As we discovered in The Fire of Life, agni is the basis of health, disease, and bliss. Imbalanced agni results in a system-wide neurohormonal imbalance that affects every cell of every organ system. As we have seen earlier, hormones are chemical substances that are released in response to the body’s need for balance, or equilibrium. And equilibrium is a moment-to-moment assessment based on what we are thinking, feeling, and doing, which through the neurohormonal superhighways results in a cascade of effects. Hormones are released in response to our physical, emotional, and mental states, leading to subsequent chemical and neurological reactions that attempt to bring us back to equilibrium.
An imbalance in agni leads to several kinds of responses in the neurohormonal system. If the fire is fanned in an irregular fashion because of a vata imbalance, equilibrium is never steady. Balance and imbalance alternate rapidly, causing the nadis (energy channels) to dry up. Supporting and nourishing hormones become depleted, affecting the whole body and giving rise to a general sense of unrest, nonspecific aches and pains, and irregular bowel movements and sleep. If the fire takes over the system, it burns everything in its path, and the nadis (channels) begin to singe and shut down. Stress hormones become overactive and dominate over the supporting hormones, leading to chronic irritability, anger, heartburn and inability to look at situations in a calm manner. If the fire remains feeble, the neurohormonal system becomes underactive. The quality of the supporting hormones is tarnished by an underactive agni, leading to laziness, weight gain, improper digestion and loss of motivation. If unchecked, any of the imbalances lead to full-blown diseases and take us further and further away from bliss.28
Regardless of what your imbalance is, we always begin with balancing vata. This is because vata is always the first principle to go out of balance and is the easiest to correct. Recall that vata is the principle of movement. Life is defined by movement, as we can see down to the microscopic level. Constant movement is required for the functioning of prana, which determines the function of electrical impulses traveling down nerve cells, the release of hormones and chemicals from the cells, interaction of various chemicals within the cell, taking in of nutrients and oxygen and giving out of waste and carbon dioxide, the arising and subsiding of thoughts and emotions, the beating of the heart, and the constant change that defines our lives. In short, everything that we associate with life is constantly in motion and is facilitated by vata, the king dosha.
Most often, simply bringing vata back into balance resolves most or all health ailments. For this reason, my Bliss Rx for balancing agni leans heavily toward first bringing vata into balance. Once this is achieved, the specific issues of agni being overactive (due to pitta imbalance) or underactive (due to kapha imbalance) can be worked out much more easily.
Since vata is about dynamism, the prescription for returning it to balance is simple, which is to maintain regularity in our daily schedules.
The Need for Regularity
Notice how nature maintains a regular schedule. Plants and animals have very regimented routines from day to day and from season to season. They have an inherent sense of timing, whether it has to do with feeding, eliminating, flowering, maturing, or mating. When seasons change they adjust their routines accordingly, shedding or hibernating according to their particular needs.
One of the advantages of being human is that we can choose to act and think independently. We are not compelled by nature’s rhythms and can defy them to create our own cycles of feeding, eliminating, and mating. Although this is of great advantage when it comes to living our lives in our chosen ways and contributes to the evolution of the human race, our hormones that remain attuned to our rhythms take a beating. When we eat and sleep at irregular times, the body compensates for a while before its stores of prana are gradually depleted. Stress hormones begin to predominate, remaining on guard for when they may be called into action. You may choose to have a meal at midnight, when the digestive system is naturally inclined to rest, which then calls out to the neurohormonal system to bail it out. Irregular routines are like building a campfire where there are gusts of wind; agni becomes irregular, leading to the haphazard release of hormones.
Such a situation is easily managed by the system for a while, considering how intelligent it is. The stores of prana, tejas, and ojas we have built up earlier come to our aid and enable us to breeze through them. Chronic irregularities dip into the stores and as they become depleted, we start to notice their effects. Consider how well you managed in college by surviving on coffee and a few hours of sleep. If you continued that lifestyle over years, you notice that it doesn’t work as well anymore. You may attribute it to aging but can’t explain the aches and pains you have all over the body, your erratic bowel movements, sleep problems, and, if you are a woman, the symptoms of bloating, pain, and irritability before periods or the disabling symptoms of menopause.
Take the example of Judy, a fifty-five-year-old woman who came to see me for a second opinion about her long list of symptoms. She had seen two other cardiologists, who had performed extensive testing and dismissed her as having no “real” health issues. She had chronic shortness of breath, trouble sleeping at night, frequent hot flashes even though she had gone through menopause nearly eight years prior, and chronic constipation. She had been gaining weight steadily over the years, with nearly fifty pounds in the last two. She was in tears as she told me that she knew it was not heart disease but was frustrated that nobody had found an answer to why she felt so miserable.
She was taking several supplements, including some Ayurvedic ones, and felt that none of them were working. I reviewed her history and all the testing she had gone through, concluding that the previous cardiologists had been right: she had no signs of heart disease. However, she had all the signs of an imbalanced agni. She ate three meals one day and fasted the next. She went to bed at 9 p.m. on some days and at 2 a.m. on others. She was unmotivated and lacked energy. I asked her if she was willing to try my recommendations, and she eagerly agreed. I asked her to stop all the supplements and follow a regimented routine, along with dietary modifications as in the next chapter. Giving her printed instructions, I asked her to return in two months.
When Judy came back, she appeared more well-rested. She had lost a few pounds, was sleeping better, and her constipation had resolved. She stated that although her energy had improved, she was still quite fatigued. Her agni was improving. I reassured her that lifestyle changes take time, then made a few more recommendations and asked her to return in a few months. When she came back some months later, she stated that she had fallen “off course” due to her husband’s health problems that landed him in the hospital. She was back to her irregular habits, but she stated that this time she could see the difference between how she felt when she followed the program versus when she didn’t. Only in retrospect did she realize how much better she had felt when she followed a regular routine.
As her agni came into balance, she began to have the ability to see the root cause of her health problems—her chronic anxiety and stress. She told me how she had been chronically stressed and worried about everything from her own health to that of her family, imagined future outcomes, and past events that no longer had meaning. She told me that until she got into a regular routine, she didn’t even realize her stress or what had caused it!
Judy’s story is typical. Until agni is balanced, we are often oblivious to the stressful ways in which we think and live. Tamas shrouds our ability to see our own disabling patterns. I often tell my patients that a regular routine is like having the culture of mandatory uniforms in high school. Wearing the same thing to school every day eliminates the stress and distraction of finding the “right thing” to wear at an age when appearance is crucial. Similarly, doing things at the same time every day creates the perfect milieu for the body to stop the erratic flow of hormones and allow them to settle down into a predictable pattern. Once this happens, the whole system breathes a sigh of relief and can turn to other housekeeping items, such as figuring out the source of stress and eliminating it. If the system is always on guard to put out fires, it can’t figure out where the fire is coming from!
The principle of maintaining regularity is based upon our internal clocks, which are remarkably accurate.
The Highly Accurate Internal Clock
If you’ve ever traveled across time zones, you’ve experienced the effects of jet lag on your body, including your energy level, digestion, sleep cycles, and a general feeling of disruption. You may also recall that it took several days to return to normal, depending upon how many time zones you crossed. Jet lag is one of the most obvious signs of our surprisingly accurate biological clocks, which are responsible for the balance between tissue building and breakdown that occur in cycles perfectly synchronized with light. We now know the workings of these clocks due to the highly active scientific field of chronobiology.
Remember the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that coordinates hormonal, immune, and autonomic nervous systems of the body? In this hard-working part of the brain there is a group of nerve cells called suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), which is the master clock of the body. The SCN is entrained by several external cues known as zeitgebers (German: zeit= time, geber=keeper) to synchronize with the earth’s twenty-four-hour cycle. The strongest zeitgeber is light, others being eating, sleeping, social interactions, seasons, and temperature. However, the SCN works even without the influence of zeitgebers. This means that your SCN nerve cells would continue to fire precisely and efficiently in approximately twenty-four-hour cycles for weeks, months, or years even if you stayed in complete darkness with no external cues!
Not only is the SCN an integral part of human physiology, it has evolved across various species including plants, fungi, and animals. Proteins known as cryptochromes are found in plants and in the eyes of humans and animals. These proteins are activated by light and send a signal to the SCN, which begins orchestrating the various neurohormonal pathways. For instance, the electrical impulse from light at dawn signals the SCN to “switch off” melatonin secretion from the pineal gland and “switch on” cortisol from the adrenals. Melatonin is the “sleepy” hormone that induces sleep, while cortisol gets the body ready for the day.
By isolating day and night within the body’s systems, we can isolate the building (anabolic) and expending (catabolic) functions of the body, which is like separating the gas and brake pedals in a car. If we press both pedals at the same time, we wouldn’t get too far. As we go about engaging with the world during the day and withdrawing from it at night, our two diametrically opposing forms of metabolism are kept separate by our internal clocks. Anabolic functions of tissue building and repair occur best at night, while catabolic functions of expending energy happen during the day.
These switches occur seamlessly from day to night by the rise and fall of the different hormones that are responsible for cell growth, heart rate and blood pressure changes, activation of the heart and vascular system, kidney and digestive functions, tissue metabolism, and release of cellular waste products. We now know that all body functions are subject to the circadian rhythm and considering the prevalence of the circadian rhythm in the plant and animal kingdom, we see that it is an evolutionary benefit—it gives us the opportunity to take advantage of the day and night for optimal functioning of our systems.
The Clock Mechanism
The SCN controls hormonal cycles and metabolic rhythms in two ways. Through its connection with the brain center that controls sleep and wakefulness, it determines the time you go to sleep, how long you sleep, and when you wake up. It also controls the secretion of nocturnal hormones such as prolactin and growth hormone that are anabolic in their actions. Independent of sleep, the SCN clock connects to the hormonal and autonomic nervous systems, which maintain functions like body temperature. This is how your body temperature rises and falls even when you are jet lagged and sleep deprived. If your body temperature depended entirely upon sleep, you wouldn’t be able to travel!
The SCN isn’t the only center in the body that maintains a twenty-four-hour clock in the body. All major organ systems including the liver, heart, kidneys, and skeletal muscles have clock mechanisms known as “oscillators.” Upon detecting the first exposure to light, the SCN sends signals to these oscillators that then become synchronized to the circadian rhythm and to each other, maintaining functions such as hunger, wakefulness, respiration, and digestion. The SCN not only synchronizes our lifestyle, habits, hormonal, and autonomic systems to day-and-night cycles but also influences the tissue clocks. In turn, the tissue clocks drive cyclical gene expression of metabolism and physiology, detoxification and tissue building.
Recall that genes carry information for the body to encode all the proteins required for the functioning of the body. Clock cells have been found to act via two gene families known as period and cryptochrome. At the beginning of the day cycle, the clock cell nuclei begin the process of encoding these two genes where their RNAs begin to accumulate within the cell (recall that RNA is the intermediary between DNA and protein).29 RNAs enable the creation of the proteins that rise slowly in the cell throughout the day. By the end of the day, the protein level peaks in the cell, sending a signal for a fall in the RNA levels. This starts the night cycle. This loop is supported by the beginning and ending of activation of hundreds of other SCN genes that control several neuronal functions. A rare disorder of one of the SCN genes is known to cause a sleep disorder, and damage to the SCN can cause heart rhythm and other disorders.
Our bodies function at their best when all our organ systems follow circadian cycles in rhythm with each other and with the sun and the seasons. Knowing how our bodies follow the day-and-night cycles helps us understand the surge of certain diseases during specific times of the day or during particular seasons. For instance, the internal clock kicks up cardiovascular activity upon waking up, preparing us for the day. Heart attacks and strokes are more common early in the day, when the clock causes a rise in cortisol and other hormones that increase heart rate and blood pressure. Poor sleep hygiene (staying up late; consuming alcohol, caffeine, or large meals; using electronics and other stimulating media before bed) is known to have an impact on cellular metabolism and mental health, including insulin resistance, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a predisposition toward cardiovascular disease.
Shift Work
Shift work is common and required in many industries due to the need for twenty-four-hour coverage of duties. Many studies have shown the detrimental effects of shift work, raising important questions about the practice on workers’ health. In one recent study, researchers used simulated laboratory conditions to mimic shift work in volunteers where their sleep-wake cycles were moved by twelve hours every three days (which is quite a common routine among shift workers), finding that this misalignment caused several alarming cardiovascular changes.30 Even after they accounted for the participants’ risk factors, a disruption in circadian rhythm led to increased blood pressure, decreased heart rate variability, and increased inflammatory markers in the blood. What is astounding about this study is that these changes occurred over a very short period of time—the entire study took place over two eight-day intervals. Other studies have shown similar findings; as a result, shift work is considered a hidden risk factor for heart disease. Jerry was a striking example of the effects of shift working on the heart.
He had been working night shifts as a security guard for twenty years when he came to see me for high blood pressure. Even after two decades of the “upside down” routine, as he called it, his body-mind wasn’t accustomed to it. He was tired all the time, and his blood pressure was creeping up over the years. We had a long discussion about his routine. Realizing that it was contributing to his deteriorating health, Jerry said he would think about finding another job. I gave him a prescription for a blood pressure–lowering medicine. A year later he found another job with regular working hours, and almost overnight his outlook toward life changed. Gradually his blood pressure went down, and eventually I took him off his medicine. He is a changed man with abundant energy and positivity, traits that were uncovered when his circadian rhythm normalized.
Shift workers have been shown to have a higher risk for other serious concerns, such as cancer, but these risks are not entirely related to lack of sleep. Even if you get enough sleep, the misalignment with your internal clock is enough to cause serious health concerns. Although there are some medications to help with excessive sleepiness among shift workers, there are no effective therapies at this time to lower the risk for health problems.
While modern medicine presents us with exciting possibilities for understanding disease and therapy, the circadian rhythm should give us reason to pause and wonder—what is the driving force for the activation of the genes? What diurnal and seasonal forces enable the efficient functioning of the body-mind? We tend to come up short when we ask these fundamental questions. However, if we turn to Ayurveda, we are presented with a cohesive theory that answers these questions in a holistic fashion. Once again, it comes down to the three doshas.
Driving Forces of the Internal Clock
Recall that the doshas are the hidden puppeteers of the body-mind, arising from the five elements and combining in specific ways (The Bliss Model). Now let’s take a broader look at the doshas and how they determine our internal clocks.
Everything in nature is cyclical, as we readily see in the changing of seasons, day and night patterns, and the growth and decay of the human body. These cycles are maintained and propelled by the three doshas. It helps to think of their properties to understand how they function throughout our lives and in nature.
Vata is a combination of air and space. If you think of the properties of air and space, what vata does will become apparent. Air is light and is characterized by movement and lightness. Thus, it is quick, dry, and cold. Like space, vata is subtle. It predominates in the fall and early winter when the weather is cool and dry. Pitta is a combination of fire and water, giving it the properties of heat, oiliness, and quickness. It is the predominant dosha in the summer months. Kapha, which is the combination of water and earth, is heavy, unctuous, and cold. It predominates in late winter and spring.
Our life cycles are also subject to the doshas. Kapha is the dosha of childhood, marked by growth, grounding, and nourishment. Adulthood is characterized by pitta, where we are driven by the “fire in the belly” to live a life of purpose and to pay bills, enjoy pleasures of the senses, and contribute to society. Vata is the dosha of old age, characterized by dryness of joints and tissues, onset of various illnesses, and general deterioration.
Figure 5: The “Dosha Clock.” This represents times of the day when each dosha is most active.
Daily dosha cycles mimic those of our life cycles, where kapha predominates at the beginning of the day, pitta at midday, and vata at the end of the day, repeating every twelve hours:
Vata: 2–6 a.m. and 2–6 p.m.
Pitta: 10 a.m.–2 p.m. and 10 p.m.–2 a.m.
Kapha: 6–10 a.m. and 6–10 p.m.
Note that these are approximate times and that all three doshas are always present; it is just that one of them predominates over the other two around these particular times. Once again, let’s take a look at the properties of the doshas, which will help us understand how they influence our internal clocks. Remember that vata is the principle of movement—it moves impulses required for all aspects of the circadian rhythm, carrying information of light or dark to the internal clocks, regulating the release of the various hormones in accordance with daily, seasonal, and life cycles. The movement of vata drives the functions of pitta and kapha, ordering the mind’s activity with time, determining aging in relation to time, pushing us to be motivated at certain times and to wind down at others, and, importantly, maintaining homeostasis.
Vata drives the release or withdrawal of key hormones that initiate the cycles of metabolism and tissue repair. Production of serotonin, adrenaline (or epinephrine), and glucocorticoids begin in the morning vata time. Serotonin brings us back to the waking state after a night’s rest while adrenaline and glucocorticoids begin to wake up the brain and other organs. Glucocorticoids initiate the release of glucose stored in the liver cells for energy and metabolic processes. Metabolism begins to slow down by the end of the evening vata time as the body begins to prepare for rest.
Kapha regulates structure, water balance, and the growth and strength of organs, tissues, cells, and the mind. Spurred into action by vata, kapha responds to the hormones produced in the morning—for instance, the breakdown of glucose by glucocorticoids initiates the delicate dance between the pancreas and the liver that produce insulin and glucagon to maintain balance. Insulin regulates not only glucose metabolism but also cell growth. Kapha times are characterized by a reconstituting of metabolic functions into equilibrium, where the breaking down and building up of structures are balanced. At kapha-predominant times there is an increased predilection for rebuilding body structures and sustained energy for prolonged activity.31
Pitta regulates transformation through digestion and metabolism. Urged by vata, pitta begins its actions on the released hormones with a steady increase in body temperature and metabolism in the form of the countless cellular reactions throughout the organs that peak by midday. Hunger is initiated by the action of pitta on the liver and digestive organs that are primed to release their enzymes with meal intake. During its predominance from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., pitta regulates the scavenging of free radicals (byproducts of cellular metabolism) by the actions of melatonin, the pineal gland hormone that induces the night cycle. While pitta during its morning cycle regulates catabolic actions for release and expenditure of energy, it governs anabolic functions at night, including tissue repair.
Using Our Clocks to Balance Agni
The two most important things we can do to balance agni are to maintain regular sleep and meal times. Let’s look at the mechanisms by which each of these work.
Maintain Regular Sleep Times
We have seen the various effects of the sleep-wake cycle upon our internal clocks. Looking at sleep and wake times through the lens of the doshas might help us understand this recommendation further.
Wake up no later than 6 a.m. and go to bed no later than 10 p.m. Now that you’ve seen the daily cycles of the doshas, this recommendation will make more sense. Vata, as we saw earlier, predominates until 6 a.m. Here’s the thing about vata: since it is made of up space and air, its subtle actions are more evident on the mind than in the body. It governs creativity, enthusiasm, and cognitive abilities, which peak during vata times. Waking up when vata predominates fosters these abilities; studying or meditating during this period is much more effective than during other times. Since vata also governs elimination, waking up before 6 a.m. regulates your bowels.
Recall that kapha is the combination of water and earth; its essential qualities are heaviness, slowness, and dullness. This is why we feel groggy or fog-headed when we wake up during the morning kapha time. We lose the advantages that vata offers with waking up late, including mental clarity and elimination.
On the other hand, kapha is very conducive to sleep at night because of the very qualities that make it unfavorable for waking up late in the morning. Recall that pitta revs up our metabolism and becomes active at 10 p.m., which is why sleep problems are common with what is known as “night vigil,” or staying up too late. Going to sleep in the kapha time ensures better rest and deeper sleep.
A common question that arises from this prescription is this—what does this mean for those of us who are not “morning types”? While we may consider ourselves to be morning or evening types, recent research is demonstrating the wisdom of going to bed early and waking up early. For instance, one study among adolescents showed that later bedtimes and waking times are associated with obesity and lower physical fitness regardless of other factors such as how much sleep they got.32 “Eveningness” also affects overall quality of life and physical and mental health, as well as performance at school and at work.33
Maintain Regular Mealtimes
Eating your meals at the same time is like feeding the campfire with a steady supply of firewood when a steady fire is the desired result. Maintaining a reasonable gap between meals is like allowing the fire to consume a log before burdening it with another. When we eat on time, the neurohormonal system of the gut is regularized so the system becomes used to secreting the needed juices and enzymes at the same intervals. When we eat about the same quantity of food, we enable the system to work without over- or under-producing the required juices. Overproduction of gastric acid leads to heartburn, when the agni is out of control and there is not enough good-quality fuel for the campfire. Underproduction of digestive juices leads to indigestion and, eventually, disease.
Here are some general considerations:
- Eat (light) breakfast between 7 and 8 a.m.
- Eat (heavy) lunch between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
- Eat (light) dinner no later than 6:30 p.m.
Let’s revisit the doshas and why these recommendations might make sense. Breakfast rolls around in the kapha time. Recall that although our catabolic hormones are rising, kapha’s heavy qualities predominate over the body-mind and, consequently, over agni. Most of us may not be particularly hungry during this time, thanks to the actions of kapha on the digestive system. However, despite a lack of appetite, the body requires nourishment and substrate for the actions of the catabolic hormones (and agni) that are beginning to rise. A light breakfast fulfills this need and keeps our energy levels up while pacifying agni.
Pitta kicks in around 10 a.m. and drives up our metabolism. Juices and enzymes in the digestive tract are at their peak in the daytime pitta period, coinciding with our largest appetite and hunger. Agni burns bright in the pitta time since they both are defined by heat. The largest meal of the day must thus be eaten at midday, when our digestive capacities are at their optimal levels.
Our evening meals tend to coincide with kapha and vata times, when the hormonal systems begin to turn metabolism from catabolic to anabolic processes. For instance, the same pitta that drives hunger and digestion at midday drives detoxification while the body is at rest at night. Since the body is winding down and preparing for rest during the evening kapha time when it is dinner time for most of us, eating a heavy meal results in agni imbalance and production of ama. Studies have shown that eating large meals in the evening has deleterious effects on insulin metabolism, which reverses when the eating cycle is changed to take in the majority of the day’s calories during daytime.34
This is one recommendation that many of my patients find difficult, particularly when they are accustomed to eating their heaviest meals in the evening. However, the significance of this recommendation cannot be overstated when we consider the implications of consuming large meals at the end of the day. The longer the duration of nighttime fasting, the lower is the propensity for inflammation and insulin resistance. In one study, reducing evening caloric intake and eating early to increase nighttime fasting was associated with lower levels of C-reactive protein, the marker associated with inflammation, atherosclerosis, heart disease, and cancers.35
Working with Your Body-Mind Rhythm
While regularizing eating and sleeping times is the most important thing we can do to bring agni back to balance, we can use the knowledge of the doshas to our advantage in regulating the following elements of our lifestyles as well:
Exercise
The best time to exercise is 6–10 a.m., when physical activity counters the natural presence of kapha’s heaviness and slowness in the context of the rising levels of catabolic processes. On the other hand, heavy exercise in the evening kapha period, when the body is winding down with the onset of anabolic processes, causes agni imbalance over the long term. Routinely exercising during the highly catabolic pitta period also causes an agni imbalance, with a tendency toward inflammatory conditions, irritability, anger, stress, restlessness, and so on.
Regulating Agni During Menstruation
The cyclic process of menstruation is driven by the three doshas that predominate at various times during the cycle. The first two weeks after menses are governed by kapha, when the uterine lining begins to rebuild itself. Ovulation marks the beginning of the pitta period, when the lining becomes engorged with blood in preparation for the fertilized egg. If conception does not occur, vata sets menses in motion. Menstruation has the immense advantage of periodically cleansing the body of ama. The rise in heart disease with the onset of menopause also coincides with the loss of ama cleansing and its subsequent accumulation. In women, imbalanced agni presents itself as an imbalance in menstruation, resulting in almost all disorders of the body-mind. And the most important remedy for the imbalance is to regulate the circadian rhythm beginning at menarche; see the Resources section for some excellent books on a holistic approach to women’s health.
During menstruation, in addition to maintaining regular timings, we can pay special attention to lifestyle choices to aid vata’s work of cleansing. Strenuous activity and exercise results in an increase in heart rate, respiration, and blood flow to the skeletal muscles (among many other things), all of which are mediated by vata moving in specific directions. During menstruation, vata naturally flows in a downward fashion (just as it does during bowel movements, urination, and childbirth). Strenuous exercise while menstruating results in a vata “steal” due to conflicting flows. Over time, this results in an imbalanced agni. Instead, plenty of rest helps with optimal vata functioning and a balanced menstrual cycle, which is defined as having no discomfort or premenstrual symptoms, moderate flow of bright red blood that doesn’t stain clothing, and lack of mood swings. A balanced agni also manifests as a trouble-free menopause with no hot flashes, mood swings, or irregularities.
From a holistic perspective, this makes total sense since menstruation and menopause are governed by sex hormones as we explored in The Stress Cauldron, which in turn respond adversely to external or internal stress.
Take One Step at a Time
If you’re a night owl or have a tendency to fast all day and gorge at night, the above recommendations may be difficult to implement. If you try to do it all at once, it may even throw your system out of balance temporarily, so I suggest taking it slowly.
Begin to make small changes in your sleep/wake times, perhaps by 15–30 minutes every few days. For instance, if you are accustomed to a bedtime of midnight and waking up at 7:30 a.m., begin by going to bed at 11:45 p.m. and waking up at 7:15 a.m. After a few days, sleep at 11:30 p.m. and wake up at 7 a.m. Continue to change your schedule gradually until you get to the recommended times.
Similarly, if you’re used to skipping lunch and having a heavy dinner, start by eating a small lunch and a slightly lighter meal at night. Wait for several days for your system to get used to this schedule before making further changes. In the next chapter we will see what to eat for health and bliss.
Summary
- Imbalanced agni results in a system-wide neurohormonal imbalance that affects the functioning of all body-mind functions.
- Regardless of the type of agni imbalance, balancing vata is of crucial importance. Most often, simply bringing vata back into balance resolves most or all health ailments and is based on the circadian rhythm.
- The circadian rhythm of the body-mind is regulated by a master clock in the hypothalamus and molecular clocks in the cells of various organs that switch their functions seamlessly from day to night by the rise and fall of the different hormones.
- Our body-minds function at their optimal level when we are in sync with cycles of day and night and the seasons.
- Chronically being out of sync with these cycles (such as in shift work) results in a depletion of prana, tejas, and ojas, the fine essences of cellular metabolism, resulting in disease.
- Our life cycles, seasons, and diurnal rhythms are regulated by the three doshas, which are the basis of the Bliss Rx for sleeping and eating schedules.
- Waking up before 6 a.m. and going to bed by 10 p.m. optimizes the workings of the body-mind.
- Eating the largest meal of the day at midday and a light, early dinner helps balance agni and decrease inflammation and risks for various chronic illnesses.
- The best time to exercise is 6–10 a.m., when physical activity counters the natural presence of heaviness and slowness of kapha in the context of the rising levels of catabolic processes.
- Strenuous exercise while menstruating interferes with the normal flow of vata and results in agni imbalance.
- Making schedule changes gradually is better for long-term adherence.
28. To determine your specific imbalance and heal it, take my Blissful Gut quiz:http://kavithamd.com/blissful-gut-quiz/
29. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2017 was awarded jointly to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2017/
30. C. J. Morris, T. E. Purvis, K. Hu, and F. A. Scheer, “Circadian misalignment increases cardiovascular disease risk factors in humans,” Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 113 (2016): E1402–11.
31. A. Hankey, “A test of the systems analysis underlying the scientific theory of Ayurveda’s Tridosha,” J Altern Complement Med 11 (2005): 385–90.
32. T. S. Olds, C. A. Maher, and L. Matricciani, “Sleep duration or bedtime? Exploring the relationship between sleep habits and weight status and activity patterns,” Sleep 34 (2011): 1299–307.
33. F. Fabbian, B. Zucchi, A. De Giorgi, et al., “Chronotype, gender and general health,” Chronobiol Int 33 (2016): 863–82.
34. D. Jakubowicz, M. Barnea, J. Wainstein, and O. Froy, “High caloric intake at breakfast vs. dinner differentially influences weight loss of overweight and obese women,” Obesity (Silver Spring) 21 (2013): 2504–12.
35. C. R. Marinac, D. D. Sears, L. Natarajan, L. C. Gallo, C. I. Breen, and R. E. Patterson, “Frequency and circadian timing of eating may influence biomarkers of inflammation and insulin resistance associated with breast cancer risk,” PLoS One 10 (2015): e0136240.