How Can Ayurveda Help You Manage Inflammation Naturally
Dr. Shivani Gupta is a dedicated advocate for modern women’s health and wellbeing, bringing her expertise as a wife, mother of two, and Ayurvedic leader to her work. She understands the unique challenges women face in prioritizing self-care amidst the demands of a busy life. Recognizing that self-care has often been relegated to an unrealistic expectation on an endless to-do list, she has made it her mission to change that narrative.
Dr. Gupta developed the revolutionary Modern Ayurveda program and Fusionary Formulas to blend Eastern and Western practices, offering practical solutions for self-care, digestion, stress reduction, and metabolism. Her goal is to empower women to reclaim their health without sacrificing the vibrant life they deserve. She emphasizes that success and self-care go hand in hand, advocating for small, impactful daily habits that can significantly improve overall health and happiness.
A renowned Ayurvedic leader, Dr. Gupta is passionate about sharing the transformative power of Ayurveda and bridging the gap between fast-paced modern living and conscious wellness practices. Her expertise spans a variety of topics, including organic pregnancy and the influence of Ayurveda on Western medicine. With over 50 speaking engagements at physician conferences, educational events, and women’s symposiums across the U.S., Dr. Gupta is a sought-after speaker dedicated to helping women live healthier, more balanced lives.
Relevant timestamps:
- (00:26:19) Turmeric’s Role in Health
- (00:26:28) PhD in Turmeric
- (00:30:11) Understanding Curcumin
- (00:31:51) Turmeric Gold Supplement
- (00:34:22) The Importance of Reducing Inflammation
- (00:35:05) Muscle Recovery with Turmeric
- (00:38:30) Turmeric’s Multifaceted Benefits
- (00:39:25) Influence of Inflammation on Aging
- (00:40:07) Turmeric for Hormonal and Mental Health
- (00:43:24) Turmeric as the Ultimate Anti-Inflammatory
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Guest info and links:
Official Website: shivanigupta.com
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Facebook: Dr. Shivani Gupta
YouTube: Dr. Shivani Gupta, Ayurveda + Inflammation Expert
LinkedIn: Dr. Shivani Gupta
Blog/Transcription:
0:01 it’s Dr Cassie Smith and welcome to back to the basics a simple approach to
0:06 Health in the modern world I appreciate you taking the time to join me today and hopefully learn ways that could help you
0:12 improve your health the modern world has left little time to focus on health and wellness I hope to give you some quick
0:18 and simple ways to be well and live your best life welcome back to this week’s episode of back to the basics today we
0:26 are going to talk about information I know we talk about information a lot but I have a very special guest who’s going
0:33 to teach us how inflammation affects our entire body she does a special type of
0:39 medicine called ayurveda it’s it’s rooted in India and so she really looks
0:44 at circadian rhythm and she looks at your gut and she’s developed these great supplements where turmeric is a staple
0:51 and she’s actually helped fix joint pain and all sorts of chronic inflammatory disorders so Dr Shabani is again she
0:58 practices this ayurveda which she’s going to tell us all about she’s an expert in fusing eastern and western
1:04 practices that help our bodies achieve equilibrium she completed her Masters in
1:10 ayurveda and her PhD in turmeric inflammation is a root cause for many health issues in our life and we have
1:17 the power to overcome it her passion is teaching atome remedies to reduce inflammation naturally will help you
1:23 enjoy more energy less brain fog less pain and ultimately achieve vibrant Health Dr Shabani Gupta has practice
1:30 ayurveda medicine for over 20 years and her approach is to show you the tools in your toolkit so that you can reach for
1:37 them every time you need them instead of using our Western medicine we were talking about like ineds she’s also the
1:43 founder of fusionary formulas which is an iric company that helps people with inflammation and pain so thank you for
1:50 joining me on this episode of back Basics thank you thanks for having me
1:55 yeah so I think I want to start because everyone’s like what is ayur just like so can you tell everyone what is this
2:02 practice of medicine that you are so great about and then we’ll talk about tumor how how about that absolutely so
2:07 most people have not heard of ayurva they’ve heard of a lot of the other alternative and integrative systems like
2:13 naturopathic medicine homeopathic medicine chiropractic medicine all these incredible integrative Specialties and
2:20 often times when we’re at our last wits end when it comes to our health people will find Iva and so Iva is an ancient
2:27 system of medicine from India that’s over 5,000 years old and within that system we teach a lot about food
2:34 nutrition diet we teach about your individual mindbody Constitution that’s
2:40 based on the five elements and we call that your DOA then we have our own circadian rhythm Concepts where we Irv
2:46 that came up with CC circadian rhythm and taught us how to live according to the circadian clock then we talk a lot
2:52 about sleep and how sleep is a key piece for our health we teach about gut digestive fire and how having a gut
2:58 digestive fire that on on point and strong is the keyy to our digestive health we teach about self-care rituals
3:04 that are detoxing that are supportive of our health every single day and eating according to a seasonal diet and then
3:10 finally we talk about the super spices which is one of my favorite Parts because I love that turmeric and ginger and ashwaganda and these incredible
3:17 spices have such Powerhouse benefits like superfoods and we’re just not experimenting with them enough to get
3:23 the benefits I love all of that that’s perfect so kind of everything that I teach about so they’re called Dosha yeah
3:29 DOA is your individual body constitution based on the five elements so people can
3:35 take a DOA quiz I have one on my website and when you take it it’ll show you
3:40 which elements are predominant in your life and based on that how you should lead your life in terms of your diet
3:47 your schedule your self-care rituals if you’re more fire more air or more Earth
3:52 that makes a big difference in how you feel every day and how you can navigate your day that’s very interesting so the
3:58 DOA are not necessarily the Circadian rhythm the Sleep the gut it’s fire earth
4:05 air that yeah so basically when you take a DOA quiz it asks you a lot of
4:10 questions about your physical body your mental state like your mentality your emotional health how you respond to
4:17 things and once you take the quiz it’ll tell you okay you’re more air ether you are the body type called thin and wiry
4:23 this is someone who tends to be more lean this is someone who can tend to be all over the place like they’re running
4:29 at high speed feed kind of like a fan like a ceiling fan they’re always in motion they have that wind energy to
4:34 them they’re lighter on the earth and so they have a tendency not to eat all day just snack all day they have a tendency
4:40 to be anxious have disrupted sleep maybe constipation and dryness in the system kind of like wind and so we have a whole
4:46 set of guidance for them based on circadian rhythm based on gut and all these things to help them stay more
4:52 supported then you have a whole Constitution called f f people are fire this is people who are ambitious driven
4:58 they tend to be medium bodied reddish hair reddish skin tone at times and so this person tends to be inflamed because
5:05 they’re always on fire they get overwhelmed burnt out they tend to explode on everyone around them when
5:11 they’re hangry and so knowing if you’re a fire person is really important because then you can cool down the Jets
5:16 keep yourself calm cool and collected I perceive maybe you’re a somewhat fit that person like you’re fiery in the
5:22 work that you do and teaching and building all these things so you have to eat on time and really cooling drinks on
5:28 hand to stay Bal and then there’s a gaffa person gaffa is earth and water
5:33 energy so that’s your person who bigger bones they’re stronger they’re of the earth they can lift heavier they have
5:39 round features they have curly oily hair and so this person has their own
5:44 template when it comes to a sluggish metabolism everything goes a little slower they say one thing at a time do
5:50 one thing at a time sometimes our guys are really grounded and they have that guffa energy and so it’s about supporting guffa to move that metabolism
5:58 move that energy and get that metabolism revved up so that they’re supported so that’s what I mean by the elements if
6:03 we’re if we understand which element we’re driven by then we understand how to balance ourselves on our circadian
6:08 clock seasonality affects us then our gut health can be different According to which element we are primarily and so
6:15 much more from there so I’m sitting here thinking about all my like Inner Circle people and whether they’re air or fire
6:21 or Earth so now I’m like fascinated okay so that’s awesome I love that and I’m very
6:28 becoming so much more like spiritual energy driven I did a an a podcast episode earlier with somebody who’s very
6:35 energy driven and I love that that’s uh I’m learning right so I have not been that but I do like it so this is very
6:42 fascinating to me so then you said there’s a quiz you can take and it can help you determine which one you are and
6:48 then once you know which one you are then you can figure out how you’re supposed to live your lifestyle or how you’re supposed to live your life or what you’re supposed to do in order to
6:54 keep your health healthier exactly okay and so this orita how do you say it
7:00 ayurveda ayurveda sorry ayurveda whatever so is very inflammatory based
7:06 as well so like when you said you were talking about like it’s diet you’re looking at diet you’re talk you’re looking at body circadian rhythm sleep
7:13 all of these things so all of those things depending on which you know whether you’re air Earth or fire then
7:20 you do different things is that what you’re saying correct I mean iva’s goal overall is to help us bring Body Mind
7:26 and Spirit into alignment so our goal is to show everyone how to live this preventive lifestyle and how building a
7:32 rhythm throughout your day is beneficial having self-care rhythms and self-care rituals throughout your day can be
7:38 gently detoxing so we teach about using a tongue scraper IV that taught us oil pulling dry brushing so all these
7:45 methods we have to build a rhythm in your day while honoring gut digestive fire and our gut health is the key but
7:52 nowadays unfortunately we’ve gotten out of that Rhythm we’re not living in circadian rhythm a lot of people are
7:57 waking up really late or sleeping really late we’re not eating within the windows that ayurveda recommends so ayurveda
8:03 says eating from 10: to 2 during the day when the sun is highest in the sky eating our biggest meal then is when
8:09 we’re most supported to absorb the nutrition from our food eat your most nutrient-dense meal then from 10 to 2 8:15 and then the Irv the clock says 10 to 2 at night is when we’re going to clear the lymphatic system the glymphatic
8:21 system and clear inflammation out of the system so that’s why I teach everyone make sure you’re sleeping on time make
8:26 sure we’re doing our sleep hygiene rituals our sleep rituals to ensure that
8:32 we’re sleeping during those windows when we’re most supported to clean and clear and rejuvenate the system so I is really
8:38 trying to show us a way of life a rhythm a beautiful way to exist where instead of just consuming so much that’s toxic
8:45 in this world so many toxic foods toxic plastic things around us there’s a lot in the world polluting us instead have a
8:52 daily beautiful practice of cleaning and clearing out things so that we can stay stay in Balance but also vibrationally
8:58 heal ourselves I think of IA is if you bring body into alignment Spirit mental emotional health
9:04 into alignment what do you have you have us living at our clearest and best vibration to attract and bring
9:09 everything we want in our lives so Spirit Body Mind vibration I like it I
9:15 like it okay so like if somebody so so I’m assuming not a lot of people do this in the United States I may be wrong but
9:22 yeah I mean a lot of people have discovered Irv that deuk Chopra made it really famous years ago so there’s this
9:28 movement as people learn about yoga and dive deeper into that practice they hear about ayurveda because it’s a sister
9:34 science to yoga or when you have big health issues you go on a big journey to find every system out there uh many of
9:41 us have gone that way because of our own health histories and gone into functional medicine integrative medicine and that’s how they find IR though so I
9:47 would say it’s a an undercurrent that’s happening in the world where we’re all seeking a different toolkit you know
9:53 Faron medicine has been wonderful I I actually love farman medicine I’m married into an alls surgical family
9:58 here in b down Florida so I really respect that medicine has an incredible toolkit and then what are the natural
10:04 toolkits we can reach into more for prevention more her managing when we have a chronic health issue and
10:10 reversing ourselves out of it and that’s where I think the power of living this more natural organic healthy lifestyle
10:15 comes in and Iva gives us a unique toolkit that most people haven’t heard of and that’s why I’m here to share it
10:21 okay so tell me about like I’m assuming Ira is you know you said seasonal diet
10:29 so it depends on where you’re living right whether you’re living in Florida whether you’re living in California whether you’re living in Oklahoma it’s
10:35 just like eating what’s in season what you can get there is that kind of the gist sure so our goal is to teach
10:43 everyone the circadian clock and how in that circadian clock there’s a seasonality so I do live in Florida
10:48 where we don’t have a real winter it it gets a little cold and we freak out and wear our our boots and sweatshirts for
10:54 about a week and that’s it so when it comes to your circadian clock I think of it as know your Constitution first I’m a
11:01 fire person so that means in the summer I’m going to tend to get overheated burnt out if I’m out in the heat all day
11:08 it’s not going to work for me so I plan that in the summer let’s go somewhere cooling somewhere where it’s actually
11:13 cool so I can cool down in that and eating in that season for those Foods so Nature has already provided Us in any
11:20 given season the right foods to keep us balanced so in the summer we get peaches nectarines mangoes all these foods that
11:27 are hydrating and cooling so job is to eat those foods but often times because we are in modern day times we set
11:33 ourselves on really prescriptive diets I know I do that sometimes I’m like this is your protein and this is what you’re
11:39 eating but fitting in that nutrient density nutrient variety by eating seasonally and gaining the optimal
11:45 nutrition by eating seasonally is one of our best ways to absorb and get what we need because if we’re too mono in our
11:51 diets we’re not going to gain that plethora of nutrient variety that makes sense okay and then tell me about the so
11:59 when you talk about circadian rhythm you kind of talked about ear meing like when you should be sleeping when you should be eating so you mentioned you’re
12:05 supposed to eat your biggest meal between 10 and two is that the only time you’re supposed to eat or you can eat it
12:11 just biggest in that time frame so Iva did teach about intermittent fasting it
12:16 didn’t teach about holding the really tight narrow frames we do now so IA taught that holding a 12-hour fast is a
12:23 gentle great fast that we should do every single day 7 to 7 for example or 8 to 8 whatever that is for you I that did
12:30 teach us that water fasting or taking a day off a week or a few days off every quarter or every season would be
12:37 beneficial to clean and clear the gut digestion the digestive system really support the immune system and do all
12:44 those things and I also taught us that intersections of seasons are the best time to detox so between spring and
12:50 summer between summer and fall that’s this moment where the season change is an important time to detox to prepare
12:56 for the season ahead so IA teaches us to eat Three Square meals a day which is interesting CU right now a lot of us are
13:03 are tightening our fasting windows but IA taught us breakfast lunch and dinner is important not too much snacking we’re
13:09 not meant to munch and snack all the time we’re meant to think of our digestive system as a campfire and that
13:14 campfire is what we call ugne our digestive fire and so when you look at that fire you’re meant to open it up in
13:20 the morning maybe you have a cup of ginger lemon tea in the morning to ignite that fire maybe you have hot
13:25 lemon water in the morning maybe you use your copper tongue scraper all of these are simple habits ignite the fire then
13:32 as you’re going through your day have a small breakfast that’s healthy warm and nourishing not a lot of these empty
13:37 sugary breakfast that people have nowadays calling it breakfast food let’s eat something Savory then when you have
13:42 lunch make that your biggest meal so if you’re going to have nuts seeds meat things that are harder to digest put it
13:48 all into lunch and then when you get to dinner if you need a snack you can have one I’m one of those snackers I have to
13:53 have a tea time around 3:30 or 4 and then around dinner have a small meal so
13:58 soups stews easy to digest and process meals at dinner before bedtime and stop
14:03 that dinner about 3 hours before bed to honor your circadium claw so that’s the Rhythm that we built throughout the day
14:10 and then I’ve added something on top of it I teach something called tea time is me time where I pause a couple times a
14:16 day and just tune in to myself and ask myself how are you doing today have you taking your supplements today are you
14:22 hydrating is there anything you need to do so you feel better today and my own intuition will come up with all sorts of
14:28 answers like you need to cancel that thing you said yes to you no you need to move the schedule or you won’t get to
14:33 eat dinner and so really asking yourself those questions for me is a way to keep my circadian rhythm on track for the day
14:40 because then I’ll make sure I’m eating on time hydrating on time and doing the things that I need to for me and my whole world’s not about my work or my
14:47 kids or everything else you call it tea time is me time yeah I love that I need
14:52 some tea time is me time twice a day huh I I do it about four times a day where I pause I have my tea and it’s can be any
14:59 warm drink it can be your amazing coffee with fat in it or whatever it is you’re doing but just taking that moment to get
15:05 off your phone undistracted and really take a moment like a mindful moment and a mindful break for yourself we’re so
15:12 often in our sympathetic nervous system as you know and so it’s a way for me to just slow down pause drop into my
15:18 parasympathetic and ask myself questions so that I’m calibrating to my own day instead of it being that my day is
15:24 running me I can run the day and and take care of myself in the way that I need to as a opposed to just being all
15:30 over the place I like that so you said you’re a fire person but you drink tea I
15:35 noticed you said that fire people are the hotter people so like it’s okay to drink tea if you’re fire yeah but just
15:41 be careful like if it’s burning hot outside don’t overdo it with burning tea and then you’re just hot like sometimes
15:47 I’m sitting at my desk and I’m hot because I’ve got a pemf pad under me with like hot you know red light therapy
15:53 and and infrared going and I’m drinking hot tea and then I’m like why why am I overheated oh okay get up and hydrate
15:59 and cool off and not not cook ourselves what kind of tea are you drinking so I
16:05 actually created a couple of teas in my product line and I did that because I love tea so much so green jasmine tea is
16:12 my favorite above all so I made a tea called menopause support tea for those of us in per menopause and the women in
16:18 menopause who want reduction in hot flashes night sweats in my case per menopause I need like mood support and
16:25 and stress support and we know that the adaptogens from ayurveda do that really beautifully so it has thuli in it it has
16:32 an adaptogen called shatavari and Chavi is known as a queen of adaptogenic herbs for male and female reproductive organs
16:39 so it really helps us with all these different changes and hormonal changes that we experience in per menopause
16:44 menopause and then I made one called unwind tea so after work I can unwind I’m so fiery I’ll just keep working till
16:51 midnight if I don’t put brakes in the system and so I didn’t want to Crave dark chocolate or wine after work and
16:56 all those things that we tend to Crave I made an adapted gen tea for that just to calm down sometimes I need two cups just
17:02 to chill out and then I made one for sleep because deep sleep to me is the key to reducing inflammation having the
17:08 energy I need this next day so I have a sleep tea for Sleep hygiene so I have that at 9: and my body knows okay no
17:14 more work no more anything around this house it’s just time for our sleep rituals for bed so do these teas have
17:20 caffeine those don’t except the green jasine so green Jasmine will and so I can caffeinate from 7:00 a.m. till about
17:26 3:34 and then I stop by by 3:30 I try to be complete on any green tea caffeine
17:32 ideas that I have and then only switch into non non-caffeinated tea so how much tea how so you drink Jasmine green tea
17:39 like all day until 3 o’ or I’ll have my first cup when I’m dropping my kids off so 7:30 we’re driving to school I’ll
17:46 have my first perfect cup of tea then I’ll wait mid morning I’m meeting with my staff and my team I’ll get my 10 17:52 10:30 tea my mid morning then I have lunch and in Irv that we teach never hydrate anywhere around your meals leave
17:59 a 30 minute Gap pre and post any Meal which is hard that means all your hydrating has to happen outside your
18:05 meals because we don’t want you to turn off that fire or slow down that gut digestive fire or turn off your enzymes
18:10 really that are going to come out to play and you need that digestive fire and acid to process your food so I don’t
18:15 have tea anytime around lunch I have one more at 3:30 and then when I get home if I know if I all of a sudden I’m like I
18:21 eat a little something that that moment where I want a snack I say no you know what have have some tea instead and
18:27 that’s when I’ll have ad penic tees to just relax and then I won’t reach for the junk food okay I like it I like it
18:34 okay I’m going to check some of these teas out so then talk to me about gut and digestion so you said you think of
18:41 the gut like fire right that’s what you said you wake up you need to stoke the fire and then talk to me about like the
18:48 importance that irva teaches as far as like gut health is it important how is
18:54 it important is it different than how Western medicine looks at the gut does it relate to mental health and hormones
19:00 all the things sure so over 5,000 years ago irva had these incredible ancient
19:06 texts that said gut health is the center of all Health everything you want in life comes from having great gut health
19:13 and to disregard gut health is what affects all system so mental health of course anxiety depression being
19:20 lethargic feeling sluggish all these moods comes from gut our immune system
19:25 completely completely rying on the gut when it comes to our overall health and well-being and vitality that also comes
19:31 from the gut so what’s really cool is ivea said it 5,000 years ago and modern science is proving it day after day we
19:38 see all these papers on gut microbiome gut brain access brain inflammation is gut inflammation it’s all tied together
19:45 I already talked about our Hormone Health everything the Vitality that we have as women through our Decades of
19:51 Life all tied into the gut and so that reverence of gut is the central theme in
19:56 AA it’s the center of everything so when we talk about circadian rhythm it’s to support your gut when we talk about self-care ritual to detox it’s to
20:03 support your gut when we say this is your Constitution we’re trying to show you how to custom optimize for your gut
20:09 health and any of the setbacks that are typical for your element and so yes gut health is the center of all Health
20:16 according to so many of the ancient systems but most especially Iva love that okay so now I want to transition
20:23 well and so is this a is this practic a lot in like in India still I guess is
20:29 this like more than normal in India than traditional medicine or how is that
20:34 going sure so India has over a billion people and this has been practiced for thousands of years so I would say the
20:40 majority of Indians practice this way it’s kind of built into our life because in our kitchens we have a spice box and
20:46 it has a lot of the spices called the super spices from ayurva we are taught to focus and make sure we’re having a
20:52 great bowel movement every day we’re meditating or doing some form of yoga or stretching every day um so so much of
20:58 it’s built into the lifestyle of how you’re raised as an Indian I think in modern day times it’s been interesting
21:05 that Western medicine took hold when the British occupied India so as Colonial
21:10 colonialism expanded things switched to Western and then now in recent decades it switched back so there’s a big
21:16 recurrence and Resurgence of ivic medicine homeopathic medicine and all these systems being used because people
21:22 want natural alternatives and that happened more so in the pandemic which was interesting to see everyone was like uh our Tork Works we’re use it I was
21:29 like yes you should yeah no I agree I think that’s happening in the United States too thankfully is people are sick
21:35 and tired of being sick and tired and they’re sick and tired of paying a lot of money for medicine that doesn’t work and so I do see that kind of changing
21:42 here so I’m glad it’s changing in India so you said you have these spice boxes now you’ve got me I we’re going to talk
21:48 all the turmeric things because you’re the turmeric expert but what other spices are in your Indian spice boxes
21:53 besides turmeric so we have spice cabinets I have a spice drawer I have all my backup spices and boxes in the
21:59 pantry and then we have this thing called a masal Dan masal Dany is like this round thing we have it’s metal with
22:06 all these little bowls and what that does is it gives us easy access to the spices you’re going to use in every
22:11 single day they’re not optional they are the main spices we use and so that box that I have that that metal box has
22:18 turmeric it has card cardamon well no not cardamom in my case I don’t use much cardamom we have cilantro so we call it
22:25 coriander dried and grounded we grinded ourselves in our home so it’s fresh ground red chili pepper I have gutam
22:32 Masala gutam Masala is a mixture of spices but it’s beautiful because it has black pepper in it which activates the
22:37 turmeric we have um something called Amour it’s like a mango powder so it adds this lemon acidity to the foods and
22:44 then we have whole cumin seeds because we want to make sure that whole cumin seeds are in the base of almost every
22:49 dish because it helps with the digestion of that dish and we have one more spice that we keep separate cuz it’s so stinky
22:55 it’s called Hing and Hing is also very supportive to digesting the food so when people say I can’t eat lentils I can’t
23:01 eat beans I’m like you guys just don’t have the spices for it we have the right spices that help predigest that food so
23:07 when it comes in your system it’s really easy for you to digest interesting so is there like a cookbook where you can find
23:13 all this information yeah I built a cookbook like an anti-inflammatory cookbook that’s on my website where I
23:19 showed people how to use these spices love that and those are just a few but those like you can eat those in almost
23:24 every single meal yeah those are in every dish so every day in an Indian household like mine we cook a lentil we
23:31 cook a rice we cook a mixed vegetable of some sort sometimes with potatoes and then we have our tortillas our Roi and
23:37 so that’s common like those will be used in the vegetable and in the lentils every time so you cook all this every
23:42 day yeah we I teach iade that so I have to eat fresh food so we are eating fresh food four days a week fifth day I allow
23:49 leftovers because it’s like the weekend who has time cuz we’ve got soccer practice and then we’ll usually go out for Thai food and different things on
23:56 the weekend but I will never eat food past past one day old ever so cuz we consider that stale food dead food we
24:03 consider it lacking pra or pronic energy and so that food is going to make you sluggish it’s it’s hard on that
24:09 digestive fire to throw dead old food on it so I have lived this lifestyle for
24:14 years I had my own big gut health issues Growing Up So to me eating fresh food is the central thing that my household
24:21 needs above everything else so you just learn how to portion and make sure you don’t make too much food yeah so you’re
24:27 not so yeah I mean sometimes we are wasteful it’s true like sometimes when you make
24:33 lentils you make a lot and I’m not willing to eat it past a day so I’ll take it to work I’ll be like anyone wants some lentils and most people will
24:40 take the food from me so okay that’s very interesting so then all my meal Preppers out there that are listening to
24:46 this their minds are like I know meal Preppers don’t like that statement from Irv the the only argument back to it is
24:54 I would rather you eat homemade food two days old than restaurant food food made in seed oils food made without any
25:01 intention if you’re cooking amazing fresh food in your home the fresher it is the better but if you’re G to if
25:06 you’re going to eat anything I prefer it it’s homemade I would agree with that so and and I went to med school with
25:12 several people who are Indian and they they’re they would bring food that they made at home or their family made or it
25:17 was wild like the flavors I will tell you I liked it a lot um but it was it was very different than what we have in
25:24 America right very different um and and then you know I I tried to eat some Indian food to be honest with you in
25:30 Oklahoma City like I’ve tried I went to med school in Kansas City it didn’t taste the same I didn’t think um I don’t
25:36 know so I haven’t I probably haven’t eaten Indian food in 10 years but um I used to eat a lot of it when I lived in
25:42 Kansas City and it was really good but it was very flavorful I do remember that and I’ve told my husband like if you get good Indian food and they know what
25:48 they’re doing it can be spicy but it is so flavorful like very different than the food that we eat here and it must be
25:54 because of your Spice Box that you have for sure exactly and the thing restaurants sometimes add so much fat so
26:01 much cream they fry everything so they kind of overdo it on the flavors versus
26:06 if you get homemade fresh Indian food that’s those spices being used so that all that benefit can really unfold in
26:13 the food for you it’s a completely different experience and you said you use turmeric in all your dishes too
26:18 absolutely I kind of OD on turmeric I had more so I’m like I I know everyone needs more tumeric in their life okay so
26:24 then you did I didn’t know you could do this you can do a PhD in tumeric yes my entire dissertation was on it wow
26:31 okay so I guess why start there why how did you pick toric so growing up I
26:38 always had big gut health issues I took so many antibiotics my gut health was horrible and by post College I finally
26:45 realized you know what there has to be a different way and I was in India at the time and I discovered Irv that there
26:51 which had already existed and I went on this quest to study it and understand it and I studied it on my own and then
26:57 finally I decided I want to write books that changed the world and so I got my master’s degree in it and in herbology
27:02 class as I was sitting there the teacher kept explaining human does this coriander which is cilantro does that
27:08 ashwaganda does this and turmeric can do all of this and I sat there and I
27:14 thought first of all my whole family is diabetic we all have insulin resistance I exploded my gut as a kid unknowingly
27:20 and you’re telling me turmeric could have fixed all that but I’m eating regular tumeric it’s in my food so how
27:26 come I didn’t get the benefit of tumeric I eat more tumeric than anyone else in my country the United States so I went
27:32 on this journey of studying it more and my advisor said you know you should really do a PhD and I said I am not that
27:38 nerdy I don’t think I’m capable and he said you are capable I’ll help you and so I started studying tumor started
27:44 reading the science and it was so compelling we have now over 17,000 scientific studies in PubMed and
27:51 published journals that talk about the effects of circumin from tumeric on the body so what most people don’t realize
27:57 is out of the entire tumeric plant when you buy it raw it’s beneficial when you dry it into the spice it’s more
28:02 concentrated has more impact because it’s concentrated together and then when you extract from turmeric you find the
28:09 curcuminoids which is the 3 to 5% out of those 3 to 5% curcuminoids curcumin is
28:14 the most effective at reducing inflammation but you need to make sure you give it to people in the right proportion and so I went on this Quest
28:20 and I just wanted to know for a family like mine that’s so diabetic with heart disease and stroke and Parkinson’s and
28:26 all the things we have could tumeric work that was just my hypothesis and as I did the thesis I realized most of us
28:32 just don’t understand turmeric or take it in the right form because turmeric is anti-inflammatory antioxidant antiviral
28:39 antibacterial antifungal it has a positive effect on the gut microbiome it has it functions on the same Pathways as
28:46 metformin so it can help with blood sugar regulation it’s anti-obesity and
28:52 then one piece I love is when we have cells in us that don’t belong percumin goes in there and kills them and gets
28:58 rid of them when we have zombie cells that form as we age kirkum is like the ultimate janitor and it gets in there
29:04 and cleans them out and I thought no not only am I going to prevent diabetes in my body which is important to me to
29:09 always reduce inflammation exercise have a great metabolism reduce stress all those pieces but I wonder when I get
29:16 hurt and I go to the doctor and they give me an nsid and they give me painkillers and I don’t tolerate those
29:21 well could we use toric for that and so that was my thesis 10 years ago that I’ve been working on and I’ve been able
29:27 to prove that to be true we can use potent curcumin for chronic joint pain we can use it in so many different ways
29:34 I have a lot of people who use it for their immune system because it’s antiviral antibacterial so I just love that that it’s such a multifaceted plant
29:41 that mother nature gave us this one solution that does so much which makes it easy because then we can take one
29:46 thing and get all these benefits that is yeah that’s amazing so I would be thinking the same thing if there are all
29:52 these different spices why are we not just using turmeric right so you said there are C you have to take it so like
29:59 if someone’s listening to this and they’re like okay great I can go buy turmeric on Amazon right like I’ll just go buy some curcumin on Amazon is that
30:06 the same thing does that work you said there’s a certain like ratio you have to take it in so tell me about that sure so
30:11 a lot of people buy turmeric the powder the spice at the grocery store it’s a couple bucks and when they put it on
30:17 their food they’re sprinkling it on their food like you said in the west we’re not used to using all those spices
30:22 in a high concentration to get a result in Indian food we’re at least putting a teaspoon at a time but when it comes to
30:29 the level of inflammation most of us have in modern day times myself included
30:35 just living in modern day times with the water the air the pollution all the environmental factors and our own diet
30:41 with seed oils and sugars and these kinds of things alcohol all that inflammation needs a higher dose of
30:47 turmeric to actually get a result and so those curcuminoids that exist a lot of people create supplements and put them
30:52 on Amazon a lot of people are ordering them from all over the place China who knows where and so for me it’s very
30:58 important that when we Source our supplements we go with someone we trust someone who knows what they’re doing
31:03 someone who actually makes it in the right way and so in my case I sourced out of India but made mine in the US
31:09 where I have control over production third party testing and all those things so I could ensure that when I hand this
31:14 to a doctor and say hey can you give this to your patient they trust and can trust what we’re doing and so that’s the
31:20 difference between ordering Amazon supplements and ordering from someone like you or me who’s actually focused on
31:25 quality and potency where we we want a functional medicine doctor in my case I want a functional medicine doctor to say
31:32 yeah I actually saw the difference I know that one worked because a doctor knows what works and what doesn’t work on the patient so your kumin is sourced
31:39 in India made in the United States do you have different types of kumin like you said there’s curcumin powder and
31:45 there’s curcumin noids or something you said like does yours have different types of curcumin in it or yes it does
31:52 actually so I made one formula called turmeric gold and I made that to follow the classic what the science says in all
31:58 the literature that 500 Mig of curcuminoids with black pepper extract which increases the absorption 2,000%
32:06 will work in the body and then I added turmeric back in for the synergistic effect of extract with plant and whole
32:11 plant but within those curcuminoids I Source a 98% grade potency that’s normally when we land where we land in
32:18 our batches and it’s in the exact right proportion so nature to Nature so we absorb it in the body so it’s mostly
32:25 curcumin and then some of the other two so we get the benefits a lot of people put all three equally a lot of people
32:32 extract and then push their numbers above 95% a lot of them don’t tell us the standardization like there’s a lot
32:38 of play in the supplement world where it’s hard to read the labels even for me it’s hard to understand what people are
32:43 doing on their labels and then when it comes to making in the US I wanted third-party testing pre-mid and post-
32:48 production I wanted to know there’s no heavy metals there’s no microbes we’re making something so safe that I’ll take
32:54 it I’ll give it to my mom my family everyone around me and so when I Source out of India I’m sourcing from A
33:00 supplier who I’ve met I’ve shaken their hand for me it’s really about the theory to me was can I prove to all of Western
33:06 medicine that we can use this as a solution and so that’s where I came from with it and so you have kumin you call
33:12 it turmeric gold is it something that you just take once a day do you take it twice a day does it matter when you take
33:18 it does it matter how you take it sure so tumor gold is like that daily circumin support you can take it twice a
33:24 day I tell people to start with food because spices can kind of hit us hard if we’re not used to eating a spicy diet
33:29 and then once you’re used to it you can take it twice a day anytime and then I created a second formula called inflammation relief and in that formula
33:36 I put the curcumin but I put what everything else what everything else an ayurvedic doctor would have given you
33:42 for inflammation so it’s a synergistic blend of basilia dried Ginger amla guchi
33:49 all in the right proportion and so a lot of people who come to me are inl they’ve got pain they’ve got issues going on so
33:55 they’ll take inflammation relief and if they need more support they add on tumeric gold and it’s interesting CU
34:00 it’s the orthopedic surgeons who I started with 10 years ago who combined them they said you know your tumor’s awesome but if you put two together then
34:06 you really solve their joint pain and I was like okay I I didn’t think of that I thought one is daily one is in pain but
34:13 they just put them together and so we have thousands of people who take it every single month they’re they call us
34:19 they tell us my back Pain’s gone my hip Pain’s gone my knee pain is gone and so that’s the most fulfilling part of what I do is if I can reduce that pain and
34:25 get you feeling better then you can move move you can have more energy and in women’s health we know our gut inflamed
34:32 is a problem if our body is inflamed our Hormone Health is affected and so I myself take a higher dose because I
34:38 always want to reduce my inflammation and feel my best so do you take the turmeric gold or do you take both of
34:43 them so I I love tumor gold I take it every day and then if my kids are getting sick if anyone around me sneezes
34:49 and I don’t want to catch something I’ll just take an extra one I’ll take a third pill at night and if I’m ever going out for dinner and I know I’m going to have
34:55 that glass of wine or eat inflam Foods lots of pasta or things like that I’ll have an inflammation relief on the way
35:02 and if I hurt something I love to work out I love to lift I’ll just take inflammation relief until I’m over
35:07 whatever that muscle pain issue is or I’ll also take it for Muscle Recovery a lot of people want recovery after the
35:13 gym so they can go back the next day and you can take it for that as well so turmeric gold every day no matter what
35:18 if somebody’s sick you take an extra turmeric gold if you’re going to eat inflammatory foods you do a extra toric
35:23 gold or you do the inflammatory one the inflammatory one when I switch to the inflammat everyone cuz I know what I’m about to do I’m know I’m about to
35:30 inflame myself so I do that a lot during the holidays so you can take tumeric gold twice a day and one of the
35:36 inflammatory ones a lot of people take two tumor Golds a day two inflammation reliefs a day and that’s their protocol
35:41 you can take both because according to the literature and we know this from the science you can take up to eight grams a
35:47 day of curcumin safely at that point they’ve seen some GI disturbance and distress because you put that much
35:53 curcum in in the body you’re kind of kind you’re going to get that impact so it’s very safe to take a couple of grams
35:59 of curumin 1 two three grams a day even if you’re eating it as well like putting it on your food yeah because the food
36:04 part the food part is only good for those of us who aren’t really very inflamed that’s a good daily support but
36:11 I truly think that in modern day time most of us are quite inflamed and that is the problem we’re from a root cause
36:17 perspective that lowgrade fire that’s burning through us is wreaking havoc many of us see it for me I’m in my
36:24 mid-40s so I experience it as brain fog Digest issues headaches my my joints
36:30 will feel stiff in the morning if I’m not managing myself carefully and so I do think that taking a curcum and
36:35 supplement is a whole different League than just putting tumeric in our food but putting it in our food is still beneficial still good for you should we
36:42 put black pepper on the turmeric if we eat it yes when you eat turmeric always
36:47 add black pepper or a healthy fat both are known to increase the absorption so you can do either or we know black
36:53 pepper increases the absorption 2,000% and we know healthy fats supports the absorption okay and then is there a age
37:01 range like can kids take torach is there an amount that kids can take we have no published science on kids yet so it that
37:08 is completely up to you parents call me all the time and I say you know what it it is up to you it depends on the size
37:13 of the child a lot of times the kids are adult size and it’s fine otherwise it’s kind of subjective okay yeah that’s
37:19 typically what I tell them to if you have a child that weighs 120 pounds AR they a child I mean so exactly okay so
37:27 that is very fascinating so you so you’ve got this supplement line there
37:32 anything else so you make some teas and you make different types of turmeric is there anything else in this supplement line and this Arsenal behind you that’s
37:39 going to help us feel better I love the tumeric the most it’s what I focus on then I do the adaptogens and the teas I
37:45 made some gummies just to support people because we know we need Vitamin D and these things I have a sleep gummy that
37:51 has Gaba and it has melatonin in it and that one and eleanine those are the three ingredients I love the gum because
37:57 when I travel a lot of times my sleep gets disrupted so I’ll take it to get a great night sleep or if I wake up in the
38:04 night I’ll just take one gummy to give me the rest of my night’s sleep because I’m obsessed with my sleep score and
38:09 getting perfect sleep so I I love the Sleep gummy as well but I try not to lean on it every night because I don’t
38:15 want to be reliant on it yeah so do you think is there anything that we missed that people need to know about anything
38:21 that we’ve talked about about you know turmeric is there anything that I didn’t ask you that I should have asked you
38:27 that you can think of that would be beneficial for patients I just want people to know that this creation from
38:33 Mother Nature has so many multifaceted benefits and when we get inflammation out of the way when we get that gut
38:39 microbiome supported we know that turmeric has a very powerful effect for brain health we know it affects amalo
38:45 plaques tow Tangles we know that as we age our mitochondria slows down there’s this dimming of the energy and light out
38:52 of our mitochondria and tumeric supports our mitochondria so it has a very powerful anti anti-aging effect that I
38:58 love I presented at a4m Vegas last year and my whole presentation to the doctors
39:04 was it affects our cins our a ampk Pathways it affects our telam which are
39:09 the ending of our DNA strands and so the fact that tumor can get in there and support us as we age to me is really
39:16 phenomenal because now I am aging I’m in my mid-40s I’m seeing it I’m feeling it and I I really want to age while keeping
39:23 my vitality and energy and I think that takes a pretty big invest M I am doing a lot of HRT and all the things to feel
39:31 and look my best and so to add turmeric to the plan is a great way to reduce the chronic inflammation but also heal all
39:38 sorts of things I find curcumin goes after the big problems first then the mediumsized problems and then really small problems because people call me
39:44 and say you know my my hair is better my skin is better because it can’t affect
39:49 your skin or they’ll say my gingivitis is gone or all those aches and pains I thought were part of aging those are
39:56 gone and I always say that’s inflammaging we forget that it’s not aging that’s making us slow down it’s
40:01 the inflammation on board as we’re aging and so just reducing that inflammation can be the best thing that we gift
40:07 ourselves yeah so it is good for hormones because again inflammation is going to mess with your hormones also
40:12 mental health that was the other thing I was going to ask you about so we do know that a lot of mental health is not only
40:17 gut related because we’re not able to absorb nutrients and serotonin and you know trip trip toan which makes dopamine
40:24 serotonin from our gut but you know the anxiety the depression a lot of the issues that we have as we’re going
40:29 through menopause or as we’re having hormonal issues I’m assuming it’s going to help all those things because these are all inflammatory based issues yeah
40:37 so before we kind of wrap up tell everyone I want you to tell everyone
40:42 kind of where they can find you I know you have a website I think you have a podcast I know you’re on Facebook
40:47 Instagram LinkedIn um so kind of just tell everyone anything that you want them to know about where they can find
40:54 any more information about turmeric about you about all these thanks sure so my website is my name Shian Gupta dcom
41:01 Shi V ni and on there is the DOA quiz and my inflammation guides and
41:07 everything I have the fusionary health podcast where I love interviewing incredible people like you to share
41:13 about your wisdom and I’m on Instagram is dr. Shani Gupta and we made a special
41:18 code for your audience modern endocrine will give them 15% off at fusionary formula awesome so we will make sure
41:25 that we put that in the show notes thank you um and so they just type in modern endocrine all one word perfect and then
41:33 do you want to tell anyone about your January 2026 plans or are we keeping
41:38 that on yes so January 2026 my first book with a publisher with Hay House is
41:46 coming out it’s a book on inflammation and ayurveda and this entire lifestyle and how we can apply it to ourselves and
41:52 so I’m so excited to have that book come out into the world I’m excited too I want to read it and I have the way a year so we are I’m going to send a
42:01 message to my social media team so that we can remind people next year about this book so I’m super excited I asked
42:07 her before the podcast about the name and she said no so that’s okay we’ll wait on the name but I’m super excited
42:13 to read her book it sounds like it’s going to be very complimentary of sort of what I’m writing a book about as well but just in general it’s going to be
42:19 really good for people and just very interesting because now I’m very intrigued in in all the spices and all
42:24 the things and I’m going to take the quiz but I already think I know what I am I think I’m a fire too I’m pretty sure my husband is an heir I’m pretty
42:31 sure I’m a fire I know several Earths um but I’m very interested in this
42:37 so obviously this episode so far has been packed full of very interesting things I know you can find somebody that
42:44 you think you should share this with anyone who complains of like you said aging or inflammation anyone with joint
42:50 pain or joint issues make sure that you share this episode with them because this is something that instead of taking
42:55 inid which ruin their gut or can cause cause you to bleed or have lots of issues you know people could check this
43:01 out um so go and look at Dr shani’s website and make sure that you share
43:07 this also leave us a review if you like the podcast please leave us a review um
43:12 we end the podcast with three questions so I’m going to ask you the three questions that we ask everyone don’t
43:17 overthink it I think I already know the answer to the first one but what is one food that’s most beneficial and why o I
43:25 would always go with tumeric it’s my favorite onor Earth tumeric is the ultimate anti-inflammatory and it’s also an
43:31 immune support that many of us need we need that gut support So to me tumor is my number one on earth okay perfect the
43:38 second question what is one thing that anyone can do for their health that’s completely free that would benefit their
43:45 health besides eat tumeric yeah I would say walk in nature I take circadian walks in the morning in
43:52 the evening of course it’s moving and we need our steps but it also clears the lymph IC System which is a big focus of
43:59 Iva and it’s also allowing nature to heal you so I always tune into nature let go of listening to anything on my
44:05 phone and just tune in the beauty of Nature and that’s my best way to drop into my parasympathetic nervous system
44:12 relax and allow the universe and I to just communicate like how do I absorb all the goodness of the world and and
44:19 hold the vibration and frequency that I want yeah I completely agree and I’m a big proponent of circadian walking and
44:25 most people know that listen to this I walk in the morning and I walk at night I will admit that I A lot of times have
44:31 headphones in and I’m listening to podcasts but one of my New Year’s resolutions this year was to get rid of
44:36 the headphones and to be very present in nature and just look at the Sun and hear the things and smell the things and just
44:43 like and I’ve noticed when I’ve done that I’ve done I’ve only done it for a week but I did notice that my par you
44:48 can you do you kind of drop into this like parasympathetic it’s different than when you’re like stimulated and listening to something so I would second
44:56 that and I would encourage people if you are walking in nature to get rid of the headphones so you’re going to have to listen to us at a different time I’m
45:02 sorry you know we’re very interesting but don’t do it while you’re walking so I agree with that and then the last
45:08 question is what is one thing you wish you would have known about your health 20 years ago that you would have done
45:14 differently so that you are healthier now and I might know the answer to that too I wish I knew that we had a gut
45:22 microbiome and that you had the ability to completely damage and destroy
45:27 with soda I used to love soda I loved a lot of inflammatory foods in my younger
45:32 years I loved um and I took a lot of antibiotics and so and I never took probiotics so 20 years ago if I had
45:40 known that a little over 20 now I would have it would have changed my whole life I I probably wouldn’t have discovered
45:45 AGA and gotten to teach what I teach now so maybe that’s the lesson I needed to learn but gut microbiome is the key to
45:52 everything in life and if we don’t address it and love it and optimize it constantly because it’s an everchanging
45:59 thing then we don’t get to have the brain the focus the energy and the
46:04 Vitality that we want we completely agree so Dr Shani Gupta thank you very
46:09 much for being on our podcast and kind of teaching us about this very interesting form of Indian medicine and
46:16 then also teaching us everything we need to know about turmeric so I appreciate your time thank you thanks for having me
46:25 yeah the information presented including any materials discussed referenced or
46:30 linked within this podcast are for General educational purposes only not
46:35 the practice of medicine no doctor patient relationship is formed from you listening to this podcast or utilizing
46:42 any of the information provided I am a doctor but I am not talking to you as your doctor the information provided is
46:49 not intended to diagnose or treat health problems or take the place of the professional medical care provided by
46:56 your doctor if you are experiencing any health problems including problems you believe
47:01 have been touched upon in any respect within this podcast you should consult your doctor about the problems without
47:08 delay you may ask your doctor whether he or she believes the information I have provided would be helpful to you but you
47:14 should still consult your doctor immediately and follow his or her medical advice as your treating
47:20 physician I’m just here to provide you basic knowledge about the issues we discuss so you are more aware of them
47:26 and can better discuss them with your doctor that’s why we call it back to the basics join me on the next episode as we
47:33 continue our journey [Music]
47:38 [Applause]
Disclaimer:
The information presented including any materials discussed, referenced, or linked within this podcast are for general educational purposes only, not the practice of medicine.
No doctor-patient relationship is formed from you listening to this podcast or utilizing any of the information provided.
I am a doctor, but I am not talking to you as your doctor. The information provided is not intended to diagnose or treat health problems or take the place of the professional medical care provided by your doctor.
If you are experiencing any health problems, including problems you believe have been touched upon in any respect within this podcast, you should consult your doctor about the problems without delay. You may ask your doctor whether he or she believes the information I have provided would be helpful to you, but you should still consult your doctor immediately and follow his or her medical advice as your treating physician.
I’m just here to provide you with basic knowledge about the issues we discuss so you are more aware of them and can better discuss them with your doctor.
That’s why we call it Back to the Basics. Join me on the next episode as we continue our journey.