How I Helped a Loved One Heal with Ayurveda

In 2005, I was deep into my study of Ayurveda. It wasn’t formal training at that time, but I was reading everything I could about health, wellness, and this deeply detailed medical system. I had seen the results in my life and wondered if there was a way I could help others who might be fed up and frustrated with the current medical system. 

My opportunity to help wasn’t far off. My husband (at the time) came to me with a plea. His father had been diagnosed with almost certain kidney failure. His creatinine levels were high and the doctors feared he would be on kidney dialysis within a short amount of time. My husband asked me if I would put together a program and talk to his father to help him change his lifestyle.

I was a bit embarrassed and bothered, firstly because I didn’t have a really close relationship with my father-in-law and secondly, because I didn’t have any degrees or certifications, at the time, in Ayurveda or alternative health. Still, I agreed to help. I made a booklet, over the course of a few days, outlining his new lifestyle plan based on the principles of Ayurveda. 

We met and I sat with him for a couple of hours explaining how he could start to heal naturally. The amazing part was that he actually sat and listened. (I think the possibility of being handed a life sentence was a motivating factor.) The next amazing part is that for the next 30 days, he followed the plan. 

In those 30 days, he lost 30 pounds due to the mostly plant-based diet I had suggested he start. I also had him drinking a ton of water at room temperature to help flush out his kidneys. He began walking for 10-15 minutes after every meal. I had him replace coffee with some herbal and green teas. The best part of all is that in 30 days his creatinine levels had gone down, something the doctors had said was impossible for his health condition. 

Once he got the good news, my father-in-law fell back into his old patterns, which of course worsened his condition. But the proof was in the pudding. 30-days on an Ayurvedic lifestyle diet worked to start reversing a condition that the doctors said was irreversible. 

It was that family experiment that got me on my path to teaching others about Ayurveda. I was convinced that it does work and not just for myself but for others too. 

And it can and will work for you and your loved ones. 

As a healer, we are not about prescribing pills or doling out herbal remedies. We’re about investing in people and getting to the bottom of why they are sick in the first place. Through this investment, I felt my father-in-law and I got closer. We had this little bond we never had had before. 

Ultimately, my father-in-law passed away in January of 2015. It had been several years since I had seen him after my divorce and living across the Atlantic. But after he passed, I had a dream about him, where he was visiting me and I saw Angel come and take him to heaven. I felt, in a strange way, that was God’s way of saying that he was O.K. after all those years and that vision was my thank you for helping him. 

Michelle 

Michelle S. Fondin is the author of The Wheel of Healing with Ayurveda: An Easy Guide to a Healthy Lifestyle (New World Library, 2015) and Help! I Think My Loved One Is an Alcoholic: A Survival Guide for Lovers, Family & Friends and upcoming book Enlightened Medicine: Get & Stay Well for Good This Time. 

Why We Need Medical Systems Like Ayurveda More Than Ever

Earlier this month a report came out that first the first time since 1993, the U.S. death rate rose. That means that the overall life expectancy dropped. If you look at the numbers, it doesn’t appear significant but researchers say there is reason to be alarmed because life expectancy typically does not drop, especially in people under the age of 65, which is the case in this study. 

Deaths were up for heart disease, stroke and Alzheimers and also from unintentional injuries and suicide. Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the National Center for Health Statistics, believes that some of the reasons for these results are because of the obesity epidemic in the U.S. as well as the national crisis of prescription opioid abuse and misuse.

Let’s look at the leading causes of death in the U.S. 

1. Heart disease
2. Cancer
3. Chronic lower respiratory diseases
4. Unintentional injuries
5. Stroke
6. Alzheimer’s disease
7. Diabetes
8. Influenza and pneumonia 
9. Kidney disease
10. Suicide

Most of the diseases listed are chronic lifestyle diseases. Lifestyle diseases are those which are directly affected by one’s actions, behaviors, the ability to manage stress and emotions. When a person is able to modify his or her behavior with a chronic lifestyle illness, his or her chances of living a longer and living a more productive and healthy life increase immensely.

Look at the experiment done by Dr. Dean Ornish who proved in his book, Program for Reversing Heart Disease, in 1995 that you could actually reverse heart disease by changing your diet, exercise regime and your outlook on life. 

The prescription of our modern medical system in the United States is to prescribe medications to lower cholesterol, liquify the blood through blood thinners, lower blood pressure, kill pain, improve the mood, etc. 

All of the prescription medications have many side effects, which in turn, make the patient more ill. We are literally medicating patients to death. 

Alternative medical systems, like Ayurveda, assist the patient in taking charge of his or her own health, by making healthy changes to enhance wellbeing. Ayurveda has been around for over 5,000-years and has withstood the test of time. 

If death percentages are not enough, maybe look at the cost of medical care. Healthcare costs are rising and keep rising for the individual. When I spoke to a physician, with 25 years in practice, he said to me, “Michelle, health insurance is no longer for people with ill health. It’s just a security blanket for major medical emergencies, but cannot be relied on.” While the Affordable Healthcare Act, insured 20 million Americans who were previously uninsured (including the writer), we have all seen the monthly costs increase yearly for the past few years. Insurance companies have gotten smart and realized that payouts for so many sick people is costing them more. So they’ve raised their rates and increased deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses for the consumer. 

Making lifestyle changes or teaching patients simple but transformative techniques and rewarding them for those changes is where our health care must go. If health insurance companies are smart, they will reimburse more for services like health classes, personal training sessions and consultations, massage, yoga, tai chi, acupuncture and even for vitamins and herbal medicines, such as turmeric pills, which are known to help with a whole host of symptoms. 

A single set of chemotherapy treatments costs around $30,000 

Heart bypass surgery costs between $70,000 to $200,000

To treat one person with diabetes, it costs around $10,000 annually. 

Can you imagine if there was a menu of items where a patient could choose 20-40 treatments throughout the year, through their health insurance where they could select lifestyle change services? 

Let’s say a patient chooses:

10 lifestyle or health consultations at $175 each 

10 personal training sessions at $50 each

20 sessions of yoga at $15 per class

1 gym membership at $35/ month  (I understand that many health insurance companies are already doing this.) 

A selection of vitamins and herb capsules at $50/ month

We are talking about $3,570 per patient versus tens of thousands of dollars in payouts for medical expenses. 

Even if we don’t get that far in our lifetime, think about your personal finances. Isn’t a few thousand dollars per year worth your life, your health, and your quality of life? 

Our current medical system is not giving us the answers we need to get and stay healthy. It can no longer be a trusted model. It’s time we expand and look to other ways to regain and maintain our health and wellbeing. 

Wishing you perfect health always,

Michelle 

Michelle S. Fondin is the author of The Wheel of Healing with Ayurveda: An Easy Guide to a Healthy Lifestyle (New World Library, 2015) and Help! I Think My Loved One Is an Alcoholic: A Survival Guide for Lovers, Family & Friends and upcoming book Enlightened Medicine: Get & Stay Well for Good This Time. 

Sources: 

 Sources: http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/12/08/504667607/life-expectancy-in-u-s-drops-for-first-time-in-decades-report-finds

http://www.acsh.org/news/2016/12/12/life-expectancy-americans-drops-first-time-1993-10574

Addictions: An Ayurvedic Perspective (Part 2)

In part one, we mentioned that addictions are a problem of object referral versus self-referral in an exaggerated manner. Most of us suffer from a mild form of object referral and waver between object and self-referral. But in addictions, object referral is king. The object of addiction is almost seen as a god, taking precedence over any other thing, including a spiritual connection.  

Object referral is an association of oneself with something outside of us. For example, you will hear people say, I’m a doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, a student. Or you might hear one say, I have three children, I am Italian, or I have a bachelor’s degree. Yet again, you might hear about someone’s possessions or net worth. I have a four-bedroom house in the country, I have $20,000 in a retirement fund or even, I’m poor and broke. While all of these statements may be true, according to Vedanta or Vedic thought, this doesn’t represent YOU as a whole. It’s a part of who you are, but it isn’t you. 

Here is the problem with object referral. If the object of my association to myself is no longer present, then I lose the sense of who I am. For example, if you say you are a bank teller and you’ve been a bank teller for 20 years, what happens if you suddenly lose your job? Most people who associate themselves with their job title or position and then lose it, find they are lost. But if you do, in fact, lose your job and have associated your sense of self and self-worth by that job, after time you will probably come to realize that you are not so bad after all, even jobless. 

However, the object referral in addictions is even stronger. There is a concept in Vedanta called pragnyaparadha, which means “mistake of the intellect”. The disconnect with your true self or higher self is so far removed that in order to feel whole, we crave the object of addiction as if it were a true need. The intellect has been tricked to believe that it needs the object of addiction to be whole. 

In object referral, we are disconnected from who we truly are. 

Self-referral is the first step away from addictions. Self-referral is the knowledge that I am perfect the way that I am. You are perfect the way you are, because the creative source that orchestrates the dance of the entire universe, including you, is pure perfection. Self-referral needs no input from the outside to feel whole. The connection to your divine essence makes you this way. Without knowledge of self-referral, we cannot begin to peel away the stickiness of addictions. 

In your uniqueness, you are connected to others. You are connected to your spirit, the collective spirit and the universal spirit. You are divinity itself. That is self-referral. You are an individuated expression of the divine who needs to remember your divinity. 

Self-referral is truth. Object referral is a lie. Self-referral leaves you whole. Object referral leaves you empty and craving more. Self-referral is healing. Object referral precipitates death. Object referral is slavery. Self-referral is the ultimate freedom. 

Remembering who you are is the essence of reconnecting to your true self. In Addictions: An Ayurvedic Perspective (Part 3) we will explore how to overcome your addictions forever. 

Wishing your perfect health always,

Michelle Fondin

Founder of The Ayurvedic Path

Vedic Master

www.theayurvedicpath.com

Ayurvedic Medicine versus Western Medicine

When I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at age 28, my first question to the doctor was, “Why did I get this?” And his answer was, “We simply don’t know why cancer occurs.”

Intuitively, this was not an answer for me. I knew, in my heart, that couldn’t be an answer. 

I began to do a lot of research and soul searching. When I came upon Ayurvedic medicine, it made so much sense to me. Ayurveda works on the basis of balance versus imbalance. A big part of Ayurvedic medicine is going to the root cause of illness to see where it originated. Ayurveda believes you cannot cure a disease unless you know the etiology or cause of it. 

The simple answer would be an imbalance in the doshas or Ayurvedic mind body types. An imbalance is most certainly the reason you’re experiencing symptoms or full blown illness but it’s likely that it’s not the root cause. 

The root cause goes much deeper. Sometimes it’s a weakness in the body which starts the doshic imbalance. Often it’s an unprocessed emotion or an accumulation of unprocessed food or substance in the body. 

Western or allopathic medicine works on the basis of pathology. Typically, you don’t go to the doctor unless something is wrong. You aren’t feeling yourself or you have the manifestation of symptoms. Your healthcare provider makes an assessment of your current state of health including symptoms and strives to provide you with some relief. The relief may be medication of some form, blood or urine testing to rule out various illnesses, or in the event that it’s necessary, a surgical procedure. At any rate, the idea is to rid you of symptoms so you feel normal again. At best, it’s a bandaid approach and one faceted. When you mask symptoms or force them to go away through medication, oftentimes, other symptoms or problems arise because you haven’t gone to the root cause of a problem. 

Ayurveda is a multifaceted approach. Not only does an Ayurvedic practitioner take into account the symptoms a person is experiencing, but he seeks to find which dosha is most out of balance. In advanced, stages of disease, this can be tricky. However, that is only one piece of the puzzle. The Ayurvedic practitioner will ask the client about her lifestyle, family life, job, marriage, financial situation, eating and sleeping habits, current medications, herbs and vitamin intake. He will observe the client’s mannerisms while speaking, her tone of voice, and demeanor. The Ayurvedic practitioner will gather all these clues to determine the best course of treatment for the client. Often, in taking the time to listen to the client, the Ayurvedic practitioner finds that her fear is subsided and as a consequence, so do some of the symptoms. 

Finding the etiology or cause is not always 100% foolproof. We must understand that some disease is just left up to the powers that be. 

As for my diagnosis, I went over every aspect of my life in search of the root cause. In the end, I did find it. Let’s suffice it to say that it was mostly emotional,personality and family-life based. It wasn’t easy to correct but I’ve strived to correct it ever since. And I think 14 years post diagnosis, I’ve been successful. 

And now, I’ve dedicated my life’s work to helping others discover how to live in balance with the practice of Ayurvedic medicine. 

Wishing you love and perfect health always,
Michelle

Michelle Fondin
Founder of The Ayurvedic Path
Chopra Center Vedic Master
www.theayurvedicpath.com

Ayurveda and The Ayurvedic Mind Body Type

Now you’ve figured out your Ayurvedic mind body type or your prakruti. So now what? How is that going to bring you to optimal health?

Ayurveda and ayurvedic health works on bringing you back to a state of balance for your personal Ayurvedic mind body type. Think of your mind body type as your baseline. When you are at this baseline, you feel fantastic. You feel yourself. You feel vibrant and energetic. 

Have you ever wondered why you couldn’t lose 20 pounds when your friend could modify her diet and lose it instantly? Or why you need only 6 hours of sleep per night but your spouse needs 8-9 hours of sleep? Things like appetite, metabolism, sleep, mood, and energy level is mostly regulated by your Ayurvedic mind body type. Now if you’ve always been thin but in the past couple of years you can’t stop gaining weight, this may be a lifestyle change or a change from prakruti to vikruti. 

Remember your vikruti is your current state or your state of imbalance.

Our goal in Ayurveda is to get us back to our own prakruti or state of balance.

Here are the ways you can get back to your Ayurvedic mind body type:

1. Honor an Ayurvedic lifestyle diet
2. Begin a dosha specific diet for Vata, Pitta or Kapha
3. Follow an Ayurvedic daily routine.
4. Follow an Ayurvedic seasonal routine.
5. Learn meditation and meditate daily
6. Follow a dosha specific exercise program for Vata, Pitta or Kapha
7. Drink dosha specific teas.
8. Following the advice of an Ayurvedic practitioner, take Ayurvedic herbs to rebalance current imbalances.
9. Work on emotional clearing. 
10. Eliminate toxins and toxic substances from your body. (i.e. alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, unnecessary prescription pills, processed foods) 

If you don’t have the guidance of an Ayurvedic practitioner, begin by balancing your primary dosha. For example, if your Ayurvedic mind body type is Vata-Pitta. You would begin by balancing Vata. Follow at Vata diet, drink Vata tea, follow recommended exercises to balance Vata, follow a Vata Ayurvedic daily and seasonal routine. Usually, if disease or symptoms are not advanced, following this advice will make you feel much better within about two weeks. However if symptoms are persistent or you have been experiencing symptoms for a while, you may need to look further into your vikruti. 

The idea behind Ayurveda is preventive health. If we can catch a disease before full eruption, we can prevent it from giving you illness. In the next blog, I’ll explain the six stages of disease according to Ayurveda. 

Wishing you perfect health always. 

Love,

Michelle Fondin, Founder of The Ayurvedic Path

www.theayurvedicpath.com

Chopra Center Vedic Master  and Ayurvedic Practitioner