisol testing, it’s like, well, sometimes is there sometimes absolutely odd. But you know, like, when that person walks in the room, if there’s energetic, unbalanced, you’re gonna you’re gonna feel that,

Dr. Amita Jain:

yes. And people come to us, usually, when they have gone through doctor after doctor center after center, having taken numerous comprehensive lab tests, and being told that there’s nothing wrong with them, yet. They’re having symptoms, they’re not feeling like themselves, you know, they’re experiencing tremendous amount of fatigue or body pain. That’s the point where they kind of lost all hope. And they said, Okay, let me you know, let me try this holistic approach. And they come to us, and we’re able to tell them that no, you do have imbalances. And it’s like, they have this dislike relief that okay, I’m not it’s not all in my head. I’m not going crazy. Because you’re right, we don’t rely on lab tests, as you know, the whole answer. Yeah, no.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah. And there was something that I just read about the mind body and how there’s a part of the brain that they’ve just discovered that is kind of connecting the mind body. So you know, we always talk about mind body connection, and holistic medicine. It’s almost like the mind and body are really linked inextricably together. That’s right, which is what really the science of Ayurveda and, and yoga is correct. Yeah.

Dr. Amita Jain:

And oftentimes, especially with very serious chronic illness, we will always link it back to some sort of mental imbalance and caused by you know, childhood trauma or severe amounts of anxiety or stress, negative thought patterns, you know, almost always you’ll see that connection. And that’s what we start with first, you know, that that’s where we look at, in terms of treatment first,

Dr. Andrew Wong:

which then affects the biology, which then affects what we might see on the surface exam. When they come people come see us. So today, I mean, that we want to talk about digestion. You know, we know that the gut is, you know, Hippocrates in the West said, you know, the digestive tract or the gut is sort of the foundation of health. That’s kind of where things start, where health starts, that’s where health begins, where disease begins. And so, this is kind of curious and the Ayurvedic tradition, how our VEDA looks at gut health looks at digestion and how our Vedic medicine approaches digestive issues.

Dr. Amita Jain:

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, now we’re reading a lot more scientific studies proving the connection between our gut health and our physical health. Well, I Aveda being a practice that ages over 4000 years. They knew that right, right from the beginning, in fact, all disease according to Ayurveda has its roots in the gut. And that’s where disease starts, you know, so we have these various bio energies, and they will start planting the seeds of disease in our digestive tract. And so if we are wise enough, and aware enough to pick up on those imbalances, right, when they start, I really call that the first stage of disease, we can actually prevent the disease from progressing. So in our practice, we work first on gut health, you know, and it, you’d be surprised at how much healing can be done by simply addressing gut issues. Yeah, yeah. But but we kind of ignore those things, right? Oh, a little bit of, you know, gas or bloating or constipation, or, you know, we just sort of go through our busy lives and not not stopped to pay attention and think, Wait a minute, maybe I need to do something about this, you know. And then in Ayurveda, we say, well, now these toxins start to move through the body, we get into the second and third stages of diseases approaching autoimmune illness, and by that time, it gets a lot more difficult to treat.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah, so these subtle signs are mostly the body’s friendly way of reminding us, hey, there’s some imbalance here. Can you work on me for a minute before it gets to the deeper stage? It’s right, yeah. Also, we know that in functional medicine, I suppose it would also be the same innovative if someone has a skin issue or joint issue or a brain issue like a headache or fatigue or you know, something like that, that some of those things can also be tied. Back to the gut sort of like the gut health effects the system health.

Dr. Amita Jain:

Absolutely. Okay.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Great, um, what digestive conditions do you and your staff tend to work with the most?

Dr. Amita Jain:

We, you know, all the whole spectrum. Also for ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s, gastritis, severe forms of constipation. I’ve seen clients who’ve been constipated for over 40 years, nothing has worked for them. loose stools due to anxiety, urgency to use the bathroom right after eating. Really the whole the whole gamut from mild all the way to very severe and chronic to the point where people are trying to perhaps avoid surgery.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah, so a lot of a lot of different conditions from things that you would consider more common like constipation to things that are more serious, like inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis. Let’s talk about constipation for a second, because I know that, you know, I remember when my grandfather was alive, he said that the first thing is, you got to make sure you go to the bathroom every day. So how do you make sure or how do you advise your clients to have daily bowel movements and kind of regularity there?

Dr. Amita Jain:

Yeah. So that that’s one of the sort of primary discussions we have in our very first visit bowel habits, you know, tell me about them. And now a lot of these clients are being told by doctors that it’s perfectly normal to go to the bathroom once in three days, you know, you’re not constipated unless you go five to seven days without a bowel movement. So it’s first that education and awareness that no, you know, we have toxins in our body, we have waste, we have to eliminate these wastes, through proper and regular bowel habits, you know, so we’ll go through that, you know, we’ll talk about diet, lifestyle, and the mind and gut connection. And how we can use simple techniques like breathing exercises, meditation, yoga, to help facilitate good habits. I also try to tell my clients that, you know, you’ve got to educate your family and start with your children, you know, alright, at a young age start to get them to be aware of the importance of having healthy bowel habits, and to to make time for that. So some of the patients that I’ve seen that have been struggling with constipation for many years, started in childhood, holding back the urge to go to, to defecate, not having education from their families, thinking that going to the bathroom was you are yucky. And that never gets resolved. And it leads into these sort of permanent habits of the wiring and programming of our brains. And then, you know, like I said, these diseases get a bit more stubborn and then they lead to what we call an IRB, the AAMA.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Okay, like the toxins and that’s right, okay. Also, I know that a lot of people do have what is convention called irritable bowel syndrome, you know, where they might have constipation, but they also might have more looser stools, diarrhea, how do you how do you address that? And I kind of specifically wanted to ask about parasites or H. Pylori or you know, any sort of bacteria, parasites, fungi, how to how do you kind of look at that? Did you use herbal anti microbials? Or do you kind of look at it more from a terrain perspective?

Dr. Amita Jain:

So to answer your first question, first we explain I kind of give an example to the client about what we call an IRB, there’s Agni, Agni is our digestive fire. So imagine that you have a stovetop, you know, you have the flame on the stovetop, and let’s say that you’re about to cook food. So you want a nice bright flame to come on. And you’re going to cook food three times a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So you want that flame to be nice and bright, and be able to cook your food so that you know, you can properly assimilate and digest it. That flame is a good example of our inner digestive fire, that fire can get either diminished, or it can, it can grow into excess, or it can get deranged. And if we don’t take care of our inner fire, we don’t properly digest our foods. Now, some of the things that lead to this would be improper eating habits, skipping meals, over eating, stress, eating, fasting for long periods of time, if you’re if you don’t have the health to do it. Extreme excess stress, lack of, you know, proper circulation and movement. So a number of things can lead to this. It’s I’m seeing it now almost as an epidemic in our society. So what happens now a lot of people are coming in with this deranged Agni and it’s about explaining them how to respect your body’s natural rhythms and eat at proper times. You know, there’s there’s a window of eating when our digestive fire comes on the strongest and as you probably know, when the sun is the bright just our own Agni is the strongest. And so that’s why we want to have lunch between the hours of noon and 130 to 2pm. You don’t want to have lunch at three o’clock in the afternoon, you definitely don’t want to push dinner into the night because when the sun goes down, our Agni goes down. And now of course, we’re seeing, you know, studies showing that when you eat late at night, you’re gonna have improper sleep, that foods going to turn to fat, you’re going to wake up feeling groggy. So that’s the one thing we’re trying to, you know, teach all of our clients is, you’ve got to take care of this digestive fire. Now, when that fire gets deranged, and I mentioned this concept of Arma, toxins, these toxins start in our gut, and then start to move through our body. And the this, these toxins can lead to Candida, they can leak, they can lodge in the joints, and lead to arthritis, pain, osteoarthritis, and they can lodge into the brain and cause neurocognitive dysfunction like brain fog and memory loss, and a host of other issues. So even in a case of bacterial infection, as you mentioned, or candida, we’re looking at getting back to strengthening Agni, and that’s where we use effective Ayurvedic ancient formulas and remedies. These herbs are are excellent at helping to proliferate that healthy gut back bacteria and to get rid of Candida building up our gut army and helping to eradicate bacteria, bacterial infections in the gut, but that alone, you know, is not going to do the job. So it’s part of a lifestyle training that you’re going to take these herbs, but along with that, we’re going on a strict diet for the next three to four months, right? We’re going on a strict eating routine routine.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Can’t just be the herbs, it can’t just be the herbs. That’s right.

Dr. Amita Jain:

So it’s a whole plan. It’s a whole system of education. And, you know, it’s sometimes it’s a tough conversation because the clients are getting so much you know, other information on the internet and on Google and you know, there’s keto diet, and there’s intermittent fasting and then there’s, you know, all this and so, but when they understand what’s actually happening inside their gut, it’s like a lightbulb. Oh, I get it. Yes, I can relate to this. And that’s why IRB that makes so much sense.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Well, I think I’ve rarely go to doctor team than Dr. Google but I have some semi funny questions and some more serious questions. So one of the semi funny questions I have is I love this Indian buffet out in Germantown but then we’re talking about odd me and how it’s better to eat at a certain time. Don’t eat too much. What do you what do you think about as a as a doctor about your VEDA? What do you think about buffets and sort of these type of all you can eat? You know, I’m going to stop as many pakoras on my plate as possible, you know, or you can mango lassi, right? What are your thoughts about about these type of things?

Dr. Amita Jain:

So let’s say for example, you’re a person with strong Agni, okay? Meaning you’re having good regular bowel habits, you’re able to digest your food, you’re without amare, toxins. Generally, people like that, hey, every once in a while, you want to go to the buffet, go to town and stuff yourself, you know, you’ll you’ll heal from it every once in a while, that’s once in a while, once right? You want to treat yourself right? Once a month or so you know what you’re you’re gonna, you’re gonna recover from it, where it becomes some more of an issue or the people who have weak underneath, you know, weaker digestion. Now, they don’t recover as quickly and that over eating from that buffet, they’re just now accumulating toxins in their body, and they’re gonna feel the effects the next day, they’re groggy, they’re slow, they’re tired, they have brain fog, they’re not clear alert, all of those things, you know, tend to manifest pretty quickly. So it just comes back to what your personal digestive condition is and what we call your, your dosha prakriti or your sort of natural birth constitution and how you can handle these different foods.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

So a someone with a quote unquote heavier dosha like a Kapha dosha might might be less likely to to handle that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. And then wondering about and no here we say a lot about like chewing your food and you know, chewing slowly so what is it fair to say about the amount of number of chews per bite if that’s even something you know? That you would recommend there?

Dr. Amita Jain:

Yeah, I Aveda says that digestion starts in our mouth. It all starts with chewing the number of teeth equals the number of bites you take. Okay? I know that’s hard to sit and count 32 times.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

It is a lot but I have noticed that it is hard honestly because I’m like, I love this food. I just want to like eat as much as I can. But it does make a difference and I can feel Oh, my stomach, you know, it’s like that.

Dr. Amita Jain:

Absolutely. And the idea is that you want the food to become liquid in the mouth. Okay? And that’s why we need what we do is we tell people hey, start having soups. Yeah, yeah. Because that’s already liquid or digested.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah. Okay, that’s right. Got it. I’m curious about the herbs. I know, this is a question that kind of comes up sometimes in our practice with with herbs or even like, we might recommend different oils and things like that. A lot of times, we’re asking if companies test for heavy metals and contaminants. What are your thoughts on that on the herbs that that, you know, are sourced from, say, India or China or wherever?

Dr. Amita Jain:

It is? It’s a good question, because it is a serious concern. And we really do have to be cautious and careful from where our herbs are being sourced. And of course, you know, a lot of these classical formulas of iron VEDA come out of India. But there’s a huge concern of heavy metals and pollutants in wildcrafted herbs, which is sort of the thing now, you know, wild harvested, you know, that’s not necessarily a good thing. Organic, you know, is now it’s now coming up. And there’s more and more third party testing being done. But generally, you want to go with reliable, reputable companies that, that do a lot of testing on on all the batches of drugs that go out. So it is something we need to be, we need to be careful about. And the same way that we choose our foods, we choose local, we choose organic, same with herbs,

Dr. Andrew Wong:

choose good companies, you know, and then. And then the other thing is really for some sort of good plan. I think a lot of people ask, and this might be individualized. But you know, so they might ask you a meet the like, how long will it take me if I’m on a certain nutrition plan and herbal plan and lifestyle plan to heal my gut? Or to feel better? And kind of maybe it’s individualized for each person?

Dr. Amita Jain:

Yeah, so it can take anywhere from generally three to six months. Okay. Suffer stubborn case of Candida can take longer. Crohn’s severe cases can take nine to 12 months, with an Ayurvedic protocol.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I mean, healing takes time. And, you know, the way I was taught to is that the longer something has been going on, it takes longer to heal, the longer the patience is virtue in this situation.

Dr. Amita Jain:

That’s right. But at least we’re getting to the root cause and you’re getting to real healing as opposed to just you know, suppressing symptoms.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Right, exactly. Why see, you have a beautiful purple piece of clothing on and this reminds me of something that happened to me a long time ago when I was at a doctor and they gave me something called the purple pill, because I thought I had reflux, you know, so there’s a pharmaceutical that they advertised as the purple pill, you know, and so, so I took it one time, and then I was like, You know what, this doesn’t really feel right to me, I think I’m going to try nutrition. I’m going to try some things on my lifestyle change that I didn’t need that. So we want to talk about acid reflux. That’s another area on the gut that you know the number one number two sellers, I think a lot of times for, for drugs are these like proton pump inhibitors also caught acid blockers. What acid blockers do to the aghani to the digestive fire? Are there other more natural ways to treat acid reflux?

Dr. Amita Jain:

Yeah, we, it’s a very common condition that we see in our clinic and PPIs really do destroy our healthy gut bacteria, and they also weaken greatly our acne. So even though the patient thinks they’re feeling better, actually, when they come off the PPI symptoms can come back much, much worse than before. So what we’re trying to do is educate the patient and the difference between what the PPI is trying to do and what our herbs are trying to do. So if there’s inflammation for gastritis what we want to do is reduce that inflammation so that they’re not having the acid reflux symptoms. And so we do that the combination of wonderful time tested proven herbs from iron VEDA that are very mild that work over time and a diet so we will we will put them on a strict diet you got to cut out sour you got to cut out citrus, oily and very spicy foods, which is often the toughest, especially from the Indian community. Yeah, yeah, it’s like part of every meal now the foods Yeah, but the healing is quite dramatic. What did they take that apart?

Dr. Andrew Wong:

What about dairy Where does dairy fit into to acid reflux?

Dr. Amita Jain:

So, dairy, there are certain types of dairy their categories. For example, cheese will aggravate acid reflux in Ayurveda, if you have a good quality of pure milk, which difficult to get here. But if you can get your hands on some non homogenized, local healthy milk then eight can actually help pacify some of the reflux symptoms.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

There is a good brand that I saw that moms called a to this Okay, two version.

Dr. Amita Jain:

That’s right, a two. There’s also milk from I don’t know if you’ve heard of the trickling springs vocal Creamery. Yeah. Okay.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

non homogenous non homogenized? Yes. So it’s hard to pour because it’s like super creamy. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. What about ghee? Is that’s considered okay there for someone with reflux or bloating?

Dr. Amita Jain:

Yes, yes. He, yes. Other oils. We try to, we try to reduce, but the key is very soothing to the digestive tract.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yes. And then this is not a medical treatment podcast. So you know, we just want to say that disclaimer, I’m just curious how you would treat someone that has reflux symptoms, but also may have and they’re on a ppi, let’s say, a proton pump inhibitor, but they also have endoscopic evidence of ulcers or Barrett’s esophagus, like what’s the Ayurvedic thought about that.

Dr. Amita Jain:

So we get into this situation where if we prescribe our herbs, and they’re on these PPIs, the herbs actually don’t take effect, because they’re working in different ways. So what we do is we start them on a diet, breathing exercises, because breathing is very healing for the gut, and for and for ulcers, and some yoga. And then we also teach them sort of affirmations, positive affirmations. And so they’re starting the healing process. And at the same time, they work with their physicians to slowly and gradually taper off the PPI. And then when they’re when they’re finally off, because they’re feeling somewhat better already, then we start introducing the herbs, and that’s where the real change comes in. So the herbs can do their work in healing some of these ulcers, and slowly and gradually, the patient starts to feel a lot better. And, you know, we do regular follow ups with them and, and feedback with them so that we know we’re on the right track, but depending on, you know, the the severity, time ranges,

Dr. Andrew Wong:

and this is a little bit of a sidebar, but you know, we like rabbit holes on this podcast, too, when when someone is kind of working with you, and they have say like primary care practitioner, someone Western training on West on Western chain, but also integratively trained, how do you work with those kinds of doctors, you know, in terms of the patient may have their primary practitioners or other other medical specialists?

Dr. Amita Jain:

Well, I see all caretakers and practitioners, we’re all a team together, we all have the end goal of of our patient getting better. So sometimes I will give some information to my client, they’ll go back and discuss it with their physician. And I always try to encourage them to do that, you know, because sometimes physicians just they don’t, they may not have the same knowledge we have, I don’t have the same knowledge they do. And so if I am giving them some herbs to take or even diet, lifestyle changes, I’ll say, you know, let’s, let’s have a conversation with your physician. And oftentimes when we approach it that way, physicians very open to it. And you know, they’ll just say okay, if you’re on these kinds of prescriptions or medications, we want to avoid this, but but they are generally very open and receptive. So I think that more and more physicians are starting to feel themselves that we got we need a more elaborate, comprehensive team to the whole holistic and healing approach.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Absolutely. This is a podcast on gut health and I Aveda but yesterday I just saw a patient who said there were thyroid was completely healed with Ayurveda is like amazing. So there’s so much that I think we can learn and we can learn from working together and the service of of you know, helping that patient get better. We also know that all people have gas and bloating, which is a fourth you know, concern in terms of digestion. What would you say to patients is Hey, Dr. Meat, I have some bloating and gas after each meal. Where do you go from there is that OG news here that something

Dr. Amita Jain:

else? Yeah. Also very, very common now. So after we’ve educated them on healthy eating habits, now we’re also looking at hormones and hormone panels, especially women as they go through their natural transition in their 40s and early 50s. Sometimes, that can cause onset of bloating and gas. Sometimes a major life change you know, changing a job or hectic lifestyle, you know, you you kind of like as you mentioned, you forget to chew your food and you’re sort of hurrying through eating. But also, even in men men also go through hormonal changes and that can affect it. Thyroid, hypothyroidism can lead to gas and bloating. So now we’re looking at you know, the good thing is that hey, they’ve they’ve come in at the early stages of disease, you know, the first few symptoms and that’s exactly where we want to tackle things.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah. And then I suppose you would also recommend curious you know, I see a lot of people now eating their lunches or you know, They’re kind of hurrying up and things like that they have the cell phone. They’re they’re scrolling through the news. Oh, yes. It may not be how my husband eats every night. All right. All right, call out your husband here. And yeah, what are your thoughts on on things like, you know, distractions or watching TV while you’re eating and those type of things?

Dr. Amita Jain:

Yeah, well, if you sit down with a meal, and you actually look at your food before you eat, you look at the food and you smell your food, you’re going to start producing the enzymes that you need to properly digest that food. And if you’re taking bites, and you’re tasting and you’re chewing, not only are you going to digest and assimilate better, but you are going to be acutely aware of what foods suit you, and what don’t, you’re going to be able to listen to your body’s natural response to various foods, and you will become your own doctor, because you will say, Oh my God, wait a minute, I thought that a salad would be good for me. But when I eat these raw foods, I feel bloated, and gassy. And I feel lethargic. And that’s absolutely right. Not everyone has the agony strength to digest a salad and sometimes the salad can be the absolute worst thing you can eat. You know, but if you have a warm cooked rice bowl with with lentils and vegetables that are fresh and cooked too soft, and you eat that and you say I feel nourished, I feel good, I don’t have bloating, I feel light, then guess what you don’t need to turn to to Google or to anyone else to figure out what foods are right for you. You have that own intelligence but you have to be alert and aware to be able to listen to what your body’s telling you

Dr. Andrew Wong:

get off the cell phone get off the TV, listen to your body do some breathing. Yeah, weighing looking at the food. Yes, signaling the enzyme and it’s difficult it’s hard it’s this practice especially nowadays, right? Yes. When traditional Chinese medicine which I have some some background in that you know, they’re they’re really big into you know, ginger and kind of stimulating and you know, hot foods and also eating seasonally and how’s our VEDA in terms of like, you know, temperature of foods and and maybe even like food combinations, you know, yeah,

Dr. Amita Jain:

yeah, very big, very, very important part of our Veda and so we eat according to the times of the day and the seasons and according to our vicar the or our disease state or condition. So even the herbs like you mentioned Ginger Ginger is an excellent to heal a number of digestive issues for certain types of people but ginger is also very heating very dry so it might not be the best herbs in the middle of summer. Okay. And similarly with seasons as you said, we want to eat what’s what’s local what’s growing, you know, we don’t want to have pineapple watermelon and winter our body’s just not going to be able to produce the same enzymes to digest that food even though they’re, quote healthy foods. So the herbs according to time day season, and same with our foods,

Dr. Andrew Wong:

got it. I have to talk about a superstar that we think about as a superstar turmeric you know, turmeric is something that we know in functional medicine can decrease some of the markers for chronic inflammation like NF Kappa Beta you know can basically help a lot of people but where are you with turmeric and you know, is that for everyone? Or where do you kind of see turmeric in general?

Dr. Amita Jain:

Excellent. Yeah, I really want to top talk on this topic. So a lot of misinformation out there as well. Wonderful one one thing is that turmeric absolutely is the ultimate superfood especially for anti inflammatory properties it is excellent however because it is a superfood it is so concentrated so packed with all these nutrients we have to take it in small amounts more is not better. What happens is I see people coming in to my clinic and they’re like yeah you know I was diagnosed with this this this I started taking turmeric I’ve been taking you know one teaspoon every three hours every four hours because so and so told me to do this and they’re worse off because you know like any other herb it has its qualities in too much you’re gonna go into excess. So we really need to take it in small doses. There are different ways to take turmeric you can take it as a paste you can take it in food, you can take it with water, you can take it topically you can have it with ghee, you can have it with honey. So these are called unknowns like how what mode of that that carrier you know, are we using turmeric for so we it’s got to be taken in the right dose and in the right form. The other thing I want to mention about turmeric is that a lot of this herb that we’re getting here off the shelves, lacks in in curcumin so curcumin as you know is the you know cancer fighting power in terms I can it’s what gives turmeric its color. But because the nutraceutical industry has captured capitalize on curcumin, a lot of its extracted out of the powder, and so they’re selling the powder without curcumin in the stores, you know adding, you know, coloring to it to give it its orange color. So we we have to be cautious about that. Also I want to talk on curcumin extract supplements, not the same thing. Yes, they they’re advertised as being more potent, you will see you know, effects more quickly. And that is true in to some degree. However, whenever you extract any property out of its hole, you’re going to have side effects from it. So I see people too, for joint pains or may have been taking curcumin for like eight months and now they have other issues. So my advice is, you know, take turmeric as a whole herb. If you are taking it for sort of preventative, you know therapies, put it in your food as we do in classical AI or VEDA in India. We’ve been using turmeric for 1000s of years, you just add a quarter teaspoon into your food while cooking. And you’re gonna get a lot just from that.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

And it’s better absorbed with food, I believe right is right, right turmeric.

Dr. Amita Jain:

That is right. And if you do want to take it for therapeutic purposes, then see your eye or Vedic practitioner.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Great. Got it. So this is all really great and Oh, specific information and general information too. Thank you so much, Dr. Martha. Do you have any recommendations for practices that that people listening here can incorporate at home for general digestive health? Let’s say they have nothing specific wrong right now they just want to kind of optimize their acne, their digestion, what are some of the kind of top tips you’re thinking in terms of how to how to optimize their digestive health?

Dr. Amita Jain:

Okay, first thing upon waking two cups of warm to hot water. First thing, coffee should not be the first thing that you put inside your body. Darn it comes later All right, you’re drinking coffee. First thing you’re hurting me two cups of warm to hot water. The second thing is breakfast should be light and easy to digest. So if it’s summer, and you have good juicy sweet fruits, local, that’s wonderful. Through the colder months have some porridge. I see a lot of people having very complicated breakfast either there hi, peanut having eggs and orange juice and toast with that. And you mentioned food combination, I really stresses a lot on the combining of foods. So the The simpler you can make your meals. Actually, the more benefit, the more nutrients you’re going to extract from that and you’re going to put less burden on your digestive system. So I would say soupy tight porches in winter are great sweet fruits and summer are great. fresh juices are wonderful in breakfast, and then your lunch should be your heaviest meal of the day. A nice balanced meal of whole grains and you know, vegetables and some protein would be wonderful. And not skipping breakfast. I mean not skipping lunch. Lunch is when your ag needs the strongest. So if you start skipping or delaying lunch, you’re going to deranged your Agni dinner. Again, keep it light and keep it early. If you can eat before six o’clock, you’re going to do your body good. You’re going to sleep well you’re going to feel much more energy energized the next day. And I like to think of dinner as soups and stews, curries with rice, you know, look at look towards some of the more Asian dishes. And of course in the in the warmer months, and summers when knees naturally stronger, that’s when you can have your salads. You can have a salad for lunch or breakfast. But, but don’t don’t try to you know, eliminate the dressings you know, have your olive oils, coconut oils, lemon juice as your dressings. The other thing I want to mention is not to have liquids with your meals. You if you just make that one simple change, you’re going to have a tremendous you’re gonna see a great improvement in your digestion. And especially if you’re having bloating or gas.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Why that is that’s a really, really great point.

Dr. Amita Jain:

So liquids, they put out our fire, right you think about your flame on your stovetop, you’re pouring water over it and now you put in food and that that flame is diminished

Dr. Andrew Wong:

whether it’s cold or hot, like even if it’s like a hot tea that would still diminish, dilute it.

Dr. Amita Jain:

That’s right. That’s right. So avoid with your food between meals. Room temperature or warm fluids are the best have your herbal long to wait before after 30 minutes before a meal. Okay. And an hour after Okay.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Okay. Good to know good to know I remember that. My dad owned a restaurant and all the all the cooks you know in the kitchen they were like yeah, they never drank any liquid with their meals. No Yeah. Oh, I guess that’s probably why

Dr. Amita Jain:

Yeah, like if you go to India you don’t see people walking around with water bottles all the time. And it’s like, you know, 110 degrees in summer like this Yeah, that’s right. And that’s because we get water out of our meals. So almost all meals are going to have some type of doll or curry or in South India they have sambar which is like a soup with spices and vegetable. Yeah,

Dr. Andrew Wong:

I’ve had that. Well, I mean, these type of meals are more plant forward or plant centric. They probably have more hydration in them. Absolutely. Anyway. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Great. So all these things are really really helpful. I think that you know, the water bottle has its place but maybe between meals it sounds like it’s right yeah, clean meals

Dr. Amita Jain:

between meals and include healthy oils in your diet. I just cannot stress the importance of that because our colon gets dry. Yeah, often from very stressed and activities. But healthy oils key is wonderful coconut oil, unrefined virgin is wonderful olive oil, avocado oil, include those in your diet.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

So great. Now part of our mission here at Sage is making integrative health care more accessible and focusing on the small steps steps we can do to improve our health. I know that you know, you created your your company dedic health as a nonprofit to, to, you know, serve people in a deeper way, make this type of natural medicine more accessible, which is really great. So kudos to you for that. Love to hear from you. What is one thing Dr. Mita? That under $20? You know, I had a guest come on one time said oh, can it be under $100? Because there’s a lot of inflation now, but what is one thing under $20 That you feel has transformed your health and you know, you feel like maybe could benefit our listeners?

Dr. Amita Jain:

Boy, that’s tough because I can think of so many that are actually free.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

That’s under 20. That’s okay, I’m

Dr. Amita Jain:

gonna I’m gonna give you three things. Awesome. Okay, number one, bonuses can’t stress the importance of deep breathing. Okay, it’s free. Yes, it’s easy. No one needs to know you’re doing it. And the effects are just remarkable. Learn how to do it correctly. Take a Prony armor class. Okay, I do. I do teach apparently I’m a class for many years. And

Dr. Andrew Wong:

that means what just for listeners that mean it’s the science of breathing. Okay, science of breathing. So pranayama deep breathing is free. That’s so great. It’s gonna give you energy.

Dr. Amita Jain:

That’s right. Yeah. The second thing I want to say is either Vedas, classical super ARB for digestion, okay. Is called triphala triphala. Yes, you’ve heard of triphala as being more more and more used now. Yeah, and it’s a combination of three Indian fruits in their whole form just dried and Triphala is excellent for digestion. It’s also known as Asana which is kind of like something we can take for our general health for maintenance for prevention. But it is just it’s so good. In you know, helping keep our healthy bacteria are gut Michael microflora, our digestive tract working, keeping out invaders and pathogens, but it’s also good for a number of other things, you know, for our eye health and for our, for our deep tissues. So Triphala can be taken very safely by almost everyone. It’s such a mild herb, it works over time. So do some research on triphala. And, you know, you could start with a quarter teaspoon at night and a cup of warm water, drink it before you go to bed. And especially in cases of constipation gassiness. Bloating, you will see a big improvement with that. And the third thing I want to talk about is some simple yoga asanas. So people think that you know, to get the most out of yoga, you have to go to a studio you have to do a whole hours class and yet by the sweat pants fit into these days yoga pants or go to Lululemon. And look, we’ll know there’s actually three asanas and that you can do easily at home on a daily basis. That actually helped stimulate a lot of the sort of peristalsis as peristaltic movement and nourish and rejuvenate our internal digestive organs. So a simple one is Child’s Pose. I love that pose. Believe it or not, it is incredibly it’s like it’s like giving your whole gut a massage, a deep tissue massage. So get into child’s pose, hold it for a minute. And then the other one is cobra pose.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Okay. Oh, that’s the one where you go up with. Yeah. So you’re, you’re you’re on a mat. You have to be on the floor for that one yet. Okay. Yeah,

Dr. Amita Jain:

that’s right. Yeah, the lying down. And then when you’re in when you’re lying in bed, if you can’t get into a child’s pose and you just pull your knees up to your chest, okay. And what that it’s also known in yoga as the window Leaving pose, okay, so it’s very effective at reducing gassiness and just helps you kind of sleep better calms down nervous activities. So just pulling your knees into your chest like a like a ball. And the key is to hold these poses and to breathe slowly and deeply while you’re doing them. So holding it for a minute,

Dr. Andrew Wong:

a minute. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I noticed sometimes doing Child Pose even like, at my desk, if I don’t have a mat, you know, just putting the forehead on there. Would that also kind of count as a? Yes, semi modified posts? Absolutely. Yeah. Well, this is great. I think that’s a really key point about the asanas is sounds like holding it there to get the benefit from them more than just you know how like in flow, sometimes it’s just like, oh, do that. And then like three seconds later, you gotta go to another post, right? Kind of like Gumby or something. That’s right. Yeah. Not that. I mean, I enjoy flow. But then on the other hand, yeah, I don’t know how relaxing it is for the digestion.

Dr. Amita Jain:

That’s right. And the therapeutic benefits, as you said, come from holding these poses. So when you pull your knees into your chest, you’re essentially squeezing out blood, you know, stagnant blood, you’re squeezing out and you’re, you’re forcing energy to move out of these digestive organs. And then when you come out of it, and you’re resting now, that’s also key in between these asanas that you’re giving your time rest this all this new sort of healthy, fresh, oxygenated blood comes into the organs as well as prana from your breath. And it’s like, it’s rejuvenating.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah. This is so great. Thank you so much, Dr. Mita, for coming on today. Really wealth of knowledge on Ayurveda. And I know listeners are wondering how can they learn more about you and work with you and your team?

Dr. Amita Jain:

Yeah, sure. Vedic health.org

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Is your local DMV, right? Yep.

Dr. Amita Jain:

We’re located in Rockville, Maryland. Okay. We have a center I are Vedic center. We do all kinds of Ayurvedic therapies. They’re ancient therapies, health consultations, we do energy healing, we do counseling. And we also offer Hatha Yoga, which is a very traditional form of yoga. It’s focused on healing and highly therapeutic. We also offer these deep breathing pranayama classes, meditation classes. So we’re kind of like, you know, Eastern Health all under one umbrella in one location.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

And Vedic health is vi d. I see health.org.org. org. That’s right. Got it. Great. Vedic health.org. Dr. mutagen, thank you so much for coming on today. And Fletcher,

Dr. Amita Jain:

thank you so much, Dr. Huang. This was wonderful. I seldom get a chance to talk about these things. So it’s just it was great to be here to chat with you.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us today for this episode of the capital Integrative Health podcast. A quick reminder that the information we share on this podcast is meant for educational and informational purposes only. It’s not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. We highly recommend that you speak to a qualified health care provider before making any medical or healthcare decisions. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a few moments to subscribe and leave us a review. Your reviews help us reach more people and continue to offer innovative insights and information to better optimize your health and wellness.