on particular symptoms of imbalance. ​This will be determined when you visit your practitioner. In order to be guided through these actions and prepare your body for letting go of what isn't needed, you will receive hours of massage and other treatments with oils and herbs to move the toxins from your deeper tissues.

It is important to allow space in your schedule when going through panchakarma. Rest and empty space in your day are an important part of panchakarma. When there is space and emptiness in your life, it will be experienced in your mind and body, and healing starts to happen. Toxicity, stagnation and trauma will surface and panchakarma supports their elimination. To let go of mental and emotional toxins it is highly recommended to meditate and cultivate the 'witness' state, so that old and not serving emotions and patterns can consciously be let go of. The result often is a spiritual rejuvenation - deeper levels of trust and more ease in surrendering to what life brings. To support letting go of physical toxins, melted ghee is ingested, which causes mobilization of toxins, that are mostly lipid-(fat)-soluble, from your body's tissues.
​
These are benefits you can experience from panchakarma treatment:

• increased feelings of well-being, calmness and ease in body and mind
• increased energy, focus and motivation
• mental clarity
• stronger digestion and elimination
• soft and pliable skin
• more flexibility in the joints
• strong immunity
• weight loss, sometimes a lot, but typically some of it will come back
• everything will taste better and look better

​

If you've come to see me, or any ayurvedic practitioner or doctor, you've probably been told to add mung dal to your food library. Why, what is so special about mung dal? First of all, a dal is a split lentil or bean. Often the outer hull is taken off, and then the inside is split in two halves. Since the outer hull is all fiber, a dal is easier to digest than a bean, and as you probably have understood, Ayurveda is all about favoring digestion when choosing which foods to eat. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't eat fiber. A healthy diet has a large amount of fresh vegetables and fruits and those are full of fiber. Sometimes, depending on your belly, it is better to not choose the whole grain or the whole lentil/bean, because they might push the amount of fiber to the point where your belly starts to protest and produces a lot of gas. If you know this about yourself, then give dal a try. You might also choose white rice over brown rice. It's true, white rice doesn't have as much nutrition as brown rice. But if you're not digesting your brown rice well, as in getting gas, then you probably are not absorbing all those nutrients anyway.

Don't apply this to your bread. Bread was something that was developed by early humans to make the grasses and grains that were growing all around, and that were great sources of nutrients, more digestible. They gathered the seeds and ground them into powder. Mixed the powder with water and shaped it into patties or other shapes and cooked these on a fire. This evolved into what we know as bread. When the whole grains are ground into flour they are easier to digest. A lot of the work our teeth, stomach and intestines would have to do is already done. So bread is a great way, if you choose the right kind, to get a lot of nutrition in a compact package. More about bread later....

Back to  mung dal. There are so many kinds of dal, why do we like mung dal so much? 
Mung beans have been very popular in South and South East Asia for many centuries. In India they're mostly eaten as dal, because it is light, easy to digest, rather bland, which makes them a great tridoshic food, and especially good for pitta, and it is a high quality protein. So when you are not well, cleansing, or for women going through menstruation or menopause, or when you have poor digestion, it is important to eat light foods to not overburden your body and create indigestion. During these times the body's systems are functioning at less than optimally, so the digestive fire is also low. Eating a light diet is important. The blandness of mung dal and the fact that it cooks so fast, make it a great recovery food. It can be made very tasty by cooking it with spices and herbs according to your dosha, but eating it simple and bland can be very restoring and calming for your body and mind. Cooked together with Basmati rice, and spices, vegetables and ghee it makes a tasty, simple one-pot meal that is a complete protein, called kitcheree. 

It is not a local food, but there just isn't anything like it, for restoring an overburdened body. And mung beans are grown in the US these days.

by Simone de Winter
Owner and practitioner at Marin Ayurveda in Marin County, California.
Practicing and teaching Ayurveda for 11 years.

In ayurveda's ancient texbooks there may be no mention of the word cancer, but there are many references to the growth of masses, tumors, malignancy, with Sanskrit names like, apachi, gulma, granthi and arbuda. Cancer is a disease in which certain of our bodies' cells develop defects, caused by a mutation in their DNA. These mutant cells, dependent on several factors, like the strength of the immune system, and pathogens, sometimes duplicate at enormous speed, causing growths, tumors, that are adversarial to the body's tissues. Not all cancers produce tumors. Some - leukemia - cause rapid cell growth in the bone marrow or blood.  In metastasis, cancer cells multiply and travel through blood and the lymph system to the rest of the body.


Conventional medicine treats cancer as a focal disease with local symptoms. Ayurveda sees the whole body-mind as a system, and recognizes that the malfunctioning of this system can lead to cancer. Ayurveda treats the whole individual. 
According to ayurveda cancer involves all three doshas - vata, pitta and kapha, it is tridoshic disease. But the root of the cancer may be either in vata, pitta, or kapha, and consequently it is disease of vata, disease of pitta, or disease of kapha, and the treatment will be accordingly. Also the tissue in which the cancer is found, will ask for different herbal treatment, so there really is no one way to treat cancer in the ayurvedic system. Specific herbal formulations and therapies will be directed towards the cancer, but it doesn't stop there. The therapeutic approach is prophylactic, palliative, curative and supportive. Ayurveda offers a lifestyle of prevention; it can soothe symptoms through lifestyle, dietary and herbal adjustments; it can cure, especially when the cancer is in earlier stages, offering powerful internal and external herbal applications in conjunction with dietary and lifestyle adjustments; and it can support conventional medical treatment, and counteract its side effects.

Ayurveda sees the fundamental cause of tumor, or uncontrolled cell, growth to be a build-up of pathogens, toxins, in the organism. This then leads to deficiency in the immune system. If we consider the immune system our protection against external pathogens, we can see the weakened immunity as a "giving up or a giving in", since, as Dr. Robert Svoboda says so poignantly, "the hallmark of cancer is the rebellion of cells against the organism's self-identity", our body is allowing cellular mutiny to take over. The causes are poor lifestyle choices, wrong diet, stress and anxiety, poor sleep, mental/emotional incoherency, overuse of stimulants, intoxicants, chemical drugs, and nowadays, exposure to environmental toxins. Ayurveda uses the word ama for this toxic build-up in the organism. It is partly self-generated, by poorly digesting all that we ingest, and choosing industrial foods that are already full of ama, like pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, preservatives, and packaged in xeno-estrogenic plastics. But even the most beautiful organically grown, free-range, grass-fed foods can turn into ama if the digestive system cannot properly digest, absorb the nutrients and eliminate the waste products. It is this ama, that confuses the immune system, makes it overwork. Then it will tire and give into the fast-growing ama that is cancer.

The mental-emotional component of the weakening immunity is addressed nowadays by physicians like Dr. Lawrence LeShan, Christiane Northrup, Wayne Dyer and many more. The experience they have working with cancer patients is that they see that same "giving in or giving up", and they will encourage and guide their patients to use the cancer as a "Turning Point, to take charge of their lives and bodies and gently coax the cancer into remission.

 Understanding the cancer as being either caused by excess vata, pitta or kapha, outlines a specific disease development, based on a person's inherent constitutional tendencies, and specific lifestyle and dietary choices. Vata, being composed of space and air, will bring a different etiology from kapha, being composed of water and earth, or pitta, made up of fire and water. They come with their own digestive disturbances, dietary preferences, behaviors and mental-emotional tendencies. All leading to the same manifestation of cancer, but with specific characteristics.

Strengthening of the immune system, healthy lifestyle, diet, appropriate exercise and as Deepak Chopra suggests, "access to the Divine consciousness within, through yogic and meditative disciplines, can correct the wrong information that triggers uncontrollable cell multiplication, and cure cancer from the quantum level of the body". Ayurveda, the medical system and "science of life", offers many internal and external herbal and metal-based medications to help remove cellular overgrowth.

by: Simone de Winter, MA, certified ayurvedic specialist

Over twenty years ago I started practicing yoga. I followed an inner voice while I was lying on the floor after a workout in the gym. I didn't like the gym. I loved yoga. Soon I was taking up to five classes per week. I loved learning to tune into the subtleties of alignment, to feel separate muscle groups and learn how to move them. I loved using my breath to bring my mind all the way with my body and my movement. I wouldn't notice anybody else in class. I learned a lot about my body and how to use yoga to make it feel better. 

When I did a teacher training the the whole system of yoga opened up to me. I learned about the different philosophies and how they can bring more control of your mind. So I sat my first meditation retreat. It was very revealing of how the body, mind, and emotions feed into each other, and was not easy. I noticed the deep inner freedom I felt after sitting and watching my impulses for days at a time, instead of following my impulses day after day. I remember sitting outside in the sun, and feeling the sun's rays on my body and hearing the insect wings buzz, and it brought such deep satisfaction.

I loved the increasing subtlety of my "yoga" practice, and the emphasis changed from asana/postures to breathing and meditation. 

Then I went to Ayurveda school in 2001, and studied even more ancient Indian science. This time it was the medical side. I learned that anything that we put or allow into our bodies - and that includes any sensorial impression - mental or emotional experience, needs to be digested and properly assimilated, in order to serve us. A healthy digestion makes for good health. I learned that "like increases like", and that "opposites balance". I learned that one man's food and herbal medicine is another's poison. And I learned about the cycles of nature, and that changing your lifestyle in order to flow with those cycles, really makes you feel better.

The ability to tune into subtlety increased again, this time extending to the chemistry of foods in my body, what it feels like to be 'acidic', and how 'vata' feels, and 'pitta' and 'kapha'. And the realization came that everything can be "yoga" practice. That I am not a bad yogi if I don't do any official "practice" during the day, but that if I do what I do with an awareness of how I do it and how it affects me and others, I am always practicing. Ofcourse I can sharpen my intuition, my mind, the tuning into subtlety, of myself and of others, with official practice, so I still do that too, just not as religiously, or maybe dogmatically. And when I practice I'm taking time out of my day to do things, yoga and meditation, to make my body and nervous system feel better. I'm taking good care of myself, I'm practicing preventative medicine. 

Over the years I have found that having these ancient Indian practices in my life is empowering more than anything. It's given me a way to return to a balanced state, no matter what life throws at me. 
I feel deep gratitude when I walk this path...

Panchakarma is an ancient ritual of detoxification and rejuvenation. As an essential part of Ayurveda’s mandala of healing practices, it invites deep renewal, activates cellular intelligence, and optimizes metabolic functions.

Ayurveda understands the microcosm of the physical body/mind to function in the same way as the great macrocosm of nature. Because of that it considers the natural elements, and their interplay – Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space – as the basis of life. Their interweaving within the body-mind, and the environment, generates three main patterns of energy transformation called doshas: vata – expressing the predominance of air and space, pitta – fire and water, and kapha – earth and water.

Each dosha has a primary site in the body: kapha, in the stomach; pitta, in the small intestines; and vata, in the colon/large intestine. Whenever doshic imbalance occurs, their excess tends to accumulate in these corresponding organs, causing specific symptoms or discomfort, leading to disease. Imbalances often result from undigested food, emotions or mental activities, stressful lifestyle, injuries, external factors, and/or genetic weakness. 

Also the accumulation of toxins, or ama (the Ayurvedic term) in the body, is a cause of disease symptoms.  This ama can come from external sources such as the pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers we ingest through our foods; to airborne pollutants like industrial waste, car exhaust and smoke; from exotoxins, secreted by bacteria; and  from prescription medications. But the human body can create its own ama as well, by not properly digesting the food that is consumed, and the ensuing improper break-down of internal metabolic waste products. The way we know that we have an accumulation of ama in our bodies is from having a thick, white or colored, coating on the tongue, from having unpleasant body odor, from a feeling of sluggishness and fatigue, fogginess in the brain, headaches and many disease symptoms. Combined with an accumulation of certain doshas, this ama can lead to all kinds of disease symptoms, often determined by genetic weakness.

Ideally the human body will digest all it ingests perfectly, and detoxify itself through the liver and gallbladder, kidneys, and large intestine. But the increasing amount of toxins in our environment, the stress we deal with combined with our diet and lifestyle, often overwhelm the individual's digestion and detoxification ability.

Panchakarma is a way to remove ama and bring the doshas back into balance, and since stress is such a large contributor to imbalance, this all happens in the context of deep relaxation. Panchakarma is applied while receiving hot oil massage and other treatments, followed by a steam application. This has the multiple function of liquefying ama, improving blood and lymphatic circulation so that toxins/ama are mobilized from the deeper tissues into the digestive system from where they will be eliminated, while at the same time bringing the body and mind into a deep state of rest and letting go. 

Most of the external toxins that enter our body are fat (lipid)-soluble, and if the liver is unable (because of above mentioned factors) to break them down, they deposit in tissues all over the body. The preparation process of panchakarma consists of "internal oleation", the process of ingesting ghee or a vegetable oil in increasing amounts for a series of days. Then a non-fat diet consisting of only natural, easy to digest, foods will be taken. This moves toxins to your lymphatic system and will bring your body into fat metabolism mode. You start burning fat cells, which is where most of the toxins hide out. So fat-soluble toxins/ama are liquefied (as mentioned above) and then removed from the body through the process of panchakarma. 

Panchakarma literally means “five actions” and involves five eliminatory treatments to remove toxins from the body and restore energy flow throughout the organ systems and tissues:

• Vamana – therapeutic vomiting, treats Kapha imbalance. 
  
• Virechana – purgation, treats Pitta imbalance.
  
• Basti – enemas, using oil and herbal treas, to treat Vata imbalance.
  
• Nasya – cleanses and nourishes the sinuses and nasal passages.
  
• Rakta mokshana – bloodletting, to move blood in parts of the body where it is stagnated. Typically it involves the application of leeches and is beyond the scope of practice in the US.
  

Since these eliminatory treatments will leave the body with some "empty spaces" from where the toxins used to be, it is important of fill up these "spaces" with good, strengthening foods and herbs, so that you come out of the whole process of panchakarma strong and with a healthy immunity. So after elimination there is a rejuvenation phase in which activity level, food intake, digestive strength, are all slowly built back up again, and during which strengthening foods and herbs are ingested.

During the panchakarma process it is highly recommended to refrain from external stimuli, such as socializing, television watching, computer, movies, books. Journaling and expressing through drawing or simple art projects are wonderful ways to support this process of elimination of toxins, since it brings an opportunity to let go of mental-emotional toxins as well.

Panchakarma leaves you feeling clear and energized, deeply rested and rejuvenated. It is a beautiful component of a healthy and natural lifestyle. 



Please respond to this blog with any comments of your own panchakarma experience.