Yoga and diet in Heart Health
Timothy McCall MD writes about Dr. Dean Ornish's heart studies - which began in 1977
Not only did their heart disease improve, but so did their weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, and markers of inflammation. The program was the first intervention of any kind documented to reverse heart disease—that is, to reduce the size of blockages in the coronary arteries—without drugs or surgery. Recent research on Ornish's program is revealing that dozens of disease-preventing genes are getting down-regulated, or switched on, in program participants, while hundreds of bad genes—including some that are linked to heart disease, inflammation, and even cancer—are getting up-regulated, or deactivated. Another recent study found beneficial effects on telomeres, special DNA sequences at the end of chromosomes that affect the rate of aging.
Heart health that includes yoga - article from Yoga Journal

Yoga Intervention and Fibromyalgia
Journal of Pain Research 245July 2011
An eight-week yoga intervention is associated with improvements in pain, psychological functioning and mindfulness, and changes in cortisol levels in women with fibromyalgia.
Full article on yoga and fibromyalgia study (pdf) by Faculty of Health, York University, Toronto

Yoga and Stress Reduction
Article written for Yoga Day USA with research references
"The feeling of stress is a combination of our perception of events or situations and our body’s physiological reaction. Work issues, difficulties, challenges, obstacles, deadlines, papers, tests, athletic events, performances, family problems, and tragic events are only a few of the situations that can instigate stress. Even joyous events like holidays, weddings and new additions to a family can also exacerbate stress...
"One of the ways in which we respond to stress is through our fight-or-flight response. This is a combination of the activation of our sympathetic nervous system and specific hormonal pathways which result in the release of cortisol from the adrenal glands. Cortisol is one of our primary stress hormones, and is often used to measure the stress
response.
Stress in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Immediate, or acute stress, can often be motivating, as it can be activating. " yoga and stress continued (pdf)

What activities can help people with joint pain

Dr Eleanor Fish writing in the Globe and Mail - October 11 2010

Question: I've heard that certain sports or physical activities can benefit individuals suffering joint pain from arthritis or other autoimmune diseases. What sort of activities can help?
Answer: Increased motion can benefit many of those suffering from several types of arthritis including osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis – as well as other autoimmune diseases such as fibromyalgia and ankylosing spondylitis.
Low-impact is the key when it comes to choosing activities that are beneficial for your joints. Activities that include stretching, such as yoga or Pilates, are excellent for improving joint flexibility and range of motion.
Yoga is incredibly effective at managing pain and mobility issues that accompany many forms of arthritis and autoimmune diseases. And because yoga has several styles with varying degrees of difficulty, people can adjust their yoga participation and work to their comfort level.  ...entire article

"It calms me down whenever I'm mad at somebody"

Grade 1 student talking about yoga

When a little boy walked into Anastasia Sych-Yereniuk's office crying uncontrollably, the Strathcona School principal tried to calm him down.  Sych-Yereniuk asked the child to think about what his teacher taught him in class recently.
"I just reminded him, 'I know that Miss Adair was working hard to give you strategies of what to do when you're really upset.'"  The boy thought for a moment before telling the principal what might help him.
His idea? Yoga.  "He closed his eyes and started breathing deeply. He was really good about that," says Sych-Yereniuk, who holds back her tears as she recalls the situation... yoga in elemenary schools

Happy in Your Own Skin

By Dorothy Foltz-Gray
When she was only seven, Ashley Miller cried because she didn't have a flat stomach like her older neighbor. "I was always aware of my weight and self-conscious about my body," says Miller, now a plus-size 26-year-old who is Yoga Journal's marketing manager. "I remember hearing that a Barbie doll was a size 6, and I told my mom when I grew up I'd be a size 6, too." Instead, by the time she entered college after years of dieting and overexercising, Miller had become a compulsive overeater. "My weight yo-yoed up and down 30 pounds, and my self-esteem was on that roller coaster, too," she says.
One day, on the recommendation of a classmate, Miller decided to give yoga a try. "I was so nervous that I wouldn't fit in or be able to do the poses, and that the other students would have tiny, perfect bodies," she says. "But when I walked in, I saw a whole range of people"—big and small, young and old, fit and not so fit.
After three months of practicing three times a week, Miller noticed she felt stronger and more at ease in her body. But more important, the critic in her head began to quiet down... Yoga helps

Watch Your Back

By Hillari Dowdle

"Happy families are all alike," Tolstoy wrote. "Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." The same thing— or something quite similar—might be said of our backs.
As long as they're "back" there doing their job, holding us up and keeping us mobile, we usually don't give them too much thought; we can't even see them. We take them for granted. They're just backs—our posterior sides, the very definition of strength and silence.
But as soon as our backs go out, we all have stories to tell. Suddenly our lives—once so pain free—are limited and defined by our own personal brew of sports mishaps and mistimed sneezes, of sleepless nights and missed workdays, of social lives curtailed and family activities indefinitely altered. We each become unhappy in our own excruciating way the moment that lower back pain comes creeping into the picture... back pain and the gentle approach

Can Yoga Change Our Relationship to the Autonomic Nervous System?

By Sandra Uyterhoeven

It is widely recognized that most of what activates the flight-or-fight response is in reality not a matter of life and death. When the source of stress is psychological rather than real, there is the opportunity to change the habit pattern that triggers the sympathetic nervous system. In particular, Yoga techniques offer the possibility of reducing inappropriate activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
The calming effects of savasana, Yoga nidra, and pranayama have been widely studied and reported. The effects of these practices provide a great service to many yoga aspirants by giving them a short-term “time out” from stress, and also by creating positive physiological changes in bodily systems (including the nervous system). For example, deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system. These practices can induce the relaxation response, which provides a healthy respite from chronic stress... yoga and the nervous system

Yoga for Cancer Patients Provides Benefits of Sleep, Vitality
By Tom Randall
Touch toes. Downward dog. Breathe. It’s a yoga routine that cancer doctors have prescribed for years without evidence it would do much good. Now the biggest ever scientific study of yoga finds their instincts were right.
While yoga doesn’t cure the disease, its stretching and breathing exercises did improve sleep, reduce dependence on sedatives and help cancer patients resume the routine activities of everyday life, according to a 410-participant study being highlighted at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago next month... yoga and cancer

Save Your Brain

Dr. Nussbaum, Ph.D.

Taking on something new such as "joining a yoga class" helps you build new brain-cell connections! From the recently published book "Save Your Brain" by Dr. Nussbaum, Ph.D.

Your Brain and Yoga
By Timothy McCall, MD
When I was in medical school in the 1980s, we were taught that after a certain stage of childhood development, the architecture of the brain was fixed. Brain cells, or neurons, couldn’t be replaced; at best, we could slow the rate of their loss by cutting down on alcohol and other damaging habits.
But now, due to the growing sophistication of neuroimaging technology like PET scanners and functional MRIs, we understand that brain structure can change over time based on what we do. Recent research shows that even aging brains can add new neurons.
Scientists coined the term neuroplasticity to refer to the brain’s ability to reshape itself, confirming what the yogis have been teaching for millennia—the more you think, say, or do something, the more likely you are to think, say, or do it again. With every activity, neurons forge connections with one another, and the more a behavior is repeated, the stronger those neural links become. As neuroscientists like to say, "Neurons that fire together, wire together."
In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali offers a recipe for success in yoga: steady and enthusiastic practice without interruption over a long period of time...  Your Brain and Yoga

Yoga to guard against misery in our late years: the viniyoga of yoga is achievable, enjoyable, and sustainable
Jan Morgan, Timeless Yoga Moncton
The Globe and Mail recently published a series of excellent articles on dementia citing that it is “Bigger than cancer, bigger than heart disease or lung disease – for seniors, dementia is the single greatest cause of disability and debilitation.”  

An astute writer (Michael Redhill) responded in the letter’s page with “Resources need to be directed toward prolonging the quality of life…”  In fact, in discussing the quality of life, a good friend recently commented to me that we are not so much ‘living longer’ now but ‘dying longer’.  And the misery that can accompany our later years comes under countless headings in addition to dementia.  Without expounding the long list of afflictions, let’s move on to what our options might be.

Prevention is always, always better than cure:  So improve our physical and mental health thereby improving our quality of life.  Now there is no shortage of advice in the media on what we could be doing for this improvement but the real success comes from finding something that feels good, is not full of stress and, is easy to incorporate into our days.  And what if that were something that resonates with us on a deep level… and something that can be practiced effectively at any ability level.  Given that our abilities indeed change over time.

What about cost?  Well costs need to be low and accessibility needs to high.  If the above conditions are met, then finding time is easier and, speaking from my own experience, if the activity feels right and gives immediate, cumulative and long-lasting benefit then it is easiest to incorporate into our days.  And if we are talking about our later years then, hopefully, our responsibilities are lessening freeing up a little time.  Or, maybe our increasing wisdom with age will help us to prioritize what time we have.

In the past 10 years, the practice of yoga on a large scale has changed dramatically in the West; from strenuous and often mystical posture practice for the young and strong, to an intelligent practice according to the current circumstances and ability of the practitioner.

Viniyoga in particular is a yoga that is taught according to individual’s age, current health, circumstances, beliefs and personal goals.  Viniyoga applies yoga practice that is adapted to the individual and not the other way around.  This is accepting that the classical form of yoga – as developed by the ancient yogis of millennia ago - is not necessarily possible.  Indeed, the function of the yoga is needs to be thoroughly understood and accurately applied to an individual’s practice.

When someone tries yoga that is according to their current strengths and circumstances and does not unduly strain or stress the body or body systems then that yoga is achievable, enjoyable, and most important of all: sustainable.

It’s possible that every person alive is familiar with successfully having taken up an activity to improve their health only to discover that the activity was not sustainable for some reason, and therefore the improvements were not sustainable.

Scientific studies for various ways of improving physical and mental health are also published regular by the media but seriously, there is nothing as satisfying as noticing the improvements both immediate and long-term.

Yoga is experiential.  You find a class to try and for very little cost you see what the benefit is.  There is a yoga class out there (with between 3 and 4 people to 34 people) that will be just right for you.  Some research, several questions and a try-out. 

An activity that lasts a life time and that builds on your initial successes.  One that grows with you and adapts to life’s changes and that, by its very nature, is sustainable.

You have nothing to loose by giving yoga a try!

Jan Morgan, Timeless Yoga Moncton

http://yogamoncton.com

http://facebook.com/TimelessYogaMoncton

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