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

Why are we getting more sick as a society?

This is one subject that consistently baffles me. In the U.S. today, we are more privileged, more advanced in technology and just plain richer than most countries. And yet, we are a country that has more cancer, more heart disease, and more diabetes and obesity than most.

What in the world are we doing?

I have made it my life's mission to help the U.S. turn around its view of health, wellness and a quality life.

We are sitting on our butts all day. 

As much as we have gym memberships, home exercise equipment and fitness classes, most of us are sitting around for a majority of the day. Our bodies have not been developed over time to be sedentary. Sitting for long periods makes you more tired and causes you to sit more.

The workplace is probably a big contributing factor. 

If you have a desk job, it's probably killing you. I know that's a bold statement, but there is truth. Each week I see more clients who complain to me, that in order to keep up and not lose their jobs, they must put increasing hours at work. And guess what? That means more sitting.

We are overachievers. 

Unfortunately, in the U.S., if you are not doing more and being more, you may not feel successful. And that means, when you come home from your day job, you are probably carting your kids to baseball, soccer, dance or other activities and thus neglecting your own health. 

We are eaters. 

Since we live this frenetic lifestyle, we are often doing a "grab and go". We grab a Starbucks on the way to work with a pastry. We grab a bag of chips at the vending machine. We grab a soda to be able to work more. Our lifestyle does not allow us to sit and enjoy meals.

We reward ourselves with alcohol. 

Just like the "grab and go" mentality of our eating habits, we have a reward system for getting through our busy lives with a glass of wine, a bottle of beer or a martini. So you spend the day, not moving, eating unhealthy foods, stressing out over your never ending day and on top of it, pour alcohol into your already unhealthy body. Is it any surprise we're getting more sick? 

A Healthy Lifestyle Must Become a Priority in Every Walk of Life. 

As a society, we must turn our lifestyle around if we are to get better. It must be acceptable to exercise during work hours, to take breaks to meditate or have walking meetings. Employees should be able to work remotely and be able to clock their hours and not be threatened with job loss. Wouldn't it be great if you actually got rewarded at work for clocking in hours at the gym, taking a meditation class or organizing an at work "Walk and Talk" meeting? 

Just as being a non-smoker has been more the norm today than 30 years ago, not drinking alcohol needs to become socially accepted as well. Unfortunately, drinking and success in business tend to go hand in hand as business deals are often closed over a glass of something. 

Taking time to eat needs to become another societal norm. In many European countries, people take an hour or more to eat lunch and sit around the table for family dinners. 

Just say "no" to over-scheduling. You don't have to be everything to everyone all of the time. Your child doesn't have to get into Harvard to be successful. The best way we can teach this next generation of kids to live healthfully is to do it ourselves. They will never learn otherwise. 

This is just a bit of food for thought. Any suggestions on how we can live more healthfully as a whole? 

Michelle Fondin

Author of The Wheel of Healing: An Easy Guide to an Ayurvedic Lifestyle

www.michellefondin.com