As Vaidya Mishra has been sharing more knowledge of ayurvedic herbs and plants, we have been receiving questions about what and how to choose for daily healthy supplementation. Which herbs or minerals are essential as well as safe to be consumed on a regular even daily basis to maintain overall total health and balance?

Based on the wisdom of his SVA family lineage as well as the latest scientific findings, Vaidya Mishra has chosen 3 primary ingredients that can be taken on a regular daily basis for optimal overall balance. These are: Vit D, Magnesium, and Calcium. Why are these necessary and how do they help support us? There are 2 perspectives to consider, the SVA Pranic Sutra perspective and the modern scientific findings.

Pranic Significance

Prana is what we thrive on. Edible and non-edible things in Nature all contain one or more of Prana’s constitutive ingredients: Soma, Agni, and Marut. This also applies to minerals and vitamins. Accoridng to the SVA precepts and analysis, Calcium is the Soma predominant mineral; Vit D is the Agni predominant nutrient, and Magnesium is Marut predominant. In this sense, you understand why from the pranic perspective we need Magnesium to transform and transport Vit D and Calcium in our bodies. The “intelligence” of how much needs to be transformed and transported is also due to the Marut factor represented by Magnesium. Scientific findings do indicate that most of the concentration of Magnesium is found in the spinal chord, and we have learnt from SVA that the spinal chord houses the vibrational Sushumna nadi which is the Marut predominant vibratinoal channel. This spinal chord supplies the transformational and mobility intelligence in the nadi-s, sandhi-s or gaps, marma-s, and through these vibrational channels all the way to the organs and systems.
So adding Vit D, Magnesium, and Calcium (SVA Soma Cal) to your daily supplementation is ideal from the SVA Pranic perspective. And Vaidya Mishra has made it easy enough to get these supplements through different means: oral supplements, Nectar drops, or transdermal roll-ons that are safe and effective. Now let’s see if this is also in accord with the latest scientific findings of what our modern physiology needs in this day and age.

Science’s verdict is definitely clear on Vit D, Magnesium, and Calcium being necessary suppplements and minerals without which the body can experience many imbalances and even diseases.

Vit D

Until recently, experts believed that the main role of vitamin D was to keep our bones healthy and prevent them from breaking up. But new research has shown many other reasons why this vitamin is so important for our health.
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays a vital role in the human body. It has many functions, and a lack of vitamin D can lead to many health problems.
At the outset, Vitamin D is essential in bone growth. Its main role in the body is to increase the flow of calcium into the bloodstream. It does this by promoting absorption of calcium from food. Without vitamin D, calcium would not be absorbed into the body. Therefore, vitamin D is equally important to the maintenance of bone health as is calcium.
Health Benefits of Vitamin D:

1. The prevention of chronic diseases such as many forms of cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension.
2. The protection and lubrication of your bones, teeth and hair.
3. The regulation of cellular growth and healthy cell activity.
4. Overall reduction of the inflammatory response, a condition known to cause many chronic diseases, from cancer to diabetes to obesity.
5. Protection against adult osteoporosis.
6. Reduction in the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
7. Significant reduction in the occurrence of prostate cancer in African-American men.

If you are a vegetarian or don’t eat fish (Salmon, Herring, Tuna, Catfish Sardines, Cod Liver oil, and/or eggs), you can still get the same benefits by using Vaidya Mishra’s Transdermal Vit D Rollon in deodorant or simple Vit D format. Or make sure to get plenty of sun on a daily basis!

Optimal Levels of Vitamin D

help to:

• Prevent bone fractures
• Prevent falls in older people and osteoporosis
• Reduce the risk of cancer, especially colon cancer, prostate cancer, and breast cancer
• Reduce the risk of diabetes, especially in young people and in those living in high altitude
• Protect against heart disease, including high blood pressure and heart failure
• Reduce your risk for multiple sclerosis
• Improve you mood
• Improve your lung function.

Magnesium

Although there are only a few ounces of magnesium in the body, it is a necessary element to hundreds of biochemical reactions occurring on a constant basis.
Magnesium contributes to the manufacture of energy, cardiovascular function, and cellular reproduction. Strong bones and teeth, radiant skin, balanced hormones, a healthy nervous system, and relaxed body and mind are all made possible by sufficient magnesium in our cells.

Why Choose the Transdermal Path?

From pain killers to anti-depressants to hormone replacement, countless people have turned to transdermal medicine, whether because they can’t swallow pills, their digestive systems are impaired, or simply due to personal preference.
Using magnesium transdermally addresses all of these concerns. Topical magnesium:

• Is safe, convenient, affordable and effective.
• Allows you to maximize the amount you’re getting daily without having to worry about diarrhea, digestion, or swallowing additional pills several times a day.
• Is especially helpful with pain and can be applied directly to the trouble area with immediate results, rather than waiting for it to work its way through your GI tract.

The skin is a living, breathing organ — the most efficient organ for detoxification with tremendous potential for re-mineralizing the body. What happens when we combine the human body’s most well functioning organ with one of the most life giving minerals available? An easy, safe and effective ground for establishing total vibrant health. The skin, has three primary functions:

• Temperature control
• Detoxification
• Barrier function

While one function of the skin, its barrier function, is to keep water and moisture in while keeping germs and toxins out, the skin’sother functions, temperature control and detoxification, could not occur if the skin was truly a complete barrier.
When you sweat, for example, you are both controlling your body’s temperature and naturally excreting toxins through your skin. If you can push out toxins, you can pull them in as well. One example of this is when a person who regularly uses underarm deodorant containing aluminum will actually show aluminum content in a fecal or urine test.
In fact, many substances do pass into the body from the outer surface of the skin and into the circulation. To understand how this works, imagine a tightly woven fabric. While from a distance it may appear impervious, at close range it is actually highly porous. It is this porous nature of the skin, with its millions of tiny openings, that allows not only sweat and other toxins to escape, but also enables the absorption of some substances.
The process is known as trans-dermal absorption. Once a substance passes through the outer layers of skin, it passes into the lymph and local vascular (blood vessel) system and soon after into the bloodstream.

Some benefits of transdermal magnesium:

• Restores cellular magnesium levels
• Natural cellular protectant
• Facilitates safe and effective detoxification
• Relief of aches, pains, spasms
• Elevates mood and relieves stress
• Encourages healthy skin tissue
• Helps maintain proper muscle function
• Boosts energy levels
• Supports a healthy immune system
• Balances the hormonal system
• Calms overactive nerves
• Improves quality of sleep
• … etc

Signs of Magnesium Deficiency

The classic physical signs of low magnesium are:

Neurological:                                                           Metabolic:
Behavioral disturbances                                               Increased
Irritability and anxiety                                                 Intracellular
Lethargy                                                                         Calcium
Impaired memory and cognitive function                 Hyperglycemia
Anorexia or loss of appetite                                         Calcium deficiency
Nausea and vomiting                                                    Potassium
Seizures                                                                          Deficiency
Muscular:                                                                   Cardiovascular:
Weakness                                                                        Irregular or rapid
Muscle spasms (tetany)                                                Heartbeat
Tics                                                                                   Coronary spasms
Muscle cramps                                                              Among children:
Hyperactive reflexes                                                    Growth retardation
Impaired muscle coordination (ataxia)                      or “failure to
Tremors                                                                         thrive”
Involuntary eye movements and vertigo
Difficulty swallowing

Symptoms of low magnesium: possible signals of chronic latent magnesium deficiency
DAY TO DAY

• Depression
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Migraines
• Premenstrual Syndrome
• Sleep Problems

SEVER DIS-EASE STAGE

• ADHD
• Epilepsy
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Osteoporosis
• Chest pains
• Cardiac arrhytmias
• Coronary diseas
• Artherosclerosis
• Hypertension
• Type II Diabetes
• Ashtma

Calcium

You’ve probably heard that calcium is good for you. But you’re also probably unsure as to why it’s so important, and like so many of us, you may not be getting enough calcium in your diet.

Yes, calcium is key for the health of your bones and teeth, but it also affects your muscles, hormones, nerve function, and ability to form blood clots. Plus, research has suggested—although not yet confirmed—that calcium may help other problems like PMS, high blood pressure, and possibly weight gain.

Calcium is essential for maintaining the necessary level of bone mass to support the structures of the body. The body is constantly using calcium for the heart, blood, muscles and nerves. Calcium is also lost through normal bodily processes such as waste and the shedding of hair, fingernails, sweat and skin.

If your diet does not include enough calcium to replace what is used, the body will take calcium away from the bones, which weakens them and makes them more likely to fracture. Surprisingly, it is estimated that 70% of people in the USA do not get enough calcium in their diet, which has different effects on different age and population groups.

Calcium is found in relatively high concentrations in dairy products: One cup of skim milk has about 302 milligrams of calcium, 8 ounces of yogurt has between 250 and 400 milligrams, and 1.5 ounces of cheddar cheese has 306 milligrams.

But for those who can’t, or choose not to, eat dairy, there are other foods that are high in calcium, including green, leafy vegetables, etc.

There are two main kinds of calcium supplements readily available on the market: citrate and carbonate. The main differences between the two is that carbonate offers more calcium per tablet, so consumers can take fewer pills. But it is known that supplementing with calcium can cause nausea, gas, and constipation and that is why Vaidya Mishra recommends Soma Cal made from Coral branch tips processed ayurvedically to be immediately available within your body for absorption without side-effect but actual sidebenefits of pacifying all 5 pitta-subdoshas. If Soma Cal supplements are still too much for you, you can safely add the Soma Cal Nectar drops to your daily regimen and monitor your diet to make sure you have enough calcium in it.

SVA recommends the following calcium-rich foods to be consumed on a regular basis:

1. Cheese – preferably fresh home-made paneer, or good organic fresh mozzarella, or good organic fresh brie, or farmer’s cheese, alternatively also cottage cheese. Nothing aged, sour, and fermenting as these all lower the body’s pH.
2. Yogurt – fresh home-made or store bought with a good culture, but making sure neither is sour.
3. Milk – preferably raw and always organic, and if not possible then preferably only pasteurized but not homogenized
4. Green Leafy Vegetables (Turnip, Mustard, and Dandelion Greens, Collards, Kale) Dark leafy greens are a great source of calcium raw or cooked. Raw turnip greens provide the most calcium with 190mg (19% DV) per 100 gram serving, or 105mg (10% DV) in a chopped cup. It is followed by Dandelion greens which provide 103mg (10%DV) per cup, Kale 9% DV per cup, Mustard Greens 6% DV per cup, and Collard greens 5% DV .Dark leafy greens like spinach, kale, turnips, and collard greens – preferably all organic because pesticides reduce/burn the mineral and calcium content making the nutrients unavailable in your physiology.
5. Sesame seeds – dry toasted and freshly ground or not are a great addition to any meal and very high in calcium. Sesame seeds provide the most calcium when they are roasted or dried with 989mg (99% DV) of calcium per 100g serving, or 277mg (28%DV) per ounce, and 88mg (9% DV) per tablespoon. Sesame Butter (Tahini) provides about half the amount of calcium with 426mg (43%DV) of calcium per 100g serving, 119mg (12% DV) per ounce, and 64mg (6% DV) per tblsp.
6. Almonds are a great source of calcium whether dry roasted or made into butter. Almonds will provide 266mg (27% DV) of calcium per 100g serving, 367mg (37% DV) per cup, and 74mg (7% DV) per ounce (~22 Almonds).
7. Soma Salt: Soma Salt is the preferred salt of the Ancient Ayurvedic texts. The ancient Charak Samhita, Ayurveda’s central reference text, lists eight edible and beneficial kinds of salt coming from the Himalayas. It names the best among them, Soma Lavan, or Soma Salt.This cooling variety of salt is said to give numerous benefits in Charak Samhita. Soma Salt is described in Chapter 27, Verse 300 as: rochanam (tasty), deepanam (increasing the digestive fire, which supports all seven tissues), vrishyam (supporting shukra dhatu, or reproductive tissue), chakchushya (supporting the longevity of the eyes by cooling the liver), avidahi cha (not creating a digestive imbalance due to excess heating quality, and not causing retention of toxins as other salts do), tridoshagnam (pacifying all three doshas and having a somewhat sweet taste), lavanottamam (the best of all salts). Soma Salt is a cooling rock salt, as the name soma suggests. In nature, soma represents the cooling, nurturing elements which are so often missing in modern life. While all salts have a hot (agni) quality, only Soma Salt has the cooling (soma) quality needed to balance it.
   Soma Salt is extracted from the mountains of North West India in the historic land of Sindh. In Vaidya Mishra’s Shaka Vansya Ayurvedic lineage, this salt is known as the “Queen of Salts” due to its high mineral content and its unparalleled somagenic qualities. We take great care to purify the large, salt rocks that we receive from India using a Shaka Vansya purification technique passed down in Vaidya Mishra’s family.

Each batch is tested in an independent lab to make sure that there are no unwanted minerals or contaminants. Tests reveal the following mineral content: Calcium 361 mg per 100 g, Iron 1.1mg per 100 g, Magnesium 102mg per 100 g, Potassium 1600 mg per 100g, Sodium 16,800 mg per 100g.