Ayurvedic Medicine - Putting Principles into Practice

              It is time to tackle my dosha imbalance. Dosha is another name for one’s life force.  The Ayurvedic doctor told me both my Pitta and Vata doshas are out of whack.  With such an imbalance, one might expect I would have a hard time functioning, but somehow I have managed.  After taking a week off to recover from my UltraSimple cleanse, I am ready to follow the Ayurvedic recommendations.  According to WebMd, “A main goal of Ayurvedic medicine is to cleanse your body of undigested food . . . which can stick inside your body and make you sick.”  Now I understand why the doctor was so pleased by my regular bowel movements:  I don’t think anything sticks to my intestines.  Nevertheless, I am to embark on a panchakarma, or cleansing process.  Hopefully, this will correct my imbalance and create harmony among my doshas. 

              There are many methods to a successful panchakarma.  Methods include bleeding, massage, cathartics, and enemas.  I vote no to the bleeding.  Fortunately, I didn’t see any leeches in the doctor’s office.  A good massage, however, I might be willing to endure.  Other treatments may include:  aromatherapy, dietary modifications, herbs, lifestyle changes, yoga, and meditation. My doctor has chosen diet and herbs for the first go around.  This will be followed by an Ayurvedic Rasayan Day Spa package to complete my panchakarma.
          In accordance with the doctor’s advice, I once again eliminate caffeine from my diet.  He suggested green tea as an alternative, but I now associate green tea with my recently completed UltraSimple Diet and even the thought of it brings on a wave of nausea.  Besides, I will be drinking hot water with a teaspoon of crushed Ayurvedic herbs mixed in twice a day.  Surely this will be better than green tea.  In addition to the crushed herbal concoction, I once again cut out the “empty sweets” which I so adore - not an easy feat in the wake of Halloween.  I am loading up on veggies, nuts, and fruits - boy, this feels familiar.  I can certainly appreciate the logic behind this diet.  I am eating a healthier version of my regular diet.  I do cheat a bit, but on the balance, I am eating pretty healthy.  I have no complaints, except for those herbs.
            Do the powdered herbs mixed in a cup of hot water really taste better than green tea?  No, they do not.  The crushed herbs have the appearance of a grey powder.  They remind me of ashes from someone’s cremation - perhaps this is where crematoriums sell their unclaimed bodies.  I mix one teaspoon of the herbal concoction in a cup of steaming water.  With vigorous stirring, I can almost get the herbs to dissolve.  On its own, it is undrinkable; once I add freshly squeezed lemon, it is just bearable.  The result is a grey, slightly noxious, gritty drink.  I managed to force it down twice a day for the past week.
           If the appearance and taste of this gritty herbal drink is not enough to discourage me from taking the herbs, then perhaps an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Society (JAMA) in 2007 should do the trick.  The authors found that several Indian manufactured Ayurvedic products might result in lead and/or mercury ingestions 100-100,000 times acceptable limits.  In case you are unfamiliar with lead and mercury, they are heavy metals whose ingestion can cause life-threatening illnesses. The Federal Drug Administration has warned that 20% of Ayurvedic medicines contain toxic metals, including lead, mercury, and arsenic.  Yes, that is right, arsenic - the poison young wives use to murder their rich husbands.
           Despite the above admonitions, I stick to the diet and take my herbal remedy.  My son, Connor, is very worried about the potential heavy metal poisoning that seems to be looming. He has reviewed the symptoms of lead poisoning (abdominal pain, constipation, headache, confusion, irritability), mercury poisoning (tremors, inflamed gums, increased salivation, psychiatric symptoms), and arsenic poisoning (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss, rash).  He is monitoring me closely.  Other than going bald and acting a bit crazy, I haven’t changed a bit.  Connor is struggling with determining which symptoms he should attribute to the herbs and which ones are typical for his father. 
           One week into the diet, I feel pretty good.  The herbs do scare me a bit, but I am hoping that the herbs I got fall in the 80% which are not full of heavy metals.  I am feeling healthier by the day.  I am sure that my doshas are smiling.

 Next Friday . . . Rasayana Day Spa - Completing the Panchakarma