Depression… with Dr T; PLUS: Autumn Detox Anyone? And: Study Ayurveda with Rose; Also: Replay of Prana vs EMF Class! – your SV Ayurveda Newsletter August 25, 2022 – #31, Vol 11

…depression…

in ayurvedic terms

Depression affects 1 in 15 adults in any given year. And one in six people will experience depression at some time in their life. Depression can occur at any time, but on average it first appears during the late teens to the mid-20’s. Women are more likely than men to experience depression and about one-third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime. Symptoms of depression can vary from mild to severe and can include: feeling sad or having a depressed mood, loss of interest in activities once enjoyed, changes in appetite including weight loss or gain, trouble sleeping or sleeping too much, loss of energy, feeling worthless or guilty, difficulty concentrating or making decisions, thoughts of death or suicide.

It has been said that genetics may play a role, and while this may be true for all diseases and not just with depression, the real truth is that the genes we’ve inherited are actually lying dormant, but they need some triggers which we create through mistakes in diet and daily routine in order for them to wake up and allow them to manifest. So as with all diseases that we see, always remember that the underlying causes need to be addressed, and these underlying causes are usually numerous and different in each person. It’s always important to identify the mistakes you might be making which are causing your sleeping genes to wake up and start expressing themselves. This is especially true for depression. 

Many of the common treatments for depression revolve around modifying one’s brain chemistry. Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are usually the first choice of medication for treating depression. They work by slowing up the reabsorption of the neurotransmitter serotonin, a chemical which helps regulate mood and anxiety. This way the serotonin can remain in the blood stream longer, easing up the depression. It is important to know that there are numerous other medications besides the SSRIs to help alleviate symptoms of depression. These medications could be life-saving if you or your loved one is threatening suicide. But we should also take a look at the underlying causes of depression and learn how to address them so that we can either prevent the depression from coming in the first place, or if you are already on an anti-depressant, perhaps over time, with the help of your doctor, you could slowly wean off it.

As with everything else we treat in Ayurveda we always want to trace any and all imbalances first to improper digestion. Here’s the way it works: once you swallow food and it goes through the digestive tract, it has to be broken down into smaller and smaller particles until it then enters the bloodstream. From there the food spends 3-5 days in each tissue before moving on to the next tissue until all 7 tissues are nourished. The tissues are blood plasma, blood, muscle, fat, bone, bone marrow and reproductive fluids. Now this is very important: at the end of the 7th tissue you then make a compound called Ojas. Ojas is the neurotransmitters and the hormones and gives you great stamina, strength and immunity to disease. Keep this in mind: your neurotransmitters and hormones dictate the way you feel, if you are happy or depressed, lethargic or energetic, hyper or calm. So, in order to have good Ojas or balanced hormones and neurotransmitters, first your digestion of food must be complete and the food itself must be nourishing, wholesome and freshly prepared. 

Many of the teenagers I see have poor digestion due to the high amounts of pharmaceuticals they are given from the time they are born. This is because the vaccines and antibiotics they take destroy the friendly bacteria in the gut and make the liver very hot, reactive and toxic.

And to make matters worse, the diets of our children are quite deficient, especially if the child turns towards processed foods.

And to add insult to injury, the friendly bacteria in the gut make 90% of the neurotransmitters that the brain needs to function properly. No wonder so many of our teenagers are depressed! Between their poor gut microbiome, combined with their inadequate diets. 

As just stated, when there are too many hot chemical toxins circulating through the liver it overheats the liver, which in turn makes you angry. Just ask any woman who suffers from PMS — the liver overheats right before the menstrual cycle is due, which is what makes them so angry during that time. Then once the menstrual cycle is over and the liver cools down, the emotions also cool back down to normal. As a result, many of the kids we see today are walking around with hot angry livers — no wonder they are angry and can’t control their emotions.

Then on top of all this, if the child goes to bed late — many other imbalances begin. Going to bed past 10:00 PM makes the liver even hotter and it weakens the endocrine glands — the system of glands that make hormones, such as the thyroid, the adrenals and the ovaries or testes. These glands are very delicately balanced and they need the hours of rest before midnight to rejuvenate them. The ancient doctors of India said that it is a fundamental law of nature that human beings should be asleep when the sun goes down and awake before or as the sun comes up. Breaking this very basic law exhausts the glands, you feel tired, lethargic and depressed the next day as the glands are now struggling to make their happy hormones.

In fact, walking outside as the sun comes up helps to establish one’s circadian rhythms.This allows us to get sleepy at night as more melatonin is automatically released once the sunlight enters the pupils early in the morning. And just being in the sunlight increases serotonin by 800%!!! Serotonin is what the SSRI’s are trying to keep in circulation. Just getting out in the sun everyday will help this…and without the toxicity and the side effects of the SSRI’s.

Remember the old adage: early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. So many of our patients feel so much better once they fix their digestion, go to bed by 10:00 pm, eat a wholesome, healthy diet and get out in the early morning sun everyday.

Many of our patients are vegetarian and do not consume any milk or milk products. The ancient doctors of India stated that you need some animal protein every day in your diet. So if you are a vegetarian then your animal protein would come from milk and milk products. 

But if there are no milk products in your diet you run the risk of losing your stores of Vitamin B12 which could also cause depression. 

And don’t forget: your adrenal and sex hormones are made out of cholesterol and cholesterol comes from an animal. And your thyroid gland makes its hormones out of animal protein as well. So if there are no milk products in the diet there won’t be enough raw materials to make these hormones, which could potentially result in depression. So many of our patients who present with depression have a weakness in the thyroid and adrenals since the hormones produced by these glands make us feel very upbeat and enthusiastic about life. 

Many people are giving up animal milk, such as cow’s or goat’s milk in favor of plant-based milks. While this might be OK if you are allergic to these animal’s milks, you might be interested to know that animal milk is the only food which can make Ojas the same day it is taken, in fact almost immediately when it is consumed. Any other food you can think of takes about a month to make Ojas as it slowly makes its way through each of the 7 tissues.

Always keep up your stores of Ojas. It gets depleted with over-exercise, over-work, burning the candle at both ends, stress, too much sexual activity, too much bleeding or diarrhea, lack of absorption of nutrients and a deficient diet. 

So if you keep overworking without rejuvenating your body with proper rest you’ll run the risk of depleting your Ojas and weakening your endocrine glands, which could ultimately result in depression. If you have to work long hours during the week try to spend one whole day on the weekend just resting, eating healthy foods, sitting in the sun, taking naps and allowing your body to rejuvenate and reinvigorate itself after pushing it so hard all week.

But here’s the good news: we have a huge arsenal of herbs in Ayurveda which can strengthen the weak endocrine glands, remedies to restore the friendly bacteria in the gut, and many herbs to cool down the heat in the liver. We also have a wide variety of antidepressant herbs which have been used for thousands of years before the use of the pharmaceutical SSRI’s. We even have herbal formulas to build up your Ojas!

So hopefully by following these guidelines you or your loved ones will never have to suffer depression which can decrease your quality of life tremendously. 

Thank you,

Dr. Marianne Teitelbaum

Cinnaminson, New Jersey

856-786-3330

drmteitelbaum.com

Ready to shift gears? Autumn detox is a must! So you can ease into a busier more active season with a cooler heart and mind. It is necessary to offload all the heat generated by summer before your srotas (physical channels) shrink down trapping the heat all over the place, leading you to crave sweets, and yes, you guessed it, bringing on that seasonal flu and body aches and sniffles! Join us for SVA Home-Detox. If you’ve done it already, you can still join us for the companionship at a nominal fee – PLUS detox is more fun together! Here is our schedule for this year’s Autumn Detox:

• Sept 6: by midnight. Last chance to register for early bird specials. Registration after this date the course is full price, but still well worth attending!
• Sept 7: 3 pm PST, live webinar – What is Samadhi Marma
• Sept 8: 3 pm PST, live webinar – Introduction to SVA Detox. Detox Begins.
• Sept 15: 3 pm PST, live webinar – receive new information, share your detox experiences and ask questions.
• Sept 22: 3 pm PST, live webinar – receive new information, share your detox experiences and ask questions.
• Sept 29: Self-study -no live webinar. You can still reach out to others in the group or your SVA councilor.
• Oct 06: Self-study -no live webinar. You can still reach out to others in the group or your SVA councilor.
• Oct 13: 3 pm PST, resume live webinar session, receive new information, share your detox experiences and ask questions.
• Oct 20: 3 pm PST, live webinar, receive new information, share your detox experiences and ask questions.
• Oct 27: 3 pm PST, live webinar. Final meeting to share your experiences and ask questions.

If you have already detoxed with us before, you will be charged a nominal fee PLUS receive 15% discount on all detox products for the duration of the course. If this is your first time, you can catch the early bird of $1188 (otherwise $1440) by September 6. This rate includes ALL detox products needed for 8 (or more) weeks (image below). For more information call or email us:

info@prana-center.com

(818)709-1005

Delve Deeper into Ayurveda

with

Rose Carol

I created Ayurveda Amritanam Learning Center to share a wealth of knowledge that I gained during my time learning from my dear friend and teacher, Ayurvedic physician, the late Vaidya Ramakant Mishra who was a master herbalist and formulator, healer, and founder of Chandika Herbal Synergies.

My experience showed me that the study and practice of Ayurveda can help anchor you through unfamiliar territory in life and keep your heart nurtured in uncertain times. The design of my course through weekly classes for nine months will give birth to not only knowledge of an ancient healing tradition of medicine but a potent tool for personal growth. Ayurveda connects you to your very own source of non-changing silent consciousness which forms the basis of good physical and mental health. If you are yearning for a program not just for intellectual knowledge but desire personal transformation and interconnectedness, then this program is for you. If you are an empath, that desires skills to help others while healing yourself, then consider this opportunity either as a structured class or self paced personal study guided by an experienced teacher and practitioner.

Our Foundational Course:  Ayurveda Amritanam’s curriculum is a foundational course as well as a course for those already familiar with Ayurveda but want to deepen their knowledge and experience with an option to audit. It’s also for those who simply want better health and spiritual growth. It’s for counselors, coaches, busy mothers, massage therapists, coaches, teachers, yoga enthusiasts, or anyone wanting to offer simple and effective tools to aid their self, family member or client’s progress and evolution. 

Ayurveda Health Coach Certificate: After the 9-month study and required practicum, you will receive a certificate of completion as an Ayurveda Health Coach. This will give you the knowledge to understand unique mind/body types, educate others in nutrition and lifestyle and support others with sleep problems, inflammatory conditions, emotional balance, digestive and elimination problems, weight balance, protection from colds and flu, skin issues, stress reduction, as well as learn to apply over 25 Ayurvedic herbal formulas.  For more information please email me at rose.carol.zivin@gmail.com or text/call 847 636 2744. Please ask me for a more detailed week by week curriculum. The month by month general curriculum can be found at www.ayurvedalearningcenter.com

This 225-hour training includes:

• Ancient Ayurveda tools for self-care
• Ancient art of pulse diagnosis (Nadivigyan)
• Over 35 relevant Ayurveda Herbs and how to use them
• Learn Ayurveda Body Mind Assessment
• Food as medicine with online cooking lessons
• Coaching skills (how to work with clients)
• Ethical and legal Issues of an Ayurveda practice
• Seasonal Cleanse and Detox for self and others
• A comprehensive study on Ayurvedic cosmology, theory and practice
• Pranic Healing 

REPLAY OF EMF VS PRANA COURSE

What a fabulous session we had yesterday, filled with so much knowledge, empowering us against this overwhelming modern health phenomenon – EMF toxicity. The good news is there is SO MUCH we can do, through Vaidya Mishra’s SVA teachings, as well as through all the information Henry Eckstein shared with us. Understanding the ayurvedic fundamentals of what EMF is, is the first most important step to be able to address it; however, having a strong handle on all the recent measuring devices, as well as the different categories of radiation and frequencies that we need to address is also so crucial. We thank Henry Eckstein for generously sharing his knowledge and expertise with us. Here again are some important details and ways you can reach him if you want to assess your home or workspace: 

1. Website: https://www.HealthyIndoorConsultants.com
2. His email: Henry@HealthyIndoorConsultants.com
3. Business phone: (303) 306-8793

On the website you can book a free discovery call where you can discuss if Henry can help you. You can also buy meters at a discount. Here is the page: https://healthyindoorconsultants.com/favorite-products

Henry also offer zoom calls to help people get aquainted with and learn how to use their meters.

WANT TO SIGN UP? 

CLICK HERE

OR  

email us: info@prana-center.com

or: 818-709-1005

Still not sure whether the EMF course is for you? Find out more…