My Yoga Challenge: Can Yoga Help Treat Chronic Illnesses?

Most of us dealing with a chronic condition are told to just do yoga and we should be fine. Or just try a super food and all will get better, or someone will say that you need to think positive and all will be good. I thought, why don’t I take on the yoga challenge and share whether it helps me or not.

From July 10, 2020, I started a specific set of exercises and breathing techniques done in yoga. I will document my experiences over the next six months – or even longer depending on how it goes right here on this post.

But before I jump in to telling you what they are, I would like to explain a few things, if you wish to skip and scroll down you can, but you could be missing out on some vital information 🙂

What is Yoga?

Originating in India, Yoga is a

“group of mental, physical and spiritual practices or disciplines”
– Wikipedia

I was reading the wikipedia page on yoga and thought it was interesting when it stated that

“The term “Yoga” in the Western world often denotes a modern form of hatha yoga and yoga as exercise, consisting largely of the postures or asanas.”

I found this interesting because the majority of the world limits yoga to just its asanas (postures) or shall I say only focuses on the postures and forgets that there is so much more to the practice of yoga.

So when someone says “hey have you tried yoga for your chronic illness” – we get annoyed because many of us cannot do some or many of the postures and also because we see yoga as just a form of exercise.

Our knowledge is limited to what we see and that’s also based on how yoga has been marketed. But that shift needs to happen where we recognise some of the other life-changing aspects of yoga and that where most of my focus will be along with some complementing postures.

What is Prānāyāma?

Prānā means life and having life is equated to having breath. The fact that you are breathing means that you have life, you have your prānā.

Āyāma means to expand, to regulate, to lengthen.

And so, prānāyāma in yoga are breathing practices to help extend and improve the breath, the quality of breathing and therefore the quality of life.

There are many types of prānāyāmas but I am going to introduce you to the ones that I will be practicing.

(Please note that I am doing my best to keep these explanations simple, but if you are looking for more details and wish to dive into the complexities of the subject then there are many resources online and courses available too).

Important Information BEFORE Starting Any Yogic Practice

What Medical Conditions Do I Have?

Please remember that I have been 100% transparent about all my medical issues, niggles and pains with all my yoga gurus. This is important for two reasons.

1. There are many postures and breathing techniques that should not be done or be done differently if you have certain medical conditions.

2. You and your guru know where you stand with your health and what you would like to achieve out of yoga.

Before I take you on my yoga journey with me, I feel it’s very important that I am open about all my medical issues so that you can understand where I am coming from.

I have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, endometriosis, PCOS, adenomyosis, arthritis, POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, MCAS (mast-cell activation syndrome), painful bladder syndrome, osteoporosis/osteopenia, trigeminal neuralgia.

I had endometriosis excision surgery in September 2019 in which, other than endometriosis, the doctor also found a hernia believed to have been there since birth.

POTS compromises my blood pressure.

Also, it has been 10 months since surgery but because I am a slow healer (from having Ehlers-Danlos syndrome), I am going to ease myself into the yogic practices.

All this is vital information as I dive into certain practices that need me to be extra careful.

Please note – I have taken permission from my doctor and am under the guidance of a professional yoga teacher. I would advise you to always do the same, especially if you have health concerns. My point is to share my journey and see if yoga can help treat my chronic conditions.

Relevant Read:

• Yoga for Period Pain & Endometriosis – Does It Work?
• 11 Ways to Treat Fibromyalgia if You Have Endometriosis
• My Journey: Being Diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

What is My Mission? What do I Hope to Achieve?

My mission is straightforward – to improve my quality of life by improving where I am with my health so that includes my pain levels, my sleep and the fatigue.

What’s important to remember is that yoga, just like anything, requires consistency and discipline. Because I have so many chronic issues and there are other challenges in life, I will look to incorporate the changes slowly so that I do overwhelm myself.

I will not be setting goals with set time limits of when I wish to achieve lesser pain and fatigue along with improved sleep by, instead this will need to be an on-going process with minor tweaks and some major changes.

Only time will tell but for now, the focus is on doing and maintaining consistency all while listening to my body’s responses as well.

My Yoga Exercises & Breathing Techniques for July to October 2020

To give you a heads up, I will be doing the following practices more consistently from July 10, 2020 onwards.

1. Jal Neti

– this is a yogic kriya in which salt is mixed in warm water. With this water you cleanse the nasal passage from dust or pollen allergens, helping to reduce sinus issues, and even migraines.

You can read more about the benefits of Jal Neti right here.

I learnt this from a yoga teacher 14 years ago and have been extremely irregular with it, but every time I have been regular I have seen it’s benefits with better breathing, reduced nasal congestion and a reduction in migraines because of this congestion.

I now plan to be regular at it. How regular? Every day.

2. Prānāyāma: Anulom-Vilom (alternate nostril breathing)

Anulom-vilom is a breathing practice which helps to balance the flow of energy in the body, which helps treat respiratory issues, regulate blood pressure, reduce depression, arthritis, migraine, helps remove migraine, improves blood circulation, balances and relaxes the nervous system.

There are definitely more benefits than what I have mentioned and I’ll be able to fill you in with my experiences once I have done so regularly.

I plan to do start by doing this 5 to 10 minutes three times a day.

Here is how anulom-vilom is done:

3. Prānāyāma: Bhramari

Bhramari, also known as the humming bee breathing technique helps to reduce anxiety, calm the mind, reduce migraines, improves concentration, memory (which is great for my increasing brain fog issues), helps stimulate pineal and pituitary glands.

Pineal gland produces and regulates hormones including melatonin. As the Healthline explains:

“Melatonin is best known for the role it plays in regulating sleep patterns.”

“There’s some evidence that light exposure and related melatonin levels may have an effect on a woman’s menstrual cycle. Reduced amounts of melatonin may also play a role in the development of irregular menstrual cycles.”

A video of how bhramari is done:

4. Yoga Nidra

Nidra means sleep, so in yoga nidra you are taken through a form of guided meditation that allows for deep relaxation of the body and mind. My yoga teacher had once explained that one hour of yoga nidra is worth four hours of deep sleep.

Considering I have fatigue issues as well as pain that has truly messed up my sleep, I think this will be extremely beneficial for me.

Here is a 10 minute guided yoga nidra meditation from Melissa who herself manages various medical issues including fibromyalgia.

So how will I do all of this? Well, I first aim to be consistent with jal-neti and anulom vilom for 10 days before I add bhramari and yoga nidra

Please remember that I am not just doing these practices, I also have a regulated diet, I pace my work day, I do gentle stretches, work on my strengthening my body through pelvic floor therapy and the use of a resistance band and I look to walk anywhere from from 5 to 20 minutes a day (I do avoid this on days I am very poorly).

To know more about this please check this out:

• My Diet for Endometriosis & Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
• My Experience: Treatments to Manage Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
• Dysautonomia: How POTS Changed My Life
• Tips: How I Reduced Hair Loss Caused by Medication
• Podcast Ep 17: How to Create Health Goals & Stick to Them!
• How To Work From Home if You Have a Chronic Illness

I hope to give you an update in August on how the first 30 days went.

How Did it go from July to October 2020 Go?

I had planned to give monthly updates but loads happened (started working on more video content and skincare stuff) and I forgot to update this post, so I will now (today’s date: November 11, 2020):

Jal-Neti:

The Jal-Neti has been a massive success in helping my morning congestions and usual MCAS reactions to dust. There was a month in-between where I got super lazy and didn’t do it and all the congestion I had cleared up resurfaced and gave me horrible migraines and sneezing episodes.

But now I’m back on it and things are getting better again.

Anulom-Vilom:

With Anulom-Vilom, I began to do this for 5 to 10 minutes a day, I can now do 15 to 20 minutes quite easily. It has really helped reduce my anxiety levels, reduced the frustrations and annoyance I feel towards myself at times and even others. Basically, I’m so much calmer. This was extremely beneficial for me as I was making a lot of changes with my content and a calm mind always provides us with clarity of thought.

This also has helped me regulate my blood pressure. It was increasing and was feeling the worst pressure in my head.

Bhramari:

I have been very very irregular with my practice of Bhramari – this is something I will look to improve because whenever I have done it, I have felt better prepared for my meditation.

Yoga-Nidra:

I had started Yoga-Nidra in August then fell off doing it regularly in September. There was cricket matches to watch every night (yes I love cricket), which got over last night (November 10, 2020) so now I plan to get back to sleeping on time (from today) and hopefully that will help my quality of sleep.

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I would love to hear your experiences with yoga or your thoughts on this topic. The comments section is all yours. 🙂

If you’re a social media person, then you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or YouTube.

Thank you for taking the time out to read and follow.

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Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. I am a patient and have created this platform to share my experiences. This is all purely informative and in no way am I providing medical advice. Please consult a medical professional.