Anyone tried Yoga at all please?

Have been offered some sessions to see if it can help Fibro or migraines.
It is called Vini Yoga.
I cant see it can hurt, but don't know anyone who has tried personally.

Thanks
p

I've been doing yoga since I was a teen. Always on my own while I watch TV, or whenever I need a good stretch, and sometimes I go to the community centre.

It does a world of good for your circlutory system and posture. I would not recommend anything that entitles power yoga or where you are panting or hurting. Yoga is slow and pleasant.

Definatley go and it is meant to be enjoyed. Don't be intimidated by what others can do. All bodies are different and what is important is the proper stretch and the honor to your body.

I have been using a cobbled together yoga routine that I gleaned from books. I am sure a real yogi would cringe at the thought, but I wanted to give it a try on my own schedule and without the expense. I like it more than I thought I would. I had only ever seen poses, and they looked sort of silly. With this, there are some more active sequences, like the "salutation to the sun" that get the circulation going. And the stretches are great.

I am doing some posture with feet higher than head, and I will say that I cannot do those if I have an active HA going on. I am sure most of you know what I mean!

Norma

Thanks both of you.
This is supposed to start with just breathing (something I do at least have some experience of).
Working to de stress and relax and so on.
I cant do any exercises at present due to the fibro, but would be good to try.

Definitely worth going Pen and as Angela said, just do whatever you can do. I've done it on and off for several years but very off during the last year due to the migraines increasing. Even if it doesn't help with the head, it will do wonders for flexibility etc. I've definitely stiffened up since not doing it so often. The slowness of the exercises combined with the breathing makes you feel so good. Just thinking about it makes me want to get out there and do it.

Liz

Wow Liz, sounds worth it.
He is offering me a free first session here at home to see how I do.
After that we just play it by ear....
I might just give it a go.

Thanks everyone.

Oh Pen, go, go, go!

I've practiced yoga since I was fourteen and have been a registered yoga teacher for more than ten years. I have run a studio for several years now and it has been what has kept me sane. I also practice yoga therapy and have worked with people with many pain syndromes including fibro. I have seen miracles.

While I have not been able to cure my migraines with yoga I am sure that I would be much worse (or at least much less happy) without my own practice and without my students.

Viniyoga is a style different than what I teach, but is mostly gentle and suitable for people with pain. If you don't like this particular class you may want to look for another teacher. The quality of the teacher is vital- probably even more than the style. Remember to go slow, trust your own body and sensations, and don't let anyone push you to do what you know will not be helpful. Never, ever push through pain. As counterintuitive as it may sound, you get more with less.

I currently am unable to practice nursing due to my migraines, but I continue to teach yoga because it is therapeutic to me and mostly because I love it. Next to my family it is the most important thing in my life.

Give it a try- more than one class please - and see what happens. It is not an instant cure, but it can help in so many ways. If I miss a day of practice I know the difference. Yoga can change you at a deep level. A profound level. And the way it changes you is by helping you to become more yourself. Hard to explain but obvious after some time of practice.

Anna

When I was doing yoga on a daily basis I felt better than I ever had in my life.

I loooove yoga!! I say give it a try. I must admit it sometimes triggers or worsens a Migraine... But there are other benefits that weigh it put. Plus.. It's usually when I do power yoga or hot yoga that I get a negative M effect. The slow mellow classes seem less likely to do this.

Hope u like it!

I tried it once, but it's not for me. I need to get fatigued and to sweat to feel good. I prefer running, nordic walking, swimming etc...
However yoga is great for the body and the mind. A friend of mine used to do it as she has lungs problems and cannot do aerobic exercise. She loved it and found it very helpful, especially when she was particularly stressed.

Slightly off topic, but i do pilates once a week, along with one or two trips to the gym if i can manage it, i feel better for doing it all, although i need to pay attention to what i eat and drink b4 i go, if i go without havin had a snack first and without water bottle its a disaster, actually had a M start during pilates class once ( it is a morning class) as i had rushed out of house without much breakfast or fluids, so i would say just remember to have plenty of water with you and have had a decent snack b4 hand, ( i say this Pen because i do recall you have said several times that you forget to eat or that you dont feel like eating much sometimes) i hope you enjoy it. xx

jwar wrote:When I was doing yoga on a daily basis I felt better than I ever had in my life.

How come you stopped? Was it the migraines?

Theresa, yes I do drink a lot of water, but I am hardly ever hungry. I guess I dont expend enough energy....so don't always eat.

My mind goes back to when I was about 16 and my Dad bought a book on Yoga.
He recognised he found it hard to relax. He wanted to try meditation. He didnt succed, but bought a relaxaing "LP"
and found it very helpful. He told me he thought I should try to get into Yoga as I would need it to relax in later life.
Of course.....I didnt....other things on my mind....but my dear dad was very astute....very open to things...ahead of his time I think. Maybe there's a message here I should be listeneing to, especially with you all encouraging me..

I will get in touch with the guy and have him come around for the first 90 minutes as soon as we can both manage.
At least I should find out what its all about...

Thank you all so much. Where else would I be able to get feedback like this from people who understand the probelm of the migraines and fibro....

Thanks guys.
Pen

I still do yoga about twice a week. The only reason I stopped the daily practice is because I'm in the midst of getting my PhD right now and the workload has been very, very intense. I just don't have very much free time these days.

Oh that's good then Jwar. Always good to find something that can continue despite the beasts.
How close are you to the PhD? What is it in. Sorry if I should know, I do miss stuff.

Oh, no worries. I probably have about 2 years left to go on the PhD (in the United States a PhD is a 5-6 year long process, whereas I understand in England it is 2-3 years). My PhD will be in Pharmacology, which a lot of people think is the same as Pharmacy, but it isn't. Pharmacology is basically performing biomedical research with the intent of designing new drugs. I personally do gene therapy research, wherein we try to correct genetic diseases by directly replacing aberrant/mutated genes with correct/normal ones.

jwar - That sounds interesting. Of course, you are going to start by finding and replacing the errant migraine-causing genes in all of us and replace them with normal head genes, right?

Noona,

Hehe, of course!

I actually have an interest in brain cancer and muscular dystrophy, but I have been pondering lately how to create a migraine therapy. The beauty of using gene therapy to cure migraines is that theoretically a single dose of the therapy would be enough to permanently cure the disease. However, the problem is much more complex than that as a definitive set of genes would need to be identified, and furthermore you would have to prove that if you replaced them in an adult human being that it really would correct migraines.

Unfortunately, if there is a genetic cause that means we were born with it, and that likely the genes played a significant role in the development of our brains and nervous systems in utero. This means that even adding in the correct gene now might not be enough to undo what's already been done, if that makes sense. So basically, if it turns out migraineurs are just expressing an aberrant protein like a messed up ion channel then it would be an easy cure. But if their entire nervous system is structured differently due to years and years of genetic mutation exposure, then the nervous system is very unlikely to rearrange itself once it has matured.

But yes, I ponder ways of going about it all the time. The unfortunate bit is that the NIH provides very, very little funding for migraine research, so writing a grant on it would be tricky and unlikely to garner funding. This is magnified by the fact that we know so very little about migraine pathogenesis, so the grant could not just be written from a "this is how I will cure migraines" perspective, but rather it would have to be "this is how I will discover what causes migraines, and then maybe I can do this to cure them." Whereas, if I write a grant on brain cancer or Parkinson's for example it is much, much easier.

-Jayme

What an interesting path to follow Jayme.
Perhaps one day you will be able to help us.
I can understand the difficulties regarding migraine though.
I also have Fibro and IBS and they seem as elusive in their causation.

Can I ask your view on migraine?
I do not appear to have any family connection at all.
I am never sure how far back or how wide in the tree one should look,
but as a family historian I have a lot of information to work with.

Of course with each generation the gene pool must dilute somewhat (doesn't it?)
But either way in my 30 cousins, parents and their siblings, and grandparents, not one other person.
Now of course this is not conclusive, but I wondered whether you would consider that there may be two kinds of migraine.
Genetic and....well I don't know to be honest, I am not a technical person at all.

My migraines came with peri menopause, and have hung around.
Hormones caused them and in 20 years we have not identified any other triggers.

Anyway, just curious. Might there be two different forms of migraine?
Be interested to hear your view Jayme.

Thanks,
pen

I love yoga. It is offered free here at work during lunch but I haven't tried it out yet. I do it on my own at home while watching TV. Also do Tai Chi and weight lifting while watching TV. I'm not much of a TV watcher and when I do indulge, feel like I have to be doing something something constructive at the same time.

If any of your headaches (migraines or other types) are related to back or neck issues, Yoga can be a huge help. I do a brief routine every morning before work, and at night before I go to sleep. I get tension related headaches, and it makes a huge difference. What I do is basically a hodge-podge of stuff I have learned from different people/instructors.

I also do a brief routine after every workout at the gym. I love working out, but sometimes I get headaches in the aftermath. Doing some Yoga after the workouts seems to have pretty much stopped that.

The other thing it helps me with is relaxing. I get pretty wound up when I feel headaches coming on sometimes, or when the weathers bad and I know there's a good chance I might get one. The breathing and relaxation really help with that.

I definitely consider a part of my treatment plan for migraines. There are just a million other benefits to having the level of flexibility I have as well. Way less muscle pulls and injuries being one of them.

tdu,

They are neck related, or shoulder related, I am sure. Cant find the problem, but I am as sure as I can be.
Therefore it really sounds as if I should try this. I get extra pain from my neck, and it just happened yesterday when I started to do ironing and had to stop. 15 minutes is all i lasted and my shoulder ached, then my neck, then my head, and overnight, migraine....
Thank you for this, I will give him a call.

Pen

pen wrote:tdu,

They are neck related, or shoulder related, I am sure. Cant find the problem, but I am as sure as I can be.
Therefore it really sounds as if I should try this. I get extra pain from my neck, and it just happened yesterday when I started to do ironing and had to stop. 15 minutes is all i lasted and my shoulder ached, then my neck, then my head, and overnight, migraine....
Thank you for this, I will give him a call.

Pen

Pen, in your case I would be very careful to make sure you are getting good instruction. And instruction in a lower impact type of Yoga. Some Yoga can be pretty intense. The stuff I do makes me look like a human pretzel and almost falls under a workout category. But there are types more focuses on relaxation and improving and very gradually improving flexibility. I built up to the level I am at over a couple of years through gradually pushing myself in a way that wouldn't end up making problems worse.

Just make sure whoever is instructing you is clear on your issues, and why you are there. If you do anything too intense, it would likely irritate the problem, which in turn would probably turn you off Yoga.

My neck is far from perfect, but a combination of Massage, Chiropractic using an Activator (not 'bone crunching'), and Yoga has reduced the problems by 75%. I get way less migraines that start out being triggered by my neck.

Unusual for a guy, I love yoga. I did vinyasa yoga for several decades. I was originally motivated by trying stuff to reduce my migraines and to help with the spasticity I was developing. I don't think it really did much for them, but I enjoyed the release, physical and mental, I got from the practice. I did other sports for aerobic/physical stuff. I know some people do "power yoga" for this but I think it really doesn't fit in with what yoga is about and might even be dangerous.

As my physical condition deteriorated, I had to switch to svaroopa yoga. This is a form of yoga where you are supported - with blankets, blocks, etc., so that you can get stretches/releases without having to use your muscles too much. VERY relaxing. Our class was mostly for people with MS, but we had a few people in it with severe migraines and they said it helped a lot.

In my case, I really don't think yoga helped at all with my migraines or spasticity. It was for other benefits. In fact, recently I've cut back from 3-4x a week practice because I feel the stretches are actually aggravating some of my neuropathic symptoms. To me, the benefits are mental, not physical, even though I know yoga is suppose to "yoke" the two domains.

Dear Pen,
I have tried every type of yoga through 40 years with dozens of different teachers, etc. The main problem I have is there are so many poses that strain my neck.

I have worked closely with the teachers to do variations of the poses so my neck is less involved, but nothing ever seems to work and I always end up in much greater pain. If I avoid every exercise that strains my neck, I am left doing only about one/third of the poses.

Chiropractors, muscular therapists, orthopedists and physical therapists I have worked with have unanimously felt that with certain types of h/a's, where pain is referred to the neck area, or there is a muscular component to your pain, yoga is a no-no. The reason I have tried it so many times is that I kept reading about people who benefited from it, but I learned from the above professionals that those people must have mainly muscular based pain that is alleviated by yoga.

They could have migraines, also, but the pain probably originates in their muscles and then bumps over to the blood vessels. Some drs feel that most headaches involve chemicals that cause both muscular and migraine type pain----that it is essentially one syndrome, and certainly most people are given the same meds if they continue trying meds long enough.

I have worked out my own series of exercises for my neck, shoulders and back with the therapists listed above, and even incorporated a few yoga moves into my routine. Once again, like everything we experiment with, it is all trial and error. Whatever exercises caused my pain not to increase, I continued to do. None of them ever helped with my h/a, but if I do not do them, I can barely move my head in any direction.
Good luck,
Mishkyn

Thanks again all.
Mishkyn this is not a yoga that includes "positions".
It starts with meditation and other "stuff".
I will get a free first session in my home so I can learn more.
I appreciate your comments very much though and will certainly take all that on board,.
Thank you.