- Step one is always healing the gut – even if you have no digestive symptoms whatsoever. This involves changing your diet and always eating for your prakruti, or your unique physiology.
- Eliminate food sensitivities and allergies.
- Detox your body from the effects of environment and stress, by incorporating pranamaya-breathing exercises and meditation into your routine.
- Follow my unique paleovedic diet, that combines paleo eating with Ayurvedic principles.
- Activate the body’s extremely underrated but crucial parasympathetic nervous system – with the help of mind-body healing techniques.
- Use specific herbal supplements – like Guggulu, ashwagandha, manjista and more – for the problems you want to target.
Dr. Akil Says Combine Paleo AND Ayurveda To Heal Autoimmune Diseases
Could there be a better way to reverse the symptoms of autoimmune conditions, or perhaps prevent them before they develop? Dr. Akil says yes, there is - by combining the Paleo and Ayurvedic philosophies. An autoimmune disease develops when your immune system, which defends your body against disease, decides your healthy cells are foreign. As a result, your immune system attacks healthy body cells. Oftentimes, those with autoimmune diseases suffer with medication and debilitating symptoms. Dr. Akil’s path of using paleo and ayurveda principles can not only help cure autoimmune disease, but may also stop our body from attacking itself in the first place.
Imagine this: You start your days packed with energy, without even needing that kick of caffeine. You feel capable and active, your body and mind in synergy. Your body finally feels like home, not some adversary that you battle every day. You find yourself managing even chronic, stubborn disorders like an out-of-sync thyroid without an increasing load of medications and painkillers. You feel, act and even look far happier than you’ve been in a long, long while. The vague but persistent malaise that you couldn’t even explain to your doctors seems to be washing away, leaving you relieved.
Now what if I told you that this image is not mere theoretical fantasy, but scientifically achievable. That just incorporating one lifestyle change can transform your life into its optimal potential. Ayurveda, the ancient, wise and holistic science of life from India, tells us that healing your gut is THE BIGGEST game-changer you can introduce in your life for an absolute paradigm shift. Really pause to consider this: your out-of-sync gut or digestive system may be the biggest reason behind even seemingly unrelated conditions like mood disorders, joint pain, chronic headaches and autoimmune diseases.
If you google autoimmune conditions and visit conventional medical sites, you will see a disclaimer on each that these disorders have no cure. As a Harvard-trained physician and integrative medicine specialist, I am here to counter that myth. Whether you have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder or are struggling with vague, but chronic and frustrating symptoms – such as persistent aches, low energy levels and mood disorders – these conditions can be healed and even reversed through a holistic combination of an Ayurvedic diet, supplements, practices and specialized techniques. We can cure autoimmune disease.
Many patients come to me and tell me that their doctors had told them that they would never get better. But how could their doctors know? One of the most powerful fundamental principles of Ayurveda is its emphasis on self-healing. The body has a tremendous ability to heal, often more rapidly and completely than one can expect – and that is something that you should never forget.
Ayurveda also helps to catch a disease before it is even known. We are used to thinking of symptoms as the beginning of disease, but the truth is, disease builds up in the body over years and even decades before you or your doctors catch it. Symptoms are, in fact, a late stage of the disease, when the pathogenesis – or disease progression – have pervaded the body. Ayurveda tells us pathogenesis or the progression of disease through the body moves in six stages. Stage five or six – when symptoms have become manifest are where conventional doctors will make the diagnosis of disease.
Fortunately, integrative medicine physicians like me are trying more and more to catch disease earlier before it gets to this point. The earlier we can catch it, the easier it is to treat.
My unique approach combines paleo and Ayurvedic treatments to heal the body holistically. I have found that incorporating Ayurvedic healing at every level can make a huge difference to health, and I rewire the very pathways along which disease proceeds. Some of the healing measures I recommend to reverse and heal your condition include: