EP 390 The Inflammation Code: How Ayurveda, Elemental Design, and Turmeric Support Fertility
Dr. Shivani Gupta returns to the podcast to share what she has learned since writing her new Hay House book, The Inflammation Code. In this conversation we explore why inflammation is rising so dramatically in modern life and how that plays into fertility, hormone balance, and overall vitality. Dr. Shivani breaks down the three doshas in Ayurveda, which she calls Elemental Design, and explains how understanding your own makeup of air, fire, and earth can help you choose the foods, rhythms, and rituals that actually nourish your body. We also talk about Mental Inflammation, circadian living, the healing power of nature, and why modern life keeps so many women stuck in survival mode. Dr. Shivani shares the science behind turmeric, why absorption matters, and when to use it and when to pause it during IVF and transfer windows. This is a grounded, practical conversation about returning to ancient wisdom in a way that feels doable in real life.
Key Takeaways:
Inflammation is rising because of environmental toxins, processed foods, chronic stress, and constant mental stimulation. The body is living in survival mode rather than thriving.
Ayurveda teaches that each of us has a unique Elemental Design made of air, fire, and earth. Knowing your primary and secondary doshas helps you choose foods, rhythms, and rituals that bring you back into balance.
Mental Inflammation is a real physiological state created by constant phone use, email, and sympathetic activation. It feeds physical inflammation, and physical inflammation feeds it back.
Living in rhythm with nature’s circadian clock is one of the most powerful and free tools we have. Walking outside, eating seasonally, and sleeping from 10 to 2 supports lymphatic clearance and reduces inflammation.
Preparing the body for conception through gentle detoxification, nourishment, and tissue health is the same work that supports vibrancy through perimenopause. A vibrant body is a fertile body.
Turmeric is one of the most powerful natural anti-inflammatories we have, but absorption matters. Black pepper and healthy fats increase bioavailability significantly.
Turmeric can support fertility conditions linked to inflammation such as endometriosis, PCOS, and recurrent implantation challenges, but it should be paused during IVF cycles and transfer windows because it thins the blood and can thin the uterine lining.
Supplementation should be phased with the guidance of a practitioner. Every season of the body calls for a different protocol.
Guest Bio:
Dr. Shivani Gupta is an Ayurvedic practitioner, turmeric researcher, and speaker who blends classical Ayurveda with functional medicine to help women calm inflammation, balance hormones, and restore energy. With a Master’s in Ayurvedic Sciences and a PhD focused on turmeric, she translates ancient wisdom into simple daily rituals, including Elemental Design personalization, Mental Inflammation resets, gut and estrobolome support, and spice-based micro-habits. Her new book, The Inflammation Code (Hay House, February 2026), is a practical, non-diet system for cooling chronic inflammation to improve brain fog, bloat, pain, sleep, and mood. Dr. Shivani is the host of the Fusionary Health Podcast and creator of the Emmy-nominated TV show Vibrant Health with Dr. Shivani Gupta. Learn more at shivanigupta.com.
Connect with Dr. Gupta:Instagram: @dr.shivanigupta | https://www.instagram.com/dr.shivanigupta
Facebook: @theshivanigupta | https://www.facebook.com/TheShivaniGupta
YouTube: @dr.shivanigupta | https://www.youtube.com/@dr.shivanigupta/videos
Pinterest: @theshivanigupta | https://www.pinterest.com/theshivanigupta
Website: https://www.shivanigupta.com
Disclaimer: The information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult with your healthcare provider before making any changes to your health or fertility care.
The Inflammation Code book: https://www.theinflammationcode.com
Fusionary Formulas: https://www.fusionaryformulas.com (code WHOLESOMEFERTILITY for 15% off)
7-Day Inflammation Detox Challenge: https://www.7dayinflammationdetox.com/optin1641313075014
The Inflammation Code Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inflammation-code/id1680587836
Ready to discover what your body needs most on your fertility journey?
Take the personalized quiz inside The Wholesome Fertility Journey and get tailored resources to meet you exactly where you are:
https://www.michelleoravitz.com/the-wholesome-fertility-journey
For more about my work and offerings, visit: www.michelleoravitz.com
Curious about ancient wisdom for fertility? Grab my book The Way of Fertility:
https://www.michelleoravitz.com/thewayoffertility
Join the Wholesome Fertility Facebook Group for free resources & community support:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/
Connect with me on social:
Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility
Facebook: The Wholesome Lotus
-
​[00:00:00]
Michelle Oravitz: Welcome back to the podcast, Dr. Shivani. I had you, um, on episode 231 a while back, but I know since we last spoke, so much has changed. And, um, last time we talked about turmeric and your supplement and how you, um, have a special formulation to make it extra absorbable in the body, because that's always been like, um, I guess a challenge that supplement companies had.
But catch us up, talk to us, because you have just, um, released a book called "The Inflammation Code," which is incredibly important for anyone who's trying to conceive. It seems to be that inflammation is on the rise, and it's, uh, something that we're just hearing about all the time, and I know that there's so many different factors, so I'm so excited to dive in.[00:01:00]
Dr. Shivani Gupta: For sure. Um, so much has happened. I mean, you know, when you are in alignment, living your dharma, aligned with your exact purpose in life, I think That's where the universe keeps bringing all the magic in. And so about two years ago, I got a call from Hay House that said, "We want you to write this book." And I was like, "What?"
My entire life dream, the reason I got the master's and the reason I got that PhD in turmeric was I wanted to know Ayurveda at this level that I could then teach it and write books to impact the world. And so when this book deal came along, I was like, "What? I get to write a book for Hay House? I get to teach about Ayurveda?"
And the feedback was, look, I know, like in my case, I want the world to know Ayurveda, but I'm actually more interested in us understanding how to live in that rhythm that Ayurveda teaches, the circadian rhythm. And so I took a lot of [00:02:00] the Ayurveda concepts that are incredible, and I renamed them, and I simplified them, and I took what I've been doing with women for the last decade in my programs and in one-on-one work- And put it into the book in a very attainable way.
And so this whole book is "Know Your Dosha," which I renamed "Elemental Design." So it's know your elemental design. That is your guiding principle to knowing the blueprint on you. You are more air, fire, or earth, or the most beautiful combination of the three. And our job as Ayurvedic practitioners is just to show you your most balanced place, how you feel most vibrant.
And then in the book, I got to teach about circadian rhythm and gut health and the Sattvic diet from Ayurveda, this yogic diet. And I got to talk about self-care rituals, which is one of my favorite pieces of Ayurveda. And then I did, of course, give a tap chapter to turmeric and the super spices, 'cause turmeric is my favorite [00:03:00] core topic that I, of course, think people should know about when we're talking about inflammation.
But the book is really like my, my love letter for all of us as women of the lifestyle we can live that gives us what we want. Because what we're asking for is what each of us wants to call in in this life. But if we're not getting there, it's just a lack of understanding how to be our most vibrant, energetic selves.
That's my theory. And so I'm always seeking, like, how do I show you how to build ojas or vibrancy or strength or finding your alignment again, so you have that reserve and that energy to do all that you want and live your most balanced life?
Michelle Oravitz: Love that. Love it. Um, and of course, we're gonna dive deeper on what doshas are, just in case people are hearing it for the very first time. It's really fascinating, and it's amazing 'cause it really kind of puts the ba- the power back in people's hands. Because once they really understand their own body and it starts to m- and it's very intuitive, it [00:04:00] makes a lot of sense, then they're able to say, "Oh, you know, so this is what my element tends to be, and this is what I need to do to balance it."
And it's a lot more, um, empowering. It's something that really people can do and take on in their own lives to better their life and help their, you know, improve their health. Um, but before we get into that, I do wanna talk about why is it that you think that so many people are s- dealing with so much inflammation in this day and time, like this time of life?
Dr. Shivani Gupta: Mm. Inflammation is increasing across the board in our society because of so many different environmental factors, but also so many lifestyle choices that we're making. And so I look at it as first, where are we when it comes to corporations, big food, big pharma, big chemical? And we're not really in a [00:05:00] good place in modern day times right now.
I mean, we're living in a society where everything is factory farmed, no regard for the land really having the vitamins, minerals, and richness we need for a healthy microbiome. So we're really eating food that's depleted and lacking. Then when it comes to our chemical burden in general, between the pesticides and the herbicides on the food, but also every single aspect of our lives is contributing to more microplastics, ingesting toxins by breathing, water, the surfaces around us.
And so there's an environmental toxin burden on the body that's so tremendous at this point that the body's just trying to hold strong against it. And that's not, that's not gonna lead to vibrancy. That's gonna lead to survival mode. So if the body's got so much coming at it and the body's like, "Oh, hey, Shivani, between the plastic water bottle you drank out of, the alcohol you consume," maybe I had a [00:06:00] glass of wine last week on a trip, "between the food that's completely lacking in what I need but is pesticide-ridden, I mean, how am I supposed to function and be thriving?"
And so I look at, uh, that the environmental toxin burden first and try to figure out where can we reduce that. Like, where can we bring that down as much as possible? And then in addition, we are what we eat, and we are everything that we consume. And so that's where it gets multifactorial as well- What are you eating?
Is it seed oils and processed foods, or is it healthier, fresher foods that are anti-inflammatory and more nourishing? Oftentimes, our diets right now are very inflammatory. Between the seed oils, the top inflammatory foods, some of which include gluten and dairy and alcohol and sugar, um, all of those can really add up to a pretty inflamed body.
And then finally, in my book, I wrote a chapter on a topic I called Mental Inflammation. [00:07:00] I was asking the universe for a way to explain that in Ayurveda we teach that you must stand guard at the doors of your mind and really have a, a intentional practice around that. So in Ayurveda, we teach yoga and pranayama, which is deep breathing and, and really making sacred space in our day.
And the modern-day lifestyle has us instead picking up our phone every five seconds and jumping onto social media, jumping onto email. So that mental friction, mental stress causes this mental inflammation, we can call it being in our sympathetic nervous system as well, but never being in rest and digest, never being settled, grounded, or centered or aligned.
And that mental inflammation can cause physical inflammation. Physical inflammation then causes the mental inflammation, and we're stuck in feedback loops. So I think it's multifactorial why we as a society are so inflamed, but the fact that [00:08:00] we are so inflamed is why we are dealing with chronic disease and distress and frustration when it comes to our health, especially in women's health, all the way through the spectrum of our health journey.
Yes.
Michelle Oravitz: Yeah, absolutely. And another thing, um, something that I love so much about Ayurveda is they actually talk about eating local foods because your body, um, is so connected with the environment and the climate, and that if you're eating certain foods that are local, those foods are actually meant to balance out the climate that you're in.
And that's something that is really very unique. I remember, um, learning about and thinking it was just so amazing, but we don't have that anymore.
Dr. Shivani Gupta: No. Well, the fa- the farmlands are being sold for high profits, especially, and we're both here in South Florida, where, you know, land is worth a lot. It's, it's Florida at this point. There's so much movement and growth and... [00:09:00] source local fresh food, we're in big trouble because we are circadian beings, and as circadian beings, we really need that alignment with With nature's clock, with our circadian arou- surroundings, with the season that we're in, which is what you're talking about.
So yes, absolutely, we need this ability to order fresh, source fresh, um, go to the farmers markets on Saturdays. That is the most rich, nourishing, balancing food for us.
Michelle Oravitz: Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. I, I feel like I need to do more of that myself, like, 'cause we have homestead here. There's so many things that you can get, but, um... and there are farmers markets. Like, you just have to dig deep and, and look around. But, um, you know, there's certain squashes and foods during wintertime that are actually meant to balance you out so that you're able to sustain your s- your, you know, your body's able to keep its own heat and, you know, they're, they're heating.
It's, it's just amazing how [00:10:00] nature works. It's just like a puzzle, and it's so smart.
Dr. Shivani Gupta: It's true. It's so true. I mean, Ayurveda teaches, just like Chinese medicine, which you also practice, Ayurveda teaches that nature is the ultimate healer, and nature holds all this wisdom, and we're meant to live in this beautiful symbiotic relationship with nature, and nature heals all things. And so any time there's a problem, I just go outside.
I walk outside, I move in nature. I know breathing in nature is my way through any challenge, any problem, any mental frustration. And oftentimes in modern-day life, we're just sitting inside of our box, our car, our building, our room, completely disconnected from nature, and then wondering why we don't feel good.
But our microbiome, our, our biome in general, needs to interact with nature to be its most healthy. Putting our feet in the earth, just touching n- nature is going to bring us into balance and, and we think it's too [00:11:00] simple, so we don't do it. We're instead chasing these bigger solutions. I go to all the biohacking conferences, and It's like PEMF mats and infrared saunas and, and all this tech, and I'm like, "You know, your tech is just doing exactly what nature does."
Now,
Michelle Oravitz: for
Dr. Shivani Gupta: accelerate? Yeah. Nature will give it to you for free.
You want some red light? Go walk in the morning and the evening. That is the sun giving you your red light in the exact light, right spectrum at the exact right proportions that we need, 'cause Mother Nature created it perfectly in her infinite wisdom.
And instead we're like, "No, no, no, I need to be indoors to do my this tool, that tool, that tool, that tool to get through the homework checklist." And so I always keep both in mind. I'm, I'm a big fan of modern science and how It's proving ancient Ayurveda to be true.
and so I do have an infrared sauna and I have some of these things, but it's very much about, okay, I'm gonna accelerate healing by using the tool, [00:12:00] but do I still do the daily practices and the daily rhythm that are gonna get my body to stay in the frequency and vibrancy that I crave?
Michelle Oravitz: Yes. And then you also talked about yoga as being part of Ayurveda, which I don't think a lot of people realize. Yoga is not its own thing. It's actually a branch of healing. It's a modality of healing that Ayurveda used, you know, throughout history, um, as the physical therapy aspect of Ayurveda.
Dr. Shivani Gupta: It's true. Most people don't realize that yoga and Ayurveda.
are sister sciences, and, and part of any Ayurvedic practitioner's work is going to be giving homework around deep breathing, yoga, and things like that. Here, because we live in the US, a lot of times I don't give that homework because a lot of people don't wanna do yoga.
They think it's too hard. It's just not something they are into. But the yogic stretches and the way we gently [00:13:00] detox the body and, and move and flow is part of any healing journey and staying in balance. It's part of our lifestyle rituals.
Michelle Oravitz: I would say it's hard not to do it because it makes your life more difficult when you don't move. And I, uh, yoga's just, I, I find it to be an intelligent... It ha- it still has the intelligence intact. It's an intelligent exercise, and it moves your lymphatics and also the fascia. It stimulates the fascia, which stimulates healing.
You know, so it's, uh, you know, Chinese medicine, they'll do more like qigong, qigong, um, and that kind of movement. But movement in general is so important, uh, to help also alleviate a lot of the mental inflammation as you talked about, because sometimes we try to address mental states with the mind that's already in that state, so we're spinning in circles rather than [00:14:00] really, like, moving through it and knowing, realizing that we do actually process a lot of the emotions in the body.
Dr. Shivani Gupta: True. True. You know, I went to India years ago. I went probably two years prior to having my first child, and when I went to India, I thought, "You know, fertility is a big issue. I wanna show up so healthy when I'm ready to conceive this child." And so when I went to India, I did a three-week Panchakarma treatment, which is this profound detox.
It's like, you can call it the oil change of all
Michelle Oravitz: where did you do it? 'Cause I, I also did it in India. I went to Mysore.
Dr. Shivani Gupta: You did? Okay. So we went to Bangalore. So it was me, my mom, and my sister, and I knew that the next big project I was gonna do was conceive this healthy, Organic baby who I was, like, preparing for-
Michelle Oravitz: baby.
Dr. Shivani Gupta: like, I, I was really, I had an organic cotton children's clothing company at the time, and so I was going to all the conferences, and we were still at the beginning of those stages of BPA-free bottles [00:15:00] and non-toxic baby lifestyle, which we have so much more of that now.
She's 16 this year. So 17, 18 years ago, it was a different ballgame of what was accessible. And I created an organic cotton children's clothing company that was a very luxury product line back then. And it was just so fun to be in that space and learn about it pre having kids. So then I was, I was acutely more aware of all the different issues that happen in children, 'cause I was studying Ayurveda, and so many people would come to me and say, "My kid just had this injury from, you know, from different medications or different things that they were taking."
Kids were always having chronic health issues. All my husband's friends, my husband's seven years older, so all of his friends, I could see the kids all had allergies, eczema, um, ADHD, different issues. And I thought, "Hmm, if this is what's coming for me, I need to show up to really create this healthiest baby possible."
And so when I did Panchakarma and Ayurveda, it's basically a really big [00:16:00] detox, and the philosophy is if the body shows up healthy and your tissues are healthy and you are so vibrant and everything is coherent, which is a word you like to use around being healthy, and I love that word, and we're aligned, then what we're gonna have is a very healthy pregnancy.
The body will bounce back well and all of those things. And so I've always been a big fan of let's detox and prepare, let's nourish and get the body's tissues and everything so healthy. Let's show up like we are going to a marathon, like that strong and healthy, and then we embark on the project. And so that's how I showed up to conception of Anya, my-- I call her Anya Rani, Anya the Queen.
And then later when it came to this phase, like right now I'm in perimenopause at 45. So now that I'm in this transition, I'm like, it's the same work. Whether I show up vibrant and healthy and robust to go through the transition into motherhood, or I show up vibrant, healthy, and [00:17:00] robust so I can keep brain energy and body energy online in this moment.
In, in Ayurveda, that's the exact same work we do for vibrancy. Fertility is just a vibrant body, is how we look at it. So, so Yeah.
that's, it, it's been quite a journey of understanding how to build the most healthy, fertile body for the two kids I had, but then also to keep that level of ojas strength and vitality later on for the later years as well.
Michelle Oravitz: Yeah, and it really does make a difference. And you do have a glow, so you, you look younger than your age. We talked about that. You really do. Like, it... And I think that that's what it is. You're literally preserving. Like, the number means nothing. Like, I just like, you know, yeah, there's like a range and all of that stuff.
You could also bring back your biological age. You could bring it back. You can actually, like, make yourself younger. And, um, there's so many [00:18:00] things that you can do. That's the empowering aspect of it, which I love. Um, let's talk about doshas. What are doshas and, and how, why is it important for people to understand their own dosha?
Dr. Shivani Gupta: For sure. I mean, this is a, one of the most central concepts in Ayurveda. We teach that each and every one of us has our own individual mind-body type, and that type is unique to you. It was decided at birth. We call that your prakruti, like the way you were born, which is your template, your blueprint for life.
And the doshas are based on the five elements of nature, so air, ether, fire, water, and earth. And I know in Chinese medicine you have your own five elements, and so it's beautiful that both sciences understand that the elements are the key and have different languaging around how to support people in that way.
And so I took the doshas and thought, "Okay, I'm gonna teach you guys agni, ama, ojas," like [00:19:00] there's 500 Sanskrit words and they have such profound meanings. Can I simplify any? So I renamed dosha's elemental design, and so your elemental design is your makeup of those elements in the proportion that you are.
And so there's three body types, vata, pitta, and kapha. Here in the West, we pronounce them vata, pitta, and kapha. And vata is air and ether. So a vata person is gonna have this tendency physically to be taller and shorter than anyone in their demographic. So think tall and lanky, think small and petite.
This kind of person is made up of the elements of air, so it could be a beautiful breeze that's just always in motion in a beautiful way, or could be something like a tornado if really out of balance. And so keeping that in mind, it could also be a ceiling fan, could be something that's in motion constantly and consistently, but never knows how to stop.
And so when you take that understanding of air, ether, and you move it into [00:20:00] the person, what that means is someone who's always in motion. Their energy's always in motion. Every movement in the body is guided by this vata energy. And so this is someone who probably can't take a job where they have to sit still.
Typically, it's your endurance athlete, your marathon runner. This is someone who has a tendency towards constipation 'cause of dryness in their system, tendency towards anxiety, tendency towards insomnia, poor, disturbed, light sleep. This is someone who can usually go all day long surviving on like coffee, a green juice, some celery, and then they get to dinner and they're
Michelle Oravitz: Which is like the worst thing for vata, 'cause the greens make it colder. Like, it's like, uh... They always eat salads. It's really the raw,
Dr. Shivani Gupta: They're like, "Let me eat raw, cold. everything. Let me never ground my energy, never do warm or heating." So it's funny how our tendencies can be so exacerbating and throw us further out of
Michelle Oravitz: Like the pitta with the fire, they [00:21:00] love spicy. Like...
Dr. Shivani Gupta: Yep.
I know. I'm, I'm addicted to chilies. It's, it's rid- ridiculous kind of how we do the thing that imbalances us most and don't catch it.
And so the homework for that Vata crew is let's eat food, people. Let's eat three times a day. I know you like to be those big intermittent fasters. Let's just try our Ayurveda way for once, and you get to see how you feel. And so I bring a lot of healthy fat, those fall foods you mentioned. So seasonality is such an important piece of understanding your constitution, when your season's gonna be the most exacerbated or out of balance, and really digging in more in that season to balance yourself.
So fall season is when Vata gets out of balance. And what does the universe give us? Fall foods, squash, nutmeg, cinnamon, like the most herbing, the most grounding spices and herbs and drinks and lattes, pumpkin, all happens in the season when you need it most. And so it's really about tuning in and awareness so that you do [00:22:00] those things that make you feel the most nourished.
Then you have Pitta. Pitta people are all fire. It's fire with some water. And so what that means is you could be a beautiful, healthy campfire that processes, digests, and assimilates, or you could be like a forest fire or a volcano that erupts. And so when you take that analogy and start to understand the Pitta person, this is someone who's medium-bodied, tendency towards reddish hair, gray hair.
I mean, reddish skin, reddish hair, or graying, early graying hair. This is someone who's usually of a muscular build. They like to move. They like to lift. They're always trying to... Their personality is very much the leader. They're organized, sharp, perceptive. Um, they love to speak and teach. They're usually the ones who are very passionate and ambitious.
And a pitta person when out of balance is kind of like that volcano that explodes. They burn out, explode. People closest to them are [00:23:00] collateral damage. They're frustrated, they're angry, they get bitter. And so pitta people, I teach them, treat yourself like a nuclear reactor. Stay calm, stay cool. Pittas love hot, oily, spicy food.
They tend to love fried food. They tend to run inflamed. So when I talk about inflammation, it's usually this like pitta person or pitta imbalance where we're inflamed and there's heartburn and inflammation going on in the system. And the homework is those cool, calming foods. So summer season is when pittas get most out of balance, and everything nature gives us in summertime is usually cooling and calming.
It's part of why I teach time as me time. I am a pitta, and so I need a couple reminders in my day, calm down. What are we doing to stay dis- what are we doing to stay cool, calm, and collected instead of just being on a racetrack and trying to go 200 miles an hour and never stopping on that track? And then finally, the third body type is called kapha, [00:24:00] and a kapha person is Earth. and water.
So this is someone who's so earthy and grounded. This is someone who is bigger boned, stronger, round face, round eyes, oily curly hair, oilier skin. This is someone who is able to lift heavier. Like they're just a stronger constitution. It could feel like a very mountain energy in someone or a very caretaker loving energy, grandma energy that feeds and loves everyone.
It's that friend who, who's in the group who is always worried about everyone else and not themselves, who, who just wants to care for everybody. And so kapha people can struggle with a sluggish metabolism, struggle with depression or feeling low, being really resistant to change. Kapha people get the most, most phenomenal sleep.
They get this like deep slumber. Kaphas can sleep for eight to 10 hours and have a really hard time waking up in the morning. And once they finish their day and they sit down [00:25:00] If that's where the day ends, you typically cannot get the kapha off the couch. And it's about a kapha person understanding, this is my nature.
Just 'cause modern life says we need side hustles and weekend hustles and 18 hustles, doesn't mean that that's everyone's type. And so, so much of what I teach my kapha clients is honoring thyself, know your nature. And so homework for kapha is exercise and move in the morning to get your energy up and moving, and then also eating warm, cooked foods, not the raw, cold foods, avoiding dairy 'cause it can cause that congestion, that water element in the system.
And so once you understand your body constitution, each of us is made up of all three. Usually we have a primary and a secondary. Some of us are tridoshic or balanced in all three. But starting to understand your primary and secondary is so powerful because then you can start really understanding how to shift your lifestyle habits and calibrating into what we call the most sattvic [00:26:00] aspect of your constitution.
So, for example, I'm a pitta-kapha, and in pitta, I have a big tendency to, to go so far so fast and burn myself out completely. And so I-- my lesson in life is how to, like, not do that. Sometimes I still do it. And then kapha, it's like what is the sattvic aspect of it? The, the most beautiful, pure aspect of that constitution is just wanting to love and serve and take care of everybody.
And so staying in that balanced version of those two constitutions allows you to stay healthy and vibrant and supported and feel aligned. And then if we drop down into kind of the heavier aspects or the, the more challenging aspects of those, then we might not feel like our best self. So there's a lot there, but that's kind of like a highlight of the constitutions.
Michelle Oravitz: Yeah, it's definitely so fascinating, and it's really funny 'cause I'm like, I, I think I'm all three. I mean, I know that, um, I used to be more [00:27:00] vata kapha. Mm-hmm. I feel more fire. Maybe it's just over time, but it's interesting how you can ebb and flow throughout your life.
Dr. Shivani Gupta: Yeah.
You can, and you can have different, um, life events that happen. When I had kids, that really slowed down my life and I became more kapha. If you're ever in a caretaker mode, you become more kapha. And so It's just interesting, you're right, that how we ebb and flow through those transition points and then want to come back to what feels like home in our bodies.
And so I have that quiz, the Elemental Design quiz, on my website at drshivani.com. And when people take it, sometimes they email me back and they're like, "How did you know that about me? How did you know I, like, love all those things and love those foods?" I'm like, "This is 5,000-year-old
Michelle Oravitz: so amazing. It never goes out of style.
Dr. Shivani Gupta: Yeah. It's never-- It's always there for us in such a beautiful way.
Michelle Oravitz: Yeah, it's wild because, you know, you look at like modern science and things, um, things are discovered and then like a couple years later they're like, [00:28:00] "Oh, well, they're debunked." They're like something else. It d- it doesn't really work like we thought. But Ayurveda and Chinese, they, they've been around and they still work, and the reason is, is because their anchor is nature.
Dr. Shivani Gupta: Right, right. You can't go wrong.
Michelle Oravitz: Really wild. Amazing. And so let's, uh, talk a little bit about turmeric because you've done a lot of research around turmeric and, um, so there's the curcumin, which is in, it, it's in turmeric and in some, some supplements have turmeric and some, I guess, extract the curcumin. Can you break it down like what, what it is, what it does,
Dr. Shivani Gupta: For
Michelle Oravitz: what are some of the issues that supplement companies have when it comes to absorption?
Dr. Shivani Gupta: Absolutely. So I was doing my master's in Ayurvedic sciences, and I was in this herbology class, and the professor started explaining the benefits [00:29:00] of all the super spices, ashwagandha, brahmi, shatavari, uh, cinnamon, cumin, coriander. I mean, we have this treasure chest of herbs in Ayurveda, and I know in Chinese medicine as well, ginger.
I mean, ginger's a powerhouse. We should all be consuming ginger in some form most of the year. Not every day, but most of the year. It's, it's so beneficial. Maybe not in your hottest season, but it's just so beautiful. So when I learned about turmeric, I thought, you know, I grew up watching my entire family suffer with diabetes, watching the last 20 years of everyone's life spent in and out of hospitals trying to save their lives.
Why is it that as a society we aren't using turmeric so much earlier in the game as a preventive? Because turmeric is a powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory. It's one of the most potent natural inflam- anti-inflammatories we have. It's antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and it functions like this [00:30:00] ultimate janitor.
It goes into our body and cleans house on everything that doesn't belong there. Zombie cells, malignant cells, senescent cells, all the things causing oxidation in the first place. It gets rid of the bad bacteria causing dysbiosis in our gut. But then it also does the good side. It's healing our gut from leaky gut.
It's making sure it leaves all the good stuff in place. It supports when we're having insulin sensitivity, it supports those pathways to support us. We have less insulin resistance, and the body's functioning better. Inflammation also means when we're holding onto excess weight in the body, that excess weight causes more inflammation.
It puts us in a catch-22 cycle, and turmeric goes in there and heals with that as well. So there's so much to it in terms of the benefits of turmeric. I truly believe we should all be taking turmeric almost every day. We're supposed to cycle with turmeric as well. It is a warming spice, but it's so potent in healing as a natural tool.[00:31:00]
What most people don't know is out of the entire turmeric plant, only 3% to 5% of it is the curcuminoids, and we know the curcuminoids are the most effective part at helping us reduce inflammation. And so most people tell me, "I'm juicing my turmeric. I buy it fresh." And I'm like, "That is great. If you have no big health issues, go for it."
It's very warming in that form. For me, it burns. I can't take turmeric ginger shots. It hurts too much. But it is gonna give you the natural benefits. We know raw forms of most plants is beneficial. But in ancient Ayurveda, we always took the raw plant and dried it into the spice. And so when you take that dry spice of turmeric, that's your kitchen culinary turmeric, every Indian household uses it.
India is the largest consumer of turmeric as a powder. We use it in our cooking, and it is beneficial. As Indians, we're using it in everything. It's going in every lentil, every bean, every dish. So we have this cumulative effect of using it, and we're also using it with [00:32:00] black pepper or a healthy fat, which increases the absorption.
So black pepper increases that absorption 2,000%. The healthy fat is gonna help it go into the body and cross the blood-brain barrier, so that has its own benefits. But still, kitchen turmeric, the culinary spice sprinkled on your chicken, is not enough to give you enough of that 3% to 5% to really make a difference.
And we kicked off talking about how all of modern-day life is really inflammatory. So if we wanna meet life where it is in terms of the toxin burden and the things and the foods that are affecting us, we need, in my opinion, an equal and opposing force to reduce at least that inflammation as we're gonna do all our good habits to win at inflammation as well.
And so that's where that extract matters. Now, when it comes to supplementation, there's a lot of variation of quality in the supplement world. You can buy a $10 supplement, a $20 supplement- $300 supplement. There's quite a range. [00:33:00] And so there's a group of supplements built for integrative practitioners and functional medicine doctors, and that world is full of very potent supplements, and that's where I play.
So once I finished my PhD, everyone was like, "Well, if you're gonna tell us all to take turmeric all day, you should make your own." And I thought, "You guys are nuts. That's insane." But I found this incredible factory, this incredible team, and I said, "Look, I would be interested in making my own turmeric, but only if it was better than anything else on the market, and we could turn around and go to every doctor's office and tell them, 'Look, every time you tell someone they have pain or chronic joint pain or any of these issues, I want every doctor to say you can take turmeric with that.'"
Because I was a patient, and when I would go in, they'd say, "You can take NSAIDs 24/7 for 10 days, and you'll be healed." And what I learned was you didn't heal me. You just got rid of my pain For that time period, and I had stomach aches after. And so my formula that I built, I built two formulations. One is [00:34:00] a pure Ayurvedic formula, and one follows the modern science.
That combo was put into hundreds and hundreds of doctors' offices, and they all said, "This is incredible. Like, I cannot believe what my patients are telling me. This is nuts, but this is great." So that's been what I've been doing for 11 years now, is sharing the power of turmeric. And then now I share it online 'cause everyone's like, "Well, I want the turmeric too.
Why is it only in doctor's offices?"
Michelle Oravitz: Amazing. Um, as far as fertility goes, I mean, there can be a lot of benefits. Um, the one thing that I have heard is, uh, prior to IVF or transfers and a high dose, it can thin the uterine lining.
Dr. Shivani Gupta: Yes,
yes. Be careful. When we're talk... Yeah. When we're talking about IVF, we do Have to think about turmeric as it's a very direct and strong turmeric. Yeah. Yeah. It's a very powerful herb. So I think of it more as if [00:35:00] we're talking about endometriosis, PCOS, recurrent in, you know, implantation failures, we know inflammation can be pa- playing a role.
We know it's a core mechanism in why we struggle in some of those issues, and we know that? curcumin's gonna inhibit NF-kappaB, COX-2. It's gonna reduce, you know, so many of the inflammatory factors. It really impacts over 30 different inflammatory factors, and so it can really play a role there. So with endometriosis specifically, we have a lot of scientific studies, PCOS, implantation as well.
We know that if we are anti-inflammatory beforehand, it can really support us. But I do agree with you. When we're in the phase, we should come off of curcumin. Curcumin is a vasodilator. It will thin the blood, and we don't wanna have it playing a role in that moment when we're, we're really in the, the fire of it all.
Michelle Oravitz: Yes. So important. And, um, I really want people to hear this because [00:36:00] just because it is something that we would wanna avoid around the time doesn't mean it should be something that we totally cancel out because it has tremendous benefits and actually can really make this, um, improve chances of, of success.
Now, um, this is the same for any herb. It's the same for any kind of medication. It's important to balance it out, and this is why it's so important to work with people because... that know what they're doing, practitioners, because, um, there are different phases that we go through life and there's different preparation phases we should be considering, and also some things that are good for one phase are not good for another.
So that's why any kind of herbal supplement, all of these things, um, people like you and I, we learn about how to use them, which is why, again, it's so important to really understand because it has a time and a season [00:37:00] just like anything.
Dr. Shivani Gupta: Right. And that's the thing is so many of us are taking supplements, and when we go to a practitioner, we might pick up the first protocol. Then we go to the next practitioner, we pick up another one, another one. Yeah. And what I, what I'm seeing is a lot of doctors will call me and they're like, "This patient's taking 28 supplements.
There's no way this is okay for them. What do I do? I wanna take them off of everything." And I always say, "No, there's, there's different categories here." We have our foundational stack of what we need to be taking based on our blood work, basing-- based on modern-day life not giving us the micronutrients and minerals we need.
You can't take away people's foundation stacks just 'cause they're on too many things. But I think it is worth looking at what season are you in and what else do you need? Is it your longevity stack you need to take a pause on? Is it a treatment stack that needs to shift based on the phase of treatment?
So what you're talking about is when someone's really in that moment of pursuing IVF, it might be six [00:38:00] weeks, eight weeks, we need to come off of turmeric, wait, and then bring it back in based on where we're at. And so really that phasing of supplementation does need to be done with a practitioner, so the practitioner can guide that care and not have us just continually take everything we've ever taken forever.
Michelle Oravitz: Yeah, for sure. as far as the book, "The Inflammation Code," what are some of the tools that you take the reader through in order to help?
You had mentioned, um, a little bit of an overview in the beginning, but anything that you, uh... Because I'm sure that as you wrote the book, you did a lot of research and you probably learned a lot, 'cause I know that writing a book, the whole process of it, you're learning so much as you're writing. You have an idea of what you wanna talk about, but then you do research and so many things come up, and some of the things are really fascinating.
Was there anything that specifically for you surprised you as you were writing?
Dr. Shivani Gupta: You know, circadian [00:39:00] rhythm is an idea that came from Ayurveda, and in this modern day moment, we're really talking about circadian clock and how we should live on our circadian clock in a very surface level way. So right now we're talking about blue light, and blue light's bad, and don't have blue light on after 8:00 or 9:00 PM, and blue light blocking glasses, and blue light blocking screens, and it, it's just interesting to watch the, the modern, very reductionist approach to doing things.
But when I, I dove into the science, it talked about really what I see as in the future being circadian medicine that will be practiced across all of Western medicine, and at some beautiful wisdom level, it's already being practiced and has always been practiced in the ancient wisdoms. So it was interesting to see how much science is already being found on all of our cells have circadian clock genes in them.
And if the body [00:40:00] understands timing that well, no wonder as he- as human beings, we're meant to live on our circadian clock, and when we defy it, we're kind of eroding our health. And ancient Ayurveda said we must sleep from 10:00 to 2:00 on that circadian clock during that pitta time of day. That's a time window.
And it taught that these fires and this body really clears out the lymphatic system and the inflammation at that time. And I was taught that. I already, I already knew that, and I live by it. I don't sleep at 10:00 all the time, but maybe 10:30 is my latest. But the fact that we have these circadian genes that are kind of begging for us to understand How much living in nature's rhythm is the most important thing.
And we think in modern day life, I don't have time. I've gotta do 100 things 'cause I've gotta finish by 9:00, and I ebb and flow with that. So last year when I was in book launch mode, I [00:41:00] broke that tenet all day. I worked till 10:00 o'clock, then I'd run to take a shower and try to sleep. My sleep quality was all over the place, and I definitely burnt out after that experience.
Oh Yeah.
I could feel the difference.
'cause every morning I'd wake up tired. And now I'm back to honoring everything in my book. I'm just living according to exactly what I teach, and my body wakes up happy, lighter, joyful, less aches and pains. My mind is clear. I'm, I'm just so much more pure in my heart and mind because I'm in this alignment.
And it's such a testament to modern science is gonna call it circadian genes and the clock genes and, and call it so many scientific names. But Ayurveda said alignment comes from living in rhythm with nature. The more you can do it, the better you'll feel. So the more I do my circadian walks, is what I call it, but my morning walk, my evening walk, my midday walk, the [00:42:00] more I put myself in nature and let it heal all things, the better I feel.
So, so I love both, both ways of saying it
Sometimes we need the scientific way to kind of ground into ourselves the why, but then once we put it into the practice, we get to feel not just the physical benefits, the mental, the emotional, the spiritual, the, the things that you and I as ancient wisdom practitioners want for people, but it kind of takes them going deeper and deeper into the more subtle for them to realize the power of that coherence and alignment.
Michelle Oravitz: I love that. That is so great. So for people listening and fascinated and wanna learn more about you and about your supplements and about your book, how can they find you?
Dr. Shivani Gupta: For sure. So my website is my name, drshivani.com, S-H-I-V-A-N-I. I'm on Instagram as [00:43:00] @dr.shivanigupta, so I love playing on Instagram if you?
wanna come DM me and hang out. And on my website, you'll find links to "The Inflammation Code," my book. My podcast is called "The Inflammation Code" as well. And then my supplements and Ayurvedic formulas are at fusionaryformulas.com, and we made a special code, wholesomefertility.
We'll give everyone 15% off.
Michelle Oravitz: Oh, amazing. And I'll have all of this information in the episode notes if you guys wanna find it. Um, Dr. Shivani, I really enjoy talking to you. I enjoyed it last time. I enjoy it this time. Every time I see you, it's always a blast. And, um, for sure we have to get together 'cause we are neighbors. And thank you so much for coming on.
This was such a great episode.
Dr. Shivani Gupta: Awesome. Thank you for having me
[00:44:00]