Why You’re So Inflamed (and How Ayurveda Fixes It) | Dr. Shivani Gupta on Gut, Sleep & Longevity

Ayurveda means the science of life. It's this entire system of medicine, but it's also a preventive lifestyle that we can live every single day. And the goal of Ayurveda is to bring body, mind, and spirit into alignment. And we talk a lot nowadays about mind-body medicine. Ayurveda really gave us the toolkit, the exact toolkit to build that rhythm into our lives. And so Ayurveda created circadian clock, circadian rhythm. And so it's, it's the founder of that idea. And it's fun to go into the Ayurvedic wisdom because we have a lot of deep knowledge about times of day and how to navigate them. Ayurveda teaches us how to build that rhythm so we're flowing downstream with ease and flow as opposed to fighting upstream against the rivers and currents of life. And so that's where rhythm is really important. Then Ayurveda teaches deeply about gut digestive fire and what we now call the gut microbiome and how gut is connected to brain. So that's another big pillar out of Ayurveda.

Hey there, I'm Claudia von Boeselager, a former investment banker turned entrepreneur, longevity coach, biohacker, and mother of two. Once burnt out and overwhelmed with chronic health issues, I've transformed my life and helped thousands of people do the same. I've even reduced my biological age by 17 years. Yes, I'm 26 again. Now I'm here to share the tools, strategies, and inspiration to help you live healthier, happier, and longer. On this podcast, I interview world-leading experts in health, biohacking, mindset, and performance, and share personal stories and learnings to bring you the latest insights and tips. Think of this as your go-to space for real talk about all things health and optimizing your life. Ready to unlock your best self? Let's dive in. This is the Longevity and Lifestyle Podcast.

My guest today is Dr. Shivani Gupta, an Ayurvedic practitioner, inflammation expert, and one of the leading voices bridging ancient medicine with modern modern science for women's health and longevity. Trained in Ayurveda and deeply grounded in evidence-informed practice, Dr. Shivani specializes in helping women reduce chronic inflammation, balance hormones, and reclaim their energy through personalized daily rhythms rather than restrictive diets or extreme protocols. Her work focuses on the gut-brain hormone access, circadian biology, and nervous system regulation, areas where Ayurveda has offered guidance for thousands of years, and modern medicine is now catching up. She's the creator of the Elemental Design Framework, which tailors nutrition, movement, recovery, and lifestyle practices to an individual's unique constitution, and the pioneer of mental inflammation, a concept that explains how chronic stress and mental overload silently fuel physical symptoms like brain fog, bloat, fatigue, and burnout. Dr. Shivani is the host of the Fusionary Health Podcast, the creator and star of the Emmy-nominated TV show Vibrant Health with Dr. Shivani Gupta, and the founder of Fusionary Formulas, a science-driven Ayurvedic supplement company focused on gut and inflammatory health. Her upcoming book, The Inflammation Code, offers a practical non-diet blueprint to calm chronic inflammation in just 21 days, helping women improve digestion, mood, sleep, mental clarity, and long-term resilience. At the intersection of timeless wisdom and modern longevity science, Dr. Shivani is leading a new conversation about what it truly means to heal, not by doing more, but by living in rhythm with the body. Please enjoy today's conversation. Welcome to the Longevity and Lifestyle Podcast, Dr. Shivani. I'm so excited to have you with us today.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

I am so excited. Also, you're our first Ayurvedic doctor, a medicine practice that's over 5,000 years old. So high time that we got you in. And dear audience, before we dive in, I wanted to set the stage because Ayurveda is still so misunderstood in the West, as I'm sure Dr. Shivani will be sharing with us today. And it's often labeled as alternative, which is kind of funny because as I mentioned, it's one of the oldest and most sophisticated systems of medicine in the world, over 5,000 years of continuous practice. And what fascinates me is that many principles modern medicine is now rediscovering—personalization, circadian rhythm, digestion as a foundation, nervous system regulation—have been central to Ayurveda for millennia. Today is not just about ancient versus modern, it's about how timeless wisdom and modern science finally meets, essentially, especially for women navigating inflammation, hormones, and energy. So I'm really excited to dive in today, Dr. Shivani. Thank you.

I loved that introduction of Ayurveda. So thank you. So beautiful. It's so true. It's so timeless, and it's, it's so present in our current moment around health, wellness, longevity, and these conversations we're having, conversations about gut microbiome, circadian rhythm, all these ideas, this diet that's varied and circadian-based. And Ayurveda has spoken about this for 5,000 years and said, please focus on this. It, as a practitioner, it's beautiful to kind of see it come forward as the practice that we want to take into our lives. Yeah.

And get the airtime that it so well deserves in the West, I should say. 'Cause obviously in India everyone's like, this is totally normal. So for Dr. Sawhney, for listeners new to Ayurveda, how do you describe it? Not as an ancient medicine, but living system for understanding our body today. Can you expand what is Ayurveda? What do you want people to know? For sure.

So Ayurveda, Ayurveda means the science of life. It's this entire system of medicine, but it's also a preventive lifestyle that we can live every single day. And the goal of Ayurveda is to bring body, mind, and spirit into alignment. And we talk a lot nowadays about mind-body medicine. Ayurveda really gave us the toolkit, the exact toolkit to build that rhythm into our lives. And so Ayurveda created circadian clock, circadian rhythm. And so it's, it's the founder of that idea. And it's fun to go into the Ayurvedic wisdom because We have a lot of deep knowledge about times of day and how to navigate them. Ayurveda teaches us how to build that rhythm so we're flowing downstream with ease and flow as opposed to fighting upstream against the rivers and currents of life. And so that's where rhythm is really important. Then Ayurveda teaches deeply about gut digestive fire and what we now call the gut microbiome and how gut is connected to brain. So that's another big pillar out of Ayurveda. And we teach a lot about diet, herbs, spices, self-care, detoxification, and how detoxing regularly, seasonally, or annually is really important to stay healthy and stay vibrant. And I focus a lot on the super spices because my PhD is on turmeric. So that's a big topic to me, but I also love to teach that when it comes to these pillars, it's really about how you build a rhythm throughout your day and that ritual and rhythm around health. Is the key to have that vibrant health that we want to have.

I am really excited to unpack so many of these favorite topics of mine and learn so much from Ayurveda and what the teachings are as well. And I want to just, before we dig in, understand it's been around for over 5,000 years. Why do you think that this system has endured when so many health trends have come and gone?

You know, there are a lot of ancient wisdoms that have endured. So traditional Chinese medicine has acupuncture, and we use acupuncture so regularly here in the West now. Which is great to pull a piece of that wisdom and use it. Then we have homeopathic medicine, which has had its ups and downs, but we know that distilling plants is healing. Then we have Reiki. We have so many different modalities that exist from the ancient wisdoms. When it comes to Ayurveda, Ayurveda is timeless because so much of its teachings have endured over the 5,000 years people have used it, and its wisdom is so honest and true and pure. It's like an understanding that we are made of Mother Earth. We are going to go back to Mother Earth, and Mother Earth already on this planet gave us everything that we need to heal. And the body is a self-healing mechanism. The body wants to survive and the body wants to thrive. And so it's just modern-day life that really seems to be getting in the way. And if we just go back to the ancient wisdoms, they had these very pure simple, clear ideas around what will heal us. And it's almost the running away from that that is causing the dis-ease, the environmental toxins, the modern lifestyle. And so the more we, we simplify and go back to those first principles around health, the more we can attain that level of health that we crave. Beautiful.

I love that. And as we know, and we mentioned before, that modern Western medicine is only now embracing personalization. So how did Ayurveda understand individual variability? So I'm, I hope I'm pronouncing these right. Vata, pitta, kapha. Yes. Long before genomics and wearables. And could you break down what the meaning is of each of those so people can, can really understand? For sure.

So I just wrote a new book called The Inflammation Code. Congratulations. In that book, thank you. And in that book, I wanted to simplify Ayurveda and bring it forward as a lifestyle we can live. And in there, I took this concept that you're talking about called the doshas, which is a very important concept out of Ayurveda.. And I renamed it Elemental Design because so many of us want to know about ourselves. Like, who are we? What are we? What are we made of? Why do we have the tendencies we have? And Ayurveda had such a beautiful structure for that, but I wanted to really bring it into the modern life so people could understand how to apply it to all the pillars of their health. And so those designs are Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. And so these are made up of the 5 elements, just like I said, Mother Nature. Ayurveda says we are made of the 5 elements: air, ether, fire, water, and earth. Ether being space. And so the first constitution, vata, is made up of air and ether. And so this is a body type, it's a personality type. It tells you about the tendencies, the reactivity of that kind of a person, but it also really informs the health struggles that that type of person tends to have. And then Ayurveda has a whole prescription plan on how to help that person stay more balanced in their constitution. And know this, we're all born with our constitution, and then we can have a primary and a secondary. Some people can be balanced in all three. And what's interesting is over time in life, due to different traumas, different big events that happen, you can always be imbalanced with your constitution. And our job is to help you walk yourself back home. And so the first one is vata. A vata person is the elements of air and ether. So they tend to be light and airy. This is someone who's thinner and leaner. This is someone who may be taller or shorter than anyone else in their demographic. So think tall and lanky or tiny and petite with small bones.

So I did your online test and Vata came through, so I don't know how accurate the quiz is, but I'm very intently listening to this one. So tell me more.

Yes. Yeah. And, and most of us just, you know, have a Vata mind living in the West, living in modern day life. So if you think, wow, I'm Vata based on what she's describing, Maybe not physically, but maybe more on the mental, emotional side. And that's also good to bring into your awareness cuz we're still gonna use the same homework to try to help you balance those traits. And so with vata, that's the physical stature is like thinner, leaner, more wiry in their frame. The vata person can have those tendencies of air. So imagine air could be a beautiful breeze on a beautiful forest day. It could be a ceiling fan always in motion and never, ever, ever stops. Air could also become a tornado. So it has a lot of different variability in how it could function. And so the same person whose vata might run a little bit dry, might run cold, they might have dry brittle hair, could have dry brittle nails, dry skin. And then on the inside, that dryness could lead to constipation cuz they don't have enough oilation, enough hydration in the system. And so vata people tend to be creative, light and airy. So they have access to all that artistic and beautiful, genius in the world that we can pull down. They're creative. They love to be on the go, always in motion. So this is your person who doesn't like to sit still. They want a job that allows them to move and run around in life. They don't like sitting. This is someone who has a tendency, if they're really imbalanced, towards anxiety, because the, the light version of that is mind always in motion. And then the extreme version would be more like anxiety. They have a tendency towards disrupted sleep Or at the extreme, insomnia. They have a tendency towards gut motility, maybe being too dry. At the extreme, that's kind of constipation. Tend to have cold hands, cold feet, these things. And so it's interesting when you look at the vata crew, anyone who you see and their energy is like in motion, they can't sit still, that is the vata nature. And so from an Ayurvedic perspective, our homework to the vata crew is we need to get you on a routine, on a schedule. Let's get you grounded. Vata people tend to be those people in our lives who can just run all day on coffee and green juice and a couple crackers, and they don't have to sit for a real meal. And so whenever I see the vatas by evening, they're like, I'm so tired. And it's like, well, you didn't eat today. Somehow you got away with that. And so our homework is 3 square meals, healthy fats, root vegetables, soups and stews, and really building this routine around balancing that vata energy.

So did any of that resonate with you? Yes. I'm laughing at some of it for sure as well. And if I'm so enthusiastic about what I'm doing, and like creating and visionary and building things that I forget to have lunch. I'm like, oh, why am I hungry? I'm like, oh yeah, it's like 4 o'clock and I haven't eaten since this morning. So yeah. And I think that routine is key because then at least you have the framework and then you set it up and you don't need to think about it constantly. But I need to just set myself the reminders. Yeah.

I have to set alarms for myself, like tea time, breakfast time, lunchtime. Like don't forget to do things that are important for you. Hydrate, take your supplements.

Hydrated and good. I have always lots of, lots of green tea and, and things like that. Yeah. Nice. Ready to go.

Yeah. And then the second constitution is called Pitta, and I'm a Pitta. So many people who are in like the podcasting space are so ambitious in the health and wellness space tend to be Pittas. A Pitta person is fire with some water. So this is someone who's more medium bodied. They're not as lean as Vata, they're not as sturdy as Kapha, which we're gonna get into. They're just right in the middle, medium form. This is someone who has reddish skin, reddish hair, tends towards early graying of their hair. This is someone who mentally is really sharp. So they're very organized, very driven, very passionate. They're very like, how do I build a plan and then execute on that plan? They are someone who tends to be fiery. So imagine a healthy fire is churning, burning, and creating, but an out of balance fire could be like an erupting volcano. And so when Pitta people are out of balance, they erupt, they explode, they are frustrated, they're angry. They take it out on all the people closest to them. Their family is like collateral damage for them. This is someone who tends towards burnout, tends towards inflammation, lots of fire in the system. So they have a strong, healthy, robust digestive fire, which means they have an appetite of, of like tremendous amounts. They get hangry, they have to eat on time. There's just no choice. So Pitta people typically are eaters because they have to be. Their fire's voracious. And then they tend to like really have inflammation. So heartburn, everything's like a burning issue with them. So Pitta people love the foods that imbalance them the most. That's hot, oily, fried, spicy foods. And their job is actually to stay cool, calm, and collected. So my homework for Pittas is behave like a nuclear reactor, like cool, hydrate, cooling foods, like keep the temperatures cool so that you're not taking your, your stress and anger out on the people around you. And then you have Kapha. Kapha people are earth and water. So this is your person who is sturdier, stronger, They can lift heavier. They're more solid. They have oilier skin, oilier hair. Their features are more round. So round face, round eyes, maybe oily curly hair. This is someone who is that Mother Earth energy. So in a man, it's that mountain grounded energy. In a woman, it's like that caretaker, grandma, loving best friend energy. These are the people who are deeply loyal. They're very one thing at a time. They talk slower, move slower. But it's like they're the turtle that wins the race in the end, cuz they are that kind giving crew. So this crew has a tendency like earth with water. So earth energy means moving a little slower, but like really with so much love. And then water means dampness. So can have a tendency towards asthma, allergies, maybe more dampness issues in the system. Can have more sluggish metabolism when they're feeling low, can tend towards depression. Depression or feeling really stuck and unmoving in their lives. And so the homework from Ayurveda is let's get that gut digestive fire going, let's get that metabolism turning and burning, let's move our energy in the morning. And if you're a kapha person or suffering with a kapha imbalance, at the end of your day, once you sit down, you cannot get up again. And so that's usually a sign like, okay, like I just cannot unglue myself from the couch. For kapha people, I say forgive yourself now and just know that your day ends there and that is your nature. That's totally cool. Cool. And then if you're suffering from that as you're imbalanced, then it's just time to balance that more and get moving more. And so we teach a lot about food because each constitution needs different food, different approach to their gut health, different circadian rhythms. So with kapha, we teach a lot about eating warm cooked, easy to digest food. Don't jump on these trends of cold salads and cold smoothies and all that. Do what your digestive fire needs. 'cause they might have a slower, lower digestive fire and we wanna keep amping it up with spices and food.

And I'm curious, 'cause there's 3 types, but obviously there's 9 billion people, I think, on the planet right now. So you're saying that one could be the main constitution, just to understand like how many sub-constitutions are there? Like how big is the matrix essentially in terms of how people can pattern?

We think of it as 7 major ones between those combinations that are typical, that are common. But it's interesting once you start working with people, I'll give you myself as an example. I am a pitta first. But living in the West, I have a pretty strong vata mind. So I have to control that. I have to watch my total social media consumption, or it could just pull my mind in 100 directions. And then I can also recognize that as a mother after 4:00 PM, it's actually more— it's, it's better supportive to my life to acknowledge being in more of a kapha kind of place. So I actually like to teach that texture of accept the different phases of your day and different phases of your life. You might need to lean into certain constitutions and slow yourself down and be that loving energy. And so there is a piece of my constitution that is a good kapha so that I can serve in the way I need to. But yes, we think of it as 7, 7 main constitutions. I like that.

So you can kind of dip in and out depending on the situation. If you're in the boardroom meeting versus playing with your kids, et cetera. That's beautiful. So when you look at inflammation, circadian rhythm, and the gut-brain axis, where do you see modern science finally catching up with Ayurvedic wisdom?

So in Ayurveda, we talked about this gut digestive fire. And if you think of a really healthy campfire, what do you do? You bring together branches that are small, medium, and large. You build a fire that's diverse, that's robust, that's strong and ready, and that's your gut microbiome. So nowadays we're putting such beautiful modern science studies and language to what Ayurveda already explained as the key sources of our health. Ayurveda already said your gut is your brain, your gut is your mood. If you wanna be sharp, focus on a great gut. If you're feeling dull, that's 'cause your gut digestive fire is dull. The center of your vitality and energy comes from your gut. If you don't wanna be sick, focus on the gut. So I feel like modern science is so beautifully putting language to and science to and modern proof for our modern scientific mind. To what Ayurveda innately taught. And what's great is Ayurveda already had a pretty deep, profound toolkit around managing the gut in very natural ways. So the way I teach that is when you wake up in the morning, open the gut digestive fire. Let's get it going. Tongue scraping, ginger tea or ginger lemon tea, maybe it's aloe vera juice. Let's get that system moving for the day. Cause that's the important part. Then in Ayurveda we taught intermittent fasting, which is a big conversation right now in the longevity space. We know intermittent Intermittent fasting helps with that and it helps with our metabolism, helps with everything. And so Ayurveda said, of course, finish dinner 3 hours before bedtime. In the morning, do your morning routine and then start your breakfast. And so really holding intermittent fasting as a modern concept, but an ancient concept is really cool. And then we also taught a lot about sleep and how all these pieces are put together when it comes to inflammation. Sleep is when you clear inflammation.. And we teach that 10 to 2, 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM on the circadian clock is when the bit, the fires come out. And so taking that element of fire, if you can imagine these fires come out at night to clean and clear lymphatic system, inflammation, everything, then you start to really honor sleep as your number one tool to win at inflammation. Then you look at gut as your number two tool to win at inflammation. And so it's beautiful that Ayurveda gave us simple things, teas, herbs, spices that help us win, that are natural, that work well with the body. I think of it as Mother Nature created it. We're from Mother Nature. What better toolkit does our body know intelligently how to naturally use? And that's why we call so many of those herbs adaptogens because the body adapts and uses them in the way that it needs. Yeah.

And I wanna definitely touch on turmeric and curcumin a bit later, which I find is so fascinating. And some of the other ones that you mentioned too, I also like the freshly grated ginger with lemon tea if there's anything coming on. I mean, any virus is just blown out of the body completely. And there's so many beautiful things. And I had once an Ayurvedic doctor mention that cinnamon is really great if you have any lung conditions, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, antibacterial. Antibacterial. So, so many fundamental things from food. And we know food is medicine, but it's when it's really breaking it down. And the fact that this is 5,000 years old, it's not just some new study shows this, like, no, this has been around a long time. It's been healing for such a long time, which is so exciting. Yeah.

And it's healed billions of people over millennia. You know, if it had not worked, it wouldn't have endured. And it's interesting, India just went through the pandemic in the last 5 years and you're seeing this huge turning back towards Ayurveda. They're like, you know what? We tried the modern way, didn't really work out for us. Let's go back to the ancient ways that we knew worked. Let's eat clean. Let's eat organic. Let's bring these practices back in. So yeah, it's, it's, it is timeless, like you said.

So we know that over 70% of chronic disease is lifestyle related. Why is a systems-based medicine like Ayurveda uniquely suited to address chronic complex conditions, especially in women?

You know, nowadays what we're seeing is this trend towards women really suffering within each decade of our lives. We hit our 30s, all of a sudden brain fog, sluggish thyroid, cortisol's high, adrenals are suffering, everything's kind of going off balance. Then 40s, all of a sudden we're talking perimenopause as a big issue. Then post-40s, 50s and beyond, menopause. And so as we talk about these health issues, I truly believe that the bigger issue here is we're walking into each decade or really running at each decade kind of like a freight train, more and more inflamed. And we're not recognizing that inflammation is really the root cause issue. Now, why are we inflamed? Well, there's so many contributors to inflammation. It's environmental toxins. Any bacteria or virus can cause inflammation. It is our diets. Our food is lacking in nutrition, vitamins, and minerals. And on top of that, it's really full of processed foods, seed oils, and really low quality. We're trying our best, but what we're sourcing from can be pretty low quality and not giving the body what it needs. Then intermittent fasting. Are we eating on a real good schedule or are we just snacking and munching and putting things in all the time and kind of diffusing that digestive fire in too many directions? Is it that our life is so stressful that we're under this burden of chronic stress that is causing chronic inflammation? In the book I had written about, okay, all these things cause inflammation, poor sleep, poor diet, stress, and these habits. And I realized the term For stress, we think of life as just stressful. And I, as I thought, sat there and thought, I thought, you know what? Mental inflammation is the new term I want to use for that, where it's our mental inflammation causing our physical inflammation and thus leaving this forest fire causing damage within us. And then as women, we're like, why, what do I do? Where do I chase this with a pill or, or a biohacking tool? And I love the biohacking tools that are there. I use many of them. But how do we really go back to those principles of the ancient wisdom and say, okay, let's, let's take a minute. Let's take a beat and look at our circadian clock. Look at our gut health, look at our diet and kind of put a system together. I call it the 6 pillars of Ayurveda. How do we build rituals and rhythm back in so that the body can say, okay, I feel safe. I know what I can expect. I know what to do with all the inputs that I'm getting. And I know I have space to detox at certain seasons and moments. So now I can run really healthy and really well. Yeah.

And I love that. And I wanna dig into mental inflammation, which is a term you coined. How does chronic mental load actually translate into physical inflammation in the body for people listening and wondering?

Well, we know now through modern science, we have a gut-brain axis. We know that there's communication from gut to brain and from brain to gut. And so many of us think like, okay, I'm just gonna meditate more. I'm just gonna deep breathe more. I'm gonna go to yoga. And I'm gonna do those practices and thus I will be at peace. What's interesting is through polyvagal theory and a lot of the things we're talking about right now, we're learning that it's actually from the ground up. It's through the body and through the gut and up the gut-brain axis and through the vagus nerve that we're able to affect our mind and calm down. And so what's interesting to me is Ayurveda taught us a series of self-care rituals we can do throughout the day. That build that rhythm for us. And so for me, I use that rhythm as the way to reduce the chronic stress burden that life is going to throw at us regardless. We're all living in mo— modern times. It is more stressful. There is more pressure on the system. And so I think it's more about where do you step off that hamster wheel a couple times a day and tune into self because Ayurveda was trying to show us, look, you're an intuitive being. You know what's best for you. You have all the answers within you. And so the more we can build that rhythm with ritual, the more we give ourselves just enough space to tune in and take a deep breath, really drop into parasympathetic nervous system. That's our modern language for it. And so from Ayurveda, I teach something called tea time is me time where I pause 5 times a day, steep a delicious tea made of powerful herbs. Ayurveda has powerful adaptogenic herbs. And I take that moment to really tune into self, take a moment to calm down, no iPhone, no nothing, and ask myself questions like, how are you doing today? What do you need to do to make today better? What do you need to change this week for it to be a good week? And just ask myself a few simple questions. My body will come back with great answers like, you haven't taken your supplements today, you are dehydrated, you need to change the schedule so you get to have dinner. You didn't plan for dinner for yourself, only for everybody else. 'Or you need to say no to that thing.' And I think that's actually the biggest mental inflammation causer in our lives right now, is we aren't giving ourselves any space. We aren't giving the brain space. We aren't giving our intuition space. We're not even giving the body space to communicate. And that open line of communication becomes the way to resolve mental inflammation taking such a toll.

So I love, love, love this topic, and it's something I've been deeply working on as a former A-type, very cerebral, analytical mind, going, going, going, Vata, I guess you would say, right? To learning the power of the pause throughout the day. So I love that you've coupled it with this herbal tea with adaptogens is amazing. And for people who maybe are coming from that super analytical, working in a high stress environment, they're like, you know, how is it supposed to be realistic for me to pause during the day and then tune into myself? What are some stepping stones? What can people be doing to empower themselves to actually take the pause? And how can they listen better to the body? How can they learn about tuning it inward, essentially? Absolutely.

You know, I, I love tea because to me it's a sacred pause, it's an anchor moment, and, and all of that. It could be coffee for you, it could be hydration. In the past, when I've worked with clients and in groups, it's been interesting to work with so many people who work in the corporate space, and they're like, I have to find a way to fit this in for me. For a while there, when I was building my supplement company, I was on the road every day, all day, morning to night, to meet with doctors. So I was a road warrior. And so what I found was the best way to do it is I do still stop at a Starbucks or a coffee shop and I get hot water and I carry my teas around with me so I can have that moment with tea. Another one was after lunch, take a 15-minute walk, walk around the building, walk around your floor and be social and hang out with people. That's one way to do it. But for me, I always took it as let's walk around outside in nature, tune in for a few moments, If it's too hot or cold, walk around inside, but really taking that time to kind of decompress. Also, you can build tea breaks into your workday. You can go to the, the lunchroom, make that cup of tea, sip that hot beverage. We know any hot beverage, coffee or tea, is going to be soothing to the vagus nerve. It's gonna drop us into parasympathetic. You can't chug a hot beverage. And so that's kind of why I chose that as the ritual because it's a way to morning, afternoon, evening, kind of start to break up the day with this habit that causes us to slow down just a few moments, that causes us to tune in. And so that's one way— walk in nature, hot tea. And another one is what I call collect peace, where you can take a moment and take a few deep breaths, whether it's pausing in your car for a few minutes and just parking in front of some trees in nature. That's one way I like to take that collecting peace moment. Or it could be at your own desk. Let's say you build like a little I wouldn't call it a full-on altar in a corporate workspace, but maybe it's a Buddha statue for you or photos of your family, or you just play yoga music, Zen music for a few minutes and take a few deep breaths and calm down before you jump to the next thing.

Before labs change, what are some early signs you would like people to look out for to see if they are mentally inflamed? Is it that sort of wired but tired energy, craving, shallow breathing, disrupted sleep? What are some of those telltale signs that you would like people to be aware of? In themselves before?

Definitely. So if you feel like you're never deep breathing, and every once in a while when someone talks about deep breathing, you actually like pause and take a deep breath, that's a sign. Because most of us are kind of living in that shallow breathing, unaware space. That's definitely one. If you are always mentally on the go and never have time or space to think, if you only have that space in the shower, for example, that's a sign to you that, hey, never in my day do I, do I give myself the space to be off my phone, not listening to something, learning something. So many of us are YouTube, podcast, social media 24/7 and never have white blank space, white noise in our day where it's actually nothing happening. And so that's another sign. And so for me, mental inflammation really means, are we going to give ourselves those breaks and spaces and, and really build in quiet and peace. And some of us need to baby step towards that. Not everyone's ready for like meditation and silence. And so maybe that for you is music, calming music. Maybe it is an app that does deep breathing or meditation with you and cues it up for you. And so really finding those slots and spaces is very important.

And we talked about some baby steps for people that are new to this, but let's say someone who's farther down or wanting to go all in, what are some of the practices, those pauses that you recommend that get big results, but maybe not for a beginner.

Sure. So that's where we jump into those self-care rituals from Ayurveda. In Ayurveda, we teach wake up in the morning. One idea we have is touch the feet, touch the head, touch the ground, touch your head, and then say a prayer or a moment of blessing or a moment of intention. So I always tune in and say thank you for waking, like, for my new day. And then I say, may I please set this intention of peace to be in my field. I always want more peace. And then once we start our day, we always teach to hydrate first because we want that system to start moving and grooving. We wanna make sure you go to the bathroom in the morning and are on a regular schedule. And then we teach something called tongue scraping. So tongue scraping is a simple first habit to start your morning with where you're gonna gently detox the body and all the organs of the body are reflected on the tongue, just like in reflexology, they're reflected on the bottom of the feet. And so I love that as a first habit, cuz it's really physical. You're gonna pick up a tongue scraper, you're gonna gently scrape the tongue. It helps with oral microbiome. Your taste buds will work better, but it's kind of like you are gently detoxing every day. You're gonna detox the gut, which is supportive of brain health and mood and everything as well. But it's kind of like that first cue, like I am setting the stage for self-care for me today, taking care of me today, not just taking care of every single other person in my life and the kids and everything else. Mouths.

I love that. Can I ask one question around the tongue scraping? Does it need to be using a particular utensil or tool, or does a toothbrush work? I brush my tongue with my toothbrush and I don't know, am I doing it right or is it not right, or what would you say?

So in modern life, most people are brushing their tongue with their toothbrush. In Ayurveda, we taught to use a copper tongue scraper because that's a very good metal. It's antibacterial in nature. It's almost self-cleaning in a way, but please rinse your copper tongue scraper. I have them on my website, or you can buy them on Amazon or anywhere. But a copper tongue scraper is what we teach will really scrape the tongue and really clear everything there. 'Cause most people are walking around with this white film on their tongue, and that is what we call ama, or this toxin residue that exists in the system. And it's kind of like a sticky substance, and our job is to get rid of that. So our lymphatic system and our gut health and digestive fires can all work better. And so we can win at inflammation. And so I love that a tongue scraper is like a one-time purchase of $12, $10, $12. It lasts you forever and it'll do this job so well for you. So when we do get to those annual detox moments, our body's like, hey, I did this in a gentle way all year. I'm actually pretty good. I'm doing well. And so that to me is so supportive of You know, gut digestive fire, mental fires, all those things, because it sets that tone for the day. And then Ayurveda teaches something called oil pulling. So you take 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil, put that in the mouth, hold it in your mouth for between 5 to 20 minutes. Now that habit, if you're too busy during the week, you can do it on the weekend. But if it's one of those things where you are gonna shower, get ready, make your morning coffee, get dressed, you can just keep that oil in your mouth for that time. And then you can start to swish it around. You can just move it through your teeth, through your gums. It's gonna clear out the toxins from your oral microbiome, helps with gum health, oral health, breath. But it really, what Ayurveda's goal is, is if oral microbiome is working well, it's gonna communicate better with your gut microbiome. And that communication is very important cuz that's how we're gonna digest our food properly, release the correct enzymes, and really not produce ama because we are really digesting the food very well.

Okay, so I need to ask a question on this, and I've spoken to biological dentists as well, and they're about the oil pulling. What is the right oil? I know that we hear a lot of negatives around like seed oils, things like that. So is it specific oils? Is it the coconut oil? And then how does one visualize this? Is this like having a cup full of water in your mouth, trying to keep it there while you're having a shower, or is it just a tiny little bit of oil?

Good questions. I love that. So in Ayurveda, we loved sesame oil the most, and I know that that comes from seeds. Everyone's like, oh, it's a seed oil. Ayurveda believes sesame oil is king. It has antibacterial properties, it has vitamin E in it, it's just so rejuvenating. So we still recommend sesame oil first. You can buy sesame oils that are mint flavored now because we're used to everything in our mouth in the morning being minty— minty toothpaste, minty oil, and minty mouthwashes. The oil can be minty. We do love coconut oil as well. Coconut oil is very cooling, so great for the pitta crew. It could be great for anybody if that's the taste that will get you to do the habit. We're more about consistency and doing the habit than we are perfection in any way. And it could truly be any food-grade organic oil. So if you love olive oil and that's the one for you, go for it. If it's almond oil, it can be almond oil. But a lot of people love coconut as a flavor. So coconut oil is a great starting point and it's not a ton of oil. It's like a tablespoon of oil, enough to just kind of sit in the bottom of your mouth. It doesn't have to be a big deal. The goal is to just move it around through the mouth and allow it to start to collect those toxins that accumulate in the mouth. And then when you spit it out, please make sure to spit it out in the trash can, not your shower, sink, or toilets, cuz you'll block the pipes of the house.

Good to know, especially if you're doing it on a daily basis. Exactly. Okay. So the oil is actually taking out the toxins. Okay. I didn't fully understand that part. So that is really interesting. Yeah.

Yeah, we, we teach that so, so much of our health is about our oral health. So much of our health is about our gut health. So let's just approach that from all angles. When you go to do full-on panchakarma detoxes, which people go to India and around the world to do, I've done that many times. They're gonna clear everything from every orifice, but the daily practice of just oral microbiome is very powerful as well.

Beautiful. So let's look at inflammaging and in plain language. What does inflammaging look like day to day in a male and then maybe in a female body if you see big differences? For sure.

So most of my friends around me, when we get together, we're all in our mid-forties right now. They'll say, oh my gosh, I'm suffering. This is so annoying. All of this aging. I guess this is just how it is. And the symptoms that they're complaining about typically as women is more along the lines of brain fog, fatigue, not the same amount of energy. Lack of motivation to get up and work out cuz it's like a limited quantity of energy in the day. Weight gain, weight gain around the middle. Sometimes it's waking up stiff or having random aches and pains. When we get into menopause, it's more like frozen shoulder and different things like that. So that's what the women are talking about. With the men, it's more there, there is fatigue, joint pain, aches and pains. I don't hear brain fog out of the men as much, but Sometimes they complain lack of focus, like I'm having a hard time focusing. It's just not the same. I'm more tired than I am than I was in the past. I guess this is aging. And whenever I hear those complaints, my first answer is that's not aging. That's inflammaging. That is inflammation meets aging. Aging alone will cause an increase in inflammation and a decline in a lot of things like our mitochondria and our cellular health. All sorts of issues, which we'll talk about with turmeric. But when it comes to that aging piece, it's like, well, inflammation will wreak havoc on the system. Inflammation will make you feel like you're aging. Inflammation is causing cellular damage. It's like a forest fire within you, just causing damage to your joints, your body, your organs. And so approach inflammation itself, and you'll see that you can reverse a lot of what we are complaining about. And that was the whole point of my book. We are inflamed as a society. We are generating such a high volume chronic disease. And Ayurveda showed us a simple lifestyle and plan that could help us reverse out of that. And it's as beautiful and as simple as building rituals into your life that are powerful and being consistent with them and thus winning at inflammation. And thus you don't have to experience this inflammaging that we're all struggling with.

Do you know many non-inflamed people? I'm curious.

I would say when I go to longevity conferences, I run into people who look fit and healthy and vibrant and joyful. And you can see like clear, bright eyes and so much energy. That to me is someone who is vital. Sometimes it's just the gym owners, but none of us who are in the gym here in South Florida where I live, oh my gosh, you guys are like living proof of what you teach. But most people are not living that way. Most people are kind of under this weight and struggle. Of life meets inflammation meets mental inflammation and not quite feeling that way.

Let's look at your elemental design. So the personalization that sticks, we've already discussed the vata, pitta, kapha, but what are some of the biggest mistakes you see each of the types making even when they're disciplined and doing all the right things?

So nowadays we have a lot of trends. Those trends are intermittent fasting applies to everybody the same. Another trend is a lot of extremes in diet. You've got the carnivore crew all the way to the vegan crew, and just being really protein forward at the expense of a more balanced, holistic diet. We've got trends like work hard, play hard, grind, do whatever it takes, work all night, do, do everything on earth to build financial success, completely forgetting health success along the way. We also have models around parenting, where around parenting we're so 100% in on kids and home and life and career, and then forget ourselves. That's a pattern you see in a lot of women nowadays. And so when we talk about elemental design, the understanding of your elemental design can really shift and guide how you behave even amongst all these modern trends. So for example, when it comes to a vata, a vata person is meant to pause and build rhythm schedule in their day. One way to do that is through diet. Another way is through self-care rituals. And so I love to teach the Vata crew, it's about hot, warm beverages. Tea time and me time is a great way to support them. Tea time is me time. Another one is 3 square meals a day. Another is adding in more avocado or healthy fat because they can truly get through life on coffee, green juice, and light snacks that have no fat in them at all. But the moment you support with that rhythm of breakfast, lunch, dinner, they get grounded, they get centered, and they're more productive. They finish what they start. Digestion becomes so much healthier and robust. So there's a balancing effect to vata. Then it, when it comes to pitta, pitta people are all fire. Luckily, pittas can just eat everything, process everything, but there's an easy tendency towards frustrated, angry, inflamed. And so with the pitta crew, it's like, okay, modern day life is saying, work hard, play hard, and you actually have the constitution for it. But are you building in rest and digest? Are you building in that parasympathetic time? Or are you just as a pitta, sometimes we can leverage so far and so hard into our fire and that burnout edge is right there. And if you know health and wellness longevity practices, you can actually walk that line constantly. I do that a lot in my book launch. I'm like walking on the line, but actually if we can back out of that 10 or 20% and come back into the optimal health range. And really support the system, then we don't have to live on that burnout edge. That is a tendency for the pitta crew. So it's like more self-care, more walking in nature, more summer foods, because that's what's going to cool down the nervous system. When pittas are stressed, they're going to eat what doesn't serve them and they're going to reach for sugar because sugar calms the nervous system. Sugar calms anxiety. And so it's really understanding when you're reaching for your vice foods, ask yourself why. And then pause just enough to choose a better action. Maybe it's hydration, maybe it's tea, maybe it's electrolytes, but reach into a different toolkit than the easy, fast one that doesn't serve you in the long run and makes you more inflamed. And then finally, Gufa. Gufa's job is to move their energy first thing in the morning, eat those warm cooked meals, easy to digest foods. Like really look at what's easy for your system to digest, to then have the metabolism and health that you want to have. Because oftentimes Gufa is like trying to follow the modern trends, but doesn't have the same fire. And so you can't eat like huge diets that are hard to digest. It's like, what is simple and easy for the system so you can thrive?

Love it. So many women are told that perimenopause is just about estrogen decline. From your perspective, what's really driving the symptoms?

You know, I really do believe that we are walking into our forties, which is typically perimenopause, thirties to fifties. We're more inflamed than ever. Gut dysbiosis, pretty much everyone has it. Leaky gut, that's the majority of us. Over, like, over-delivering, over-committed, over-giving, and kind of walking in saying, okay, well, I'm just going to serve everyone. And then here I am, inflamed body is depleted. Body is saying, hey, I don't have the same reserves. I don't have the same energy. I have a more finite amount of energy. Yet you want to give everything to everyone.. And so it's really such a reckoning moment between the physical and the mental and the emotional where the body's saying, hey, I need to change here and I need you to change. And none of us want to change at that moment. We wanna keep going the way we've been going. And so I think Ayurveda is such a powerful toolkit cuz Ayurveda gives us the tools to build that circadian rhythm, live in that circadian alignment, build rituals around our health that serve us and nourish us and help us feel whole again. And so that timeframe is actually such a powerful reckoning moment if we'll allow for it. Most of us want to just defy it and go against that river. And we want to say, no, I'm just going to work out harder. I'm going to diet harder. I'm just going to battle this and I'm going to win. And I think it's such a fascinating moment where you have to play. You can't be so game-on-A-type about it. I had that experience already. Where I had to say, okay, what do I really want? And how am I gonna fit that into my total energy bucket that I have for the day? And if I really want to expand that energy, am I willing to approach inflammation and mental inflammation from a different standpoint? Am I willing to really invest now in having vitality, gut digestive fire, all these things on point so that I have the maximum energy going forward?

And what does that shift look like if somebody's listening saying, yes, I'm probably inflamed. Yes, I'm, you know, this, that, and the other, but I'm just so busy. I don't even have bandwidth to focus on that? Like, what does that transition look like? And what are some of the outcomes you want people to understand how their life is going to improve if they commit to making the shift?

One big way is sleep. Sleep is so underestimated. In Ayurveda, we taught that 10 to 2 is key on the clock to clear inflammation, but most of us are burning the candle at both ends. 10:00 PM is when we finally get into bed with our phones and decompress or take me time. And then we're sucked into social media or content, and we really push that bedtime. And so Ayurveda taught that 10 to 12 on the clock is twice as beneficial as all the other sleep you're going to get. And so although that sounds insane to move the bedtime up for most people, that practice alone will give you double or triple the productivity and energy in the next day. And that's a practice. It's truly a discipline. Anytime I'm traveling, all my sleep gets thrown off. So the moment I'm home again and I can get back into my routine, I start moving that bedtime up to 10 as my first discipline. Because if we can win at inflammation while we're sleeping, that's kind of the free, easiest way to win. And I use whatever tool I need to. In perimenopause, I'm taking progesterone. That gives me great sleep. I invented a sleep tea and a sleep gummy. I use those too because I need sleep that's perfect. I can't like negotiate on the sleep piece. That is my first opportunity to clear inflammation. Then secondly is dialing in diet. Are we eating a diet that's inflammatory or anti-inflammatory? A lot of times we're picking up these practices. Maybe it's chips, maybe it's cookies, whatever is the processed foods in your life that maybe are not serving you. So that's as easy as switching into more fruits and vegetables. That's as easy as bringing in more fiber. That's as easy as using more of the super spices. And then for me, as a busy entrepreneur, mother, and all the things I am, now author, speaker, all those things. I lean on turmeric very heavily 'cause my PhD is in turmeric and I just love that it helps me win fast while I'm trying to be a good kid and do all the other practices. But at least it's kind of my insurance policy against the inflammation that helps me get the result.

Turmeric. Let's break this down. And obviously one compound within that is curcumin, and it's one of the most studied natural anti-inflammatories, yet many people say turmeric does nothing. So first of all, can you explain a little bit the science behind it?

And then what does your turmeric curcumin routine look like? For sure. So I ended up doing my master's in Ayurvedic sciences, and in herbology class, the teacher explained all the different benefits of all the super spices. And when he got to turmeric, I thought, this is insane. This one spice can't even do all that. That's impossible. So I decided to do a PhD on it cuz I thought if it could, If turmeric could do everything they're saying, why are we not using it across all systems of medicine for our health? Because we know inflammation is the root cause issue as to why we are running to every specialist out there. And then they say to us, you have something itis. And whenever I go and they say you have something itis, they'll give me NSAIDs or they'll gimme steroids and that's how they'll treat me. And my body is just one of those bodies that doesn't do well with very many pharma solutions or medications. I get every side effect that exists. So I have to reach much more into the natural toolkits. And so when we look at turmeric, turmeric is anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-H. pylori, anti-Candida. It's very powerful when we talk about anti-aging and longevity because it impacts our sirtuins, our AMPK pathways. It causes cellular repair, cellular and DNA repair.. It goes in there and clears out the senolytic cells. It clears out those zombie cells that are running around and causing damage. It reverses the things causing oxidation in the first place. And so to me, I get really excited about turmeric cause I'm like, wow, it's natural. It's from Mother Nature. Our body knows how to absorb and use it. The thing is, most people I meet, pretty much everyone I've met is either taking turmeric as a shot, the juice shot, or they say I sprinkle it on my chicken. Or they say, yeah, I'm taking a turmeric supplement, but I'm not feeling anything. And so what I like to share is out of the entire turmeric plant, only 3% of it is the curcuminoids. So you can use fresh turmeric. It's fine. In ancient India, we didn't really use fresh turmeric. We always dried it because that's a much more concentrated version. That's the kitchen culinary spice. If you're gonna use turmeric in your life, make sure you do that with black pepper or a healthy fat. We know the black pepper increases the absorption by 2000%, and we know the healthy fat can support absorption and help it cross the blood-brain barrier. So when we're talking about neurocognitive issues, neuroinflammation, all those things, the healthy fat will help it get there as well. That's why when we cook Indian food, there's ghee and there's garam masala, which has black pepper. That's gonna help that turmeric go in. Now, modern science has done a wonderful job at extracting and showing us the curcuminoids And of those, curcumin is the most effective at reducing inflammation. So when I finished the PhD, everyone's like, well, which turmeric should I take? I said, I do not know. And I said, so I went out and researched. I couldn't find one that I would trust because at that time we had articles coming out that said up to 75% of supplements at big box retailers do not have the active ingredient at the amounts shown. And I thought, that's insane. Like how, how can we trust the supplement world then?. And so I went out and built my own supplement and I built it to put into orthopedic offices to show them that when you say you have pain, you could also say you can take turmeric for that. And so that's been my body of work for the last decade is working with hundreds of doctors and showing them the power of turmeric. And most people when they take other turmeric say, I'm not feeling anything. And then when they take mine, they say, now I feel the difference.

Okay. I'm gonna have to try it as well. And Dr. Ashwani, I have so many other questions, so we're gonna have to do a round two at some point, cause I know that we're at time here now. Where can people follow what you're up to? Where would you like to point them?

And we'll link everything in the show notes. Perfect. So my book is theinflammationcode.com. My website is ShivaniGupta.com, and I have the elemental design quiz there. Lots of different guides and masterclasses and my podcast and everything is there as well. And then the supplements are at FusionaryFormulas.com, F-U-S-I-O-N-A-R-Y. And I made a special code, Longevity and Lifestyle will give them 15% off.

Oh, that's lovely. Thank you so much for that. Dr. Shivani, is there any parting message or final thoughts or piece of advice you'd like to share with my audience today?

Definitely. So each and every one of you has so much sovereignty and power over your health, over your longevity, over your health span as it exists. You have the power to reverse inflammation every day. And that comes from making one thought, one self-care act, one change, one tiny habit, walking in nature, or as simple as a cup of tea.

Beautiful. Thank you so, so much for coming on today. Dear audience, thank you for tuning in. I hope you found this as incredibly informative as I did and look forward to hopefully doing a round two in the new year. Thank you. Beautiful.

Hi everyone, it's Claudia again.

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