Working -- Sarah Kruse

* Story by Young Chang

SHE IS

A practitioner of the science of life

HEALTH, HAPPINESS AND WHOLENESS

Sarah Kruse is in the business of trying to help people achieve

perfect health through one of the oldest systems of medicine, ayurveda.

It originated in India and deals with health in a holistic way,

prioritizing the balance of energy in the body over the use of chemicals

to fix things.

The 25-year-old trained in the science at the Ayurvedic Institute in

Albuquerque, N.M., and is an ayurvedic nutritional consultant at the

Medical Ayurveda Rejuvenation Center in Fashion Island.

“The best thing is to be able to give people very practical tools, to

bring about health and happiness in their lives, to be a part of their

process of returning to wholeness,” the Long Beach resident said.

JUST RELAX

Kruse’s job is to hold consultations with her patients, after which

she will recommend everything from specific foods to eating times to

sleeping times to herbal formulas catered to the person at hand.

She gives Pancha Karma treatments, which expel toxins in the body

through deep tissue massages and steaming.

Kruse also gives ayurvedic massages -- a synchronized massage of sorts

that involves two massagers working on one body while using medicated

herbal oils.

“We also stimulate pressure points along the body to encourage toxins

to release and encourage relaxation,” Kruse said.

SIMPLE MEASURES

Staffers at the Medical Ayurveda Rejuvenation Center stick to the

belief that sickness is caused by something simpler than bacteria and

viruses.

“We are separated from our true self; then that’s when sickness

happens,” Kruse said.

The center aims for “full rejuvenation of the body and mind” and

claims that an ayurvedic lifestyle can help with problems such as

insomnia, high cholesterol and skin disorders.

“It’s taking time for us to pioneer ayurveda in our society -- what it

is and how it can help them. It’s so simple yet it seems complicated,”

Kruse said. “I don’t want to call it a challenge, but more something that

we’re working on.”