The Inflammation Code: Ayurvedic Wisdom for Modern Health

Introduction to inflammation and Ayurveda 0:00

If we have mental inflammation going on, we will never win at the physical inflammation that's going in our bodies. They're totally intertwined. When we talk about the vagus nerve, We know that so much of what's happening is from the ground up. And so we to pay attention to what Ayurveda always said, grounding, feed in the grass, feet in dirt or in sand. taking time to create breaks and spaces in our day. Where we're tuning into ourselves when we are doing our gratitude practice or our journaling or just deep breathing or meditation.

You're listening to the Lifestyle Medicine Podcast with Dr. Ivan Rusilko, brought to you by Access Lab, where we explore new perspectives at the forefront of personalized healthcare. Well, welcome back to the lifestyle medicine podcast. I'm Dr. Ivan Rosilko, and we are powered by Access Medical. If your doctor's not checking your labs, then they're not a doctor. And today we have a turmeric guru, I can't wait to talk about it. Dr Schiavone, she practices all kinds of different, you know, functional medicine, Ayurvedic, everything you can possibly think of.

She has her new book out, The Inflammation Code, which I cannot wait get into. So it's going to be a really fun podcast, a lot of high energy today. For sure. Thanks for having me. So I have to ask the inflammation code. I mean, that's like the best buzzword book I've ever heard. Can you expand on that and tell me where the name come from and kind of what the book entails? for sure. So I wrote this book so that all of us could understand how to apply the ancient system of Ayurveda into our lives in a way that was doable and approachable.

I find that nowadays we're all searching for those answers. We're like, is it the peptides? Is it NAD? What is the one thing I can do that will totally fix my health? The one magic pill. And if you look at any of the ancient traditions, whether it's traditional Chinese medicine or ancient Ayurveda, which is 5,000 years old and from India, all of these systems said that it is your lifestyle. It is our daily habits. Whether it your food or your exercise or you're honoring of your gut health, All those pieces brought together is what gives you vibrant health.

The Inflammation Code and body types 2:12

And so in the book I put together basically what I teach everyone as my clients or in my programs. into one book so they could start to apply it into their own lives. I love that. Again, I think lifestyle medicine, that's actually the name of my clinic here in South Beach, it's the most important thing. The way people hydrate, the way they eat, they way the exercise, way to manage stress, and the they actually sleep. Sleep is probably the more important one. That's kind of the foundation of what functional medicine is, wellness medicine as a whole collaboration of of, of this new juggernaut is in the actual medical community.

So I loved that you're focusing on that When it comes to that, what would you say one of the most important aspects to you? And I know they're all interconnected, but what do you think is the important one if you had to focus on just one those aspects? Well, in the book, I talk about how we all have our own individual body types. And so Ayurveda really customized a plan for each of us to understand how to apply all these lifestyle shifts to our individual bodies. So in Ayureveda, it was called the Doshas.

And because I didn't want to throw too many Sanskrit words at my audience, I renamed that Elemental Design. And so I have a quiz on my website at drshabadi.com. When people take that quiz, they'll fill out their body type and their personality type, and different things like that. We all love a good personality quiz. But what's fun about it is it'll spit you back a response and the response will say things This is your personality. You're all fiery. Your leader, your passionate, you're driven. But when you are out of balance, and you tend to be burnt out and inflamed, You are a bit the body type, or the fiery bodytype.

And so it's fun because people will email me back and they'll say, this is nuts, but you know me. How do you so much about me? And I'll say, this is the ancient wisdom showing us that we each have a primary body type and then a secondary. And when we learn to navigate life through the lens of those primary elements, then we can create powerful shifts. So the three body types are called Vata, Vita, and Kaffa. Those are the 3. The Vatta body is more air ether. This is someone who's like your endurance runner.

So when it was boundless energy, they're always in motion, tend to be thinner and leaner, maybe taller or shorter than most of their demographics. You can kind of imagine some people in your life who are that Vata really lean type. I know many of them. Yeah. And then there's the Bita type that's in between all fire with some water. But like I said, passionate, leaders driven, can't even stop themselves. They have so many ideas that they want to execute. but tend to run hot and tend be like a volcano.

They erupt, they get bitter or frustrated. And so I teach them to stay cool and to say calm so they can stay more balanced. Yeah, most of us who are podcasters are Bithas, I found, because we've got so many ideas and we want to learn everything in the whole world. And Bittas tend to have like a reddish skin tone. So many pod casters I meet are bitha. Finally, that third body type is guffa, and gufha is someone who's earth with water. This is your person who is They're grounded, they're sturdier, their stronger.

This is someone who loves to take care of everyone around them. They love good food. they get this deep slumber and sleep. And so I teach the Guffa crew how to support their metabolism better, how keep their mood high because they tend towards low mood and how they really eat the right foods for their body type. So understanding your body types is so powerful because then you can navigate life differently because you have a totally deeper understanding of yourself. And then you take that and apply that to your circadian rhythm, your sleep, food, gut health, self care, super spices that you use.

So I take one concept and then apply it across all my other pillars that I teach. Well, I love that. So obviously I'm curious. It sounds like a good intake form basically, so you can kind of get who they are as a person. And then have you ever kind gone through those three different types of body types? Have you kind compared labs with that? Like maybe different type of hormonal labs or if they have different kinds of adrenals or thyroids? Now you have my mind rolling. Yeah, so when I was doing all the research for the book, I did find someone who had standardized a DOSHA quiz to apply into clinical trials.

And you can easily see that people who are Bitha are going to tend to have so much more inflammation, tend towards cardiovascular risk, cardiovascular disease, So yes, you can definitely correlate some disease pathology to your constitution. And I'm excited about seeing that science become more robust as we go into the future.

Inflammation markers and mental inflammation 6:48

But absolutely, IRV that kind of used this as the first diagnostic tool, it didn't have blood work 5,000 years ago. But they could look at you and say, OK, you're guffa. OK. You've got a little bit more weight on you. This could be insulin resistance. Let's look the herbs that reduce cravings for carbs and sugar and help support all that element in there. So yeah, we looked at each body type and really assessed based on it. Because for example, a Vata person has a tendency towards anxiety, tendency toward sleep disruption, constipation.

When you know the type, You can already start to predict what that means in their body. We're gonna deal with nervous system, we're going to deal adrenals, they're a thyroid. When it comes to the fibthas, were gonna have to address that systemic inflammation to win at everything else. And then in the cuffas we really have address slower digestion, slower motility, really supporting them with filling low and lifting them up. That's great. And what are some of your biggest markers when you're actually looking for that that's going to help you pick out certain types of inflammation?

Are you looking at food sensitivities? Or you look at HSCRPs, sed rates? How are you gauging inflammation on a daily basis? I mean, I like everyone to come in with blood work from functional medicine. I think functional Medicine is doing the best work I tell everyone when they find me like you need a stool test. If you don't have data on yourself, you're kind of flying blind. I'm happy to do it from the Ayurvedic perspective, but I think the ayurveda combining with functional medicine is so powerful because you get that data piece and then you bring the ancient wisdom in that understands what to with that date and how to correlate it a little differently.

So, HSDRP is, of course, important. I ask everyone to look at their A1C to really understand where is their cholesterol. These are all indicators of how we are doing with our inflammation. If we just have no idea what's going under the hood, we're not addressing what is really going on. So I'm getting annual stool tests, I get them for my children, and I tell all my clients, like, We need to understand where gut dysbiosis or leaky gut is playing a role. And if we are not address it in a precision way, then we aren't going to win.

No, for sure. And again, you think there's just so many different types of inflammation in the system. You have obviously emotional inflammation, biological inflammation. Even have mental inflammation and I know you actually kind of touch on mental information pretty in depth. Can you kind give me an overview and an understanding of what mental inflation can actually entail, how you diagnose this and most importantly, what's the treatment? for sure. So when I was writing this book, I were so excited to finally teach what I had been using on my clients for decades now.

And so as I took that program, my six-week program and taught it in the book I said, okay, fix their sleep with this. If they just apply this, they're going to win at sleep. They'll know their body and personality type and they'll navigate everything differently. We're gonna win it gut health because we are so good at gut-health in Ayurveda. the self-care rituals that are detoxing, applying the super spices, understanding how to eat and when to, not just what to. I was so excited to put all that in there.

And then at the end, I thought, you know, part of the problem we have in wellness right now is there's so much homework to do. The trends are coming at us so fast. We're being bombarded by them, especially if you're a woman in midlife. If you're a woman in midlife, it's like, if you don't have a vibration plate with your red light mask on while you are chugging your H2 hydrogen tablets. From your Stanley cup, I mean, like my goodness. It's insane, it's just insane. And so I kind of had this message that downloaded to me that was like, if we have mental inflammation going on, we will never win at the physical inflammation that's going in our bodies.

They're totally intertwined. When we talk about the vagus nerve, We know that so much of what's happening is from the ground up. And so we have to pay attention to what Ayurveda always said, grounding feet in the grass, feet and the dirt or in this sand, taking time to create breaks and spaces in our day, where we're tuning into ourselves when we are doing our gratitude practice or journaling or just deep breathing or meditation. Yoga is a sister science to Ayurveda. And so so much of what yoga teaches is how to collect that peace.

So mental inflammation was my way of saying, guys, you can address all that physical inflammation all day long. We could all sit here and lift and do everything and count our macros and just get such great blood work. But if we are stressed out to the max, emotionally, mentally stressed, out and burnt out, and driving ourselves crazy, we will stay in flame. Like we're going to be in a catch 22 that never ends. So we have to address both sides of the puzzle. No, for sure. And I think, you know, when people think of stress or inflammation, they think at the big picture, like, oh my God, something's on fire.

I'm curious to see if you agree, one of the most dangerous types of inflammation is that low grade, that minimal inflammation that's with you 24 hours a day, whether it's from food sensitivities, from your thyroid not being correct, or from you being adrenaline stress, adrenaline fatigue, those small little fires that, should I say, death by a thousand cuts, as opposed to that samurai sword cutting you in half. Did you find that people who have those, those low grade stress points tend to have worse outcomes than somebody who comes in who has a massive, I got through, went through a divorce or I saw a death in the family.

You fixed that and they kind of move on. You know, I think it's both and. I thing most people societally are suffering with this chronic low-grade persistent inflammation and it starts to creep up so slowly they don't even realize it. Most people find me and they're like, yeah, you know you talk about tumeric and I definitely am feeling like more aches and pains in my joints. And when you dig a little deeper into the symptoms, they are like yeah I just feel like I'm aging because when I eat things don' sit well, my sleep is totally disturbed I have a lot more aches and pains when I wake up in the morning.

It is limiting my mobility and my exercise and movement. I'm really slowing down in life. Can't do all the same things I did before. Guess this is just aging. And I always say to people, when you hear that voice in your mind, you need to stop and say, no, that's inflammation. No, I am not aging, just dealing with a systemic level. That's part of my favorite things I've heard on this entire podcast. I love that kudos. But that was a very, very fun thing to hear though. Please go on. Inclimaging is a term that a professor came up with and I loved that term because it really explains.

It explains what's happening. So that even happens to me. I'll have moments. Just went through a big tour of traveling through conferences and I got home and was like, I guess this is aging. And I was, like nope, pause. That's inflammation. You are inflamed from that much travel.

Circadian rhythm, sleep, and daily rituals 13:48

What changed? Oh, you slept badly, traveled time zones, ate on the road for 10 days. Okay, we can reverse this. Let's get everything back on track, circadian rhythm, the workouts, movement, healthy eating, all the things. And the moment you do and you get it all to click into place, then you don't feel that way. So that's a big piece of what I'm teaching. Now the second piece is also important. Sometimes people go through huge, acute, stressful issues. And they'll find me after and they will say, I now have name something horrible.

I used to work for Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires. That was my first job out of college. And I was there when Dr. Mark Hyman was and I learned so much. But a lot of people came to that place right after like a divorce or horrible traumatic life event. They had just manifested a disease that was pretty serious. And I think that's also hard to unpack and unwind. I mean, there we're going to have to sign up for conventional medicine's biggest toolkits of support and then sign-up for integrative medicine support to try to start to un-wind those big things.

But it's not easy. It takes like a full 360, not a 360 but a 180 change. There we go. No, it's very, very true. I think you brought up a bit because everybody's so busy these days. Traveling is one of the biggest, I take hiccups when it comes to health, but it is also the bigger supporter of it. But the problem is different time zones and sleep. And again, when you're circadian rhythm, is the most important rhythm we buy to in life. So when our circadian rhythm gets just thrown into this flux, i think it probably the hardest thing to correct because we just get that whole cycle.

So when you see everything that you preach and that, you do, what are the biggest parts of the circadian rhythm that find are most impressive things? Is it the diet, the hydration, or is it actual sleep cycles of when to go to sleep, when wake up, and what you're doing in between? So Ayurveda came up with the circadian clock and so much of what we teach right now in biohacking and longevity is circadian rhythm, circadanian, rhythm. And I love to give Ayureveda credit because in Ayura that we talked about how, yes, you are meant to rise with a sun.

You are a mentor set with. This is why we have a whole cottage industry growing around blue light classes and blue, light blocking screens and on our iPhones and all the things. But really that basic principle of Rise with the Sun, Set with The Sun is basic. It's foundational. it's so important. But what Ayurveda also did was break down our times of day according to the elemental designs. And so there's a lot more to it, and I go over it in the book, but I talk about how we're meant to rise with, the sun between the 2 to 6 a.m.

window. I think 2 a.m. is too early, but around 6 in the morning, when the sun is just rising, the world is quiet. That's our time to journal, meditate, write, really get out our best thoughts, our purest thoughts. Then when we start our day, we're meant to move our body, do our self-care rituals that are detoxing. So Ayurveda teaches us about using a copper tongue scraper. first thing in the morning. When you brush your teeth, hydrate, you can also use your copper tongue scraper. You gently scrape the tongue seven to 14 times.

But what this does is we teach that all the organs of the body are reflected on your tongue, just like in Chinese medicine, they're reflected at the bottom of your feet in reflexology. And so just like if you push on your foot in different points, you know your body would have a reaction. Gently scraping the tongue clears what we call ama or this toxin residue that forms in the body. It really helps ignite your digestive fire and it's obviously better for your oral health and we know oral is tied to our heart health.

That's a simple practice that we teach that self-care in the morning, but we do teach about eating three times a day. I know everyone has different fasting schedules that they do. We teach the 10 to 2 when the sun is highest in sky is what we call the time of day you're meant to eat your biggest meal then. We teach that in the evening, 6 to 10 PM is called gaffa time of day. You're meant to wind down. Nowadays we're such busy people. We're entrepreneurs. we've got side hustles, we got so much responsibility.

And so to ask people to start a wind-down at six sounds impossible. But Ayurveda says, eat your dinner between six and seven. Finish it three hours before bed. So that when we hit that 10 to 2 again at night, 10-2, we're meant to be sleeping in that window and that's when were going to clear inflammation, the lymphatic system. We now know about the glymphatic systems and how we can accumulate up to 3 pounds of waste in our brains overnight. And so, Ayurveda prioritized detoxing throughout the day through these different time windows and most especially at nights.

And so that's why I talk about circadian rhythm so much, is I want you to win at inflammation and I have ways to when inflammation, but if you're not sleeping well, we're going to get across the finish line. And, so I teach so about sleep rituals, self care and sleep hygiene at night, sleeping and using a tea as a simple habit that'll kind of set a time for your evening. It's a reminder that, okay, it's time to bed. I'm drinking my adaptogenic delicious sleep tea and transitioning into bedtime. No, I love that.

And again, it's basically a formula. I mean, having a formulate and actually sticking to it. You can do something like this for three days and then two days you're going crazy, partying at clubs or traveling across the world and you don't only get into that actual rhythm of it, so it is also about sticking it which is a huge one. I, you know, with all the actual labs that I test for my patients, I tend to find there's three actual hormone levels that kind of give me a clear picture as if you're sleeping correctly.

I'm curious to see your thoughts on it. Number one is IGF-1, number two is DHEA, and number three is cortisol. And, obviously, produce... I love how you brought the whole glymphatic system. That's a whole other podcast in and of itself. Not many people know about that. But when it comes to the actual first stage of the sleep, the first four hours of sleep is when growth hormone is released, I think it's 96% throughout that which obviously growth hormones turns into IGF-1, which is the healing regeneration and in rebuilding hormone.

And that's why I always try to tell my patients I can tell you're not having a good sleep. because your IGF is critically low. You aren't getting that real good deep sleep at the first stage of your sleep cycle. Then you have cortisol and DHEA and those two things are kind of a mixed bag. of adrenal fatigue because you really haven't turned off. You know, the whole marathon that we run during the day, you don't get that chance to actually catch your breath. But if it's stressed on the other way, your just stressed out throughout the night.

So those are the three hormones I use to kind of gauge how my patient's circadian rhythm is really flowing or vibing with their actual health. It's just unique to sit there and say, there's Eastern medicine, and there is Western medicine. They're kind to saying the same thing but just in much different ways. Exactly. And that's the beauty I find, I am a product of both. I was born in the United States, but raised going to India every year. In my childhood, whenever I got sick in US, we'd go to the pediatrician and I'd get a script for antibiotics because back then a cold meant antibiotics.

They didn't think about viral or bacterial back in 80s. And then if I go to India, my grandma would just open up the spice cabinet. She's like, I made you a two-mark tea. I make you ginger tea, and I know how to heal you with herbs and spices. And so now we're living through the most beautiful moment where I get to take all of the ancient wisdom and all the modern science is just proving it to be true year after year. The circadian clock got proven to true, And there were three Nobel Peace Prize winners who proved it.

We know we have genes for it, We have so much knowledge now about the gut microbiome and how there's a gut-brain axis. Ayurveda already said that. So it's like we're in this perfect moment where our modern mind that wants to understand the science and the proof is getting it while the ancient wisdom is resonating as this way and this path that can be really supportive. And so I think longevity and functional medicine and Ayurveda are saying the exact same thing and we get to understand it from different perspectives and then apply it to each of ourselves in the way that works best for us.

No, for sure. And again, it's common sense medicine.

Gut health and lifestyle foundations 22:00

The simplest forms of medicine are the real forms. We have peptides and hormones and stem cells, which is all great. It's all icing on the cake. But like you said, I always have to say the five pillars are sleep, stress reduction, hydration, nutrition, and actual exercise. Those are five things. If you have those in line, you don't need anything else, really. Unfortunately, especially in the American way, if you got one of those, your lucky this day and age. But you know, it's just really unique to see that Eastern medicine I think is one of the most purest forms of medicine, if not the pureest form.

And that Western just kind of tries to repackage what it is saying and then prop it off in a way. It's always unique speaking to someone such as yourself who's such a leader in the industry to sit there and see like, we're both on the exact same page when it comes to that. it just being said in such, such unique and completely different way True, very true. Yeah, I know it's true and I also what I like what you brought up was the whole gut-brain access and a lot of people don't realize about 80% of the your lymphatic system is actually housed around the gut, the gult as they call it and the fact that when you have any type of inflammation and again that could be eating the wrong thing whether it is food sensitivities which you can test, whether you are some type intolerance too, if you're celiac whatever this could, be that you consistently inflame your gut you consist you constantly inflamed your immune system And I always tell people the immune system is the second most expensive system to run in your body.

It's very greedy and takes a lot of ATP to running. So if you have that low-grade nonsensical waste of energy, then your immune systems doesn't work. You're predisposed to cancers, neurodegeneration, autoimmune disorders, thyroid dysfunction. I mean, I could sit here for 15 hours and go over how many different disorders the gut can be associated with. So when, when it comes to you and you can almost tell that somebody has a gut issue, whether it's dysbiosis, where there's leaky gut, whatever it could be as your, um, you know, w w with how you practice, what's your first line of treatment for something like.

goodness. I feel like almost 95, if not 100% of us have some level of gut dysbiosis just by living in modern day society. My new thing is I take my kids to Italy almost every summer and I'm like, I just want to show you what life could be like. That there are countries where there's no life. There's a blue zone, the food is cooked with love, it's grown with Love, there's no pesticide, they're not even eating packaged food. Like there is a way and we need to go learn those ways and then bring them back here and apply them to our own lives the best we can.

I think it's harder here because we're going at a speed that doesn't make that acceptable because taking afternoon strolls and evening stroll and siestas and all those things. But yes, Ayurveda said, when it comes to your gut health, you must play an active role. We can't just take a passive role and assume that it's fine. And I think the biggest issue we have in the West, and maybe even modern day society, it might be a full on global issue at this point, is we think of the gut as a trash compactor.

We think it as this place where we can just throw anything down the hatch and the body knows what to do. It'll take care of it, no big deal, right? be a little digested, I'm sure I'll have a bowel movement tomorrow and it'll be fine." And it's like, no, it won't. The reason we're so obese and so inflamed and struggling with our health right now is this poor system in here down in the gut is overwhelmed. It's inflame. We have caused such gut dysbiosis and damage and leaky gut. And so our first homework in Ayurveda is really assessing the patient, understanding the full symptomology, but also understanding that full history.

We took a full hour to really get into, did you have surgery? Did you take antibiotics? Do you major trauma in your life? All these things will shift the gut microbiome. And then after you did that, Did You Heal the Gut? No. 99% of people are like, no, I didn't do anything after. No one told me. So that's my main message is let's look at gut health as the primary thing we do. And how do we it? We look do you have food intolerances? Do you some sort of gut dysbiosis through parasites or overgrown bacteria and all these things?

That's why I like the stool test data because it quickly helps you get to some answers. But then we also want to understand how are you eating? A lot of times people are eating, standing up and running around. And going back to what I said at the beginning, we have a body type that exists called Vatha body-type, but that Vata bodytype is also an energy. So for example, you or I, let's say we went a week going to conferences and just like standing and eating out of food trucks. Your body doesn't know how to process a digestive meal if you don't sit down and focus on that food.

And so that's a simple habit and simple way I start to talk to people about how are you eating, when are eating. Are you focusing on the food when you're eating? Are your chewing your food? Because it doesn't matter how many probiotics and BCP 157 and amazing tools I give you for gut health or your functional medicine doctor does, because I partner with functional medicines a lot. If your lifestyle habits don't shift as well, that'll create great microbiome diversity and overall gut help that we want to have.

No, it's so true. And again, I think you hit the nail on the head and you sat there and said, when you eat something, It's not just some simple process that you need something and then you use the restroom. It is just like with sleep. You don't just shut your eyes. Sleep is the most complex thing we do as humans. Nobody understands that. So you have that, you know. When you aren't eating properly, its like trying to sleep upside down. You know, your body's not doing it properly, therefore it dysfunctions.

And all of a sudden you're like, why don't I feel tired, slept for eight hours? No, you didn't. You took some type of Ambient or Xanax, or you were sitting on your phone right before bed, wherever it could be. Just because you shut your eyes or just because your ate something doesn't mean your, I mean, our bodies are amazing. Don't get me wrong, but they aren't that amazing to sit there and overcome our consciousness. Yeah, true, very true. I mean, we think that we can do whatever we want to the body.

And so much of what Ayurveda is trying to teach us is honoring the Body, respecting the Body, listening to The Body. Listening to your own intuition. One simple self-care habit I teach is called tea time is me time. Where I pause a couple times a day and have a cup of tea and just really tune into myself. How are you doing today? I ask myself simple questions. What do you need to change today or this week for it to be better? And give my intuition time, almost like it's a trained muscle, to give me back some answers.

And mine will tell me simple things like, it is 4 o'clock and you did not hydrate today. That is why you have a headache. Or you need to cancel that meeting. You know you do not want to meet that person. It is not a good vibe. So much of what I am trying to teach people is your body is so intelligent and if you listen to it, you would get the answers that you will need for your individual body to work the best. No, exactly. I mean, your body is the most amazing machine ever created. It will never be duplicated.

As long as we listen to it, I think we are in a very, very good spot. You know what I means? So I do want to touch on this. Tumeric, can you tell me a little bit about that? I, think polyphenols and everything like that are fascinating. And I actually use a bunch of them here, resveratrol, corsten, curcumin, and green tea for my IVs and they're probably. My favorite IVs, again, I've been doing IV's now for 16, 17 years. Everything from high dose C to alpha-lipoic acids to methylene blue to everything else.

And I think that combination of those different polyphenols for various things are just fascinating. Since you're such a guru, i would love to hear your thoughts on that. For sure. So I did my master's in Ayurvedic sciences and then my advisor was like, you need to do a PhD. And I was, like that sounds too hard. He's like no, what is the one thing you love to learn the most out of all of Ayura Veda? I said, when the professor who taught us all about the herbs and spices taught about turmeric, I kind of shocked because I'm Indian.

I eat turmeric in my food every single day. That's just part of my life. But how am I not getting these insane benefits that you are saying come from these super spices. They sound like super foods. So I ended up doing my PhD dissertation, took a couple years, because there is a lot of great science on turmeric, and I plan to publish a lots more studies and be part of enhancing all that knowledge. What I love the most about turmeric is the fact that curcumin, which is an extract from turmeric inhibits NF-kappa-B, and that's the master switch for our inflammatory pathways.

That's kind of your anchor point. It's a mechanism behind nearly every other benefit. So because turmeric impacts NF kappa B and TNF alpha, it's those master switches of inflammation. And I have lots of charts and diagrams on how that impacts over 30 different pathways of information in the system.

Turmeric, curcumin, and supplement science 30:36

So that I think is the biggest reason why turmeric is so popular is it's a powerful polyphenol. The body knows how to receive and absorb it, and we'll talk about absorption. And it kind of functions across the board as such a power natural anti-inflammatory. So many people nowadays are reaching for NSAIDs and stronger versions of painkillers. To have a potent one that's from nature is a really powerful option. Then we know that it also benefits brain health and cognitive protection because it crosses the blood-brain barrier.

It also boosts BDNF and it's also showing a lot of promise in Alzheimer's research, which I'm really excited about. I've been speaking on Alzheimer summits and Alzheimer conferences. So when it comes to Alzheimer, curcumin impacts, mitogenesis, neurogenesis tau tangles, beta amyloid plaques. in a positive way. And so it also affects gray matter in the brain. So I think tumor with Alzheimer's research is going to be a huge thing in future. Then when it comes to joint pain, so many people are reaching for those ibuprofen and seds, like I said, and we know that they cause gut damage.

And so when we're talking about arthritis and all this pain and post-workout recovery or chronic pain, so many people are NSAID intolerant at this point or are being told you can't take that much in terms of NSAIDS. And that's why I find Curcumin is that perfect partnership to get in there and reduce the total NSAIDE use. And then we know that curcumin has a positive impact on gut health and microbiome support. It modulates our gut inflammation. it supports the gut lining, which is huge because I do believe, and based on all the stool test companies I've spoken to, the majority of Americans are struggling with leaky gut.

And so to have something that is pro helping heal the cut lining is a big deal. and it has prebiotic like effects. And so I love that because to me, my gut health is my first primary job, and so, I loved that Turmeric helps with that. And then we know that when it comes to liver detoxification, it stimulates bile production. It supports phase two detoxication, so liver support, liver health, is obviously important. When it come to cardiovascular health it helps endothelial function, reduces oxidation.

We know Turmerc reduces oxidative stress overall and reverses the things that are causing that oxidation in the first place. It also has a role when it comes to mood and mental health. So curcumin influences serotonin and dopamine pathways, which is wonderful. It helps with insulin sensitivity, Which I love. My whole family is diabetic. And so it helped with metabolic dysfunction in the body. Then it helps the immune modulation as well. For me, it's a big deal. I spoke at A4M Vegas, the longevity conference one year, on all of its benefits for longevity.

So I think of curcumin as like janitor that comes in and cleans house and gets rid of the bad, but leaves the good in place. And I need that as a heavy antibiotic user when I was a kid who completely destroyed her gut health, who had to rebuild it and save her own health. I'm like, this tool is incredible. Exactly. And so what most people don't know is out of the entire turmeric plant, three to five percent of it is the curcuminoids. Of those curicumanoids, cur cumin is most effective at reducing inflammation.

When you're going to take cur cumin or turmeric, you should take it with black pepper or a healthy fat. The black pepper increases the absorption by 2000%. The healthy fat will help it cross the blood-brain barrier and further enhance that absorption. And so in the world of curcumin supplements, there's huge variations in quality. I discovered that in my PhD. Altars of people are playing all sorts of games to make the cheapest curicumin on earth and sell it to you. But if you take it with that right proportion, highest potency, then that's when we start to get those significant results that we want from it.

For sure. Have you ever used the actual curcumin IV? I'm curious. That's actually a... I have not yet. I do it twice a week. It's literally my favorite IV we do here. And what we usually do is we combine the curicumin with either corcetin, resveratrol, or green tea, depending on what were after trying to treat. So I am a big believer in it. You definitely hit the right hardcore on that one. But uh, but at the end of this, I'm curious because we've come to the, to, the and I always like to ask two questions.

Okay. And I am not very curious to what you think is that you are just bubbly of knowledge here. I love it. If you were a patient who's now coming into the wellness based field, functional, everything like that, what is something as a patients, you should be really looking for when it comes to. The, um, practitioners that your actually going to basically interview to take over your health. If I was new coming in, I would want to know that this person has a very healthy respect for the lifestyle piece because oftentimes, like I've gone to many functional medicine doctors over the years, oftentimes the blood work and the data is going to come back with so much to do that they're going give you the pills and supplements and peptides.

I'm sitting on one of those protocols right now for myself. And I always look at the practitioner. I'm like, we didn't talk about exercise. We didn' talk, about sleep. Exactly. And in my case, the practitioners always know that that's what I teach so they don't have to worry about it. But if you are looking at a practitioner, I think it's so important to understand what are their core pillars that they teach because otherwise you're only getting half the puzzle and you'r not getting the rest. Like you talked about, your five pillars are the foundation.

Yeah, no, very, true. So I'm going to flip the script. As a new practitioner in any one of the fields that are coming in being like, I am done with traditional medicine. I want to seek out the actual real type of medicine, as I like to call it. What are some things that you should really focus on or what are tips and tricks that, you might give these new budding young wellness physicians or practitioners? You know, I think that there's so much wisdom right now.

Choosing practitioners and closing remarks 36:36

I'm in a functional medicine certification program and I am loving it because there is so many knowledge, so understanding of putting all the puzzle pieces together. And so I would say keep learning, keep studying, and keep diving deep. Find those programs or practitioners who give you the wisdom you need or the right mentors who will give that to you. the longevity and functional medicine wisdom of right now. So I invite everyone to really dig into the Ayurvedic books and learn from that wisdom and incorporate it into your practice because all the integrative medicine modalities are just different flavors and views of the same thing and it's really about having an understanding of them so you can find which one works for your patient.

So, in my case, when people come to me, I'm like, you know, it's acupuncture for you. I think it is homeopathic for that kid. So when you have that understanding and nuance of all the integrative modalities and you go experience them, which I do, and I try everything, then you can really start to help people when they're going down a certain road. When people find me for their health sometimes, like I, think IV vitamins is actually the first line here because that's how I've seen it work for others.

Customization, that's the biggest thing. Like I said, you got to do everything like you said. The intake form, I want to know all about your lifestyle. You have the diagnostic portion, which is what I am religious about those two things. And then from there, the diagnostics and intake is the picture of the puzzle. If you have all these pieces in front of you, You can't put anything together unless you know what the pictures at the end of it. So I think me and you are on the exact same page, coming from different sides of world, Which is great.

Super, super cool. Yeah. But Dr. Shivani, thank you so much for stopping by. Can you please tell everybody where they can find you? Also your book, as well as supplements. Guys, she's got amazing supplements too. Could you kind of tell us about those really quick? For sure. So I built my supplement company to show people that tumor can actually work and it can do the job. I build it to put into orthopedic offices because I thought, gosh, that's where everyone's coming in pain. Let me help that person.

And now it's in functional medicine and everywhere else. The best way to find me is my website DrShivani.com. That's D-R-S-H-I-V-A-N-E. You'll find my book, the inflammation code, my podcast, The Inflammation Code, and all my teachings there. And then I'm at doctor.shamanygupta on Instagram, where I love to engage with everyone and on social. The supplement company is Fusionary Formulas, F-U-S-I-O-N-A-R-Y, formulas.com. I made a special code. Access will give you 15% off on your first order. Rock and roll.

So guys, make sure you check it out. I'm going to, I think I might get a whole swimming pool full of turmeric when I get home. But it's been such an honor. This is the Lifestyle Medicine Podcast. And I am Dr. Ivan. We're powered by Access Medical. You can find us on Apple, you can on Spotify, on YouTube, wherever you see podcasts. you could see our smiling faces. Again, Dr Shabani, thank you so much for stopping by and really educating us. on everything when it comes to what you do. It's absolutely spectacular.

Thank you, thanks for having me. Thanks for joining us today on the Lifestyle Medicine Podcast. At Access Labs, every innovation we pursue is driven by one bold purpose, making personalized medicine more practical and accessible for patients and providers. If this episode sparked new ideas or challenged how you think about patient care, awesome. Follow the show and share it with a colleague who's ready to level up their practice. Head over to our website at accesslabs.com and register your practitioner account today.

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