Latest / Gladden Longevity Podcast / Understanding Your Inner Climate with Ayurveda - Episode 312
Transcript
- 0:28Welcome everybody to this edition of the Glide and Longevity Podcast where we're here answering the big questions in life.
- 0:33How good can we be?
- 0:35How do we make 100 to new 30?
- 0:37How do we live well beyond 120?
- 0:39How do we live young for a lifetime?
- 0:41And how do we develop a 300 year old mind?
- 0:45We know that aerobatic medicine from India has been around a long time, kind of like Chinese medicine.
- 0:52Those are some of the better described early forms of medicine.
- 0:57And we know those traditions have basically lasted for thousands of years.
- 1:01And today we're going to be talking with an Ayurvedic practitioner, Nidhi Pandya.
- 1:07That's NIDHI, P-A-N-D-Y-A.
- 1:11And she is someone who grew up in India, came to the U.S., grew up in an Ayurvedic family, if you will.
- 1:19And now has
- 1:21seeing some of the deficiencies in Western practices and is bringing her particular brand of healing and longevity into uh Western societies working with both men and women.
- 1:32I think you're gonna enjoy this conversation.
- 1:34It's not a terribly long one, but we go into some interesting things and she has a book and a website and some other things that I think you'll find very useful.
- 1:43Welcome everyone to this edition of the Gladden Longevity Podcast.
- 1:46I'm your host, Dr.
- 1:47Jeffrey Gladden.
- 1:48And today I'm joined by Nidhi Pandya I hope I got your name pronounced right.
- 1:54uh Okay.
- 1:57Nidhi Pandya.
- 1:57Yeah.
- 1:58Okay.
- 1:58I got to pronounce the Y there.
- 2:00Great.
- 2:00So it's great to have you on the podcast here.
- 2:04And it looks like we're going to be talking about some Ayurvedic
- 2:08insights into longevity.
- 2:11Maybe you could tell us a little bit about yourself, kind of how you got to the point where you are right now.
- 2:21Yeah, thank you firstly for having me, Dr.
- 2:23Gladden.
- 2:23So I am a classically trained Ayurvedic practitioner, which means that I've studied Ayurveda, which is technically the science of life.
- 2:32That's the word.
- 2:34If you break it down, it's Ayur means life and Veda means science.
- 2:38So people look at it as ancient Indian healing system, and medicine system.
- 2:44It's a very relevant system.
- 2:45So I studied it from the ancient textbooks, which are dated about
- 2:49Anywhere from 1000 to 5000 years, all of it is written in Sanskrit.
- 2:53And that's how I got trained.
- 2:55And I practice today to bridge that gap between the great understanding of human life that those texts have and how we can stay well and live long to what the modern world is able
- 3:09to do and what's accessible.
- 3:10So that is my work.
- 3:12The way I got into this is I was raised in a family where my grandfather was an Ayurveda healer.
- 3:18Okay.
- 3:19lived to 90s, which was a lot living in a city like Mumbai.
- 3:23And I lived in a large joint family with 14 people.
- 3:26And I always joke that my, that firstly I was, it was my first language.
- 3:31I read those my first languages.
- 3:32I was indoctrinated into it.
- 3:33I learned the principles of Ayurveda not through prescription, not through instruction, but just as an everyday way of living what you eat for lunch, what you eat for dinner,
- 3:42what was not being offered for you to you in certain seasons.
- 3:45Mm-hmm.
- 3:46you looked at sleep and wake cycles and it was just second nature.
- 3:50But I also used my entire household of 14 members as a laboratory and a playground because...
- 3:57experimenting on your siblings, is that what you're saying?
- 4:00I was observing.
- 4:01I was just an observer at that point.
- 4:03I was just shadowing and seeing
- 4:05were actually experimenting.
- 4:07You were trying this and trying that.
- 4:10They listened to me, I could have actually gone that far, but they knew better.
- 4:14But I basically got a chance to actually see what happens, how different people respond differently to the same stimulus.
- 4:20And I was just always asking what makes people sick and what makes people tick.
- 4:25And I think that natural journey of been given this Ayurvedic wisdom, this legacy, along with the ability to actually take a, you know, understand what happens.
- 4:35And then when I moved to the West about 20 plus years ago,
- 4:39I realized out here that, my God, uh everybody's idea of health was just the fear of disease for the most part.
- 4:47health always just meant the freedom that came from being well.
- 4:51Health was a very liberating concept, not a fearful concept.
- 4:54And I realized how broken the system was.
- 4:56I had a short stint at trying to do marketing for a pharmaceutical company in my really early 20s.
- 5:05And that made me
- 5:06been a cardigal.
- 5:07Yeah.
- 5:09that was a massive gesture in New York City.
- 5:11And then I knew at that point, even though people could not pronounce the word, they didn't know the word.
- 5:17They were like, when I practiced Ayurveda, they were like, are you what?
- 5:20Are you, are you what?
- 5:21Because they couldn't even understand I was saying a word.
- 5:24But I knew at that point that this is the only way that I, it was a deep calling.
- 5:28It was an invitation.
- 5:29And here we are 20 years later and the world has taken to Ayurveda beautifully.
- 5:34So what brought you to the West in the first place?
- 5:36Why did you leave India?
- 5:38I didn't want to leave India.
- 5:39I came here because I had, yes, I had an arranged marriage and my partner at that point lived here in the West.
- 5:46He was born and raised here.
- 5:48So that's how I found myself here.
- 5:50Good, how's that work done for you with the arranged marriage?
- 5:53Well, that has not actually worked out for me.
- 5:56But I love my life anyways.
- 5:57Okay, so the mayor's didn't survive.
- 5:59Is that what you're saying?
- 6:01the marriage will not survive.
- 6:02I don't think, you know, since I'm saying that, I don't necessarily think that arranged marriage is the problem.
- 6:07And I think it's a great system when it's done in a great, uh like these days, it's more like your parents introduce you to people that they think you could potentially match well
- 6:18with if that happens at all.
- 6:19uh
- 6:21right?
- 6:21It's not so much that you never get a chance to meet these people, but it's kind of like the parents are playing matchmaker for their kids.
- 6:28Is that kind of what it boils down to?
- 6:30That is really what is left of arranged marriage in most of the urban parts of India or modern Indians living even abroad.
- 6:39And in fact, there are children who grew up here who tell their parents, can you please find somebody?
- 6:43Can you do the matchmaking?
- 6:44So that's the basically matchmaker.
- 6:46So I don't think it is the arranged marriage bit that did not work out.
- 6:50It just, the whole equation just did not work out.
- 6:53And um yeah, here I am.
- 6:55got it.
- 6:56So not to pry too much, you were practicing the Ayurvedic kind of ways.
- 7:00that in any way divisive in the marriage or not?
- 7:03So there were other things that made it not really.
- 7:08OK.
- 7:08have to say that one of the things that my ex-husband took to really, really well, because he realized when I met him, Dr.
- 7:16Gladden, he was getting sick like five, six, seven, eight times a year.
- 7:20And he had nasty melty colds and constantly running nose.
- 7:25And he just was sick.
- 7:26He felt like it was his immunity and he was doing all the modern day things.
- 7:30And then he saw me, by contrast, actually not getting sick very often.
- 7:34And he started learning about all the things that I was doing and he started adopting them and you know, he basically stopped getting sick.
- 7:40Interesting.
- 7:40well, yeah, that's interesting.
- 7:42So tell us a little bit about your approach.
- 7:45I think you work predominantly with women, but obviously, Ayurvedic practices in medicine are for men and women.
- 7:54So tell us a little bit about your approach.
- 7:56Do you work individually with clients or are you more like writing books about?
- 8:01what you do or how does that go?
- 8:04Yeah.
- 8:04So while I have a book, I have a book and I work with, I have historically worked more with women, but I also work with men and I love how different the experiences and it's
- 8:17very interesting to me to understand that.
- 8:19But that being said, I'll tell you how I work.
- 8:21I work with people for only, you know, they have to commit to me for a minimum of four to six months is what they can do.
- 8:29And I basically take them through a journey, but
- 8:32It's a more of a body plus mind approach because in today's day and age, a lot of times, know, the so-called poor wellness health habits are usually coping mechanisms that are
- 8:44coming from a deeper place.
- 8:45So I basically work with people, I take them on a journey and it's a few parts of journey and I just want to quickly go over it.
- 8:52We go into the identification of all the physical and the emotional patterns that a particular client has.
- 9:01you know, kind of developed in their body, in their mind, their tendencies, et cetera, that has brought them to this current point.
- 9:08And that current point means this individual with all of these symptoms.
- 9:13And then I explore what I call, what is their inner climate at this point?
- 9:16And we can explore that more if you choose to.
- 9:18And let me say, okay, this is your inner climate at this point.
- 9:21This is what brought you here.
- 9:23Now starts an undoing and creating a new life.
- 9:27And for that, I use every possible tool.
- 9:30And when I say that, it means nutrition shifts, lifestyle shifts, exercise, herbs, so herbal formulations, times breath work.
- 9:39I will use music if I need to employ reading, whatever it takes.
- 9:43And then the goal is to educate and empower them to create a life that feels sustainable, where they basically have undone those patterns and they continue to live a life where
- 9:54they make naturally healing.
- 9:56and joyful, both healing and joyful choices.
- 9:59It's a very holistic approach and it gives
- 10:01love the approach.
- 10:02I'm sorry.
- 10:03a reboot of your system.
- 10:06I said the whole idea is to reboot your system, to reset your system.
- 10:10right.
- 10:10Reboot the system.
- 10:11Yeah, we talk about rewriting the software in terms of, you know, how you go back and actually look at the things that you're living in reaction to or things that have happened
- 10:20to us, either physically or mentally or spiritually.
- 10:22And then being able to identify those and and heal those and then actually transcend them to where you become grateful for everything that ever happened.
- 10:30And that's whole process that we work with people on as well.
- 10:33I'm curious kind of what your approach is there.
- 10:36How are you actually doing the rebooting slash reprogramming?
- 10:41Yeah, so like I said, right, like I think first it's important to identify the inner climate of the person.
- 10:46So I work with my whole idea is to empower and educate and have people understand their own bodies, just as well as they understand their clothing sizes or their gender
- 10:54preferences so that they can make those choices.
- 10:57So I work with this assessment of what is your inner climate.
- 11:00And I wanna give you an example of, example, somebody's inner climate is hot and dry.
- 11:04And what does that mean?
- 11:06If I told you outside, you would imagine hot and dry would mean a desert on the planet.
- 11:10But for a person who's gone hot and dry, I'm probably seeing all of these symptoms.
- 11:13I'll basically map their symptoms to a climate.
- 11:15And the symptoms I may have seen is maybe burnout, inflammation, usually sensitivity to the sun, maybe a skin rash that's kind of red and dry, maybe burning in their digestion.
- 11:27And then I often look at their causes and they're like overproductive, like trying to work all the time, always living in the sympathetic ah mode of their...
- 11:37them and they're doing caffeine and alcohol.
- 11:39you buy kind of, you can see the story.
- 11:41There's a story and you can see that that will become like this.
- 11:44Then I will employ when I say I use all tools possible, then we would start using lifestyle shifts.
- 11:53I would bring.
- 11:53hot would be like overstressed and the dry would be kind of a symptom of being overstressed.
- 12:00Is that correct or no?
- 12:02sometimes it's that.
- 12:03Sometimes people have gone long-term, like low-fat diets, like really high-mutrient rich foods and just go, go, go, go, go over exercising, over working, staying up too many
- 12:14nights.
- 12:15It could be somebody who's just like drinking every single night and just, you know, feeling very depleted.
- 12:20So there could be various causes for why that could happen.
- 12:24But usually, like for I'm just using the example of one type of imbalance.
- 12:29and their results could be then hot, you know, just having this hot and dry inner climate.
- 12:34So how many different types are there?
- 12:36It sounds like there's two variables and how many types are there for those two variables?
- 12:42Like it could be hot and dry, hot and wet, cold and dry, I don't know.
- 12:47Beautiful.
- 12:48That's exactly how it is, right?
- 12:49So hot and dry.
- 12:51There is hot and humid, right?
- 12:54So this is here, the person would also have inflammation, but also puffiness, you know, could have like growth with pus and psoriasis that has oozing liquids and maybe acid,
- 13:04maybe acid rather than burning and digestion kind of things.
- 13:07But that could also be cold and dry.
- 13:10And this is somebody who would just have really dry skin, have a lot of bloating, feel very cold and fragile all the time, maybe overly anxious, maybe cannot get a lot of sleep.
- 13:21And cold and dense would be somebody maybe who has excessive tissue.
- 13:25Everything is building in their body.
- 13:27So maybe obese, maybe high cholesterol, plaque in their arteries.
- 13:32They may have high sugar.
- 13:34They may be depressed, be stagnant, may just want to not move their bodies, very sedentary.
- 13:40So you're basically roughly four main types of climate.
- 13:43And the center point where everything, where the yin meets the yang, is warm and moist.
- 13:48So the place where everybody wants to be at is warm and moist, where life flows like our blood, like our urine, like our reproductive fluids, mother's milk, like the people we
- 13:57like, warm and moist, right?
- 13:59Okay.
- 14:00we kind of map out where they've fallen off this central point of warm and moist.
- 14:04And we say, how do we use foods?
- 14:06How do we use herbs?
- 14:07How do we use breath?
- 14:09How do we use lifestyle changes and reconfiguration of routines?
- 14:13So the person can arrive back to the center point of warm and moist, which is the optimum inner climate for life to thrive.
- 14:21Interesting.
- 14:22So really, it's about bringing people back into balance.
- 14:24Sort of body, mind, spirit is what you're talking about.
- 14:29Mm hmm.
- 14:30Cool.
- 14:30I approach Dr.
- 14:31Madan, it's very systematic.
- 14:33It's very systematic, it's very logical.
- 14:35While when you initially hear it, seems a little abstract, a little vague.
- 14:39But then when people start seeing their own symptoms and mapping everything out, it starts to make a lot of sense.
- 14:43Right, now I can see, I'm sure it's a well thought out system.
- 14:46Is there actual, well I assume there's physical assessments that you must do as well as conversations.
- 14:54And then is there other testing?
- 14:56Do you do blood tests or imaging studies or any of that sort of thing or is it all based on conversation and physical assessments?
- 15:04No, traditionally Ayurveda used everything, right?
- 15:07So questioning is one, observation of the practitioner, observing the movements, observing eyes, tongue.
- 15:13I will look at people's tongues if I can see pulse.
- 15:16Sometimes if I'm able to actually, in the US, I'm not allowed to, we don't have a license as Ayurvedic practitioners, but we can still consult and coach.
- 15:24But otherwise in other parts of the world, I can actually like test their, know, distension of their abdomen, check their knees.
- 15:31anything that I want do.
- 15:33so it's basically plus I will take all the blood reports that they can give me.
- 15:36So if they have blood work and like estrogen, their hormones for women, hormone panels will always tell me a story of what's going on and what's happening with their environment
- 15:45as well.
- 15:45So I will take whatever they can give me, whatever imaging, diagnostics, blood work they have.
- 15:50And plus I'll do my own.
- 15:52Okay, got it.
- 15:53So you're not licensed to be able to order those things or do those things necessarily, but you have an understanding where you interpret that and integrate it into your system.
- 16:03Yeah, okay, cool.
- 16:06And so this warm and moist, when you get people back there, is there, it takes three to four months to do that on this journey.
- 16:15Is there,
- 16:16a tendency for people to kind of wander back off into, you know, one of the non warm and moist quadrants here?
- 16:24do they, is once you fix them, are they pretty well fixed or how does that work?
- 16:29Yeah, so I think if you learn to live in this manner, you may have only slight deviations.
- 16:34I think once you get it, a lot of times people are doing things not knowing that the choices that they're making are actually damaging their inner ecosystem.
- 16:43once you learn and listen, I'm all about joy, right?
- 16:46So I'm not about like, let's not put food in your plate, but let's put it in a capsule instead.
- 16:51No, I'm all about making it as holistic as we can and bringing joy to your life.
- 16:56So once you understand that
- 16:58you know, the concept of warm and moist and how easily you can bring it to your foods, how easily you can bring it to your relationships, to how you plan your action and rest, your
- 17:07productivity and repair.
- 17:09It becomes a second nature.
- 17:11And also, we've also worked on your mental patterns and coping mechanisms.
- 17:15know, I mean, honestly, the person who's eating that extra bag of chips already knows, but it's, know, that this is not going to serve my body, but it becomes a coping mechanism of
- 17:24sorts or somebody who's staying up.
- 17:26Binge watching on Netflix already knows, but he's uninspired to wake up early for his life or, you know, he's denying something else.
- 17:33He wants to be in somebody else's life on a sitcom rather than his own.
- 17:36So, so we work on those mental patterns.
- 17:38I mean, the real goal is like not surviving, but really thriving.
- 17:42So you're kind of a combination of physician and psychotherapist and a nutritionist and an exercise physiologist, it seems like, right?
- 17:52You're integrating all those things.
- 17:55Yes, and I think here our Western world has kind of fragmented this and, you know, given it a separate role.
- 18:01this the truth is, if you give your if you send your car, you know, for the service shop, they'll understand everything on the door and the oiling and the brakes and the seat.
- 18:10Like everything is understood.
- 18:12Right.
- 18:12And our body really works like this big piece of machinery.
- 18:15Everything you do will affect all the other parts of your body.
- 18:20They will like our thoughts will affect our gut and and
- 18:23And working out extra will affect our nervous system and our gut and our sleep cycles, everything.
- 18:28So I think it becomes a holistic understanding of what's happening in your body ecosystem and its landscape, and then working accordingly with whatever you need to work to restore
- 18:40balance.
- 18:41Yeah, I think that's right.
- 18:42We've basically sliced and diced the human up into all these different silos and it's really a disservice to them, I think.
- 18:49um So yeah, it's nice that you keep all that integrated.
- 18:54So I imagine that the herbs that you're using, I mean, I don't know if they're like Chinese herbs exactly, but some of those things seem very esoteric.
- 19:02Are some of the things you're using very esoteric or would we recognize what they are or what kind of things are you using?
- 19:09think now the West is loving Ayurvedic herbs, whether it's prami, ashwagandha, berberin, turmeric.
- 19:17So, you know, think the West has identified some of these herbs, but I, as an Ayurvedic practitioner, didn't ever use to like single herbs and put them on a capsule.
- 19:25Actually, it's so scientifically presented.
- 19:28When we talk about herbs, we look at a whole profile of that herb and say, who can have it in what combination?
- 19:34What is the carrier?
- 19:35What is the time of the day?
- 19:37Is it with meals?
- 19:38Is it without meals?
- 19:39I mean, it's like such a scientific detailed understanding of how this is done.
- 19:43For example, somebody for somebody Ashwagandha is beneficial in a jam form.
- 19:48It's not really like a jam jam, but it's just called jam because you have to lick it and it has to mix with your saliva for another person.
- 19:54It can be at bedtime.
- 19:56So it's like what purpose that I'm trying to serve.
- 19:59And really by doing, you know, by giving it that context and that protocol, you kind of give the herb the right address.
- 20:05and the right action.
- 20:06So it goes to the right place with the right action.
- 20:08So yeah, think the West is really like learning about these herbs and the clinical trials being done on a lot of these herbs, including saffron.
- 20:16ah But there's a lot more, there's like thousands and thousands of herbs.
- 20:20I may not have all of those in my practice.
- 20:23I may use maybe 200 herbs in my practice.
- 20:26ah Or maybe 200 herbs in my practice, yeah.
- 20:28But it's done very differently from what one would imagine in the West to be doing.
- 20:33And so how do you source these herbs?
- 20:36Yeah, that's a question.
- 20:38store or the pharmacy, right?
- 20:39So do you get them out of India or the special pharmacopoeias where you can get them or?
- 20:45Yeah, there are actually some really, really good, know, mean, Banyan Botanicals is one and everybody like I use Banyan Botanicals as an example, because a lot of people know of
- 20:52Banyan Botanicals and they have some traditional Ayurvedic formulations too, but there are a lot of other great online pharmacies for these herbs as well here based out of the US,
- 21:03very well tested.
- 21:04A lot of them are USDA certified organic.
- 21:07I have met a lot of, you know, like Kerala, I just know.
- 21:11One of them that comes to my mind is Skirilla Ayurveda.
- 21:14The names are a little traditional, and I wish they had more easy to pronounce names and easy to understand things.
- 21:19people go to these websites, sorry to interrupt you, but if people go to these websites and they're looking at an herb, it tell them kind of what it's used for or who shouldn't
- 21:29take it or that kind of thing?
- 21:31Because otherwise it can be quite a maze.
- 21:34So yes, they will tell you what it's for, but I would still and look at the end of the day, anybody who's selling anything wants to do business.
- 21:42So I'll be honest, they will give you a large amount of context.
- 21:44I feel like it's not as clear as it should be.
- 21:49And it also can't be as clear because you wanna work with the person and kind of really understand their body and type.
- 21:56And it's not possible for person to do a self-assessment based on information that somebody can put out there on a website.
- 22:02So I think it is very useful.
- 22:04There are certain things that almost anybody can take, anybody in reasonable health.
- 22:09And that's one thing, which is a combination of adaptogens.
- 22:13I mean, I'm calling them adaptogens because today adaptogens, but back in the day, this early morning elixir jam, wait for your mind, your nervous system, your immunity.
- 22:26for your digestion.
- 22:27mean, what a great boost to the day.
- 22:29And anybody who has reasonable digestion and is not suffering from anything severely chronic can take it.
- 22:35there are certain things like that, right?
- 22:36And this is for anybody who's listening and wants to look at it.
- 22:41But otherwise, I would say it's best to work with a practitioner and understand your body and what your climate is and how you can support it.
- 22:50Okay, great.
- 22:51And so how do people find you?
- 22:54How do they get a hold of you?
- 22:57I am, you can find me on my website, which is my first name, last name dot com, nidhipandya dot com.
- 23:05I also post every day, you know, just little snippets on Instagram.
- 23:10And my Instagram is my Ayurvedic life, but with underscores in between.
- 23:16it's my underscore Ayurvedic underscore life.
- 23:19And yeah, and I have a book that's called Your Body Already Knows.
- 23:22And that book is for people to reconnect.
- 23:25back with their wisdom, just how uh animals know what to eat, when to eat.
- 23:30The deer knows it's an herbivore.
- 23:31The tiger knows it's a carnivore.
- 23:34And nursing mammals speak galactical plans.
- 23:37And animals can recognize sulfuric soil in case they're wounded to roll their bodies in.
- 23:42How did we forget?
- 23:43How did we forget our basic, you know, the basic nature of things around us?
- 23:46So the book is your guide back to that wisdom.
- 23:50Got it.
- 23:52Okay, cool.
- 23:56And just for the spelling on your name, it's N-I-D-H-I and the last name is P-A-N-D-Y-A.
- 24:05Is that correct?
- 24:09Okay, good.
- 24:11Well, beautiful.
- 24:12Well, it's interesting work that you're doing.
- 24:15Do you work with...
- 24:18other practitioners or do you work just by yourself or how does that go?
- 24:24I do have a practitioners part, actually two, I have a coach and a practitioner as a part of my team.
- 24:28They just support us.
- 24:29And then sometimes people will refer their patients and clients out to me.
- 24:33That's how I work with a network, but I also in my own team, I have a couple of people who can support with my clients.
- 24:40Got it.
- 24:40Okay, beautiful.
- 24:42Well, great.
- 24:43And I know we didn't get to it, uh Dr.
- 24:45Gladden, but I definitely want to say here to anybody who's listening that Ayurveda is one of the first sciences to talk about longevity.
- 24:52And it has volumes and volumes of literature on longevity and longevity, virility, fertility, which it all connects very deeply.
- 25:02So it's pretty incredible.
- 25:04Yeah, beautiful.
- 25:05All right.
- 25:06Well, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us.
- 25:10Thank you so much for having me, Dr.
- 25:12Lennon.
- 25:13it.