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VIT K2:
What It Is
&
What It Does
For You!
The information I’m about to present to you is extremely important for you to understand. I’ve made lots of videos which are all important in teaching you how to take care of your body, but I would highly recommend you listen to this one a few times so you fully understand it, because most people are unwittingly making lots of the mistakes which I will be discussing here, causing all kinds of health problems from osteoporosis to cancer and diabetes, heart disease and just about any other disease you can think of. And the answer to curing all these diseases lies in preventing them from occurring in the first place. And it’s so easy to do — you just have to know this very important piece of the puzzle I’m about to present here.
Let me tell you a little story of how this information was first discovered, at least here in the Western world. Of course, the enlightened rishis of India who cognized Ayurveda already knew this information, but it took a very long time for that to reach the countries outside of India. So we had to learn it the slow arduous way, and in fact, most of us still haven’t learned it — and that includes most doctors as well as the lay patients.
So here goes:
In the 1930’s one of the most prominent health researchers and dentists of the 20th century, Dr. Weston A. Price spent 10 years traveling the world in search of the secrets to perfect health and longevity. He went to both remote places and the crowded cities of 14 different countries looking for healthy people and doing extensive research on them. He wanted to see what their secret was for their robust health compared to the poor health the Americans were experiencing.
He found that those people who ate their indigenous foods had strong bones and perfect dental arches, minimal tooth decay, high immunity to tuberculosis and overall excellent health compared to those people who were introduced to modern foods, such as white refined flour, refined white sugar, refined vegetable oils and canned and processed goods.
In other words, those who ate food the way nature intended, whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, meats and dairy products were extremely healthy.
He ended up writing a book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, comparing health statistics and photographs of those eating healthy with those who were eating processed foods. It became obvious to him after visiting so many people that those who ate the processed foods were much sicker than their indigenous counterparts who still lived in nature eating the wholesome foods which grew in the areas in which they lived. But there was something that intrigued him for years and he devoted a whole chapter discussing it in his book.
And this is what I would like to talk to you about today, because just knowing this one bit of information will go a long way into giving you the radiant health you are seeking.
He had discovered a new fat-soluble Vitamin. At first he thought it was Vitamin D, but then quickly realized it wasn’t that. It hadn’t been discovered yet, so he just called it Activator X. He believed it was a missing nutrient in our modern diet and that its absence could explain many of our modern diseases. He was able to heal dental cavities, reduce oral bacteria and restore life to sick and starving children who were near death by changing their diet to a more wholesome one which included this Activator X along with natural unprocessed foods.
He said Activator X was found in the butterfat of milk, in the eggs of fishes and the organs and fats of animals. Its highest concentration was found in milk when the cows were eating grasses, especially the quickly growing grasses which grow in the spring. He said it was also synthesized by the mammary glands and therefore found in breast milk, and played an important role in infant growth and development, as well as fertility and reproduction.
He said milk contained high amounts of this Activator X, but it was even more concentrated in butter. But he found he could concentrate the amounts further by centrifuging the butter and making a high vitamin “butter oil.”
Years later a name was given to this unknown fat-soluble Vitamin. It is now called Vitamin K2. Vitamin K1 is found in green leafy vegetables, but Dr. Price was specifically talking about this version, known as Vitamin K2, found in animal fats, milk, butter and butter oil.
Here is where the confusion lies. Vitamin K2 has differing types of side chains, represented as MK-4 to MK-13. MK means menaquinone; MK-5 through MK-13 are formed by bacterial synthesis. But the MK-4 is Dr. Prices’s activator X, which is unique and is the ONLY form that is not the product of bacterial synthesis but comes from animal sources.
So it is the MK-4, from animal fats, such as milk, butter and butter oil which give the very important health benefits. Note that butter and concentrated butter products such as ghee contain 100% MK-4. There are no bacterial MKs in these products. MK-4 is the fat found in nature which is designed for the growth and nourishment of all mammals.
Only Vitamin K1 and MK4 are found in the umbilical cord blood. The placenta actually blocks MK-7 while allowing MK-4 into the unborn child. High concentrations of MK-4 are found in the placenta. And MK-4 is needed for the development of the child.
In fact the traditional sacred foods for preconception and pregnancy were foods rich in MK-4 and babies were always weaned onto foods containing high amounts of MK-4.
MK-4 also helps in building strong bones and strong teeth. It also prevents cancer, diabetes and other serious diseases.
Now here’s the sad part. For years doctors have been telling people to avoid cholesterol and eat low fat diets. Just about the whole world changed their eating habits and started ingesting refined vegetable oils once doctors proclaimed that we should discard butter and instead eat margarine. Even in India ghee factories opened up making ghee from margarine. This is when our health took a nosedive. People started developing osteoporosis, dental cavities, arthritis and heart disease at epidemic levels. Women became infertile and children began developing all forms of speech and developmental delays.
Even to this day most restaurants continue to cook with a blend of refined vegetable oils. This is even true of all the health food stores who advertise that their baked goods are baked with oils, and not butter, thinking that this is a healthy thing to do. They don’t realize that these oils oxidize at these high baking temperatures and are very dangerous for our health.
It became obvious that when you heat the vegetable oils they form a plastic which clogs the arteries causing all the strokes and heart attacks we are witnessing today. So nowadays people are moving away from the polyunsaturated vegetable oils and instead are turning towards eating the more saturated avocado and coconut oils. These oils are somewhat heavy and hard to digest. People should learn about ghee. It is saturated, but very easy to digest. And it provides the very high doses of Vitamin K2 MK-4 that our bodies crave.
This was also very interesting to note: Dr. Price called this nutrient “Activator X” because he said that it acted as an activator or catalyst which aided in the absorption and assimilation of all the nutrients from our diets — protein, minerals, vitamins. He stated, “It is possible to starve for minerals that are abundant in the foods eaten because they cannot be utilized without an adequate quantity of the fat soluble activators.”
In other words that amounts of the nutrients we absorb into our cells depends on these fat-soluble vitamins. The ancient doctors knew this as well, which is why ghee is used as the base of many Ayurvedic herbal preparations. The herbs are cooked into the ghee because the ghee delivers them across the cell wall. And eating ghee in the diet does in fact enhance the absorption of all the nutrients we eat in our food since all the cell walls in our body are made of cholesterol and ghee becomes the vehicle to drag the nutrients across those fatty cell wall membranes and into our cells. Keep in mind: the food we eat can’t help you much unless it gets broken down and absorbed into the insides of your cells.
And here’s the other problem: Now that Vitamin K2 has been discovered, it is being put in all the synthetic Vitamin D supplements since K2 helps to ensure that the calcium transported by the Vitamin D is absorbed into your bones where it’s needed rather than being deposited in your arteries.
BUT…the type of Vitamin K2 that we get in supplements is MK-7 (yes, the type rejected by the placenta as previously mentioned), not the type we get in food. The best way to get active and efficiently assimilated Vitamin K2 is from food.
An NIH-funded study involving 27,000 people over a six-year period found that the health benefits associated with adequate intake of vitamins came from getting these nutrients through eating food as opposed to taking synthetic vitamin supplements.
There has been other research in 2018 by Nolan Chatron and his group who demonstrated that MK-4 had strong binding in the tissues whereas the MK-7 showed shaky binding and no stability, leading to MK-7 binding failure, which means they are not bioactive and at a very deep level cannot be utilized by the tissues. MK-4 on the other hand is very strong in its binding capacity, very stable and promotes healthy binding of calcium so it can be taken to the teeth and bones and away from the tissues and arteries.
And this all points up again to what the ancient rishis were trying to tell us: we want our nutrients to contain pranic energy, which means they should be grown outside under the healing rays of the sun and moon. This echoes Dr. Price when he stated that synthetic supplementation drowns out the wisdom of our ancestors — the knowledge that all health starts with nutrient-dense whole foods. As Dr. Price has stated, “People of the past obtained a substance that modern generations do not have.” And now we know this substance is his Activator X, now known as Vitamin K2 MK-4.
And Dr. Royal Lee, another famous dentist, researcher and founder of Standard Process Labs stated, “Just as the chemist cannot create life, neither can he create a complex vitamin, the life element in foods and nutrition. This is a mystery the chemist has not solved and probably never will.”
And keep this in mind, there is a widespread deficiency of Vitamin K2 MK-4 in the world due to our aversion to eating animal fat, animals raised eating anything other than grass, factory farms, high antibiotic use in animal feeds and in humans, animals fed GMO corn and soy, soil depletion, glyphosate, processed foods, and dysfunction of the gut. And if you are taking a statin or blood thinner these drugs create a deficiency in Vitamin K2 as they lower the cholesterol that the body so desperately needs to stay healthy.
Fresh churned traditional butter from raw A2 milk ready to be cooked into ghee
So let’s stop right here and examine this a little further. This is very interesting. Let’s look at the amounts of MK-4 found in certain fats: whole milk contains 10 units, butter jumps up to 90 units as you concentrate the fat out of the milk. Dr. Price concentrated the butter fat more by centrifuging the butter and creating a butter oil which contains 196-240 units. But look at this: ghee contains the absolute highest amount, which is 270-360 units!
The ancient doctors were so wise to recommend concentrating the MK-4 in this way. Of course they didn’t have the name for MK-4 but they knew at their high level of enlightenment that eating ghee, the essence of the cow’s milk would be very good for the developing child’s brain as well as for the mother’s fertility. Now we have solid research showing how correct they were. And they knew how to make it very concentrated: by making yogurt from heavy cream, churning that into butter and then simmering out the water and daily solids, or clarifying the butter, which concentrates the MK-4.
Vitamin K2 directs any and all calcium that comes into your body it into the teeth and bones, and away from the arteries, joints and other organs and glands. This is why Dr. Price found hundreds of specimens of people who had problems with their teeth and dental arches who were deficient in MK-4 yet those who ate these concentrated forms of fat had no problems with their bones or teeth.
And again, the ancient doctors were prescient in stating that the fat tissue was the raw material for the bone. That you needed good quality fat tissue to be converted into good quality bone.
And to make matters worse, many people are choosing plant-based milks over full-fat cow’s milk because it’s been drummed into their mind from an early age that cholesterol is bad for you and should be avoided at all costs. By doing so, they don’t realize they are eliminating one of nature’s most important foods. Fortunately it is becoming easier and easier to get very high quality whole milk from cows who haven’t been given any antibiotics or growth hormones and are out grazing in the pastures eating untreated grass.
As we grow into old age, we are entering what is known as the Vata stage of life, which means the element of dryness becomes more prominent in our bodies. Therefore it becomes important for us to keep lubricating various parts of our bodies because if our joints get dry, we can suffer arthritic aches and pains. The brain needs a continuous supply of cholesterol to prevent dementia. The hormones that keep you young, estrogen and progesterone in women and testosterone in men are made out of cholesterol, and even if we are post menopausal we still make these hormones. Which means we need to give our glands the raw materials, the cholesterol, to make these important hormones well into old age. And always remember this: cholesterol comes from an animal. So while avocados, coconuts, nuts, seeds and other plant-based fats may be good for many other bodily functions, they do not contain the much-needed cholesterol that the body needs. We need to keep up our intake of good fats since it is the fat tissue that transforms into the bone tissue. We also need to nourish the fatty layers in our skin to prevent the drying, sagging and wrinkling that can occur with old age. And don't forget our skin also needs a constant supply of cholesterol since the sunlight hitting the skin converts the cholesterol into not only Vitamin D, but also serotonin, melatonin, endorphins and many other hormones and neurotransmitters that the brain and body need to function properly.
So it’s important for us to keep up our intake of fats, and understand which are the most important sources of the highly important Vitamin K2 MK-4: found in milk and at higher levels in butter, with the highest amounts found in ghee made from grass-fed cow butter.
There is a reason why our elderly ancestors ate more of this fatty nutrient as they aged. We should listen to this wisdom and pass it on to future generations.
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We want to help you protect your purchase – there's been an increase in lost/stolen packages.
To protect your shipment – in case your shipping address is not secure – we have now added the "signature delivery" option upon check-out on www.chandika.com and we highly recommend you select it to ensure your package is guaranteed to reach you after it leaves our warehouse. Kindly note we are unable to replace stolen/misplaced packages once they are confirmed delivered by the carrier of your choice.
Unlike what we are wont to think here in the western hemisphere, spice blends – aka: masalas – are not simply for enhancing or even just adding flavor! There is art AND science behind creating a perfect blend that will not only taste palatable and sharpen the tastebuds, but also support the body's overall key digestive functions: breakdown, absorption, and elimination. And yes, you guessed it, there can be no perfect health without perfect digestion. The opposite is also true: any ailment can be traced back to an impaired digestive fire, or weak jatharagni. When spice blends have been created with the right ingredients as well as in the correct ratio, they bestow all those benefits. But what's even more important than that, is to start using them at a young age. In ancient Vedic India, the first consumption of solid food was and still is considered an important samskara, a ritual of passage, and this is celebrated with great pomp as the infant gets to taste turmeric, the best of all spices, for the first time, along with solid food. Gradually other spices are also added to the meal. The support of spices for digestion, assimilation, and elimination in young children sets the tone for adult health as well. This is one of the reasons Vaidya Mishra formulated these spice mixtures for kids. To introduce the balancing properties of spices to childrens' diet, but in a palatable way. Each of the blends has a distinct ultimate impact, from warming to cooling, calming, or even detox. These are delicious, mild blends that even adults love. Not convinced? Try them to find out on your own. When you do love them – we know you will – don't forget to leave us a review. Namaste!
ALLERGIES & ASTHMA
IN
CHILDREN
Marianne Teitelbaum, D.C.
As with many of the diseases we are seeing nowadays, the incidence of both asthma and allergies have increased dramatically over the past 30 years.
So we have to look and see what has happened over the past few decades to see what might be upsetting our children’s immune systems.
Lots of research points to the fact that while childhood vaccines have saved so many lives, they might be pushing the immune system beyond what would be normally expected. So far the research shows that unlike live vaccines, most of the vaccines given nowadays are inactivated and they require what are called adjuvants, or compounds, particularly aluminum to boost the immune response because the type of immunity you get with an inactivated vaccine is less and the immune response is much shorter compared with live vaccines.
Aluminum is the most commonly used adjuvant in activated vaccines and it triggers a strong immune response. However, how can that immune response be controlled, and could it be different in different types of people, depending on how sensitive they are to its effects? Could it be pushing the immune system to hyper-react to things such as foods, pollen, and other allergens more than it should?
A very large study was done to see what effect the extremely high vaccine rate is doing to our children’s immune systems. The authors stated reluctantly that “although they recognize that immunization is indispensable for the global elimination of various diseases, this large-scale birth cohort study demonstrated that the prevalence of asthma, wheezing and eczema in children at 12 months of age was associated with the administration of a large number of inactivated vaccines. Despite this association, we strongly support the global vaccination strategy and do not recommend that immunization be halted.”
But they went on to say “the results of this research support the reconsideration of better vaccination development in the future.The present results suggest that the development of better vaccines and/or adjuvants could be beneficial.”
Then what if you upset the immune system even more by giving too many antibiotics in a young child’s life? These antibiotics destroy the friendly bacteria in the gut which stabilize the immune system and keep it from going in the attack mode — hyper-reacting to foods, such as peanuts and tree nuts, or airborne allergens, or worse, the body, resulting in autoimmune diseases.
And on top of that what if children are given a diet with processed foods which can also upset immune function. And to add insult to injury, what if the child grows up in a polluted area where poor air quality can also upset proper immune function?
Studies have been done on the Amish communities and other groups whose children receive less, if any, vaccines and no tree nut or peanut allergies were observed, as compared with those in neighboring schools whose children were fully vaccinated. The vaccinated children had an extremely high rate of tree nut and peanut allergies, demonstrating again, the disruption of a normal immune system with too many vaccines.
These modern pharmaceuticals which have saved lives, must be used judiciously as they are creating a lot of collateral damage to our children’s immune systems.
So, let’s look a little further and see what we can do now to undo the harm from an overzealous vaccination schedule combined with too many antibiotics and at times a poor diet and maybe living in a polluted area (having said that, the children in the above mentioned studies lived out in the country with hardly any air pollution).
Bal means "kid" in Sanskrit. Bal Saraswati Ghee is for kids five years or older. It gently nourishes the brain without giving too much of the main herb, jyotishmati. This product should only be used after a consultation with Shaka Vansya Ayurveda practitioner. It should only be used under his or her direct supervision.
Medhya formulations like Bal Saraswati Ghee are designed to support dhi, dhriti and smriti (the three components of mind in Ayurveda).
Some medhya herbs, like brahmi, are water soluble, while herbs like jyotishmati, are lipid soluble. Since the brain is mainly made of lipid, according to Ayurveda, jyotishmati is ten times more powerful than brahmi for enhancing the coordination between dhi, dhriti and smriti.
Because jyotishmati is such a powerful herb, it must be used with careful supervision of a Shaka Vansya Ayurveda practitioner.
Jyotishmati, is able to deliver the subtle, lipid-soluble nutrients that the brain needs to maintain a high level of function. The name jyotishmati means “full of light,” because it provides a means to nourish and strengthen the physical brain so that it can make full use of its radiant, inner intelligence.
Ingredients:
Mum's Ghee (Clarified Butter) made according to the traditional method of the ancient Ayurvedic shastras (texts) from Organic Cow’s Cream, Jyotishmati, Gotu kola, Bacopa, Kids Masala No. 2 (Sweet Chinese cinnamon, Natural Sweet Vanilla powder, Fennel, Coriander, Rosemary, Clove leaf), Saraswati churna (Ashwagandha, Calamus root, Ajwain seed, Ginger, Long pepper, Black pepper, Soma Salt)
First, we must fix all three parts of the immune system — we must replenish the friendly bacteria in the gut, cool down the heat in the liver (which literally gets overheated from hundreds of acidic hot chemicals circulating through it) and clean the bone marrow. The numerous chemicals and heavy metals in the shots make their way into the bone marrow. This is important to note since it is the bone marrow where the immune system cells are born, so toxins in this very delicate area could upset proper immune function.
We are fortunate that my teacher and mentor, Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra, developed herbal nectar drops for the children which we put in water and they sip on all day. These just contain the intelligence of the herb without the child having to ingest the crude herbs which are quite bitter and too strong for babies and young children to tolerate. He also developed transdermal creams where we can give the herbs through the skin, also very gentle for the children, while at the same time highly effective.
Then Vaidya spent several years bringing the herbs for the lungs from India to America. We have herbs which deal with all 3 of the imbalances we see with asthma.
Think of the bronchial tubes as little channels, as we call them in Ayurveda, or srotas. Air goes in and out of these physical channels, but with asthma 3 things happen to these channels: they shrink, get clogged and inflamed. Let’s see how we can remedy this:
First, we have a wonderful herb which is a bronchodilator, which means it opens up the shrunken channel, just like albuterol, but without the side effects. In fact this herb actually heals the lung tissue. Second we have ways of unclogging the lungs, using various herbal formulas to thin out the mucus, again, without the side effects of modern medicine. And finally we have a very important herb which acts like a steroid, again, with no side effects, which means that the child can stay on it indefinitely to bring down the inflammation in the bronchial tubes so they can easily breathe again. While prednisone and steroid inhalers also bring down the inflammation in the lungs they can also damage the lungs and create asthma. Plus, prednisone is too dangerous to be taken orally longterm. So here we have a wonderful substitute for it.
As a result we have taken many children off their asthma medicines and inhalers.
The same is true with allergies — by fixing the gut, liver and bone marrow, slowly the allergic tendency will go away, whether the allergy is with foods and/or airborne. We just have to spend several months to a few years to recalibrate the hyper immune system back to normal after being pushed by too many dozens of vaccines and/or antibiotics.
As a result we have taken many children off their asthma medicines and inhalers.
The same is true with allergies — by fixing the gut, liver and bone marrow, slowly the allergic tendency will go away, whether the allergy is with foods and/or airborne. We just have to spend several months to a few years to recalibrate the hyper immune system back to normal after being pushed by too many dozens of vaccines and/or antibiotics.
So now you can see, we have to learn how to use these powerful pharmaceuticals very carefully — you have to work with your doctor to limit their use to the absolute most important ones while at the same time fixing the immune system as you go, pulling out the aluminum, and slowly recalibrating the immune system by addressing the friendly bacteria in the gut, the liver and the bone marrow after each introduction of a vaccine or an antibiotic.
By doing so you can prevent a whole host of allergy reactions, asthma, food and airborne allergies. Which will allow their immune systems to behave the way nature intended, where it protects you against invading organisms and pathogens. Not one which is reacting out of control to foods, pollen, dust, molds which creates inflammation, constriction, wheezing and inflammation in the lungs, not to mention eczema as these very hot toxins exit through the skin, the body’s largest organ of elimination.
And not only will you prevent asthma, allergies, and eczema but possible autoimmune diseases later in life. Most of the autoimmune diseases we are seeing at epidemic levels nowadays, were rare in the past, but could have been prevented if someone intervened in this way early on in the child’s life, instead of just allowing the immune system to spiral wildly out of control with each introduction of a a new vaccine or an antibiotic.
We want to help you protect your purchase – there's been an increase in lost/stolen packages.
To protect your shipment – in case your shipping address is not secure – we have now added the "signature delivery" option upon check-out on www.chandika.com and we highly recommend you select it to ensure your package is guaranteed to reach you after it leaves our warehouse. Kindly note we are unable to replace stolen/misplaced packages once they are confirmed delivered by the carrier of your choice.
Here in the "west" and in our modern scientific culture, our knowledge of the human physiology is still only just developing! We are truly just barely starting to understand how things operate and perhaps what we can do to fix things when they break down. Nowhere is this more evident than in the field of health for men as a medical specialty, or andrology (from the ancient Greek for andros or man, + logia or study). Did you know that this field emerged anddeveloped only in the late 1960-s? This might seem like a long time to some, but in contrast to Ayurveda, where the understanding of male stamina and health has been studied for literally thousands of years, it is truly not enough time! Ayurveda has known and used many different herbs, plants, preparations and methods to address ill-being and diseases for men, specially pertaining to the reproductive organs, which are a crucial element of health for so many reasons. Not merely as a locus for sexual entertainment or enjoyment as our modern culture tends to see it. There is a much bigger picture that we miss so often…
The Vedic shastras speak of human objectives (for men AND women) as being fourfold “purusharth:” “dharm, arth, kam, moksh.” These four objectives sum up the pursuits of all humans: dharm or ethical duty towards oneself and the collectivity one is born into; arth or pursuit of necessities to lead a disease-free life or even affluence so we can be productive societal beings; kam or pursuit of desire. Kam encompasses all desires, including carnal or sensual desire, and this is necessary aspect of the human joys of life, but it's also the universe's way of ensuring the evolution of the human species, and it inevitably takes us all to the final stage of desiring spiritual liberation, or moksh, once we've satisfied all our human desires. There are no short cuts. The most enlightened sage was also once a young adult reveling in the throes of sensual experiences in prior lifetimes. At least that's what the vedic shastras say… The point is not to try to evade it but to evolve out of it…
In the vedic tradition, the human lifespan is understood in 4 strokes: 1)Brahmachari ashram or early childhood and youth when one is primarily a student in many ways and where one naturally abstains from sexuality because one is still not fully developed on so many levels to engage in sexual activity; garhasta ashram or the stage of the householder when one is active professionally and personally; vanaprasht ashram or turning away from the “things of this world” to develop a life of detachment; and sanyas ashram or leading the life of a total renunciant.
Garhasta ashram is about being together with a partner, supporting one other to thrive and to develop through and as a family, inviting new souls into the world, to keep the wheel of evolution going. In this sense, in Ayurveda, the topic of male virility is particularly important, as it goes hand in hand with the continuation and evolution of the world as we know it. The Charak Samhita devotes a specific chapter to this topic entitled “Vajikarna.” In this chapter, several approaches are discussed to maintain, cure, and improve male virility. From recipes to the use of single herbs or herbal synergies, different protocols are listed and explained. Vaidya Mishra made full use of this precious knowledge, along with the ancestral skills bequeathed by his fathers and passed down for generations, to develop unique health protocols and formulations for men.
Nowhere is this ancient science for male stamina and health more evident than in the rasayana formulations of Ayurveda. Vaidya Mishra had in-depth knowledge of herbs and their complex interactions and properties and created the most exquisite products to support and enhance balance and health in the male physiology. Here is an impeccable example, the “Rasayana Abhyanga Oil For Men Herbal Synergy.” How does it work? Let's look at the ingredients: it has:
Ashwagandha: Famous adaptogenic herb that helps us adapt easily to stress mentally and physically. Nourishes and enhances the function of the nerves;
Mucuna: A tonic legume which gives physical, mental and spiritual energy. Transdermally, mucuna increases dopamine, a bliss enhancing nero-transmitter;
Lata Kasturi: Provides aromatic energy to increase bliss;
Amla: alkalizes and nourishes the skin transdermally;
Musli: is a great Vajikarana ingredient – it promotes masculine stamina. Musli supplies transdermal nourishment for the male physiology;
Shatavari: Lubricates and nourishes the skin. Shatavari combined with musli supports the male phsyiology;
Guduchi: A maharasayana that nurtures the skin and has cumulative beneficial effect over long term;
DGL: Cools, alkalizes, and nurtures the skin;
Shankapushpi: Transdermal support for balancing the mind and its three functions (dhi, dhriti, and smriti). Shankapushpi with ashwagandha provide mental stamina and nurture the physical brain organ.
And this is just one formula. Click here to discover the full line of unique transdermal and oral formulations for male health and stamina – because you have only one dad and he deserves the best ayurveda can offer!
For all of those who fathers have moved on to the subtler planes of existence: we exist here on earth and carry your love and beautiful teachings and miss you terribly and celebrate you today and every day….
We want to help you protect your purchase – there's been an increase in lost/stolen packages.
To protect your shipment – in case your shipping address is not secure – we have now added the "signature delivery" option upon check-out on www.chandika.com and we highly recommend you select it to ensure your package is guaranteed to reach you after it leaves our warehouse. Kindly note we are unable to replace stolen/misplaced packages once they are confirmed delivered by the carrier of your choice.
Not a fan of incense? No problem! Ayurveda has for millennia used aromatherapy with an array of delivery systems – including incense, perfumes, balms, etc. Vaidya Mishra has introduced yet another delivery system with his convenient to carry nasal inhalers. These nasal inhalers are based on Sugandha Vigyan – the Ayurvedic wisdom of how scents and aromas impact the brain and benefit the mind, heart, and body. The aromatic molecules of the SVA inhalers readily travel to the nervous system through the nostrils – directly yet gently. Vaidya Mishra’s nasal inhalers are easy to carry with no spill or stain risks. They contain all organic essential oils – when available – and carry absolutely no synthetic or artificial ingredients or fixatives. Best of all they smell incredible and last a very very long time! You will feel like you are in the midst of divine flower gardens wherever you go!
When unexpected stressful situations shut down our heart lotus, we may feel we lose the courage and readiness to act in order to overcome the trouble that has come our way. Let the herbal synergy in this SVA inhaler gently re-set your body chemistry so your heart lotus can blossom again and lift away your sadness so you can take on whatever may come your way. Aromatherapy in Ayurveda can be used in several ways for several purposes. Inhalers are a handy and easy way to use because the aromatic molecules readily travel to the nervous system through the nostrils – directly yet gently. Vaidya's new SVA Aromatherapy Inhalers are easy to carry with no spill or stain risks. Vaidya's inhalers contain all organic essential oils where available and contain absolutely no synthetic or artificial ingredients or fixatives.
Ingredients: Rose Absolute, Lavender, Sweet Orange.
When worry takes over our minds we lose track of before and after, forgetting and misplacing things. It feels like our minds are working in overtime mode, and our mental creativity is diminished. The herbal synergy in this inhaler will help restore your mental bliss by re-establishing the connection between "dhi, dritti," and "smritti": the power of your brain to gather, store and recollect information. Aromatherapy in Ayurveda can be used in several ways for several purposes. Inhalers are a handy and easy way to use because the aromatic molecules readily travel to the nervous system through the nostrils – directly yet gently. Vaidya's inhalers contain all organic essential oils where available and contain absolutely no synthetic or artificial ingredients or fixatives.
Stress induced headaches are common nowadays. When stress creates toxins and clogs the micro-and macro- mental channels, this aromatherapy inhaler can gently dilate the channels to help ease and release accumulated toxin and give relief from stress-induced headaches. Experience this unique blend and feel the bliss immediately – we promise you will love it like so many have!
Ingredients: Black Pepper, Lavender, Sage, Cinnamon, Holy Basil, Peppermint, and Ajwain.
The Sinus Cough'n Cold Inhaler will help unblock the nasal cavity and lung channels, traveling through the sinus pathways without irritating them, and support the cavities to resist foreign inflammatory micro-organisms. This inhaler will also support the chest area when there is a mild cough/congestion. Carry this inhaler with you in cold season, or any other time, for a quick and easy way to open and refresh your sinus pathways. Whether carried in your purse or pocket, this inhaler is your sinuses’ best friend.
Ingredients: Organic Camphor, Peppermint, Ajwain, and Holy Basil (Tulsi)
The Ayurvedic Tradition of Dhoop
or
Incense Burning
The oldest references to incense in the Vedas are found in the Atharvaveda and Rigveda. Incense burning was used to create soothing aromas for the environment; or as a medicinal tool – fumigating for bacterial cleansing; or to purify and cleanse the environment for spiritual purposes; alternately, incense burning has also been used as ritual tool during sacred rites, or meditation. In addition, did you know that there is a whole chapter in the Charak Samhita, the sourcebook of Ayurveda, fully dedicated to the therapeutic effects of herbal remedies delivered in smoke form?
Ayurveda uses many different kinds of herbs, flower, barks, etc. to make incense. Depending of what materials are used and what their prabhavas, ultimate subtle effects on the mind/body complex, an incense can have any number of effects on us. For example, incense can be used to cool the physiology in the Summertime, or warm it in the Wintertime. It can ground and stabilize our mind when we are stressed out; or it can energize and stimulate our mind when our thinking becomes slow and lethargic. Incense has also been known to be used spiritual growth – strengthening our connection and coordination with our sattva – our inner divine core that reverberates as light.
Scents that Heal
Modern science does not yet fully understand or appreciate the subtle healing powers of aromatherapy. In contrast, in Ayurveda, we speak of Sugandha Vigyan – the understanding of how scents or aromas (whether pure or chemically adulterated) enter into and effect the mind and body. Obviously, when a scent is chemically ladden, it will cause toxicity and damage. When it is natural, pure, and unadulterated, it will deliver balancing properties.
Through the ayurvedic science of Sugandha Vigyan, we learn that the scents of flowers and other plants contain “sookshma bhag” or micro-molecules, extremely small, sharp and fast-moving particles, that instantly penetrate into and travel in our physiology, reaching the brain center to procure immediate impact. When you inhale a pleasant aroma, it communicates with your limbic system instantaneously affecting molecular chemical changes in your brain chemistry and firing up neuronal pathways that generate waves of well-being (or repulsion – depending on what you are smelling!). From the brain, the aromatic molecules enter the blood stream and are delivered to the whole body.
Only natural aromas can deliver healthy-benefiting or balancing effects. But that’s only part of the story. To deliver a therapeutic action, an incense must retain the subtle prabhava, or subtle vibrational effect, of the herbs. The scent is one thing. The balancing therapeutic impact is another.
Vaidya Mishra's SV Ayurvedic Incense Sticks carry and maintain the prabhavas of their ingredients because they are made with the same care and pranic preservation methods used in all of his SVA Formulations. He made seven types of Ayurvedic incense. They are meant to purify the environment you burn them in, transforming your mind-set within seconds. He used specific flower and plant essence aromatic synergies.
You can choose from different plants and flowers, for different activities. We have several choices of incense for meditation, cleaning your living or office space, and opening your mind and heart to the divine without creating toxins for your body.
7 Herbal & Flower Blends to Choose from
Organic Rose Incense
When we feel emotionally down and out, unable to handle life’s constant challenges, we need something that can help us restore our emotional strenght. Smell your way to emotional balance with the SVA Organic Rose incense to instantly soothe your sadhaka pitta – the ayurvedic governing factor of the emotional heart. Aggravation of sadhak pitta is common. When sadhak pitta is aggravated, our outlook on life will remain grim and grey despite our best mental efforts. We will just not feel up to anything. Sadhak pitta aggravation takes the spark out of life. Pacification of sadhak pitta with rose aromatherapy can work wonders. The subtle aromatic principles of real rose in this incense opens the heart lotus and connects the soul’s light (sattva) to the mind – even as it soothes/cools the heart and mind in stressful situations. But, rose incense is not just for when you feel down. Regular use balances your sadhaka pitta and gives greater emotional stamina to handle emotional challenges. Rose carries a “somnasya jana” or bliss-enhancing property. Because we face emotional challenges every day, this incense is perfect to use regularly, specially during peack activity times of the day when stress escalades. Use it to create greater bliss in yourself and the environment of any room in your home, or office. You will find it can be especially beneficial if you are a vata or pitta body type, or a mixture of both, in your overall constitution.
Blissful Jasmine Incense
Vaidya used only the purest Sambac Jasmine in this incense stick. Jasmine is another wondrous flower with a long list of health benefits. It cleans the water and air elements of the environment. Wherever it is used, real jasmine yields a sandhaniya (unifying) effect whether physically on your skin or mentally: on the mind and brain activity. This incense supports mental bliss by reestablishing the connection and coordination between “dhi, dhriti,” and “smriti:” the power to gather, store and recollect information. Charak says that lack of coordination between dhi, dhriti, and smriti leads to pragyaparadh, unsettling all 3 doshas of the body, inducing specific dis-eases. Daily use of this incense keeps pragyaparadh at bay. Daily use relieves stress, brings more mental energy, and returns us to our natural state, or “svabhava.”
Cooling Vetiver Incense
Vetiver is famous for its deep cooling effects, but has been somewhat overshadowed by the popularity of Sandalwood. It is in fact very widely used in the (ayur)vedic tradition for so many conditions and in varied contexts, either ritual or other. In Vaidya's ancestral village in North West India, there is a long tradition of using Vetiver to refresh and cool things off on hot summer days. In the Summertime, increased agni in the environment dilates our circulatory channels, increasing heat in the blood too. Vetiver cools the blood and with regular use can even cool the muscle and fat tissues. As compared to sandalwood, vetiver is just as divine, but gives us a longer lasting cooling effect. When inhaled, the highly aromatic molecules of Vetiver pacify the heat present in the environment and the body. Overall, Vetiver Incense opens the brain channels and instantly brings a cool, calming, refreshing effect, especially reducing emotional anger and irritability.
Alertness Rosemary Devi Incense
Rosemary is a unique flowering plant, that carries a mildly pungent sweet scent. It is a powerful stress-relieving plant. Its slight pungency unblocks the physical channels of the brain, connecting heart and mind. In Ayurveda, Rosemary is also known for improving blood circulation, supporting digestion, enhancing memory, and sharpening concentration. Mildly thermogenic, Rosemary carries just enough heat to keep things running smoothly without aggravating pitta. Overall, Vaidya's Rosemary Incense is invigorating, refreshing, and stimulating.
Soothing and Uplifting Lemon Grass Incense
Lemongrass has a delicious refreshing citrus smell. Burning this incense in your home creates a calming environment for you, and a bad environment for certain insects, especially pesky mosquitoes, that dislike it. In the physiology, Lemongrass opens the physical channels of the whole body – brain, lungs, and nasal pathways. Lemongrass Incense instantly calms vata dosha, clearing the mind. It also relaxes the muscles.
Purifying Sage
Sage has a long tradition of being the purifying plant/herb for all things material and immaterial. A powerful plant, it is used in many ancient traditions and rituals from across the world to cleanse vibrational negatives charges as well. Enjoy this unique SVA blend to keep a handle on the your home’s or office’s etheric purity.
Calming Lavender
With its unique floral calming scent, Lavender is a favorite to unwind from a long hectic day, or to keep things under control during the day. It calms the mind, pacifies the emotions, and soothes the senses. Use it anytime of the day or night to get our calmness back on!
Complete your set with the pure silver incense holder/burner and finally with the sampler pack…. If you are one of those who can never choose because everything is so good, then the sampler pack is for you!
SV Ayurvedic Incense Sampler Pack
as the name indicates is an assortment of each of SV Ayurvedic Incense sticks. Contains one of each type so you can experience the full pack.
You can now try each one by one or experience the full spectrum with this sampler pouch made for your convenience.
Happy incensing!
We concluded our Spring 2022 SVA Home Detox on a high note yesterday! A bird's eye view of how to keep the momentum going by sticking to fundamental SVA daily basics in terms of diet and lifestyle choices. We also visited the psychology of bringing in desired changes in our lives and how they inevitably entail a backward step, a falling-back into a "bad habit" we are trying to kick -thank you Donalda Fredeen (ABD) for that insightful and rich presentation. She explained that falling off the bandwagon is part of the process. And being kind to ourselves is key in keeping the momentum going. The most joyful thing was the confirmation that detox can be fun and that there is SO MUCH that one can eat and still detox! Thanks to Vaidya Mishra's timeless knowledge. Our hearts are full of gratitude even though somewhat sad as we say goodbye to the online community we built over the past 10 weeks. We will no longer be meeting on a weekly basis. However, we are all just a phone or an email away. Here's to a glorious summer, and until we meet again for some more detox and ayurvedic knowledge adventures in the Autumn – be on the lookout for our newsletter announcements. Namaste!
We want to help you protect your purchase – there's been an increase in lost/stolen packages.
To protect your shipment – in case your shipping address is not secure – we have now added the "signature delivery" option upon check-out on www.chandika.com and we highly recommend you select it to ensure your package is guaranteed to reach you after it leaves our warehouse. Kindly note we are unable to replace stolen/misplaced packages once they are confirmed delivered by the carrier of your choice.
Bio-available Ayurvedic Calcium – on sale this week – 15% Off
Is Calcium Necessary for Your Bone Health?
~ Dr Marianne Teitelbaum
An estimated 43% of American adult men and women take calcium supplements, according to the National Institute of Health. When someone thinks about their bone health, or maybe they have been told they have the beginnings of osteoporosis, which is called osteopenia, or maybe they have full-blown osteoporosis, the first thing most people think of is to take a calcium supplement.
But…please don’t rush out and take calcium without understanding everything you need to know about the types of calcium to take, the best way to take it, and how to balance it against magnesium. This is important because after analyzing 10 years of medical tests on more than 2700 people in a federally funded heart disease study, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and elsewhere conclude that “taking calcium in the form of supplements may raise the risk of plaque buildup in the arteries and heart damage, though a diet high in calcium-rich foods appears to be protective.”
What the study showed was that people who took calcium supplements had calcium plaque deposits in their arteries, while those who ingested even very high doses of calcium in their diets showed no such effects. Their arteries were much cleaner with hardly any calcium deposits, causing them to state, “There is clearly something different in how the body uses and responds to the calcium found in supplements versus getting the calcium through the diet that makes it riskier. It could be that the body is unable to process the calcium supplements.”
Let’s look at this issue further because it’s a very important one.
I remember Vaidya Mishra, my Ayurvedic teacher and mentor, leaned over to me one day when we were seeing patients together and he said, “You know, when I feel the pulse of someone taking a calcium supplement, it feels like it’s sitting in the arteries, clogging them and not absorbing into the bone.”
And the ancient doctors of India over 3,000 years ago wrote in their textbooks that a calcium supplement should have certain properties. First: it must be found in nature in the ocean, alive, and filled with pranic energy. Nowadays the calcium supplements are made in a lab, devoid of nature’s healing energy. Therefore, in Ayurveda we search the ocean for pearls, red coral, white coral, and snail shells in order to meet this first requirement. The second requirement was that once collected, these various types of shells and coral needed to be incinerated for several months, repeatedly burnt into an ash. And each time they burn it, the molecule become smaller and smaller until finally it becomes what is called a “nanoparticle,” a microscopic molecule that is so small it can now easily be absorbed out of the bloodstream and into the bones and teeth.
Somehow the ancient doctors knew that the raw unprocessed calcium molecule was too big to be absorbed into the bloodstream. And they knew all this without microscopes!
So part of the issue then is about the type of calcium you are taking. The resultant ash that is formed when you burn the coral and pearls in this way is called a bhasma. We recommend bhasmas of coral calcium, pearl bhasmas, and a wonderful bhasma called, Praval Panchamrit, which is a mixture of pearls, shells and coral. Praval means coral, panch means 5 — so five types are used; and amrit means a nectar or ambrosia.
So Praval Panchamrit is used as the premier Ayurvedic calcium supplement, readily absorbed out of the bloodstream and into the bones and teeth. It is also used for other ailments besides bone health, such as alkalinizing the blood and the urine. And since it is so cooling it is used in cancer where the inside of the cell is acidic. The nanoparticle of the cooling coral calcium can go deep into the inside of the cell to alkalinize it and cool it down, preventing the growth of cancer.
The Ayurvedic texts refer to more than 20 sources of calcium, but coral calcium is considered to be the best. And Vaidya Mishra’s ancestral lineage processed the coral calcium under the moonlight with rosewater for 11 nights to infuse the calcium with soma, nature’s cooling energy.
But in addition to taking the proper calcium, you have to be able to digest and assimilate it. This is why we pay lots of attention to the friendly bacteria in the gut, which are responsible for its digestion and absorption.
And you must also look at Vitamin K2, Magnesium and Vitamin D, all of which help the absorption and the assimilation of calcium into our cells.
Vitamin K2 directs the majority of the calcium we take into our bones and teeth. We definitely don’t want it to roam and get deposited in the joints, which could cause arthritis, or calcifying our organs, glands and arteries. The problem is that our diet provides little Vitamin K2 which could result in older people suffering from calcification of their brain, joints, glands, heart valves and arteries. It is basically found in fatty animal proteins, so nowadays people are following low fat diets to improve their heart health and cholesterol levels when, ironically, this leads to low levels of Vitamin K2. It is however, found in full-fat dairy products, which is why we always recommend ghee and boiled full-fat milk, neither of which will clog the arteries. In fact, ghee has one of the highest amounts of Vitamin K2 than any food, even 3x more than butter and 20x more than whole milk!
And one very important fact about Vitamin K2 — nearly everyone is taking it as a supplement along with their Vitamin D, since it is so necessary in sending the calcium to where it’s needed and keeping it away from areas where it is not needed. HOWEVER, AND THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: the type of Vitamin K2 that we get in supplements is the MK-7 type, not the type we get in food, which is the MK-4 type. Vitamin K2 MK-4 from animal fats, such as milk, ghee and butter are quickly absorbed in the body and is stored in the brain, salivary glands, testes, sternum, face, pancreas, eyes, kidneys, bones, arteries, veins and other tissues. But unlike MK-4, MK-7 is not stored in any organs.
One study showed that K2 MK-7 supplementation had no effect on bone loss rates. Lots of other research on MK-7 vs. MK-4 states, “The research points strongly to the conclusion that humans need to get their Vitamin K2 as MK-4 from food sources. After all, we evolved eating Vitamin K2 MK-4. It is already in the form that the body needs and we don’t need to expend enzymes and energy to convert it. The organs and cells that need Vitamin K2 readily absorb and utilize the MK-4 form. And finally, MK-4 is more efficient than other forms, appearing in food with other synergists and activators that work together to maintain its therapeutic effects. It can’t be stressed enough that the type of Vitamin K2 that we get in supplements is MK-7, not the type we get in food. The best way to get active and efficiently assimilated Vitamin K2 is from food.”
We also need to factor in magnesium when we think about calcium supplementation. Most everyone is deficient in magnesium due to stress — the stress hormones released by the adrenal glands flush the magnesium out of the body. And just about every pharmaceutical depletes magnesium levels. To make matters worse, the soil is also very depleted in magnesium. We recommend taking magnesium chloride. It is better than the sulfate form found in Epsom salts. Our patients take it through the skin in various magnesium creams, roll-ons, and abhyanga oils used for daily oil massage. We also recommend magnesium-rich foods such as avocados, cooked spinach, soaked and peeled almonds, cashews, whole grains, seeds, yogurt, and lentils.
Adequate levels of magnesium are important for the absorption and metabolism of calcium and Vitamin D. Magnesium converts Vitamin D into its active form so that it can aid calcium absorption. Magnesium keeps calcium dissolved in the blood so that it doesn’t deposit into the arteries. The average American diet contains high calcium-low magnesium. So this fact, combined with taking too much calcium and not enough magnesium can cause some forms of arthritis, kidney stones, and calcification of the arteries as the excess calcium gets deposited in these areas.
The ratio of calcium to magnesium should be anywhere from 2:1 to 1:1. Most people do not get their minimum daily requirement of magnesium, causing a high calcium low magnesium ratio of of 4 or even 5:1. So you can see then how important it is to use your transdermal magnesium products if you want to take a calcium supplement and use good dairy products such as boiled whole milk, yogurt and soft curd cheeses. You must balance out all this calcium with magnesium to keep the correct ratio of calcium to magnesium.
Vitamin D aids in the absorption of calcium and is best obtained through the sunlight. The sun’s ultraviolet B light hits your skin, turning the cholesterol in your skin into Vitamin D3 which has to be processed by your liver and kidneys into the active form of Vitamin D that your body can use. So this means that you must get outside exposing as much skin as you can to the sunlight, without burning it of course, and keep your liver and kidneys in good working order.
During the winter months when you can’t expose your skin to the sun we offer our patients a transdermal version of Vitamin D. And if you can’t bring up your Vitamin D sufficiently through the skin, take it orally, but don’t overdose — some doctors are recommending extremely high doses which could overwhelm your liver as it tries to convert all the Vitamin D flooding into the bloodstream which would never occur at such high doses naturally from the sunlight. It’s best to keep your dose around 3,000-5,000 units per day as opposed to taking 50,000 units once a week as is quite often recommended.
So you can see it’s not as easy as just taking a calcium supplement. You need to educate yourself on the best sources of calcium found in foods and supplements, but also how to digest and assimilate the calcium so that it doesn’t get deposited into places you don’t want it to go, such as your arteries or your joints. And it’s good to understand how Vitamin K2, Magnesium and Vitamin D all play a role in the assimilation of calcium into the body.
I hope you found this information valuable as you search for ways to keep your teeth and bones strong into old age.
In our seventh week of Spring Detox, we were delighted to have SVA Certified Ayurveda & Marma Practitioner Carol Nace (CAP, LMT, FMCHC) to guide our Samadhi Marma session. Find out more about her offerings and services: www.bodhi-ayurveda.com
We then delved into xenobiotics, aka: Garavisha! This is such an important topic nowadays, for it is the silent insidious toxin that penetrates slowly but surely. Vaidya Mishra has given us so many powerful protocols and tools to help detox on this front, including a fabulous “Garavisha tea” and much more….
We then shared our experiences detoxing, and many wonderful questions came up and we all exhanged experiences, anecdotes, memories, and recipes! The Green Protein was our highlight this week. We have one more week to go, and many of our participants are already experiencing more clarity and lighter bodies after a few weeks of detox. It’s been a fun ride this year. Namaste.
We want to help you protect your purchase – there’s been an increase in lost/stolen packages.
To protect your shipment – in case your shipping address is not secure – we have now added the “signature delivery” option upon check-out on www.chandika.com and we highly recommend you select it to ensure your package is guaranteed to reach you after it leaves our warehouse. Kindly note we are unable to replace stolen/misplaced packages once they are confirmed delivered by the carrier of your choice.
