Isabel
and Mark’s Excellent Ayurvedic Adventure
What should you do when the US medical system
kicks you loose after completing all the surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation
therapy recommended by your oncologist?
When your health insurance company says “we’re done paying for all this,
and we don’t cover such things as integrative or preventative medicine”?
Perhaps it depends upon how much faith you
have in the allopathic medical system that will simply “monitor for symptoms”
at 6-month intervals until something returns or you might finally be declared
“clean” by insurance actuaries. Plenty
of folks simply resume life as usual, faithfully attending their oncological
checkups with the hopes that the cancer doesn’t return and sentence them to
another round of chemo or perhaps death itself.
We’re a bit more proactive than the average
bear. After much research, including
discussions with other cancer survivors who had experience with traditional
Asian medicine, we chose an Ayurvedic medical clinic in India, cracked open the
piggy bank, and stored our sailboat JollyDogs in a marina for a couple of
months. Yes, we are some of those odd
characters that make a sailboat our full-time home.
Between the two of us, there’s a lot of reason
to flush all the badness from our bodies and attempt to reboot our lives. I myself have enjoyed almost 60 years of hard
living; described in my 20’s as an “orthopedic museum” years before crashing an
aircraft at the tender age of 35, then subsequently spending several months in a
hospital bed. My lovely bride has the
misfortune of being born with genes that predispose her to the “emperor of all
maladies”.
What did we have to lose?
Ayurveda means “life knowledge”. It is considered controversial by many
Westerners, partly due to the lack of funding for standardized, controlled
studies typically required for pharmaceuticals developed by the allopathic
medicine establishment. Ancient
medicinal practices of the Far East are based upon thousands of years of
discovering and exploiting the natural substances found in living plants, as
well as the practice of yoga and martial arts to maintain physical fitness,
develop mental clarity, and seek inner peace.
Learn more here:
Turns out there are lots of places claiming to
offer Ayurveda treatments. Some sound
like more of a spa experience where the guest is pampered with massages, steam
baths, and good food, while enjoying a yoga practice and some ritual
chanting. Those are more of the
“rejuvination” variety. Nothing wrong
with that.
Then there’s Ayurveda Yoga Villa (AYV). Best we can tell, it’s one of the boot camps
of the Ayurveda world. Located in the
South India state of Kerala in the scenic Wayanad district, it’s a no-nonsense
place with decent (but not luxurious) accommodations. The organic food is all locally grown and
prepared fresh daily; vegan except for the use of milk. The medicines are all
produced in-house from various plants found in the local area, harvested by
local tribes people. This is the place
to come when it’s serious and the odds of a successful outcome might be “not so
good” as noted in Western medical studies.
Ayurveda refers to 3 “doshas” that are
believed to make up your body; Kapha, Pitta, and Vata.
The Ayurveda process known as “panchakarma” is
meant to detoxify the body and return the 3 doshas to the equilibrium that
existed around the time an individual became a young adult. Detoxification treatment does not seek to
balance the doshas equally, but rather to allow the body to return to the
equilibrium that is natural for the particular individual. The healthful food, the morning and evening
meditations, the yoga exercises, and the various therapies prescribed by the
attending physician are all designed to facilitate a natural rebalancing.
Religious
Convictions
I’m at least agnostic if not even more of a
heathen, and I did broach the subject of religion with my doctor. She emphatically pointed out that religious
beliefs were not necessary, rather belief and faith in the medical process and
the doctors is where trust must be placed.
Meditative prayer before treatment is recommended to build confidence in
the efficacy of the treatment about to be enjoyed (or endured). I’m good with that.
WooWoo
This experience was in some ways a real
challenge for me. Temporarily
abandoning normal daily routine, while participating in lots of meditating,
chanting, and “getting in touch with myself” seemed a bit out there at first,
but soon it was just fine. In hindsight,
it was highly productive.
Guest
Conversations
You can cast social norms in the bin on the
way through the front gate. Topics of
conversation both at the dining table and anywhere else on the facility often
revolved around one’s ability to puke successfully, the difficulty of retaining
enemas for the requisite time, the frustration of waiting until the doctor has
declared that purgation is complete (yes it’s all clear water coming out!), the
nastiness of drinking large cups of medicated ghee, and the pain of kilari
massage (but hey, it’s good pain). I'm
quite certain that no doctor has ever been more interested in my bowel
movements.
Detoxification,
known as panchakarma
At AYV, preparation for panchakarma involves
consuming ever larger quantities of medicated ghee, until it is oozing out of
one’s pores. It’s considered a transport
mechanism for the medicated leaching agents therein, saturating all the body
tissue before the process begins to remove accumulated toxins.
Once you’re oozing ghee, the fun begins. In a nutshell, panchakarma consists of 5 separate
procedures, which took me around 28 days to complete including a 5 day rest
period before beginning:
●
Vamanam - induced vomiting to
clear out the stomach and surrounding organs
●
Virechanam, or purgation (inducing
diarrhea to completely flush the digestive tract)
●
Nasya, a treatment to clear out
the sinuses
●
Anuvasana vasti - 150 ml medicated
oil enema (hold minimum 60 minutes)
●
Kashaya vasti - 650 ml medicated
decoction enema (hold minimum 3 minutes, and good luck making it to the can
without a mishap)
Rejuvenation
Rejuvenation is known as Rasayana. That’s something to really look forward to
after a good panchakarma. A variety of
interesting procedures are included based upon individual needs which can generally
be described as somewhere between relaxing and blissful.
Results
Every guest we met who had completed a
panchakarma felt as if they had benefitted tremendously from the
experience. I can match that claim,
especially in the area of feeling a lot more clear-headed and with better memory
recall, an area where I had concerns.
It was a substantial investment in both time
and money. Both well spent. Results may vary, but perhaps we won’t even
know for a few years.
A summary of my experience (if you're not
already bored silly)
Days 0-27, Panchakarma
Day 0-4
We arrived late on a Friday afternoon after
traveling for nearly 48 hours. We
enjoyed several days of settling in, resting up and preparing for what was to
follow. Each day prior to the start of
serious panchakarma treatment, we had a consultation with our assigned doctor
and a 1 hour massage treatment as we recovered from the jet lag and the group
of doctors considered our individual cases.
Altogether it would have been more productive to play tourist for a few
days prior to reporting for duty, simply to get rested up and acclimatized.
Day 5
Preparation for the 5 steps of panchkarma
involves anywhere from 3 - 7 days of medicated ghee consumption. The medication is tailored to the specific
individual. The quantity of ghee begins
at around 50 ml, and can be increased to as much as 300ml before the dose
stabilizes. I got to 250ml and that was
a heck of a thing to down each morning.
Six days was awful, although after day 5 it just seemed to be “oh well,
here we go again”. . .
The ghee preparation is not one of the 5
steps, but it does of course have an interesting name - snehapanam. While enduring the ghee treatment, the only
dining option is rice porridge and ginger water. The participant is advised to only eat when
hungry and it is not uncommon to have absolutely no appetite and not eat
anything for 1 - 2 days in a row.
Besides, rice porridge tastes ”uninteresting”.
Once your body is saturated with ghee, i.e.
it’s oozing out of your pores with just a little squeeze of the flesh, the
first real treatment begins. But first,
a rest day with no activity recommended other than yoga nidra.
Day 12
Step #1
Vamanam, the vomiting procedure.
For me, vamanam totally kicked my ass, and
after returning to the bungalow I had a shower, drank lots of water, then slept
much of the morning. However, once my
body had recovered, there was a veritable cornucopia of rice porridge to be
eaten for lunch and dinner. After
vamanam, even rice porridge tastes OK, and it settles the stomach. Following are the gory details of the
procedure:
Up at 0400, done with my routine and standing
tall at the treatment center just before 0500.
My therapist was ready and waiting.
The procedure began with a short head and body massage with oil then
into the steam bath I went until I was pretty well heated up. By 0530 I was dressed, sitting on a stool
with a bucket, about the size of a Home Depot Homer bucket, on another stool in
front of me. My physician arrived to
witness the process and probably to resuscitate me if necessary. The procedure went as follows:
●
Consume a small portion of a
lovely sweet rice pudding - likely to protect my stomach lining from the harsh
regurgitation inducing medicine to follow.
●
Wait 10 minutes, then consume 2
heaping tablespoons of some brown paste that did NOT taste like chocolate, or
anything else I’d prefer to put in my mouth.
Definitely medicine, perhaps medicated sand.
●
Wash that down with a glass of
warm water, then wait a few more minutes - supposedly 15 or so.
●
Begin downing mugs of warm milk as
fast as humanly possible, being rapidly refilled by my therapist. My stomach filled quickly and the milk crept
up my throat until I finally felt the urge to puke some up, but not an
impressive amount. More milk and another
round of puking until the milk was gone.
I believe a total of 3 liters of warm milk.
●
Begin swilling down mugs of the
decoction - my notes said there was to be a second dose of medicine, but
perhaps it was the first glass of decoction that I mis-identified. In any case, swill down a total of 5 liters
of decoction, followed by another glass of medicine to keep the vomiting
going. Plenty of industrial strength
puking through this process.
●
Finally 3 liters of very warm, and
very salty water while puking as the spirit moves.
●
Once done with this, stand and put
my fingers down my throat to stimulate further vomiting. Mildly successful here. . .
●
Next a chance to gargle with salt
water and clean up my mount a bit, followed by herbal smoke inhaled into each
nostril, then into my mouth. Hold smoke
in for at least a couple seconds. That
part reminded me just a bit of my college days. . .
Side effects experienced included heaving
sweating, headache, and emotional responses ranging from “I’m gonna die” to
anger at the doctor and therapist for putting me through this insane
procedure. I also felt completely
exhausted before the puking was even finished, having trouble catching my
breath. This was an extreme ordeal for
me.
I returned to the bungalow to have a full rest
day. I had a screaming headache, cotton
mouth, and had diarrhea at least six times before my gizzards were finally
empty. I drank the cool medicated water
in the front porch jug, but the taste of anything was revolting, and at my 1130
consultation with my physician I requested that I be allowed plain room
temperature purified water so that I could attempt to rehydrate myself, which
she allowed. I drank at least 4 jugs of
water before day’s end.
The next day was the first day of Nasya. On this day rice porridge with lentils
(fairly dry altogether and somewhat tasty) was on offer for all 3 meals. The following day it improved a little more;
rice with lentils and black peppercorns for all 3 meals. Finally on day 3 back to normal rations!
Days 13
- 17
Step #2
Nasya, the nasal treatment which flushes out
the sinuses. This isn’t awful, involves
massage, medicated oil in the nose that runs up into the sinuses, and an herbal
smoke that is inhaled through each nostril and then the mouth.
The Nasya treatment only lasted 30 minutes, so
later in the day there was also an hour of lovely therapeutic massage - for me
that included head and shoulders massage, then full body medicated oil massage,
then lemon bowlus pounding massage, known as Jambhira Pinda Sweda. It was blissful.
On the last day of nasya, one is also prepping
for purgation. Rations for the day
included lemon rice for breakfast, tomato rice for lunch, and lemon rice again
for dinner.
Days 18
- 19
Step #3
Virechanam, the purgation treatment. That involves eating a nasty tasting natural
laxative and then blowing things out your butt until only clear water is
extruded.
I did not eat that day, and my treatment
continued on into the night until about 0800 the following morning. After the doctor was sure I was done, I got a
glass of rice water to settle my stomach, followed by a small breakfast of rice
porridge. Kitcheri was on offer for
lunch and dinner!
Days 20
- 27
#4
Anuvasana vasti - the small (150ml) medicated
oil enema that one should try to hold inside from 1 - 6 hours.
#5
Kashaya vasti, the large 600ml decoction
enema. This one is to be held inside
from 3 - 15 minutes. Apparently the
amount can vary, up to almost a full liter.
Hard to imagine, just as 15 minutes is mind boggling to consider.
Events #4 and #5 are blended together, so that
on days 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8 one enjoys the little oil enema. On days 2, 4, and 6, the whopper decoction
enema offers a challenge to even the most anal of customers. Food served while undergoing events #4 and #5
includes a standard breakfast, but kitcheri for both lunch and dinner.
Days 28 - 41, Rejuvenation!
Days 28
- 32, Banana head!
This treatment is meant to calm your brain -
the victim generally doesn’t feel any internal effects for the first 2 days, but
generally by day 3 a sense of calm and less busy brain activity is
noticed. I noticed it and felt that it
really soothed the monkey mind I often experience.
My treatment began with a lovely (medicated
oil) head and shoulders and back massage, then I moved on to the table for
continued front and back massage with medicated oil. Following that I was dried off with a towel,
dressed in my dhoti and t-shirt, and took a seat in a comfy chair. For the next 10 minutes or so a medicated
paste was applied about 3/8” thick to my scalp; it smelled pleasant and seemed
to stick in place pretty well.
Afterwards a banana leaf was fashioned to cover my dome, then a doo rag
was installed to hold everything in place.
I wandered out feeling great but a little woozy, and made my way slowly
back to the bungalow to show Isabel, then reported to the pharmacy for my noon
decoction. Back to the porch to wash the
taste away with some fresh water, then on with Isabel to yoga nidra. New teacher
today - has a voice that would hypnotize an elephant, and according to Isabel I
snored like a chain saw. I thought I
hung in there pretty well, but who to believe?
Days 33
- 39, Shirodhara and Urovasti
Warm oil pouring on forehead! Wow!
Also warm oil pond over heart.
Details follow.
Today I begin the shirodhara and urovasti
treatment, which for me will be a nice head/shoulders/chest massage while
seated, then a full body medicated oil massage, then 30 minutes of warm
medicated oil drizzled slowly back and forth upon my forehead. That’s the shirodhara part. The urovasti treatment is the paste dam
fabricated upon my chest above my heart, then filled with warm medicated
oil. I’m to quietly mutter “om” the entire
time, then afterwards find a quiet place and and chant “om” another 108 times.
The oil pouring thing was pretty much
amazing. I was laying there doing my om
thing, then I would sort of drift off somewhere, then I would be back to some
more oming, etc. This happened several
times, and when I left the room I was almost in a stupor. Up the back stairs to the puja room for my
108 om thing. It was easy, as Dr. Nimmy
had showed me how to count using my finger bits. Finally I know how the puja dude knows how
much we’ve chanted!
Conclusion
There’s more, as I kept a daily diary, but
it’s all a bit tedious and meant simply to remind me that we actually made this
investment in our lives. We’ve no
regrets about the time or money spent, however we’re not anxious to submit to
this procedure again anytime soon.
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