PRELIMINARY CONCEPTS TO ADDRESS IN PREVENTION
Lifestyle and diet form the basis of health. Genetics are always at play and can potentially explain why a group of people living similar lifestyles have different outcomes. However, dosha and constitution are also at play, (as explained above). Before even getting into herbs and concoctions which can act as medicine, food and lifestyle form the basis of medicine. If those are off, or not addressed in sequence, any herb or medicine wont be as effective.
Within lifestyle is the realm of, sources of stress, how one responds to stress, and strategies of stress management. Much of this correlates back to the dosha.
Dosha forms the framework for each person, for assessment and treatment protocol, (both dominant and subdosha.) The science of ayurveda allows for a simple process that really is based on energetics. It can evolve with time, but is rooted in universal principles of the human as a microcosm of universal energies, which can be treated through the law of opposites.
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Earth, air, fire, water..each has the potential and ability to transmute the other, as happens in nature, as happens within the biological world, as happens within the human organism and its interaction with the environment.
In Ayurveda, too much heat (fire/pitta) is treated by adding substances or environment which reduce heat via water. Too much earth and water (Kapha) or heaviness/lethargy is treated by increasing fire containing substances or light airy elements.
GENETICS & EPIGENETICS
This is an element of natural healing which isn't addressed through ayurveda but I would like to bring light upon because of its profound influence on the dosha, and the prakriti. I also have personally experienced changes in my own constitution (vikriti) through understanding genetics and blood type,, which comes from our genetics. Eat Right for Your Blood Type was a boom theory developed by Dr Peter D’ Adamo (homeopath and iridologist) and his son. I was treated by D’Adamo after developing a gluten intolerance and mononucleosis, which took a toll on my immune system. I was at the time, eating a primarily vegetarian diet, and gluten. My hair was falling out, I was fatigued, and coming out of being raised macrobiotic.
The D’Adamo theory is based on following your genetic blueprint which is in ones blood. It correlates with the ancestral diet, which entails following what your ancestors did and understanding how they lived. I have type O blood,, the oldest, and the hunter gatherer. The diet my parents raised me on was all wrong for my type O Russian Jewish blood. D’Adamo put me on a high protein diet, low in sugars, high in veggies and whey protein between meals to balance blood sugars. The program also recommends vigorous exercise (ideally in the morning) for type O. This program was a game changer and literally changed my life.
The iridology exam was like a psychic reading, going well beyond telling me things like my blood sugars were off, he told me I needed to incorporate art into my life to be happy and that I'm a creative person. These forms of medicine look at the “whole” person. There are people that can literally get sick if they neglect core parts of their identity.
Ayurveda says there are 3 causes of disease:
Repression of the senses
Excessive Use of the senses
Wrong use of the senses
To break this down, if we repress that which needs to be expressed, articulated, or lived out, we will suffer. Suffering leads to ill health. Same goes for mis-use of the senses. If our environment is filled with elements of violence and hate, via speech, action, moral, etc… This will lead to suffering and then illness. Excessive use could be correlated with obesity, excessive activity, excess sleep, excess sugar, anything in excess will eventually stress the system.
When my parents raised me macrobiotic, they in theory thought they were doing me and my siblings right but not allowing meat in our home. During the 80’s it was being discovered how controversial and toxic the american meat market was. So, they were hippies and were responding to the changing times. I was a healthy kid because our home only had unprocessed food and organic home grown vegetables. As i got older, my body required more flesh based foods, so finally my father read the D’Adamo book,and I was the guinea pig for the family for the D’Adamo Protocol. We all ended up doing it! The program also was thorough and deep, involving herbs, supplements for adrenal fatigue, blood sugar, and whatever else is out of balance. Its very scientific and he taught me how to be adaptable. I had plans to travel to New Zealand/Australia and Asia. He said NZ would be a wonderful place for me, given the protocol I was on. Well. I ended up settling in New Zealand for sometime and now have 2 children from there.
It was not just the diet, but the energy I had from it. I became athletic and had incredible endurance, just as when I was a child. My intuition grew stronger symbiotically with my attraction and connection to the arts, as he affirmed. My partner and childrens now father, saw an iridologist. This was, or is in hindsight, life changing, because he is no longer in our lives but his genetics live in my children, who are Maori….Indigenous to New Zealand. (Image copyright of cnn/ soldiers road)
Their father was prediabetic. This epidemic for diabetes and addiction is rampant amongst indigenous populations. Some theories I’ve developed and researched are the drastic changes put into their bodies and blood with the sudden infiltration of colonization. Just as the Native Americans have succumbed to addiction to alcohol and sugar, so have the Maori. Their diet was clean and full of fish, seafood, roots, tubers, and berries, before the English settled and introduced a diet rich in pork, white flour, and sugar. The indigenous population couldn't adapt within such a short time frame to a radically different diet.
I know that though watered down, the indigenous blood my children carry is still rich from their ancestors. They are both prone to diabetes and addiction I see. On a positive note, I fill their diets with whole proteins and good fats, and avoid excessive processed sugars (because they're gonna get it anyway).
In a lifestyle context, the maori were a warrior people. They were robust, full of physical stamina, and lived primarily out of doors. They were in interaction with water and mountains. These are my children, only a few generations away from a tribal way of life transitioned to a domestic institutionalized one. I have attempted to lay the platform of exposure and they have run with it. They are like any other modern child addicted to their phones, but they spend several hours a day outdoors. They engage in multiple sports, mostly high adrenaline ones, like downhill mountain biking, snowboarding, etc… They fight like animals, like warriors. Though their Maori father hasn’t raised them, they are clearly Maori, and filled with characteristics (mostly physical) that clearly didn't come from my Russian Jew _euro mix.
THE MODERN MAORI
The Maori today have a short life span, averaging under 60. They are shorter and smaller in stature, each generation. My childrens great grandfather was 6’6! Epigenetics are changing the fabric of DNA molecules. Diabetes is now something many of them are born with, as are many Natives, as well as the tendency toward alcoholism. I really try to raise my boys, in how I can, like nature wants. Their dad use to tell his friends and family, that our son “eats like the old Maori”
Sadly, these societies of indigenous nations have become weakened in body and thus spirit through the infiltration of colonization and the institutionalization of food and lifestyle. The maori had Tapuna’s which were healers, which used herbs and worked with the power of natures healing abilities. They were intrinsically tied to the spirit world and their ancestors, seeing themselves as an unfolding of their whanue (or family tree).
If genetics are so ingrained in who we are born to be, we do need to look at this genetic blueprint, and question how our families lived 1 to 10 generations back. Each generation adapted to the times, conditions, immigration patterns, nomadic to sedentary lifestyle. I would recommend reading about the blood type theory, which essentially is that our blood types evolved and branched out as humans changed settlement and thus diet and lifestyle patterns over time. Certain regional populations have dominant genetic and blood type patterns, based on their ancestors. Many africans type O (hunter gatherer), many asians type A (agrarian), many europeans type B (nomadic), and the most newly evolved AB. Northern people typically have type O, etc. These regional patterns of genetic blueprinting are fascinating and give us an evolutionary scope on how human patterns of living have changed and developed and redeveloped over time.
Coming full circle, understanding our own genetic patterning can give us insight into how we can develop an individualized diet and lifestyle. I still use the D’Adamo protocol as a foundation for my diet and lifestyle. I attempt to integrate other health morals into this that he doesn't go so far to address.
Eating regionally:
Adapting to our surroundings, but sourcing much of our foods locally. We are intended to eat what grows around us, to become more intune and adapt to our local environment. Herbal medicine which grows around us is the best, though we can spice and use herbs from other parts of the earth.
-Ayurveda: integrating concepts of what is best for my or anyones dosha can further assist in balance and refining any trend in the health world.
The energetic basis of Ayurveda and the treatment with opposite principles will stay solid and true, as trends come and go. Returning to a fundamental understanding of energetics can bypass any health trends which ebb and flow the market. In addition and in conclusion, we cannot ignore the interdependent influence our local environment has on our state of being. It is always best to address climate, humidity, season, and all that comes with the biological world around us in assessing our state of health. Work with rather than against, be in tune with your surroundings and health will prevail.
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