Why You Should Love Your Baroreceptors: Stress Management Made Easy

by Nina

I found this nice little illustration of baroreceptors that I'm excited to share with you. Okay, I admit it, I'm a little obsessed with baroreceptors. But that's because ever since I found out how our baroreceptors help regulate our blood pressure and I understood how we can use this aspect of our anatomy to switch our nervous systems from fight or flight to relaxation mode, I've not only included supported inverted poses in my practice on a regular basis but I've been on a mission to spread the word. Using supported inverted poses for stress management is one of easiest ways—at least for me—to calm yourself down because all you have to do is set yourself in the pose and stay there for a while. The shape of the pose itself causes the baroreceptors to work their magic.

As I wrote in my post Just in Time for the Holidays: Inverted Poses, the reason that inverted poses trigger the relaxation response is due to the pressure sensors called baroreceptors that are connected to the nerves controlling your heart rate and blood pressure. Your baroreceptors are located in the wall of each internal carotid artery at your carotid sinus (the arteries on each side of your neck that carry blood from your heart to your brain).

And in the wall of your aortic arch (just above your heart).

Aortic Arch

These baroreceptors detect any changes in your blood pressure, stretching when your blood pressure is high and shrinking when your blood pressure is low. If your baroreceptors detect a fall in your blood pressure, they send signals via your nerves to increase your heart rate, constrict your blood vessels to raise your blood pressure, and switch your nervous system to fight or flight mode. Likewise, if your baroreceptors detect abnormally elevated blood pressure, they send signals to slow your heart rate, relax your blood vessels to lower your blood pressure, and switch your nervous system to relaxation mode. And now I have a picture to illustrate this!

In an inverted pose, your heart is higher than your head, the opposite of its position when you are upright. With your heart higher than your head, gravity causes more blood to flow in the direction of your head, creating more pressure than usual on your carotid sinus and aortic arch. As the arterial pressure is increased, your baroreceptors are stretched and signals are transmitted to your central nervous system as if your blood pressure was high throughout your body. Feedback signals are then sent back to your body to reduce the arterial pressure, slowing your heart rate, relaxing your blood vessels, and releasing hormones that decrease adrenaline production. This automatically switches your body to relaxation mode.

Because there are baroreceptors in your carotid sinus (the arteries on each side of your neck that carry blood from your heart to your brain) inverted or partially inverted poses where your neck is flexed (that is, your chin is pointing toward your chest), as in Shoulderstand, Plow pose, or Bridge pose, puts added stimulation on your baroreceptors, which may enhance the calming effects of the inversion.

Any yoga pose where your heart is above your head is considered to be an inversion. Inverted yoga poses include full inversions, such as Headstand and Shoulderstand, where your heart is directly over your head and the rest of your body is also fully inverted. Partial inversions, such as Downward-Facing Dog pose and Standing Forward Bend, where your heart is less directly over your head and your legs are either not fully or not at all inverted, are also considered inverted poses and will have similar calming effects. As long as you are warm, quiet, and comfortable in the inverted pose, all you have to do is let the baroreceptors work their magic. Naturally, supported versions of the poses (such as Shoulderstand with a chair or Bridge pose on blankets) are more relaxing than the versions of poses in which you must support yourself, so if you’re practicing inversions for stress reduction, choose the supported versions. See Just in Time for the Holidays: Inverted Poses for a complete list of the inverted poses.

I'm such a believer in these poses that I recently had a friend (thank you, Erin Collom) take photographs of me doing all the supported inversions, so I could write in detail about the individual poses. For now, here's a photograph of a Supported Standing Forward Bend, a surprisingly calming pose.

Caution: Inverted poses may be unsafe for those with certain medical conditions (see here).

Friday Q&A: Low Blood Pressure (Hypotension)

Q: I've a question that I'm hoping you can address. I have low blood pressure and lately am finding that I am becoming VERY lightheaded moving from inversions, even simple ones like forward bend, to standing poses. I've spoken to my doctor about it and she has recommended the standard "eat move salt" approach, which I'm already doing. But I am wondering if there is any yogic therapy or advise for this issue?

A: You are not alone! I have students tell me they suffer from low blood pressure on a regular basis. Maybe “suffer” is not the right word, as some of these students don’t actually have any symptoms related to their lower than normal blood pressure, so they often just mention it in passing. But others will complain, as you are experiencing, of dizziness or lightheadedness with changing positions, especially when going from the ground to standing or inverted to upright positions.

To bring everyone up to speed, hypotension is usually defined as a blood pressure that is low enough to produce symptoms, which is usually below the numbers 100/70 when you get your blood pressure checked. Keep in mind that people in excellent aerobic condition, such as regular runners, will often have a resting blood pressure at or below this level. Of course, the blood pressure being a dynamic number that usually increases with increased demand on your body, like during a run, will rise to levels above the resting normal range without any untoward effects.

When someone has low blood pressure, as you do, and is having symptoms, it is wise to do a few things to rule out more worrisome causes, like check blood sugar to rule out diabetes, or check thyroid hormone levels to rule out an under-active thyroid gland. Other conditions to rule out are anemia, dehydration, or heart failure. To evaluate your heart itself if there is any suspicion of it being the source of your symptoms, you may be asked to get an ECG or heart tracing, an echocardiogram which uses sound waves to take moving pictures of the heart and valves, or even a cardiac stress test to see how your heart responds to increase demand via walking or running. And one final test, called a tilt-table test, can measure moment-by-moment changes in blood pressure as you are tilted up or down.This is ordered if your doctor suspects faulty brain signals (neurally mediated hypotension) as the cause of hypotension.

When symptoms are mild, the usual treatment is actually lifestyle/diet modifications, in the form of increasing salt in your diet, increasing water intake, wearing support stockings (which shunt blood from legs back to the heart, potentially increasing your blood pressure readings). If all else fails, there are several medications used to increase your blood pressure in order to see if your symptoms will resolve. According to the Mayo Clinic web site, there are several medications that are prescribed to raise the blood pressure:

“For example, the drug fludrocortisone is often used to treat this form of low blood pressure. This drug helps boost your blood volume, which raises blood pressure. Doctors often use the drug midodrine (Orvaten, Proamatine) to raise standing blood pressure levels in people with chronic orthostatic hypotension (which means hypotension that occurs due to change of position). It works by restricting the ability of your blood vessels to expand, which raises blood pressure.” 

As always, there are likely side effects to consider when deciding to try a medication for the symptoms.

Short of going through more testing, which might be a good idea in order to cover all your bases, is there anything that yoga might have to offer?  Well, one other recommendation the folks at Mayo Clinic offered may give you a way of coming out of forward folds that could impact your dizziness. In addition to moving slowly when going from supine or prone to standing, here’s what they suggest:

“if you begin to get symptoms while standing, cross your thighs in a scissors fashion and squeeze, or put one foot on a ledge or chair and lean as far forward as possible. These maneuvers encourage blood to flow from your legs to your heart.” 

The first suggestion sounds a lot like the leg position we use in Eagle pose (Garudasana).  You might try coming out of Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana) with your legs crossed and squeezing as suggested and see if the dizziness lessens. The second suggestion sounds like Standing Leg Stretch (Padangustasana) done with a foot on a lift, such as we do onto a chair or top rung of a chair.  This later suggestion might be more applicable if your dizziness comes on when standing, as opposed to while changing positions. 

In addition to these ideas, you could carefully work with kumbhaka, or a hold at the top of the inhale, along with lengthening the inhale compared to the exhale. Start easy, with a one or two second hold. Try a 2:1 ratio timing for the inhale/exhale. This has a mild stimulating effect on heart rate and possibly blood pressure. You may want to practice these techniques separate from your asana practice, perhaps before starting. It might be possible to employ them during asana practice as well, although this is done less often, except in certain traditions, such as viniyoga or the yoga of Krishnamacharya.  So you could consider working with a teacher from those lineages. I hope this information is helpful.  I’d love to hear back if something improves, and all the best in resolving this situation!

—Baxter

Getting Comfortable in Forward Bends

by Nina

I have always known that seated forward bends are considered quieting poses, but it wasn't until I interviewed Shari (see Talking About Baroreceptors and Yoga) about baroreceptors that I discovered that forward bends are quieting for the same reason that inverted poses are calming: pressure on the baroreceptors causes your body to lower your blood pressure and reduce your stress hormones. No wonder three minutes in a forward bend seems to turn off the noise in my head and put me in a relaxed, almost dreamy state. But this got me curious because you're not exactly upside down in a forward bend, so I asked Baxter if he knew why forward bends had the same effect as inversions (I'm like that about yoga, I always want to know why!). Here's what he said:

Regarding the beneficial effect of seated forward folds on lowering blood pressure, I would hypothesize that the fold brings enough pressure onto the abdominal area to place pressure on the main blood vessel in the belly, the abdominal aorta. If this caused a temporary narrowing in the vessel, this could create a back pressure up to the baroreceptors in the neck and aortic arch. This would have the same effect as inversions.

By now you may be reading this and thinking, "That's fine for you to say, but I hate forward bends.  Just the thought of doing them makes me feel cranky, not relaxed." Yes, I realize that I'm one of the lucky few who is flexible enough to be comfortable in forward bends. And I do know that a large number of people, especially those with tight hamstrings, are, shall we say, quite the opposite of comfortable in forward bends. For those people, discomfort in the pose pretty much negates the soothing effects because being physically uncomfortable tends to irritate the nervous system.

But does that mean you have to miss out entirely on the blissful feeling I've just described? Definitely not! Because in today's post I'm going to present two different ways to prop your forward bends to take remove the yuck and bring on the bliss.

The first way is to place a round bolster or a very thick blanket roll behind the thigh of your straight leg or behind both legs if you are doing Paschimottanasana (as shown in the photo below). With the bolster behind your thigh, you knee or knees will be bent and supported.

Bend from your hips to come into the forward bend and then slowly round your back into a gentle curve. Baxter is someone who has very tight hamstrings and normally doesn't enjoy forward bends, but just look how comfy he looks in these photographs!

Stay in the pose at least three minutes (I've found it takes that long for the pose to work its magic). Whhen you are ready to come out of the pose, come out very slowly, rolling up to an upright position.

And if that propping doesn't work for you, I've got another trick up my sleeve. In the second version of a supported forward bend, you use a bench or chair on which to rest your arms and head. Position the chair over your straight leg (or legs), far enough away so you can keep your spine long and straight when you come into the forward bend. If the bench or chair isn't high enough for you to easily reach, add folded blankets or towels to increase the height. To come into the pose, bend from your hip joints, keeping your spine straight and long (in this version you do not round your back). Place your folded arms on the chair or bench, and rest your head on your hands. If possible, catch your forehead skin on your hands and tug it gently down toward your eyebrows.

Again, stay in the pose at least three minutes. When you are ready to come out of the pose, come out very slowly, using your hands to press yourself into an upright position.

I often teach this second version of the pose, and I'm always so pleased to see almost everyone in the class come out of the pose with a calm, relaxed expression on their faces! I'd love to hear how it feels to you!

For cautions for these forward bends (and forward bends in general), see Which Forward Bends Are Safe?

Blood Pressure: Talking about Baroreceptors and Yoga

by Shari and Nina 

Nina: Yesterday, Baxter gave us a little background on blood pressure (see So, what is blood pressure, anyway?). I thought today you could talk a bit more about the relationship between blood pressure and yoga.

Shari: First some more background! Of particular importance is the effect of our baroreceptors on blood pressure. Baroreceptors are stretch receptors that found in the major arteries, and they are activated when our arteries are over- or under-pressured by blood flow. This in turn changes our heart rate and arterial diameters. Baroreceptors are found abundantly in the carotid sinuses, the carotid arteries of the neck and the aortic arch of the heart.

Carotid Sinuses (Carotid Arteries of the Neck)

Aortic Arch of the Heart

When there is an increase in arterial pressure because of increased blood flow, vasodilation occurs and the heart rate will then drop. This causes a decrease in cardiac contraction and in turn causes a decrease in blood pressure.

Nina: For all of us overstressed folks, decreasing blood pressure is a good thing. And I’m betting yoga can help with this....

Shari: Absolutely. Research has shown that both forward bends and inversions affect the cardiac baroreceptors, ultimately causing a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate! Inversions and forward bends also increase baroreceptor sensitivity toward the fluid dynamic changes. So both forward bends and supported inversions are both recommended for reducing blood pressure.

Nina: That explains why both forward bends and supported inversions are considered calming poses. I certainly use both in my home practice for stress reduction. Do you have any favorite poses for lowering blood pressure?

Shari: I like supported Setubanda Sarvangasana (Bridge pose, with straight legs), perhaps with a head wrap. I also like Viparita Karani (Legs Up the Wall pose) with a head wrap. When the going gets rough, these are my “comfort poses.”

Nina: I also love Legs Up the Wall pose. And supported Child's pose is a good example of a forward bend that is very comforting—just thinking about it makes me relax. And we’ll definitely have to talk about the head wrap sometime soon!

So, what is blood pressure, anyway?

by Baxter

If you read yoga magazines or read online articles about yoga and your health, you often come across a warning to avoid this or modify that yoga asana if you suffer from high blood pressure or hypertension another term used for high blood pressure). But it turns out that there are a lot of differing opinions about how and what to change about a typical yoga practice if you have hypertension (HTN), and not a great deal of agreement on the best approach to take. However, before we get into that, I thought it would be helpful to discuss what blood pressure is, and how it is determined, as well as why HTN needs to be addressed either via lifestyle changes or medical intervention.

So, what is blood pressure? Well, it is a measurement we take—usually in your upper arm via a blood pressure cuff—that measures the pressure in the arteries of your arm. When you are sitting or standing with your arms at your sides, the place where blood pressure reading is taken is in line with your heart and its main artery, the thoracic aorta. Now we are measuring the pressure downstream in an artery in the arm, but it seems to correlate well with the pressures inside the heart and aorta. The top number of a blood pressure reading, called the systolic blood pressure, is the amount of pressure the blood in your arteries is exerting on the elastic, stretchy walls of the artery when the heart is at its maximum point of contraction. On average, it runs around 120mmHg’s of mercury in a normal healthy person. The bottom number, called the diastolic blood pressure, is the pressure at the time the heart is most relaxed between beats and is filling with more blood coming in from the body and lungs. A healthy average for that number is 80.  So, if your blood pressure, on average over the course of the day, is at 120/80 or below, it is said to be in the normal range.

Arctic Moon by Michele Macartney-Filgate

Via observations and studies, if your blood pressure averages 140/90 or above over the course of the day, you are said to have high blood pressure or hypertension. If you fall between 120/80 and 140/90, you are now said to have a condition called “pre-hypertension,” a no man’s land where it seems you are at a greater risk of developing HTN over time. More on HTN and why it’s important later.

Let’s go back to the concept of blood pressure for a few more moments. Your blood pressure is not a constant figure, but changes as your physical, mental and emotional activities change. It often goes up during exercise, stressful situations, and emotionally charged interactions, as well as varying with your body position of reclining, sitting or standing. It must vary dynamically to accommodate our changing situations throughout the day. Maintaining the proper blood pressure for our changing needs is a complex system that involves many of the body’s systems, including hormones, brain activity, and specialized receptors for pressure in the some of the biggest arteries in the body, called baroreceptors. As these various components of the blood pressure regulation interact, they result in dynamic fluid changes within the blood vessels and heart, via changing the blood flow in the vessels, the heart rate and the intensity of the contraction of the heart itself. Other organs also get involved, such as the kidneys, which are asked to help lower blood pressure at times by filtering out more water from the blood to decrease the overall amount of fluid in the system. Other parts of our nervous system can also influence the blood pressure readings. Your autonomic nervous system, composed of the two opposing and balancing parts, the sympathetic (Flight, Fight or Freeze response) and the parasympathetic (Rest and Digest response), can either increase or decrease your blood pressure, depending on how activated they are.

A few more thoughts on the general topic of blood pressure. Although we have defined the situation where blood pressure is elevated above the normal level and is considered potentially dangerous if left untreated, the opposite situation can also exist. That is, your blood pressure can be lower than normal, and this situation is called hypotension. Highly trained runners, especially long distance runners, can have blood pressures that average 100/60 or even lower and feel no worse for the wear. However, in other situations, hypotension can create symptoms that indicate it is not a normal adaptation to good aerobic fitness, such as lightheadedness, dizziness on standing and fainting. So next time, we will look at the conditions of hypertension and hypotension in more detail, and begin to discuss how yoga could fit into plan for better health for these students. Special thanks today to both Shari Ser and PubMed for their insights on blood pressure, as well as all my teachers back at UC College of Medicine in Ohio!

Just in Time for the Holidays: Inverted Poses

by Nina

In my original post about the relaxation response and yoga (see here), I mentioned that inverted yoga poses are one of the many ways you can trigger the relaxation response. Inverted poses are my personal go-to stress busters of choice, and if I could get my hands on Paul Weston (see here), I’d certainly teach him one or more of these amazing poses. So today I’m going to explain what I mean by “inverted poses,” and I’ll also provide some scientific background on them because understanding why these poses work can help you get the most out of them. Okay, here goes:

Any yoga pose where your heart is above your head is considered to be an inversion. Inverted yoga poses include full inversions, such as Headstand and Shoulderstand, where your heart is directly over your head and the rest of your body is also fully inverted. Also included as inverted poses are partial inversions, such as Downward-Facing Dog pose and Standing Forward Bend, where your heart is less directly over your head and your legs are either not fully and not at all inverted.

Standing Forward Bend from Yoga: The Poetry of the Body

The reason these poses trigger the relaxation response turns to be related to the mechanisms that control your heart rate and blood pressure. The nerves that control your heart rate and blood pressure are regulated through pressure sensors called baroreceptors. Your baroreceptors are located in the wall of each internal carotid artery at your carotid sinus (the arteries on each side of your neck that carry blood from your heart to your brain) and in the wall of your aortic arch (just above your heart). These baroreceptors detect any changes in your blood pressure, stretching when blood pressure is high and shrinking when blood pressure is low.

If your baroreceptors detect a fall in your blood pressure, they send signals via your nerves to increase your heart rate, constrict your blood vessels to raise your blood pressure, and switch your nervous system to fight or flight mode. Likewise, if your baroreceptors detect abnormally elevated blood pressure, they send signals to slow your heart rate, relax your blood vessels to lower your blood pressure, and switch your nervous system to relaxation mode.

In an inverted pose, your heart is higher than your head, the opposite of its position when you are upright. With your heart higher than your head, gravity causes more blood to flow in the direction of your head, creating more pressure than usual on your carotid sinus and aortic arch. As the arterial pressure is increased, your baroreceptors are stretched and signals are transmitted to your central nervous system as if your blood pressure was high throughout your body. Feedback signals are then sent back to your body to reduce the arterial pressure, slowing your heart rate, relaxing your blood vessels, and releasing hormones that decrease adrenaline production. This automatically switches your body to relaxation mode.

In addition, inverted or partially inverted poses where your neck is flexed (that is, your chin is pointing toward your chest), as in Shoulderstand, Plow pose, or Bridge pose, puts additional pressure on your carotid sinus (the arteries on each side of your neck that carry blood from your heart to your brain). This added stimulation of your baroreceptors may enhance the calming effects of the inversion.

How simple is that? As long as you are warm, quiet, and comfortable in the inverted pose, all you have to do is let pose work its magic! Naturally, supported versions of the poses (such as Shoulderstand with a chair or Bridge pose on blankets) are more relaxing than straight versions of poses in which you must support yourself, so if you’re practicing inversions for stress reduction, choose the supported versions.

In the coming weeks, I’ll provide details about the various inverted poses, but until then, the following is classic sequence of calming inversions. You can do any or all of these poses, but if you do more than one, I recommend doing them in the order shown below.

1.    Downward-Facing Dog pose, with your head resting on a block or folded blankets (1 to 3 minutes)
2.    Standing Forward Bend, with your head resting on a block or with folded arms and head resting on a chair seat (1 to 3 minutes)
3.    Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend (Prasarita Padottansansa), with your head resting on the ground, a block, or the seat of a chair (1 to 3 minutes)
4.    Headstand (3 to 10 minutes)
5.    Shoulderstand, with a chair (3 to 10 minutes)
6.    Half Plow pose, with your legs supported by a chair seat (1 to 3 minutes)
7.    Supported Bridge pose, with your shoulders and head resting on the floor, your torso and legs supported by blankets or bolsters (5 to 15 minutes or longer)
8.    Legs up the Wall pose (Viparita Karani) with your pelvis supported with a bolster or blankets (5 to 15 minutes)

I’ve taught this sequence many times, and there are always people in each class who have difficulty with one or more of these poses. So I always teach a non-classic pose as well, Easy Inverted Pose (see here), because this is one pose almost everyone can do. Use this as a substitute for Shoulderstand, Plow pose, Bridge pose, or Legs Up the Wall pose, or just use it on its own.

Caution: Inverted poses may be unsafe for those with certain medical conditions (see here).

FULL DISCLOSURE

by Brad Gibson

Okay, so it took me ten years to finally listen to my wife Nina and take up yoga. I may be slow, but I’m not an idiot.  So what was the epiphany? There were actually several. 

The first was listening to my wife Nina and Rodney Yee at a book signing in Los Angeles talk about how restricted most of us are in using and exploring our bodies. As adults we typically sit, stand up, walk, and lie down.  That’s pretty much it. Compare this to our younger selves, where we rolled down hills on our bellies, spun ourselves so we were so dizzy we crumpled to the ground, and did handstands on the lawn.  And all that just for the fun of it.

The second was attending a seminar given by a well-regarded scientist from the University of California San Francisco.  Here I learned about the startling plasticity of the human brain, and its ability to rewire and reorganize itself based on various environmental and behavioral stimuli. One particular example struck me: that the regions in the brain that control movements to our fingers are spatially distinct and this spatial resolution and control can be lost if the hand is constrained in motion over long periods of time. These regions then shrink and become partially fused, resulting in the inability to use the hand in a way we are accustomed, and more like a paw. The good news was that this is largely reversible if the constraint is removed.  The brain—along with the slow recovery of the hand —can then restore these neural connections. The significance to our aging brain and body was clear, both in a negative and positive sense. We must actively fight against the restricted physical activity that we impose on ourselves, as well as the loss of dexterity that is the result of this behavior. Otherwise, this can become a vicious cycle as we react to our aging bodies by imposing further restrictions to our movements, and our brain’s ability to control and balance these movements becomes diminished as a result. 

The Light on the Water (from Muir Beach) by Brad Gibson

My third epiphany was a bit more vain, but important to me nonetheless. As I was attending a party in the Berkeley hills on a warm summer evening, I was struck by how many beautiful women were there. Now this party was not one of the faculty or science-type parties that I usually attend, but one made up of by yoga practitioners of many stripes and ages. But as I pondered this—admittedly over a few glasses of very good vodka and some really delicious food—I realized that these people held their bodies in a posture and poise that I was not generally accustomed to. They were not just physically fit, but healthy and vibrant. Okay, my wife did point out the next morning as I told this story that I not only didn’t have my glasses on, but was also pretty drunk by this point. Fair enough. But over the years—and under more sober conditions—I have found this observation to hold up pretty well. 

So as a scientist who studies the biology of aging and the many disease that are associated with aging, I have come to my own personal conclusions on the importance of practicing a mind/body discipline like yoga. And as I approach my 59^th birthday, the immediate realities of physical and mental loss become more apparent. And I am not one of those people who think I can avoid this. I do believe, however, that we have the capacity to regain some of theses age-related losses, and if not, at least slow down their progression. Regaining or maintaining a higher level of balance, physical dexterity, and cognitive function and resolution is therefore something that is attainable and has the capacity to make huge impacts on the quality of our lives. The aging component that works against all this and drives these declines, however, is scientifically and mechanistically poorly understood. This is what makes my scientific life and work so interesting. But as far as I can tell, the basic processes underlying human aging are largely inescapable, at least as we currently understand them. That doesn’t mean we can’t intervene or we have to give up, nor that some of the losses we associate with aging can’t be mitigated.  We probably need to practice both acceptance and active engagement as we confront our own aging—part of the underlying philosophy of yoga that I am still struggling with. In any case, it can’t hurt to strive to feel better and think more clearly. There are few things that I would consider more important.

My primary interest in participating in this ongoing discussion on “yoga for healthy aging” is to examine evidence on how practicing yoga might intervene and in some cases reverse some aspects of the mental and physical decline we think of as normal aging. In doing so I have to first acknowledge that there is a lot of crap out there, and as a scientist I would want to bring rigorous and critical thinking to the process of evaluating these claims. Most published studies or claims just don’t stand up to rigorous scientific and statistical scrutiny because of poor study design, small sample size or the lack of good controls. But I also I don’t want to fall into the trap of constantly seeking to debunk or ridicule studies that attempt to establish a connection between yoga (or other related disciplines) and possible beneficial effects on aging or limiting age-related diseases. Rather, I’m more interested in trying to extract whatever useful information I can from these aging studies and see if it can be applied to improving one’s yoga practice.

And lastly, a full disclosure: I’m a firm believer in science.  I am also a believer in western medicine, although with some qualifications.  My concern with western medicine is that it can overreach itself at times and rely on vastly incomplete scientific knowledge in coming to diagnosis or treatments.  Or worse yet, it can incorporate many cultural biases. That said, it’s by far the best and most successful form of medical practice that we have. I am also aware of limitations in the scientific method. Not so much as a philosophy or discipline, but rather from the standpoint of recognizing the difficulty of scientific inquiry in tackling highly complex phenomena or systems. And as complex biological systems go, humans are at the top. This makes it exceedingly difficult for scientists to predict, investigate or fully understand how we respond to various environmental, temporal and behavioral changes. And yes, yoga would fall under these latter categories, as would aging itself.

Despite all this, I believe there are important things that we can do that can impact and alter our aging status and overall health, and that yoga has the potential to be a key player in this process. Indeed, some reasonable information already exists on how yoga might lower blood pressure, or reduce muscle atrophy (sarcopenia), stress, or cognitive decline.  These and other such topics will be ones that my colleagues and I will try and tackle.

Do any of you have questions for our scientist?