Yoga is touted as a cure all for physical problems and indeed a 1998 study, one of the first of many, found 194 patients with coronary artery disease were able to avoid bypass or angioplasty by incorporating lifestyle changes including Hatha yoga. Yet yoga can also aggravate a heart condition by practicing in an over heated room or practicing inversions. Yoga has a dark side where injuries happen, along with strokes and heart attacks and other medical issues.
Yoga Inversions and Heart and Stroke Issues
Yoga Inversions where the head is lower than the rest of the body, whether it is Downward Dog, a handstand, or a headstand, help blood flow to the brain while taking weight off the feet. The body is inverted where the head is lower than the feet. The typical practitioner claims feeling revitalized with improved circulation and a healthy glow to the face. Often claims are made for increased cognition and mental alertness. It is further theorized that bodily hormones get a balance adjustment.
On the other hand, those with high blood pressure may induce a sudden drop in blood pressure along with circulatory problems. Upon righting the position the body attempts to raise back the pressure to “normal” possibly further increasing an abnormal situation. It is possible to induce a stroke. Those who take blood thinners, even daily aspirin, may also put themselves at risk with an inversion. Any dizziness during or after inversions is a warning sign that must be heeded.
Heat, Yoga, and Stroke or Heat Exhaustion make Yoga DangerousHeat stroke can occur in the experienced and inexperienced Bikram or "hot yoga" practitioner who isn’t well hydrated or who simply isn’t well. Heat exhaustion may be more common or even overlooked. The combination of rapid rising heat, humidity, exercise, loss of fluids and dehydration produce a thready pulse, headache, dizziness, and eventually reduced sweating. Fluid loss impairs performance and the purpose of the class is lost as the body tries to balance itself back to wellness.
Additional Medical Risks with Yoga Inversions
Inversions during menstrual periods are sometimes contraindicated. B.K.S. Iyengar felt blood flow is halted during inversions, leading to many different pelvic and uterine problems. There are no definite studies confirming or denying this, and each woman today is often encouraged to make her own decision on her comfort level. Other areas of medical risk are not as anecdotal as those dealing with women's menstruation and need to be mentioned.
- Glaucoma is elevated intraocular eye pressure. Inverting the body can increase this pressure resulting in serious visual problems.
- The fluid movement in the sinuses can exaggerate ear infections during any downward movement including headstands and handstands.
- Similarly, sinus infections can be made increasingly painful by inverting the head.
- There have been recorded instances of aggravated detached retinas with handstands. Red eyes or broken vessels within the eye after handstands or inversions are a signal to rest from the pose and perhaps hold it only a brief time in the future.
- The Indian Journal of Medical Research published an inconclusive study recommending yoga for seizure disorders. However caution should be exercised in performing any kind of head down movement which is held for several minutes unless the practitioner truly understands his or her own brain chemistry in the seizure problem or is confidently controlled by medication.
- Herniation and inversion poses are another medical yoga issue. The intestine is pushed through a weakened abdominal wall and the inverted position puts an unfamiliar upward pressure on the area resulting in potential hiatal or ventral hernias particularly in someone who has previously suffered herniation.
Special classes for the injured, rehab yoga, or doing the postures with an instructor assisting, prevent many unnecessary injuries. Using a wall as prop is helpful. Holding poses for a limited time is advised. Remember, yoga is a practice not an athletic event.
Read Further
- Modifying Yoga for Wrist, Knee, or Back Injury
- Exercise Activity and Dizziness – Some Causes and Fixes
- Exercising when Sick with Fever or Flu
- Shoulder Injury in Yoga
- Neck Pain and Head Stands in Yoga, Inversion Dangers
References
- Cure Back Pain and Sports Injury Clinic
- Yardi, Nandan; "Yoga For the Control of Epilepsy"; Seizure 2001: 10: 7-12
- Yoga and menstruation, questions answered by Geeta S. Iyengar
- International Journal of Yoga Therapy. Vol 1(1-2)1990
Amy Andersen - Amy Andersen, MSN, ARNP, family & pediatrics certified, practices yoga and explores the inter-relationships of mind body fitness and ...
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