This past weekend I attended a two and a half day conference in Baltimore, MD, for physicians and other health care providers focusing on the therapeutic effect of yoga for those with cardiovascular disorders. Along with the expected psychophysiology and pathophysiology presentations, there were experiential practice sessions where we got in the yoga chair or on the mat and executed the therapeutic poses. We did meditation paractices. Time was taken to explore the yogic and ayurvedic (Eastern Medicine) philosophies pertinent to the topic. Class began Friday evening. Saturday class began at 6AM and went until 6:30PM. Sunday, half day.
All the participants were physicians, I was the lone RN, looking to integrate the healing power of yoga into their active medical practices. We had a cardiologist, psychiatrist, ENT, pediatrician, anesthesiologist and internal medicine doctors. They all did yoga themselves. They all experienced for themselves the healing restorative power of breathing with movement. Our own inner healer drives us to share yoga with others. But educated as science based healthcare providers we all want to know the science behind why it works. We learned that here- research evidence and clinical applications.
Isn't this fantastic? Physicians searching to learn ways to teach their patients self-healing techniques with gentle breathing, simple yoga postures and meditation.
Physicians want proof. Some of most powerful proof came from Dr. Dilip Sarkar, one of the two conference content presenters. Dr. Sarkar is a retired cardiovascular surgeon. His retirement came unexpectedly 15 years ago when he had a catastrophic cardiovascular event and found himself looking up from the OR table instead of down. There he was, his heart in a shamble of clogged and irreparable coronary arteries. He went home from surgery with a long scar down the center of his chest. His physicians gave him a poor prognosis. He was thin and had no cholesterol problems. His blood pressure was normal and he had no family history of cardiac problems. The single cause of his heart damage- stress. Bending over an OR table long hours, teaching medical students, waking in the night with a phone call to come in and patch up a heart- year after year- had taken it's toll.
Suddenly he found himself at home with a fist full of pills. Instead of sitting around like cardiac cripples do, he began yoga. His back was so damaged from decades of leaning over the OR table that he could not get down on the floor or if he did he could not get up. Everything hurt but he could not sit and wait for death.
"Slowly and slowly the yoga poses came to me", he says about his recovery. He now takes no pills. He has a magnificent yoga practice and can do a headstand and still is able to talk and guide his yoga students. He travels Internationally to teach physicians therapeutic yoga. Dr. Sarkar has the chops to do it from both sides of the desk. He says to do yoga yourself and you will see how it works.
More and more physicians are coming to yoga because it works for themselves. Now we just need to get the insurance companies to reimburse for it and yoga will be everywhere!
All the participants were physicians, I was the lone RN, looking to integrate the healing power of yoga into their active medical practices. We had a cardiologist, psychiatrist, ENT, pediatrician, anesthesiologist and internal medicine doctors. They all did yoga themselves. They all experienced for themselves the healing restorative power of breathing with movement. Our own inner healer drives us to share yoga with others. But educated as science based healthcare providers we all want to know the science behind why it works. We learned that here- research evidence and clinical applications.
Isn't this fantastic? Physicians searching to learn ways to teach their patients self-healing techniques with gentle breathing, simple yoga postures and meditation.
Physicians want proof. Some of most powerful proof came from Dr. Dilip Sarkar, one of the two conference content presenters. Dr. Sarkar is a retired cardiovascular surgeon. His retirement came unexpectedly 15 years ago when he had a catastrophic cardiovascular event and found himself looking up from the OR table instead of down. There he was, his heart in a shamble of clogged and irreparable coronary arteries. He went home from surgery with a long scar down the center of his chest. His physicians gave him a poor prognosis. He was thin and had no cholesterol problems. His blood pressure was normal and he had no family history of cardiac problems. The single cause of his heart damage- stress. Bending over an OR table long hours, teaching medical students, waking in the night with a phone call to come in and patch up a heart- year after year- had taken it's toll.
Suddenly he found himself at home with a fist full of pills. Instead of sitting around like cardiac cripples do, he began yoga. His back was so damaged from decades of leaning over the OR table that he could not get down on the floor or if he did he could not get up. Everything hurt but he could not sit and wait for death.
"Slowly and slowly the yoga poses came to me", he says about his recovery. He now takes no pills. He has a magnificent yoga practice and can do a headstand and still is able to talk and guide his yoga students. He travels Internationally to teach physicians therapeutic yoga. Dr. Sarkar has the chops to do it from both sides of the desk. He says to do yoga yourself and you will see how it works.
More and more physicians are coming to yoga because it works for themselves. Now we just need to get the insurance companies to reimburse for it and yoga will be everywhere!
