Sisters-in-Service
Are you a women veteran who feels unseen and unheard? Do you struggle with finding your purpose after service? Sisters-in-Service is a podcast that gives women veterans the platform to talk about those exact issues and more. Hear from other veterans, military spouses and Veteran Service Organizations (VSO) just like you that have overcome their transition from the military. Every Tuesday this podcast encourages women veterans to stand up and be counted because as a group we have a voice. From your host - Cat Corchado - The Voice Connecting Women Veterans
Sisters-in-Service
Navigating Menopause with Ayurveda: Wisdom and Practical Tips with Dr. Chitra Eder
Unlock the secrets of navigating menopause with confidence and wisdom in our latest episode of Sisters in Service with the esteemed Dr. Chitra Etter, a doctor of Ayurveda. Learn how to manage the often overlooked symptoms of perimenopause and menopause through Dr. Etter's unique blend of ancient Ayurvedic practices and modern insights. Discover the importance of individualized care, and gather practical tips on nutrition, lifestyle changes, and the role of exercise in easing the menopause transition. This episode promises to equip you with actionable advice and empowering strategies to approach this significant life stage positively.
Join us as we explore the holistic journey of menopausing, from physical health to emotional well-being and community support. Dr. Etter highlights the significance of self-care, herbal remedies, and rejuvenation practices while stressing the need for open conversations about aging and the sharing of personal stories. Whether you're beginning your menopause journey or supporting someone who is, this episode offers invaluable insights into maintaining well-being and fostering a supportive community. Tune in to ensure that you and future generations benefit from the rich wisdom shared in this enlightening discussion.
Welcome to Sisters in Service podcast. Most of you know me as a strong advocate for women veterans in being recognized not only as veterans but also as women who are changing the world through our passion of serving even after service. This podcast is my passion by telling all the stories of military brats, military spouses, active duty and veterans, not to forget the veteran service organizations that help us along our transition journey. I want to thank you in advance for listening. I hope that you will join me. Every week, a new podcast and episode comes out every Tuesday, so I hope that you will join and I hope that you enjoy. This podcast is brought to you by Small Space Pilates. Are you ready to get fit and fabulous from the comfort of your own home? Look no further than Small Space Pilates. With live online Pilates and strength training classes, a video library and a no perfection allowed policy, you can achieve your fitness goals without ever leaving your house. Click on the link for your complimentary week and start your journey to feeling fabulous today. Welcome everyone to our latest episode of Sisters in Service.
Speaker 1:You know me, I'm Cat Corchata, the host, and today I have Chitra Etter, who is a distinguished doctor of Ayurveda. I had a hard time with that word y'all I just learned. She taught me how to say that word. I just had to put that in there because I'm really proud of the way I said it. With years of expertise in ancient healing practice, dr Etter specializes in guiding women through the often challenging symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. She has a unique blend of traditional Ayurvedic wisdom and modern insights that offers a compassionate and effective approach to achieving balance and vitality during these significant life stages. Teacher. Welcome to Sisters in Service.
Speaker 1:Thank you, it's so great to be here Well we've been wandering the halls of Clubhouse for a while, and we just now were able to settle into where we could really talk to each other. And so, chitra, I want you to kind of explain how did you land on this in particular, what is your story and how did you come to want to help women with this?
Speaker 2:So we'll start off with how did I land on Ayurveda? Because that's a little esoteric. So, first of all, ayurveda is Indian medicine. It comes out of South Asia and it is like a sister science to yoga that's what they say and it's also very connected to Chinese medicine, tibetan medicine. It's a very indigenous type of medicine and they say that people back in the ancient days, people actually connected with one another and then they brought the wisdom out to their own territories and to their people based and it changed based on climate and temperaments and whatever kinds of foods were there. So Ayurveda has come to the United States and it's still a little esoteric.
Speaker 2:I started out as an energy healer. I did energy work back in the 90s, I'm going to say when I was living in New York City. In the 90s, I'm going to say when I was living in New York City and I knew that energy was not the only thing and I kept studying and looking for new techniques and I started to look for language for what it was that I did, you know, because at the time there was no name. So I did Reiki and we're talking I'm an old person and I'm dealing with menopause, you know not that bad.
Speaker 2:So I looked for something, what would make sense for me, and I found massage and yoga and all kinds of nutrition and things like that. But I discovered that at the time it seemed like a lot of people were just making things up and with my because it worked for them, not to say not to discount them, but it worked for them, but not for everyone, everybody, this one size fits all. It's kind of like you were talking about how come there's only grape jelly, right, right. So I kept looking and when I discovered Ayurveda, I said this is it. And when I discovered Ayurveda, I said this is it. This makes sense to me because at can this person digest, absorb and assimilate that food?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So it's not the food issue. Post-conditions, their age, all of these things affect people. So I went to school to become a doctor of Ayurveda and once I graduated and I graduated when I was 60. And I looked around and I said what's going on here? Why is it that nobody is dealing with menopause?
Speaker 1:Or talking about it.
Speaker 2:Or talking about it. I mean, when I went through it, I went through it blindly. I was fortunate I already had a healing background, I was already eating cleanly, so it wasn't terrible, other than not knowing what the hell was going on.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:So I looked around and I said you know what we need? A better way of talking about it, a better way of talking about it, of evaluating it, for allowing women to not suffer. And so that's my whole thing is menopause is inevitable, but suffering is optional, and we can stop the suffering with knowledge, with nutrition and all of the other things that Ayurveda can supply for us.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, you know. I think it's interesting in the fact that we don't know initially. So when I went through perimenopause because I'm postmenopausal now, we don't stop long enough to kind of go what's going on with my body you know those first signs of perimenopause. And it isn't until you are full-fledged, full-blown menopause that you go wow, wait, what's wrong? So can you tell me? Because I think there's a lot more information out there. But what are the first? And I know this is one of those questions and it's not true for every, every woman, because you know, menopause is like, you know, you can wear the same jacket as your, you know your friend, but it doesn't look the same on you. So everything that's out there may not fit you the way it fits your friend, but what? What are some of the first couple of signs that should make a woman kind of go hey, something's changed. Can you expound on that a little bit?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Let's look at the statistics first. So menopause generally, or that perimenopause stage generally starts at around the age of 45. The average age is 51. When you've stopped At the age of 45, a woman can experience perimenopause or premenopause about 10 years prior to that. So that's think about it the number of that's frightening.
Speaker 2:Age of 35. Well, wait a minute. I mean it's not really frightening. Because at the age of 35, if you're thinking about being a mom, right, you want to get pregnant. You know that you are in. You're in a higher risk pregnancy. Yes, why is it? Because your eggs are there, are diminished. There are lots of things. That's already the beginning of peri, or pre menopause as it's called now. So we'll start with. Those are the numbers.
Speaker 2:Secondly, from an Ayurvedic perspective, what starts happening is the Western medical system sees symptoms. You know it's like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. In Ayurveda we see subtle symptoms, really subtle. So it cannot be tested for this is prior to any disease state. Not that menopause is a disease state, but there's a.
Speaker 2:You know there are things that go on. So for a woman, you know the period, you know her menses can go off a little bit, nothing to be crazy about, but it's like it's not quite as. There's this feeling of, oh, this isn't quite right. A woman can also have periods of more dryness, whether it's during sex, having being a little more dry than normal, or her skin, her hair starts getting just a little. You need a little more moisturizer. You know those kinds of things in the digestive system, which plays a huge role in it, starts going. You know you may start getting a little more constipated or just a little more irregular, and certainly in the exercise world, as far as the muscle and the joints, you know you can't, you wake up in the morning and you need to stretch a little more you know you may not have those aches and pains, but those are like the pre-stages of these kinds of things that are happening.
Speaker 1:Wow, it's really interesting to me that out of there's a lot more information out there now than even when I was going through it, but women still seem to have their head in the sand about it. And you bring a different approach as far as Ayurveda is concerned. And what's the difference between what you bring to the table and what maybe you know? Someone said, oh, maybe you need to eat right, maybe you need to exercise more, maybe you need to. You know, how does that play into how you treat your clients?
Speaker 2:So all of those things are correct. We do need to eat, right? We do need.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely yes, what is right? So what we do is we analyze, we look at the person to see what body type they are, what their mindset is, and there are three different types of body types, archetypes, and each of those require different things. So I'm just going to give you a generalized, generalized thing. So the first body type is what we call kapha, and that's a. For those who know Ayurveda, they know this word. It's hard to translate, but these are people who are a little more heavyset. Their skin is a little oilier. They tend to have whiter or lighter skin for their nationality, their race, they tend to have large, soft eyes and their bones are larger. They move slower, they tend to have a little more weight on them.
Speaker 2:So those people will have a certain kind of digestion which will be a little lower. They tend to not want to go out and, you know, exercise right. So much, that's one type and we're all a blend of these. The second kind is what we call pitta, which is the fiery type. These are the people that are like you give me a challenge and I'll just like, I'll kill it, you know, and they they're very regular. They have some chiseled features in their body. They tend to be a little redder. As far as the skin tone is concerned, they tend to get hotter. And then there's a third type and their. Their digestion is really good in general. They can eat anything and not gain weight.
Speaker 1:The metabolism is oh, those people. Okay, that's not me.
Speaker 2:And they just look at cake and they gain five pounds right. Last one is what we call vata, and vata is the very creative type. Everything is irregular, you know. They tend to get spaced out and creative and they start a million projects at once. Their bones are much thinner, you know. They have a little more grayness in their face or blueness in their face. So those are the three basic types and based on that, we start creating protocols towards those individuals specifically. So when we're going into the menopause phase, we're going into a drier phase, which is that vata stage. So we're looking to constantly moisten and move and moisten a little more and making the digestion more regular. So those are the types of things that we do. That's all on the physical level, and we'll also tailor exercise according to that. I love that.
Speaker 2:That's on the physical level. But you know, menopause has two other components to it and the other one physical. You've got. Menopause has two other components to it and the other one physical. You've got the mental and emotional.
Speaker 1:Yes, I think the emotional is really you know, because when you're going through it you feel isolated. You know what I mean, even though you know there are other women out there. There aren't menopausal groups Well, there are now but when you're going through it, you know and and sometimes other people know. I mean I would be standing in front of clients and and I'm doing this because I'm just like wiping water away, because I'm having a hot flash right in front of them and I it's just very interesting to me that we get even more isolated because you can't really talk to your partner. My husband, he just knew something was wrong and he didn't really know.
Speaker 1:And I pretty much had to go down a rabbit hole myself to figure out what I needed. And so how do you explain how some women can take a supplement, let's say black cohosh Okay, I'm just using that one, because I tried to take that and I took it for like three months and nothing happened. And it's okay for women, a woman to take that, whereas another woman is like yeah, yeah, that's not going to happen, it's not working for them, like yeah, that's not going to happen.
Speaker 2:It's not working for them. That goes back to those body types, because each herb, each supplement, each thing has its own set of qualities. So a great one is like ashwagandha. A lot of people are taking ashwagandha, so ashwagandha is considered an adaptogen. So basically what it does is it calms you down if you're too anxiety prone, and it'll help you sleep, or if you need more energy. It's a smart herb. If you need more energy, it'll give you more energy when needed. I love that. But the thing about ashwagandha is that it's a heating herb. It will heat you up. So many women will find tremendous relief in it. But remember those pitta types that hot they might they don't want that. That's what's going on. The other thing around that is that everything you put on the body and take into the body has to be digested, absorbed and assimilated, and if your digestion doesn't function properly, you're not going to absorb it, and then you're not going to assimilate it and you're not going to be able to use it. So every person is different.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Can we talk about nutrition? For a second, and coming from a fitness aspect, when I was working in a club and we would sit potential clients down and we would have a conversation, you know, about what they're eating and and I would always ask them you know, well, you know what kind of vegetables do you eat? And they go I don't like vegetables. And I would say which ones? And they would say all of them. And I'm thinking, really, you know how many vegetables are out there and I would do that with fruit and they would say the same thing I don't eat fruit. And you're like well, which ones? And they're like all of them.
Speaker 1:Have someone come in, you realize where they are in those three archetypes and you try to give them something nutritionally and they just what? If they just back off, like they don't, they don't want to make that change, or they, they, you know they're fighting you. You know you need to be eating this or you should be eating this. I'm like, nope, I don't like that, I don't like that, I don't like that. What?
Speaker 2:what do you say to someone like that that's a really really tough question and, truthfully, what I do is you know, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink and swallow. Yes, so someone like that, I go bye-bye, you know. I'm sorry, I can't help you. Someone else might be able to.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:That's when other kinds of interventions or when it's painful enough for them, they can come back. However, there are many reasons why people won't eat vegetables or stop sugar or all of these other things. It's because they haven't been exposed to them properly yet.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:They think that green beans are those disgusting things that come out of a can. I know right, it's cooked right or it's not hidden well enough.
Speaker 2:So we in our society have too much of sugar and salt in our diet right and what that does to our palate, to our taste buds, it's overwhelmed it. So we have to be almost desensitized from that super high sugar. So I know that you've experienced this with your clients, where they come up with the sugar and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, that is too sweet, I can't do that anymore. It's because the body had to sensitize itself to all of these high sugars. So that's kind of how I deal with it. But truthfully, you know, getting to this stage and age and doing anything naturally requires work. You know you have to be committed.
Speaker 1:It's maintenance is what it is it's maintenance.
Speaker 2:You have to be perfect at it. At least you don't shut it down before you even try.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had. You know, there's so many things out there and I tried so many things that I I just stopped doing anything and I had waited so long to where I was. My tank was almost empty on every you know, every hormone you could think of that I needed and I felt terrible and I decided to go hormone replacement therapy only because I needed something that was just gonna help me. Now, and can you tell us a story, or do you have a story of a client that came into you and they were just barely, barely like making it happen because they were just so depleted, and how you brought them back?
Speaker 2:I have lots of those stories. I bet you do, you know, and while you bring up the HRT issue, I am not against them. Just want to say that right from. I think that every tool we can use, we need to use them, but there's a time and a place for everything. Yes, and that's what you needed because you couldn't find any assistance. So I had one. Well, you know, my most recent ones are with COVID clients truthfully, oh wow, completely depleted, whether they're in perimenopause or beyond, and we basically treat everyone. The path is very much the same For the most part. What we start doing is we look to see what kind of toxins there are in the system, what kinds of things are lining the entire digestive system, and we remove that. And it starts off with like two very simple things, and so I'm going to share with your audience. The first thing you want to do is you want to scrape your tongue every single morning.
Speaker 1:Because I've heard of that. I've heard of doing that.
Speaker 2:So why? Why do you want to do that? Because you'll see that there's this white coating on the tongue and you want the tongue to be pink, like a baby's pink tongue or puppies or kittens. Right? All of that stuff is is are what we call toxins that's not a great way but impurities that are in the body that the body cannot digest. So rather than swallowing it, we take it out. We do it first thing in the morning and that's done when you brush your teeth, so that automatically helps clean out whatever is left over from undigested foodstuff.
Speaker 2:The second thing you want to do is drink two cups of warm water in the morning. It doesn't have to be lemon, yeah. So the first cup of water is going to help clean you out the second room temperature for summer. The second cup is going to be to hydrate you. Two things alone starts the digestive system off right. You can add lemon to the second cup, but not the first one. Lemon to the second cup, but not the first one. So you start off with the simple digestive things. Secondly, there's a very big mind component. So we make sure that you're doing some form of exercise according to your way, some form of mindful practice, whether it's full on meditation, minding the breath, something like that.
Speaker 1:Or just being quiet, just being still.
Speaker 2:Being still and quiet, something so that you can set yourself up, you know, because that's part of the battle is like fighting symptoms, it's like I can't do this anymore, I'm going crazy. And the third thing that we also do is make sure that there's some form of community. So, on the physical level, we start off with those kinds of things. We do a small detox, generally a food detox, and it takes about three days, and then we put them on a food regimen that makes sense for them and then every week or every two weeks we check in does this work? Does this work, does this working? And we find that if they have a symptom exaggerate, then we look at the food and say, ok, this is the problem.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's the environment that's the problem. So we're looking at every single thing that is in their environment, as well as what they're taking in emotionally, the whole shebang, and we tweak it. And we tweak it all the while. They're also getting, uh, sub herbal supplements, um, according to their, their needs, um, and they're they're also getting um, you know, there's there's a support that that happens. There's an intelligence that's happening. So intelligence comes on board once all of the the garbage is eliminated.
Speaker 1:And I think it's interesting that you know we all go through this individually, but if we just connected hands and just talked about this collectively and I mean women are some of the most I'm going to call them, we're iconic, I'm just going to say it. And we have such power when we come together and yet we want to not, we want to, but we feel like we have to stay in our own little world. And then when we branch out and we find out, wow, you're going, I had that symptom too. What did you do out? And we find out, wow, you're going, I had that symptom too. What did you do? And then it starts to spread and then you start to.
Speaker 1:It doesn't have to be a lonely journey. It was lonely for me, I'm going to be honest with you. It was very lonely and I found something that worked for me. But I think when women start to talk about it as we should what you talk about in your community women start to talk about it as we should, which you talk about in your community, which I believe is part of your wise woman metamorphosis, isn't it? Can you talk about that a little bit Sure.
Speaker 2:So this is menopause only happens in two species it happens in humans and it happens in whales.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I did not know that. I just learned something today.
Speaker 2:And the reason it happens is because we have outlived our baby, making years, and the wise woman metamorphosis is a return of the woman to another creative space for society to move the next generation through, and the communities and the ceremonies that I create are to help them be welcomed into this part of life, sort of like you're welcomed into your marriage, you're welcomed into your marriage, you're welcomed into christening, whatever welcoming you have, so that there's a group of women who have their stories of what this is like, so you're not feeling like you're all alone, so that we create an entire movement of wise women that are dealing with this and not being so alone. Because it is a metamorphosis, we change. We go from a place of you know, where we're caring for everyone else, to a place of okay, I'm solid, now I can speak. I do not care that you know I look this way or I do not do what I am told to do. This is what feels right and I'm going to share it with the next generation. So that's, that's the I think what?
Speaker 1:what I found is that I started realizing that I really liked who I was as a person and that it didn't matter. You know, for having a conversation and you disagree with me, I'm OK with that. I don't have to prove that I'm right and you're wrong. I'm just like, wow, that's interesting, I didn't think about it that way. Interesting, I didn't think about it that way. But also there are so many women who, in perimenopause and menopause, who are doing amazing things. They're starting businesses, they're doing all kinds of stuff. They're climbing mountains for the first time They've never climbed before. They're doing just these creative things that they never thought about before.
Speaker 1:Because you're at this point where you're like I don't care what someone says. I'm going to go try this. Because I always say to women when I speak to them that when we're this age, we look in the mirror and we think who the crap is that person staring at me? Because you feel one way inside. Now, on the outside, you're like wait, who is that? And so we start thinking, okay, the door's closed, it's time for me to, I don't have time for this and I can't do this. The door's closed, but it's not locked. Open the door and see what's behind there, you might remember stuff from oh wow, I remember I wanted to do that and I never got to do that.
Speaker 1:So in this society, in the United States at least, we think getting older is just this horrible, awful thing where, if we looked at it from a different perspective, especially with menopause, like oh now, I'm old, I can't do anything. But if we turned our thoughts to something a little bit different and saying I'm old, I can't do anything, you know that. But if we turned, you know, our thoughts to something a little bit different and saying I'm this age now. Now, because your kids are probably pretty much out of the house, if not already out of the house, this is time for us, it's our time now. So what do you think about that?
Speaker 2:You know I all I say is is I wish we could reach younger women, yes, so that women aren't sidelined by these symptoms, because the symptoms are relatively easy to take care of, unless there's a true medical condition. But the community, the stories that we've lost through history, the lack of mentorship that we have for women, the fact that we've got advertising sidelining anything that we could teach them, you know part of the reason why we think. You know, we look at you know this is how I'm supposed to look, this is how I'm supposed to be. I care so much about that Because there's there is a biological function of wanting to procreate, but at the same time, it does not have to be the way it is. It's over, exaggerated.
Speaker 2:Yes we can work in community. So so, yes and yes, we can do all of these things if we have our health. That's the important thing is, the foundation has to be in health.
Speaker 1:You do lifestyle.
Speaker 2:you exercise, you eat right, you think right, you have healthy relationships and then you know we can change the world.
Speaker 1:you know we can change the world. I know that you've kind of touched on this, but can you talk about all the aspects of the art of menopausing?
Speaker 2:Well, the art of menopausing is so. So we start off with the health, the physical aspect, because menopause starts if it started. If you start those inklings at 35, you're gonna have half your life or more, you know. So menopause is is one day, 365 days after your last period. Right, that's defined, it's a thing, it's a noun. But we are collectively moving, we are verbs, we are being, so we're menopausing from 35 onwards.
Speaker 1:As far as I'm concerned, it's just a matter of time.
Speaker 2:We're doing this and to live your life in an artful way, in a way that you appreciate yourself, you appreciate your surroundings, you give back. That is art. It can be creative. It doesn't have to be so. We start off with the physical your health, take care of that. We do the mind thing. Deal with your relationships, your emotions. There are herbs that will help you with the mind. There's rejuvenation practices which are beyond just self-care. You know, things will actually rejuvenate that dryness. And then you go back to the community where you receive support. You know we're truly taught, we don't. It's not a shameful thing to be to age, it's not a shameful thing to have hot flashes, or. You know, this is just the way it is. And and we go back into our communities and we talk to other women. We do the things that we want to do. We bring in the men, because the men need to be involved in this as well.
Speaker 1:They should.
Speaker 2:Businesses, because they're affected by it as well Now not to the same degree and then, finally, we just share our stories and our legacies from future generations, have them written down so it's not lost like past generations, where my your mother. My mother didn't say anything about it.
Speaker 1:Nothing, absolutely nothing.
Speaker 2:We share our legacies. These stories need to be told. This is how we heal. Humanity is through the wise woman.
Speaker 1:I love the fact that you come full circle. You know it's the physical, it's the mind and the emotions, the community, and then sharing your story. And this could be applied. You be applied for a lot of things. I mean, if we thought in those aspects, I think all of our communities, all of our humanity, I think, would be different. And so, Chitra, where can people find you If they need you?
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, you can find me at see this is the difficult part ayurveda with Chitracom. But if you're on Facebook, I've got a Facebook page and it's called the Art of Menopausing. It's an Ayurvedic sisterhood, so you can find me there. I'm on Instagram. I'm on Clubhouse occasionally because Clubhouse has done some interesting things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that interesting is a little kind of a strong word, Chitra.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to say you can find me on LinkedIn and my name Chitra Eder. I'm probably like the only one in the world who has that name.
Speaker 1:It's a very interesting name it's very easy to find me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to thank you for coming on and talking about this, because you're coming at it from a totally different perspective. I always love keeping an open mind and going oh wow, I didn't know about this, cause I'm I'm if you for anyone listening, if you've probably heard me say I'm a lifelong learner, so I, I always want to learn something. I did not know that, so I think it just like the whales who knew, um, it was like well, there you go. Thank you so much for being here today and talking about this and and another avenue to go. If you're not sure, maybe you don't know, this is for you, but why don't you find out? You have someone who is very adept. She's a doctor of heart and theta Come on, she's very, she knows what she's talking about. Thank you so much for being here today and for everyone else, please stay safe, take care of yourself, take care of each other.
Speaker 2:And it's never too late to start your day. Thank you.