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Marc Halpern | March 18, 2019 | p. 1

Plant Medicine Summit™ Ayurvedic Herbology and the Management of Cancer

Marc Halpern David: Welcome to everyone. This is David Crow, your host of the fourth annual Plant

Medicine Summit where we are exploring the wonderful diversity of how medicinal plants can help us on all different levels, from a simple prevention to treatment and management of more serious conditions. Our guest in this segment is Dr Marc Halpern. Dr Halpern is the founder and president of the California College of Ayurveda and one of the leading experts in the field of Ayurvedic Medicine in the West. He's the author of multiple textbooks and the popular book Healing Your Life: Lessons on the Path of Ayurveda. Dr Halpern, welcome.

Marc: Thank you, David. It's an honor to be here and to be a part of The Shift Network. David: Well, you have decades of clinical experience and experience as an educator.

Let's talk about the subject that you have proposed here, which of course is very serious and complex. That is “Ayurvedic Herbology and the Management of Cancer.” I know you have a lot to teach us about this. This is somewhat of a specialty that you are working with at your college and that you are interacting with medical doctors in the medical field. I'm thinking that we should start by just setting the context here of what you actually do. You clarify in the title here, Management of Cancer. Tell us. What do you mean exactly by managing cancer with Ayurvedic Herbology?

Marc: Well, David, when we talk about cancer, we really need to understand the scope

or the size of the problem that we're talking about here. There's 1.7 million new cases of cancer diagnosed each year in the United States. This is a tremendous problem. Everybody knows somebody who has cancer. All of our listeners are going to interact with people who have had, will have or do have cancer. Each year, 600,000 people die of various cancers in the United States, the United States alone. This is a tremendous problem. In fact, we could go as far to say in terms of health that along with heart disease, they are the two biggest challenges to the health and well-being of our population. Learning how to prevent, to manage and to treat cancer are all very, very important.

Now, the difference really between managing cancer and treating cancer is a fine

line. When we talk about managing, we're really talking about managing a person. When we talk about treating, we're talking about directly interacting with those cancerous cells. Managing a patient with cancer would mean understanding the nature of the patient, what's happening with them, who they


are as an individual, how this condition is affecting their life. Managing the patient means understanding how the cancer tends to progress in that patient and providing the support necessary through diet, through lifestyle, through herbs to support this individual to live the maximum potential of their lifespan and to give their body the optimum chance for healing to take place. That's what I think of when I think of management. When I think of treatment, I think of understanding the nature of the cancer, what's happening in a particular cancer and how herbal medicines and other medicines as well can try to either destroy the cancer cells or to fix, in a sense, the cancer cells – and we'll talk about that maybe a little bit more as well -- fix the genetic damage that has caused the cancers to grow out of control.

When we tend to work with patients at the California College of Ayurveda, we're

managing the patient. We are treating as well the various cancers that patients come in with. But we don't take the sole responsibility for the treatment of the case except in very rare situations where patients choose that. Most of the time, we're working in an integrative environment where we're working with oncologists. Most patients are receiving some combination of what the best of Western medicine has to offer and the best of Ayurvedic medicines have to offer and particularly related to the herbal component of the Ayurvedic Medicine. We follow an evidence basis. Today, there's been tremendous amounts of research into the use of herbs and not just, “Do they help or do they not help?” but actually looking at the herbs on a deep level, on a molecular level to find out how do they have their effects on various cancers. Perhaps we'll have an opportunity to talk about that today. But this is what I think about when I think about the difference between management and treatment. Management is bigger. Management, it's managing the whole patient. When the patient is experiencing physically, emotionally and spiritually the level of their consciousness, treatment is really to target the actual damage that has occurred in the body and to correct that. That is the goal of the treatment. That is the goal.

David: Excellent explanation. Thank you very much. It's a shocking statistic to start us

off with but very important for people to know and also a very clear distinction that you are making between management and treatment. Thank you for that. Now, one thing that I am personally very interested in hearing from you, before we go into the abundant information that you have to share with us about specific herbs, is the Ayurvedic view of cancer. You just mention here that your description of the management of the entire person is really something. As you were explaining it, I was really struck by how completely lacking that side of the equation is in modern medicine. It's purely treatment based. But the patient them self is overlooked. I think that what you're describing here is actually bringing the other 50% of the therapy into place here. I think that's crucial. Thank you for articulating that. Now, I know that you have extensive background


in Ayurvedic Medicine. I'm really curious what does Ayurveda say? What knowledge and information and wisdom do you have to share with us about what cancer is according to Ayurveda?

Marc: I think it's important to know that cancer has been around for as long as human

beings have been around. We have obviously new kinds of cancers today. But the ancient texts and the ancient physicians of Ayurvedic Medicines described cancer quite beautifully thousands of years ago. They described also the approach to how to manage these conditions. They used terms that are fancy in Sanskrit, terms like Arbuda which means malignancy. We translate it today as a malignancy. But it really refers to a serpent-like demon – serpent-like because it spreads around the body. Dviarbuda, which means that it has metastasized, which means that one has turned into many. They had an understanding of that. They articulated very beautifully how to improve the chances of the patient to recover from that condition.

Now, Ayurvedic Medicine is based on the idea that each person is unique and

different. We call that the nature of the patient that has to be understood by the practitioner. Then each person has a different imbalance within them. Even if two people have the same kind of cancer, they have different psychological and physical disturbances in their body from an energetic understanding of the body. We say you have to know the nature of the patient, the nature of the overall imbalance within the body. Then you also have to know the nature of the disease which we call the Roga. That's very important as well. In this case, the Roga is the cancer. With that information, the Ayurvedic practitioner can choose the proper remedy. The remedy is matched up to the understanding of who the patient is, the overall general imbalance within their body, the nature of the disease, which in this case is cancer. Then the remedy can be matched up to it. When we talk about the nature, Ayurveda talks about this in terms of understanding the qualities inherent within a person and the qualities inherent within the herb and trying to match them up. For instance, if a person had a hot condition, we would give them cooling herbs. That's the simple way to understand it. A cool condition, we would give them warming herbs.

In cancers and in another diseases, the disease also has its own character. It

could be hot or cold, moist or dry, mobile or stable. It has various qualities. We seek to understand those qualities. Then we seek to understand the qualities that the herbs are going to bring into the body and the mind of the patient. When they're matched up properly, it changes the physiology of the body into its physiology of healing rather than a physiology of disease. On a simple level, most cancers, most malignancies, for instance, have a mobile quality to them, meaning that they tend to spread. They tend to be hot, meaning they have a very high metabolic rate to them. They have a large appetite. They're consuming the body. They tend to grow larger. The word we use for that is growth. It means


larger. They tend to disturb all three doshas of the body. You can think of a dosha as a combination of certain qualities. All three doshas are disturbed in the body. We seek to understand this. Then we can design the appropriate treatment plan and manage the patient properly.

David: Excellent description. Thank you. Before we look at the individual herbs, I’m

wondering about how you are actually working with the patient. Specifically, are you using verbs as a primary treatment? Secondary treatment? What is the role of Ayurveda and herbal medicine specifically? How is it actually applied? Are there people who want to use these herbs as their primary treatment only? If that's the case, what do you do? Are there patients that don't want the cancer treated at all? Or are they totally under the care of an oncologist? Or what are some of the different scenarios? How do the herbs play a role?

Marc: We see every kind of scenario at the clinic. We see patients that come to us with

early cancers or very late cancers. With the early cancers, there are some patients that want to try to treat it as naturally as possible and see whether or not the body is going to be able to resolve this situation. Sometimes it does happen. With very, very late stage cancers, we often see patients whose doctors have told them, “There's not really that much more that we can do for you.” They're grasping at straws, in a sense. They're looking for a miracle. We see those patients as well with stage four cancers that have spread, metastasized where the organs are starting to fail. We see everything in between too. In between, we see a lot of integrative medicine where patients are choosing to get chemotherapy and radiation. But they're also choosing to take Ayurvedic herbs and to follow an Ayurvedic lifestyle. They're trying to maximize the potential of their body to heal itself. There's a tremendous amount that Ayurveda is able to do.

Now, the practitioner works with body, mind and consciousness. The

practitioner is more than just a person who gives medicines. But it's somebody who educates the patient about their options. They provide information about staging and the condition that the patient is in. What are their options in terms of Western medicine and in terms of Ayurvedic medicines? Then when we actually start to work with them, we want to build up their immune system. The immune system of the human body has a tremendous capability of healing itself. That includes destroying cancers. It’s actually the immune system's job to destroy cancers. We actually make certain cells, certain types of lymphocytes called NK cells, which are called natural killer cells because they kill off cancer cells. We produce a lot of proteins in our bodies that try to repair the damaged genes that are inside of a cancer cell that are causing it to act out of harmony with the rest of the community. We try to work with the intelligence of the body.


How does Ayurveda really look at cancer? One of the ways we look at cancer is that the intelligence of the cell has failed. That a cell normally will grow and divide in a healthy way. The intelligence of a cell is based on the genes that are inside of that cell. When certain genes are damaged, the cell will start to grow and divide without any checks and balances. Now normally, in a cell, we have genes whose job is to repress the cell tumor. They call tumor repressor genes. What they do is they stop the cell from rapidly dividing. If those genes are damaged, the cell will divide without controls. There are mechanisms within the cell for cellular repair. There are mechanisms in the cell. For instance, if a cell were to become damaged, there's a mechanism in the cell for the cell to actually kill itself, to commit suicide. It's actually called cellular suicide. It’s called apoptosis or apoptosis in Western terminology. It means cell death because the cell has realized that it's no longer functioning properly. But that gene that causes the cell to commit suicide can be damaged. That cell begins to act out of harmony with the rest of the body. It's a rogue cell. What we seek to do in Ayurveda is to restore the intelligence of the cell. When we talk about restoring the intelligence at a cellular level, what we mean is repairing the genetic damage that has taken place within that cell. That's done through a combination of herbal medicine along with all the other treatments in Ayurveda; perhaps most importantly, various meditations and visualizations that are done in order to support and awaken the body. That's really the way that we would look at cancer from an Ayurvedic perspective.

David: Brilliant. Thank you. Excellent overview. Let's jump in to some of the most

important herbs that you use for this purpose. I'm sure that includes breaking down the different types of cancer that you see in your clinic a little bit more specifically. I'll just turn it over to you. What are some of the most important herbs in your pharmacy?

Marc: Well, we have a pharmacy at the California College of Ayurveda that has about

200 different raw materials that are in there. We tend to make up the formulations for each of our patients. Once we understand the nature of the disease and the nature of the patient, we can design an herbal formula. There are some herbs though that are really quite famous in Ayurveda for their effects on various cancers. Some are specific to one cancer or another. Some really work more generally throughout the entire body in order to restore the intelligence of the body. One of them that's very famous is Guggulu. Guggulu is like a resin. I guess, you could call it a resin. This resin contains a sterone called Guggulsterone. Guggulsterone is a molecule that is being very well studied today because it's been used for thousands of years in various cancer formulas. Of course, scientists have said, “Well, let's take a look at this. Is there really any evidence basis that it could work?” The answer is yes. There's a tremendous evidence basis that it works.


Go all the way back to a decade ago, a little more than a decade ago in 2006, in a journal called Clinical Cancer Research. They found that Guggulsterone was beneficial for suppressing something called Nuclear Factor Kappa B or sometimes it's called NF-κB. It's a pathway by which cancers grow. When it suppresses that pathway, cancers have a harder time growing. Specifically, in that study, they were looking at bone resorption, bone resorption that occurred with aging but also bone resorption that occurs with certain cancers. Certain cancers destroy the bones. There are certain cells that destroy bones called osteoclasts. What they found out is that the administration of a guggul suppressed the tumors of these osteoclasts. In other words, the osteoclast was the cell that had its intelligence damaged. The cells would go ahead and start eating away at the bones. That was a very important study back in 2008. Of course, they continued to study Guggulsterone and Guggulu.

In 2008, I think it was at Texas University, Southern Texas University. They

started really delving into how Guggulsterone affects the genes. Now remember, the genes are the intelligence of the cell. They found that Guggulsterone moderates gene expression. It inhibits cell proliferation. When we give somebody guggul, the way we look at it is we're giving them an herb that is going to restore or has the potential to restore the intelligence of the cell, which from a molecular model, -- I say a molecular model because today molecular medicine has become the new wave of medicine in the West. The herbs are molecular medicines. They contain the molecules that go into the cell and repair the damage. They're finding that Guggulsterone modulates gene expression leading in the inhibition of cell proliferation, meaning it stops the cell from growing out of control. It also awakens that part of the cell that helps the cell realize that it's acting out of harmony with the rest of the community. That cell will commit suicide, apoptosis or apoptosis. This is so important, this research.

There's one other piece of research too that came out of that 2008 study. They

found out that the Guggulsterone also has a preventative action on what's called angiogenesis, which means the development of new blood vessels that supply the tumor with nutrients. Essentially, what it does is it starves the cell of nutrients. We're seeing in one herb one class of molecules -- it's more than one molecule -- one class of molecules called Guggulsterones that have multiple actions that is supporting the restoration of normal function in the tumor cells. Of course, they continued to do the studies. In 2013, they started looking specifically at breast cancer and starting to take a look at the pathways that are involved in breast cancer. They found out that the Guggulu specifically interferes with beta ketamine, which is a signaling pathway that is involved specifically in breast cancer. Again, it inhibits the growth of the tumors. It also awakens the tumor to realize that it is out of harmony. The tumor commits suicide. The cells commit suicide through that process of apoptosis.


Then most recently, just last year, they started looking at a classical herbal formula called Kanchanar Guggulu. Kanchanar Guggulu is a mixture of herbs with two main herbs and a Kanchanar and Guggulu. This is probably the most famous formula that is used in Ayurvedic Medicine over thousands of years. They started looking at that specifically. This is in the Journal of Integrative Medicine just published a few months ago. There, what they found out is that Kanchanar Guggulu, they just confirmed that it has a cytotoxic effect, meaning that it tends to destroy cancer cells. They said that it inhibits cell division into mitotic --meaning it’s stopping it from growing. This simply was a study that showed that it does this. Then the study recommends more research on it. Guggulu is one of those herbs that is very, very important.

Another herb that's very important is ashwagandha. Ashwagandha, it was a little

bit of a surprise when it really started to become famous for cancer. Because it's not an herb that we tend to think about just automatically with cancer. People, who are familiar with ashwagandha think of it as affecting the immune system, building up the internal strength of the body. But it actually has some very potent effects particularly on lung cancers and on breast cancers. They started finding this out also around 2006. They did a study on lung cancer where they took lung cancer cells. Unfortunately for the mice, they put them in mice. They grafted them into mice. That helped them to treat human lung cancer cells to see what would happen. What they found out was that when they gave the chemotherapeutic drug, they had a certain beneficial effect. But when they gave the chemotherapeutic drug called Paclitaxel with ashwagandha, they had an even better effect. That was published in the journal called Cancer Science in 2006 that the combination of ashwagandha with the chemotherapeutic drug had a better effect than the chemotherapeutic drug alone. That was very, very exciting.

As they went forward in 2009, they continued to take a look at how

ashwagandha work. Well, we got a better effect when we gave both together. Why did that happen? They started to take a look at the molecular functions of ashwagandha. They found out that it also inhibited the NF-κB, Nuclear Factor Kappa B and Cyclooxygenase and other factors that stimulate cells to grow. In 2009, they now had the model, the biochemical model to understand better how ashwagandha actually helped lung cancer. In 2010, they continued to do studies on human cell lines. Once again, they found that it worked very, very well. They isolated out what they call Withaferin A, which is the most potent molecule that they have found within the ashwagandha. Then in 2014, they started taking a look specifically at ashwagandha in metastatic breast cancers, which are late stage breast cancers. Once it's metastasized, it's considered pretty much to be stage four. It has a very low long-term survival rate, maybe 5% or 10% live ten years. Anything that can help prevent metastasis would be very, very beneficial. Specifically, they were looking at the Withaferin A. They wanted to see what


effect it would have on aggressive breast cancer, which is sometimes called Triple Negative Breast Cancer. What they found out was that it was very effective. They found out that it prevented metastasis in that cell line. They were able to identify the pathways in which it was active. That was tremendous. Then in 2014, the International Journal of Molecular Medicine, they found out that Withaferin A induced apoptosis. That's the cell death that I talked about through a specific pathway. They isolated that out.

It's very exciting. Now, today, they're looking at it in breast cancer. Just earlier in

January in a research journal called Mitochondrion, they found out that it also works in breast cancer cells. The Withaferin A specifically works in the breast cancer cells that it stimulates apoptosis cell death. They're recommending that it be further studied. Now, just to put that into perspective, we have a patient that are in center right now with stage four, late stage cancers. We speak to the oncologist. We present the oncologist with the evidence basis for the integrative aspect. We encourage them especially with the patients that want that to continue to do everything that they do with their chemotherapy, their radiation, their molecular drugs. But we show them the evidence basis for what we do. We communicate with them. We're finding that most of the oncologists presented with the evidence and a patient that is interested will go ahead and say, “Yes. Go right ahead. Do that,” especially in late stage cancers. Because they recognize that their effects are very minimal.

There are other herbs as well that are very commonly used that have a wide-

ranging action. One of the most famous ones that many people are thinking of today would be -- turmeric is an example. Turmeric has a great evidence basis for it. There are tremendous studies on it. They've taken a look specifically at its effect on tumor repressing genes. Now, tumor repressing genes are p53. They test the turmeric on the cells that have a damaged p53 gene. They're finding out that it is repairing the damage. Sometimes it's awakening the cell. The cell is committing apoptosis. When we put patients on a program of care who have cancer, the herbs we look to -- and we use very high doses in our cancer patients -- but the herbs we look to are turmeric, Kanchanar Guggulu, ashwagandha. There are other herbs as well. We don't have time to go through all the research.

Triphala which is a mixture of three herbs -- Amalaki, Bibhitaki, Haritaki -- new

research is being done on that. They're finding out that, one, it has molecules in it that are rare in the sense that they actually affect pancreatic tumors. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive cancers and the most difficult to treat. Anything that can be beneficial in that is wonderful. They're finding out that Triphala will inhibit angiogenesis, meaning the growth of new blood vessels into the tumor. It's starving the tumors making it harder for them to survive. Triphala too is going to be a very important herb for the management of cancer. But it goes on and on. There are dandelion root. It has been wonderfully studied.


There is a tremendous amount we do. We work with patients by trying to normalize -- we think of it as, “Let's normalize the physiology of the body.” In Ayurveda, we say that the disturbance in physiology begins in the digestive system. We have to start with treating the digestive system and making sure that that's healthy. The subtle root of all physiological imbalances in the body, we then say, come from the mind. We also have to treat the mind. That's where the broader work comes in with the meditation, the Yoga Nidra in order to help have a calm mind, a healthy digestive system. Then we can target specifically the Roga, the disease that the patient is experiencing. We'll do that with the herbs as well. The herbs play a tremendous role in the management of the patient with cancer.

I don't want to forget to mention one of the thing, which I think is very

important. That is that herbs also reduce the side effects of chemotherapy. There's an evidence basis for that as well. Patients that are going through chemotherapy suffer a tremendous amount because chemotherapeutic drugs tend to be non-specific. In other words, they cause cells to die. But those cells are not only the cells of the tumor. They're the cells around the tumor, the cells in the lining of the stomach. It's causing a lot of cell death in the body. That's why they're harsh. That's why it's difficult. That's why people who are receiving chemotherapy look and feel very, very sick. Now, just as a side note, the herbal medicines do not have that effect. The herbal medicines are fascinating because they are specific. They do not have a negative effect on healthy cells. They only target the cancer cells. But there are herbs and herbal preparations in Ayurvedic medicine that reduce the effects of the chemotherapy on the healthy cells while allowing the chemotherapy to have a more specific action on the cancer cells. Those herbs are categorized under a title called rasayana herbs. These rasayana herbs is said to have radio protective effects, meaning that it protects you against the side effects of the radiation treatments as well as the chemotherapy.

The studies that they've been doing have been primarily on a few different

herbs. One of them is called ashwagandha rasayana. It has that herb I already talked in it. But it has many other herbs in it too. But that's the main herb or the chief herb. Chyawanprash is a very, very famous combination of more than 50 herbs. That too has been studied. It’s being used for its radio protective effects. Brahma Rasayana -- and this is Brahmi in it. Brahmi, it’s Bacopa monniera. Brahmi also, in this form, is been shown to be very protective. They've actually done studies where they've taken mice. They've expose them to the chemotherapeutic agents. One of the side effects of certain chemotherapeutic agents is that it can compromise the health of the heart called cardiotoxicity. Then they gave to those same mice, another group of mice, they gave Chyawanprash. When they gave Chyawanprash to the mice and the chemotherapeutic drug, there was no cardiotoxicity. When they only gave the chemotherapeutic drug, then there was cardiotoxicity. This is part of the


evidence basis trying to reduce the side effects of cancer treatments. We showed this as well to the physicians that we're working on. We're working hard to educate them because they don't have a lot of training in this aspect of oncology.

David, I want to ask you if you have any thoughts or comments or questions

about what I've talked about. David: Yes, all three, of course. First, I just want to say that's a brilliant exposition of

these major herbs. Thank you. It's very interesting to hear about the biochemical research that's coming out, which is showing these positive effects. Very nice. Now, what I'm curious about overall is that you are treating and managing a lot of different cases of different types. You are seeing people in all different stages of treatment and management of different cancers. I'm just curious if you were able to sum all of this up and make a generalized statement for people who maybe are potential patients, clients, people who have not been to the school or your clinic. If you were able to sum up the generalized effects of integrating this evidence based herbal medicine into your clinical practice, what would you say are the overall benefits that you have found that Ayurvedic medicine and herbal medicine offer people who are going through different types of cancers, different types of treatments? Are there some things that you could say are just universally found that people can expect that Ayurvedic medicine and herbal medicine might be able to accomplish?

Marc: Yeah. David, I want to specify that you've asked me about my experience. I'm

going to move away from statistics. I’m going to move away from the evidence based and share with you what my experience has been with the experience through the clinic and the services provided by our college. Our experience is a higher quality of life and greater longevity. That is our experience. When you take a look at quality of life, morbidity is the suffering that occurs in the cancer patient. When a patient undergoes Ayurvedic protocol, they're working with their body. They're working with their mind. They're working with the herbs, like I talked about, that prevent many of the side effects of the chemotherapeutic drugs while still allowing those chemotherapeutic drugs to work according to the science. We're seeing much less suffering in them. That's the first thing.

The second is longevity. When longevity studies are done and they take a look at

individuals, what's the percentage of people who will live five years, that will live ten years, they're looking at the general population of individuals who are not making any lifestyle changes, who are not utilizing herbs, that are not taking into their body what herbs provide, which is not only these molecules that I've talked about, but we would say, from an Ayurvedic perspective, that they bring into the body, Prana, life energy. We think of herbs as intelligence being added into the body. We don't think of them as inert. We think of them as living beings that are


being asked to heal the body. What we see as a result of that is that when you change your lifestyle, when you bring the Prana into the body, this life energy into the body, the longevity of an individual with cancer is increased.

Now, I would eventually love to participate in studies and fund studies and find

the funding for the studies that will be able to take comparisons between -- and I shared, for instance. I shared a study earlier that took a look at Paclitaxel with an herb and without the herb and the cardiotoxicity that was prevented by taking the herb. We will eventually see studies that take a look at integrative medicine where they're taking a specific herbal protocols along with chemotherapeutic and radiation protocols and comparing those to the standard treatments. I have no doubt, based on my experience, that we're going to see significant differences, much greater longevity in those individuals who are following an integrative medicine path. I believe strongly in the best of all science. I'm not opposed to the Western medicines. I believe they have to be administered in an intelligent thoughtful manner. I believe that the Ayurvedic medicines and the herbal medicines have a tremendous role in the management of patients with a cancer.

David: Yes. Thank you. Well, increasing longevity and improving the quality of life is a

really substantial contribution to the treatment of cancer, management of cancer. I also agree with you that I think that more and more of these comparative studies are going to be finding exactly the same thing that toxicity is reduced to regeneration and rejuvenation or increased longevity is increased and so forth. Dr. Halpern, unfortunately, we are out of time. I know that there is so much more that you have to share. But I want to tell people about your website where they can see your good work at your school and possibly come and visit you and learn more about what you do. I know that that website is also a wealth of information. I’ll just give people the address, ayurvedacollege.com, just like it sounds, ayurvedacollege.com. When people come there, what can they find?

Marc: Well, when they go to the website of the California College of Ayurveda, there’s

many portals that you're going to be able to go into. Of course, you'll be able to find out all about the programs at the California College of Ayurveda. But there's also portals into research papers that have been written by our students here at the school. You’re going to be able to read those. There will be articles that I've written over the years that’ll be there. There's an educational component to it. There is a way to educate yourself. There's also a way to find out about further education. I also want to invite your listeners to join our Facebook group called Ayurveda, Yoga Nidra and Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy with Dr. Marc Halpern. In that way, you'll be able to keep up on all of the discussions, new herbal research that is coming out as well as lifestyle information. I hope you'll join us on Facebook as well.


David: Excellent. Good resources. Well, Dr. Halpern, I just want to say on behalf of all

the listeners, thank you for a brilliant presentation, very in-depth, very biochemical but also very interesting from the integrative and complementary and holistic standpoint of Ayurvedic Medicine as well. Excellent. For me, personally, I just want to say thank you for being one of the primary voices that has brought Ayurveda into this country for many decades. People may not be aware of the work that you've done, the contributions that you have made. But you have been a leading voice, a primary figure in bringing Ayurveda to the West, bringing it into our culture, teaching thousands and thousands of students who are going on to become practitioners. The impact of your work is tremendous. I just want to say thank you for all of that.

Marc: Well, thank you, David. I really appreciate the opportunity to participate in this

program. I'd like to thank The Shift Network as well for reaching out not only to me but to the hundreds of thousands of individuals around the world that are going to benefit from this service. Thank you very much.

David: Yes. To everybody joining us in this segment, thank you for being here. Join us

again in another segment of The Plant Medicine Summit. © 2019 The Shift Network. All rights reserved.

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Plant Medicine Summit - s3.amazonaws.com › tsnshift › summits...California College of Ayurveda and one of the leading experts in the field of Ayurvedic Medicine in the West. He's