Yoga = Disease Intervention

“It was my personal experience with yoga and the benefits I felt, like reduced stress and better sleep, that sparked my interest in studying yoga as a disease intervention,” says University of Virginia professor Kim Innes.
Dear Friends,
Do you have one of the following issues in your life or family history? Stress?Heart disease?High blood pressure?Insulin resistance?High Triglycerides*or cholesterol LDL levels (above 200)?If so, yoga may have an even greater advantage in helping you! Read on at the end of the schedule for more information...
1. Today, please consider joining us for Pose Specific Yoga at 2:30. This is a very informal class where we work on 5 - 7 yoga postures. This is a great way to learn yoga with a partner and refine your alignment. If you would like the cardio element to go with it, afterwards I am headed to the Owasso Y to work out on the elliptical and treadmill at 4:00 p.m. Come along with me!

2. Monday afternoons at 5:30 p.m. our class ramps up the balance, strength, and toning with our yoga fun! Join us for 45 - 60 minutes of fast moving, calorie burning Sun Salutations.
3. On Tuesday mornings at 5:30 a.m. our yoga adventure changes to lower body flexibility. This is a bit slower pace with long holds in stretching and strengthening. The
4. Tuesday evening class is similar at 6:40 p.m.

No more Wednesday morning classes due to several weeks of no one coming; however, the
5. Wednesday morning class has moved to 6:40 p.m. in the evening. This is a modified Astanga class, and everyone (beginner and intermediates) can enjoy the yoga chikitsa.

6. Thursday morning at 5:30 a.m. it's CALORIE Burning yoga movement! What fun to move and groove and feel great all day! The
7. Thursday evening class is fast moving, sweat inducing, and fun! It is at 6:40 p.m.

8. This Friday we have the traditional modified Astanga class, simple, sequential, and modifiable for beginners and arduous for intermediates at 5:30 p.m. While we often head out to eat as a group afterward, you are welcome to leave a little early if you have evening plans.

9. Saturday, December 10, you can get two for one drive as you come early for 7:00 a.m. Yoga for Balancing and stay for coffee. Then 30 minutes later we have
10. 9:00 a.m.Yogilates with stability balls and weights. This is a great combo similar to an easy boot camp type of class. We move our whole bodies to yoga, and we tone with the ball and weight lifting.
So, it essentially amounts to this: ten classes a week at Tranquility Yoga in Owasso to choose from:
Power Yoga
Pose Specific Yoga
Vinyasa Flow Yoga
Beginner's Yoga and Intermediates Yoga
Yoga + Pilates + Stability Ball + Hand Weights
Next summer, as I start my BIG ADVENTURE, I plan to move to 15 classes per week, and yes, for those of you who have asked, I am believing for a miracle to add onto the studio with windows, bamboo floors, and a semi-circle drive with a separate entrance. Believe along with me! The best is yet to be! You can help it come true by inviting your friends and coming to class several times a week.

Back to the original topic...One reason I feel it is important to be on my 90 Days of Wellness is due to my family history of high blood pressure, stroke, insulin resistance, high LDL levels of cholesterol, and high levels of triglycerides. I do not struggle with these, but many of my immediate and extended relatives did. I believe that these are kept at bay due to my yoga, cardio, and healthy food choices. I want to be as young as I can be, as healthy as I can be, as fit as I can be, and as flexible in my spine as I can be for as long as I can be!

"The conditions Kim Innes, an assistant professor at the Center for the Study of Complementary and Alternative Therapies at the University of Virginia Health Systems, refers to the above issues the umbrella diagnosis “metabolic syndrome.” The syndrome is so named because its interrelated maladies—abdominal obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, and insulin resistance—are handcuffed to the body’s metabolism. A person who has three or more of these is considered to have the syndrome. The American Heart Association estimates that 50 million Americans suffer from it, and the number is growing in lockstep with the country’s waistlines. The sum of the disorder is worse than its individual parts. Like members of a dysfunctional clique, all of metabolic syndrome’s components travel together, feed off each other’s destructive habits, and generally wreak havoc on the body. As each piece falls into place, the risk to your health climbs higher. Metabolic syndrome is like a one-way ticket to three of the most disabling diseases of the 21st century: heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Every clique has a leader, and in this case, the power player is insulin resistanceInsulin’s role in the body is carefully choreographed. As food enters the stomach and is broken down, the pancreas releases insulin into the bloodstream to help cells convert the food’s energy (glucose) into fuel. The process goes awry, however, in bodies padded with extra pounds. Fat tissue, especially around the abdomen, decreases the body’s sensitivity to insulin. Unable to use insulin efficiently, the body demands more than the pancreas can easily produce. The pancreas gets exhausted and can’t keep up. Without enough insulin to regulate blood sugar, glucose builds up in the bloodstream. The result is insulin resistance and prediabetes. Astoundingly enough, nearly half the adult population in the United States suffers from prediabetes, a condition in which blood glucose levels are above normal. Most people develop full-blown diabetes within 10 years of being told they have the precursor to it. But the prognosis doesn’t have to be dire. Studies show that shedding just a few pounds, only 5 to 7 percent of your body weight (a mere 10 to 15 pounds for a 200-pound person), can turn the metabolic tide. It makes sense, then, that yoga’s slimming effects might hold a key to reversing insulin resistance and, therefore, metabolic syndrome. And they do—but not in the way you might think. Innes knew that in India, yoga was a common prescription for conditions associated with insulin resistance such as diabetes and hypertension. Curious about whether the practice could reverse metabolic syndrome’s progression into chronic illness, she went on a hunt for clinical evidence. Digging through mounds of research, much of it published in India, Innes uncovered 70 solid, albeit small, studies on the impact of yoga on the disorders of metabolic syndrome. “The beauty of yoga is that it doesn’t target just one marker of metabolic syndrome, like glucose control or blood pressure,” she says. “They are all interrelated.” To say her interest was “sparked” is putting it mildly. Last year, she wrote the most comprehensive review to date on yoga and metabolic syndrome. “I wanted to find an alternative approach—for women, especially—to managing and preventing these conditions,” she says. In the end, Innes gathered convincing evidence that yoga could increase insulin sensitivity and lower cholesterol." Yoga Journal
I love to hear your feedback and how the 90 Days of Wellness is coming along. Do not freak out if you mess up! Just get up the next day and start again. (:
Namaste'Jeanne K
*Diets high in carbohydrates, with carbohydrates accounting for more than 60% of the total energy intake, can increase triglyceride levels. Of note is how the correlation is stronger for those with higher BMI (28+) and insulin resistance (more common among overweight and obese) is a primary suspect cause of this phenomenon of carbohydrate-induced hypertriglyceridemia. (Levels above 175) Wikipedia