Health is Wealth
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With all of the new and emerging information on pain science, yoga students and teachers have the opportunity to apply modern research to their practices and help alleviate and prevent pain.
Preliminary research suggests that gentle movement of your nerves is vital to both managing pain and supporting the general health of your nervous system. The idea is that healthy nerves should be able to gently slide, elongate, and angulate within neural tissues (some nerves can move as much as ¾ inch) in order to adapt to different loads and minimize pressure that can worsen existing pain, alter sensation, or lead to new pain patterns. Sometimes, tone and tension around neural tissues can be a problem. These tissues are bloodthirsty and rely on an important pressure gradient around them to maintain adequate blood flow. So even small changes in tissue tension around a nerve can be enough to block nerve mobility and lead to compression that disrupts blood flow and nerve signaling back to the brain, contributing to pain.
See also Low Back Pain 101: 3 Sequences to Ease Your Pain
To help you keep your nerves adaptable and protected, try the asana technique on the following pages based on an understanding of neurodynamics (the study of nerve movement through its surrounding tissues) and nerve pathways. We have the ability to alternately put tension on different ends of the nerve to create a movement of the nerve through the tissues, often referred to as nerve gliding. As you floss the nerve, you potentially allow it to move more freely so that it can communicate more efficiently with your brain. For example, the sciatic nerve runs through the back of your leg, so in Supta Padangusthasana (Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose) if you bend your knee (raised leg) and flex your foot, you’ll put tension on one end of the nerve (by your foot) and slack the other end (by your knee). This action draws the sciatic nerve and its branches toward your foot. Then, as you extend your knee and point your toes, you’ll reverse the areas of tension and slack. This action draws the branches of the sciatic nerve toward your knee. When you put these movements together you can encourage the sciatic nerve to move back and forth through its tissues more effortlessly. You also may down-regulate local inflammatory responses, restore healthy blood flow to the hard-working nerve, and encourage more efficient communication between your brain and body. Optimal signaling is crucial if you want your immune and nervous systems to function at their best, which is another reason to add nerve gliding to your repertoire.
The key to nerve gliding is to move gently within an easy range of motion. Since your target is the pain-free movement of your nerves, not of your muscles and fascia, you want very little sensation or stretch. It’s a great reminder that even in the physical body there’s clearly more to what we do than just sensations or the feel-good endorphins associated with them. Another thing I love about this approach is that, in addition to being a safe way to work with pain, it’s very accessible since it’s about simple, gentle movements.
See also Reduce Pain and Discomfort with These Poses for the Pelvis
To begin, pick a nerve you want to focus on and find a range of motion that’s accessible, pain-free, and with very little (if any) stretching sensation. Do 5–10 repetitions of the pose or this sequence once or twice a day. If you’re using these moves more preventatively, try rotating a few of them into your regular practice a couple times a week, and remember that in group classes there’s more than just stretch and sensation affecting the tissues. Happy flossing!
https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/gentle-yoga-sequence-to-target-your-nerves
By Heidi Godman, Managing Director
Everyone likes a bargain, and lap swimming is a good deal when it comes to exercise. Swimming is a remarkably effective workout because it combines three important types of exercise in one: aerobics, stretching, and strengthening. “Simply keeping yourself afloat activates the core muscles in your back and abdomen. And you have to move all of your muscles to swim,” says Leigh de Chaves, a physical therapist and clinical supervisor of rehabilitation services at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. (She also swam competitively in college.)
Consider lap swimming if you’re generally healthy, you’re a good swimmer, and your doctor says it’s okay. It’s no problem if you’re not a fan of the crawl: “Any stroke is fine. The breast, side, and back strokes are often favored because a lot of people don’t like putting their face in the water, like you have to do with the crawl,” de Chaves says.
However, lap swimming might be not be doable if you have an underlying condition, such as heart disease or a seizure disorder, that puts you at risk for a life-threatening event in the water. You may also need to skip lap swimming if you’re not strong enough to climb in and out of the pool easily. And you should be careful if you have injuries to your shoulders or neck. Lap swimming may increase your pain.
A green light for a lap swimming routine doesn’t mean you should start with 20 laps. Ease into it. “Focus on the amount of time you spend swimming, at first. For example, swim for five or 10 minutes, a few times per week. Gradually increase the amount of time each week, and note how many laps you can do within that time. Eventually, set goals to increase your speed by doing more laps in your set time, so that you can measure your progress,” de Chaves explains.
Once you’re in the swim of things, you’ll notice lots of benefits to lap swimming. It’s easy on the joints, thanks to buoyancy in water, and it has a meditative quality that forces you to focus on your movement and breathing.
Lap swimming also
De Chaves points out that it’s important to warm up your muscles before diving into a lap swimming workout. All it takes is a few minutes of gentle paddling, and then static stretches of your shoulder and leg muscles.
Some other dos and don’ts:
If you’re not a lap swimmer, you can still benefit from aquatic exercises — exercising in the shallow end of a pool. You might take a class with a trainer who leads a group through a set of exercises with special water weights or flotation devices (like a pool noodle). Or you can simply try water walking; working against the resistance of the water is good for your muscles and bones.
“If you have balance problems, it’s a good idea to exercise with a friend who can assist you. I also recommend wearing a buoyancy belt around your waist to keep you upright,” de Chaves advises.
Look for aquatic exercise classes — such as strengthening or aerobics — at the local YMCA, a fitness center, or a community center.
Heidi Godman, Managing Director
Heidi Godman directs all news gathering for Harvard Health Publishing, and also directs the curation and production of HHP’s four monthly subscription publications (the Harvard Health Letter, Harvard Heart Letter, Harvard Men’s Health Watch, and Harvard Women’s Health … See Full Bio
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A modest uptick in the amount of fruit and vegetables you eat can help ward off type 2 diabetes, according to a study published online July 8, 2020, by The BMJ. From a much larger study involving some 340,000 people from eight European countries, scientists selected 9,754 participants who were newly diagnosed with diabetes over a decade. Researchers compared the fruit and vegetable intakes of these people to those of about 13,000 participants who remained diabetes-free during the study period. Researchers also measured blood levels of seven key plant-derived nutrients, including vitamin C and brightly colored antioxidant pigments called carotenoids. People with the highest intakes of fruit and vegetables and the highest blood levels of the plant-derived nutrients were 25% to 50% less likely to get diabetes during the study period, compared with those who ate the least of these food groups or had the lowest nutrient levels. Even better, it didn’t take a whole lot of extra green, red, yellow, and orange on the plate to make a dent in diabetes risk. The equivalent of only two-thirds of a medium apple or just over one-third of a cup of mixed fruit each day offered protection.
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A modest uptick in the amount of fruit and vegetables you eat can help ward off type 2 diabetes, according to a study published online July 8, 2020, by The BMJ. From a much larger study involving some 340,000 people from eight European countries, scientists selected 9,754 participants who were newly diagnosed with diabetes over a decade. Researchers compared the fruit and vegetable intakes of these people to those of about 13,000 participants who remained diabetes-free during the study period. Researchers also measured blood levels of seven key plant-derived nutrients, including vitamin C and brightly colored antioxidant pigments called carotenoids. People with the highest intakes of fruit and vegetables and the highest blood levels of the plant-derived nutrients were 25% to 50% less likely to get diabetes during the study period, compared with those who ate the least of these food groups or had the lowest nutrient levels. Even better, it didn’t take a whole lot of extra green, red, yellow, and orange on the plate to make a dent in diabetes risk. The equivalent of only two-thirds of a medium apple or just over one-third of a cup of mixed fruit each day offered protection.
Image: © RomoloTavani/Getty Images
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