John Douillard's LifeSpa | Ayurveda + Natural Health
Ancient Wisdom meets Modern ScienceAyurveda + Natural Health News
Understanding Your Body According to Ayurveda, taking care of your digestion might just be the most important step you can take for your health. And not just your physical health, but your emotional and mental health, too! Strong evidence suggests psychological stress has a marked impact on gastrointestinal health and digestion. Stress is processed through the
What is candida overgrowth and what are the symptoms? Candida is a naturally-occurring yeast or fungus that inhabits the mouth, gut, vagina, and other mucosal membranes of the body. Ordinarily, it is harmless, existing in balance with the trillions of other bacteria that make your body home. Concerns arise when that balance is disrupted. This
Did you know that respiratory health starts in the gut? Read on to learn how that works and how you can troubleshoot any digestive issue from an Ayurvedic perspective. Ayurveda is famous for saying 85% of all disease starts from imbalances in digestion. This premise has been backed up by the discovery of the gut microbiome and the
LifeSpa’s Microbiome Study Do you think traveling to Europe increases microbial diversity? Some of you may remember a series of articles I wrote last summer called Eat, Pray, Bugs. These articles were background research for a study we conducted here at LifeSpa, a small pilot study to see if the American microbiome would gain microbial
Gut, Lung, Skin + Blood Brain Barriers How does our body protect us? There are four main defense systems—read on to learn what they are and how to use them to your advantage! Early studies from the University of San Diego, published in the prestigious journal Nature, evaluated over 18,000 microbial samples of 33 types
Have you spent any time wondering what your lymphatic system does, or if it is healthy? According to Ayurveda, the lymph, or rasa, is always the first body system evaluated and treated. It is hugely important to our health and wellbeing, but is often overlooked in our culture. It is one factor that may play into many so-called “mystery illnesses.”
Healthy Alternatives to Laxatives Do you know how your elimination is doing? A recent review of scientific literature looked at the state of modern digestion and elimination. Researchers found reports of sluggish elimination common, but inconsistent from country to country. Americans, in particular, seem unsure how to classify their bathroom habits, with survey results ranging
A healthy immune system isn’t always in high gear: it has the ability to go up and down in intensity in order to properly respond to an immune event. The balanced production of natural immunostimulants and immunosuppressants is called immunomodulation in Western medicine.
I thought to share this important debate on how we should pee now in hopes of offering some light relief form the 24-hours news cycle covering COVID-19. Do Real Men Stand or Sit to Pee? Recently, I was having breakfast with a brilliant Ayurvedic practitioner and friend, Kashaypa Fisher, and somehow we got on the
Minerals: You Are Probably Deficient According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), more than one-third of the US population is deficient in either one vitamin or mineral. The most common mineral deficiency is iron.1 In fact, iron deficiency is the most common deficiency in the world, and it is often not diagnosed
How does Ayurveda think about viruses? According to Ayurveda, viruses fall into the category of krimi. Krimi are further categorized as raktaja krimi, which are carried in the circulatory system (lymph, veins, arteries), and purisaja krimi, which reside in the lower gut.1 So how did Ayurveda deal with krimi? Strategies aimed at addressing infestations of
Strengthen Your Lungs Now with this Amazing Breathing Exercise With the world fighting a respiratory pandemic that will dramatically challenge the lungs and the ability to breathe, learning how to strengthen your breathing muscles may be a powerful preventative tool not to be overlooked. If 50% of elite athletes have diaphragmatic fatigue, then it is likely that all us us do.
