The relationship between these sciences is not always an easy one. But when you start putting them together it is amazing how well they fit and what a beautiful tapestry of care the combination creates.

It’s All About Fit

Western Medicine and Ayurveda have different aims and out of each aim an ingenious system to care for people has evolved. These different aims fit together really well. Medicine defines health as lack of any diagnosable disease or injury. The aim of medicine is to cure disease and repair injury.

Ayurveda defines health as balanced nature, well working processes and a mind, soul, and senses full of bliss. Ayurveda has 4 main aims; to prolong life, promote health, to eradicate disease and dysfunction. Where you go depends on what you need.

“Contemporary medicine has not yet been able to either prevent or retard the progress of these age-related disorders, and that is the reason why elderly people look toward Ayurveda with hope.”  Bhushan Patwardhan

Medicine grew from its definition to an amazing science that treats illness and injury with great success. Western Medicine is magnificent in a crisis and in the US Ayurveda has blossomed into a system to build wellness and up level health.

Ayurveda Elevated My Western Medicine Results

“Life is one percent what happens to you, and ninety-nine percent how you respond to it.”

― Shubhra Krishan, Essential Ayurveda: What It Is and What It Can Do for You

How does the combo work in a real life crisis?

I integrate the sciences, of Ayurveda,Yoga and Medicine in my life. Emergency issues or systems failures head me straight to western med, where I know I will get fast symptom treatment and system & tissue repair. I advise my clients to do the same. But also carry Ayurveda into these situations.

Here is an example: In the middle of nowhere in New Mexico, a few years ago on vacation I had a serious eye problem. I looked over at my husband and said: “I can’t see out of my left eye anymore.” Instead of a view there was a grey river, which it turned out, was blood.

Off we went to the nearest medical center not the nearest Ayurvedic Practitioner. I sat in the ER waiting room meditating.The ER doc looked in my eye and said, “Wow I can’t see anything.” I said “Neither can I”.

I took this as a bad, bad sign and went back to meditating. A specialist was called in and he sent me up to Tucson to a larger facility. The problem turned out to be a detached retina with a lot of bleeding in my eye.

After examining me in Tucson, the doc gave me 3 choices, lose the sight in my eye, have an operation and potentially have to hang out in Arizona for up to 6 months to heal or head home immediately for care. The Boston area where I live has some of the best eye surgeons in the United States. Off I went eastbound on the next plane and into surgery that very day. I used meditation and pranayama(breathing) to still my mind and relax on the plane.

I chanted quietly during my operation until the doctor gently said, “This is the delicate part I need you to be quiet and hold really still.”

Able to Hold Still

Who knew that “hold still’ would be a key part of my recovery? I had to hold my head at a specific angle 23 hours a day for around 3 months for the operation to work. I couldn’t read or watch TV, so I meditated multiple times each day and listened to books on tape.

Before, during and after my operation I used mind body healing techniques from Prepare for Surgery Heal Faster by Peggy Huddleston to boost my recovery. A fabulous therapist she helped me to let go of any residual anger and fear.

Mantra was also an essential part of my healing process. After recovering from the operation, I contacted a natural vision coach, upped my daily eye care, worked on balancing the heat in my eyes and used yoga therapy to help my neck muscles loosen up and recover.  

Why Does a Yogi Get Sick?

You might ask how in the heck this happened to someone who practices Ayurveda and yoga? I was doing meditation, yoga and walking each morning on the trip.  

But for many years before I found these practices I ran myself pretty ragged. Poor food choices, stress and chronic exhaustion set me up for health problems.

The universe gives you what you need to learn and grow. This experience was full of growth for me.

Where in your life did western medicine and ayurveda work together to drive the best outcome? Share your story in the comments below.

A Life Long Partnership

In my life Yoga, Ayurveda and western medicine is a sweet combo.  Ayurveda & Yoga may not prevent all illness injury or accidents, but they totally elevate the outcome. Is a health crisis karma? a lesson? or the luck of the draw? I would say it is part of the puzzle of life and full of learning.

Western Medicine has saved my life multiple times. Western Medicine, Yoga and Ayurveda in combination empower me to take action and live my best life.

Yoga and Ayurvedic self care practices stay in my daily routine because they work, and add more and more value over time. I fundamentally believe that Yoga and Ayurveda will help western medicine extend the quantity and quality of my life. Healthy habits built into my day combine to help me express my true nature in the brightest way and give me a long full happy life with moments of bliss.

“Ayurveda teaches us to cherish our innate-nature – “to love and honor who we are”, not as what people think or tell us, “who we should be.”

― Prana Gogia

My complete health care toolbox uses the best of self care, western medicine, yoga and Ayurveda, to build, repair, help, heal, and grow my body mind and spirit as I move through life.  The combination saved my sight on vacation in Nevada and will continue to shape my life and health.

These are just a few of the many identities I carry.  Others include: sister, student, yoga teacher, outdoor enthusiast, etc…

But those first three really stick out to me now, due to their correlation with something I was recently diagnosed with:

IBS

Irritable Bowel Syndrome.  You have probably heard of it, since 1 in 5 Americans have it.  Females are twice as prone to this, young females even more so, and young females with either anxiety or depression are the most likely to experience IBS.  In a nutshell, IBS is a disorder of the large intestine that causes variable symptoms of cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, gas, and diarrhea and/or constipation and often associated with psychological challenges like mild anxiety and depression.

I wasn’t surprised.  Though I’ve struggled with my digestion for years I hadn’t really ever looked at it as a disease.  Naturally I would personally track, “well I ate this last night, and I woke up with a crampy stomach this morning so this must have caused that.”

This led to high school years filled with bouts of cutting out all cheese from my diet, then grapes, chocolate, milk, and so on… I think one time I even cut out fruit altogether.

Then I would slowly work these foods back into my diet and feel fine, until the next round of symptoms – uncomfortable bloating or a lot of gas after eating – would circle back and I would eliminate another random food once again.

It was frustrating.  My experimentation was never a sure shot.  Symptoms were very intense and uncomfortable as I experienced them, but  vague, variable, and maybe not even such a big deal when I later tried to explain them.

When I turned to Ayurveda to treat my digestive issues, I found the ease and effectiveness I was looking for.  My recent diagnosis of IBS led me to investigate how current Western medicine differs from Ayurveda’s understanding and treatment of IBS symptoms.  Here’s what I pieced together:

Western Medicine and IBS

From a Western medical approach, there is no clear cause for IBS.  Different doctors have different theories, Mayo clinic offers a couple:

• A muscle imbalance of the large intestine (colon).  It may be too strong or too weak in its contractions to massage food downwards.  If the contractions are too strong or long, gas, bloating and diarrhea can occur.  If they are too weak, dry, hard stools and constipation may manifest.
• A disconnect in the nervous system. The brain-gut signals are weak or uncoordinated which cause the intestinal tract to overreact.  This can result in pain, diarrhea or constipation.
• Stress.  John Hopkins Medicine describes:

“There is a strong connection between the nervous system and colonic function. Stress plays an important role in the frequency and severity of symptoms in patients with IBS. A history of stressful life events or a current stressful situation can often precede IBS.”

Whether the gut disorder changes affects the mind or the mind makes your gut prone to the symptoms of IBS is not clear, but current western science believes they are connected.

An Ayurvedic Perspective on “IBS”

Just having studied the progression of disease in my Ayurvedic Medicine class, the parralel  between the symptoms of IBS and the first step in the disease progression of Ayurveda is astounding.

According to Ayurvedic theory, the root of most diseases is an imbalance of energies that manifests first in the digestive tract.  If the imbalance does not get alleviated at the digestive tract, it then overflows into the lymph and circulatory systems, eventually settling into the weakest area of the body and manifesting as a particular problem – the last step being the point in which most modern medicine methods begin to reckognize problems.

Since Ayurveda places so much emphasis on digestion, it has a very streamlined, simple, and systematic approach to making sense and treating these complex, vague, transitory symptoms of the digestive tract.  Whether you might be dealing with a kapha, pitta, or vata imbalance, determines whether symptoms arise mainly in the stomach, small intestine, or large intestine respectively.

The earliest onset of symptoms arising in the large intestine in traditional Ayurvedic medicine is possible, past and mild constipation and gas. Other associated symptoms are bloating and painful cramps. To Ayurvedic practitioners, these are the body’s subtle yet clear ways of letting you know that vata is in excess in your body (what is “vata”?).  Additionally, variable and transient symptoms are a clear sign of vata – so alternating constipation and diarrhea is also an onset of a vata condition.

Ayurveda’s holistic approach to health means that physical disease can show mental or emotional symptoms. Anxiety is the classic symptom of a vata condition arising in the mind.

In essence, every symptom of the vague and confusing IBS that I was experiencing fits into the clearly understood first sign of a vata vitiation in an Ayurvedic model.  Not only was this exciting, but relieving. Ayurveda has a very clear system to go about treating this kind of thing.

IBS and Vata Vitiation

So you could say I have IBS or a vata vitiation – same thing, different languages.  But when looking into to how to deal with this problem, that’s where the brilliance of Ayurveda shines.  Where Western medicine struggles with the vague, subtle, and confusing symptoms of IBS, this kind of thing is Ayurveda’s “bread and butter.”

One of the best offerings that Ayurveda brings to modern medicine is its theory on the progression of disease and ultimately that 90% of health problems begin in the digestive tract.  Therefore, with the Ayurvedic model it is amazing how early one can catch problems when they arise and relieve them before they turn into something much more severe.

 Treating IBS with Ayurveda

If you or someone you know is struggling with IBS and is interested in treating it with an Ayurvedic approach, find a Yoga Health Coach or Ayurvedic Practitioner to help you with your unique experience.  Here are a few things you can incorporate to help you get started:

1. Routines and regularity.

Vata is associated with the wind, the idea of motion, and the elements air and ether. These energies in excess leads to variable digestion. Therefore, any kind of regularity and routine is essential to balance vata. A few easy ways to work this into your everyday:

• Wake up and go to sleep at the same time everyday – early on both ends is generally best.  Most important thing is to go to bed early to start the cycle off right.  Shoot for 10pm.
• Eat meals at the same time everyday.  Eat an earlier lighter dinner, meaning before 6pm.
• Try to eliminate at the same time everyday.  Wake up, drink a warm glass of water, and go and sit on the toilet.  Even if you don’t go, this will eventually train your body to get used to this rhythm. Call it yogi potty training. 🙂

2. Oil up!  

Vata conditions are usually very dry which leads to constipation. Simply adding oil to the external and internal body can loosen things up and make the body feel much more supported, flexible, and in flow. Different ways to get oil in:

•      Abhyanga, or self-massage with oil. Here’s how.
•      Nasal oiling.
•      Ear oiling.
•      Oil internally: utilize your diet to oleate your colon. Check it out.
•      Ghee – liquid gold.
  

3. Diet

Since we’re talking digestive issues here, obviously food is important.  But with vata imbalances, though they affect much more of the body than just the digestive system (such as an anxious mind) food is the fastest, most effective way to provide relief to the entire system and begin to heal your gut.  You can utilize a combination of food, oil, and herbs.

• Eat warm, moist and heavy. These qualities are balancing to the cold, dry, and mobile qualities present in the energetics of a vata imbalance.  Try it out.
•  Create structure surrounding mealtime. Eat at the same time, same place, create your ritual of connecting with the food that will become you before you eat it.  Afterwards, take a little time to rest and digest.
•  Make sure you are relaxed.  Take a few deep breaths before eating to make sure your body is switched into parasympathetic mode.
•  Herbs.  Incorporating potent plants such as cumin, fennel, and cinnamon might be beneficial.  Learn more.

IBS can put a larger-than-expected damper on your quality of daily life. You are not crazy to be hyper-aware of these subtle signals from your gut. Listen to them. They are your body’s first warning signals. Simple lifestyle and dietary habits from Ayurveda can help you alleviate them and get you back into a relaxed, fluid and easeful state. Ayurvedic practitioners, recipe books, and websites are all great resources. Take advantage of them. Your best balanced self is right around the corner!