by Radha Yudhavir

Created on: November 20, 2010

Yoga can certainly help in preventing heart diseases, when you supplement yoga with a healthy, high fibre diet, low in trans-fats and other fatty substances. Yoga also tries to help you to overcome stress and tension, with its emphasis on calming the mind, soothing the nerves and easing your blood pressure, pulse rate, and heartbeats. This too reduces the possibility of heart diseases.

Heart ailments are a gift of modern sedentary lifestyle supplemented with a calorie rich repast that we have every day. With diets getting poor in their fiber element, obesity is a common phenomenon of modern lifestyle especially in Western countries and more so in urban areas. Up to the 19th century obesity was not as much of a problem. With most of the human population engaged in physical (manual) work, remaining slim and trim was a natural outcome. 

But today all this has changed, and with stress a constant companion from schooldays where we compete for grades, and then in our careers where we compete for promotions, all adds to stress and tension. This corrodes the heart. The calorie rich diet and the resultant obesity make the heart even weaker as it has to support a bulging body.

In this scenario yoga can help to prevent heart disease by helping you to lose excess fat around your midriff with its forward bending poses. There are numerous forward bending exercises in yoga which you can do from a sitting or a standing position. These include the Seated forward bend (Paschimottanasana), the wide angle seated forward bend, the tripod pose which is forward bend from a standing position. 

With the shedding of excess weight around the midriff with these seated and standing forward bending exercises, you have taken the first step to stay away from heart ailments. The next step is to do more strenuous yoga poses like the Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskara), the Pigeon pose (Kapotasana), the Peacock pose (Mayurasana), the Crane pose (Bakasana). These poses help you to help you to shed excess fat from your limbs and develop strong arms and legs. 

Thee poses can be topped up with the most strenuous yoga poses which also help to improve the circulation of blood to your brain like the shoulder-stand, head-stand and hand-stand. 

All these exercises along with the conscious breathing that is a part of all yoga poses will help you to develop a stronger heart. There are specific breathing exercises like the alternate nostril breathing (Anulom-Vilom) and repeated exhalations (Kapalbhati) which also help you to clear your windpipe and breathing tract and revive the dormant cells in your lungs. The relaxation exercises like Shavasana and yogic meditation help you to keep your mind at rest. All these exercises described above, when accompanied with a high fiber diet, low in trans-fats can help you to prevent heart disease.

Sources: 

Yoga can help prevent heart disease

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Yoga+can+help+prevent+ heart+disease-a0241001240

Yoga for Heart Health

http://www.yogabasics.com/learn/yoga-for-heart-healt h.html

Yoga For A Healthier Heart

http://www.yogadelights.com/yogadelights-articles/yo ga-for-heart-health.php

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