Heal the Body: Ayurveda in Rishikesh

Dhanvantari, incarnation of Krishna and Lord of Ayurveda

Hello friends, from Rishikesh, near the headwaters of the holy river Ganges at the base of the mountains of the northern India state of Uttarakhand. Known to be a hotspot for yoga and spirituality, Rishikesh has become much too busy for my tastes these days, yet I still come here to imbibe in the wonderful energy of the Ganga, see old friends and bask in the splendor of the foothills and greenery. It’s only five hours by train from Delhi, so it’s worth the trip if you’re in this corner of the subcontinent.

Dr Shree and Remadevi,wife & clinic manager

The main reason for my visit this time is to see my ayurvedic physician, Dr. Srinarayan Kurup, known as Dr. Shree by his clients. Last August during monsoon season, I underwent an intense panchakarma “cure” under his care. (“Panch” means five in Hindi/Sanskrit - there are five typical therapies involved in a treatment; “karma” here means action.)

My first panchakarma was amazingly effective; I cleared out skin issues and rebalanced my system with the help of abhyanga oil massages, potli (pounding with rice packs and oils), shirodara (oil dripped on the forehead to calm the mind), and ghee medicinal treatments (ghee is clarified butter), among others. It’s not an easy process: one must commit to a minimum of seven days for good results (ideally 16-28 days, but Dr. Shree will work with one’s time and budget).

I came to respect Dr. Shree, who hails from Kerala (the southwest corner of India – lush and green and known for ayurveda), because I trust him. There are thousands of ayurvedic physicians in India. Many are very good, some are excellent. But not all of them can diagnose a foreign patient with a non-judgmental attitude and understanding that we, well – we live differently in U.S. and Europe. We eat, drink, exercise, relate, and entertain ourselves differently. We would not fit into a typical Indian lifestyle, and therefore, we need different analyses when addressing our health care needs. When I met Dr. Shree, I intuitively felt he was hearing me. Not only was his English excellent, he’d lived and worked abroad and been exposed to many foreigners over the years. When I pushed back on something that traditional ayurveda advises as a lifestyle change but that I know I wouldn’t realistically adhere to, Dr. Shri would make accommodations and adjust the treatment plan accordingly.

Dr. Shree's lovely wife, Remadevi, is the manager of the clinic. She also comes from an ayurvedic physician's family in Kerala. The two of them make a great team, making their clients feel welcome and facilitating a plan that works for everyone.

I have come to love ayurveda – a holistic system of health care and well being based on a unique understanding of body, mind, and soul. I find it fascinating that one major stipulation of ayurvedic medicine is, if it's not worthy of going INSIDE the body (i.e. edible), it should not be put EXTERNALLY on the body either. In other words, if you can't eat it, you shouldn't rub it on your skin!

Ayurvedic humors

Many of us have heard of the three “doshas” or body types, of ayurveda: Pitta (fire/water), Vata (air/ether) and Kapha (water/earth). It is necessary to get ones pulse diagnosed by a qualified ayurvedic practitioner, and then start to learn the best way to balance that body type.

Most folks in the modern world are overwrought with far too much vata, with our overly busy lifestyles and our resultant miniscule attention spans (irregular rhythms, too much Internet, too much multitasking, too much travel - in general, not being GROUNDED).

This is often exacerbated by a high pitta lifestyle that can run amok – too much heat, repressed anger, alcohol, caffeine, passions overrunning the body to name just a few triggers. None of these things are “bad” in themselves; it’s when things get out of balance that it’s no longer fun!

When I came to Dr. Shree last year, I was a full-on, flaming pitta gal, having spent many moons for years in the broiling hot of India, with a fierce coffee addiction and a fiery, passionate personality to boot. This had paid off for years in terms of my independence and high-adventure travel lifestyle. But last year, it came to be clear that I was out of balance: out of nowhere, I’d gotten scabies (yes, scabies – cringe if you must; it happens, even in the hyper-clean U.S.) which thrives on pitta body types. While I was able to clear the skin parasite using alternative and allopathic remedies, my system was completely out of whack for about six months after, not to mention the post-traumatic stress of fearing another micro-organism inhabiting itself on my body!

I’d had no intention of doing an ayurvedic treatment when I came to Rishikesh last August. But I knew I needed help to clean my system. And the time was perfect. It was slow season, and the clinic was quiet. The weather was perfect for a treatment – not too hot, with a bit of moisture in the air. I couldn’t believe that a panchakarma therapy could put Bindi back together again, but I was willing to give it a serious try. Not only that, but the treatments in India are probably 25% of the cost of undergoing the same therapy in the U.S. I had nothing to lose.

I followed the program religiously for ten days, getting scrubbed, pounded, oiled and steamed within and without. I drank large quantities of liquid ghee (ugh!) and stayed horizontal in my ashram room  much of the time, hardly able to even read a book. But I trusted and, as usual, I endured (a good thing about pitta body types - endurance and fortitude!). I cried, I sweated, I eliminated and purged, I LET GO.

After the treatment, I felt like a different person. I was renewed, uplifted, and positive-minded again. Dr. Shree prescribed three months of post-therapy herbs to purify my blood (yay for NEEM!) and my colon (TRIPHALA GUGGUL – a stronger form of triphala combined with a plant resin to better enter the tissues). I also used regular medicated oil on my body to keep my pitta fire down, and took BRAHMI (gotu kola) nightly to calm my nervous system. Both pitta and vata body types have highly sensitive nervous systems. I also took AMLA (natural vitamin C) in large quantities every day as an antioxidant and natural antiviral.

All side effects of lingering skin conditions disappeared over the next month. I returned to Europe, followed by the U.S., with a bigger spring in my step and glowing health. I repeated the detox this spring to go for a deeper layer of cleansing, which was successful. I have a new regimen to take home with me to grow continually stronger and healthier.

Mother India has given me gift after gift after gift. Over these last twelve years, not only did I learn to travel on a teeny shoestring, able survive on barely anything, I also hit the spiritual jackpot with the meeting of my guru, leading to an unshakeable inner peace. And just when I thought I’d gotten all the gold India might offer me, I hit a new mother lode of physical health: Ayurveda – the natural healer.

Remadevi, practitioner Anita, Erin

Going to India and need to heal, detox, or rejuvenate? Contact Dr. Shree directly via email or phone for inquiries or to set up an appointment. Tell him Erin referred you.

Dr. Shree Narayana Kurup

Green Ayurveda Center

Ram Jhula, Swargashram, Rishikesh

 (+91) 9675110050

Email: drshreen3@gmail.com

Erin Reese is a travel writer, intuitive consultant and guide based in San Francisco. She is the author of The Adventures of Bindi Girl: Diving Deep Into the Heart of India, available on Amazon.

Wellness from Within: Health Interview with Cathleen Waraner of Dancing Diagnostics

Everything is changing on earth these days - the planet is going through its share of shakeups and we are also feeling the shifts as a species. For this reason, it is more that our immune systems are super-charged. And, with the regenerative vibes of spring in the air, I felt it was a good time to feature an interview on wellness and vitality.

Cathleen Waraner is a well-respected and much loved health and lifestyle counselor based in Lake County, California. Her consulting business is called Dancing Diagnostics, as she uses the tools of dowsing, the pendulum, and hair analysis to evaluate a person’s wellness. She is also a gifted seer.

I met Cathleen at a health fair in 2007 – an invisible hand pushed me in the direction of her booth. My intuition told me to trust her as I sorely needed her help. I’d returned from India with a bad case of parasites – NOT fun. Allopathic medicine prescribed pharmaceuticals, which killed about 70% of the critters, but another 30% were still active in my system and were making me crazy both physically and mentally.

Cathleen did a full health analysis of my system, and within two to three months of natural food, herbal, and vitamin remedies, I was rid of parasites and healthier than before. Since that time, I’ve consulted with Cathleen on a regular basis, with phenomenal results. I consider her to be my primary health and wellness consultant. Since I love to share off-the-beaten path finds with Travel and Soul readers, I wanted you to know about Cathleen's services, too.

Wellness from Within:

Health Interview with Cathleen Waraner of Dancing Diagnostics

Erin Reese: Cathleen, thanks for talking with us today. How did you come into this field of alternative health, nutrition, and wellness?

Cathleen Waraner: First, through an automobile accident in 1975, in which I almost died. The near-death experience left me with the gift of seeing what is happening inside a person’s body. The nutritional and alternative healing wisdom is a thirty-plus year body of knowledge concerning food, herbs, and vitamins as medicine. I began to apply my gift of intuitive sight along with alternative healing in 1983 when my eldest daughter was deathly ill. She was in the children’s hospital and treatment was not successful at all, when I met a woman who recommended sending her hair for analysis to a company in Arizona. Through hair analysis, we learned that my daughter had dramatic allergies to wheat, among other things. We started right away to heal her with herbs and food changes. I became, of course, highly interested in hair analysis, which I now do myself through dowsing with a pendulum.

ER: Can you tell me how you came to work with a pendulum?

CW: In 1991, I met a healer named Phyllis Williams in Calistoga. She used her pendulum with great results to help others make the changes they needed. This reminded me that as a child, I would go to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and stare at that huge pendulum that knocks down the pegs as it moves with the Earth’s energy. You may have seen it?

ER: Oh, yes, I love that – the Foucault Pendulum!

CW: Exactly. I used to stand there and watch it for long periods of time, fascinated. Pendulums can test energy qualities of objects and information, and it has been scientifically proven, like dowsing.

ER: You use dowsing with a pendulum in your work. Can you tell us more about that?

CW: I learned the art of dowsing for water when I was six years old, from my grandfather. I like to use pear sticks, but I can even use willow or wire rods. Today, I use the pendulum for dowsing to search for specific information about a person’s health. Dowsing is no longer considered strange. Scientists are now using pendulums for dowsing themselves and dowsing is approved by the American Academy of Sciences, the UN Department of Education, and the British Academy of Sciences, just to name a few.

ER: And you use pendulums to dowse for health and wellness information from your clients’ hair?

CW: Yes, the great thing about hair analysis is that I don’t actually need to be physically present with the person in order to do a health work-up. What happens is that the person sends me a few strands from combing, after sleeping on unwashed hair overnight. When I get the hair, I do the full analysis, uninterrupted, from my own home office, and we go over the information by telephone. We can go really in-depth this way.

ER: What kinds of information do you get through this analysis?

CW: We determine whether you are assimilating your nutrients, whether you are acid or alkaline, whether you have enzyme depletion or not. We see if you are sufficient in fats, carbohydrates, protein, and minerals. We can see how your blood sugar is regulating, and if you’re dehydrated. We see if you are getting enough of the right oils, enough water, salts, and so on. We also see if you have enough of the key amino acids, which are vital for the brain and nervous system, and the immune system. We go through a health checklist, examining the glands and organs…

ER: That’s amazing that you can see all this with pendulum dowsing.

CW: Yes, the main thing is that it is a complete wellness analysis. I check for allergies, too. This is really important: people are getting more allergies through new pesticide use on non-organic foods. We can see if people have environmental toxins in their system, or irregular cells.

ER: What happens once you do the analysis?

CW: Then I step into the coaching part of my work – food therapy, health education, and lifestyle counseling. I am a complete supporter of organic food. I had one of the first organic farms in the Napa Valley back in 1993, called Wild Boar Run Untamed Organic Specialties.

It is really important for people to understand that the nutritional quality of organic foods has a much higher nutritional impact on the body. Organics have a higher vibrational frequency, which truly supports our system.

ER: A lot of people say they can’t afford to buy all organic, but it seems they can’t afford not to.

CW: That’s right, we have to get away from pesticide poisoning, which is a major problem for our immune system. I’m also a big supporter of eating locally – I encourage the “Farm to Table” approach. Organics are in our best interest. Otherwise, we are constantly stressing the body, detoxing whatever we eat – all those pesticides cause greater imbalances in our system.

ER: It’s super important to keep our immune systems strong these days, with all the viruses…

CW: Yes, we have to keep our nervous systems strong, and our bodies disease-resistant. Also, we can’t eat factory farm animals or animal products that are pumped with antibiotics. If the animal has been fed antibiotics, WE get the antibiotics. This IS contributing to more colds, influenzas, and infections in humans in general. If someone has to choose between a vegetarian lifestyle and eating factory-farmed animal products, I’d rather they eat vegetarian.

ER: Who should contact you for a consultation?

CW: Anyone who is interested in enhancing his or her well-being. I help people feel and look and BE more radiant. I help them get stronger to resist the emerging bugs and viruses that are the greatest threat to our species today. I can help people boost the immune system so that they have NO downtime with colds and influenzas, and help people have more strength. People often don’t realize how sick they already are.

ER: I know. You’ve helped me fight off some major viruses. I’ve been amazed at what you’ve helped me with!

CW: You’re also a person who is truly committed to her health, and the world needs more people who are positive, healthy, radiant, and spiritually gifted. Food and lifestyle coaching can help others in this way.

ER: I’m surprised at how we continue to turn to drugs and pharmaceuticals when there are natural ways to heal the body. People are often fatigued, or spaced-out, have vertigo, or are depressed or have constant low-grade infections – and you can help them see if it’s an allergy or heavy metals through environmental poisoning, or if they have parasites or a bacterial infection. This is why I wanted to share your work with Travel and Soul readers… so they can find out if they’ve got some sort of imbalance throwing off their whole system… So people should call you for an appointment?

CW: Yes, they can call me to discuss their health goals and if we decide we want to work together, I charge $250 for the complete consultation, write-up, and two follow-up phone sessions over a four-week period.

ER: I think your prices are very reasonable for the amount of wisdom and attention you give to your clients.

CW: Yes, and children or babies are only $100.00 – I do like to work with children! I also work with animals. For that: horses are $85, dogs are $65, and cats are $45.

ER: I’ve been amazed – everything you’ve ever shared with me as worked, and every time you recommend something food or supplement-wise, you always tell me the most cost-efficient way to do it, and the very best company to buy it from. I want everyone to know that they can truly feel better and be healthy on the deepest level possible.

CW: The healthier we are, the more aligned we can be with nature and the cycles of our lives, and walk in balance, be happier, and more radiant.

ER: Thank you, Cathleen. This is a great spring kick-off article – real food for the soul.

CW: And thank you, Erin!

Wellness Counselor Cathleen Waraner of Dancing Diagnostics works by telephone and in person by appointment. For more information, call Cathleen directly at (707) 279-8358. She can also be reached by email at dancingdiagnostics@yahoo.com.