Wonders of Vitamin D - Renu Mahtani video and transcription - Feb 2022

Wonders of Vitamin-D - Dr. Renu Mahtani Feb 10, 2022

YouTube 28 minutes
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Transcript

0:00:00.0 Speaker 1: Hey go-getters, how are you all doing? So today we have our guest of honor, Dr. Renu Mahtani from Pune. She is a MD doctor and practicing physician since past 35 years. She has done her fellowship from US in metabolic and nutrition medicine, and she's an associate in Dr. Coimbra's Institute for treatment and research for auto-immune disease, Brazil. She is the founder of auto-immunity treatment centre, Pune and Param Yoga center. Her approach to any medical issue is completely different from other doctors. She always believes that, "heal the mind and the body follows." She has authored two books Power Pranayam and Power of Posture. So let's get connected with her. Renu Ma'am I welcome you on the show, it's great honor for me to have you on the show.

0:00:57.0 Mahtani: Thank you so much.

0:00:58.5 S1: So first of all please let us know, what are the auto-immune diseases and what are its causes?

0:01:06.0 Mahtani: See as the word suggests, auto-immune means, my own immune system is attacking myself, auto-immune. Normally our immune system is supposed to attack foreign invaders, whether they are bacteria, whether they are viruses. But when the immune system is hyper-active it starts targeting my own body and starts damaging certain body parts by creating inflammation. So there's a host list of almost 80 disorders where the immune system has gone bonkers and is damaging myself. The commonest one is Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, which we call it as Hypo-thyroidism, it's very very common.

0:01:48.7 Mahtani: Then conditions like Psoriasis and Vitiligo, various types of dermatitis, Rheumatoid arthritis, it is so common in our country, then we have problems like Lupus, multiple sclerosis, Sjögren's disease, so the list is actually unending. It can target any organ and create the problem, so these are called as auto-immune disorders. And the fact is that it's not organ specific problem, it's... The immune cells are present everywhere in the body, so we can't locate our immune system to just one organ, we only get to know the manifestations, where the problem is occuring, so these host of diseases are called as auto-immune disorders.

0:02:35.0 S1: Okay. And the main course of this is... What can be the main cause for these diseases?

0:02:40.4 Mahtani: Yeah. See... Basically, there are some people who are prone to auto-immune disorders, there are some genetic factors in some families that show up. But definitely the trigger is stresses in life. See, the tendencies are always there even when we were born but the problem manifests itself sometime later in life, when we are overwhelmed and probably not able to cope up with the stresses in our life for whatever reasons. Whether they are physical stresses, emotional stresses, mental stresses, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that is one. And it's also very interesting to know that most of the people with auto-immune disorders have something called as vitamin D resistance in the body.

0:03:31.8 Mahtani: Now, this thing was not known to me also when I did my medical school. So vitamin D, now we take it so casually... We are in India, we are in a tropical country, we don't have this deficiency, but the fact is today vitamin D deficiency is a global pandemic. Because of the change in our lifestyles, we are no longer farmers like our ancestors. So we are all going through a massive vitamin D deficiency, number one, that is also a very important reason of increase in auto-immune disorders. You may be wondering why. Because vitamin D has been undervalued, it is actually a... You can call it a unsung hero. It has so many functions in the body, we thought that vitamin D is only for the bones, full stop, not at all. The vitamin D works on every cell of my body, every cell because it is now found that the nucleus of every cell has got receptors for vitamin D, number one. And when it comes to immune disorders, all of our cells of immunity need vitamin D for proper function. And vitamin D is a very... What should I call it? It's a very intelligent molecule. How? Let me make it... Give me a minute to explain it.

0:04:53.2 S1: Yeah, yeah.

0:04:53.8 Mahtani: So when somebody has an auto-immune disorder, when the immune system has gone like a wild monkey in the body, you want to control that monkey, tell immune cells, "Kipaye, don't attack me. Why are you attacking me?" So how to control this monkey in the body, the auto-immune process, the medicines commonly used are called as Immuno Suppressants, Steroids, xyz. So they suppress the complete immune system, and there are good departments of the immune system too, they also get suppressed. Now, how is vitamin D important? Why I said it's an intelligent molecule? It knows, which aspect of the immune system I need to suppress, and which I should not.

0:05:38.9 S1: Not suppress, exactly.

0:05:40.5 Mahtani: So it's a immuno modulator, it's not a immuno suppressant.

0:05:48.0 S1: It's a immuno modulator.

0:05:49.3 Mahtani: Modulator, it modulates. So it knows which is good, which is bad and it will function in a very balanced way. And it has the potential of keeping the auto-immune diseases in check, although I have a tendency, number one. And if somebody has an auto-immune disorder, we are using vitamin D in a very different way to even treat the people. And there are very encouraging results by simple vitamin D therapy, not just taking any vitamin D from any store and saying, "oh, I took vitamin D"

0:06:17.9 S1: So for each person this therapy is different?

0:06:21.4 Mahtani: Yes it has to be individualized. It is customized, it's a medical management. So vitamin D deficiency, coming to the point, is one reason of a high... What should I say? Increase in auto immune disorders. And we never thought about it. We never think about it.

0:06:37.3 S1: Because we have always thought that vitamin D is related to bones.

0:06:41.8 Mahtani: Exactly. It is actually needed for the brain, it's needed for the heart, it's needed for the kidneys. There's a very wrong notion in people that vitamin D is bad for the kidneys. No, nephrologist prescribe vitamin D for healthy kidneys. It's very important for the heart, it's very important to control high blood pressure. And in today's time when we are going through this COVID pandemic, one reason it has happened is of... Actually a very serious vitamin D deficiency in us. We may say that, mask is important. It is important, but it is not full stop. We have to strengthen ourself from inside.

0:07:22.5 S1: We are to...

0:07:23.2 Mahtani: So physical barrier, physiological barrier.

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0:07:28.0 Mahtani: We have to strengthen our own fort, and for that, we have to correct vitamin D deficiency. And now there is ample study, ample papers, ample proofs that the vitamin D levels have to be kept about 15 nanogram per ml in blood to prevent COVID disease. It's known, but the sad part is we take it for granted.

0:07:51.1 S1: Yeah, well.

0:07:52.2 Mahtani: It's an unsung hero. If today people's vitamin D levels are raised to above 15 nanograms per ml, we can control so many chronic diseases. And get better results in kidneys. Yeah.

0:08:08.2 S1: Ma'am can you please share your Psoriasis journey as a doctor, how you heal yourself. It's very inspirational after reading the book and all.

0:08:21.5 Mahtani: Thank you so much Divia for giving me this opportunity to share because... Yes Psoriasis. I had Psoriasis, it's in my family from my mother's side. We have many psoriatics in the family. And I was also, what should I say, affected by it in my early middle age when I was at the peak of my stress in life whether it was work, home, children, family, relationships. We all go through that in life and you look back and it was pretty bad, my hands, my feet, they were all scaling, and the skin was like crocodile skin. And I couldn't even touch my patients. They would say, "Oh Ma'am, what this?" and I was told that it will remain for life and it'll become less...

0:09:05.1 S1: It can not be cured.

0:09:06.0 Mahtani: It is incurable and all that, so it was very, very depressing. And that's how I think my journey into health began, I must say. My medical knowledge of being a doctor was the foundation, and I'm very proud of it. But it made me with a, Probably with my open-minded approach I said, "Let me see if there is any way to be able to control it." So that's how I began my journey, and it started with understanding the power of breath. And that time Pranayama was not at all popular the way it is now, so I learnt it. It was not easy to find a good teacher. And I learned how to... Somehow it happened, probably. I would not say I was thinking of it.

0:09:47.8 S1: What happened?

0:09:49.0 Mahtani: It came to me, it came to me. I came across a person and I learnt the value of proper breathing, various techniques, and I started practicing them, and I saw that my skin started improving. And that's how my journey to Pranayama and Yoga began. I said, "I need to study more." So I ventured out and I did many training programs with various Yoga organizations in India and abroad, understanding the therapeutic aspect of everything, and that's how Pranayam Yoga came into existence, which is an organization by which we are giving excellent quality yoga based modalities to the people. And then there was one more thing that came into my mind when I was going through my Pranayam journey. It made me more mindful.

0:10:35.6 Mahtani: See Pranayam practices, although they have the oxygen, carbon dioxide and all those physiological benefits, but there is something which is much more important, and that is the effect on the mind. So what happens when we do Pranayam, we start listening to our own self, we start introspecting, we start opening out our own self to our own self. And I realized that I had some relationship problems with somebody in my family, and I resolved that in my mind. I got the opportunity to resolve it, forgive someone... All that... Which people don't like to listen to, but this is the crux of healing.

0:11:17.7 Mahtani: So I forgave somebody, I forgave myself for some happenings. These things are very important. And then the change was much more than only the physiological benefits of breathing, and my problem literally completely went away in a couple of years. So I was very happy, and my journey of health was giving medical treatment to patients and also offering yoga Pranayam and all this, went on well for years. Then after my menopause, I was struck with Psoriasis again, I got my second one. And this time it was...

0:11:55.1 S1: This time again also?

0:11:55.4 Mahtani: Oh yeah, yeah, I got it again. And this time it also affected my face and neck. Overnight my face turned dark, you can't imagine if I show you the pictures that it was me. And I was amazed, "What is happening?" Dermatologists view visions here there allergies, sun allergies, sun sensitivity, stop hair coloring. Der-mac treatments of... Draining the pockets, I really spent a lot. I went through all the treatments, but it was not really helping me. And people would say, "How come you got it? You're a doctor, you do yoga, you do Pranayam... " And actually I was eating healthy and I was not really going through any major stress in my life. Stress is always there and we are capable of fighting it. Probably my hormones were not supporting me, I don't know, but I got it. And now again my journey began, part two of the journey. I said, "I need to study more." So I did a fellowship in metabolic and nutritional medicine to understand the cells.

0:12:55.9 S1: What cells are causing this.

0:12:56.5 Mahtani: The body more. Yeah. So I did this program from the US and, actually, I'm both certified now in the US also to carry on this practice. But still I was not finding answers through that, and... But see how life takes you on a journey. I am a total believer of this energy that guides us. We are all guided, we are all on our paths. And we meet people one after the other. It happens...

0:13:25.5 S1: It's a great thing you can say.

0:13:27.8 Mahtani: Yeah. This is what I got to meet... I got to know about Dr. Coimbra, who is a neurologist from Brazil. And he was dealing with lots of patients with multiple sclerosis. Now, this is an autoimmune disease, where the immune system is attacking my own nervous system. And he was using vitamin D very differently in very high doses to treat that. So I got to know about him through one person whom I met through the course. So I connected, and I started treating myself under their guidance with this new method of using vitamin D. And not only was my problem becoming less, less, it really started improving. And then I connected with him and I said... Then he only said, "Will you come? I will train you. I want this to spread to that part of the globe because there is no doctor from India... " He trains doctors, most of them are in the West. Up to Europe and North America, South America, and the European countries. So I said, "Yes, I will come." So I went to South America, and I took extensive training under him. And it was... That was life turning step happening in my life. And I realized that "Wow, what a science! Why are we doctors not taught about it? Why are we not aware of it?"

0:14:51.7 S1: Value of vitamin D.

0:14:54.6 Mahtani: Yeah, we don't know about it that much. So anyways, my problems slowly started going away and it has almost 95% gone now my skin still has that little gray tinge, but my body is...

0:15:07.9 S1: There's much glow now in fact [chuckle]

0:15:09.8 Mahtani: Thank you. That's vitamin D, I literally worship vitamin D. Yeah, literally worship it. And I feel that it's the chemical gift of God's sun to humanity. Life is not possible without sun, health is not possible without sun, and vitamin D. It is a chemical gift, which we need today. No wonder this molecule is so intelligent. Even Dr. Coimbra says that the entire pharmaceutical industry can spend years, but they will not be able to make one single molecule that can do all the functions that vitamin D does, cannot make it. These are the words of Dr. Coimbra. So anyways... So he said, "Go ahead. Use this in your country, around, train doctors." So that's what I'm doing. And there has been... What should I say? I feel now I know the calling in my life because I'm dealing with so many patients. I don't have to do anything, they just contact. No suffering here autoimmune disorders scourge, Psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, two very common in India. And then of course, I have patients from neighboring countries also. And we are getting good results.

0:16:19.5 S1: Because generally what the patients do they just take the pill, and they know how to... Just taking on the pills, that is more important for them. Inside healing, they are not much doing.

0:16:31.4 Mahtani: Yeah. So we're targeting the root cause, the root cause. And now the results are great. And my problem is gone again. So now the gist of the story is Pranayama was a tool, very good tool. vitamin D, another tool. Of course it has to be used properly. So I always say, you have to deal with both the hardware and the software. So Pranayama and all these practices mind management is like a program. It's a software, but the hardware is very important. You can't ignore it. You have to correct these nutritional deficiencies of the body...

0:17:07.4 S1: Under proper guidance.

0:17:08.6 Mahtani: Commonest vitamin D. And unfortunately, vitamin D is not there in food.

0:17:14.5 S1: Not even [0:17:15.9] _.

0:17:16.3 Mahtani: Our ancestors... Vegetarian food, zero, zero. And non vegetarian food little bit, how much can you eat? My vitamin D talks are there on YouTube you can go through them and...

0:17:28.6 S1: Yes. Yes.

0:17:29.9 Mahtani: You need to take 100 glasses of milk per day to get the vitamin D. Back to fortified milk, 50 egg yolks. Hey, can you take it to meet your requirement? You cannot. How were our ancestors getting it? By working and sweating in the sun. 90% of vitamin D was that way. 10% was to these various... Much more nutritious foods of that time than today. So where are we? Farming, out of question, AC rooms, closed doors, windows Lock down...

0:18:01.7 S1: Full time on mobile and laptops.

0:18:03.7 Mahtani: Lock down have further reduced the vitamin D of people. And you won't believe that testing the results we get nowadays, world talk of 15 nanograms, we see reports less than four, less than three. Never saw that before. So time is like that, that either we become farmers, not possible, or we take vitamin D supplements, or we take medicines later in life. Choice is ours.

0:18:34.0 S1: Exactly.

0:18:34.8 Mahtani: So that was my journey, which has been... My Psoriasis has been a blessing to me. And I'm really grateful to the Divine for giving it to me. Otherwise I wouldn't have had that journey of venturing out. So I left my lucrative post and job in... What should I say? Intensive Care Unit which would have given me definitely more financial gratification, but now I'm very happy and I have a beautiful calling this life is going to be too short. I want to spread this message by training people, which I'm doing it. I do have training programs for doctors. And the purpose of sharing not to keep things in silence. It has to be wide.

0:19:16.5 S1: So Pranayam, in today's time, it's a master key for any chronic disease you say? Pranayam, as well as vitamin D also. And let me...

0:19:26.7 Mahtani: Yeah, definitely... We've explained all that it's very important.

0:19:30.4 S1: Yes.

0:19:30.7 Mahtani: Breath is very important Divia and we take it for granted.

0:19:34.1 S1: Yeah.

0:19:34.5 Mahtani: Our breaths are very shallow, we don't care, so we are hardly utilizing the power of breathing, not just for physiological benefits, as I say.

0:19:43.0 S1: Right.

0:19:43.4 Mahtani: It is very important and pranayama has to be done mindfully, not mechanically.

0:19:51.2 S1: Exactly.

0:19:51.7 Mahtani: I have a message for the people looking back the journey of pranayama, there are so many people who are doing pranayama. They religiously, one, two, three, four blah blah blah protocol every day, but they're not really getting the benefits, why? Because it is mechanical.

0:20:10.5 S1: Exactly.

0:20:11.2 Mahtani: Number one, mindfulness has to be there, and definitely mindfulness means my personal attitude towards things in life. So when I teach my students, I always say we are doing pranayama we are getting out of, let's say prana or energy inside you. But if my attitude is not right, it's like you're draining out the prana. Its like a short circuit happening.

0:20:30.6 S1: It's of no use then.

0:20:33.6 Mahtani: So we have to work on both the aspects.

0:20:37.3 S1: So ma'am due to online classes and work from home, many people are spending more time on laptops worldwide. So in your recent book, power of posture, what do you think power of posture plays an important role in these days?

0:20:53.1 Mahtani: Oh, really super, very much, because that is another aspect of my work. See pranayama took me also to the complete science of yoga, physical practices of yoga. And we realized with time that even here, we have to change our understanding for the present time for many things. Because all these exercises whether it's yoga, physical therapy they were developed years back when the body was different, today we are different. We have lost our muscle tone, the core strength is less.

0:21:29.8 S1: Yes.

0:21:29.8 Mahtani: Of course, laptop, sedentary lifestyles, less of physical work, so muscles have overall become very weak. Sorry. So the postures get distorted. Whether it is the relationship of head with this spine, whether it is the back, whether it is how we stand, how we sit, how we drive, how we walk, how we exercise, how we do yoga, how we sleep, posture is round the clock. It's not just standing erect, everything matters. So the book was another aspect to health, to make the people aware that there are many things we are not knowing. No fault, no blame. But we need to correct ourself to prevent knee problems, lower back problems, neck and shoulder problems. And this book, of course, and the concepts are applicable to all.

0:22:21.7 S1: All, even young kids also. They are not...

0:22:24.0 Mahtani: They need it. I want to make it... I wish it's a part of school education to children. It should be propagated because if these things are corrected at the foundational years, then we can prevent so many problems in the future. Because then they come to us with aches and pains and then we have to teach them, "See, your standing method is wrong, your sitting is wrong, your sleeping is wrong, your driving is wrong... "

0:22:47.1 S1: Because most of... Yeah.

0:22:48.3 Mahtani: Exercises for that, yeah. Go ahead.

0:22:49.9 S1: Most of the parents, they don't even know themselves, so they are not able to correct their children also [0:22:54.8] _.

0:22:56.3 Mahtani: Absolutely.

0:22:57.3 S1: We can have a separate video on this next time.

0:23:00.6 Mahtani: Sure, sure, sure. I'll be happy to. You can make it like a workshop, sure, we can do that. We can do it. Absolutely, these are things to be shared with all.

0:23:10.0 S1: Yeah, and ma'am what will be your message to the viewers for lifestyle disease management, what they can do in present era.

0:23:19.3 Mahtani: Yeah, see the lifestyle word, it incorporates so many things. It's not that simple a word.

0:23:26.9 S1: Yeah.

0:23:27.3 Mahtani: Is it at lifestyle. So number one, what are the tenets of a lifestyle? Let's make it simple. Let's call it body, breath, mind, easy. So when it comes to the body, there is lots about exercise, food diet, sleep, very important. And in today's time, we are losing our health by not paying importance to sleep also. I'm not going to talk about exercise and breath because we've done that, they are very important traits. But one important thing is not just eating but sleeping well at the right time.

0:24:01.6 S1: Sleeping.

0:24:03.9 Mahtani: Yeah. We are seeing so many problems because of that, not only at the level of our behavior with people, but even it is affecting the hormones. The lifestyle has changed with the technology around, with what you call it the night working, night shifts to suit other countries time zones, and all... And there are so many women in work field, which is good. Excellent. But it does disturb our hormonal pattern and we are seeing a lot of issues, polycystic ovarian disease, infertility, so many things are happening. So sleep, I suggest sleep on time. Don't be a night person. Try to be a morning person. It matters. Nature has laws, rules. Like traffic light you have to follow rules, if you don't follow the traffic light rules what will happen? Accident. So we have to follow these laws of nature, we have to be in tune with them as much as we can, food, water intake everything. Then of course breathing.

0:25:06.3 Mahtani: Fine. 10 minutes. Just 10 minutes time to do some mindful breathing practices for yourself. They go a long way, because breath is a link between the body and mind. Body, breath, mind. You do something to the breath, you do something good to both body and the mind.

0:25:25.8 S1: The mind, yes.

0:25:26.0 Mahtani: It's so important and it's life, without breath, there's no life. So why don't we realize its potentials values and... Videos are very in plenty. Yes, you also know the [0:25:36.4] _ please use them up.

0:25:39.3 S1: Yeah.

0:25:40.0 Mahtani: Body, breath and coming to the mind. Well, if nothing else, pranayama does have long-term effect on the mind, but...

0:25:47.0 S1: Mindful pranayama. [0:25:48.2] _.

0:25:49.7 Mahtani: Yeah, when it comes to other attitude and things, we should be open to... Let us say listening, to some or reading. Some of the things which may not gel with us 100% right now. For example, there's nothing about any religion, we have a beautiful culture in India, we have the treasure house of knowledge, which is there in various books, teachers. [0:26:18.6] _. All these things should not be kept for the last phase of our journey in life.

0:26:27.2 S1: It's a continuous...

0:26:28.4 Mahtani: They should be made... Yes, they should be made... But now, if possible schools again... At least the basic, attitudes... I remember in my school days we had classes we used to... They used to be called as model science classes.

0:26:41.2 S1: Exactly.

0:26:41.8 Mahtani: And I still miss them. Great fun, we used to have fun, games and yet get to learn some things which are needed in todays time. So be open to that, be open to learning new things, hobbies in life. Learn to give friends, when you give, you get... That's the key to health.

0:27:00.9 S1: Yeah.

0:27:01.0 Mahtani: In today's culture, we are learning to take, take, take.

0:27:02.9 S1: Yeah, exactly.

0:27:05.4 Mahtani: Giving is so important, and that's the key to good health also. I think that's enough from my side, and I can keep talking.

0:27:12.5 S1: So Your motto has always been heal the mind and the body follows.

0:27:19.3 Mahtani: Definitely. You can't just do... Only do the body and say, I'm doing everything.

0:27:26.1 S1: Yeah, exactly. Thank you so much for being here on my show, and it was my pleasure to have you on my show. Thank you so much, ma'am.

0:27:35.7 Mahtani: Thank you Divia.

0:27:36.5 S1: Thank you.

0:27:37.0 Mahtani: For giving me this opportunity, and I hope I have not over done...

0:27:41.8 S1: No no ma'am.

0:27:42.2 Mahtani: But...

0:27:43.4 S1: You have given the right message to the viewers.

0:27:45.8 Mahtani: [0:27:45.8] _ share with people and I'm always there to do my best. Thank you so much.

0:27:49.5 S1: Thank you so much.

0:27:50.1 Mahtani: I wish you all the best. Bye bye.

0:27:51.0 S1: Thank you so much.

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