AYURVEDA AND AGEING – a healer's viewpoint
I was trying to tell a friend on the phone something about his cough. As he could not hear and wanted me to put it down in writing, I began to think of all my friends and acquaintances who might benefit from knowing and following these health preserving ideas. So here it for you too to follow, benefit from, comment upon and pass it on:
While working my way back to health, I learnt many Ayurvedic principles that played a crucial role in retrieving my vitality. These are, ofcourse, ancient principles that have helped people (in our country) keep good health in the past. Many of my patients, friends and family members have also benefited tremendously following these simple things and have been able to roll back many of their variously labeled dis-eases.
The most important change in the body after 40 (some cases 50) years of age is the increasing dryness that causes several problems that look very serious but arise out of a lessening of Kapha and Pitta in the body. You have to understand Kapha as water, Pitta as the 'chemical' digestive fire and Vata as wind or movements. With increasing dryness or high vata, the rasa or nourishment in the body does not move around well. There is a kind of sapping up of the peripheral meridians decreasing circulation and the supply of energy to the vital organs.
The body's intelligence likes to maintain optimum supply of energy to the vital organs and also maintain a balance of the same. In the depleted conditions, energy from the periphery – limbs- is withdrawn to keep the vital organs replenished with the limited supply of energy available. This causes pains and weakness in the limbs. The dryness affects the nervous system very badly and therefore one sees the confusing symptoms that show up at different times. The nervous system is the communication network – the PCB of the body. At times, this kind of mix up of signals due to the deterioration of the nervous system could be misinterpreted as symptoms of some 'auto-immune disorder' or 'degenerative disease' by the modern medical system.
Abhyanga: It is Abhyanga (not apple) everyday that keeps the doctors away. Abhyanga means that you rub a few tea spoons (5-7 depending on the body size) of oil (til is highly recommended) everyday on the entire body, before bath. Do not forget to include the ears and soles – wait for 5-10 minutes and wash as usual and towel. You do not wash too much out so that some trace of oil remains on the skin. The hands, legs (soles) and ears are to be done without fail daily. With this, peripheral circulation of energy in the body improves tremendously, relieving a lot of aches and pains. A more effective improvement on this is to add two spoons of finely powdered salt into the oil and rub the oil and salt together. Very weak people need to rub this on their head as well so the brain gets more energy. Though this makes the hair look rather sticky, it reduces hair fall and slows down graying.
With the circulation improving, the vital organs begin to recover their vitality and equilibrium. In particular, abhyanga improves the liver, digestion and the eyes. The nerves begin to get nourished and strengthened. Abhyanga also keeps the blood thin and healthy and you will notice this yourself when you have a cut. Daily abhyanga noticeably slows down ageing both inside and outside.
In addition, put a drop of oil deep into the ears with the help of the grooved handle of a spoon or some thing like that. This will strengthen your neck and shoulders. This helps strengthen also your heart, liver and kidneys because it strengthens the hypothalamus – the part of the brain that controls these organs. It will also improve the quality of your sleep and hearing by nourishing your nerves. Oil in the ears infused with a little garlic essence is a great and quick remedy for headaches, pain in the shoulder and arms and toothache as well. Please note, NO OIL SHOULD BE PUT IN THE EARS IF THERE IS AN INFECTION OR ANY OOZING OR DISCHARGE in the ears.
Travel causes more dryness as your body is exposed to the blowing wind. Therefore, you should have more abhyanga when you travel. The other practices that increase dryness are driving, riding two-wheelers, sitting under fans and being in air-conditioned spaces. I really feel very sorry when I see children take a ride sitting/standing in the front of two-wheelers. It may be a major cause of sinus and respiratory problems appearing in them at an early age.
A couple of things not so nice about abhyanga are that it makes one's clothes a bit more difficult to wash and over time they acquire a quaint smell. Over a longer period of time, your bathroom drain gets a deposit that looks like Mysorepak that needs to be cleared out -a small price to pay for the countless benefits it gives.
Cough: What might have been alright when you were younger may not be so any more. For example, gargling with salt and/or turmeric is no more the appropriate remedy at this age (50 or 60+) for cough or congestion in the throat. Taking ginger and honey may not be good in the long run. They could be even counter productive in the dry seasons. Instead, try this: apply some ghee into the nostrils with your little finger. You can do this twice a day if your cough is bad. Once in the afternoon and then before going to bed so that you sleep well with no irritation in the throat. Lubricating nostrils could also help in stopping wheezing in many people. Younger people who have habits that cause dryness may also try this to get rid of dry cough.
Now, very briefly about food and eating: All these apply to everyone, irrespective of age, 'healthy' or otherwise. One thing with food/eating is that the effect of eating something is seen more on the following day than on the same day. When you are very weak, something unsuitable might get thrown out immediately or sooner than when your health is better! It goes in and the body tries to handle it to the best of its ability, though it suffers in the process.
Our bodies change constantly. There is a saying that every seven years, all your rules have to be overhauled. What might have been causing loose bowel movement earlier, could now cause constipation and gas - eg., okhra and guava. Again, remember it is the next day that these problems show up. Incidentally, apple also causes constipation. You should observe what happens with your body to really understand and you can do it best.
More often than not, it is the lower half of the body that gets affected before the upper half - the apana vayu or downward movement of energy goes askew and affects the prana vayu - that is chest and throat areas. The latter causes more acute discomfort. Quicker relief can be had by first clearing the problem in lower part.
Bulk of your intake at this age should be what is called kaphic food- soft (sticky), warm and with some fat - snigdha, ushna and sneha. Fats could be cold (unheated) oil that gives you your good cholesterol or omega fatty acids and some ghee. Always eat simple, freshly cooked food. NEVER EAT REHEATED OR FOOD RETRIEVED FROM THE FRIDGE. Ideally, food is to be eaten within three hours of cooking. After that period it becomes 'heavy' for digestion. Reheating food renders it unwholesome and unfit for eating. Just because some things go in and some things come out of the body every day, do not think your digestion and bowel movement are good.
Ayurveda has elaborate rules on pre-cooking (such as fermentation), cooking and combinations. For example, we knew from our (grand)parents that milk and sour taste should not be had together or in quick succession. When unwell, one should eat light, freshly cooked simple food – not what everyone else is eating. Eat rice with rasam or kichdi instead of pulao, chapathis or idli/dosa when unwell. In fact, even when one is well, flour products should not be eaten everyday as they burden the body's digestive system.
Milk and ghee are good but perhaps not butter or cheese. Curd is heavy and may suit some people in limited quantities. Kheer or some milk sweet is particularly good in cold season but it should be taken BEFORE the meal, and as a part of it, during the day. Fruits should be eaten before the meal or separately on their own. Do not eat raw vegetables and fruits in the same meal. Beginning with sweet moving on to sour, salt, hot and ending with bland is the right order for eating and this order (sweet first) is a source of great comfort.
It is good for your meals to have all the six tastes – sweet, hot, sour, salt, bitter and astringent. Rice or chapathi would be considered 'sweet' and should form the predominant part of your meal. Vegetables, like beans, greens etc., would be astringent. Both bitter and astringent tastes increase dryness in the body and you may not feel very good taking large quantities of them, particularly, in the dry season or if you are a thin body type. But those two tastes have other virtues that can be used with benefit for specific purposes.
All things in the preparation of which water is taken out are vata-causing. Fried or roasted things, biscuits, puffed rice and such other stuff. Even dry chapathis are not good. One thing is that wheat itself increases dryness in the body and chapathi is more so. You must eat these things with some oil or ghee.
Night meals: The body's metabolism slows down towards the evening. Therefore, the night meals should be light and always cooked fresh. Ideally, it should be eaten NOT later than an hour and a half after sunset. If you eat things made from flour, the meal should be even earlier. No curd or buttermilk should be taken during the night (this applies to everyone - the so-called healthy persons also). In fact, fermented things and coarse food, such as salads and large helping of vegetables, are not recommended for the night meal. In fact, neither Ayurveda nor the Tibetan Medical system recommend raw vegetables. Fermented flour products are also contra indicated in many body conditions.
Drinking boiled water while it is hot. This helps in digestion as it peps up the liver. It should be hot (like tea) and again, like food, water too should not be reheated. I have seen this simple step itself cure many problems. Ayurveda also says 'Do not eat/ or drink anything within three hours of the previous eating, nor starve beyond six hours.
OIL: One other thing, if you are not aware, is that refined oil is very bad for the liver. It is the source of your LDL and triglycerides. If you are using it, please switch over to non-refined oil. No oil from a vegetable source contains (the 'bad') cholesterol but they could be fattening and when heated (as in frying) can have a negative effect. Incidentally, the Allopathic medication for cholesterol is very harmful with serious side-effects. Please try and avoid it. (There are good herbal alternatives for lowering cholesterol, if needed.)
Eating and Bath: It is best to bathe before you eat or drink anything. However, if it cannot be, allow one and a half hour after you have had a drink and two and half hours after you have eaten, before you bathe. If you bathe when what you have eaten is still in the stomach, then digestion is stopped as energy flows outwards to the skin. The undigested (parts of) food is a source of toxins that cause all the problems.
For non-veg eaters: Non-veg, including eggs, and dairy products should not be eaten in the same day. All the demonizing of dairy products is because of the new habit of everyone eating all kinds of mixed up diets. I remember, some 20-25 years ago, non-vegetarians did not consume dairy products, as a rule. In our neighbouring countries where vegetarianism is unknown, one always had black tea and milk was not available easily. And unlike now, even meat eaters ate meat occasionally, a few times in a year.
Ayurveda has a diametrically opposite object of improving one's vitality as opposed to Allopathy's 'fighting or managing' the disease's symptoms. Even when the body's vitality is highly compromised, say, by diabetes or heart disease for example, a good Ayurvedic physician will try his best to conserve the vitality of the kidneys and the liver and save your eyes.
As long as you try and maintain the vitality and balance of the liver, heart and kidneys, you can have great level of comfort and efficient functioning of the body. If you follow the suggestions given above, you are bound to have that level of health.
Although I began writing this with a focus on ageing or for persons post-40, the principles in it are applicable to all. Depending on the person's body type and health, symptoms and discomfort begin to appear anytime between 40 and 60. More importantly, it is only after reaching a level of desperation that one might become more open to looking at these suggestions – sad but true. On a subject with so many variables as this, it is difficult to be comprehensive as well as concise. I have tried my best. However, I would be happy answer specific questions.
SARVE BHAVANTU SUKHINAHA, SARVE SANTU NIRAMAYA. SARVE BHADRANI PASHYANTU, MAA KASCHIT DUKHABHAG BHAVET. (May everyone be happy and disease-free. May all see noble and good things and may none be unhappy.)
