Ayurveda Secrets Unlock Panchakarma Healing!

Welcome Salila Sukumaram. So Salila is a Ayurvedic educator, a yoga teacher, and she runs her own business, educating people, connecting them, modern science, which people know, the Western guys know, and connecting them to the Eastern wisdom of Ayurveda. She actually has a lineage. She comes from the land of Ayurveda in India called Kerala, which is also often called God's own country. So there she is from, but now she lives in the Silicon Valley and she is making sure that all these techies, their minds stay intact. So let's ask her. Welcome Salila. Tell us a little bit about yourself, a little bit history about yourself, who you are, where did you grow up, how did you land up in San Francisco, Silicon Valley area. And what drew you to Ayurveda?

Amazing. Thank you so much, Dr. Nanda. It's such a pleasure to be here chatting with you and sharing a little bit about me and celebrating Ayurveda. For all the amazing health benefits Ayurveda has, especially for our modern lifestyle, caused disorders and maladies. As you rightly said, I am from a lineage in Kerala, God's own country. However, for the longest time I did not know this because I thought the way my family was weird. All of the families were also weird in India. And Ayurveda runs deep in every family's DNA because this is the knowledge that has been passed down through our ancestors. So we are all following some form of Ayurveda or not, irrespective of what community, what social status we come from. I grew up in a foggy background, in a defense background. So I grew up all over India and I noticed this through of Ayurveda, this way of living according to the seasons, doing certain cleanses throughout the year, following certain rituals throughout these certain regions. And I noticed how food changed, how spices changed as the weather shifted, how the locals followed certain traditions and practices to maintain their health. And all this has informed today's practice that I follow, what I share with my clients here in Silicon Valley who happen to be from all the different climatic conditions from around the world. And now here we are in sunny California. The way I went back to Ayurveda was back in 2015. I was trying to have a second baby and I just kept getting, you know, dinged by the miscarriages over and over again. I had nearly five in a span of three years and the doctors were pumping me with hormones just to maintain the pregnancy. And I was gaining weight and I went into a deep depression with the fifth and the Last one, that was January. And I was at my lowest point in terms of mental, physical health. You can only imagine how much that affects a woman. And then I went back home to India to my mother. And my mother said, you have to go do a panchakarma. And that is when I experienced the beauty and the magic and the power of a panchakarma. And I came back to my full strength as a woman. And from that point on, it became my mission that I needed to help other women like me who were suffering, who just did not know that help is just a phone call away. Help is just a cleanse away.

Maybe let's go one by one, tell our audience what is panchakarma. When I did my panchakarma, when I was studying Ayurveda, I did it for full 21 days. And I did the worst part was the snape anam, when you drink ghee for like seven days in a row. So tell me your experience of panchakarma.

So Panchakarma is one of the most powerful detoxing protocol on the planet, period. Based on Panchakarma, a physician takes a thorough intake of your health, looks at your health completely. Ayurveda believes that when we don't eat or live according to our digestion, our seasons, when we eat too much food or eat food at the wrong times, we have all these lifestyle choices we made, which is called pragya paradha, means crimes against common sense. For example, we need to be sleeping at 10 o'.

Clock.

We are all scrolling on Instagram at 10 o'.

Clock.

So that's a pragyapradha. When we make decisions like these, our body starts to accumulate something sticky called as ama. This ama is an endogenous toxin. It's a byproduct of all the metabolic functions that should happen in the body, ideally optimally. But it doesn't happen because we interfere with that process through our diet and lifestyle choices and stress. When this sticky thing develops in our capillaries and micro channels, naturally it's going to affect our, you know, all the functions in the body negatively. We start to feel headaches, patchy skin, rashes on the skin, weight gain, you know, puffiness under the eyes, asthmatic conditions, issues with our bowel movements, it's not complete, it doesn't feel satisfactory. Aches and pains in our joints, hair fall, pcos, things like these start to develop. Insulin resistance is another big one. So the Ayurvedic perspective is that this AMA can actually be cleansed out of the body through a panchakarma. And when we go through panchakarma medicines, decoctions, herbs, diet, yoga, sweating therapies, all these are done to remove that AMA from our body. And this is done through massages, through lots of oiling the body, through sweating in one of those steam boxes. You probably remember that, right? You got a lot of that drinking ghee, which goes in deep into our channels and then extracts that AMA out through our elimination channels, which is pooping, peeing, sweating. And then what doesn't is then purgated out of the body through emesis, which is. Which is throwing up through diarrhea and then through enemas or vasti, which cleanses our colon. So once this is done, people come back with amazing results saying, oh my God, my joints don't hurt anymore. I look 10 years younger. I have so much more energy. I was not so flexible in my yoga class, but now I'm so flexible. So you are an example of that as well, that, you know, magic happens at the end.

Absolutely. I lost several pounds. I felt the best. So 21 days. For people who don't know, Panchakarma means five therapies, Panch means five, and Karma are the therapies. Panch Karma is 21 days, the full panchakarma. And then there are shortened versions of it nowadays that I call it McDonald's or Panch Karma. I don't necessarily suggest. I suggest go for the full deal if you're suffering. So, Salila, tell us, after your panchakarma, what were the major effects? Like, I know you went through a lot.

For me, one of the first benefits I received was atypical. I had a kundalini release and I felt the energy shoot up my spine. And that itself was worth the whole thing because that set me on a completely different path. Personally, my relationship with the God divine intelligence completely shifted. I moved from a very consumeristic, materialistic mindset to a very spiritual and serving mindset. And that was a very pivotal time in my life. That panchakarma, it changed the trajectory of my life. And on the physical level, I would say I lost nearly 10 pounds. I dropped several dress sizes, I got my body back, my periods became very regular and my mind was so clear and my purpose became so clear to me that I had to just come back and sit, start the service that I'm doing right now, start the company. That was the biggest benefit from my first panchakarma.

So how did it go from there? Did you get educated in Ayurveda?

Yes. For me the first step was understanding that what my parents were sharing with me, what my mother was sharing with me was actually Ayurveda. Because before that I just thought mom was crazy and she was just making my life difficult. Right? And then studying under various vaidyas, doing a lot of independent study, buying the Samhitas and poring over them. I studied for nearly three years before I felt the confidence to even say that I am starting to practice. And I believe my first paid client was around 20, 18 or 19. And that was an American gentleman who was like Salila, you gave me so much value that you need to start charging for this. And I did not have a guru at that time, so I did not know. Usually in Indian traditional way of teaching, the guru tells you, you are now ready, you can charge. That only happened for me in the last several years where I've met several gurus who have told me that, yes, you are now ready to charge for the value that you serve with. So that has given me the confirmation that I can serve more, I can offer more premium products, more one on one coaching. Before that I was focusing more on one consultations. Now I'm focusing on cleanses for the movers and the shakers of the world.

Do you actually do panchakarma in Silicon Valley?

I help guide them remotely. I teach them how to do panchakarma to themselves. So the five karmas that you spoke about, the panchakarmas, I guide them, I teach them, I make them vaidyas of their own body. I teach them how to do nasya, abhyanga, vasti, vamana, virechana, raktamokshana, all this I teach them.

So for people who may not understand, panchakarma is five therapies. And can you go through them one by one in English?

So the therapies are tailored based on a person's health condition and what is required in the beginning, in the proper panchakarma time and during transition time is decided based on the health issues the patient has, the client has. And I usually begin with one drop nasya, which is different from the nasya offered in hospitals under physician supervision. Because I'm not a doctor, I'm a practitioner. I make sure that whatever we are doing is gentle, yet still just as much as effective. Because the idea is to empower people to do these confidently and to notice the changes that are happening in their body.

So when you say nasya, nasya is basically oil, could it be any oil or is that the oil that you get From India?

Yes. We work with anutaila from Kotaka or Shadbindu Thaila. Mostly it is anutaila, some people who may have migraines and all that. So our first 14 days usually is a langhana therapy. It is usually a drying out therapy where we help the client manage their diet and lifestyle in a very specific manner. We teach them how to do nasya on a daily basis. We teach them how to do abhyanga, which is applying oils all over their body on a daily basis. We do svedhana, which is sweating therapies. So some people have access to sauna in their home or at a gym. Or if they don't have that, then they can, you know, just do a dance workout for 15 minutes and then they will sweat very nicely. So these are the ways we help the body prepare. Remember the ama we talked about, the sticky toxin? The sticky toxin is bound to a certain herb that I give, which is specifically titrated in a very specific manner. So the ama starts to get dislodged.

Which herb is that?

I will not be able to share the name because I don't want people to just go out there and start eating it because it might backfire in some cases. Yeah. But once the first 14 days of preparation is done, then we do snehapana. Then we do fasting, which is the therapy you went through for seven days. We do it for one, two or three days, depending on what the health goals of the person is. After that, I teach them how to do. So sneha pana, just for people. Sneha means ghee. Pana means drinking. So first thing in the morning, we wake up and we drink a certain specific amount of ghee. And this ghee will go inside the body and bind even more closely with those toxins since we had dislodged from all the cells.

And by the way, if people think regular ghee, it's not regular ghee. It's ghee with like 20 plus herbs. It's literally black in color.

The way I do it, that the way you did it was under the physician's guidance. So the physician gave you something like maybe tiktakritam or dadimadi gritam or something like that. That's a very bitter ghee and it's very. So each condition has a different gi. However, in my practice, I give our normal ghee because that is also powerful because it can go deep into the tissues. It has the quality of yoga. Vahi means it will enhance whatever therapies are being done. So it will go latch on to that sticky toxin we talked about. And once it's latched on, then the body naturally will bring it back into the alimentary canal. And then I teach them vamana, which is three throwing up. We have a very special way of doing that. It is kind of similar to what we do in the Ayurveda centers, but not as intense. So in the Ayurveda center? Yeah. Please go ahead. I know you have the experience to.

Share, so I would like you to explain what are the benefits of nasya? Especially for my friends who live in east coast. These people are living in heated homes. Means I was in New York and I literally, it was snowing outsiders. It was heated. Ohm. At two o' clock I wake up and my entire mouth is dry, my nose is dry. So what do you think is the benefit of nasya which most people hear they have some kind of problems with nasal breathing or with related to respiration, related to nose. What do you think nasya does to them?

Yeah. So when we take that a nasya like Anutaila, you said that this has over 25 herbs in it, which is like a standard for Ayurvedic oils. Everything will have over two to three dozen herbs in it. And this nasya herbs will go deep into all the sinus, capillaries, all these channels inside our face and it will open them up. So immediately after we do nasya we experience lots of drainage. If there was lots of things that were stuck in there and once all these channels have opened up, once the bones that are kind of the encasing our brain, all that is well nourished, these medicines even pass into the blood brain barrier, so it will also nourish our brain. What the acharya say is when we do nasya, not only does it make everything from the chest upwards healthy, so the chest to the throat. So think about thyroid issues, think about sinuses, think about allergies. That extreme dryness that you talked about, plus brain fog, right. The pituitary not functioning very well, the hypothalamus not functioning very well. Some people love to stay up and they get active in the night. They go opposite to the circadian rhythm. So re establishing the circadian rhythm. Right. Nasya has the power to make all this come back to its natural harmony. Isn't that fascinating?

I was actually studying, I was talking to a friend of mine who's a neuroscientist, he and we were talking about nasya and we were discussing and I think by clearing up the paranasal system. What you do is you're also helping the bacteria, the NO2 forming bacteria, which helps nitric oxide in our body, which helps lower the blood pressure, open up the blood vessels that all. I actually have a firm belief that NASA could be a part of it. I was talking to him if he could actually do a study on it. I've heard Dr. Andrew Huberman, a famous podcaster from Silicon Valley area, Stanford, he and Peter Attai and all these people have been talking about yoga Nidra, how you can just have 40 minutes of rest and take four, four hours of sleep in a way. They're naming it NHDR, whatever some names on it, but they're doing a lot of research on it, which is great. I'm so happy. But people don't realize a lot of this ancient knowledge actually is there in India, which people don't realize. In the meanwhile, tell me one thing, if I was in an accident, obviously I would want to go into a Cedars and Eye or like a UCLA or usc. Any hospital that has emergency medicine. How do you think Ayurveda complements modern science to medicine maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle?

I believe that the way I practice Ayurveda I focus on prevention and balancing the diet and the lifestyle so that the person feels way more healthier. So while there is emergency medicine. Absolutely. On a day to day basis, Ayurvedic rituals and protocols are the best way to maintain our health.

And can you share some extremely extreme success story that you had with one of your patients?

Yeah, so I share something called as 21 daily sacred rituals. These are the rituals that a person should do to come back to health. Now I shared this with one of my lovely clients and she was struggling with trying to have a baby for nearly a decade and she had believed that she was incapable of having a child. And as soon as she started to incorporate the these rituals into her life, within like the first 10 days, she conceived and she delivered a healthy baby. So I was blown away that there was no intervention required other than just the 10 days of rearranging her daily rituals and her food. That's it.

That's amazing. It's the mindfulness and the mindset which is half the battle won because till until you believe that it's going to work, it doesn't work. Your clients today, are they mostly Indians? Are they regular American, white? Any other race or has any particular race seen better result than the other? What is your experience on that?

I believe people with Indian heritage generally have a faster result because they remember things from their childhood or what their grandma did. Somebody who is from another nationality or community. I have clients from all over the world, all different colors, orientations. Usually the only issue is understanding that this will be helpful. But some of my white patients are the most diligent when it comes to following the protocol. Hats off to them. The way they do it is. I am impressed.

And how do you help your clients manage stress and anxiety? Using Ayurveda practices and, of course, maybe even yoga.

Yeah, I tend to go into the classics, the basics. The basics are the three trayopasthamba of Ayurveda, the three pillars that hold up our health is our diet, is our sleep, and is our relationship and our exercise. So if somebody's diet is not optimal, they're doing too much or at the wrong times, their body is going to experience anxiety because they're not making good decisions. If they're not sleeping on time and getting that full, deep, good eight hours of sleep again, their body is naturally going to feel anxious. Then. The third thing is, if their relationships are not supportive, it does not matter what fantastic jobs they do or how much money they have, if they are constantly in the presence of a negative person or somebody who puts them down, they are going to feel anxiety. Plus, you know, if somebody is holding their urges. The Vegas. This is another reason Ayurveda says people develop stress. That is the urge to sleep, the urge to cry, the urge to sneeze, the urge to go to the bathroom on time. If people are stopping this because they are busy behind their desks or because they are browsing through the Internet, looking at reels at night, all this is going to also create stress in their body.

So interestingly, I have a friend who ended up developing a kidney issue because he was a poker player, a professional poker player, and he would play poker seven, eight hours sitting at the table, not getting up even to go pee. Ultimately, he had disease. So people don't realize small little things which they take for granted could end up ruining their life. The guy's on dialysis today. Tell me, what do you think of. I see nowadays when you go to a Walmart or a Walgreens or Rite Aid. I see. Or even on social media, everybody recommending, like, all these women, they're making unique videos. Somebody crying, somebody doing something, and recommending these gummies made with ashwagandha and then some people recommending some other herbs. What do you think? How legitimate is this? Like, I see shilajit and ashwagandha being abused I wouldn't make a decision. I'll let you call it out. What do you think of that?

I believe that these herbs are powerful and potent and must at least the first few times should be taken under supervision of a practitioner or a physician. Because somebody could be a very high vata, a very high, let's say pitta prakriti, since we're talking about ashwagandha. And ashwagandha can increase the heat in the body. So if there, if a woman who is going through perimenopause and hot flashes and decides to take ashwagandha gummies because she saw a reel somewhere, she is going to land up in trouble. Now, people also make their favorite decoctions. They will mix akshwagandha with turmeric and with lemon, which is all very heating. And they're drinking this like volcanic cocktail and then their body is going to just burst out in boils and it will go on till the body clears all that heat. So they may end up with visits to the doctor's office they had not anticipated because of these choices they make.

What do you think of like I see curcumin capsules being in Costco. I was talking to one of the young ladies at my A gym and she said she had a little ache in like she had a little twist in her arm. She said the two pills don't work. So she started pocking 16 turmeric pills a day. 16. And this was not even turmeric. This was curcumin, which is the base of the turmeric. And she was taking 16 a day and the pain just went away. So what do you say to somebody like that?

She is lucky that it went away like that. For her, it was like she threw a dart in the dark and it stopped stuck. However, majority of the people will experience a lot of acidity if they do things like that. I believe in whole foods. When the food is eaten in its natural form and it's cooked in a certain way, it's going to be easier on our system because I believe in a point of no return. When we abuse our body in this way, our body reaches that point of no return, then we may have to live lifelong with a condition that developed because, because of those choices we made. However, if we eat things as diet, then we will never hurt our body.

So in India, when I used to go to the originally to the Vaidyas, they recommend taking haldi, which is turmeric powder. And in America, everybody's taking curcumin, just curcumin by itself. Now, in India, the haldi was always given with some fat like ghee, or it was given like with milk and ghee. How do you explain that?

I feel like the curcumin is what was derived in the lab. Based on their studies, I believe in what the vaidyas do in India. I believe it is not going to harm the body. The body will be able to manage any negative effects from it. However, when we take pure chemical substances, then the body does not have its defenses and there may be conditions that will arise from that that may put somebody in er.

Also, can you explain how Ayurveda guides dietary choices and how you determine the best foods for a person as per their dosha?

So the first step is always deciding their dosha, whether they are a vata, which means a skinny person who does not gain a lot of weight and probably has anxiety and overwhelm and constipation like issues. The second is the pitta body type, where they may be a little bit impatient, maybe a little bit arrogant. They're, you know, they flush out, they sunburn easily, they are athletic, their body type. And the third is the kapha dosha body type, where they are well rounded, they are earth element dominant, they are loving and nurturing. Once we figure out the basic body type, then the diet is totally tailored according to the dominant dosha, whether it is vata, pitta or kapha. So for vata people, I would say avoid cold, raw, dry, stale. These are the foods to avoid and already their body will start to heal. For the pitta people, I will say avoid very salty, oily, spicy or sour, which includes fermented foods as well. That resets their diet. For kapha people, I will say stay away from too much of dairy, nuts, sugars and salt, slimy foods that will get them back to optimal health.

Is there a particular dosha that you feel needs treatment the most urgently or is it just about balancing them out?

I feel like when you have a high kapha dosha, when you have gained a lot of weight and it is affecting your insulin resistance, your insulin sensitivity, your hormones are imbalanced. Because I work mostly with women. If their thyroid is very low, if they are on a hypothyroid issue, they have pcos, pcod, then I like to intervene quickly because a woman is the pillar of her home, her community. If a woman is happy and healthy, the family is happy and healthy, the community is happy and healthy, society is happy and healthy. And it's such a shame because women don't take these hormonal issues seriously enough, they just go through life even if they're going through very challenging periods, lots of pain, they just take pills and they say, I'll push through this. It is so sad. Such patients, I tell them to do the cleanse, take care of your health, it's not worth it.

So let's break down the woman's health since you're a specialist in that area. So the major problems probably start in late teenagers. 18 year old young girls have started developing PCOS here. That's becoming more and more of a norm now. There is modern science and There are some YouTubers who have been talking about insulin resistance being one of the causes of pcos. What is your take on it?

Yeah, so you rightly said. It's around the teenage that girls develop pcos. And it's not just one condition. It's a host of conditions where there's skin darkening, there's excess hair, there's pain during periods. Some of them may gain weight, which leads to insulin resistance. However, some may be skinny and understanding that they have pcos, what happens is during their young adulthood they may not take it as seriously. But when they get married, when they need to have a child, that's when the problem starts. Right. They may get through their corporate days by popping pills and things like that. But however, when they get married, the expectation is to have a family and then they have repeated miscarriages, which is tragic. When such a person approaches me, I offer them the cleanse. If they cannot take time off of work and go to a Panchakarma center for 21 days, then an at home guided cleanse is the best way to take care of their health, to bring that balance in their hormonal functions.

Any herb you recommend for them.

I don't recommend herbs off the bat, especially in public forums, because I'm afraid of people misusing the herbs like you said. Right. Pop 16 pills of curcumin and that will be a tragedy. That would be terrible. However, what they can do is to make sure that they are sweating every day. Every day. So they join a dance class or yoga workout or hot yoga or go to the sauna and sweat every day. That will make a huge difference in their hormonal imbalances.

Beautiful. That's great. And a second arena of Women starts around 25, 27, 28 when they try to conceive and they unfortunately can't. So what would be your general macro advice for them?

General advice would be to reach a practitioner and establish a daily Diet lifestyle intervention and see whether their periods normalize. Because it's no point trying to do this on your own for several years and then the condition gets worse and then you hit that point of no return.

I understand, but a lot of people may not have the resources to go to a practitioner or may not be ready. Can you give them in public forum some guidance?

Then adding slimy foods which are fertility enhancing foods will be slimy. Yeah, slimy foods like banana, spinach, fenugreek, oatmeal, guava, lotus roots, lotus seeds, makhana. All these are good foods.

Even lady finger. I don't know what you call them.

Lady fingers, Okra. Amazing. Yeah.

Any other. That's a great word of wisdom. Can you give us more words of.

Wisdom like that, Avoiding stress, getting back to the trayopastamba we talked about in the beginning, making sure your diet is correct, you are eating on time, you are not overdoing identifying your body type. You can go on to any website and figure out what body type you are. There's lots of quizzes. So whether they are a vata body type, a pitta body type.

We actually have1ongurunanda.com and one third thing is when they come around 30s, a lot of societies like Chinese, Indians especially, they start to really put a lot of pressure on the women. Oh, you need to get married. So they start to develop a lot of changes in them. They get very angry, they get very modestic. What would you suggest to them in terms of herbs or diet or lifestyle?

I would talk to them about lifestyle, like boundaries, values. Like we are modern women and our values may not align with the values of the past generation of the parents. So if a girl is independent and living by herself and she is facing extreme stress because her parents are putting this kind of pressure on her and she's not ready for this, then it would be helpful to place certain boundaries, not give people access to your energy. Focus on what your goals in life are. Because ultimately when you are 50, 60, your parents may not be around. However, we have another 40 years to live through. And if we've made poor choices and decisions based on pressure from others, we have several decades to live through the aftermath of that.

Exactly as Geeta said, you came naked, you came alone, you'll go naked, you'll go alone.

Yes.

So that's great. The next thing is the last of the other woman stage is either pre menopausal or post menopausal. Any herbs or anything in public forum that you can recommend.

I would say Shatavari is an herb which is very cooling, which is very calming, which is estrogenic. So maybe half a teaspoon of Shatavari a day with milk cooked very well, a little bit of saffron can be added to that. That is a good one to just get the body's, you know, that estrogen ups and downs during perimenopause, menopause, the day.

Shatavari has been known to be very adaptogenic, very similar to Ashwagandha. In a way, it's a rasayana. So. So shatavari and saffron is something that people can look at, of course, under the medical guidance or practitioner guidance. Any other words of wisdom that you may want to say for the women?

Especially the words of wisdom that I want to say bye with is figure out what you want to do in life and focus on that. Completely forget that you are a man or a woman or there is a certain expectation or role from society. Just figure out your life's purpose and follow that. Because we are here to actualize ourselves and we are not here to dance according to somebody else's tune or the roles they offer us. We are here to express the divine in ourselves and that is what will give us the best satisfaction out of life. Through my cleanses, through my programs, that is, my aim is to restore shakti, restore the power of a woman, give her that power back in her hands so that she can embody that Durga, that Lakshmi, that Saraswati, the role, that big role that she's born for and not the small roles that society and parents want to straitjacket us.

In good words of wisdom. You have a website, right? Can you share that?

Yes, my website is www.ayurgamaya.com.

Will take all her links and put them out there. So thank you so much today for Salila, for your time. It was so amazing talking to you.

Thank you, Dr. Nanda.