Reset your Gut Health with Homeopathy | Dr. Manjari Rao

0:00 Hi guys. For everyone who's watching us, we are doing this live with Dr. Manjri Rao. And I know that gut health, leading a healthy lifestyle has been a constant that all of us aspire to. I think if anything that Covid has perhaps taught us, it's about ensuring that we're not treating our things symptomatically but making sure that we, we are addressing the root cause. I have personally been, you know, following homeopathy and the medicines etc for a while.

0:36 I truly believe that of course, you know, treating on the, the cause rather than just treating it symptomatically. So I'm very happy to have Dr. Manjri Rao join us today. And she of course is, is a homeopath and biophilic lead practitioner as well. How did you decide to embark on this journey?

0:58 What conspired? So I, when I was a child, I was really very sickly. I had gut issues. I had lactose probably. I had lactose intolerance since I was born. But I probably could drink mama's milk. But I, at some point when I was six months old, that also didn't happen. And then one doctor said, one old doctor said maybe she can't digest milk. But then it was downhill after that. I, I stayed malnourished. It was extre kidney couldn't eat and digest much.

1:27 And every doctor would give tonics. You know those polybio. I still remember poly beyond even somebody gave us cod liver oil and I would throw up all of that. I hated food, I couldn't look at food. I had challenges. And then when I was about 11 or 12 years old, we came across a homeopathic doctor. He said I'll give her a medicine. It should, she should be okay. She should be okay. And sure enough, I remember a couple of weeks after the medicine, I got up in the middle of the day, I went to the kitchen, I opened some dabbas and started hunting for food.

2:00 And that's it. That my mom had tears in her eyes because apparently that before. So I, I started seeing changes in my own body. I grew very tall after that. After that whole treatment happened, I grew very tall. That's it. Then I got interested in homeopathy. I practiced proper homeopathy for some years until I came to Dubai. When I came to Dubai, I saw that gut is critically important and how do I work this out because I was having gut issues.

2:29 So that's how I started studying, reading, understanding, researching, attending other meetings and as much as I could lay my hands on and started making small changes in My patients lifestyle along with the medicines I gave them. So I'd give them like medicines and a prescription and I would tell them, why don't you do this in your diet and see how you feel. Majority of them came back saying, I am so much better, I feel better, what do I do now?

2:56 And I said, okay, now you go back to doing what you were doing. But when they went back to doing what they were doing, they started having the same trouble again. So they went back to what I told them to do. Very simple things, nothing complex. It's not like rocket science and it's not like my copyright. I share this all the time on Instagram in any case. So that's how the whole journey began. And now, of course, I don't see another option.

3:17 I see that that is critically most important. And at no other time has it more apparent than the pandemic. There's a whole conundrum about science and pseudoscience. You know, what calls itself science is the fact that they can conduct trials and experiments and prove that one is better than the other. So let's say you have a trial for the Pfizer vaccine and they mobilized 40, 50,000 people and it was a randomized control trial where nobody knew who was getting it or not.

3:58 And then they had results saying that those who received the vaccine, they had no severe infections and those who did not receive the vaccine, they ended up having severe infection. So this is called evidence based medicine. So they found an evidence to it and then they said, this is what makes this work better than the other, better than placebo or whatever. Now with homeopathy, there is one small challenge is if you try to do a randomized control trial, the whole point is that the person is considered as not just somebody having a physical problem.

4:32 When any trial takes place, they just look at a particular physical problem. You have gastritis, I'll take 10 other hundred other people with gastritis and treat them. However, for us, each person having gastritis has got a different constitution and they all respond differently to different medicines. Even in mainstream medicine, somebody who has gastritis is likely to react very adversely compared to somebody who's taking it for 20 years without realizing he's taking it, you know, so as a result of this, we haven't had too many randomized control trials to actually prove, okay, this particular medicine is for this particular problem.

5:10 And that is what changes the game. So pseudoscience is declared by the establishment, it is not by doctors, it's not by people. Right. And whilst There are small subsets of studies, but it's not big enough to bring in the change that people would want to know, okay, this actually works. But anecdotal evidence is in millions. You know, I see people every day who tell me, you know, ever since I was. So much has happened. I myself haven't taken an antibiotic for 30 years now.

5:41 It's not because I'm anti antibiotics. No, it's not like that. It's because I have taken homeopathy. I've seen how it works and that is what has helped me. So first things first. The child, the, the whole scenario of birth and childbirth and the baby coming into this world to a mother who can breastfeed her child is a setup for boosting gut health, right? Usually vaginal births are the reason why gut is far better, but caesarean births are.

6:17 There's nothing bad about it. It's an, it's a situation and if somebody has it, it's okay. But we still have several options. When a baby is born, the vaginal canal offers the first flush of gut bacteria and the second is your. The breast. The nipple is loaded with gut bacteria. So even if you had a baby who's born cesarean and the baby gets to nurse on the breast, it is a chance for boosting gut bacteria. However, in cases where you cannot, you have had a cesarean birth and cannot nurse, the baby will still find ways and means to get gut bacteria into his system by putting hands early, fingers early, very early in the, you know, in its life, rather than how some children will probably do it six weeks later.

7:01 So there are plenty of opportunities. However, I come across patients or parents who assume that gut health is something that you would probably get in a pill or a capsule or some sort of a syrup or some food which can boost it. No, it's not like that. Right from the time they are infants, they do all a lot of things which are unconsciously gut boosting. So putting fingers in the mouth, then putting our, you know, putting their mouths on our shoulders and biting into our clothes, these are all gut boosting things.

7:31 What we try and do is you try and eliminate. No, don't do this, you know, or put mittens or do all these things. They naturally also put their own feet into their mouths. And this is how the cycle of gut boosting happens. Each time there seems to be some problem with the gut, let's say the child experiences his or her first constipation. That is a sign that there is some problem with the gut and the body is Trying to correct itself.

8:00 So which means if perhaps there is some constipation, there could be a leaky nose, there could be probably a small cough. And most mums, because they think that the child may not be able to sleep at night or I don't want my child to suffer, probably hand out a cough syrup or rub some balm or do something which essentially compromises the whole defense aspect of it. The body tried to act in defense saying I'll get rid of excess mucus so that I can have the stool pass out and my gut will be restored.

8:32 But the mother has tried to defend it and stop, abort the process and that changes the game. So we will get. So what is not life threatening should be left as it is. Let them ride it out. This is also a skill the immune system builds on and it is also for the child to grow through this. Well, I treat even day one, day two, day three, day 11.

9:03 My first baby, the first baby was a 14 day old baby when I was myself just a new graduate, you know, so there's no such age. We give very tiny doses, really, really small doses. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But if it works, it's fantastic. So natural and artificial is a question mark, you know. So we happily give paracetamol to our children, which is the most unnatural thing.

9:35 However, we question things that are small pills in any case to, to, you know, to set things straight. Yes, homeopathy medicines are made from, you know, plants primarily, minerals, a lot of them, some animal products like how our anti snake venom is made from snake venom itself. Similarly, we also have medicines made from snake venom and a very tiny bunch, perhaps I can count on my fingers maybe 20 or 30 remedies are made from discharges like pus or something which is made into what we call a potentized form, which means it is turned into such a small thing that no original substance is present.

10:14 Which is also the other problem that we deal with, that since there is no original substance present, how do you think it is working? It is all hocus pocus. But it isn't. There is some science in ultra high dilution as we call it, and that remains to be researched. That remains to be proven. And once that happens, well it will, somebody will sit and take notice. So there are no unnatural products, There is nothing bad? No, there are no bad ingredients in homeopathic medicines.

10:41 If there were, I would have called out first and you know, disregarded those. But there is no such thing because we use medicines effectively across Ages and across conditions. So from simplistic colds to actual severe cases which are rejected by hospitals like Tata, you know, Tata Memorial rejects some cases saying we can't treat it. And then some of them come for homeopathy and they actually get better. So clearly it is not hocus pocus. There is some science, yes.

11:11 A lot of times everything cannot be proven. We wait until we reach that point where we can prove it. So the typical cases that I see where there is a connection with gut dysfunction, primarily eczemas, allergies, food intolerances and issues with stomach and appetite in children, in adults, migraine is the big one where gut health is important and hormonal imbalances are the second big one, where the connection is with gut and liver and not just a particular hormone.

11:46 And that's it. You replace that or you work on that and it goes no, until you work on the gut and liver, the hormones are not going to fix themselves. So this is the biggest. The other ones that we see have and, you know, have a convoluted connection to the gut. But it still has some importance because you eliminate every day. So if you don't eliminate on one day, it starts compromising your gut health. And that is where we need to shift.

12:11 So if we. It's like when you look at animals, you know, dogs need to be taken down three, four times a day for their jobs. Cows, buffaloes, every, every animal eliminates. It's only human beings that can go without pooping four times in the four days in a row in the week. And that is where the problem begins. The minute you have that, you have to understand this is a problem and not take a laxative and say, okay, I'm done.

12:36 I'm, you know, sorted. I'm, I've gone and I feel good. The fact that it happened is where the concern is. That is where gut is a problem. So if you have skipped four days in a row, you have to ask yourself what has changed in the last month that could have led to this? Because this has never happened before. If you just look at what has happened last week, you might not get a clue. So in one month, either your sleeping pattern has changed or your eating pattern has changed or you had a round of medication, whether it is pain medication, fever medication, or a round of antibiotics.

13:07 The day you take an antibiotic, the day you have a diarrhea, but once that course is over, you end up getting constipated. So I'm not saying antibiotics are bad. It is life saving, you need it. But if you're going to take an antibiotic, if you're going to take, and if you're going to give your child an antibiotic for a cold, which he, because of which he hasn't had a increase in his wbc, because of which he hasn't had an increase in his ESR or crp.

13:32 So it does not warrant an antibiotic course. But you still gave it because it gives you the peace of mind that, okay, my son is sorted, three days of medicine and we are okay, then that slowly impacts the, literally wipes out a whole colony of gut bacteria. And when that happens, until and unless your body can digest all or absorb all the nutrients, water, minerals from the elimination portion that is there, it will not send the poop out.

14:01 Right.

14:02 So when you know that it hasn't sent the poop out, that means it is struggling. So either the bacterial composition is poor or there is an inherent laxity in the muscles which has happened because perhaps some medication you took or sudden bout of stress. So when you are extremely stressed, you know, we've all had very stressful moments in the pandemic. It can paralyze the nerves of your intestinal motility. And so for some days either you could have diarrhea, Somebody like me, if I feel a bit anxious, I will run to the bathroom.

14:30 But there are some others for whom the motility goes completely for a toss. So that's why go back four weeks and see what has changed. Have you changed your diet? Have you changed your pattern of sleeping? Have you, you know, taken, done something new or have you taken a round of medications? So that will tell you why you have this problem today. What you need to do from now on is you need to eat on time, you need to sleep on time and you need to counter the effects of whatever medicines you've taken.

14:57 Let's say in four months, four weeks, you haven't taken any medicine. It's just random, you don't know why it has happened. Then you must just go heavy on soups, lots of warm water, whole day, just keep drinking water, avoid outside food. Outside food is stripped of nutrients and that your body tries very hard to gain from every food is struggle to be digested. So then you have to, you have to become conservative. It is important, right?

15:23 And once you've got the course of

15:24 action like you mentioned, just that, just the change in diet will course correct itself.

15:29 Itself, Right, Yeah. I mean majority of them, without resorting to a drug, medication, even homeopathy for that matter, will see that. Okay, it's Gotten better. You know, I drank. I have one patient who says, I drink 2 liters 1 water in the morning. And man. And he was someone who was addicted to laxatives. I just told him, slowly taper off your laxatives. The remedy that I'm giving you will help your eczema, will help your other challenges, but from your side, can you just do this much?

15:56 And he's come back for a follow up, saying, oh, I've forgotten that I used to take so much Dalcolax. And all that works for me is that 1 liter warm water in the morning. So each one requires something different. It's not necessarily tea coffee, but it has to be something else. You know, tea coffee is also first a stimulant and then something that paralyzes your intestines. So stay away from tea coffee for pooping, but drink tea coffee because it's a beverage.

16:26 So the alopecia patient, I want to tell to all those people who are here that he, when he came to see me, I went back one month. There was nothing in that one month. I went back three months. Nothing in the three months. I went back six months. And he said that he had two root canals in one session. He took 10 days of antibiotics. Okay. Okay. And look what happened to him.

16:48 Wow.

16:49 So I said I had to tell him that I'm very. I'm very sorry to say this, but I suspect this is the cause. I will treat you from this premise. Let's see what happens. He said, okay. He said it was a mistake. I know. Then I shouldn't have taken it because I didn't have a fever, I didn't have pain, but I just took it because it was prescribed. I said, all right. So when we did the treatment, the hair grew back.

17:09 So my premise, my assumption was fairly correct. I mean, because it seemed to show the result. Right? So skin is a very big area. Skin, hair, nails, and the. How you feel in your stomach and how you feel in the. In terms of a sense of well being. When. When you wake up feeling tired, when you feel puffy, when you notice your skin has changed, which means you can look at your own pictures and look where the glow is missing, or you can look at some patches.

17:39 Then you should know that there is something going on with the gut. And how to correct correction is not as easy as how it impacts you. Correction happens over time. So we have to look at what has changed. Like I said, you look at. Just take a consolidated view on what has changed for you in the last few years. You Had a baby, you breastfed, you probably had a loss, some sort of a thing. We try and work on how those things have impacted us.

18:08 We can't stay away from stress. I tell this to my patients. There is no escaping stress. You know, you can go for a holiday, but you can't still escape stress. What you can do is how you need to figure it out is it should stop impacting you physically. You know, my job is very stressful, but if it impacted me physically, I would really have to quit it or I need to figure out how to de stress myself.

18:30 So what is. Where do I see my impact? If every day I have a loose bowel, or if every other day I'm constipated, or if I feel like a funny fullness and a bloating, then I know that my body is not processing my stress accurately and I need to work on that. So either I seek help from an expert or I first try and change what I can change. Like sleeping on the same time, eating simpler food, trying to, you know, switch off devices and sleep early, take a walk, spend time with family.

18:59 If after doing all that also it doesn't seem to work, then you clearly need medication to reverse some pathology that has already set in at a functional level. So pathology goes through a functional change when your blood work will be normal, your ultrasounds will be normal, your reports will be normal, but something will still be off, which only you can tell. And somebody will say, oh, it's in your head, but no, it's not in your head.

19:19 There is a functional problem and the second dimension is a pathological problem when there's actually, you can see lymphocytes, you can see immune complexes, IgG, IgE and all of that. So then by then the work is intense. But before that, you still need to figure it out. So, you know, you mentioned that that

19:37 patient had taken antibiotics, but some, in some cases, I'm assuming those antibiotics are, you know, are perhaps, you know, like if you're getting a root canal, it, you know, I don't know any doctor who doesn't give you that.

19:50 So do you need to take it? Do you not need to take it? Is it safe to take it and

19:55 will it cause impact? How does one.

19:57 So if you have, if you have a bilateral pneumonia, I will be the first one to say, please go get an antibiotic. But if you have, if you're going through a root canal, which can be done over three sittings, you ask the dentist. The dentist is. Majority of the times the dentist is giving you an Antibiotic because it is prophylactic, which means they are assuming that there could be a possibility of an infection and to prevent it, they are giving it to you.

20:20 You know, I had an extraction, I didn't take an antibiotic. My dentist was upset with me. I said, look, I will wait and watch for two days. You assess me and then we'll decide whether we need it or not. That was my one and only extraction of my life, okay? And I didn't take. In fact, on the fifth day when she checked me, she said, oh, yours is healed better than the ones when I give the antibiotic.

20:40 So you need to be in constant, in a constant loop with your own practitioner and ask when is it necessary and when can we avoid it? And if there is no proper answer given, then I think you need to figure out whether you need a second opinion or not, okay? Life threatening situations. I will never say no to an antibiotic. And a lot of the times a lot of parents think that it's okay, it's only three days, what does it do?

21:08 But that very antibiotic is ruining, is wiping away colonies and colonies of gut bacteria. It is said that for every human cell that you have, you have 10 bacterial cells. The proportion becomes one functional problems. Okay? So for the 100 trillion cells we have, we have a thousand trillion bacteria. We are, we are. There is a bacterial swimming this thing that's happening, a pool inside us. We can't survive without them. So if we eliminate them, then our body can't cope.

21:38 Our cells are not meant to cope by themselves. They need that communication with a colony of multiple million bacteria. Right? So we have to understand just that. And actually if you go to see very good doctors, very skilled doctors, will. I know a neurologist in Pune, Dr. Kothari. If any of you are in Pune, please go to him. Most amazing doctor. He does not give painkillers for migraine. He says migraine is these way of saying you need rest.

22:07 And there are a bunch of doctors who will prescribe all sorts of medications, primarily also because the patients demand it. So there is, it's a. There is, there are some gray areas here, but practically speaking, the very good guys will tell you don't take an antibiotic. I know a bunch of doctors who are not giving antibiotic in mild Covid. And I know a bunch of doctors who are giving antibiotics in mild code. So are both of them correct from their place?

22:32 Perhaps, yes. They have done a clinical assessment and they've decided, okay, this works for this one. This doesn't work for this one. So it is, you have to be, you have to be a collective decision maker rather than, you know, hand it all over in one person's bag. If you wake up in the morning and you see your tongue is coated, then there is a problem. Then there is a problem with constipation, there is a problem with indigestion, there is a problem with low gut bacteria.

22:57 And even if you clean it, the coating will still come and that needs to be treated. If you clean it and it becomes clean, then that means the problem is far less. So every morning, do a self assessment. Open your mouth, check your tongue, see if the coating is there. Figure out what you ate yesterday, day before, how you've been feeling, have you been feeling bloated? First of all, you to recognize how you're feeling. And this is not about becoming a hypochondriac.

23:21 This is just about having an understanding of you and yourself, right? So it is very important. So especially in children, this is important because it starts in childhood. It doesn't start in adulthood, it starts in childhood. Every day or every other day, get your children to come in front of you, ask them to open their mouths, then check their tongue every day and check their nails. Because your signs of absorption will come in the nails, white spots on the nails, no moon on the nails, you know, ridges on the nails, nails that break or crack easily.

23:52 They are not absorbing their nutrients, they are not absorbing their iron, their silica, their calcium, their magnesium. And we need to understand that it is not that if we are dump them with iron, they are going to get better. No, we need to work on the whole absorption aspect. And this is where I, I step in, you know that I say, look, we'll work on your absorption. Don't start with the supplement because we take the supplement for a while, things will be okay.

24:15 But you would have still not worked on the absorption and the assimilation. So foods that deplete your gut health, clearly, I mean processed food, food that is packaged and food, food that is cooked in advance. So the weekend, one meal out once in a while does not harm, but done it every week after week after week after week. And somebody also asked here about ibs. I would say that IBS is treatable if it is initial. I mean, you've just been diagnosed with ibs, it is treatable.

24:46 It is psychosomatic as well as physical. So it is a collect. It's like, you know, you had a functional gut problem. Functional gut problem, Functional gut problem. Functional gut problem. A bunch of four times that You've had a problem with your health. And typically IBS begins, in my opinion, in my practice, after about a food poisoning. If you had a bout of food poisoning and if you have stopped it with an antibiotic because obviously you're worried about dehydration, typically IBS begins after that.

25:17 So you start having either cramping or diarrhea or constipation and that leads to the syndrome. Okay? It is not a problem by itself because if you do an endoscopy or a colonoscopy, things get better. Coming back to your question about food. Food that is prepared and eaten within three hours is a sure shot guarantee of good gut health. If for some reason you work in a situation where you need to cook your food and then eat only seven hours later, never mind, but reheat it on the stove top and not in the microwave, and then consume it.

25:50 Food that is eaten the next day can only be one that is fermented or you have kept for soaking or something. Only those kind will help. Otherwise it doesn't help. So you have to be very mindful of this. This is very important. That fresh food ensures good gut health. Stale food destroys gut health. I'm not somebody who will put a blanket over. Dairy is inflammatory. No, dairy can't be inflammatory. Dairy has been around us for 5,000 years.

26:20 It can't be inflammatory. Okay? It is something that we have destroyed our gut microbiome so we can't digest something as simple as milk. Mine was, you know, I was a victim too. But I went for many years. In fact, when I start when I breastfed my children. After that my ability to digest milk improved. Perhaps because either I produce the one my own milk or what, I don't know, or whatever. But so the he is good to have.

26:47 If you have set it at home. Ghee is the best thing to have butter. If you have at home, it is very good. Otherwise amul butter also works. But milk is tricky because milk is tough to digest in the absence of good gut bacteria. So milk comes loaded with bacteria. The raw milk, the not the pasteurized milk. So pasteurized milk, because it doesn't have the bacteria, it cannot get digested. And raw milk, because it is loaded with bacteria and you may not have enough so it does not get digested.

27:15 So there is a problem at both levels. However, you convert milk into other forms and it is okay to have. However, if you have milk and you feel bloated, you should stop having milk and try having yogurt or dahi instead. Paneer Also don't eat because you want to eat. Eat because you. It makes you feel good. That is very, very important. Yeah. So if you, if you come with a complaint of. So if I say, if I advise you that you know, hey, Mansi, you should try eating dosa two times a week.

27:48 And you tell me no, but every time I eat dosa, I feel a tremendous burning sensation. I say, hey, Mansi, then we need to treat you for this. We need to treat you for your reflux. So once I treat you for your reflux, once we make those change, until that point, you may not be eating it. But once you finish and then I tell you, why don't you try eating it again? You should not feel the problem again.

28:07 That's how it should be. Because

28:12 on fermented foods, it is, it. Does it help the gut bacteria?

28:17 It helps because it has its own natural bacteria. So you get a imagine, Imagine you getting a lot, winning a lottery. You know, you didn't expect it and suddenly there is. For your trillions, you have another trillion coming in. It can't be bad, right?

28:32 Right.

28:32 But yeah, but if you see from the Ayurvedic perspective, there are doshas, some people should not be eating. But again, why did that happen? How did you reach that point? You know, you didn't. You were not born that way. You reach that because of a certain problem. So once you start correcting what has happened behind, then everything else improves. So basically make homemade dosa with. My proportion of dosa is two raw rice, a half cup par boiled rice and one urad dal and put some methi seeds in it.

29:05 Great combination. Great for gut health. You will feel light, you'll feel amazing. And next day you'll poop far better. Okay, dosa then all the Gujarati items, you know, Dokla, khandwa and all, whatever is ground, soaked, ground and fermented. Great to have mixed, mix ghee with everything, mix sesame seeds with everything, and have. And some of our homemade pickles, which we pickle in the sun, those are good to have. This is now the season is coming. You know, get raw mangoes, chop them up, put some spices, put it in the sun and then have them.

29:36 Two days of fermentation, lacto fermentation, you're good to go. It flushes your system with a whole lot of microbiome. You cannot have an overgrowth of bacteria in the vagina unless your gut health is compromised because the communication in the pelvis is extremely strong. You know, so when boys get urinary tract infections or when Women get urinary tract infections. The problem is not using a public rest.

30:07 The problem is lack of good gut bacteria in your own urine, in your own gut, which predisposes you or makes you vulnerable to catch infections. Because the vagina is teeming with millions of microbiome, millions of bacteria and one of them becomes opportunistic. It's because it does not have enough defense from the gut, right? So when there is a smelly discharge from the vagina, you shouldn't use the store bought intimate washes and mask it.

30:38 You have to understand that until we work on the gut, which is again, you know, going back the same way. Check what you've been eating, check what has happened to your life, check what stressors you have and seek help. Don't try and just put douches or you know, suppositories or pessaries or just go, go to a gyne, get an evaluation, ask her what can be done. Always keep an alternative practitioner by your side. I would say I'm not even crying to become mainstream.

31:06 I'd say, you know what, I'm, I'm happy where I am. I'm okay if you have a specialist as your main guy. But don't ignore the aspect of having an alternative practitioner with you who can guide you. You know Mansi, in the olden days, doctors were paid stipend or retainership fees to keep people healthy. If they fell sick, then their retainership would not be given to them. So families employed doctors so that you could be kept healthy.

31:32 So dry vagina is clearly low progesterone, vaginal smell from the vagina clearly overgrowth of acidic gut bacteria and pain during activity is clearly again vaginal inflammation. And poor gut health is. So it's, it's a vicious cycle. Poor gut health causes low progesterone, excess estrogen causes low progesterone and poor gut health is part of that and that causes vaginal dysbiosis.

32:04 So it's all so connected that you can't treat just one, you have to treat the whole thing. And this is where we come in. So I've seen a lady who has vaginal dryness. She also feels that she has to cross her legs, otherwise she feels uncomfortable, she feels tremendous heaviness in her pelvis. And she is so irritable that she can't look at her husband, she can't look at her kids, she doesn't feel like doing household work when this whole picture is present.

32:32 I give one remedy which works on all the aspects which work on the emotional state, which works on the physical state, which works on the local area, the problem area which she has come with. And then we make the diet changes. I tell her, okay, can you stop eating outside food for some time? Just for three weeks. Can you drink more water? Can you wash your private parts with baking soda and you know, take it easy, sleep at a fixed time.

32:55 Baking soda is a great thing to use for your vagina. It improves because it is alkaline in nature. It improves the bacterial composition and you can actually feel, find some relief at least.

33:07 So how does one use it?

33:08 So nothing very simple. Just a little pinch of baking soda in warm water and just wash your, you know, private parts with it as a final rinse. And it should be done for children. It should be done.

33:21 Also talking about a lot of women experiencing pcos, pcod, thyroid.

33:27 So pcos, yeah. PCOS is of course a syndrome. PCOD is polycystic ovarian disease, which is when in a ultrasound they will spot cysts in your ovary. However, you shouldn't be worried when you see that diagnosis. All you have to look is whether you probably have ovulatory cycles, whether you're menstruating pretty much every month between 26 to 32 days is, or 33 days is fine, even up to 34 days is okay. If you are menstruating every month, you don't seem to have excess hair growth.

33:59 You are fairly, you know, in proportion, not too heavy on any side of the body and you seem to be doing well overall. Don't worry about that pco, just let it be. It will correct itself once your cycles become even more regular. Once you put all these things in, in place, what we discussed, and definitely once you have, once you get pregnant, high levels of circul. It works like a biological steroid and it actually corrects a lot of problems, even endometriosis, fibroids and PCO also.

34:29 So pco, PCOD when it's a problem is when you have non ovulatory cycles and when you have completely irregular periods and then you can see that you've gained weight, that is insulin resistance that requires treatment. And I do, and I do think homeopathy offers very good results with that hypothyroidism. Clearly hypothyroidism has got two components. One is how you deal with your acute situations, which is, let's say when you're 6 years old, you have a very bad sore throat and you're treated with four rounds of antibiotics.

35:00 Then you're nine years old and you have a bad food poisoning or treated antibiotics and your mom has hypothyroidism, then surely your thyroid status veers towards hypo. When you have been diagnosed with a hypothyroid status, check with yourself. Check, ask yourself, how often do you take pain medication? The thyroid is very, very sensitive to pain medication. So if it has been a situation where you cannot avoid, you have had a fracture or something, I understand. But if you're going to take painkillers for period pain, then there is a huge problem because the thyroid is extremely sensitive to pain medication.

35:35 So do not take pain medication. Try using, do not give it to your girls, also to your daughters. Try using some alternative method. You try using different alternative methods. Use magnesium, but don't use pain medication. Unless. Absolutely, absolutely unless. It's like I said, life and death. That is my mantra. You are in a life and that situation, do what saves your life then, whether it's steroid, painkillers, antibiotics, whatever. But on a. I have a headache, pop a painkiller.

36:01 No, that will affect your thyroid, that will affect your gut, it will paralyze your gut mobility. It'll affect the nerves of your gut because you are blocking pain receptors which are also present in the gut lining. Right? So it's a complete syndrome that comes.

36:15 You know, a lot of people faces vitamin deficiencies, B12, D3. Was this always prevalent or is it just something that we hear of now?

36:23 No, I told you already, deficiencies are never deficiencies. Deficiencies are a sign of poor absorption, right? You can't be deficient just like that. You, you were not born with something that said that you put an extra from outside and you'd be okay. No, deficiencies have come because you stopped absorbing because your gut is so busy managing the constipation or your gut is so busy managing the reflux. So you free up that gut and you see what remarkable work it can do.

36:51 We have constipation, we take adult colax and we think our problem is gone, but we still not work on the, you know, on the absorption part of it. So eczema is also a reaction by the. So basically, when I see very severe cases of eczema, I often get them to do blood work and a fecal test of calprotectin, which tells me how much inflammation is there in the gut. Okay, but the point is that eczema cannot be treated by any applications.

37:20 Any applications only drive. Like a steroid application only drives the eczema deeper into the gut, into the Liver into your own system. So very importantly, I think eczema is a, it's a very broad topic, cannot just be addressed by, you know, just lifestyle changes, cannot treat it. You need in, you need an intervention. And the intervention, if you've already done your steroids, if you've already done your other interventions, then you need to go to an alternative practitioner and get it sorted.

37:52 I really wish there could be something like a blanket treatment which if I suggest most people will feel better, but it's so case specific that you need tailored treatment. So, you know, for the longest time, even when I was a child, I would see my grand grandmom do it and that would be our day to eat pav bhaji, you know, because, oh, she's eating her sabudana khichichti and we will eat our pav bhaji and I would want to eat what she was eating because, and she would tell me, if you do it, it's good for you.

38:28 But obviously same like you wouldn't know what it was until much later when she said, look, the moon has a role to play in your body, especially as a woman. And I thought, you know what, okay, these are all old wives tales. But as I, as I went through my own pregnancies and children, I realized how much my cycle had started to change. And I knew that if I have to organize my own cycle, I will have to sync it with the moon.

38:55 And what is the easiest thing that I can do to sync it with the moon is doing ekadashi fast. And that is because it actually helps us in aligning how our body responds, especially our ovaries respond to the moon. Because the ovarian fluid is influenced by the gravitational force of the moon. I have no clinical studies for it. If somebody is going to come back and ask you, please show me clinical research studies. I don't have any papers.

39:21 This is assumption based on what actually the moon does, which we have plenty of physics papers about, right? So when you do moon cycle fasting, invariably you will observe an improvement in your menstrual cycles. You will have much reduced PMS and you will transition through menopause very, very efficiently without having hot flashes, without having issues that most women go, of course you should not be having big fibroids and all of those, those have to be treated.

39:53 But essentially, if you have not so many pathological problems, then the ekadashi fast takes you through this very smoothly.

40:01 Oh my God, this is all carbs and sago has zero nutrition. How can you even think that this is actually healing your body. And I know that you wrote about why the foods that you avoid on those days and also, you know, why having, you know, the root vegetables and things like that actually healing.

40:19 So do you want to talk about that? So carbs is a very uni dimensional way of looking at any food. You know, that that plate of sabudana that you shared, first of all, looks so delicious, number one. Number two, it is made from tapioca or cassava, which is already deemed as a superfood, you know, so like what, what are we talking? But so see the combination, it's a genius combination. So you use sago and you soak it overnight.

40:48 So again it becomes enzymatically active. Then you combine it with peanuts, which is a legume, so it gives you your protein. But it is underground, so it is best suited for an ekadashi fast. And you cook it all in ghee. So the three of these three things together turn it into a superfood, you know, so there is no carbohydrate. It is actually bioenzymatically the most active food that you can eat. If somebody can't digest the sabudana, then there is a problem with their gut which they need to resolve.

41:19 You know, we are all, we are all able to digest these things easily. Potatoes, for example, a lot of people can't digest potatoes. So there is no concept of carbs. Potatoes has got a very rich B complex profile. It has got a very rich iron profile, it has got a very rich calcium profile, but nobody talks of it. We just look at potatoes unidimensionally.

41:40 I'm so glad that you mentioned this because it, you know, like when you, when you and I must tell this to everybody, when you google sago, it actually says it has zero nutrition. So I don't know if anybody's done that drill, but it actually got me thinking. So I'm very glad that I asked that, asked that question.

41:57 So are fibroids responsible for bad gut health? No, fibroids are not responsible, but it is poor gut health from very early age which have given rise to fibroids. Remember one thing, that fibroids are smooth muscle, which is your uterine muscle. And the body nourishes it in exactly the same way it nourishes your uterus. Right? So it doesn't differentiate between the uterus and the fibroid. It is seen as a part of the same system. So we shouldn't look at it as if it's foreign, except if it is too large.

42:28 And it is causing you very, very deep problem of bleeding and pain and all of that. So healing of fibroids can become inert, which means they will. Fibroids produce estrogen and progesterone. So the body then suddenly has two bosses. It has to. It receives from the ovaries and it receives from the fibroid and it receives from the belly fat. Belly fat produces estrogen and progesterone. So which is why we need to understand that all of these things are responsible for what we feel and not just one aspect.

42:56 Right, so that, that the fibroids are not responsible for gut health, but it is the gut health which is responsible for fibroids. The other way around. Let me look at another question and how to take care of gut health for acne at 22? Lots of things. Stop using benzoyl peroxide, stop using roacutine, don't do anything to suppress the acne. Start eating, you know, fruits in the morning. Eat a banana or an apple every morning and tell me how your skin looks.

43:22 Having breast milk and formula. Can I give pomegranate juice of fruit juice instead of formula? No, don't give anything instead of formula. You give the formula until the child requires it. Once he transitions completely on solids, then you can just skip the milk altogether. If there are no vitamin deficiencies in pregnancy, should we still take pills? This is a very controversial question. I did not take the multivitamins. I told my gyne, she said, okay, as long as you can give me the guarantee that your baby is okay, I will be fine.

43:49 I said, I don't have a guarantee. Neither can you guarantee, but we'll keep doing regular blood checks and doing that. So no, it's not essential, but it is a doctor patient thing that you have to figure out. Then baby started solid. Congratulations. So just something ask you the question

44:04 on the multivitamins, you're saying that we don't need to take any supplements.

44:08 So I have a very divided view on supplements, you know, so if you are like chronically low on vitamin D immediately to perk up your system, three, four months is okay, but then after that stop, you have, you know, your hemoglobin is at 4. I have had patients who have come walking to me at 4. I said, you've climbed the stairs, you've come walking. I'm not going to give you iron right away. Let's first do what I think is needed for improving your absorption.

44:32 Give that three months and then let's see whether you need it or not. You know, I Had this patient who was chronically low on iron. Four was a hemoglobin. She came walking, she was forced by the family to take a transfusion. She bled, bled, bled, bled for two, three months, came back to five. You know, the body adapts. So unless you are living in high mountainous region where your oxygen requirement is high, then we need to do something about it.

44:54 But if you're on sea level, you are in Mumbai, I'm in uae, we are at sea level, our hemoglobin can be at nine and we can function similarly with vitamin D. You don't need vitamin D of 65. You can be at 25 and be fully functional without any aches or pains. Don't supplement everything. First change the things that are probably going wrong with your system and then supplement also with your healthcare practitioner in tower. Because it shouldn't be more than three months at any point.

45:21 Whatever it is, whether it is folic acid or collagen. Folic acid, in fact, my other teachers gave it only for three months. Multivitamins, they gave it only for the first three months because typically nausea lasts that long. And that's when you need probably some supplements, not the entire length of the pregnancy.

45:38 Right.

45:38 You know, so it is a. You need, you need a good doctor, you need somebody skilled and you need to not be operating from a place of fear. You need to have enough confidence saying no, I will eat well and I will manage myself well. My blood work will show how I'm doing. Rather than be frightened or listen to friends. Stop listening to friends. Friends are well meaning, but they are not experts, you know?

46:00 Right. Which is, which is so interesting that you say that. And the lady was asking on acne, she said that she's taking the benzoyl peroxide and she's also using retinoids. She's also eating.

46:08 Yeah, see, I didn't even know. But I, I know, I know. I know what people do. Anyway, so the next question is. My son is suffering from alopecia. Please can. Yeah. Would it still be effective? Well, no, it will not be effective. So talk to your practitioner and say I want to taper the steroids and then do. Are we supposed to do a Kadashi fast for 36 hours? No, Ekadashi fast is only from sunrise to sunset.

46:30 Then connection to low iron levels. Yes. Gut. Gut absorbs iron, helps in absorption of iron. So if gut health is not okay, iron won't be okay. You can hear. You can hear. If you don't believe in homeopathy, doesn't work. No, not at all. I treat dogs, I bees. I treat children who are two days, three days old. They don't have any belief. Some of their parents, grandparents don't have. It works because it mobilizes your own immune system, you know.

46:58 So I mean faith, I mean it's not faith healing. Honestly it is not. Well, if you have faith, it works beautifully. And the same holds true for allopathy as well. Somebody will say, you know, this antibiotic won't work. But somebody will say, no, I know for sure this chemotherapy will help me and I will get out of this cancer. So faith helps everywhere. Right?

47:16 Right.

47:18 You don't use benzoyl peroxide. Okay? No, don't use them. Don't use anything else.

47:22 A lot of doctors are the fastest to give away retinoids to dry out the acne. So your recommendation on that?

47:30 No. So you also have to figure out when and how you got the acne. No, it just does suddenly. If it has erupted suddenly, there has to be some precursor to it. Unless you find out what has caused it, you can't be treating the effect. Treat the cause. The effect will take care of itself.

47:46 Right? Right. Absolutely. Dr. Manji, you're extremely busy and I see this pertinent question. How do we get your appointment?

47:53 So how do we do that? So you know, for now because of

47:56 nodding there, Sapna's like, please can you answer?

47:59 Hi Sapna. I've seen you finally. Nice to see you. So we in UAE currently, the clinic that I work in because of our new dha, the Dubai Health Authority directors. I'm not going to take any patients from India or anywhere else. But what I can do, I have put up a list of doctors you can go to in India and go to them and maybe we could do, you know, I could somehow you can send some.

48:25 We can work something together. And I do travel to India often. But not in this pandemic. I haven't come. Maybe when I come to India I can freely consult whenever I do.

48:35 Thank you so much for sharing.

48:36 Thank you so much. Mansi, it was amazing to talk to you.