Ancient Rites: Ayurveda For A Boosted Libido

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Hey, everybody, welcome back to another summit interview. I am excited. Again, I am your host, Dr. Diane, your libido doctor and I have with me a very special guest today, a friend and colleague, Amish Shah, who is going to tell us all about Ayurveda. He is going to tell us about how this different approach to medicine, health, wellness, and longevity is a very useful approach for libido, for sexual dysfunction of all different types. Welcome to the summit, Amish. I am so happy to have you. Welcome.

Amish Shah

Yes. Thanks for having me. Very excited to talk about libido.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

It is a really fun topic, full of puns over and over. Yes.

Amish Shah

I am sure you are probably hearing them over and over again.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

I know that. It is fine.

Amish Shah

Yes, it is just that,  from my perspective and understanding of where I came from, I have a different perspective, and it is probably similar to what everyone else says. But I have a perspective from an ancient medical science called Ayurveda, and I think that is what is unique about this conversation.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yes, I think we should start there. I think let us start with the fact that a lot of people have not even heard of this word before. There are going to be some people who have heard of this, and they probably know what it is. Then we have people who have probably never heard this word pronounced before. Let us make sure you are including everybody. Can you give us just a little bit of an overview of what Ayurveda is and the history behind this type of medicine and wellness practice?

Amish Shah

Sure, yes. Ayurveda is an ancient medical system. It is the most intact and most documented ancient medical system. It goes back over 5000 years ago from India. It comes from India. It is time-tested. I always say the truth is timeless. It has lasted over 5,000 years. Before it was written down in Scribe, it was passed down orally from tradition to tradition and from household to household. It was fascinating that thousands of years ago they had eight branches of this medical system that included psychiatric, pediatrics, had stuff about sex, and had stuff about libido and diseases down to cancer and diabetes.

They catalogued 10,000 plants and shrubs, and what have you, across the planet. They had 25,000 different recipes that you could use for all of these various ailments. They had surgery books in 3,000 B.C. and you are, What? Well, so it is fascinating. Modern science is just starting to catch up with it. People have heard of turmeric; people have heard of holy basil and ashwagandha. These are herbs that come from Ayurveda. They started in Ayurveda and now they are making their way into popularity in Western European countries. But they have been using these things in India for thousands of years—quite literally thousands of years. It is a really powerful medical system. It is so powerful. I have a personal story about it. Before I explain how it works, I probably want to explain my personal story, how it affected me, and what it did to my life in particular.

Growing up, I was sick and I did not know what was going on. I have stomach aches, migraines, and stuff like that. As I got older in my teens, I got vitiligo, and I ended up getting sick again. My migraines just started getting worse. I would go to the doctors, and they would say, Nothing’s wrong. Just go home, take some Pepto-Bismol, rub this on your skin, and everything’s fine. I was. Okay, I just normalized the pain to some extent. I was. Okay, I guess, so that is what I do. Pop a Tylenol.  I guess I will just deal with it. 

That was the beginning. In my mid-20s, I found success at a very young age. multi-millions of dollars in the early 2000s and the dot-com boom. I built software companies, and I thought I had everything. I was a high-flying entrepreneur. I moved from New York to California in La Hoya and bought a huge house, fancy cars, my watches, and all this fancy stuff. Before I knew it, I was partying. I was not partying in New York, but I was doing it way more when I came to California because I was living life. That just got out of control quickly to the point where my migraines got worse, my bowel movements were completely off, my stomach pains were on, and I just could not deal with the pain. I had to see a doctor. 

I started to see doctors; they took lab reports and everything on my lab report. My blood report was just astronomical. My cholesterol when I was 29 years old was 370. I had fatty liver pre-diabetes and near renal failure. I am. What the hell is going on with my life? I know I am partying, but is it that crazy? All my friends also party like this? I then started to get CAT scans and MRIs, and I started getting ultrasounds. I just did not know what was going on. I was like, my head hurts. Can you take a scan here? My stomach hurts. Take a scan here. My back hurts. Take a scan there. My nose is all messed up. I just kept taking scans; nothing was there. I am; something is wrong with me. I am in pain. This is not normal. 

Around that time, I shifted my attention to what I love most. I sold the company off and I want to reset my buttons because I thought it was the company, to be honest with you.  I did that, and that is where I discovered Ayurveda. I went into perspective and I knew the Western medicine system would not work so I went to Ayurveda and started filming a documentary around it. I was hoping that one of these doctors would have an answer for me. What is wrong with me? I am in pain every day. While we are shooting the documentary, I would be. Okay, at the end of the interview, I am. If you had a migraine and stuffed nose, now our movements were all funky and you did not know what was going on. What would you do? A lot of them suggested going to a detox retreat.

I went to a detox retreat, and I felt amazing. I evaded detox retreats, by the way, they are amazing. I will get into this in just a second. Now, when I was sick, I could not think properly. My business was giving me stress. I was not sexually active; I did not want to be sexually active. I was just in so much pain, and I just did not have a libido. I felt I wanted to, but I just could not. I do not know if that makes sense. I had sometimes trouble. I just did not want to get it up. and that was exactly how it was. I was newly married. It was tough for me at that time. I am supposed to be enjoying those times in your life. The pain continues to get worse. We ended up having two children. I am filming these doctors again along the way. At some point in 2016-17, I said, I am done filming. I cannot finish this film. Even Ayurveda makes me feel good after I do my detox retreats, I am taking the herbs and drinking the teas, and I feel amazing.

But I still have these bouts. I would have these bouts of massive migraines and sinus infections. I am, and I have got to do more. I have to go to another retreat and go on another detox. I feel good every single time I do that. I was keeping some of the pain at bay using Ayurveda, but it was this. It was this weird cycle that was happening to me. In 2017, I went to India to shoot some more footage. and I went to an entrepreneur conference because that is in my blood. Over there, they had a startup, and they took a swab, and it turns out I have celiac disease. For 38 years of my life, I have been eating gluten. Celiac is an extreme aversion to gluten. It is not just an allergy; it is a genetic disorder. My body does not even recognize it. It just attacks. It does not know what to do. It just does not even know how to handle it. It just literally attacks my body. Every time I ate wheat or gluten, boom, I would be done. 

Then, by this time, I had 8 to 12 ulcers and could not function. I was bedridden by this time, and I had just finally found an answer to what was wrong. I used Ayurveda, and by this time I had eight ulcers in my intestinal tract, and I was just a mess. Wrapping this story up quickly, I got super healthy because of Ayurveda. It saved my life. Then afterward I finished the film because I am, That saved my life. Now it is out. What I realized, what Ayurveda did was, that it gave me my libido back. It gave me my energy back. It gave me my life back. It gave me my relationship back. It made me great in bed, strong, and wanting to do these things. Not just sick, leave me alone, and push people up. Push my wife away, and Ayurveda: It is interesting because libido is part of a function of energy in general. It has to do with energy. Libido, is how you are feeling, how your mind is functioning, and what your emotional state is. It is all tied in with the way Ayurveda work is going to go from the beginning. 

Ayurveda says that the universe is built on five elements very similar to Chinese medicine, but the elements are slightly different. They all mean they correlate, but they are named differently. ether or space, there is all this ether space around us. Drive, black matter. The whole universe is supposedly black matter or dark matter. We have air that is constantly moving through our lungs and in the sky. Fire, we have this huge ball of fire in the sky that powers our universe, or at least Earth. We have fire to cook our food and fire to keep warm water, which is survival; we need water to survive. We have rivers. We have oceans and earth, right? We have a body. We are physical beings. This laptop is a physical thing. My wooden table downstairs is a physical thing. My trees outside are our earth’s material. They say that these five elements, when you combine them, create forces, or it is using physics to some extent. When you combine ether and air, it creates something called Vata dosha. The doshas are humors or constitutions. Vata.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Grow fast.

Amish Shah

Yes.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

I want to ask you before you go too much into Vata because I want to. I am just tracking where I think people might be getting confused.

Amish Shah

Okay.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

So I have a background in Chinese medicine, so there is some overlap. But tell us, can you tell us a little bit? Can you backtrack a little bit before you go into the doshas and start describing Vata? Can you tell us a little bit more about these elements and why we are talking about you giving examples in the environment? Can you take it a little more granular before you go to the bottom and describe maybe a couple of examples of how these forces existed inside of us before? Yes, because I think that might help people make that leap with you a little bit more.

Amish Shah

Sure. Yes. Ether and air together, the air is constantly moving. Something is movement. There is always movement with air; you can feel the air. We have air going inside our lungs and coming out of our lungs. That is a motion of air. The clouds in the sky when they are moving fast or creating air on Earth. The elements are outside of us. They are inside of us. They created the entire universe. These five elements are what create the entire universe. In combination, they create certain functions. ether and air create movement; everything on Earth moves. Ants are moving along the ground, there is food moving through our digestion, and there is air moving through our lungs, right? Everything in the universe moves. Everything, even rocks, will move over time. So, that is, before I get into the Sanskrit term, that is movement, which is Vata. We see ether; we see air. When you combine them, it means moving because you need space for air to move without space. Air would not move. That is, the ancients were. Hey, these two things together are movement. That’s it. 

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yes.

Amish Shah

Yes. Then we have fire and water. Fire is in the sky—that big ball of fire that we see in the sky that I mentioned. But guess where else? We have a fire, and we have warmth inside our bodies. What keeps our body at 98.6 degrees or whatever, every single day, is heat. That is the fire inside of us. It may not look like a fire, but we have inside of us these heating elements that create heat inside of us, and that heat is in your digestion. It is in your eyes. It is in anything that has to process or transform information. fire and water together, because water is always moving and it transforms, so does fire. They say that when fire and water come together, there is transformation. What happens when you take fire and it goes out? It condenses, creates water, and creates vapor as well. 

Fire and water go very well together. Are our bodies supposedly 75% water, according to science as well? How does our body stay? 98.6 degrees. That is fire. How do our eyes see things? Well, there is some heat coming in. It is an electrical signal. We are taking in information, and that is the heat that is coming in. It is being processed through an electrical signal. If you touch an electrical outlet, which I do not suggest, you will feel a huge heat rush through your body; that is fire. They said that these two elements—fire and water—are transformations. Everything in the universe is constantly transforming. Also, besides moving, it is transforming. 

What happens when we eat food? It gets transformed into waste and comes out of our bodies in various ways. But whatever is taken out of that food gives us energy. It gives us vitality. It gives us the ability to talk, continue, and regulate the human body. That is transformation. In the example of electricity, again, there is a light in front of me. I am plugged. It is plugged into the wall. There is an electric signal coming in. But somehow that electric signal is being turned into a light. It is being transformed. Everything in this universe is constantly transforming. It is constantly moving from one energy state to another.

The ancients talked about how fire and water together are transformed, and that transformation is called Pitta, which is Dosha. They said, Hey, transformation, then everything transforms. That is just called Pitta. Then the last two combinations are water and earth, and water and earth. Why?  We were made up of 75% water. Well, why are we not just a puddle of water on the ground? Well, it is because we have a structure. We have Earth; we have bones; we have ligaments; we have skin. We have this connective tissue that holds us together. It is the water and earth elements that create the structure. That is the last dosha of Kapha. Kapha means structure. 

When you combine water and earth, you get structure; buildings have structure; houses have structure; plants have structure; they have root systems; they have water; they have structure. You can see them. You can hold them. Everything in the universe has a structure.  The three things that we have to look at in the entire universe are that everything moves. everything transforms, and everything has structure. Those are the three most important aspects of Ayurveda. The names in Sanskrit are Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. 

Now, I am going to stick to the easier terms to use for this call. The three that I just mentioned, which would be movement, information, and structure. Now, what the ancients said was that we are all made up of these five elements, which combine into these three structures. These three forces—these three forces—were born with three forces. When one of them goes out of balance, That is when you get out of balance. You start feeling sick. If you get dizzy, It is the culmination of us being out of balance with one of these three structures that something is wrong or even one of the five elements because they exist within. That is the basis of Ayurveda; that is just the basis. guess what? All the plants I just mentioned also have these three things and the five elements in them. If something is off in our body, we can use a plant, we can use a tree, we can use the bark, we can use something of it because it may, if this middle one is off, this plant may bring it down because it has the same three qualities but in different amounts.

Now, the three that I have are different from the three that you have in the quantity that we have. same with the plants. What they did was, this plant has this, and your problem is this. Let us put them together so they balance each other. It is very simple. When you think about it, it is just that we are not taught to think from that perspective. This is why the movie is called The Natural Law. As I started interviewing all of these experts, I was thinking, Wait, everything is just being by nature and the natural law, something that already occurs in the universe. So there are certain principles and laws in the universe that, when you do not listen to them, you become sick, unhappy, and diseased.

Now, when it comes to libido specifically, that is where it gets interesting with Ayurveda because you are just saying, Okay, if everything is that simple, there are only three things that are happening. What is causing my libido to get out of whack? Number one in Ayurveda is the mind. They say: that disease does not occur in the body. It starts in the mind and crystallizes in the body. When we are talking about libido, I would not call it a disease per se. I do not even know if it is categorized as a disease, to be honest with you. But according to our data, they say the number one place to look for libido is stress, depression, and fear. The emotional state of your mind can control what is going on down there and how you feel about being sexually charged and sexually active.

If you do not have a lack of purpose, if you ever see, if you have a lack of purpose and you just hate your job and you do not do what you do and you are just pissed off, a lot of time at work is going to affect your libido. If certain things are affecting you, such as relationships, if you are missing passion or compassion, you can be lacking creativity or suppressing your creativity because you have so many things going on. These are all things that affect your libido. What we say is that Prana is a vital force. When you eat food, you get Prana, you get force, and you get energy from these foods, especially vegetables. Because it is packed with all this energy. It is a powerful energy. Inside these foods is Prana. Prana first enters through the mind, and if it is blocked, it cannot go into your body. 

If you are blocking it here, how do you expect something down here to function properly? That goes for your whole body. It is not just your libido. It could be your heart, it could be your liver, it could be your adrenals—it can be a lot of things. Creating a clear mind-body connection is extremely important in Ayurveda. It is just step one. We are going to be getting into some others more, maybe graspable foods and herbs, but for now, emotional state is seriously so important, and so Prana governs the male reproductive tissues. I am going to repeat that Prana, the food, and the energy we receive from the environment and our food govern the male reproductive tissue.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

What do we mean by governing for people?

Amish Shah

Yes, sure, it controls it. If Prana is blocked off, it is your male reproductive tissues and products may not work properly.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

But the mind blocks out all of these emotions. There’s all this stress that blows out. If Prana is blocked, there is no energy sent to the male genitals and reproductive tissues.

Amish Shah

Pay attention to your emotional state. Are your relationships healthy? Are they happy? Are they stressful? Are they unfulfilling? The other thing is self-love. Do you love yourself? Do you love yourself? If you do act on it, feel it, and let that Prana flow. Love everyone around you. number one, emotion.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

That is, say, what governs the female genitalia. Because I know all our ladies right now are wanting to know.

Amish Shah

Yes. Prana is the same concept as well. Prana and Ojas. Ojas are a vital force, and we get them just through food like almonds, fruits, and vegetables. It is almost synonymous with Prana. Prana is the energy that moves, and Ojas is what creates the Prana. We want to consume foods that are high in Ojas. According to Ayurveda, many foods are high in Ojas; ghee being one of them and almonds being another one. I am going to be getting into some herbs and some other stuff in just a little bit. But what is funny is that in Ayurveda, yes, there are different herbs for males and females, but there are also a lot of similar herbs that work for both. Again, this has to do with the dosha because the doses are what govern and control what is happening down there and in our bodies. Libido, sexual passion, and sexual energy are controlled by the Ojas and the Prana that are entering our bodies.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

I just want to make a note of that too, for everybody, because there could be people thinking, But men and women are so different. But if you look at it in my mind, that is a Western comparison of that. When it comes down to it, hormone-wise, testosterone, and DHEA are two hormones that are so huge for libido. Even though testosterone is at higher levels in men, the need for it is still, say, equal from the standpoint that both men and women need testosterone and DHEA for their libido. We are saying there is some level of similarity there, would you say?

Amish Shah

Yes, there is. Yes. Now, again, do not get me wrong; there are different herbs and foods that women and men can take that will accelerate things. But there are many areas that you just start with and many foods that you could just start with, both men and females and see an increase just by starting at the food and herb level. Now, if you have a serious issue, you can upgrade and use some more male and female-specific types of herbs.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Okay, perfect. We have Prana. What else do we have that people need to worry about here?

Amish Shah

Yes. The things that can also help here are breathwork and meditation.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yes.

Amish Shah

There is a specific breathwork that I’d like to talk about if we can.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Please.

Amish Shah

Yes. Okay, cool. Breathwork is so powerful. It is so powerful. Now, science is just starting to catch up on how important breath is for our body. Now again, guess where, and guess where else? Prana was found? In the air. You are breathing, and you are taking it in and out. You are getting Prana. It is what keeps you alive. It is what keeps you animated. That is what gives you character. So there is a breathwork called Brahmari, and Brahmari is known to stimulate the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. Now the hypothalamus produces all kinds of hormones that are good for testes, but it is also good for women’s hormones as well. 

It is good for breathwork in general, which is good for blood flow. You can circulate oxygen within the blood, which is going to help bring blood flow wherever you want it to, wherever you want to go. I am going to talk about how breathwork and meditation tie together in just a second. With meditation, when you are taking in breaths concentrating your mind, and meditating on specific areas of your body, those areas will move and transform that Prana where you want it. Meditation, sitting in calm silence, focusing on energy, focusing on the breath, and understanding where it is going and how it is affecting your body.

There are cases of people healing themselves just from breathwork. By understanding that air has power and energy and you can move it to where you want, and you can heal organs and all kinds of stuff. There have been countless studies of this. It is pretty amazing. When we talk about the yogic system in meditation, we have lower chakras, and the chakras are energy centers in our body. The lower chakras are chakra number two and chakra number one. Number one is at the base of your sacrum. Now, men and women have a base of their sacrums. We also have our second chakra, which is, I should say, our gut area. lower gut area. In between those two spaces, your entire sexual energy is controlled. If we can move our Prana and our energy to that area and focus on where it is going and what it is doing, we can do that with breathwork. 

Now, specifically, Brahmari Breathwork is a very specific breathwork. You close your mouth, but you just keep your teeth a little bit apart, and you put your fingers in your ears. You do that, and you just hum like a bee. Mmm. This has been known to stimulate the hypothalamus. Now if you Google Brahmari Breathwork, you might see some other versions of it. You stick your fingers in your ears, and then you do something. I do not do something like this. It is you who cover your eyes. I just do the simple version of this because it is just simpler. There is a more advanced version if you want to get into it. But just humming a bee can help with the hormones in your body.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Okay, two questions about that. One is when people are doing this because I imagine there are a lot of listeners who have their fingers in their ears right now. I heard they are supposed to think about, say, their first and second chakras, or are they supposed to think of that area? Do you find that that makes a big difference in sending that Prana, that energy, and that breath down there? Or can they just be sitting in a blank-mind state? Does that?

Amish Shah

I would say both, and I think it is important to practice both. The blank mind state helps you get out of your head, and that helps with just performance and, in general, getting out of your head, number one. It also helps with stress. There is just so much, and there are so many benefits to just getting empty quiet time in your brain. There is a meditation that has been medically proven to reduce cardiac risk by 56%. There is not a drug on this planet that can reduce cardiac disease by 56%. If it can do that for your heart by increasing blood flow to your heart, guess what else it can do for the rest of your body? Meditation is so powerful. 

Now you can also use meditation and breathwork to see the energy and move the energy in your body. That is the rejuvenation effect. You are visualizing where this energy is moving. then you can see if you can move that energy to your first and second chakras, your lower energy centers, and move that energy there and say, Okay, I am giving positive Prana. I am giving positive energy. I am seeing the white light energy entering my organs and going through my skin into my tissues. That has a physical healing effect on the body. One is for you to get out of your mind and to also help with the physical. But one is more based on the physical, which is the concentration of the energy.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Okay. That is helpful. Then just a small little detail that I think some people might be wondering, which is, does it matter how far your fingers go in your ear? Does that part matter?

Amish Shah

Do not go too far.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yes. Just then gently place.

Amish Shah

Just cover up so that you cannot hear the outside world. When you are humming, you will notice that it gets louder. You just want it to. You want to be able to hear yourself talk. If I am talking right now, I can hear myself talking in my head. That is all you want to go for and do not go any further.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Okay, perfect. That is breathwork meditation. Was there anything else you wanted to add about a tie-in between breathwork meditation, or do you feel that?

Amish Shah

No, I think that is about it. 

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Good.

Amish Shah

It is a good place to leave it off.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Okay, we got Prana and our emotions, breathwork meditation, and so just to make sure everybody is tracking our conversation well, remember all of these different methodologies we are talking about are all different Ayurvedic methodologies to help you all with your underlying balance in your body, your underlying blood flow, your emotional state, and so much more to help with that sexual dysfunction? Let us move on to some more therapy. You mentioned diet and herbs. Do you want to go there now?

Amish Shah

Diet, herbs, and exercise? Yes, I would love to jump in that because I have one that is probably the most palatable and applicable. The first two I explained are more than you can use. Yes. They work, but use them in combination with what I am about to say. I always try to start with this because it is simple and easy. The food, the herbs, the diet, and the exercise will come. But an emotional state is so important. When I was having issues myself, I was in my late 20s or early 30s. Why would I ever have issues at that age? It is because of everything that was going on up here. I was sick too, as I mentioned, but I know that a lot of it was because of so much stress.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yes, and I love that story too, is one more thing, because I think a lot of people may not relate to the fact that, being in your 20s and having a multimillion-dollar situation, having that part might not be relatable for everybody, but regardless of what the situation is, every human has stress. It was such an important thing around. Whatever your stress is, there are lots of different ways to have stress. But that is what we are talking about here.

Amish Shah

Exactly. Yes. Diet is the number one tenant in our area that says, Your digest gene is everything. Disease not only starts in your mind, but it also starts in your mind. Yes. But it is your digestion and your mind. Your gut and your brain are the same in our data. What is going on in your gut is what is going on up here. Eating healthy foods, staying away from cold water, and drinking warm water or room-temperature water throughout the day. A lack of good fats in the diet can affect libido as well. Excessively dry foods, hot foods, or spicy foods cause dehydration. Dehydration will cause a lack of proper function in the reproductive tissues. We want to avoid them. You can eat them now and then. 

Ayurveda has everything in balance. It is fine if you have it. You want to have something spicy once in a while. Go ahead. Just do not do it every day. You want to have a piece of dry fruit, dry meat, or whatever it is. Great. Do it. Just do not do it every day because that is what is going to start sucking up the energy in the Prana and start dehydrating you. So good fats, and stay away from excessively dry, hot, and spicy foods that will cause you to be dehydrated. That is number one. 

Number two, eating foods with a lot of Prana, I talked about. Almonds, for example, are great. An almond drink with nutmeg is awesome. Saffron is a great one if you are into spices and cooking with saffron is amazing. Ghee makes clarified butter. It is butter, but it is clarified. It is a little bit cleaner and does not have as many toxins in it. That is also huge and so good for you. packed with Prana. Ginger, and cardamom. These are all different foods that you can cook, or you can just cook with them every day, and you are just getting this stuff every single day in your food. Herbs and spices go hand in hand. I am going to be getting into more over-the-counter types of herbs in a second, but just a food-only diet. 

You could slip ginger into stuff all day long, with cardamom, saffron, and almonds thrown in. It is good. It will do you so well, so you can do things on dates. Dates are also very good for libido as well. This goes for both men and women. Again. Herbs, let us jump to herbs. Now we covered a little bit of food. I want to jump to herbs. Herbs are Ashwagandha; Ashwagandha is an adaptogen. What it does is calm your central nervous system while strengthening it. It distresses you and makes your barrier for strength when stressed—sorry, I should say even higher. The things that would normally affect you will stop you from being stressed over the long-term use of Ashwagandha. Ashwagandha is an amazing one. I love us trying to get out of this part of our heads.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yes.

Amish Shah

Use the stress to let us get out of the emotional pain that we are in. Shilajit, it is a great one. Shilajit comes from the Himalayan Mountains. Shilajit it looks like a black tar, but it is not. It is an extract from a rock and tree. It comes from the mountains. This gooey black substance contains fulvic acid and also has 87 minerals in it. That is almost every single mineral that we have ever counted; I think there are 101 hundred and some minerals that we need as humans to survive. It contains 87 of them. 

Shilajit, specifically for men, works great for testosterone. It works great for testosterone. Women can also take Shilajit. It is not going to increase their testosterone by any means because it adapts to your body and gives you what you need. But for men, it helps increase testosterone. 

I take Shilajit and put it in my morning coffee. It tastes good in coffee. Then I go for a workout, and I will put it in my wife’s coffee too. But I will do it only half the time that I take it. She will have it once a week. I have it twice a week.

The other one is saffron. I mentioned saffron. It also comes in pill or herbal formats. You can take those as well. Nutmeg is an important one. Nutmeg, you look at a nutmeg. What does it look like? It is a nutmeg. It looks like our reproductive organs for men and women; it is a nut, it is small, it is round, and it is beautiful. Eat it. It will be good for you. A small recipe I will give quickly; is that you can take 10 almonds, and soak them overnight. Over in the morning, you remove the skin and eat them first thing in the morning. That is so powerful for Prana and libido. 10 almonds, soak them overnight in the morning, peel off the skin, and then just eat them. That is so amazing for Prana and Libido. It is a game changer, and it is so simple.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yes. I appreciate how many things you are saying are so simple. I think there are a lot of people saying that, and I know you probably have more to say. I am also wondering if we are going, and I know we do not have a ton of time today, unfortunately, because I feel we talked all day. But I am also wondering if you are going into some of the different doses. You had your non-Sanskrit way of talking about them, but my understanding of the dose was right. Are there some of these types of foods and herbs that are going to be more predominant in one dose? Then I and I know in your Natural Law documentary series and the documentary that you made that we are going to have links for everybody in your show notes that people can go so much more into everything we are talking about, but really.

Amish Shah

Absolutely.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Right more to them. I do not want to cut you off. You might have a couple more foods you want to talk about, but I do.

Amish Shah

Let us move on.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Okay.

Amish Shah

Yes, there is tons of stuff in the documentary, and we have cookbooks and all kinds of stuff available. You will have more than enough Prana-awesome foods coming up.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Do you want to talk about that just for a second before we move on to exercise about these foods that you mentioned or are these herbs that you mentioned since people do you have these different, say, tendencies? Everybody might have more of a transformation tendency in their body. Everyone might have more of that movement tendency in their body. Since we have these different tendencies, if I am using that word correctly, are all of these foods you mentioned and all of these herbs from an Ayurvedic perspective? Do they tend to be useful for people? Know what, no matter what they say, Ayurvedic tendencies?

Amish Shah

Yes, sure. That is a good question. I always say that, if you are off or something is not right and you are experiencing something, find an Ayurvedic practitioner before you. This is not medical advice at all. Yes, work with an Ayurvedic practitioner if you have a serious problem, for sure. Work with an Ayurvedic practitioner. Generally, a lot of these herbs and foods I am mentioning are safe. But again, if you are experiencing some issues and you do not know, go see your practitioner first and consult with your doctor. Absolutely.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yes, that is great advice. Beyond that, I guess let us jump into exercise because I will.

Amish Shah

Do it quickly, and then we will wrap it up. Yoga is amazing. Camel pose, Rooster pose. Both of those are amazing meditations on the lower chakras. That is a part of yoga. I am just going to say yoga helps Camel Pose, and Rooster pose. Team sports are important. When you are working with teams, what it does to your mind is that it changes your emotional state as well. That is one of the suggestions from Ayurveda: go play a team sport and then grounding-walk barefoot in a forest bathing, and hug a tree. For healing behavior, go to the beach, stick your feet in the sand, and just get the negative out of you, and the earth helps you do that.

It pulls these things out of your body. That is it. 

From an exercise perspective, I am not going to go too deep, but yoga specifically camel pose and rooster pose. There is one more pose called the Nataraj pose that you can experiment with. just that helps. That helps with that area, and it helps release any stuck energy; everything Ayurveda is stuck. Well, if it is not working, something is stuck somewhere; the energy is stuck. Let us just unstuck that energy using herbs, foods, and exercise—all these different modalities—to unstuck it and bring us back to vitality. 

Bring us back to happiness. Bring us to the point where, now,  I feel very blessed and grateful for the libido that both myself and my wife have because of Ayurveda. It was so amazing. The movie is a testament to the fact that it took me 10 years to make this movie. It is just a beautiful medicinal science that goes deep into so many different subjects and has answers for so many problems that perhaps the Western medical system, the allopathic system, just does not have answers for. 

I am just speaking from experience, and I have seen so many stories along the way. 

Yes, libido stories. But I am talking about stage four: cancer and all my thyroid and MS, and even autism and ADHD. I am just speechless in some of my interviews and in some of the testimonials that I have gathered from actual patients. It is such a beautiful medicine, and I am excited to share this film with the world.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yes. One of my favorite things I think about Ayurveda is that when you are talking about getting stuck, for example, I think conventionally I am, but we still have ways to look at that from a conventional standpoint. People get blood clots. We could look at that as blood being stuck and moving through. People get constrictions in their gastrointestinal tract. Things do not move forward. What has always been cool to me in my brief is that I do not have a deep understanding of Ayurveda. But in my brief understanding of Ayurveda, you have always talked about the ancients and how they just figured this out and figured out this intricate system just through observation, and that it made it down century after century into modern day. This is still intact, and then we see it. As I said, we see similar patterns in conventional worlds. We just label it a lot differently. 

Amish Shah

Exactly right. Yes. Ayurveda has been passed down from generation to generation. If you think about the Indian subcontinent and billions of people over thousands of years, that is how this wisdom came about. It is just testing and testing and saying this works for this and that works for that.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yes, exactly right. I just want to make sure to encourage everybody to look in your speaker bio for information about the Natural Law Documentary. This is a reminder that we are talking about libido here. We are talking about the summit. We have been talking about all sorts of things. You mentioned the thyroid and its connection to libido. We are talking about the cardiovascular system and how that gets dysfunctional with libido and many other things. 

I know that in your movie, you are going to talk about a lot of these areas in a lot more detail. I just really encourage everybody to go check out that speaker bio. Make sure you get that extra information because you can go a lot deeper than obviously, we had here today.

Amish Shah

Yes, absolutely.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Is there anything you want to make sure that people know about how to get a hold of you? Besides that, are there any other takeaways you want to make sure we wrap up today?

Amish Shah

Yes, sure. definitely check it. Check out the speaker bio, click the link, and watch the movie for sure. You can follow us on Instagram at Be The Natural Law (@bethenaturallaw). Interestingly, modern science is catching up to ancient wisdom now. 

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

Yes.

Amish Shah

It is just so interesting to me. I find it fascinating. I believe that it is more important than ever for us to take care of our bodies. especially in a post-COVID world where we have to, it is our duty to take care of our bodies now, So, yes, that is what I will just leave this with, and thank you for everything. Thanks for having me on the summit.

Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, LAc

It has been a pleasure. Thank you as well. Thank you, everybody, for listening to another great interview. We will see you all very soon in the next one.