At the height of his professional football career, Ricky Williams was feeling stressed and unbalanced. Something inexplicable was “off.” So the Miami Dolphins star abruptly walked away from the sport–and a multimillion-dollar salary–and began studying the ancient Indian medical system known as ayurveda.
To football aficionados, Williams is an unlikely ambassador for the 5,000-year-old holistic health tradition, which uses nutrition, oils, herbs, cleansing techniques and yoga. His critics link his new-found interest in ayurveda to a possible suspension from the NFL because of a third positive test for marijuana.
Regardless, Williams wrote in an e-mail that his immersion in ayurveda is paying off. “I am now able to do things with my body, after only minimal yoga practice, that I could never have imagined doing on the football field,” he wrote. “My balance has increased as well as my flexibility. A lot of my pain has decreased too.”
Proponents of ayurveda have welcomed the spate of publicity that Williams has brought and say the 5-foot-10-inch, 226-pound former running back and Heisman Trophy winner is lumbering down the right path to rejuvenation.
“If anybody needs a good, thorough, deep and proper spring cleaning from the inside out, [ayurveda] is the way to do it,” said Reenita Malhotra Hora, author of “Inner Beauty,” one of a handful of newly published books on ayurveda.
And internal spring cleanings, it seems, are needed year round. Interest in ayurveda is growing as Americans are increasingly trying alternative treatments to battle chronic health problems such as colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and other inflammatory disorders. Ayurveda emphasizes diet and prevention, two aspects of wellness often missing from modern medicine.
The National Ayurvedic Medical Association has surged from 95 members when it started in 2000 to nearly 400 today. Students can learn ayurvedic skills at more than 30 institutions in the U.S.
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Ayurvedic principles, meanwhile, are popping up everywhere from yoga studios to the Spa Nordstrom, which offers herbal-infused body scrubs, facials, massages and detoxifying hot oil treatments.
Melanie Sherman, 30, a graphic designer living in Grayslake, was struggling with arthritis and bronchitis when she tried ayurveda. Her diagnosis and treatment called for eliminating wheat, dairy, red meat, eggs, butter, grapes and bananas.
“I had really great results with lifestyle changes,” said Sherman, who finds that the arthritis returns when she eats whatever she wants.
“I was tired of taking a pill for a headache or an upset stomach. I really wanted to get to the source,”
Considered a comprehensive health-care plan in India, ayurveda teaches that humans are made of three essential qualities, or doshas. When these doshas are knocked out of balance, whether by stress, lack of sleep, a poor diet or something in the environment, symptoms of disease or illness can arise.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who brought transcendental meditation to the U.S., generally also is credited with introducing ayurveda in the 1980s. But it was wellness guru Deepak Chopra who brought it to the masses in the 1990s.
Today, ayurvedic CDs play music designed for certain doshas and claim to harmonize the body’s energies. And the book “What’s Your Dosha, Baby?” has spawned an ayurvedic online dating site called DoshaMatch (doshamatch.com) to help people find compatibility in life and love.
A relationship with yoga
Part of the surge has to do with the boom in yoga, a sister science to ayurveda. People are investigating what’s next, said Hora, an ayurvedic instructor at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.
But she said it’s also gaining converts because of the sorry state of health insurance in the U.S. “People are feeling the need to take direct responsibility for health on a preventative basis,” Hora said.
Still, many Western doctors are skeptical about its effectiveness. The National Council Against Health Care Fraud, a group that consistently demands more scientific proof with regard to alternative treatments, has warned that “ayurveda has become a marketing term for a variety of health products and services of limited, questionable, or unproved value.”
Consumers also should stick with products recommended by quality practitioners because the use of dietary supplements such as herbs is largely unregulated by the federal government. A recent study found that one in five herbal products in Boston-area ethnic grocery stores could contain potentially toxic levels of heavy metals such as lead, mercury and arsenic.
“People shouldn’t think that just because something is natural it’s safe,” said Dr. Nancy Lonsdorf medical director of the Raj Ayurveda Health Center near Fairfield, Iowa, and one of the nation’s most prominent ayurvedic doctors. “But it’s also a mistake to think all herbs are unsafe.”
The products in the Boston study were manufactured in South Asia and sold in Boston-area stores; they were not in mass distribution in the U.S., Lonsdorf said.
If herbs are used, the type depends on a person’s strongest dosha, or constitution. Doshas are assessed using a lengthy questionnaire and based on characteristics such as body type, metabolism, health tendencies, habits and food preferences.
Everyone has all three doshas–called vata, pitta and kapha–but the overall nature of a person, and the way he or she responds to stress, is determined by the dominant dosha. Knowing your dominant doshas (many people have two) can affect everything from what you eat to how much exercise you need and what types of oils to use on your skin.
“You hear conflicting news about things like wine or caffeine all the time,” said Nancy Phillips, an ayurvedic practitioner with offices in West Rogers Park and Bucktown. Ayurveda, she said, clarifies things on an individual basis.
“Wine can be medicinal for vata people, for example, but horrible for someone who has high pitta and is fiery anyway,” she said.
The dominant dosha is the one most likely to get out of whack. Vata imbalances–digestion issues, constipation, insomnia and anxiety–are common. Too much vata in a person can result in pain.
For minor imbalances, nutrition or lifestyle changes can do the trick. When Highland Park’s Laurie Glenner feels off, she turns to a “liver flush,” a drink made of aloe vera gel, ginger root and spices that she says cleanses and tones her liver.
“I feel in balance when I drink it,” said Glenner, 49, a newly certified yoga therapist. “It makes me feel like I’ve been good to myself.”
Working out the toxins
If the problem is deep rooted and chronic, however, then the body must be detoxified using panchakarma. The lengthy treatment–between 5 and 21 days–consists of a full-body massage using heated herbal oils to remove toxins.
Though parts of the treatment are soothing, the hourlong procedure isn’t always pleasant. It can involve using medicated oil enemas, droplets of oils in the nose and even therapeutic inducement of diarrhea or vomiting, said Marc Halpern, founder of the California College of Ayurveda, where Williams is a student.
What many people are exposed to in spas is shirodara, a part of panchakarma that consists of a steady flow of oil on the forehead (or the third eye) to stimulate the pineal gland. Chicago’s Ladonna Carlton, 61, tried panchakarma at the suggestion of her internist, Dr. Emily Linder at Advocate Illinois Masonic. By the third treatment, her diarrhea was gone and her gut had stopped churning.
“I was taking medication for colitis, but it wasn’t controlling it,” said Carlton. “After the first one I was calmer; after three treatments, my body was really responding.
“A lot of it has to do with stress,” Carlton added. “There’s just something about oil dripping on your third eye [forehead] that helps you turn inward and let go of what’s going on in the outside world.”
Williams, for one, is a convert. Three months into the curriculum at the school in the Sierra foothills in northern California, he is still trying to determine his dominant dosha and is enjoying hot baths, herbs and massages, which he said he finds calming and balancing.
If he’d had ayurveda techniques in the NFL, would things have been different?
“If I knew that it was OK to just be me as ayurveda teaches us,” Williams wrote, “I could have done some really amazing things.”
Fiery, airy, spacey–know your dosha
Ayurveda teaches that a person’s constitution is made up of three doshas, called vata, pitta and kapha. These doshas comprise the five fundamental elements of the universe: space, air, fire, water and earth.
One or two doshas generally dominate, and these are the ones most likely to get out of balance. Trained ayurvedic practitioners will assess your dosha using a written self-evaluation and offer suggestions on how to realign vata, pitta or kapha.
Vata consists of the elements air and space. It’s considered the cerebral function and regulates movement. Those with strong vata tend to be enthusiastic and vivacious but also tire easily and overexert themselves. These people, who often have slender frames and strong joints, benefit from routine, cool foods and a cool, quiet environment. They make talented artists, writers or scientists, according to ayurvedic clinician Reenita Malhotra Hora in her book “Inner Beauty.”
Pitta, or fire and water, regulates metabolism and is associated with impulsive nature and energy production. Pittas are efficient and strong-minded people who love challenges but become impatient and tend to be critical of others as well as themselves. Pittas need exposure to natural beauty and coolness to keep things in check. They are excellent leaders, managers or mathematicians, Hora writes in Inner Beauty.
“Pittas are about fire, accomplishment,” said Deborah Arneson of the Healing Quest Center in Chicago. “They go-go-go till they burn out.”
Kapha, or earth and water, regulates structure and is considered the breaking mechanism. Kaphas are solid and powerful people who move in a relaxed manner. They gain weight more easily than others and are affectionate and forgiving. Kaphas need stimulation, regular exercise, spicy foods, warmth and dryness to stay balanced. They make great health-care workers, caregivers or workers in any occupation that requires persistence, stamina and precision, according to Hora.
“A kapha will crave things that aren’t good for them, sweet, cold and creamy foods like cheesecake or pudding,” said Nancy Phillips, an ayurvedic practitioner in Chicago.
Still not getting it? Picture a shipwreck, with three types of people in a lifeboat, said ayurvedic physician Sambhu Pillai, who gives panchakarma treatments at Healing Quest Center in Chicago.
“The vata person is very cerebral. They get very nervous, upset, worried. They collapse first. But they have the best creativity, the best ideas,” Pillai said.
“Pitta types want to swim,” he continued. “They are overconfident but burn out. They tend to be managers and supervisors. Once they get on a project, they know how to execute.
“And kaphas sit there and wait. They are passive and tend to survive more. They are the balancing force in the system. They hold back and are stable.”
–Julie Deardorff
