Reaching for the Unreachable

An Indian-born yoga instructor once said “Yoga was our medicine when we had no medicine”.

So, many centuries ago yogi had developed hundreds of special positions or asana(s) helpful against various conditions. Some of the asanas provide gentle massage of internal organs that otherwise are never physically treated. That is why these poses look so weird – they intend to reach the unreachable.

This position helps against colds and tonsillitis, very calming too

When I tried to stretch a leg in a “gymnastic way” - by pulsing it, my instructor gently stopped me and suggested to relax the muscles and breathe instead. Frankly, I was very skeptical about the approach and the possibility of relaxation at the moment seemed quite unrealistic.

I was still cherishing my doubts when my leg, supposedly at its limits, stretched further, and two breaths later – even a bit more.  Not only this technique appeared to be incredibly effective, it was also comfortable and safe.

I wish I knew it when I was a young athlete. There was not a single person on our college team without some sort of injury. We thought of them as mundane attributes of intense training and managed as well as we could.

Now I think that many of those injuries could’ve been avoided or better healed. 

I was also surprised to discover that intensity of yoga practice can vary significantly. It may be spa-like gentle or extremely strenuous. The beginner who had formed his idea of yoga based on Hollywood images can be really discouraged: instead of an hour of relaxation he might find himself shaking in stress.

Intense static load on the muscles in asana requires unobstructed blood circulation, therefore the room for practice should be warm and transitions from one position to another should be executed mindfully and slowly.

In fact, most of the injuries in yoga happen when someone becomes overly confidant and moves to the next asana without caution.  

A single asana never works a particular muscle like a training machine, but rather engages a group of muscles, large and small. Different positions impact muscles at different angles in every changing combination.

And judging by the fact that every new type of class, or even another instructor always made me sore next morning, many of the these muscles are rarely given a chance to rejuvenate outside  the yoga class.

This is why I like trying various classes with different instructors; they work the body in new ways.

During an especially intense position I console myself that one day I might need all the strength I am now trying to obtain.  I once heard from the yoga practitioner the following wisdom:

“We prepare ourselves for life challenges. We do not know what to expect, but prepare anyway”.

I think this is very true.

According to the recent Harvard Health Publications yoga may have positive effects on stress and can be used as a treatment for anxiety and depression:

By reducing perceived stress and anxiety, yoga appears to modulate stress response systems. This, in turn, decreases physiological arousal—for example, reducing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and easing respiration. There is also evidence that yoga practices help increase heart rate variability, an indicator of the body's ability to respond to stress more flexibly.

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/depression/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100237603&page=1

The same source refers to the current studies exploring yoga ability to help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD):

In 2008, researchers at the University of Utah presented preliminary results from a study of varied participants' responses to pain. They note that people who have a poorly regulated response to stress are also more sensitive to pain. Their subjects were 12 experienced yoga practitioners, 14 people with fibromyalgia (a condition many researchers consider a stress-related illness that is characterized by hypersensitivity to pain), and 16 healthy volunteers.

When the three groups were subjected to more or less painful thumbnail pressure, the participants with fibromyalgia—as expected—perceived pain at lower pressure levels compared with the other subjects. Functional MRIs showed they also had the greatest activity in areas of the brain associated with the pain response. In contrast, the yoga practitioners had the highest pain tolerance and lowest pain-related brain activity during the MRI.

From time to time I hear on the news tragic but very similar  stories about a person on antidepressant medication who for some reasons had stopped taking them and in uncontrollable rage pushed someone under a subway train or stabbed to death.

Maybe with yoga as an alternative treatment, innocent lives could’ve been saved? 

I also think that yoga is very democratic.

One needs nothing but a very small space and some time to spend. No equipment or facilities are necessary - yoga mat is more than enough. My husband and I always bring our mats on business trips. Folded they easily fit in handbags and no matter how busy we are, a 30 min. break for standing positions may always be found.

Falling for Yoga

Several years ago we joined the new health club freshly built in the neighborhood. Temptations were many: the palatial-type building; sparkling new furniture and equipment; grandiose indoor and outdoor pools; cheerful music in the lobby and the last but not least - a reasonable membership fee.

In summer we particularly enjoyed the outdoor pool: a huge spa-like area where three times a week I practiced my lap routine followed by ten minutes of sun bathing. It felt like mini-vacations.  

The indoor pool, no less impressive (see the post “Two Sides of the Bargain”) presented a bit of an issue – the high chlorine content in its water.

It is most likely that both pools were treated equally, but in confined space chlorine evaporates less actively than outside. The chemical penetrated my skin deeply and the following shower did not remove it. Even the next day I could still smell chlorine on me. And within a month or so of indoor swimming my skin became extremely dry, no lotion could help it.  

With better awareness of various contaminants in our environment and of their possible cumulative effect I became more concerned about regular chlorine absorption. I could easily envision my swimming body acting like a pump sucking chlorine through its countless pores and inhaling it with every vigorous breath.

It just could not be good.

So I started looking for winter alternatives to lap swimming. This is how I turned to yoga.

Why not to cardio kickboxing, or Pilates?

Well, from various books and friendly references I just had an impression that yoga was superior to other fitness routines by addressing both body and mind. Thousands years of its history also appealed to me.

Being totally indifferent to the bohemian aura of yoga (all that chanting-and–incense paraphernalia), in the back of my mind I always meant to try it one day. I did not start earlier thinking that one needed extraordinary flexibility for its pretzel-like positions.

At that moment it looked like a really good idea: instead of using indoor pool in winter I would take a yoga class and my summers were already perfect! 

Surprisingly, my husband joined me without any hesitation. He, however, came to this decision from a completely different prospective. Exactly what kept me away for years - the mysterious side of yoga, its promise of extraordinary flexibility or meditative powers - were his drivers. Unlike me he had no doubts that with time he would bend like Linda Blair.

I entered the yoga class feeling very shy. All people around  seemed younger than me and more athletic. For some reasons I had a strong presumption that yoga group was a sort of  exclusive club where everyone knew everyone, and each member must've been an experienced practitioner.

The obvious logic that other people also started one time or another (and probably felt as vulnerable) somehow slipped my mind.

My first gains from yoga were almost immediate though totally superficial. For years I was helplessly observing my once perky behind gradually “going south” while my tummy – increasingly protruding. Catching sometimes my side reflection in the mirror I was thinking that eventually I would need to wear pants back to front.

After two weeks of yoga I noticed a slight but quite incouraging reverse in this  process. My body also started feeling more resilient to touch and looked as if carefully peeled quarter-an-inch all over.

Then the real journey began.

With all my previous fitness experiences it was always about achievement. As a teenager involved in sports in the former Soviet Union I was always focused on performance. Only gifted kids were accepted in the state supported sport programs and “no pain – no gain” was our ultimate mantra.

Even with my adult swimming experience I tried to measure everything in goals: to do four laps, then - eight laps; to breathe quieter; to obtain better endurance…

Yoga offered an entirely different philosophy.

First of all, it was specifically focused on present sensation: in each position you find your personal physical edge and stay there for five deep breaths. You do not fidget, and do not try to go further – just let your body adjust and eventually, relax.  

And it does not really matter, what exactly your edge is: a basic forward bend with hardly touching your toes, or a perfectly deep folded position. In both cases this period of quite breathing is the very time of gain.

On a physical level slow breathing in intense position activates blood and lymph circulation that stretches and strengthens your muscles while flashing away toxins from your body.

On a chemical level (or may be, it is emotional?) endorphins are released making you feel calm and protected.

Our natural yogi - Masia

A good instructor will tell you that yoga is not an exercise but a practice.

You start in whatever physical condition you are and slowly move toward better health and stress resistance. Important is the process itself because there it all happens. Fitness comes along as a free bonus for diligence.

Though every physical activity can bring benefits, yoga is unique in its ability of healing various physical ails. The more you stretch and breathe, the more nooks and crannies in your body are washed by healing fluids, the more inflammation nuclei are disrupted.

There are also special positions believed to improve particular functions, or address particular conditions. Their effectiveness is still to be confirmed by the mainstream medical science, but at least one thing is certain – they do not cause side effects of profound nature as many chemical drugs do.

With different systems and schools in yoga, the healing properties are usually attributed to Hatha Yoga – “the basic preparatory stage of physical purification” according to Wikipedia.

Though advanced yogi gravitate to its higher stages, like Raga, the most modest promises of Hatha are impressive enough for me. 

Health Advocate Wanted

In the area of preventive medicine I have found another concept deviation:

My breast cancer ordeal, mentioned earlier, did not end in 2007. The next year mammogram discovered suspicious calcifications in my other breast. I had another biopsy and, thank God, they were non-cancerous!

For me it meant that while the initial tests were lacking precision (well, this is the path of progress) I, in fact, was healthy.

Feeling encouraged, pretty much as the lady on the picture above, I came to my surgeon for a follow up. He recommended me to start taking Tamoxifen as a preventive measure:

- It is proven to reduce the risk of breast cancer up to 40%.

I realized that apparently, in his eyes I was a patient who had twice  required a second test – i.e., a representative of the elevated-risk statistic group. 

As usual I made a research and learned that Tamoxifen is a drug that interferes with the activity of the female hormone - estrogen. The majority of trustworthy Internet sites promote Tamoxifen’s benefits as cancer treatment. Its side-effects are commonly evaluated as minor, such as: blood clots, strokes and cataracts, hot flashes, vaginal dryness or discharge, joint pain, leg cramps, depression, fatigue, difficulty in breathing, nausea and weight loss, etc.

Not a big deal, right?

The array of menopausal symptoms made me wonder if the aging body itself regulates estrogen in a similar fashion and what happens to this natural mechanism when the hormonal substitute is introduced: do they join forces or neutralize each other? 

Another website offered the following information:

If you have had breast cancer, you have an increased risk of endometrial cancer. Tamoxifen makes the risk of endometrial cancer a bit higher. The longer you take Tamoxifen, the higher your risk of developing a Tamoxifen-related endometrial cancer.

            http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/hormonal/side_effects/tamoxifen.jsp

It made me think for a while, which cancer I should prefer.

But all in all the most respectable sources, such as the National Cancer Institute (www.Cancer.gov) agreed that

“The benefits of Tamoxifen as a treatment for breast cancer are firmly established and far outweigh the potential risks.”

I made a decision not to take the drug mostly because hormonal intervention was not coherent with my idea of preventive medicine.  The information I quote below was found months later. It just confirmed the validity of my uneducated concerns and proved that we must question such things:

In 1992 the Lancet published a review of a number of studies in which a total of 30,000 breast cancer patients were randomly assigned either to take Tamoxifen or not.

Virtually all women who take it become resistant within five years. A recent randomized controlled study showed that Tamoxifen reached its maximum protective effect on breast tissue with women who took it for five years. Taking it for five more years didn't offer any more protection, and may actually have caused more cancers. In other words, after a while the breast cells become resistant to Tamoxifen and actually start to be fed by it. (Love MD, Susan, Dr. Susan Love's Hormone Book, Random House, New York, 1997, page 264)

Tamoxifen A Major Medical Mistake? by Sherrill Sellman, Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 5, #4 (June - July 1998) ://www.all-natural.com/tamox.html

It looks like the only constructive conclusion to a story like this must be “become a pro-active, responsible patient, do your research, do not rely passively on the wisdom of others…”

In fact, taking control of your health is a strong trend nowadays  promoted even on one of the Oprah’s shows:

The famous   Dr. Oz had demonstrated the long list of questions one should always ask a doctor.  In serious cases he suggested getting a health advocate – i.e. a special person, better with medical and legal (!?) background who could accompany patient on important doctor’s visits. Such companion would be better equipped to convey these questions than an overwhelmed and emotional patient.

Though trying to be pro-active myself, I feel neither smart, no lucky. The Dr. Oz’s advice makes me sad.

How many people can afford a quality health advocate, and how many more helpers a patient will eventually need to communicate with advancing medicine?

Cutting Off the Warning Signal

Couple of years ago I woke up in the morning with blood dripping from three openings in my body. After playing cool for several days, hoping the strange condition would somehow go away, we rushed to the ER. There I was given an antibiotic and a referral to a specialist.

- The doctor is your fellow Russian - they said, and I was looking forward to the comfortable and easy communication only your mother tongue can provide.

The Russian doctor listened attentively to my story and than said:

- I will give you this drug. It will alleviate your symptoms, just your urine will turn orange.

For a moment a crazy thought popped in my head that being my fellow countryman, the doctor took the liberty to make a joke. I prepared my face for a smile, but he was dead serious. Being a modern medical professional that was exactly what he was supposed to do – to address my symptoms.

Most of the people I know when facing a medical issue, go through a similar eye opening experience: every other condition is already studied and defeated by the medical science; it is only my allergy, skin rash, irritable bowel syndrome, frozen shoulder, etc... is so mysterious and so hard to cure. Therefore, instead of helping the body to overcome the condition, a pill is prescribed to “take it under control” or to “alleviate its symptoms”.

From TV screens silver-haired models and celebrities happily confess that with this drug they can garden and dance in spite of debilitating arthritis.

- But the underlying cause is still there - I scream in my mind - You just cut off the warning signal!

I recently met a former colleague of mine who had been diagnosed with diabetes and whose wife (as I heard) tried to address it through a better diet. I felt very sympathetic to these attempts and asked the guy, how the diet worked for him.

- Oh, no - he happily replied - I am now on a very advanced new medication. It introduces insulin at the cellular level and I can eat ANYTHING I LIKE! 

???

I could not look into his smiling face. The picture I immediately visualized was like this:

A powerful drug vigorously replaces the weak bodily mechanism, so it quietly degrades without a single warning sign. And then all sorts of poisonous foods freely interfere and finish the deadly job.

My former co-worker saw not much difference between treatment and cure. By taking the drug he deemed himself healthier. In fact the distance between these concepts became vast nowadays, and he was getting sicker.

I probably sound overly skeptical and ungrateful. I do remember that many people have only one alternative to medications, and that is - to squirm in pain. Giving them comfort and some quality of life is absolutely precious.

But for the rest of us taking a pill for a life-time   seems deeply controversial. No one can get a new body as soon as the old one is totally disrupted.

And this unique though imperfect and vulnerable body is doomed, if challenged in so many ways:

• by careless lifestyle
• by drug deposits accumulated through years 
• by their unpredictable interactions, no doctor will take responsibility for

and, on top of this

• by suppressing symptoms instead of treating their root-causes.

This I have received last week. I think it is worth sharing:

Reversing Osteoporosis Naturally

http://greensmoothiesblog.com/reversing-osteoporosis-naturally/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenSmoothiesBlog+%28Green+Smoothies+Blog+by+Victoria+Boutenko%29

The Compulsive Liar

When you say “I can not afford organic food or gym membership” this is the picture to keep in mind:

Every year in the doctor’s office I fill out the application with updates on my health, and routinely check “No” against the question regarding currently taken medications.

“Not a single one?” the nurse once asked me in disbelief and added “You are one lucky lady. We see here people of your age popping 12 pills at once!”

I felt sorry for those apparently very ill individuals and in my heart wished them speedy recovery.   

I am not an anti-drug extremist. I do take pills when sick, but when I am not, I don’t. For many years I thought that was exactly what drugs were for – to help your body recover. 

Eventually I realized it had been very naïve and old-fashioned of me. Nowadays medications play entirely different roles. 

The day had come when my doctor said to me:

“Well Svetlana, you are in your fifties now, it is time for you to be taking calcium supplement.”

I thanked him, but explained that I preferred food sources.

“What food sources you are talking about, borsch with sour cream?” he laughed. “This is not enough!”

And he gave me the name of the popular over the counter pill. I felt instinctive hesitation to a life-long daily consumption of chemically-derived substance simply because I was of a certain age. However, caught by surprise I was unable to verbalize my concerns.

Still I had questions and doubts:

Does a human body absorb chemicals the same way as food nutrients? As  Boutenko mentioned it makes a difference to plants. So, could it be possible that our bodies are as complicated as plants in their relations with nutritional base?

I am well aware of the fact that the majority of current medical studies are skeptical about these differences, emphasizing that individual absorption ability plays a stronger role here than the nature of the source. But over these years, haven’t I personally witnessed the change of scientific views on many simplistic concepts?

What about long-term effects of taking in a certain substance? Does body adopt it, like painkillers or antibiotics, so that in time you need to switch to something else?

When eventually I will need a prescribed medication, how will they interfere with each other?

And do I, an individual not exactly identical to a statistically average person, truly need to supplement myself?

The following information came across, making my doubts even stronger:    

Dietary supplements such as vitamins, minerals, and herbal products can cause liver damage.  I learned this the hard way… When I was diagnosed with breast cancer and scheduled for a mastectomy, my pre-opt tests revealed my liver enzymes were higher than normal. So high, that my cancer surgery was put on hold to run additional tests to try to determine the cause.  The tests were inconclusive.…

I stopped all vitamin and mineral supplements.  After 6 months, I returned to my doctor for blood tests.  The results:  my liver enzymes were normal, my overall cholesterol dropped 40 points, my “good” cholesterol rose 40 points, even my “bad” cholesterol dropped a few points.

Dietary Supplements Can Cause Liver Damage, by Sandy Powers

http://www.articlesbase.com/wellness-articles/dietary-supplements-can-cause-liver-damage-480866.html

So I did not buy calcium supplement and carelessly forgot its name.

The next year my doctor was unhappy with me on this point. Therefore, a year later I recovered the name of the pill and lied to the doctor that I was taking it.

“How many a day?” he asked. For this question I was not prepared.

“Two” - I blurted in panic.

“Too much” he said, “one is enough for you.” 

This is how I became a compulsive liar.