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Yoga as a remedy
Time and again, research has shown that yoga relaxes and strengthens your body, and, with a deep exhalation, soothes anxieties. Certain asanas, repeated regularly, could be your best medicine, boosting immunity, balancing hormones and easing asthma or back pain. Recent US research shows that yoga can cut blood pressure, alleviate back pain, reduce stiffening of the arteries – one of the major causes of heart disease – and a growing number of experts believe that individual health issues can e targeted with specific exercises. ´Some postures will open the chest, helping with colds or asthma,´ says Claire Missingham, teacher at London´s Triyoga Centre. ´Others will help with lymphatic drainage – it all depends on what you want to achieve.´ So what postures help which condition?
Asthma
Pranayama or conscious breathing can help asthma by exercising the lungs and building up surrounding muscles.
What to do?
Yoga teacher Rowan Dellal suggests you focus on exhaling slowly from your belly. ´When you have asthma, you panic about not inhaling enough air,´ she says. ´But if you focus on exhaling, you inhale automatically. If there is less focus on inhaling, you panic less and symptoms don´t become as bad.´
Back Pain
In a study at the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, 80 per cent of patients who were immobilised by back injuries experienced a marked decrease in pain after they started practising yoga regularly. They focused on exercises that increased core abdominal strength, increased spinal flexibility and created space between the vertebrae.
What to do?
For core muscle strength, practice Downward Dog. Place your palms of the floor, shoulder-width apart, and your feet on the ground hip-width apart, raising your body into a V-shaped incline. The Mountain Pose improves posture and spinal elongation: stand straight and rock back a little until you feel your stomach muscles are stopping you from falling back. This allows your back muscles to relax.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (Wrist Strain)
In a study at Philadelphia University, participants undertook 11 yoga postures to increase the strength and flexibility of their wrists, arms, neck and shoulders – not only did their repetitive strain symptoms improve, but there were signs of nerve regeneration.
What to do?
Place your palms together in an inverted prayer position, turning your fingers towards the floor. Hold for 10 seconds. Place palms together behind the back in an upright prayer position and hold for 10 seconds. Rotate your wrists 5 to 10 times. Making fists, move your wrists downwards, pulling muscles at the top of the hand. Stretch out fingers as far as you can, then relax. Repeat 5 times.
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Colds & Flu
US Studies have found that yoga can raise levels of infection-fighting immune cells by more than 25 per cent.
What to do?
At the early signs of infection, Dellal suggests sitting on the floor and leaning forward onto a cushion placed on your legs. Alternatively, lie on your back with a cushion beneath your thighs. Breathe deeply focusing on the area beneath the breastbone – this is where the thymus gland makes infection-fighting cells. Visualise bright light covering this area.
Headaches
´Yoga can help tension headaches by gently stretching and relazing muscles of the upper back and neck,´ says Missingham.
What to do?
Gently let your head fall to the left, right, forwards and backwards, holding in each direction for 3 to 5 seconds. To relax the entire neck, sit in the Child´s Pose: in the kneeling position, relax your chest on your thighs with your hands on the floor beside you. Then rest the tip of your head on the floor or on a bolster.
Stress
Yoga exercises initiate a process that turns off the stressful fight-or-flight system and turns in the ´relaxation respnse´. Dru Yoga is a form of yoga that´s proving highly effective at transforming negative emotions.
What to do?
Dru Yoga teacher Jane Clapham recommends the following meditative technique: hold your hands in from of your heart. Keeping a space between both palms, touch the tips of your fingers and the tips of your thumbs. While breathing deeply and slowly through your nose, imagine you are breathing in and out of your heart. Hold for 1 minute.
Insomnia
'Yoga induces sleep as it calms the adrenal system and nerves,´ says Missingham.
What to do?
The reclined spinal twist calms the nervous system and mind. Lying on the floor, with knees bent and hip-width apart, place one leg over the other. Let both legs fall to the ground on that side. With arms out on either side, gently twist the spine away from your knees in the opposite direction, looking out to your fingers. After 30 seconds, repeat the stretch on the other side.
Information
For Dru Yoga courses and retreats, visit www.druyoga.com
For private yoga tuition in London Rowan Dellal or Clare Missingham www.claireyoga.com
For a yoga teacher anywhere in the UK, visit www.yogauk.com/teachers.
For free yoga online lessons, visit www.yogatoday.com
Article by Anastasia Stephens (Psychologies edition January 2007)
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