Your Body Is Not a Machine: Ayurveda’s Simple Truths for a World Overrun by Solutions
Difficulties to keep up with the latest news about how to live happier? Younger? Thinner? Healthier? We live in a world where information is overwhelming because it is way too present everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, I love technology. I just think it is getting to a level where our nervous system is struggling to keep up with it. When it comes to health, it is becoming a real industry of “Have you tried this new product?” “Have you tried this new way of doing this and that?” And here we go, we lose focus on what we just started, thinking this “new” thing will work better.
Does it ring a bell?
When I feel overwhelmed myself, I go back to the root of science, the root of the best health care provider I know: Nature and Intuition.
Your body will heal naturally when it feels safe. The way Nature works is more than enough to find all the solutions we need as long as we do it early and consistently.
Want to know more?
Let’s go back to Ayurveda and Yoga, and tune these beautiful sciences into the most natural and efficient way of healing you.
What Actually Happens in the Body During Amenorrhea (The Simple Truth Behind the Science)
There are two types of hypothalamic amenorrhea:
Primary — when menstruation stops for less than 3 months
Secondary — when cycles that were previously normal stop for 3+ months
What nearly every woman experiences in adulthood is secondary (functional) hypothalamic amenorrhea, meaning there is no structural problem with the brain, pituitary, or ovaries, but the communication between them has been disrupted.
And this mechanism is very simple:
1. The brain senses a threat
The hypothalamus, our internal “safety switch” detects either:
energy deficiency
emotional stress
physical stress
over-exercise
psychological pressure
or a combination of all of these
Yeah, I know what you are thinking : it is impossible to not having felt the above at least once in a month. However I am talking about a regular feeling of the above and for a long term.
2. It turns off ovulation to protect you
The hypothalamus then suppresses its pulsatile release of GnRH → which then lowers LH + FSH → which then halts ovulation → which finally stops menstruation.
Think of it as the body saying:
“Not now. You’re not safe enough to create life.”
This is why amenorrhea is so common in women who are:
underweight or restricting without realizing it
training intensely
in high-performing or high-intellectual environments
perfectionistic
going through emotional transitions
recovering from trauma or grief
or dealing with long-term stress
Even when a woman is normal weight, the body can still read “energy deficit” when nutrients, rest, emotional capacity, or internal nourishment are low.
3. Stress amplifies the shutdown
Historically, women in wartime, concentration camps, emotionally painful transitions, or psychological distress have lost their cycles entirely, not because their reproductive system is “broken,” but because the nervous system is overwhelmed.
Cortisol goes up.
Estradiol drops.
Thyroid function slows.
Leptin falls below the threshold needed for ovulation.
The body shifts into survival mode.
And what appears on the outside as “no period” is, internally, a brilliant conservation strategy.
Ayurveda’s Interpretation: A Language That Makes It All Make Sense
This is where Ayurveda brings the clarity that modern science struggles to express simply.
Ayurveda says that amenorrhea or nashta artava is primarily caused by:
1. Vata aggravation
Especially from:
cold, dry, light foods
irregular eating
rushing
overwhelm
excessive movement
anxiety, fear, worry
living too much in the mind, too little in the body
When vata rises, it blocks the artavavaha srotas (the channels of menstruation) and weakens rasa dhatu, our primary nourishing tissue.
This matches exactly what modern endocrinology calls energy deficiency + stress-induced suppression.
2. Kapha involvement
Kapha can accumulate due to:
lethargy
heavy foods
lack of movement
stagnation
This creates blockage, layering on top of vata dryness.
3. Stress: the direct hit to prana vata
Ayurveda explains that emotional trauma, grief, transitions, fear, overstimulation, and mental pressure aggravate prana vata, the sub-dosha governing the nervous system.
When prana is disturbed, it destabilizes apana vata, the sub-dosha responsible for downward movement including menstruation.
This is Ayurveda’s elegant way of saying:
The menstrual cycle shuts down when the nervous system feels unsafe.
4. Lifestyle contributors Ayurveda has described for thousands of years
excessive exercise
extreme cold exposure
sexual overstimulation or contraceptive misuse
irregular routines
nutrient depletion
rapid weight loss
stimulants, smoking, alcohol
excessive fasting
All increase vata, disturb rasa, and block menstrual channels.
Can you imagine ? It’s astonishing how closely this mirrors modern research, simply expressed in a language rooted in nature instead of pathology.
The Ayurvedic Path Back to Hormonal Safety and Menstrual Return
Ayurveda is beautifully clear:
Amenorrhea is a condition of depletion.
Healing requires nourishment, warmth, grounding, and safety.
Diet (Rasa-building nourishment)
warm, cooked meals
ghee, milk, nuts, seeds
grains
root vegetables
spices that kindle digestive fire gently
Avoid:cold foods
raw salads
gas-forming vegetables
very light diets
These deplete rasa and aggravate vata.
Lifestyle (Bringing the nervous system home)
reduce strenuous exercise
practice gentle yoga
keep the pelvis and lower belly warm
maintain consistent routines
avoid overstimulation (screens, constant notifications)
use self-massage (abhyanga)
favor slow mornings
keep the body and mind grounded
Mind & Nervous System (The Heart of the Treatment)
The ancient texts are incredibly explicit:
“What afflicts the mind afflicts the heart.
From the heart originates the circulation of ojas.”
Ojas — our deepest vitality — is closely related to reproductive essence.
This is why healing requires:
pranayama
meditation
grounding breathwork
slowing brain waves from sympathetic → parasympathetic
aromatherapy
mantra
shirodhara
loving routines
safe connection
softer mornings
deeper exhalations
reducing pressure
living in harmony with nature’s rhythms
As simple as it seems.
The Beautiful Conclusion Ayurveda Offers
Allopathic medicine acknowledges:
Nutrition matters.
Stress matters.
Energy matters.
Safety matters.
Ayurveda simply understood this thousands of years earlier and gave us a complete map.
Modern science says:
“Your hormones shut down when your body perceives danger.”
Ayurveda says:
“Vata rises. Rasa depletes. The mind disrupts the heart’s ojas.
Bring back nourishment, warmth, breath, and serenity — and the cycle returns.”
The path home is not in more complexity.
It is in simplifying the conditions your body needs to feel safe enough to function as nature intended.
And when we return to nature to intuition, to breath, to nourishment, the cycle returns not as a medical achievement, but as a quiet reminder:
Your body wants to heal.
It simply needs a world that moves slowly enough to let it.
With love,
Audrey