Claim OwnershipChanging Seasons: Ayurveda, Women’s Health, Menopause & Food as Medicine
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© 2025 Changing Seasons: Ayurveda, Women’s Health, Menopause & Food as Medicine
Description
A podcast exploring women’s health through the wisdom of Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, with empowering conversations on menopause, natural healing, and food as medicine to support every stage of life.
Hosted by Jody Vassallo, Ayurvedic guide, intuitive cook, and founder of ‘Gather’.
Each episode is an invitation to slow down, listen in, and reconnect with the wisdom of your body and the cycles of nature.
Through the lens of traditional medicine and lived experience, we dive into the big topics: perimenopause, menopause, fertility, gut health, grief and loss, surrogacy, Ayurveda, and food as medicine.
This is a space for real conversations, tender truths, and practical ways to nourish yourself no matter what season you're in.
57 Episodes
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Today Jody welcomes Kimberley Ashton from Qi Food Therapy to the Changing Seasons podcast. We discuss in detail why certain foods will soothe and nourish the digestive system and other foods will aggravate and inflame it. She highlights the role of the sweet and salty flavours in our body. Kimberly explains why we need to consume good quality sweet flavoured foods to help relax and satiate the body and high and that salt is needed to strengthen the body. We have a diet culture and the reducti...
Today Jody welcomes Carly Merlo, owner of Bio Veda to the podcast to discuss the A-Z of Ayurvedic oils and how different medicated oils are prized for the healing process. Ayurveda has been using oils on the body, hair and internally for thousands of years, black sesame oil or coconut oil are used as the carriers for the medicinal herbs which are warmed and then applied to the skin before bathing. Bala oil is the oil of choice of Shirodhara, a therapeutic treatment that works to calm Vata in ...
Today Jody takes a close look at sleep through the lens of Ayurveda. Sleep or nidra is an integral part of your health and there are many factors that influence the quality and quantity of your sleep. The different doshas can all experience their own issues with sleep and as we age sleep can become more disturbed. Jody discusses how what you eat before bed, the time you go to sleep, the pjs you wear, the sheets you tuck into and the room you sleep in can impact the quality of your...
Today Jody meets Sonia Lloyd from Rasara Skinfood about how to treat your skin using the principles of Ayurveda. After a skin flare up in her late teens Sonia tried many things unsuccessfully to treat the problem. Fast forward to today and Sonia now owns an Ayurvedic Skin & Hair Care range that is so pure you can literally eat it. In our conversation today we cover the magic healing properties of castor oil and how it is an absolute gift for the skin. We discuss the different skin p...
Today Jody welcomes whole-food chef and cookbook author Holly Davis to Changing Seasons podcast to discuss Food as Medicine. We speak about how Holly discovered macrobiotics at the age of 14 and how it continues to influence how she cooks and prepares food to this day. Holly shares about how she used to be a macrobiotic zealot and these days her approach to food is much more about respect and the nourishment and joy we can get from sharing food we have prepared with those we love. We di...
Today Jody talks about how Ayurveda looks at digestion and how we can learn what foods are best suited for the different body types and their relevant doshas. Digestive fire or agni is dependent on a range of things, the food we consumed yesterday and how it was broken down, our prana, sleep and lifestyle choices. When digestive fire it can not only impact our digestive system, it can lead to a change in our mood and our behaviour. Jody discusses the six tastes and the elements that make up e...
In today's episode Jody touches on the common physical and emotional symptoms she sees in Perimenopause from an Ayurvedic perspective. Weight gain, anxiety, hot flashes, anger, forgetfulness, waking up between 1-3am are all ways that our bodies are trying to communicate with us to stay something is not right, something is out of balance, something needs to change and it is up to us whether we choose to listen or medicate the messages. If you are looking for help navigating your way through pe...
Today Dr Jimi Wollumbin returns to chat with Jody about the distressing state of male fertility across the globe. Jimi shares disturbing research figures on the declining rates of male fertility across all age groups of men. We speak about the negative impact that increased exposure to toxic substances in our environment is having on male sperm count, sperm motility and testosterone levels. A man with low testerone will struggle with how they interact with women and also how they see themselv...
Today Jody is speaking about the psychological characteristics of the Ayurvedic constitutions (doshas) Vata, Pitta, Kapha. The intention of this episode is to help listeners understand why they behave in the way they do. Jody talks about how the different elements - air, space, fire, water and earth can impact how we live our lives, make the choices we make and find it difficult to break out of unhealthy patterns. Each constitution has its strengths and challenges and often people can t...
Today Jody speaks about her personal failed fertility journey. After realising in her mid-forties that she may not meet the man of her dreams and have a family she embarked on a solo mission to have a child. She chose to start with sperm donorship. Approaching male friends first to see if they may be open to donation, after coming to a dead end there she moved onto the internet and interviewed many doctors before finding an anaesthetist who agreed to help her. Failing there she en...
Today Jody talks to nutritionist, actor and presenter Lola Berry about her and her partner Matt's decision to freeze her embryos instead of eggs. Their choice to delay having a family came after Lola chose to leave her life in Australia to pursue her dream career in acting and presenting in Los Angeles. Lola is honest and totally open about the IVF process, the harvesting of the egg and the agonising days after the eggs are fertilised where Lola discovered that not all embryos will survive or...
Today Jody talks about the qualities of each of the Ayurvedic Doshas and how they show up in the body, mind and emotions. She explains how Ayurveda balances disturbances in the qualities of the Doshas by treating with the opposite quality in another Dosha. For example, if your Vata is out of balance and your skin is dry you start incorporating ghee into your diet to balance the dryness. This is part one of a three part series with Jody that will cover the Doshas and provide simple ways to und...
*Caution this conversation contains references to sexual assault. Today pelvic floor and sexual therapist Lisa Fitzpatrick returns to Changing Seasons podcast to speak to Jody about Sexy Menopause. Lisa believes it is possible for every woman to enjoy sex throughout perimenopause and beyond and describes the blocks standing in the way of women doing so. We discuss how women store tension and past trauma in the pelvic and how if it is not addressed it can lead to them experiencing pain, discom...
Today on the podcast Jody speaks with Lucette Romy about the death of her baby boy Dash. Lucette birthed Dash at home and the birth was beautiful and without complications. However, six hours after his birth Dash's colour had not improved and after checking with their birth keeper and then their GP they finally made the decision to call paramedics. Unfortunately Dash did not survive. His body was sent away for an autopsy and Lucette describes how this was one of the hardest things for her to ...
Today Jody speaks to Trauma Therapist Paula Rastrick about how the nervous system impacts our hormones. Paula shares her story of being prescribed HRT and the complications that arose from being over prescribed estrogen. Following this she embarked upon a journey of trying to understand how trauma and a disregulated nervous system can play havoc with a womens hormones in puberty, pregnancy and perimenopause. Paula believes that we need to learn how to stay within our Window of Tolerance...
Today Jody speaks to Shonali Sabherwal Macrobiotic Nutritionist & Chef about the Macrobiotic and Ayurvedic approach to gut health. Shonali shares that she has attended a Panchakarma (an Ayurvedic detox protocol) once a year since she was in her 20's. She discusses what the 3 week protocol involves in Panchakarma and why anything shorter than 21 days is not recommended. We discuss how gut health can impact the skin, the hair and our brain and how these days there are so many environmental ...
Nicole Lange is an acupuncturist who has a Masters in Chinese Medicine, she has spent her entire career focused on working with women. Today she chats with Jody about her wholistic approach to supporting women through their fertility journey. We speak about the impact trauma can have on women's fertility and how the process of trying to fall pregnant can be a traumatic experience for some women. Nicole believes that it is essential for women to understand that their bodies need to be in a rel...
Today Sarah Megginson returns to the podcast to speak with Jody about her decision to be a surrogate for her friend Lisa Messenger. Sarah had given birth to three healthy children of her own and at the same time had watched Lisa and her partner go through many years of failed IVF attempts. One day she asked LIsa if she would be open to her being a surrogate. That was nearly two years ago and Lisa and her partner now have a healthy little boy called Hugo. Jody and Sarah speak in depth ab...
In today's episode Jody explores how the changing seasons of the year impact each of the different Doshas. Ayurveda says that we need to protect our bodies around the junctions of the seasons and we discuss how Vata types need to take extra care in the transition from Summer to Autumn. Kapha from Winter into Spring and pitta from Spring into Summer. Jody then discusses the different seasons of life - Kapha 0-18yrs, Pitta 18-45 yrs and Kapha 45-death and speaks about how each of these li...
Today Catie Gett returns to discuss her ongoing experience with HRT. Catie speaks about how HRT is not a fix all and that women need to monitor its efficacy and communicate their symptoms with their doctor. Up until now Catie has been using patches and she is considering changing to a hormone cream or Mirena as she is starting to experience a return in her anxiety. We cover plenty of ground in this conversation, revisiting how essential it is to monitor our exposure to stress in perimenopause...
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