Ayurveda and Holistic Dentistry (Podcast)

John Maher: Hi. I am John Maher. I’m here today with Dr. Nammy Patel, founder of Green Dentistry in San Francisco, California, helping patients recognize the vital connection between dental health and whole body health, and author of the bestselling books, Age With Style: Your Guide To A Youthful Smile & Healthy Living, and Total Wellness: Understanding the Link Between Your Teeth and Your Health.

Today, our topic is Ayurveda and Holistic Dentistry. Welcome, Dr. Nammy.

Dr. Nammy Patel: Thank you so much, John. So delighted to be here.

What Is Ayurveda?

John: Yeah, thanks. So Dr. Nammy, what is Ayurveda? What does that mean?

Dr. Nammy: So Ayurveda is an ancient principle. It’s been around for over 5,000 years. Ayurveda actually had the first university, formal education, believe it or not, and the principles are all based upon mind, body healing and all natural and holistic principles on how we can heal our bodies naturally, so that is what Ayurveda stands for.

Guiding Principles of Ayurveda

John: Okay, and so the guiding principles of Ayurveda, you said that has to do with the mind and healing. Tell me a little bit more about what Ayurveda is about in terms of its principles.

Dr. Nammy: Ayurveda basically is the most natural and the oldest medical system, if you want to call it like that, and the principles, really, are that our mind and our bodies are linked together and that we can heal ourselves. We’re all interconnected. There’s no just the mind or just the body, but it actually is a mind and body together that we can heal ourselves.

The beauty of that is really the power is within us. A lot of times we’ll hear a lot of gurus say, or in education or in business, we’ll hear state, story, strategy.

So the mental state that we are in is actually really important, because that influences the way we think, the way we feel, the way we speak. And we have now learned scientifically, thousands of years later, that if our emotions are really healthy and we’re feeling good about ourselves, we’re thinking good thoughts, we can actually heal cancer. We can actually heal a lot of diseases that are out there, and this is what Ayurveda has been preaching, like I said, the oldest medical system, for thousands of years.

We like to apply those principles into everyday living. Whether it be dentistry or whether it be medicine or endocrinology, what have you, we really want to emphasize a mind-body connection, and really utilize both in order to make sure that we are… If there was a tree, we have the roots, and then we have the tree which bears the fruits. So what we want to do is we make sure we look at the roots and the fruits of a tree, and that way we can have more of a holistic approach, and we can actually have a causation. We have a cause and an effect, right? So we look at both of them in order to get the results that we really want.

Meditation and Ayurveda

John: Okay. Now meditation is generally part of Ayurveda. Do you recommend meditation, and how does it help with your health?

Dr. Nammy: Absolutely. I am a big, big, big fan of meditation. I personally meditate every single day in the morning and at night. I do that for several reasons. I’m a practitioner, so when I start my day, when I get to the office, it’s no longer about me. It’s all about the patients. It’s all about my staff. It’s all about giving, giving, giving on a regular basis.

So when I take the time to meditate, 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes at night before I go to bed, it’s that sacred time that I have towards myself. It’s a way for me to manage stress. It’s a way for me to manage my wellness, my wellbeing so that I don’t get sick. I can increase my capacity to serve more people. I don’t get stressed out.

That’s a really important factor, because life doesn’t get easier over time. It becomes harder. We always think life is so stressful. When we’re in school, in elementary school, it’s like, “Oh. I can’t wait till I’m older. I can’t wait to get to work.” You get to work, and you’re like, “Oh, crap. This is a lot of work. This is really stressful,” and when we have families, and that’s really stressful, so everything’s really stressful.

Especially when it comes to mental health, it’s very important to meditate, because you can change the cycle of depression. You can change the cycle of being stressed or angry all the time, and there’s a loop that happens, because our bodies are meant to be in fight or flight and survival mode. We’ve been built like that for millions of years.

What meditation actually does is it takes us into a higher being. It takes us from our brainstem, which is a fight or flight into creativity, into consciousness. Those are our higher level thinking, and that, frankly, is the biggest and the most important part about being a human being. A dog doesn’t have the ability to have conscious thinking. The dogs just bark. That’s just what they do. They just have reflexes. When it comes to being a human, it really is the most powerful asset that we have, is to be conscious. With that consciousness, we’re able to have such a big impact.

We’re able to put people on the moon, we’re able to discover other galaxies. These all come from higher being or higher consciousness, and we really want to really have creativity versus fight or flight. We really want to live in our creative selves more and more and more. When we give ourselves that 20 minutes of time, it allows that creativity to come in, and also it rejuvenates us. It rejuvenates our soul, our being so that our bodies are not sick. The level of energy is important. When we’re in our hardest state, you ever met somebody who has a lot of purpose and passion, right?

John: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Nammy: They’re super excited. They’re magnetic. You want to be around them, right? Because they’re just so excited, and that kind of energy is what gets things done. It moves the mountains, versus you’ve been around somebody who’s not doing so well, right? It’s like, “I’m sad.” You can listen to them, give them empathy. There’s connection and things like that, but it’s not the magnetic field or the magnetic energy that you really experience, and that magnetism is really what evolutionarily moves us forward, number one. Number two, it really gives us a sense of fulfillment that we all need, and that level of fulfillment is what makes us happy. Isn’t that what life is all about, is feeling happy, feeling good about ourselves?

How to Find Time to Meditate

John: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. How do you think that today’s lifestyle plays maybe against this idea of slowing down and meditation? With all of the devices that we have, we always have the TV on in our house, or we have our phone in our hand, or something like that, these electronic devices. How does that work against this idea of slowing down and meditation, and how do we overcome that and give ourselves those 20 minutes every morning and every evening to meditate?

Dr. Nammy: So the reality is, I wish I could say I’m going to blame it all on social media, I’m going to blame it on all the devices, and frankly, I can’t say that. The realistic answer to this is, really, we have evolved. We have evolved to black and white films, to color, 3D, and now AI, right? So this is a natural evolutionary process that is going to happen for us as human beings.

The thing that is important is we have to adapt. We have to put in boundaries. We have to be able to say, “You know what? I need 20 minutes of silence,” or “I need 24 hours where I don’t look at my phone. I don’t look at what I need to do next,” so that we can create that space for ourselves. Number one, that mindfulness, that consciousness.

Sometimes we think we just need to be going all the time, whether it’s watching social media or having to do, do, do, do, but there’s a fine balance in being a be-er and a doer. So sometimes we just need that 20 minutes to, we have to chunk it down. We just got to lock it in. It’s like brushing your teeth. You’ve just got to lock it in for 20 minutes. Sit and just meditate. Clear your mind, clear your energy, so that way you can find solutions that are faster, quicker.

I bet you, there has not been a time where I have not sat down. If I’ve been conflicted on what to do or what my next step is, because I’m overwhelmed or there’s a lot going on, I sit for 20 minutes and I ask the universal question like, “Hey, please give me the answer at the ring of my bell,” which is my 20-minute timer.

So when that timer comes out, I always get my next step. And even though I may not have solved 100 percent of the problem or whatever it is, I know what my next step is, versus being stuck. So it actually serves us so much more to be able to take the time to breathe, to connect with ourselves, and to say no. It’s like saying no to drugs, saying no to that addiction of social media, saying no to that addiction of our email as soon as we wake up. Just really taking that time for ourselves to be more efficient, to really come from a space of fullness, which I feel like is very important.

Ayurvedic Tea

John: I know that in the past you’ve recommended Ayurvedic tea. What is that, and how can that help?

Dr. Nammy: There’s Ayurvedic tea. There’s a lot of different herbs that are out there that you can utilize. Ayurveda, basically, means different teas, different herbs that can be utilized for different purposes.

Sometimes there’s milk thistle for cleaning the liver out. Sometimes there’s ashwagandha for helping with anxiety, with depression. Tea, it’s just really wonderful to have tea, because it is a warm, comforting cup of tea that helps our body. Again, puts us in that rest and digest mode, and we’re utilizing natural ingredients that help us relax our mind, our body, our souls. And it sounds a little cliche when I say that; mind, body, and soul, right? It’s been such a word that’s been so utilized in marketing, but the reality of it is, is that if you don’t want to call it mind, body, soul, we hear it as state, story, strategy, right?

It’s like your mental state is going to determine your story that you tell yourself, which is going to influence what you do, which is your strategy. And so you can put it in eastern or western terms, whatever you want. The point really being is, really, what are things you can utilize that exist in the natural world that are going to help move you forward, faster, easier together, and be in flow? That’s what really Ayurveda or Ayurvedic tea is about. It’s about helping your body get the ingredients it needs so that things are easier for you, so you can be more comfortable, and you can really deal with life. Life gets hard. It’s challenging.

The Importance of Breathing and Physical Activity

John: Are there any other final aspects of Ayurveda that you recommend, maybe with food, physical activity, or things like that?

Dr. Nammy: Absolutely. With Ayurveda, one of the most important things is breathing. So chronic breathing, breathing in through the nose, and getting to that lower part of the lungs is very important. It’s natural air that we’re able to utilize, and then physical activity.

Yoga is so wonderful. It stretches our body. It’s using our own body. We’re able to hold our own weight, we’re utilizing our own weight. We’re balancing ourselves. So again, it’s helping us with that mind-body connection, so I would definitely recommend breathing and lots of yoga.

Contact Dr. Nammy Patel About Holistic Dentistry

John: All right. Well, that’s really great information, Dr. Nammy. Great to talk with you today. Thank you.

Dr. Nammy: Absolutely. My pleasure, John.

John: And for more information about green dentistry, visit the website at sfgreendentist.com or call (415) 433-0119.