OUCH, My Aching Joints
Did you know that Osteoarthritis (OA) affects 1 in 10 Canadians? I am one of them, along with about 2,999,999 people in Canada alone. Osteoarthritis is a disease and the most common type of arthritis, according to the Arthritis Society. It affects men and women equally and can affect any age, though it more commonly strikes after age 45. No one knows for sure what causes the breakdown in the cartilage between bones, which causes the pain of OA, but there is a lot of research currently underway.
Cartilage acts as a shock absorber in healthy joints; it is the tough elastic material that covers the ends of bones and it is slippery, allowing bones to glide easily against each other as we move about. If a joint begins to develop OA, the cartilage begins to thin and become roughened and the underlying bone begins to thicken. There is pain and there can be swelling. Bone spurs (bumps) can be formed as the cartilage wears away completely and the bones rub together. OA is often thought of as the wear and tear arthritis. When I visited my arthritis specialist last week, a rheumatologist, she told me that if you get arthritis, then this is the one to get, referring to OA.
Scientists do not yet understand the reason for the breakdown of cartilage, as they are finding that regular wear on the joints should not cause the breakdown of the cartilage. Injury and overuse of a joint, however, can damage the cartilage and lead to osteoarthritis. Additionally, heredity may play a part as the way our bones fit together can be passed down from our parents and to our children.OA is most commonly seen in hands and weight-bearing joints.My arthritis is in the joints of my big toes. It makes sense, as I was a highland dancer as a girl, jumping up and down on my toes and balls of my feet. I also noticed this summer that my mom, uncle, cousin and I all have decreased range of motion in our big toes-AH HA! Perhaps it is a genetic predisposition. Next time you are together with your family, have everyone try some yoga and compare where you feel stiff and uncomfortable. Maybe we really can blame our parents for something! (Just kidding).
In our yoga classes, it is very important to protect our joints by practicing proper form and alignment while avoiding overwork and strain. Performed with care, our classes should be helpful, not hurtful to our body-remember Ahimsa (non-violence)-one of the 5 yamas. If you have swelling and pain in your joint, ice will be helpful. If you are achy, stiff and sore but there is no swelling, you may want to try heat or take a hot shower. Generally, cold will reduce inflammation and pain by constricting blood flow where heat increases blood flow promoting circulation and nourishes the muscles.When a joint is sore and painful due to OA, it is easy to favour the joint and not use it to its full capacity. It is however, important not to favour the joint.
You must take steps to preserve the joint function. You can do this with exercises like traction and range of motion. It is very important to preserve the joint function by using the joint. Otherwise the muscles that hold those bones in place will weaken or lose function completely. Your joint may then change shape and may lose all functionality and become fixed.Complimentary therapies such as massage, acupuncture and/or physio along with medication and supplements may provide temporary pain relief. I recently began trying the supplement Glucosamine. It may be 8 weeks or so before I will notice if it makes a difference to my pain level.
Pain relief, rather than cure is the main goal in the treatment of OA. PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR before starting any medication and supplements as a health precaution, especially if you are currently taking other prescriptions and/or supplements.There is no known cure.
Be thankful that you have OA and not another form of arthritis.There are over 100 different conditions that make up arthritis. The different types range from milder forms of tendonitis like tennis elbow, to OA, and to the more crippling forms of rheumatoid arthritis. There are also pain syndromes like fibromyalgia and there are arthritis related conditions like lupus that affect every system of the body. The commonality of all of these diseases is musculoskeletal pain, which is why they are grouped together as arthritis. The common denominator with this pain is often inflammation; inflammation is the body's natural response to injury. Signs of inflammation are pain, redness, swelling and heat.Inflammation is a normal part of many types of arthritis.
There are many forms of arthritis that you may never even have heard of. These include rare autoimmune diseases caused when the body's own immune system begins to attack itself, diseases like Wegener's Granulomatosis and Polyarteritis. The inflammation in these diseases occurs in the blood vessels. As the blood vessels are affected, they can cause organ failure and death if not properly diagnosed. The symptoms can be vague and can include general unwellness, aches and pains, weight loss, hoarseness and plugged ears. They are classified under arthritis due to the common inflammatory responses and the muscle and joint pain they cause.

You can find out more about arthritis from the Arthritis Society at http://www.arthritis.ca/

Chiropractic and Yoga
I have been going to the chiropractor since May 2006 and it is really working for me.
Check out www.drspine.com.
I was speaking with "Dr. Adam" last week about how yoga and chiropractic complement each other.
Adam said that the ideal time to take a yoga class is after your adjustment. This way, you will be doing your yoga practice with your alignment in its new position. Your muscles will be able to work in this new alignment and hopefully begin to remember this better place(s).
Yoga can also be considered natural chiropractic, I am told. Have you noticed yourself take a nice supine twist near the end of a class, and you hear and feel some popping and cracking. These could be some of the more loose joints readjusting. Although not likely to be the joints that your chiropractor will need to adjust for you, it sure feels good and releases tension all the same.
My next experiment is going to be with reflexology, coined "sex for the feet" by a fellow 'stretcher' who can remain anonymous. Book your appointment soon with your neighbourhood reflexologist if this is the case. You may need to stand in a long line!
Enjoy!

Equal Standing, or Is It?
One of the many wonderful teachings of yoga is that it helps us to notice our patterns, so that we can change and grow. This is why yoga is a lifelong practice as it changes and grows with us. We can modify it to fit in our lives, making it more gentle and restorative when needed or more powerful. Last month when the Yoga in Toronto Conference and Show was held at the Metro Toronto Convention Center, I visited the booths and had my posture assessed by a chiropractor there. I was surprised at the findings.
In our yoga classes, we spend time on our posture and equal standing from an internal awareness. We also have outward cues, either by our teacher or from looking in a mirror ourselves. If you think you may have any alignment issues, you may want to have a proper posture assessment by a qualified professional.
Yoga and Pilates Instructors are trained to perform posture assessments using an imaginary plumb line. If you want a more scientific assessment performed, I would recommend a chiropractor, based on my recent experience.
Since the Yoga Show, I have visited the Chiropractor I had met there, Dr. Scott Levine of Vita Integrative Health Clinic. www.drspine.com They have the latest in research and technology available at his clinic located near Yonge and St. Claire. One of the machines they use measures how much weight you put on each foot. Most people average approximately between 1 to 3 or 4 pounds difference between right and left, they told me. My difference was extreme as I was putting 20 pounds more weight on my left foot compared to my right, yet to me I felt centered. I was amazed. Years of alignment issues from injuries and just the functions of living are beginning reveal themselves. This same machine also measures height of bony landmarks from right and left, good for noticing posture misalignments.
When you have a full assessment, you will also have a scan of the spine. The scan is not radiation. You will actually have 2 scans. One measures temperature surrounding the vertebrae and the next measures the muscle activity around the vertebrae. This will then provide a computerized picture of your spine, showing the particular areas of imbalance or rotation. I am anxious to begin my adjustments and have myself re-centered. I will keep you updated as to my progress.
If you think you may be interested in a full assessment, contact the clinic at www.drspine.com or drop by. It is a lovely space and the staff is very friendly. The cost is $75 for the initial assessment and then $35 for each adjustment. I was lucky and had a $20 assessment from signing up at the Yoga Show. You may even be covered under your health benefit package from work or wait till next year’s Yoga Show and visit his booth if they attend.

Eat Yoga

As we go about our busy lives, trying to fit in more than we can handle, often times our diet suffers. Food on the run is often our nutritional intake during the workweek. Couple striving for a healthy diet with trying to fit in the 8 glasses of water we should drink and we have a full day right there.
On top of our food on the run, we may add an extra yoga class here and there to our schedule. We may be rushing off to a class before our workday begins, getting up before the crack of dawn. Perhaps we squeeze a class in on our lunch break, or before or slightly after the noon hour rush. We can even try to make an evening class, whether it is just after our workday ends or even closer to bedtime.
With lack of time to prepare healthy food choices, rushing here and there, taking part in regular workouts and yoga classes – GEE – you may be like me and sometimes feel so hungry that you would eat almost anything.
Amidst all of our tasks, work commitments, housework, family, friends, pets and countless other activities, I wonder, how can we manage to eat healthy too. Lots of times, pretty much daily, I find this very challenging and often have more failures than successes.
One interesting thing I have noticed recently is that my dog Rory is better taken care of by me than I am. She never misses getting her medication or regular walks. Her meals are always well planned and size-controlled. Her snacks are healthy and she never over does it. She occasionally enjoys the odd timbit or chicken bone off the street, but these instances are rare and few and far between.
I ask myself why do I make sure Rory always gets her daily medication on time and I can’t even manage to give myself a daily multi vitamin, except sporadically, now and then. If I can take such good care of Rory’s meals and health, shouldn’t this also translate over to my own?
I think we all have priorities that we make time for during the day. Many of the little things may even get done (or not) unnoticed. Some of us may not leave the house or condo without having had a cup of coffee or breakfast; for others it may be putting on mascara, for some of us it is walking and looking after the dog or maybe our ritual yoga routine. And for others, I know you are out there, it is swiffering.
Although it would be nice to do it all, we cannot realistically accomplish everything. We must prioritize and make choices that depend on how much we have to do and how much time we have.
Many times, I have heard it said that it is easier to snack on unhealthy choices than healthy alternatives, with all the fast food and convenience stores on every corner. It is sometimes easier to pick up that Starbuck’s scone than a healthy breakfast. This is not necessarily true.
With busy schedules and yoga classes, it is important to plan and time our meals. One way we can make choosing healthier, more likely, is to scope out new and healthy directions. Instead of having that latte after your next Saturday yoga class, opt for a fresh juice instead. You will probably feel even better than usual, after your class, if you make this choice, as I have noticed I have.
Another thing to try is planning an early dinner if you have a 7:30 pm yoga class. Perhaps you could have a healthy dinner around 4pm. You will have more energy to make it through your class and you won’t be starving afterward.
If you need to eat after a late class, I have found scrambled eggs with cheese and fruit works well for me. It is a light meal and the protein will help you remain satisfied through the night. You shouldn’t wake up hungry in the middle of the night.
If you find that you didn’t have a chance to eat and it is soon time for your yoga class and you need to eat something, healthy choices in the case would be a few almonds or perhaps an apple or another piece of fruit an hour before class start time.
I find it works well if I have a lot of healthy traveling snacks readily available. Apples and oranges in my fruit bowl, raisins or dried prunes and apricots, nuts like almonds or walnuts (not peanuts), cottage cheese comes in snack sizes now. And a good-sized travel water bottle is a must have.
There are many diets and books on the subject, like Atkins, the South Beach Diet, and Eating for Your Blood Type. I, myself, am a firm believer in Canada’s Food Guide. The Food Guide can be found at Health Canada’s website:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/
As a yogi, I am also interested in the topic of detox. Detoxifying the body can be accomplished with physical and breathing exercises and through diet as well.
Cleanses and fasting can be dangerous or beneficial, depending on many factors and are best performed under the supervision of a qualified practitioner and for shorter periods of time. One book I find interesting is The Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose. Her book is great because it has many different levels, from someone just beginning to think about detox, to someone who is a committed raw foodist. It has lots of recipes as well as a grocery list. I have had the book for about 6 months and I am only now beginning to transition myself over to some of her healthy alternatives. For instance, she says that peanuts and soy nuts should be avoided at all costs as they are difficult to digest and mucous-forming.
Here is a healthy snack recipe from Natalia Rose. I have made these myself and they are a quick and delicious snack.
Pita Chips (makes about 4 servings or 40 chips)
2 whole wheat or sprouted grain pitas
2 teaspoons organic butter
Sea salt (I use course salt) and your favorite spices
Slice the pita in half so you can have 2 rounds
Spread butter over pita sprinkle with seasoning and cut about 10 mini triangles
Bake at 350 until crisp about 7-10 minutes

Eat, drink and be merry. Namaste!

Be My Yoga Valentine
As this year’s Valentine’s Day is upon us, everywhere we look is coming up red and pink, roses and chocolates. These are colors and symbols of love and courtship. Valentine’s Day has been around for almost two thousand years and has been commercialized since the 1800’s, by Miss Esther Howland, a greeting card visionary.
Valentine’s Day can be traced back to Roman times, when a priest named Valentine was beaten and beheaded for marrying young lovers in secret. Emperor Claudius banned marriages during this time, as he thought that single men made better soldiers.
Fools for love, I ask myself. Perhaps we all ask ourselves this at some point, and some of us maybe even more than others.
Why then do people risk their lives for love? Why do even the most levelheaded people, in the face of love, do the craziest of things?
Basically it is because love is the greatest gift and the greatest thing we can do. In studies of terminally ill patients, their greatest regret is that they didn’t love more. This is a well-known fact nowadays.
So, as of today, there could not be a more perfect day to begin, we must all love more. A good way to begin loving more is in our yoga classes. Take all that energy you have and move it into your heart center. Stop thinking about the postures you are doing and experience them from the heart.
The heart center is at the Anahata Chakra, in the center of chest. The physical aspect is our heart and lungs. This is where our spirit resides. We enter our life with our spirit as well we will leave our life with our spririt.
According to Aadil Palkhivala, a master yoga instructor of Purna Yoga, “the babble of the baby and the senility of age both contain the presence of the spirit. It is this spirit that must guide our days, or we will depart life with bitter regret”. In my latest issue of the Yoga Journal’s Teachers’s Newsletter, My Yoga Mentor, there is an excellent article by Aadil Palkhivala, called Love, or Living Without Regret. In it, he states that "the greatest (yoga) practitioners are those who understand how to use asana to enhance their connection with themselves and to open up the heart of love. Becoming a great practitioner is important, being strong and able is important, being healthy and free of pain is important, but nothing counts as much as knowing that we have loved".
So I challenge you, today and from this day forward, in doing your yoga asana practice, to find that love that lives within you and let it shine through your face, during the good, the bad and the ugly, as long as we all shall live.
We do!
Namaste.
www.yogajournal.com

Why Yoga?
As much as we love our yoga classes as part of our fitness regime and to help increase our flexibility, do we ever really stop to consider, why yoga? And sometimes, especially when the going gets tough, our yoga classes may fall off to the wayside. Does this then become a double whammy?
Instead of having to ask ourselves, “Why me?”
Let’s ask ourselves, “Why yoga?”
The main goal of “yoga” is to control the fluctuations of the mind and to gain mastery over the sense organs. This takes a lifetime of practice. If we keep at our yoga practice diligently, this control will begin to happen naturally, over time. We will become more balanced, physically as well as emotionally, just by doing something we enjoy. How great is that?
Equanimity means evenness of mind, especially under stress. And, yes, it is possible. I have been practicing yoga diligently for almost 10 years now and I am beginning to notice the strength of this equanimity. My father, who had been fortunate with good health for all his life, has been recently diagnosed with a serious medical condition. He has been very sick and we now know that he was stricken with an autoimmune disorder that affects his blood vessels. With treatment, it can be controlled and there is an excellent chance that it will go into remission. As a family, we feel very fortunate that it is not something worse.
Instead of losing control and having my imagination hop on the emotional roller coaster, I feel balanced and in control. I have my yoga practice to thank for this. Just because we do not lose our cool, or crack under the stresses of life, does not mean we do not care or that we don’t find things important. We are better able to cope with the curve balls life throws and will be throwing our way.
Enjoy the side effects of your yoga practice, like a stronger body and freer muscles. But when you really need it most, be sure to enjoy your peace of mind. Keep practicing your yoga and when you need it most, it will be there to keep you going, through the good times as well as the trying times. If you find yourself in the middle of a crisis, that is when you need your yoga most. You may have to make yourself do a down-dog or two. If all else fails, you have your dristhis and breathing. You will be doing yoga if you practice a mudra as well (a hand posture).
So yoga.
And pray.
Namaste.

What's Posture Got To Do With It?
You must understand that the curve of your spine
Makes your pulse react.
That it’s really the thrill of back meeting hips
Opposites attract
It’s physical, only logical
You must never ignore that it means more that that.
Oh oh oh, what’s posture got to do, got to do with it?
What’s posture but the position that our bones are in?
What’s posture got to do, got to do with it.
Who needs our bones when our bones can be broken?
Lately, have you been thinking of taking on a new direction?
Do you recognize a comparison to Tina Turner’s lyrics in what I’ve written above? It is from What’s Love Got to Do With It, from her Private Dancer album released in 1984. I hope I am not infringing on her copyrights.
Can we compare posture and love in yoga? I believe it is certain and therefore I am going to try.
Years ago, I remember my mother telling me, when I was a child and teenager, to put my shoulders back, and then she would take my shoulders and press them back. I used to hate that. Even now, and even though I’m a yoga teacher, she sometimes still does it.
That can’t be good!
I believe it doesn’t matter how good our posture is, or how much attention we give to our posture; there is always room for improvement. Like in yoga and also in love, with our posture, each day is a new day, with freshness in outlook or perhaps we have a heaviness pressing down on us. Whatever the case may be, press your shoulders back and stand or sit up tall and get on with your day.
When I was a girl and Mom would be pressing at my shoulders, I really didn’t understand what she meant. She could tell me over, and over and over again to put my shoulders back, but I didn’t seem to get it. Even riding horses with a broomstick hooked through my elbows, running across my back to help me sit up straight, that didn’t seem to transfer across to my standing and sitting habits when I was young.
I tell my mother she drove me to become a yoga teacher and that she is really a strict authoritarian yoga teacher in her own right. Of course I am joking when I say these things, but they really are true.
Yoga gives us the tools to improve our posture. Instead of just telling us that we are expected to have good posture, in yoga, we actually learn how to place our shoulders properly and we learn how to strengthen the muscles to keep them placed properly. Yoga and pilates classes both give us the knowledge and the tools to improve and practice good sitting, standing, and even lying posture.
Early on in our yoga practice, as we begin to notice what our natural tendencies toward imbalance are, we may work so hard in earnest to correct these, that we end up creating the opposite imbalance. This happens as we take our corrections too far. This is why it is so important to find that middle ground, that neutral position, of our bones and joints.
Neutral means there is no flexion and there is no extension. The joints are at rest. It is good to put our joins through their full ranges of motion, but first, perhaps we need to also learn what these ranges are. This is where our classes come in. If you have found a good teacher, pay extra attention if they speak about the placement of your bones. If you find this interesting, you can even do your own research online or find a good book. There are many out there right now, especially in the pilates and yoga sections at your local bookstore. One of my favourites is Trail Guide to the Body: How to Locate Bones, Muscles and More, 2001 Biel, Andrew R. & Dorn, Robin.
An easy technique you can start with is the idea of the plumb line posture test. A plumb line is a cord suspended from above with a weight on the bottom to give us a vertical reference point. You can make your own at home by getting some colored twine and a plumb bob weight (4-6 ounces) at your local hardware store. However, most of the time, we use an imaginary plumb line.
Picture the imaginary plumb line along the side of your body. A standard erect good posture will have the line going through:
1. The ear lobe
2. Neck Vertebrae
3. The Shoulder
4. Lower back vertebrae
5. Hip joint
6. Slightly in front of the middle of the knee
7. Slightly in front of the ankle bone
A plumb line test could also be performed on your front and back, to check for balance on the left and right sides. You could see if you had any twisting happening, or one side a bit higher or lower, for instance.
A very important factor in our posture is the tilt of our pelvis. Some of us may have an exaggerated forward or backward tilt, or we may even sway our whole pelvis forward or backward away from the plumb line. This is something you can ask your instructor about, if you feel like you are unsure of what you may be doing.
In my classes recently, I am beginning to bring along my digital camera. This is an excellent tool that we can all use for viewing ourselves, not only in different postures we may practice, but also especially in our neutral posture. Remember; keep your ears over your shoulders. All good things we be yours. Just as in love, we all need our hearts and our bones to be in the right place. And this ain’t just some old fashioned notion.