Health Topics

The shape of the tongue helps to reveal one’s constitution. Vata tongues tend to be narrow and off-center. Pitta tongues tend to be medium width and pointy, and kapha tongues are wide and thick. The color of a tongue gives us information as well. When a tongue is purple, that indicates a vata imbalance.

Finding the delicate balance between what fuels you and what depletes you is essential for sustaining energy, yet this is something that can take a lifetime to learn. Investing time and self-study into better understanding those details is important, and there are some basic principles within Ayurveda that can help. Just as the three Ayurvedic constitutions are often interested in different activities, each dosha also has a varying capacity for sustaining and expressing both physical and mental energy. 

There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about the similarities and differences between organic and non-GMO. We are here to answer all the questions you’ve perhaps been wondering about, starting with the common question, “What does non-GMO even mean?”

Smoothies have become so synonymous with health and fitness that it’s hard to picture an exercise routine without a morning protein shake in hand. But when we consider what Ayurveda teaches us about digestion, along with what we know about our body’s response to exercise, we might change what we are tossing into the blender. 

There are many types of liver cleanses and liver flushes promoted today. Would you benefit from doing a liver cleanse? As with anything in Ayurveda, it depends. As we are all unique, with specific health circumstances and constitutions, we need to look at our own situation before deciding.

Ayurveda has a long tradition of utilizing fasting as a vital practice for maintaining and regaining health. In our society, fasting is often viewed as a type of denial or deprivation, but you can instead choose to see fasting as a gift to yourself: a much needed rest from the constant barrage of foods and experiences you take into your body. Welcome to the Ayurvedic approach to fasting.

As you recall from your elementary science classes, our heart and blood vessels make up the cardiovascular system. Its primary role is to carry blood full of oxygen and nutrients to our tissues and move waste for disposal to their proper sites for elimination. From an Ayurvedic perspective, there’s a missing layer that your science teacher may not have been privy to. 

Healing your body with Ayurveda takes patience. It takes deep self-reflection and a willingness to nurture yourself down to your very cells.

Adrenal fatigue can be categorized as an imbalance of vata, pitta, or both. Usually overdoing (pitta tendency) and over-stimulating the senses (vata tendency) lead to an overload that our sensitive systems will need to digest.

From an Ayurvedic perspective, energy burnout is a case of pitta-overload or an accumulation of a hot, sharp, fiery type of energy. While pitta imbalances can be seen in many forms, like inflammation, skin conditions, or blood conditions, the changes it causes in our endocrine system can be most threatening to our well-being.

There's a time to use Ayurveda (sniffles) and there's a time to go see a Western doctor (sinus infection). When accidents happen or serious health problems arise, go to Western medicine. While being treated by our Western doctor, we can still do all the Ayurvedic practices (routine, food, rest, natural remedies, and so forth) to promote healing and support health.

When you reach the point of adrenal fatigue, the stress you’ve experienced has been so great for so long that your body can no longer recover. Along with getting proper rest and food intake, one of the best and often easiest ways to provide support is through adaptogenic herbs. Adaptogens assist in our body’s management of metabolic systems during stressful times.

When we tire, the first message is from our body, a warning that we must rest and restore. When we become chronically fatigued, the message is from a deeper source. We are being told to change our ways.

Caring for your liver with Ayurvedic lifestyle choices and practices during summer when pitta dosha becomes aggravated more easily.

Do you really know your liver? Do you care about your liver in the same way your liver cares about you? Caring for your liver is especially important if you are a pitta predominant person and during the hottest pitta-provoking times of year (typically summer).

What you believe is what you become. Use the affirmation, “I am young and beautiful.” As you say this, know that it is true. In addition, practice these action items on a daily basis to help you maintain lasting beauty.

We know that exercise is an important component of health, but is your exercise routine supporting your optimum health or causing decline and trouble? Ayurveda teaches that by understanding our body type and what it needs to be healthy, we can make exercise choices that are right for us.

When we look at exercise through an Ayurvedic lens, we see how people of different constitutions are better suited for different types of workouts.

The Ayurvedic tradition of rasayana, also known as rejuvenation, teaches us that our post-workout routine is as important as the workout itself. When we establish a grounding post-workout routine, we can dodge imbalances, keeping vata nourished and allowing the body to replenish properly. Here are five tips to get you started.

What are some ideal vata time of life exercises? Here are a few that I’ve fallen in love with over the years (well, not golf, but I’ll include it on the list!) that have helped to pacify my vata. I’ll bet you can guess what will be at the top of the list (hint hint—it’s the sister science of Ayurveda).

Here are some of the broader insights about the three main qualities of energy (doshas) we distinguish in Ayurveda that I hope will help enhance your inner athlete, regardless of your level of proficiency.

The monthly flow of blood is actually a signal that you are fundamentally healthy on the tissue level. So why do so many of us dread it? The physical body requests that we slow down and take care of ourselves during this special time. Ayurveda offers us tangible wisdom to directly apply self-care into our lives on a monthly basis, specifically around our cycle.

For those of us that tend to think being gassy or having indigestion is normal, think again! Judging from the wide range of digestive disorders, it would seem that many of us have little or no understanding of the nature, functions, and uses of the digestive system. All these conditions are the body’s means of trying to get our attention, telling us that something is wrong with our current diet or lifestyle. It’s not just what we eat that makes a difference, but how we eat and how we eliminate can have a major impact on the overall digestive experience.

The lymphatic system is essential to our health, and is crucial to our immunity and the detoxification processes of the body. Yoga supports our lymphatic system by awakening natural movements and placing the body in poses that directly stimulate and energize the healthy movement of lymph. And we find an even deeper beauty in the practice because, beyond just the action itself, yoga leaves us with the inspiration to continue our forward momentum and do it again.