Vadik Herbs is really being creative and they have recently announced some new formulations.  To make it simple, they are on one new page:

http://www.ayurvedicbazaar.com/vadik_herbs.html

As you know, I have been working very hard on this new site and eventually, I expect to love it and hope you will also.  About a dozen more pages are now functional.  Because this is where my head has been lately, lots of thoughts about Ayurveda have been passing through my mind.  Charaka was to Ayurveda more or less what Hippocrates was to Western medicine (should that read Western natural medicine).  He was the father of an entire system of thought that relied very heavily on the concept of digestion and digestive power.

Basically, digestive power is a constitutional issue.  Fire types produce the caustic chemicals needed to metabolize what is indigested and for others, it is more or less an uphill battle.  Even for fire types, there can be times when the digestion is less efficient, usually when there is stress because in this case, the adrenals rob whatever they can to keep us alive.  You might say they have first dibs on the the body's resources and they are not open to negotiation.

Over and above the matter of the ability to produce an adequate supply of gastric secretions, there is the question of digestibility of the food and this depends on the quality of the food, how it is prepared, and whether or not it has been refrigerated and then reheated.  Dr. Vasant Lad always said, "sooner or later, all food is cooked" which loosely translated means that it is either cooked on the stove (or in the sun) or gastric secretions are used to heat the food and break it down into easy to assimilate nutrients.  If food is cooked with spices, it is like "double fire" because there is the heat of the stove plus the heat of the spices.  This is like predigesting the food and it is more or less comparable to fermentation as another kind of digestion, usually less desirable.

Anything that is not digested has to be eliminated and if the body to fails to accomplish this in an efficient manner, the residual is "ama" which is not necessarily mucus or phlegm but basically anything one really needs to eliminate, including toxic metals and other pollutants.  Now, if we chase the cholesterol or the joint stiffness or even the brain fog, we have to roll back and ask what it is that is blocking our arteries, requiring more effort for smaller and smaller movements, or clouding our brains.  Ayurveda relies on countless herbs with a long history of efficacy for rotorooting the arteries and clearing the mind, all of which ultimately depends on detoxification and rejuvenation of the systems that have been damaged by lack of sufficient blood supply and nutrients.  Thus, the art of the regenerative and longevity therapies is always in using the right formulas for th! e real underlying cause.  This is what is meant by "aid" or "support" whether to the heart or lungs or brain or any other organ.  Specific herbs have an affinity for certain parts of the body.

All this said, Vadik Herbs is now offering a formula based on guggul and its lipid penetrating power to manage cholesterol.  It has a new Liv Aid formula that combines the herbs that Nature's Formulary prefers are used in a sequence rather than all at once.  The choice is therefore yours.  All other things equal, I generally prefer to detoxify before tonifying but there are always judgment calls to make.  Very weak patients cannot detoxify without also tonifying.  Also, keep in mind that when one detoxifies the liver, the toxins that were in hiding are mobilized and they begin to circulate in the blood.  This is a window of opportunity to eliminate the toxins through the kidneys and urine or the intestines but if too much is stirred up, the skin will take on part of the load and become reddish and sometimes quite irritated and itchy.  This means the organs of eliminati! on need more support . . . which means triphala!

The third new formula is Brain Tonic.  It contains bacopa which is the best selling herb for many importers these days.  It aids memory and mental acuity and is combined with two other excellent brain herbs.

*The material provided on this site is for informational purposes only. The author is not a medical doctor. The statements made represent the author's personal opinions and are not intended to replace the services of health care professionals. The content and products discussed have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The information on this page and the products available on this site are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.