By Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500

Here is a fresh viewpoint about Yoga’s holistic approach toward heart health.

Are you tired of watching commercials about how your “bad diet” causes all of your heart problems? What about people who eat healthy and have heart disease?

These commercials are usually prescription drug advertisements, which profile everyone with heart disease in a negative light. They profile you as negligent, and smother you with guilt, by giving you a solution to all of your problems with a pill.

Let’s face it – there are times, in life, when each of us may have to take a prescription. Pharmaceutical drugs save lives, whether we want to take them or not. Yet, there are adjunct solutions to heart health, and Yoga is one of them.

Yoga has many ways to address your heart health. Most of the Yogic methods address stress, and anxiety, that can damage your heart over time. Many people do not realize the amount of heart damage that stress causes over the long term.

In Yoga, there are healthy vegetarian diet options, which you can adopt for life. Most people will readily admit that vegetarian diets will extend your life and decrease your chances of heart attack. This does not mean that a vegetarian diet insures that you will never have a heart attack.

Sorry, there are no “guarantees by the manufacturer” on your heart. Sometimes, the heart just stops. Your heart runs on electricity, and without it, your heart will stop. Some newborn babies have congenital heart defects. In fact, the heart is a very fragile mechanism.

Yet, what if you eat a vegetarian diet and have a genetic heart defect in your family tree; are you still at risk because of genetics? Unfortunately, heredity can override the positive conditions you place on your heart. Yet, giving up is not an option, if you want to live.

Therefore, a diet with reduced, or no meat, increases your chances of heart health. If you come from a meat-eating culture, this can be difficult, but not impossible. At home, you can substitute veggie dogs, veggie sausage, and veggie burgers, for meat. There are many competing brands these days, and they offer many choices.

Even restaurants offer more vegetarian choices than they did ten years ago. At most local restaurants, you can easily order meals without the meat. Last year, I noticed many new vegetarian choices in the parks at Disney World.

Obviously, keeping your body in motion will help your heart. Yoga asanas and flowing posture sequences will help, but these methods also purge your mind of negative thoughts. With that said, practice any time you have the time.

If you are new to Yoga, please find a local instructor to teach you how to meditate, the intricacies of Yoga Nidra (Yogic sleep), and Pranayama (Yogic breathing). All of the above methods will reduce your risk of heart attack.

© Copyright 2008 – Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

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