I adore yoga and have found it to be a powerful tool for treating chronic migraine pain.

With chronic pain your initial pain point (ex. a headache) can increase pain elsewhere (ex. shoulder pain). This is because your  body tenses in an attempt to protect the initial 'wounded' area. Massage therapists physical therapists call this phenomenon 'guarding', and it can make a chronic condition much worse. Yoga helps reduce pain and muscle tension caused by guarding, and sometimes helps the initial pain as well. 

I've reviewed my favorite yoga dvd here: http://www.magpie-girl.com/20080423/wednesday-review-yoga-shakti-with-shiva-rea/
This is good for people who have at least a class or two under their belt.

Rodney Yee's AM/PM yoga is good for beginners, because it is VERY gentle, and the practices are not long -- which would be good for people with chronic fatigue or fibromialgia as they would not be overly strenuous.

For folks with some basic knowledge of yoga poses, I also blogged a series of yoga poses in honor of earth day. http://www.magpie-girl.com/20080428/yoga-poses-for-mama-earth/ 

 Yeah Yoga! 

Rachelle Mee-Chapman
http://www.magpie-girl.com
http://twitter.com/magpiegirl

Hi Rachelle.  Thanks for the links, I'll check them out.  

 :-)

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan at catherine-morgan.com, The Political Voices of Women, Care2 Election Blog

Rosaletta

Rosaletta  I wanted to find a photo of a blimp and tell you that is the way I look when in actuality, I am about 30 lbs. overweight.  Those thirty pounds are like an albatrose around my neck.  I have diabetes & some major medical crap, so, I blame it on the inactivity that that causes.  Truth be told, I could do a lot better if I'd get up off my arse & make time for exercise.

I was always very thin & never needed to exercise, walked a lot in the city.  My work now is fairly sedentary.  I quite smoking many years ago & I know, I could do this but I resist myself.  "Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow" 

This brings me to a point of body image and my feminist thinking.  We, as women, are still valued #1 for our looks.  We could be a genius & to most, it matters little if we are not "pretty".  I modeled for "Philadelphia's Model Guild" in my 20s but handled that job as a kinda "waitress", nothing glamorous about it, lotsa hard work.  They preferred that I was 90 lbs.  I want not much more than that, probably close to 98 lbs.

I became very cognizant that people were talking to my "looks" rather than my being.  Men are valued for their character, successes and charitable contributions not so much for their looks, as long as a man is respectable looking, that is usually enough.  We still have a double standard and most of us buy into it (me included, at times)>

Yes, I don't like these 30 extra pounds but getting them off will be mostly for health & I'm sure I'll be pleased at the way I look, as well.  In Sisterhood,

Rosaletta

I've found that yoga has a variety of benefits. While I don't have chronic illness, I do often have tight hips and can feel the beginnings of painful knees (for which I have a genetic predisposition) as I get older. Even more than improving my strength and flexibility, yoga has helped me gain confidence and accept my body for all that it is (and isn't). I've only been practicing yoga for a couple of years, and my practice isn't exactly daily, but it helps. I can tailor my practice to my mood, my energy level or my body's needs. 

Yoga Journal's website has some great resources, including podcast yoga classes. They're a bit advanced, but you can see images of the poses for guidance. 

Wishing you health and happiness!

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure...We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?"

The improvements can be profound.... Changing not only your diet but adding movement whether it is yoga or some other mildly stimulating movement will improve your overall health and wellbeing.

I know because I have been there....or I guess in some way am still there.  Seven years ago I was out training for my next marathon and the left side of my face went numb and the right side of my body went weak, my life was never the same again.  Going from running marathons, rockclimbing, hiking and kyaking to being bed bound and in a wheel chair is a life changing experience.  But my most profound life change occured when I embraced holistic living. This  encompassed making changes to my physical, emotional and spiritual self.  This included eating all organic, living in a non-toxic environment and adding yoga and meditation to my daily routine.  As I stated the improvements can be profound and I credit these changes with the improvement in my health and life.  

One excellent addition for me has been doing the 'five rites' daily you may want to take a look at this as an option for yourself, http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/five-tibetan-rites.html

Stay Well and Healthy,

Michelle

Hi there, I'm new here, so bear with me!

I also have FMS and CFS and a host of other acronyms. I am just finishing up reconstruction from breast cancer and have gained a ton of weight. This video http://www.downwarddogproductions.net/dvd.html has been a huge help. There are different levels of exertion, even if you can't get out of bed...there is a routine for that! I love love love it! The different routines are pretty quick, so I can usually squeeze it in while my 3 year old is asleep.

Please feel free to shoot me an email if you need to talk, or to vent....it gets pretty frustrating. I had one obnoxious relative say to me "if you are so fatigued all the time why don't you just go have a nap?" Now why didn't I think of that? Duh! Just think, all of that education wasted!

In my opinion I feel that stress adds to illness + weight-gain. Bringing in something like Yoga where it calms your body down - forces you to focus only on one thing (i.e. keeping the pose without falling over, calm breathing rhythm) helps train your mind to calm down and breathe without having the pressure to' climb a mountain' or 'conquer your entire world all in one day'. I feel that helping your body to calm down will help destressitize  yourself, which in doing so allows you to lose the weight & having a healthy body weight also helps prevent illness. :)

One of my favorite Yoga DVD's is "Yoga for Weight-Loss". Currently in my weight-loss journey I have committed to doing yoga everyday for a week. I'm excited to find out how it turns out.

I started taking regular yoga classes a little over a year ago, in part, as a way to energize my exercise program, but also because I wanted to learn the basics in preparation for a yoga retreat I was scheduled to attend that fall.  I was hooked immediately! 

When I started, I had Hypertension (controlled by medication) and Ulcerative Colitis (not controlled because I was tired of the side effects of steroids).  Through my local Yoga studio, I met an Acupuncturist and between Yoga and Acupuncture, my blood pressure is now completely under control (without medication); and my UC has been in remission for the better part of a year. 

Yoga has been the catalyst for many changes in my life - I'm eating healthier, meditating regularly, I sleep better, and I'm stronger and more flexible than I've ever been.  It was life altering for me and I highly recommend it as a way to help manage chronic illness. 

Videos are a great way to get started, but I would suggest also looking for a knowledgeable teacher so you can get an introduction to ALL the benefits a yogic lifestyle has to offer.  Check out http://www.yogaalliance.org/ for a list of certified teachers/schools in your area!

Ah yes, life after 50 combined with quitting smoking equals a 30 pound weight gain and a whole host of other fun aches and pains!

This is also something new for me to deal with. It's been over 2 years since I quit smoking and I've been waiting for this "baby" to be born ever since year 1!! At first I tried doing what I used to do when I was in my twenties/thirties - lay off any type of junk food for a week and drop those few extra pounds. Yeah, it so doesn't work now for me, and neither should it. I really want a whole life approach to this - I'm loving where I am in my life now, but the health issues are starting to creep up on me. I realize I'm no longer invincible and that maintaining a healthy lifestyle that includes both physical and mental wellness is critical as I enter the next phase of my life.

There is a new Yoga centre opening up in our neighbourhood - I promise to give it a go.

www.itsmyworldwelcome.blogspot.com

I am a huge yoga advocate. I have been doing yoga for more than ten years. It helped alleviate severe back pain and sciatica from herniated disks and lose more than 30 pounds. I think the key to yoga's success is it's ability to reduce the effects of stress that is such a huge component of so many chronic illnesses. You may want to check out restorative yoga to help with your fibromyalgia. Larry Payne has a wonderful series of gentle yoga dvds called yoga:rx that you might find useful too.

I love to introduce beginners to the benefits of yoga and have a website: www.nourishing-yoga.com with lots of information about yoga and its benefits. I also do some blogging about yoga on www.simple-nourished-living.com.

Martha

www.nourishing-yoga.com

I will have to pass this book title along to my cousin, who has also been diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

Yoga has been so beneficial to me, I just wish I could keep at it! I always have reasons for not doing it at the end of a day-kids need something, husband needs some timen together, have to get some dishes done. Your post makes me realize that I have to find time to do this again, even if it requires going to the gym to get it in.

Congratulations on your weight loss! Let us know how the yoga goes! 

Thanks for this post.  I recently discovered yoga as a way to deal with menopause and other preventative care.  Yoga really is a magic healer, and if you want some recommendations on great yoga DVDs or books or props to help you move into some of the more restorative poses with ease, check out www.yogafit.com.  I hope this was helpful and I look forward to hearing more about everyone's yoga journey.

Yoga regenerates tissues and relieves symptoms of chronic ailments. Waz Thomas was teaching yoga to people with cancer at Commonweal's week long residential retreat program along the northern California coast when he tested HIV Positive. Now, 13 years later, he is still teaching yoga adapted to the special needs of people with cancer, many of whom are living with complicated disease and treatment scenarios. In those years, Waz, himself, has had one hospitalization for bacterial pneumonia and an occasional chronic sinus or ear infection, but overall he continues to look and feel great.

While yoga has been observed and experienced for more than 3,000 years to help maintain and restore health, it has only been recently introduced in the West. Most people associate yoga with exercise and most yoga classes focus the entire time on physical movement. But yoga is in many ways opposite of exercise and some of the non- movement oriented practices of yoga can have a profound effect on the physical body.

Massage School