health

Q: I'm wondering if you could help me ID some yoga resources for my sig other.  He suffered an aortic dissection last Nov while visiting me here from Italy. Barely made it to the ER and surgeon's table on time. Five hour surgery later, he had a new synthetic 4 inch segment replacing his aorta just above the heart and a new lease on life. Six months out he's doing great. He does have a little bit of chance of recurrence, but overall the outlook for his continued recovery is good. The present goal apparently is to keep his BP down. He's been on medication for it, but our family doctor took him off of it recently as his pressure was quite low before the dissection. He works out lightly at the gym and takes long walks. He's never done yoga but wants to begin, and I want to help him do that. I'm wondering if you've published (or know anyone good who's published) any videos/sequences of asanas/instructional materials on yoga and BP OR if there's simply a g...

by Nina Patterns in the Sand 2, by Brad Gibson Okay, I admit it. It�s probably my fault. I�ve been going around saying that you can trigger the Relaxation Response (see The Relaxation Response and Yoga ) using any of the following: restorative yoga, inverted poses, Savasana, pranayama, meditation, and yoga nidra, etc. as if all those practices were somehow interchangeable. This has led to questions like the following comment left on a Friday Q&A: Yoga Nidra, Restorative Yoga, Meditation and Savasana : It is very helpful to read the distinctions between these four practices as I try to practice all of them, but it's hard to find the time. I'd be really interested to get your thoughts on whether it's important to do all four? For example, if you do restorative while listening to a nidra CD, do you also need to meditate? I'm interested to know what the various benefits are of these four practices, or are the benefits all the same? Let me start by saying that what I sai...

by Timothy Patterns in the Sand by Brad Gibson Do you need to meditate? Can you achieve all or most of the same benefits from just practicing asana, restorative yoga, Savasana, and/or pranayama? Is it worth even trying if you feel like you're no good at it? We get questions like these at the blog from time to time, so I figured I'd tackle them today. I can't help but notice that people often talk about yoga and meditation as two separate practices. But according to Patanjali, the great codifier of yoga, meditation was an integral part of the practice. By yoga, of course, most people in the U.S. mean asana, which is why people say yoga and meditation. And since most asana classes don't include any meditation, many yoga practitioners have looked outside of yoga, often to Buddhism, if they're interested in learning more. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think people forget that the Buddha was a yogi before he became the Buddha! Meditation gets a lot of press ...

by Baxter Complexity in Nature by Brad Gibson On these hallowed pages, we have previously addressed several conditions that involve our cardiovascular system (heart and blood vessels), such as arrhythmias, strokes, hypotension and hypertension (also referred to as h igh b lood p ressure). We even have at least six posts that at least mention hyper tension (HTN) . However, due to the large percentage of adults who will develop hypertension over the course of their lifetimes, I thought it worth revisiting. According to the NIH, in 1999-2002, 28.6% of the U.S. population had hypertension. And this number seems to be on the rise. Plus, there is yet another study that demonstrates yoga�s beneficial effect on lowering blood pressure in those with mild to moderate hypertension! (For background information about what blood pressure is, see So, what is blood pressure, anyway? ) Why all the hype about hype rtension ( high blood pressure ), anyway? Well, if you have hypertension , you are at a...

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Q: I read of yoga for back pain, but little about neck pain. I've been in PT for months, with good ideas about posture/extension/alignment, etc. And now I'm in a series of skillful massage targeted to the neck muscles...but such stiffness in spite of it all! Did yoga for years, but not lately (still active!) I'm wary of yoga that my pain might be exacerbated. I'm 52. My work is varied, with some hours at a desk but broken up with people interaction. Thanks for your counsel!   A: I understand why you might be afraid of doing yoga again but I want to reassure you that starting to practice again will be beneficial for you in so many ways. I currently have a student with a lot of physical challenges and chronic pain from prior surgeries. She has told me so many times that even though her body may not be able to move the way she wants it to, when she wants it to do something, she finds that �yoga is good for my mind. It makes me tune in and just listen to myself.� This indiv...

by Nina I don�t know about you, but Ram�s post yesterday  The Dangers of Being Sedentary  scared me a bit. Findings from a recent study showed that individuals who sat for more than 11 hours daily were 40 percent more likely to die within the next three years than those who sat for four hours or less daily�even when people�s physical activity at other times of the day was accounted for. Studies have also indicated that sitting daily for less than 3 hours and watching TV for less than 2 hours extends life expectancy by an estimated 1 to 2 years. Studies reported in the prestigious journals Lancet and the British Medical Journal suggest that a sedentary lifestyle is the cause of one in 10 deaths worldwide. It�s now known that Americans are working less (26 minutes a day less compared to Y2007) and idling off more. Adults in the U.S. spend an average of 55 percent of their day engaged in some kind of sedentary behavior (see Sedentary behaviour and life expectancy in the USA: a ca...

by Ram Dance by Marc Chagall Yoga and Ayurveda are sister sciences, with Ayurveda being the healing side of Yoga, and Yoga serving as the spiritual side of Ayurveda. Through the practices of Ayurveda and Yoga an individual is able to connect to his/her true nature through direct experience, and live a meaningful and purposeful life. This would mean following stable routines, having a balanced and nourishing timely diet (see You Are When You Eat ) and adapting the eight fold yogic path (ashtanga yoga). However, there are a number of obstacles that arise on the journey to a meaningful life that can prove to be a challenge. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, verses 1.30-1.32 describe several distractions that serve as obstacles on the journey toward perfect health and enlightenment.   vyadhi styana samshaya pramada alasya avirati bhranti-darshana alabdha-bhumikatva anavasthitatva chitta vikshepa te antarayah �Nine kinds of distractions that are obstacles naturally encountered...

by Baxter N. Watercolor 1 (The Heart Goes from Sugar to Coffee)  by Kurt Schwitters  We recently received two inquiries regarding a heart condition called tachycardia. In its simplest form, this just means a heart rate that is running faster than normal. For example, the normal range for a resting heart rate is said to fall from 60-100 beats per minute. Sometimes it is considered normal to have a resting rate lower than 60. For example, in long distance runners who are very aerobically fit, a resting rate of 50 or lower could be normal and healthy. Rarely is a heart rate above 100 at rest a normal finding. When we are not resting, but running a sprint as an example, our heart rate will increase so that the heart can adjust to the increased demand for the blood to deliver energy to muscles and take waste products of work away. Once the immediate demands on the heart ease up, the heart rate drifts back to its normal range. In February, I did a post on a particular kind of arrhyt...

Q: I am a yoga instructor and a stroke survivor as well. I know, I know, a yoga instructor AND a stroke survivor. Fancy that! I have a compromised left shoulder and it's getting much worse. Have had it for 6 years. This is the problem: my right side of my body is also compromised but in a different way. It's just less. Little shoulders and most of all hands. It's just less. Imagine what my yoga classes are like, little demonstration. My questions. How long would a person be totally on foot before I would have to do little thing alone? How long would I teach yoga class? When is too much complications you say above is more serious? Anything else you can think of. Also, the article Yoga and Shoulder Joint Replacements was truly wonderful. A: I am not exactly sure I understand your question but my initial response is you should teach as long as you have students who will come. But maybe your question is more about mobility and how long will you be able to walk "on your fe...

by Brad Phases of Migraine Headaches by Brad Gibson The first time I had a migraine �aura,� I was working at my computer and wondering why there was this small area of flashing light in the center of the screen. I was using a new large screen Apple display and I was concerned that it might be malfunctioning. It didn't take too long, however, before I realized something was wrong with me: my vision was screwed up. Stroke? Migraine? Something else? I decided to quickly conduct an experiment: I walked down to the bathroom, shut the door and turned off all the lights and with my eyes open or closed, I saw the same thing, a growing crescent and jagged shaped object that was oscillating in my filed of vision. As I walked back to my office, I suspected this was a migraine aura, something that I had heard about (in words) but never experienced. As fate would have it, I ran into a neurologist colleague in the hallway and explained what was going on. He immediately replied, �Do you get heada...

by Nina   Image "Borrowed" from The New York Times The exercises should be performed in rapid succession, allowing 30 seconds for each, while, throughout, the intensity hovers at about an 8 on a discomfort scale of 1 to 10, Mr. Jordan says. Those seven minutes should be, in a word, unpleasant. The upside is, after seven minutes, you�re done. �New York Times Did anyone else happen to see the recent New York Times seven-minute exercise routine? Well, I did. And my first response was irritation. Something seemed so wrong to me about the routine. At first, I thought it was the seven minutes part. That seemed to me a crazy amount of time for doing twelve exercises, and I thought it would be healthier and more effective to divide up the routine into, say, three or four different routines, and cycle between them on different days. That way, you could spend more time on each exercise and not do the same thing every day (which could lead to boredom or even injury). But even after I h...

by Baxter We recently received two questions regarding a style of yoga known as Yin Yoga, in which one assumes certain yoga poses, often done sitting or down on the floor, and passively holds the poses for 3-5 minutes.  An example of a pose done in the Yin way would be Sukasana (Seated Crossed Legs) with a forward fold, done passively for the allotted time. As a disclaimer, I have limited personal experience with Yin Yoga, but have done several two hours sessions over the years. According to articles that can be found online at Yoga Journal Magazine, as well as the websites of two well-known teachers of Yin Yoga, Sarah Powers and Paul Grilley, Yin Yoga is more than just doing yoga asana a particular way. There is a focus on not just affecting the physical structure of the muscles, bones and connective tissue, but reportedly also influencing the energetics of the body via stimulation of certain Chinese meridians associated with the acupuncture/pressure systems. And there is an empha...