Ayurveda For the Fifty Plus

Who doesn’t want to remain looking and feeling young and vibrant as they grow older? Yet over the years, stress, environmental toxins, unsuitable foods and unbalanced lifestyle habits take their toll on your body.

Ayurveda, the world’s oldest system of natural medicine, offers a host of strategies for gaining better health and reversing the effects of ageing.

Each of us has a body-type dominated by one or more of these Doshas:

• Vata governs movement and circulation
• Pitta governs metabolism, digestion and energy production
• Kapha governs strength and bodily structures.

Different times of life are also associated with each of the Doshas:

• Our early, growing years are said to be a Kapha time of life when our body structures are being developed, and the ailments of childhood tend to be Kapha-related.
• Next comes the Pitta phase of life, from around 20 to somewhat beyond 50, where we build businesses, raise families, and generally rush around setting the world to rights.
• The age of 50 to 60 onwards is governed by Vata.

Tips to maintain your health after 50

• Maintain a regular daily routine.
• Get plenty of rest – bed by 10pm, and practise Transcendental Meditation a few minutes each day.
• Take Ayurvedic Rasayanas – strengthening herbal and mineral preparations – particularly Amrit Kalash.
• Enjoy a daily sesame oil massage.
• Exercise regularly to 50% capacity. Don’t strain!
• Have the main meal of the day at lunchtime, and eat mainly cooked foods rather than salads.
• Include Vata-pacifying foods such as carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, and Vata-pacifying spices such as turmeric, cumin, fenugreek, and asafoetida.
• Keep doshas in balance: From the age of 50 onwards, ailments are often Vata-related. Keeping Vata in balance can play a big role in maintaining health, happiness and energy.
• Stay warm: Vata has certain qualities – cold, rough, dry, irregular – which are balanced by opposite qualities. To help balance Vata, stay warm, avoid raw and dry meals, keep a regular routine and don’t over-do things.
• Maintain a regular routine: “Maintain a regular daily routine. Don’t rush around – use your insights and experience to guide others and delegate!”
• Keep your memory sharp: Memory loss is linked with a Vata sub-Dosha and results from too much strain in life. So avoid straining to help keep a sharp memory.
• Daily exercise: Exercise regularly, but just to 50 per cent of your capacity. A brisk walk every day would be fine.”
• Avoiding Osteoporosis: Bones are linked with Vata,“Keeping Vata settled helps keep bones strong.”
• Take Ayurvedic preparations: Ayurvedic herbal and mineral preparations, known as Rasayanas, are also recommended for nourishing bones, tissues, and keeping Doshas in balance.
• Rest is the best medicine: Vata is associated with movement and is best balanced by stillness.
• Get to bed early:Being in bed by 10 pm promotes good health. In addition, regular practice of meditation intensifies rest and promotes rejuvenation.
• Get deep physical rest:Transcendental Meditation (TM), a simple and easy-to-learn mental technique derived from the Vedic tradition by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. TM, practised sitting comfortably in a chair, gives deep physical rest and mental alertness, and has been found to produce effects counter to many of those involved in the ageing process.
• Having the time of your life:“With proper attention to balancing Vata, the 50-plus phase should be the best time of our lives.“It’s a more spiritual, mellow, happy, intuitive, compassionate phase of life. And if we remain in balance, we don’t age in the sense of deteriorating so much as we mature, and retain our vitality.”