What is Ama in Ayurveda? The other day, a client asked me about, ama, a unique concept in Ayurveda. "Ms. Vikram, what is ama? What does it do? Why does it ammeter?" In Sanskrit, ama means toxin or undigested metabolic waste. Ama translates literally to mean things like “unripe,” “uncooked,” “raw,” “immature,” or “undigested.”[1] What causes ama? There are [...]
What is Agni according to Ayurveda? It is crucial to understand the role of Agni in Ayurveda and its impact on our bodies. In Sanskrit, our digestive fire, is known as agni, and it is responsible for transforming the food and beverages that we intake. Agni also absorbs, assimilates, and converts the food into energy. It regulates the body temperature. [...]
What are the six tastes in Ayurveda? The six tastes in Ayurveda has an effect on the three doshas of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. According to Ayurveda, every substance found in nature is made up of some combination of the 5 basic elements: space, air, fire, water, and earth. The same elements make up the Ayurvedic [...]
What is an Ayurvedic Diet? Ayurveda is one of the oldest healthcare systems to originate from India. Ayurveda focuses on eating in a way that we can prevent diseases and promote longevity. It’s a living science that honors your age, your doshas, your geographic location, your agnibala (strength of digestive fire), your metabolism, season, your prakruti (constitution), [...]
Natural remedies for acid reflux/GERD, based in Ayurveda Acid reflux disease - also called Gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a condition in which acidic digestive juices from the stomach move up into the esophagus (food pipe). The stomach normally secretes acid that is essential to the digestive process. When there is excess production of acid in the stomach, [...]
5 Ayurvedic Tips to Lower Travel Anxiety I noticed that my mom would get emotional and moody before our trips. She loved traveling the world, but leading up to the trip, her digestion would act up. Mom would often want to change the travel dates. On one hand, Mom wanted to explore the world; on the [...]
Chandra Bhedana: Left nostril yogic breathing to cool the body In all likelihood, if you are reading this post, you are familiar with pranayama and yogic techniques to cool the body, especially alternate nostril breathing. In Chandra Bhedana Pranayama, we breathe through the left nostril and exhale via the right nostril. A breathing technique of yoga to cool the [...]
Learn about Pitta Dosha Diet My husband and I recently traveled to Newfoundland in Canada. This part of the country has nature caressing it from every angle. Despite being happily layered between mountains, the Atlantic Ocean, and the cooler temperatures (I wore a windbreaker on some days and hoodie everyday), I felt a lot of aggravated [...]
5 Tips to Keep Pitta dosha Balanced According to Ayurveda, health is our natural, balanced state. Pitta dosha is one of the three Ayurvedic doshas. It has the energy of fire and water – it is hot, sharp, light, liquid, spreading, unctuous. When balanced, pitta dosha manifests as a sharp intellect, robust health, strong digestion, and [...]
Ayurveda and Mental Health According to the ancient Ayurvedic texts, a person is said to have good health or swasthya (in Sanskrit) when they enjoy a balance of physical and psychological elements (samadosha), of energies produced in the body (samagnischa), and of tissues in the organs (samadhatu) combined with proper elimination of wastes (malakriya), a happy soul (prasannatma), [...]
