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Pre-Thanksgiving Giving Thanks

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by Baxter Lanterns by Melina Meza So, it�s one day from the annual gathering of families and friends that we in the USA call Thanksgiving, and it occurs to me that I haven�t yet thanked the staff here at Yoga for Healthy Aging, all of whom do their work for you as a labor of love. I am so grateful for the staff of YFHA! We have grown in the past two-plus years to an impressive eight people who regularly contribute to the posts that you read each week. In addition to the original crew of Nina, Brad and me, Shari Ser, PT, Timothy McCall, MD and Ram Rao, PhD regularly write posts with unique perspectives that have enriched our offerings greatly. So a big thanks to this trio of insightful and talented yogis and writers! Bridget Frederick, our copy editor, has been going over our posts regularly with a fine-tooth comb, which those in the biz know is essential for coherent and understandable writing. She also makes it possible for Nina to take occasional time off by doing behind the scenes b
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Memory Loss�Meditation to the Rescue

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by Ram Yellow Leaves by Melina Meza Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible, progressive neuro-degenerative disease that is characterized by severe memory loss, unusual behavior, personality changes and a decline in thinking abilities. Death of neurons in key parts of the brain harms memory, thinking, and behavior. Neuronal death in the hippocampus area of the brain triggers short-term memory failure, and often the person's ability to do familiar tasks begins to decline as well. Alzheimer's disease also attacks areas of the cerebral cortex responsible for functions such as language and reasoning. Thus AD patients gradually lose language skills and judgment. Personality changes, emotional outbursts and disturbing behavior, such as wandering and agitation, appear and can happen more and more often as the disease runs its course. People with AD eventually require comprehensive care, so the disease presents a considerable problem in patient management. It is believed that t
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Bhramari Pranayama with Mudras

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by Timothy Recently in a post ( Pranayama for Everyone ), I wrote about the "buzzing bee breath," Bhramari. I taught a simplified version so that people could get used to it, and feel this practice's almost immediately palpable soothing effects. A reader wrote in with a question about the mudra (in this case meaning a hand position) often taught as part of the practice. So today, I'll teach two more advanced versions of Bhramari, in which the hands are used to deepen the effects. The fifth limb of the eight-limbed path of yoga as taught by Patanjali is pratyahara, which I like to translate as "turning of the senses inward." Most of us living in the modern world lead lives of nearly constant sensory overload. Phones ring and buzz, TVs blare in the background, and even gas pumps impose video commercials on us. It's hard to escape the visual and aural onslaught. A beautiful antidote is Bhramari, particularly when it's taught with Shanmuki mudra. Shanmuk
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Friday Q&A: Kyphosis (Dowager's Hump)

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Q: I teach chair yoga for older people. Several of my students have pretty bad kyphosis, a rounded curve in the upper back. They are not yet into a dowager's hump but they are on the way. When we do down dog with a chair, their upper backs are very humped. If I have them try to do cat/cow stretches with hands on the chair seat, their upper backs barely move. I have suggested that they try to lie on their backs with a small blanket roll under the bottom tips of the shoulder blades. Do you have any suggestions for how they might try to reverse this curve or at least stop it from getting worse? A: This is an interesting question: what to do with the student who has kyphosis of the thoracic spine, the part of the spine in the area of the rib cage? What can we do as yoga practitioners to prevent the progression of the spinal changes we are seeing, and is it possible to reverse the excessive posterior curve in the upper back?  And should we be more attentive to this area when we are youn
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Meeting Death at the Front Door

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by Nina   by Melina Meza "Research shows that most Americans do not die well, which is to say they do not die the way they say they want to � at home, surrounded by the people who love them. According to data from Medicare, only a third of patients die this way. More than 50 percent spend their final days in hospitals, often in intensive care units, tethered to machines and feeding tubes, or in nursing homes.� �Dan Gorenstein from �How Doctors Die� Yesterday I heard a very moving piece  How Doctors Die on NPR that made me think again about an issue close to my heart: being able to face death with courage. My mother died of breast cancer at age 85, and she was able to die with hospice care at home without any invasive procedures, any time in a nursing home or being �tethered� to any machines. Because I was talking to her doctors for her and coordinating her care, I can testify that this was only possible because my mother was clear-eyed about her condition and was willing to
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Differences Between Male and Female Pelvic Structures

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by Shari This is the second part of my response to William Broad�s assertion that women�because of their inherent flexibility�are more apt to injure their hips in a �dangerous� yoga class or perhaps during a home practice. I think it is important to understand that whether or not women are more inherently flexible than men, there are significant physiological and anatomical differences in the male and the female pelvis. Have a look at these two pictures! Female Pelvis Male Pelvis As you can see here, the female pelvis is typically larger and broader than the male pelvis, which is taller narrower, more compact and stable. The female pelvis is thinner and it is more mobile partly due to hormonal changes that a woman cycles through and partly due to inherent structural attributes. There is also a difference in the size of the pelvic outlet specifically due to the reproduction capacity of the female The weight-bearing surfaces of the pelvis are larger and more irregular in the male, wherea
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The Importance of Independence (and Interdependence)

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by Baxter Bee & Flower by Melina Meza Yesterday Nina dove into three key aspects of Healthy Aging, and I wanted to pick up the ball on the middle concept, that of maintaining �independence.� As Nina mentioned in her post What is Healthy Aging, Anyway? , one goal of aging well is to �continue to live independently and care for ourselves as long as possible. And Nina outlined many of the independent skills we would ideally love to preserve as time goes on: �the basic daily self care activities, such as dressing, going to the toilet, getting up and down from a chair, doing light housework, and so on as well as the ability to continue to do the activities we love.� And indeed, a regular asana practice that is appropriate for our stage of life, as well as our unique health and physical challenges, will likely keep us on track in maintaining our independence.  As I have mentioned in previous posts, loss of independence in my patients can be one of the most dramatic and potentially devast
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