Why Your Diet Is Making Menopause Inflammation Worse (Ayurvedic Solutions That Work)

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Dr. Shivani, we are going to dig in today. I am so excited to have this conversation around inflammation, inflammaging and what women really need to understand. You know, I think we throw the word around. Like women will say, I feel inflammation, I have inflammation. But there's a, maybe a lack of understanding of how that, how that fits in our time period of life and what's really happening. And then you've got the answer, the code. So we're going to talk about the code today on inflammating and inflammation. So what I'd love to know is where did and what happened that, that had you decide that inflammation is not just a medical buzzword but it's, it's really a hinge point for someone's health.

Absolutely. So I grew up in a family of all diabetics. All the grandparents were diabetics and everyone in my parents generation was diabetics. And I'm even right now watching what that looks like. 20, 30, 40 years into diabetic journeys. Now my parents generation is 70 plus. And I'm like, oh my gosh, you guys are reliving history. Do you not see what happened generations ahead of you. And so every time I landed in India growing up to go see my grandparents and cousins, someone would pass away from the advanced stages of diabetes. So first it was one of my grandpa's heart attack that and it was another who had Parkinson's and his leg was amputated and everything out of control. Then my grandmother needed a quadruple bypass. Then the other one I saw always dysregulated with her blood sugar. And I thought, what are these root causes of this metabolic disease that are definitely coming for me? This is my genetic plan, right? Happening and unfolding. And so that's when I realized, okay, diabetes is caused by inflammation, lack of blood sugar regulation, stress, lack of exercise and obesity. So we have to sit there and address this. And now it's interesting. Fast forward many decades. I was pretty judgy when I was a teenager. I hit 45 and I'm like, oh, this is work. This is actually a whole lot more work than I realized. To hold that at bay is going to take some action. And so that's where I like to understand, okay, where are we going to address this? How are we going to address inflammation in a attainable, doable way? Because everyone doesn't have full time hours to manage our health. But inflammation is devastating and I can't imagine our whole planet continuing to suffer with chronic metabolic disease when it's totally preventable. It's preventable lifestyle disease.

Yeah. You know, and I think, I think the hard part is, is a lot of women are haven't been told appropriately that the menopause transition because of the hormone decline, particularly of estrogen, but progesterone and testosterone, and again, testosterone is a steady decline from our 20tw 20s, results in an inflammatory response. We get alterations like increases of interleukin 6 and NF kappa B. And all these, these are inflammatory cytokines, like so just, just by being a woman going through this process, we're gonna have that. And then we have even our T cells and B cells decline. And so we get metabolic changes from the lack of estrogen. So in your case, like you have, we have genetic risks that show up in particular ethnic backgrounds that probably 100,000 years ago protected our ancestors from starvation. Right, ladies, if you're noticing more fine lines and wrinkles, it's not just about aging. It's about the loss of estrogen. And that affects our skin structure, making it drier, thinner, less firm. But here's the great news. I've created Biased Mastery Cream to help this luxurious bioidentical estrogen cream support supports your natural hydration and elasticity. It's packed with nourishing oils like olive jojoba, aloe and coconut. So it feels amazing and helps soften those lines and bring back that healthy glow. I've been using it and let me tell you, my skin has never looked or felt better. It's smoother, more radiant, and those little cracks and creases are way less noticeable. If you're ready to give your skin some extra love, check out by EST mastery on the metabolic blueprint website. And that's metabolicblueprint.com biestmastery that's B I E S T Mastery M A S T E R Y and your face will. Thank you. You know, I come from English and Irish. We have a lot of that also because we had a lot of potato famines going on. Yeah, but, but so we have metabolic changes that affect us from a genetic standpoint. And then the loss of estrogen affects our metabolism, and then just in general, we have inflammation. And so. And so even if people think that they might have had a handle on it in your 20s and 30s, like you said, you know, you're kind of like super judgy, like, go ahead, mom and dad. And then all of a sudden you're like, whoa, I'm 45 and what I used to do doesn't really work anymore.

Yeah, yeah. And it's painful at right between 40 and 45, everything changed so fast. And I thought, how am I losing a grip? I teach health, I practice health, this is my work. And this happens to be my biggest passion is health. That what I saw in my 15, my teens and my 20s completely defined what I do for the rest of my life. How can it be hard for me? And then I started looking around, every woman was saying the same thing. I cannot remember anything. I walk into a room and I forget. I can't remember half of my to do list on any given day. I'm tired by midday or afternoon or evening and I can't get myself to go do those extra things I was going to try to do. I used to always have what I call the fourth quarter of the day and I try to work those extra two, three hours and get things done. And now I'm like, I don't want to. I am tired. I can't even get myself to do self care half the time. And so when we talk about that decline, I really think about the Ayurvedic wisdom that I teach from ancient India. In an Ayurveda we taught that as we're aging, yes, all these cellular pathways, inflammation is going to come on board. We're going to so much decline in the system. But the counter pose to that decline is nourishment. And I think unfortunately as a culture, I was raised in the 80s, we were taught everything should be non fat, everything should be skinny, everything should be light thin. And so we're kind of battling sometimes some really strong mindsets of the past. And so now in my 40s, my self coaching is grounding nourishment, wholesome, you want to fill the body. But we're also being told like, hey, keto, carnivore, lean out, clean out. So there's a lot of conflicting information right now. And I think that's why as women we're struggling because we're told so many things. I'm doing a lot of talks on menopause and perimenopause. Everyone's like, I don't know what to do. I'm just told 200 different data points which ones work. And that's why I love practitioners like you, because you are a true expert in this field around menopause. And where I like to bring in the ancient wisdom is Ayurveda said, come at it from the understanding that you're entering a new transition of life and how can you bring wholeness in feet in the Ground align to your circadian clock, bring in those healthy fats like ghee and really kind of bring the wholeness back into the picture.

Yeah, it is true because you know, I was talking with a fellow practitioner over the weekend and we were talking about, you know, a lot of women will have a bunch of things going on, like you said, memory fatigue, fatigue, you know, you know, joint pain, all this other stuff. And I said, but you know what's really interesting is almost always there is a secondary conversation about the other insidious things that happen in midlife, which is often weight gain around the middle and you know, sort of the middle aged spread, for lack of a better word and the frustration of all the tools I used to use, which again like you said, is like, oh, I'm going to cut my carbs, I'm going to cut this, I'm going to cut that, I'm going to do all these things to sort of double down, I'm going to work out more. It doesn't really work. And, and when you look at Ayurveda, you know, and you look at the way the, the body is looked at by individual sort of how you're wired and then the seasons of life, we're.

Literally doing all the wrong things, everything wrong, everything.

And I want you to share that because you have a way of really bringing this home and you go through it heavily in your book, which is amazing, but I want you to talk specifically about that for sure.

So in my book the Inflammation Code, I talk about something called elemental design. And elemental design is this ancient Ayurvedic principle that we all have different constitutions. We're made up of primarily air, fire or water. And so those elements in Ayurveda are called vata, pitta and gapha. And so if you take my quiz on elemental design, it's on my website@drshavani.com, you'll come to know quickly what is your primary. And knowing your primary constitution from birth is really important because then you understand how to really customize your lifestyle practices to yourself. So I'm a lot of fire, I'm the middle one, Bita. So I really have to manage sleeping well, how I eat, when I eat, cooling my jets. So I'm a nice, kind, balanced human being. And if you're more earth, if you're more kapha, then you need to manage your energy and exercise first thing in the morning and move your metabolism, move your energy, eating easy to digest food. So we have a lot of customization for, for all the different constitutions. What's interesting to me is that first one, vata, which is air and ether. That season called vata, and that tendency of elements called vata applies through perimenopause and menopause. And so it's so enlightening when you understand how to balance vata, because then you understand how to balance yourself through 40 plus in terms of your age as well. And so a vata person is typically thin and wiry, typically taller or shorter than anyone in their demographic. But here's what it gets, where it gets interesting. This is someone who's always a busybody, always on the move, always in motion. They tend to run dry. So vata energy is air and ether. This is like a ceiling fan that never stops moving. It could be a beautiful breeze when it's balanced. Could also be a tornado. So think about. Air can move in a lot of ways. So it might be that you're in a season where you're not actually as in control because your air element within you of movement is kind of out of sync with where you need to be. And so an air person, which is an avatar person, tends to have dryness, dry skin, dry hair, dry nails. So talk about vaginal dryness. And menopause makes total sense because it's that dryness of air. Then we talk about mind. They are a million miles a minute. Sometimes they can't stop. So it can lead to insomnia, it can lead to anxiety. And here in menopause, we talk so much about my sleep is disrupted. I have a baseline anxiety. I don't know where it came from. I have this overwhelm where I'm feeling a lack of resilience. So every time I hear a menopause symptom now, I think, okay, actually, we're just vata deranged, as we call it, or vata imbalanced. And if we all worked towards balancing that vata element that exists in all of us, then all of a sudden we can be more grounded. And so the homework that I give to my vata clients is take the time to have three square meals a day with healthy fat. That's the first homework. And it's interesting because we're in a moment where we're talking about intermittent fasting, and all the guys and biohackers are like, one meal a day. And I'm like, no, no, you are defying every ancient principle.

I hear you.

That you guys function differently and your cycles are the same every single day. We're women. We're different we can't self torture in the ways that modern wellness, modern longevity and modern biohacking are teaching. Ancient wisdom says, honor thyself, love thyself. The goal is body, mind and spirit in alignment. And so whenever you feel out of alignment, pause and think about, what are you doing that's causing such disalignment within you? Is it that you're forcing a certain type of meal plan down your own throat? That's too harsh. Is it that you're not honoring sleep and circadian rhythm? We as women are cyclical beings. We're meant to live in cycle with the moon, with the sun, with Mother Earth. And a lot of what we're doing right now is breaking all those rules because we're trying to handle so much. And we're in a vata season of our life now. And the body's like, I'm sorry, sorry, I can't let you do 200 miles an hour with HIIT training with one meal a day and not leave you anxious, stressed out and depleted. And so that's my message for everyone is let's unpack vata as an understanding of a season of life and bring in such wholesome nourishment and grounding for ourselves. So that's how we show up, which is likely how you are showing up for a lot of your life. But it's harder to do in vata because this is the season now. And so you need to shift the practices towards that ancient practice of balancing yourself better.

Yeah, it's, you know, it's interesting because if you look like I'm mostly pitta with a little bit of vata and more lean towards kapha imbalance, if we were to look at the Ayurveda sort of activities and you know, I. So before, when I was younger, I had oily, oily hair. I had to wash my hair every day. I had oily skin, you know, so my skin was very thick. And, and today, you know, no matter the fact that I've got hormones on board, like I'm taking hormones on a regular basis, but I'm just like, how did I dry out? How did I get knee wrinkles? You know, like those. But that is part of this season. So when somebody says, I'm going to double down and do salads twice a day in the middle of winter and I'm going to do a dry piece of chicken and all those other things, it's like you are fighting and exacerbating your dryness and, and you need warm, you know, warm, creamy, buttery, avocado if you like avocado, whatever it is. All of these things that are like counterintuitive to somebody who's trying to double down on whatever it is they're doing in the face of also overwhelm. Because that how you eat will lead to that overwhelm.

Correct, Correct. It's so interesting, right? We, we doubled down so hard. I did, I doubled down. I was like, okay, I'm just gonna work out harder. What about a spread fat down the middle? No, I'm not doing any of that. And then the moment I did, my body stopped me in my tracks and I had to quit the gym I went to for five years, which was like heartbreaking because I loved my gym, I loved my community.

So.

So to walk out of that place and say, you know what, I actually have to lift, walk and yoga, this is a commitment. This is a complete change of attitude. And even when I lift, I'm actually good until about 80% of the workout class. And then right around 80%, I'm crossing a line. And that line is I'm going to now have complete depletion for the day. And so I've had to learn to honor the line. Even though Aspita people are very competitive, we want to just go for it. We want to prove to ourselves we can cross every finish line of life. It's like a self talk conversation around what is the finish line here? The finish line is you've got to lift, you got to feel good, you got the endorphins and you got your muscle building. You need to get out of there now and create a balance line for yourself. And so I have a lot of conversations with myself like you need to yoga daily. That's actually the practice. It's yoga and walking. And the ancient wisdom said it's actually about circadian rhythm and building such a beautiful rhythm into your life that's so nourishing. So that's why in Ayurveda we teach wake up and do some self care. First touch the ground, touch your forehead and tune into yourself and say thank you. Say your first intention for the day. So I always ask for peace. Then I start with my hydration. Ensure you have your first bowel movement. Then we move into tongue scraping. Like how can we first start detoxification of the system and support the system? Then oil pulling, oilation of the body. And so when we're talking about that dryness, Ayurveda's first homework to all of us is use more oil, organic food grade oil. Whether it's sesame oil or sweet almond oil or coconut oil. Oilation of the mouth to to really collect all the bacteria and detox the mouth in the morning and later in the day. I teach about dry brushing, which almost feels too hard in perimenopause menopause because we're always so dry. So I've had to switch into much softer brushes now. But then we teach something called abhyang massage. That just means sitting down on a towel and gifting your body oil. This is one of the most grounding practices because you pause if you warm up that oil. That's even more luxurious, but you're really putting this oil on the body from the toes all the way to the neck. And so if there was one homework I would give for all of us in perimenopause menopause, it's to bring back a massage or bring in a young massage. Might be new for the majority of us, right? And bring in that idea of really grappling, grounding our energy. And you'll see when you try this, just to gift yourself oil massage, you do long strokes on the long muscles. When you hit a joint, you go in round circles. This is so grounding. Calming to the mind, calming to the nervous system. Oil leading to the joints. So those joints that are kind of crack cracking and stiff and not feeling like their usual happy selves, bouncy selves in a sense, you can give them this oil and they're going to feel more youthful. Your dry skin is going to get this beautiful hydration of food because it's food grade organic oil coming in. And then all of a sudden everything starts to shift. So when you meet ayurvedic practitioners, typically from a skin standpoint, they look so young and vibrant because they're doing this massage. And I have a lot of women in menopause who've started doing a pyung massage and they're like, this is the game changing thing. I didn't know that my skin didn't have to go the direction it was going to. This stopped it and reversed it. So that's a really good one for skin. And then like you said about food, bringing in that healthy fat, bringing in those three meals, like focusing on nourishment as opposed to depletion is another big one. Because you're right, our hormones are tanking. There are all these issues. Our go to is cut things. But we're actually supposed to really nourish all tissues because they're in that state of decline, they're in that state of Inflammation, oxidation, all those things are happening very slowly. It's like a very slow slide. And so the way to pick that up and slow the slide down is to gift a lot of nourishment to the system. And in Ayurveda we teach that as ojas building foods. Ojas is vitality. And so we really want to bring in healthy fats, almonds, we bring in cashews, dates. Ghee is a big superfood out of Ayurveda. Like you mentioned butter, avocado. So really bringing in the superfoods and the super spices can be a nourishing way to bring in that feeling.

Yeah, so I, I'm glad you brought that up because, you know, I look at it, I was, you know, I have these conversations with people every day and I eat more carbs today. Now these are healthy carbs. They are whole foods based carbs. But you know, for most of my life growing up in, you know, the bodybuilding world and then, you know, just the nutritionist world of, you know, sort of dietary restriction, right. And especially like if you look biohacking, it's like, okay, that's a full time job. And also the most extraordinary willpower. For what cause and for what outcome? Because in many cases the outcome is not what you want because we're using bro science. Right? But, but I remember being so carb phobic for so much of my life because that was a message we got as women. But you know, the grounding foods are going to be things like legumes and cooked vegetables, like your starchy vegetables and whole grains, if somebody does whole grains, you know what I mean? And I think we get so scared of those because we're focused on one thing, maybe the waistline, that we don't do that. Realizing that that helps stabilize the blood sugar. It helps feed your microbiome, you know, it helps bring that energy back to grounding and then the spicy foods. So I'm pitta, so of course I love spicy foods. If I could eat really spicy crap all day, every day, that's what I would do. Like my, my last meal of my life will absolutely involve chips and salsa and jalapeno. I am a junkie when it comes to those. Like anything hot and spicy. And so it's a dance, but it's also something somebody could bring in if they're too vata, if they're too airy fairy. Right. Like they feel ungrounded.

Right? Yeah, no, it's true. We, we oftentimes with vata say, look, healthy fat Three times a day, avocado, like you said, those grains, legumes, anything from the ground. So you can even think of it as root vegetables, will ground your energy. Like you said, starchy vegetables. And it's interesting because right now there's so much push around carnivore and keto. And so I would love your thoughts because, I mean, we're being sold these ideas as if like this is the only way to have a trim waistline. And as I watch it, I'm like, you guys, all of this is extreme. We're women. We're actually meant to walk the moderate path. So what are your thoughts on that?

Oh my gosh. So never, ever, ever, ever in the history of anything that remotely looked like man have we ever been carnivore. We are not a cat.

Right?

We don't, we don't have the right kind of canines. We are not a carnivore and never has a caveman existed. Mostly on animal meat. We were not that great of hunters.

Right?

Let's be real true. You know, we found uts who was a, who was a hunter that we have dated this, this particular person that we found basically frozen in a cave in France. 5000 year old body found and he was frozen solid, completely intact. So his clothes were intact, he was, he was obviously fighting with somebody, got injured and died, but his, the contents of his stomach were intact. And what they found was not only food particles from what he had been eating, like some animal protein, but there were pulses, otherwise known as grains. There were what we would classify as legumes. We were omnivores all the way back. And the idea of using a carnivore diet, I've used one with somebody that had significant sibo and semo, which are bacterial overgrowths in the small bowel where you get fermentation of the most healthy foods. And so it's very uncomfortable. But that is a therapeutic intervention meant to be extremely short term weeks at most. And then you fix the underlying problem and you restore balance. What we do know, and this is, this is already clear in the research, is if you eat mostly animal protein, you will lose significant swaths of your microbiome. So that, you know, if you think of it as a jungle, you know, that's getting rid of your Labrador retrievers, all your dogs, all your cats, and you have a bunch of cockroaches and snakes that overgrowth. And those are the bacteria that produce inflammatory byproducts, beta glucuronidase, which increases estrogen compounds, getting removed from the gut to get recirculated into your bloodstream. Xenoestrogens, toxins. We also get an increase of bacteria that produce things like putrescine, cadaverine and other byproducts. Those sound bad because they are, those are the bacteria that rot our body when we die. So if we're, if we're eating foods that starve off our good microbiome, we may create irreparable damage. Because the other thing that happens when somebody goes extreme carnivore is every food becomes reactive then because, because you've got these little swaths of microbes that are starving to death and as soon as you eat something that they like, they ferment and they've migrated to wherever they can get things. And so that is absolutely not a great diet. The other thing we see a lot with keto too is keto works in the short term by removing carbs. So you create like insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism improvement, but it creates a reactive hyperglycemia and hyperinsulemia. So if you do that for a long period of time and you break it and go have a carbohydrate, you're going to have an over the top insulin response. You're going to have potentially a hypoglycemic experience because your body goes through partitioning. And what it does is it says, okay, a really good metabolism is like having a high end high octane race car that is also electric. Right. So when you're just cruising, it runs on electric. And then when you need high octane because you're moving, it works. Well when you do extreme diets like that, like keto, you basically take away the electric side of the car and the only thing it can do is high octane. And so it loses the capacity to use your long term energy stores in an efficient way. And that partitioning takes about a month or two. And in some cases, if you've got a lot of like metabolic damage, diabetes, it may take months on end, but if you keep doing it, you literally will cause a metabolic shift that takes a lot to move back to normal. Right, sorry, go ahead, go. Yeah, so the reality is, if you're a woman, you've been doing this, you might react to carbs like, oh, it's like my body puts on weight for. It's because you have damaged your metabolism and you could fix it, but it requires eating to support where you are in your life and support the metabolic activity that you're doing today. Right. And what your body needs today.

Yeah, it's slow. What I hear you saying is there's no magic bullet. Like, just because we're being sold these ideas for rapid success. Oh, just go carnivore. It'll fix everything. Just go keto. It'll fix everything. And the problem is we really fixate on these ideas. I saw a whole video yesterday of an interview where the lady said, continuous keto is the way to be. And I thought that goes exactly against what I teach. I teach that there's this moderate road. And like you said, you have a gut microbiome. Ancient Ayurveda said, we have a gut digestive fire. And your job is to build such diversity and variety for that fire. You're meant to eat seasonally, which will inherently create so much variety. And we know that each season is going to bring exactly what we need to feed our microbiome at that time. So, for example, when winter ends all of a sudden, what's going to come shooting out of the ground but the bitters and the things we need to kind of clean out the gut and support ourselves from the winter time when we hibernated and we were more sedentary. And so the ancient wisdom calls for balance, harmony, integration, all these things. But when we're sold all these ideas so strongly online, if you don't keto, you're never going to lose that weight. Then everyone kind of just jumps from idea to idea. And I think these are all just new versions of fad diets. And we've already been sold 50 fad diets. But now as we're aging, we're like, well, you know, what I'm doing isn't working. I guess I'll go sign up for that because I need quick solutions. But like you said, which I think is so important, is the cautionary tale of, yeah, you can do it, but at what cost? How long will it take you to recover? And so most people who find me and most people who find Ayurveda have actually already tried everything on Earth. They went through chiropractic, naturopathic, homeopathic, I mean, everything to Reiki and medical massage. And then they find the Ayurveda door and they're like, please help me. And we're like, this is going to take some time because we're going to have to reverse you out of many years of what you've been doing here. We have to really rebuild gut health with so much love. This is a gut microbiome that needs to be so robust and strong, that digestive fire, according to Ayurveda is your brain, your mood, how sharp you are, everything. It's your entire immune system, it's your vitality. And so really, the practice of Ayurveda is teaching you how do you feed that fire so much good so that it gives you everything you want in terms of your metabolism, your brain power and your energy. How do we teach you ojas, which is just these foods that are so nourishing that you gift to that fire so that it gives you what you want. And then how do we show you how to live on this circadian clock in such a beautiful rhythm? Because the rhythm in the end is what keeps us healthy. When we're dysregulated with nature's clock, that's when we cause dis ease. And if we can get in rhythm with nature's clock, especially in women, then all of a sudden we have balance, nourishment, wholeness. So anytime you feel like your life is, like, not working out, I always look at circadian clock first. What time are you waking up? What time are you going to bed? What time are you eating? And maybe if you're a bita like us. I'm a bita. I can't go just three meals a day. I actually need a fourth because I have such a strong fire in me. It's demanding food. And sometimes in this time of life, I'm like, you know, you don't need to eat so much. You don't need to eat all the time. We need to honor the fire. But honestly, that fire is calling for more. And are we going to give it to our bodies so our body has all the building blocks it needs to build what we're asking for. And then when you bring in super spices, my PhD is turmeric. So I teach a lot about turmeric. But turmeric has so much of what we need. It's anti, inflammatory, antioxidant, gut supportive, anti H. Pylori, anticandida. It goes into the gut like this ultimate janitor and cleans out everything that doesn't belong in there, but leaves intact everything that does belong, which I love, something that's intuitive and understands how to leave all the good in place is my favorite kind of solution. And then what it also does is when it comes to those inflammatory cytokines that we know are increasing as we're aging, all of them, Interleukin 6 and NF Kappa B, TNF Alpha, Interleukin 1 beta, like all of these inflammatory cytokines that exist, curcumin from turmeric goes in there and helps to reduce them, then we can all of a sudden say, okay, I'm not inflamed. I've built a healthy gut microbiome. I'm living according to my circadian clock. How do I reteach myself nourishing foods? And then I can start to feel like a whole nurse self. And all those vata symptoms start to come down. The overwhelm, the anxiety, the insomnia, the dryness, the brain fog. A lot of those issues can start to settle down and we can feel like our newest, best version of ourselves for this new transition time, which is also a transition as well. Like for our own mindsets.

Well, and I think it's really important to understand that, like the warming herbs like turmeric and even things like paprika, they absorb better with fat.

Right.

So your low fat salad with your turmeric is not going to help absorption. Correct.

And so many people do that. So many people tell me, I sprinkle turmeric on my chicken. I sprinkle turmeric on everything. I'm like, okay, well, turmeric needs black pepper or healthy fat to increase its absorption. And what most people don't realize is out of the entire turmeric plant, only 3% of it is the curcuminoids. And we know that those curcuminoids are the most effective at reducing inflammation. And so that's why I teach a lot about supplements, because I'm like, well, in the turmeric category, you need a high potent supplement if you want to win at inflammation. And then let's talk about those other warming spices. Ginger is a wonderful one. You can start your day with ginger tea, ginger lemon tea. Ignite that digestive fire, get it churning and moving for you. Eat more ginger throughout the day because it's warming to the system. Vata means cold and dry. And we are going to run more cold and dry through the season. But can we gift ourselves ginger tea or ginger in our food throughout the day? Cinnamon, also beneficial in warming paprika, like you said, warming. So even nutmeg, like all the fall winter spices, are actually warming. And the homework is, when you're in the perimenopause, menopause season of life, that vata season of life, build those into your life on a daily, weekly basis as your gift to yourself. So many of us chase all the superfoods. We chase the salmon and the blueberries and the spinach and all those foods, and they are beneficial. But a lot of what we're reaching for in them is their antioxidant, anti inflammatory properties. And so that's why I love to teach super spices and say, you know what? As we're going so protein forward in our diets, as we're working so hard to eat clean or eat well, whatever it is you're doing in your diet, incorporating spices will bring variety. It'll bring in so much more flavor, and it'll bring in all those benefits and those nourishing benefits as well.

Yeah, I think that's so important. You know, and, and I was just thinking when you were talking about all of this, you know, the other thing I think is so true of this age group. I'm 10. I'm at least 10 years older than you are. But, you know, one of the things that I am at in this point of my life is I don't give any fucks anymore. I don't care if you don't like what I look like. I don't care if you don't like what I'm wearing or what I have to say. And the other part of is I just, I am not willing to willpower and make my life miserable because I want to be some version of myself when I was 20, because I hear that all the time. Well, I really loved my body when I got out of high school or when I was in college. I'm like, you weren't even at sexual maturation yet. Like, what are you thinking? Like, what I want to be is the best version of me right now that supports me.

Right.

And that if it sounds selfish, bite me. I do not care because I, I, this is my last season on the planet, and I want it to be really meaningful for me. And I'm going to stick that stake in the ground in places. And some of that is also, I'm not going to do some bullshit diet that makes me white knuckle it every day.

Yeah, me neither. Me neither. To me, it's so much about health, vitality. I, like I said at the beginning, come from a family of really bad diabetes. So I look at it as I have a body. I get to live with this body and feel my best for my lifetime. And everything I'm doing now supports me having the strongest brain, the strongest energy, the strongest vitality, a phenomenal gut microbiome. And all of that is my gift to myself for my next four or five decades ahead. But what I can't do is deplete this car, strip the car from the inside over past thought processes that are useless. And so yeah, it is a struggle because women don't want that change, certainly. I mean, when I do my talks, they're like, yeah, weight gain, this sucks. I'm like, yeah, and, and let's see if we can just adjust to a size up. And let's have a bigger conversation around, where's your metabolic health? Where's your inflammation? Do we need to address those things and find your new healthy. Whatever your new healthy is? I have a new healthy, and that change happened. And I'm like, well, this is the new me. That's okay. As long as my numbers are good enough for me, then I should be happy and satisfied with where I'm at.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, it's. Our self worth isn't tied up into the shred. Like, my abdomens do not define my self worth, you know, and, and I look at it like you said. Like, I look at it and I'm like, am I metabolically healthy? You know, am I reducing my risk of chronic disease, which is the fight of aging? Because aging is the largest cause of all chronic disease. And do I still have my mobility, my agility, my brain? Those things are by far more important because I go to my mom's assisted living center every day and go in and look at a bunch of little old ladies, some of which who aren't that old either. There's a woman there that actually has her mom taking care of her. She's not that much older than I am, and she's got pronounced dementia. Like, if those things don't scare the shit out of you, you need to go spend some time there. Because they don't care about the size. I mean, they actually do care about the size of their butt because that's what they remember from media. But what they, if you were to ask anybody there what they want is their mobility, their independence, their family, their time, their brain. That's the stuff that matters. It's not the size of our ass. And, and controlling inflammation is the main driver of this because aging is an inflammatory state for women especially.

Exactly. And another big one is mood. You know, when I signed up last year for help with hormone replacement therapy, hrt, adjusting thyroid, I signed up because I was like, my brain's not working. Someone needs to help me. I'm in the middle of writing a book. What I cannot do is not have access to all my files of all ayurvedic knowledge that I've gained over these last 40 plus years. And so they put me on a new plan and we tried A lot of different things, some of which worked, some which. Which did not quite work. But what I did learn was they asked me such a powerful question. They said, how's your mood? And I said, I'm a really happy person. And they were like, really? Okay. Like, how do you feel at the end of your day? I said, oh, well, I wish I had a separate home than my kids. And I really wish there was total silence after I ate dinner. And I really don't like anyone after about 6, 7, 8 o'. Clock. And they were like, really? So that's a mood shift, right? And I was like, I guess so. I just, you know, I'm a woman. I handle so much in a day that I have a line. And they were like, well, did the line move up? And I said, yeah, actually that line moved up. Used to be 10. I could handle all of life till about 10. And then right at 10, I was like, I hate everyone. I'm going to my room. I'm closing the door. Put yourselves to bed. Because I have teenagers now and they don't. No one wants to sleep on time. And I teach sleep and circadian rhythm. So right around town, I get frustrated. For me, my goal is how do I love my people and love my life so fully as I continue to age. So, yes, for myself, I want my brain on point. I want focus, I want to be productive. And certainly I wouldn't want baseline anxiety, which progesterone helps with beautifully. It gets you right back to who you were. I don't want energy drops, but that's going to happen. I can adjust so much to the energy drops. Certainly, you know, weight gain, these things will happen metabolically. We will have shifts. But the mood piece to me is big. And that's where vata and Ayurveda has a pretty strong support. Because in Ayurveda we say, look, vata is air and wind. It's gonna cause you to feel like you're always in motion. It can cause this anxiety type of feeling. Overwhelm, lack of resilience, almost like an emptiness and a dryness. And so anytime you feel that feeling, anytime you're like, ah, I don't feel like myself. I don't feel whole. You have a lot of tools you can reach for. And so my go to tools. My favorite tool is called tea. Time is me time. I teach it obsessively because it's the one that supports me the most. I pause five times a day and sip a cup of tea. I could be in podcasts. I Could be in a meeting, I could be driving to pick up the kids from school. But this one habit is grounding. It's nourishing because tea is full of great herbs and green tea is beneficial, or any tea that you drink is usually beneficial. It's going to help you drop into your parasympathetic nervous system. So many times if you're in vata overdrive, you're in that like fifth gear full throttle and you don't know how to slow yourself down, hot tea is going to cause you to drop into parasympathetic. We know it's vagal toning, which a lot of us are talking about nowadays.

Yeah.

But it's also nourishing and it's also a moment to pause. So I use it as an anchor point to tune into myself and ask myself, how are you doing today? Have you adjusted today so you get to eat today? What is your plan to take care of you? Have you taken your supplements? Have you hydrated? These are basic questions, but many of us are running around dehydrated and exhausted like dying sad plants. And so tea alone can be hydrating. So it accomplishes a lot of goals. But to me it's an anchor point. So I have tea at 7, at 10, at 3, at 5, and then right before bed. And every time, because I'm checking in with myself, I'm having that grounding moment with myself. And that is my way to stay so much more grounded and tuned in. And then I have a lot of other practices like healthy snacks that are grounding. I take more walks per day now than I ever did before because that alone helps me reset my nervous system and feel more centered. And so I think Ayurveda is trying to show us. I know that Ayurveda is trying to show us you have a toolkit of natural remedies and natural tools that's like your mindful medicine chest and it's with you at all times and is you're in. As you enter through vata season of life, your job is just to reach for more of those tools. And so as an Ayurvedic practitioner, that's my job, is just to show you how many tools exist. Circadian alignment, super spices, a gut friendly diet, like a really focused diet on acne and digestive fire, how to sleep so well that you really reset, nourish, reduce inflammation and clear the lymphatic and glymphatic system. At night, I'm obsessed with sleep. I need my sleep. Great. And then finally, how to use self care as a piece of that rhythm as well. And really bring in the nourishment that we need to give to ourselves in the season, that oilation of the body, so we feel more grounded and centered and it can be easy. I know when I talk sometimes people are like, I don't have time for the 500 things. I'm like, don't worry. I make everything portable and doable on the road. Most of us are busy women doing a lot. Even as we're transitioning into vata, we are doing a lot more than maybe our predecessors did. I don't think women used to still grow and scale their companies going into 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond. But we have so much capacity right now, we're using it. But how do we simultaneously build the capacity to tolerate such a vata season of life so that we can feel whole and integrated and nourished? And so that's where I think Ayurveda is the biggest gift is. It's that constant reminder is you deserve to feel sovereign. You deserve to feel so good in your body. You deserve to feel in alignment and you can have it all. But just nourish yourself on that rhythm, to feel that way.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I know you've read some of the research from Dr. Lisa Moscone and some of the brain research of when estrogen levels start to decline, the changes in the brain. So literally our super highways that go to the prefrontal cortex that help you make decisions and think through complex problems and other things and remember nuanced activities of everyday life start to move around.

Right.

They move and they start moving to creative centers, which is part of what happens in menopause. But I think that's also where the decision fatigue starts to come earlier and earlier in the day. Right.

Because that's. That's what it is.

Because everybody's pulling on you. You know, you're like, mom, mom, mom, honey, honey, mom, honey. And it's like, no, my decision meter went off at 5pm, correct.

I have nothing left. Yeah. In my company, I had to hire better. I had to put a person between me and the entire team. Because again, decision fatigue. I can only do so much in a day. And so the more we can kind of insulate ourselves from the million decisions a day, the better. Because sometimes you can't do that in your personal life, but at least you can do it in your business life.

Exactly, exactly. But I think it's also, like you said, sort of understanding that it's not something defunct in you. It's not a deficit you have. It's part of what happens as we get older and our body is maturing and moving into this other season. And there's nothing wrong with it, but what's wrong is expecting your body to not do those things correct. It's like, it's okay. It's okay that we have that.

It's all right.

And we can still benefit, you know, from just being a little more mindful about our own experiences. And I love the fact that you were talking about, like, tea time. Like, somebody may not be able to do it as often as you do, but, man, if you aren't doing it, doing it once might be a huge thing.

Yeah. And at work, I mean, I teach so many women in corporate. Have lunch, go grab a cup of tea, walk around, get your steps. Like, you can build this in as a habit that no one would notice that you built in as a habit, which is great.

Yeah. Yeah. It really is. It's taking that time. You know, one of the things that, you know, I. Over the years, you know, I helped people not as much today because we just don't see it as much. Stop smoking. So way back when, when people were smoking more, you know, one of the things that we. I had them acknowledge was, okay, you go out for a smoke break, you sit down, you're alone, no one's talking to you, you light up, and then you take the deepest damn breath you've taken all damn day. Right. You know, have you ever watched anybody smoke? They're like, you know what I mean? And it's like, okay, so how about you cut a straw, go outside, do the exact same thing, and breathe through a straw? Because it's the same thing. It's the taking of a moment. It's the slowing down taking of a moment. And you don't need to inhale a bunch of car exhaust and nicotine to do it. Nicotine's fine. But all the other things that come out of a cigarette, and no one really does that anymore. Right. For the most part, lots of people are vaping. Also really toxic. Probably worse than Marlboros, but it's the same mindset. So for those of us that are from the 70s and 80s and probably had your moment of smoking as a teen or in college, think about why you did it. And when you did it, it was.

Because you took a moment, right? So you can just take a moment. Right.

And do it with tea.

Yeah, do it with tea. I walk around my building at work sometimes I'm like, you know, we need more steps. Sorry. So I tell my team, you want to talk to me, we are not sitting at our desks and talking to each other. We're going to take a round and so we just walk around, whether it's the office or the building. I think you're right. We, we forget that we are circadian beings and nature is the ultimate healer. And so Ayurveda says, move in nature and you will reset everything. And so the more we can do that, the more we're going to stay that whole grounded, centered, balanced self that we're craving. And that's most of what I talked about in the book, is how to use the Ayurvedic wisdom in a bite sized way to win at inflammation and to win at all these symptoms that we're dealing with in women's health. How do we feel like our most balanced, nourished self. And that's typically following a middle ground road which is not as sexy as the extremes. Right? Everyone likes selling the extremes, everyone likes scaring us on the Internet. But the truth is ancient wisdom had this wisdom and we are, we're wise women. That's the transition we're going into is to carry that wisdom. And so that's what balances us the most, is really grounding practices like you just said, sitting out in nature and breathing.

Yeah, absolutely. So tell me, so where can my listeners get your book and, and reach out and find out more about your formulas, your turmeric, all, all of that for sure.

So the book is the inflammation code. The website for this is the inflammationcode.com or all the other information about me is at my website, Shivani Gupta.com S H I V A N I G U P T A and then my supplements and my teas are at Fusionary formulas. That's F u S I o N a r y formulas.com Yay.

Fantastic. Well, Dr. Shivani, this has been so much fun. You know, I love, I love chatting with you about inflammation and, and how to really go through this next time period, you know, with grace and ease. So thank you you so much.

Thank you, thank you for the work you do.

Thank you, thank you. And for Everybody watching on YouTube, please leave a comment below if you have a question. We'd love to hear it. And don't forget to subscribe. And if you are listening to us on your favorite podcast platform, don't forget to give us a five star review. That helps us get listeners and helps us reach more women. And thank you again and I will be back with you next week on Menopause Mastery.