Yoga, Thyroid, and the (potential) dangers if you push too far

Today's NYTimes has an article on the dangers of yoga, for men, as written by the man who wrote this year's "Science of Yoga," (who is also a yogi and a writer for the NYTimes). He talks about competitive yoga (sounds like an oxymoron to me) and other ways in which men either push themselves or their instructors push them too hard (btw, he doesn't ignore women in the article, but the focus is men).

When I teach, one of the first things I say to my classes (after we warm up, because, doggone it, I don't believe you can do yoga without being thoroughly warmed up) is that they need to listen to their bodies. If it even feels like it might start *thinking* about hurting, they need to stop and not do it or pull way back to try it safely.

To me, yoga is about being where you are today. It won't be where you were yesterday and it won't be where you will be tomorrow. So, the important thing is to pay attention to what is happening in your body, mind, and spirit right now. If you consistently practice, you will see benefits, and likely, poses that are challenging or impossible to you now will become easier in time. That is the point. Yoga (imo) isn't something to do once a week. It is really something like brushing your teeth. When I get up, I brush my teeth, every single day. That is how I do yoga. Every single day. It's not always an intense hour-long practice. Sometimes, it's five or ten minutes, but I step on the mat, at least for a little while. Every single day.

Being hypothyroid means that I need to do less exercise (very little aerobic because that messes with my thyroid's calm and makes me dip more into hypothyroid land) but I have found that yoga helps me retain balance, strength, and flexibility and even heart health since yes I do raise my heart rate with some of the more challenging poses even if I am not running or jumping to get my aerobics in. Try plank pose on your elbows and toes and try holding it for a minute. (Keep breathing naturally and make sure your elbows are directly below your shoulders. Make sure your butt doesn't rise and that your shoulder blades are broad along your back. Keep your neck aligned with the rest of your spine, your butt flat, and your legs straight so as to not injure yourself. Push your heels toward the back of the room. And remember, if it even feels like it might start thinking about hurting, lower down and rest. Don't overdo. That's not what this is about.) By the end of that minute, you will be very grateful and your heart will be pounding hard.

Even if you do a little but do it every day, you will reap enormous benefits and not just physically. But, pushing yourself can definitely lead to injury so that is the less optimal way to practice. Do it today and tomorrow and the next day and pay attention to what your body is trying to tell you as you sit or stand or lie in a pose and you will be present and eventually by being present, you will progress.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/sunday-review/the-perils-of-yoga-for-men.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&smid=tw-share&pagewanted=2&adxnnlx=1356268466-1IMHsxS8ZQ9G/W5m6rmvTQ 

http://IzoldaT.com

Hypothyroidism and Opening the Steam Valve on a Global Scale

I've been talking about opening the steam valve to anyone and everyone who will listen. We are living in an increasingly busy and stressed out world. Wars and other conflicts are raging around us. People   cause pain, take advantage, and otherwise hurt one another as a matter of course and with impunity (do *all* people do it? No of course not, but enough do that we are all diminished by their acts). And all the while, we are constantly bombarded with images that we are not enough, we don't do enough, and we don't have enough. We constantly try to play catch-up and many of us might feel like a hamster that's running on one of those little wheels. That poor little thing is running, running, running, like crazy. She's exhausting herself but in the end, she's not getting anywhere. It's enough to make you run screaming through the streets.

But basically, it's just enough. For my part, I've had my fill of the crap that seeps through our streets, in our workplaces, and around our dinner tables (not to mention in our entire world). Aren't we a smart species? Don't we have that big ol' frontal lobe in the front of our heads? Don't we have eyes to see what's happening every second of every day around us? Can't we do something about it?

Now, anyone who is reading this, who also happens to be hypothyroid, just got more tired, more depressed, and more stressed. The above list is enough to make anyone exhausted with the sheer amount of things that feel hard or wrong. But, someone who is hypothyroid spends her or his time being exhausted every single second of the day and so having to be aware of all these other issues and problems is only cause for more exhaustion.

Sometimes, in order to deal with some of these horrors (because let's face it, lack of kindness, sympathy, and empathy on a grand scale have gotten us in this global mess to begin with) we have to close our eyes to them. Because if we don't, we might just become paralyzed with the immense size of the problems we, on this planet, face. It might be easier to look away, to not get involved, to busy ourselves with tv shows, magazines, other little dramas that take us away from the realities that might just be too hard to face head-on.

It might be easier, but it won't fix anything in the long run. That will take a paradigm shift on a universal and individual scale. Wow, I just said a mouthful and scared myself a little. I'm calling for a revolutionary shift of perception, perspective, and interaction, on a global scale. If we all did it, if we all shifted just a hair, the world, our home, would shift as well.

How would it help the average EZH*? I truly believe that a constant awareness of all the troubles and a constant state of stress from that awareness causes the EZH to feel and be squeezed even more than before. So, an external easing of some of that pressure can only help. I liken it to doing certain yoga poses. When I am trying to hold a stretch, I will often unconsciously tighten the very muscles I am trying to relax. As a result, I can't stretch nearly as far and I am far more uncomfortable in the stretch. But, in those times when I realize that I am holding myself tightly, and when I send my awareness to those muscles and release their hold and tight control, why then the muscle relaxes, elongates, and everything changes.

Awareness of all the various issues, troubles, and horrors is the same. Yes, we can stay aware of them and thrash against our inability to change them. Or we can step back, release our desperate grasp, and then open ourselves to the awareness of what we can do, right now, in the moment, to shift that paradigm of stressed impotence. To me, it all goes back to respect and kindness to ourselves and to others (all others, everywhere). I am reminded of a scene in the tv show Angel. The quote goes something like this: "If nothing we do matters, then the only thing that matters is what we do. ... Because if there's no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness, is the greatest thing in the world." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gXaMnkmGq0

That is the question to ask ourselves, isn't it? What can I do, right now, in this moment, to make a tiny change? How that change might later change the world is impossible to say. But, if we release ourselves, if we open the steam valve of desperate grasping, amazing things might be possible.

And here's the thing: that act of kindness? That instant of release? That will help anyone, EZHs included, to open the steam valve. It will work. Trust me. When you are stressed, exhausted, or just plain unhappy, stop, breathe, and then do something kind for someone else. It will change them, it will change you, and it might just change the world.

Next time, we will talk about specific steam valve openers on an individual scale. Until then, Izolda http://IzoldaT.com

*Exhausted Zombie Hypothyroidic

Aside from weight gain and fatigue, depression is one of the most prevalent symptoms of hypothyroidism. Bottom line: if you are hypothyroid, you will tend towards depression. And it's not that you might be predisposed toward depression naturally. It's more that when your thyroid is distressed and is underperforming, depression will often rear its ugly head and bite you on the butt. There is not really anything you can do about it. Even if you normally would never tend toward depression, you will often get depressed if you dip into being an EZH*. Distress and a sluggish thyroid, your slower metabolism, the weight gain, the slowing down of all your bodily functions, all of these things combine to depress you even if depression doesn't normally figure into your world view or your physical symptoms (not to mention the fact that the sluggish thyroid is a depression cause all on its own).

That's kind of what I go through. You see, I'm not normally a depressed person. So, when I first went very hypothyroid, one of the things that I noticed was that everything looked bleak. I found myself being depressed for the first time in my life. What the hell? I thought. Why was I depressed? My life was full. I had a partner I loved. I had good friends. I was doing work I enjoyed. So, what on earth was it that was making me depressed?

When I got the diagnosis, I found out. Since I had hypothyroidism, I was also likely going to be depressed. On top of all the other crap you have to wade through, on top of all the murky fatigue and other symptoms, I was also going to be depressed, perhaps too depressed to do anything at all about the thing that was making me depressed in the first place. So, as I've gotten myself together, and as I started treating the hypothyroidism, one of the things that started happening was the depression reached a manageable level without me needing to address it specifically, at all (this might not hold true for people who tend toward depression naturally).

In fact, one of the clues that tells me that I'm very hypothyroid is I get depressed. When I get depressed, for no reason, I know that I need to check my thyroid. But the tricky thing is that when I get thyroid-depressed, fatigue usually follows closely behind. And if I get it to that point, I might spiral down into the "why bother?" place and that is a bad place to be if you are an EZH. That is hard to come back from.

Normally, I don't feel that things are bleak. In fact, I tend to have a sunny disposition. I tend to want things to work out. I tend to hope that they're going to work out. But when the hypothyroidism grabs me by the throat, I don't think things will work out and I sink into depression. And here's the sneakiest part of all: if I'm all stressed out, the depression gets worse. That's one of the funny things about being hypothyroid. Hypothyroidism is supposed to make you tend toward depression. Hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid) is supposed to make you tend towards anxiety. But, if you're under stress and hypothyroid, then you might achieve that most egregious of double whammies: both anxiety and depression.

So, how do you deal with it? How do you handle your depression if it's coming on because of hypothyroidism? The trouble here is it's a double-edged sword. Your depression makes you feel that it's too much work to fix anything at all (and that it probably won't work so why bother trying)?  The hypothyroidism makes you so tired that it's almost not worth it to push out of bed and do the things you need to do, the things that you must do, in order to make yourself better. There have been times in my life when I basically turned myself inside out trying to maintain my life and when depression compounded the trouble, it became practically impossible to fix.

Nowadays, I try to take it easier on myself. I try to catch things early. I do daily check-ins. First thing in the morning, I ask myself how I feel. Here are some of the questions I try to answer:

1. Am I fatigued? (More often than not, yes)
1. What can I do about it? Sleep? Maybe. Exercise? Only a little.
2. Am I aching? (Ditto)
1. What can I do about it? Yoga, ultrasound, massage, bath, or passionflower supplement (before bed).
3. What is my outlook for the day? 
1. Open ended answer but it often depends on what my deadlines are for the day.
4. Do I feel stressed out? (Often, yes, though I try to mitigate the stress with my daily yoga practice.)
1. What can I do about it? Breathe. Breathe. Breathe (at least five, deep, full breaths before I do anything else). Yoga or Tai Chi. Reach out to a friend or my husband. Do something I enjoy even if it is only for a few minutes before I jump into my day. 
5. Do I feel anxious? (Again, this depends on the deadlines for the day)
1. What can I do about it? This one depends on the time of year. A cup of hot tea (no caffeine) will often have a soothing effect. I go for a hike with the dog and focus on the things I see in nature. And breathe breathe breathe. Taking full, deep breaths is one of the best ways I've found to handle anxiety if it comes up as part of my hypothyroidism. We'll talk more about how to breathe in the next post.
6. Do I feel sad? (If the answer to this one is "yes," I start looking at other indicators that I might be in thyroid-depression. This is because I'm not generally prone to sorrow.)
1. What can I do about it? This one often necessitates an increase in kelp in my life (the iodine in kelp helps in thyroid hormone production). Then, I try to do something I enjoy even for a minutes. For example, I play one of my favorite songs to dance to and I go crazy dancing. I move my body, even for a little bit. It helps break through the layer of sorrow very nicely. 
7. Do I feel depressed? (If this one is a "yes" well then, I need to be ready to try to deal with it.)
1. The answer to this one is similar to the one for sadness. I know I need to look at my TSH level if the depression persists for any length of time. So, in addition to trying to mitigate the depression, I will get my TSH levels tested. Here's a place where you can order and conduct the test online (not sure if you then have to have your doctor read the results, since I've not used this particular company before). http://www.healthhometest.com/product_info.php?products_id=38

There are more things to be done. And next time, I'll list more possible ways to combat depression. First on the list: Breathe. We'll talk more about how to breathe to get the most out of your breathing apparatus. Please note: I am not telling anyone to not see their medical professionals to treat their depression. This is a blog on treating the issues naturally so the topics of medication will not be addressed here.

Until next time, Izolda. http://izolda.info

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*EZH=Exhausted Zombie Hypothyroidic

How I've Been Treating My Hypothyroidism: Yoga is One Way

(When last we met)

I had my diagnosis and had just gotten zinged with just enough energy to start my own campaign toward health. Since I had some energy, I was going to strike while the iron was hot!

Here's one thing they don't tell you about hypothyroidism. If it's bad enough, it might make the soreness you get from playing professional football look like you've been napping on bales of cotton candy - all day, every day (not dissing athletes, I promise. I'm just trying to make a point). Add to that the utter lack of energy to get your body moving to dispel the soreness and you have a potent combination.

The intense bone-deep aching in pretty much every part of your body just doesn't go away. I had been hurting like this, for years. I figured that was the way things were with me. My mom had (and has) similar issues with pain, and I thought it was my lot in life.

Imagine my surprise when I researched hypothyroidism and determined that the high levels of pain I experienced constantly were a symptom of my sluggish thyroid. I couldn't recall a time when I wasn't in pain. My back, legs, neck, arms, and shoulders, muscles, joints, tendons, pretty much everything hurt, all the time. And again, before I was diagnosed, I had lived with it for so long that I simply never gave thought to the fact that it might be something I could alleviate.

So now, I went into major research mode. I devoured everything I could find out. The symptoms, the signs, the treatments, the therapies - that knowledge became my heart's desire. In one book, after I read the depressing list of symptoms yet again (of which I experienced pretty much all), the author suggested a course of treatment that included a daily yoga practice.

"Yoga, huh." I thought. Sure, I'd heard of yoga. My mother had been a practitioner when we lived in Moldova in the former Soviet Union. I remembered seeing her lie on her belly and then lift her legs and a healthy chunk of her torso off the ground where she balanced seemingly effortlessly. I had thought it beautiful but it did not hold my interest. Instead, I chose aerobics and Tai Chi (more on Tai Chi in a later post). I had studied Tai Chi for a few years but my practice of Tai Chi had lain dormant for some time. Aerobics were my exercise of choice. And, I did aerobics (through VHS tapes made by Kathy Smith) every single day. (It turns out that aerobics were exactly what I *shouldn't* have been doing, but that's for a later post as well.)

So, yoga. YOGA! I did some research and purchased a Yoga VHS tape. You want to talk sore?? I hadn't know from sore. I thought I'd been in pain before I started doing it. Boy did I get a rude awakening. The main difference between aerobics (which I was used to doing) and yoga (which I obviously wasn't) was that in aerobics, I moved quickly but hardly ever consciously. The yoga tape, on the other hand, showed me a very different method. Doing the tape required slow, deliberate, and conscious movement. And the instructor didn't let you get away with *anything*. She constantly gave cues to keep your legs aligned, or your arms straight, or whatever was necessary in the asana (or pose). And you did everything, glacially. So, one asana held, meant resigning myself to straining, shaking muscles that made me want to die.

The first weeks my stiff, sore body begged me to quit, but I persevered. I kept with it and eventually (read about six months), I improved to the point that I was able to get through the tape without breaking down and weeping bitter tears onto my yoga mat. And, my muscles felt better. I wasn't in as much pain! (Here's the kicker, though. You lose any advances you make in yoga, and in feeling better, if you stop doing it for even a few days. So, once you start, you pretty much have to keep it going consistently. I believe there is some research on hypothyroidism and muscle tone [with slow build and easy loss] but I can't find the citations. Anytime, I've stopped for any length of time, I've paid the price, big time. This seems to hold more true for people with hypothyroidism than for others. Here's Mayo Clinic's list of symptoms)

Although I had left aerobics behind and embraced yoga, my numbers failed to improve a whole bunch. I hovered around a 14 TSH even though I was now popping kelp supplements with the zeal of an addict, and I had cut out spinach, broccoli and my beloved cauliflower. I also radically reduced tofu, another thyroid inhibitor (which made me cry because I *love* tofu).

So, I did more research and found out that asana that open your throat and chest are good for stimulating the thyroid. Okay. I bought my first yoga book and looked up any and all asana that worked that area of the body.

I will get much more into the asana I use and how to do them in a later post, but I wanted to give you at least a couple to review. The Yoga Journal has a great visual dictionary about asana and they have broken things down into their anatomical focal points. Here are their recommendations for asana to affect the thyroid. http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/finder/anatomical_focus/thyroid

I am not sure agree with all of them, and certainly a good few them are likely too challenging for a beginner.

(And before we go further, please note: pretty much anything you want to do that opens your throat and allows you to spend some time breathing and allowing the airflow to massage your thyroid is great.  [By the way, I know the airflow isn't actually directly massaging the thyroid. The stretch of the area combined with breathing seems to impact it and that's the best way I can describe it.] Something I do when I need a pick-me-up: I sit back in my chair, I look up, and I breathe deeply. I allow my eyes to softly gaze up at the ceiling as I stretch the area around my throat. Again, don't let the back of your neck pinch. Keep it long and relaxed. Thirty seconds to a minute, or ten long, full breaths ought to do.)

Now, I'm going to list a few asana that have worked beautifully for me, but first, a note. Opening your chest and your throat requires bending your back. However, bending your back does not mean pinching any of the vertebra. When you bend your back in any asana, you want to maintain a feeling of elongation in the entire back (which might mean you don't bend as far but that's okay). So, while you are doing a back bend that looks suspiciously like you have transformed into a pretzel, you still want to protect the back by keeping everything as long and relaxed as possible.

To me, yoga is about proper alignment, balance, strength, flexibility, and doing only what you can on that day. I encourage all my students to progress gently. Some days, you will rock a full pose, but on other days, you might want to go only half way. Reserve judgment about all of it. It's where you are today that matters. If you focus on what you are doing right now, in this moment, whether it's yoga or brain surgery or flying a spaceship, concentrate on that and not on what you could be doing better/faster/more.

So, here are a couple that have helped me a great deal. Remember. Start slowly. Do only what you can. Listen to your body. If it even thinks about hurting, stop. But if you do a little (with comfort and conscious awareness) you will be surprised at how well you do, eventually.

Sphinx Pose: (Yoga Journal Description: http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2464#)

(Attribution: Creative Commons)

This is one of the first back bend poses you do when you start practicing yoga. The pose allows an opening of the chest and throat without creating much tension. To do the pose, lie on your belly with your legs flat and touching each other. The tops of your feet should be on the floor. (Note: for beginners keeping your legs flat and touching like that can be challenging. Do the best you can, but remember not to do it until it hurts. Start small.) Bend your elbows, set them directly under your shoulders and hug them into your sides. Inhale and left your torso and head off the ground. You will do a mild backbend. Keep the back of your neck elongated and press your hands into the floor as you gently open your throat.

The direction to open your throat might sound strange. It's really about focusing on the throat and imagining that it is bigger than it is. See you if you can become aware of the muscle bands around the area of your throat. They might be tight so try to relax yet engage them. Feel the stretch. Now, gently lift your lower belly off the floor by pulling the muscles of your lower belly toward your spine. Keep your eyes soft and looking forward and little above eye level. Concentrate on the breaths. Make them full and long. And see if you can feel the sort of internal massage your throat/thyroid gets while the air progresses over the area, while the area is being engaged/stretched. After five or ten breaths (whichever works for you when you try it), lower yourself back down on an exhale.

[Note: Here is a terrific book that takes you through yoga in a way that makes real sense. It's a progressive eight-week program that starts small and lets you move on your own terms and in your own time. It's Rodney Yee's "Moving Toward Balance." 
http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Toward-Balance-Weeks-Rodney/dp/0875969216/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340835870&sr=8-1&keywords=moving+toward+balance (I'm giving the amazon.com link for it because there is a great description and comprehensive reviews.)]. I love this book. You don't need to do everything in it. You don't need to complete it in eight weeks. Again, do what works for you.]

Cobra Pose (Yoga Journal Description: http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/471#) is one of the best poses for thyroid stimulation. Fair warning: you might cough after doing it. If you look at the image, you will note that the back is pretty well bent in the full pose. At first, you might not be able to get all the way there. Please, don't hurt yourself trying. It is a challenging pose. To start, lie on your belly, and put your hands directly under your shoulders. With your eyes moving first, look up and allow your head to follow as you curve your neck and elongate your throat. Remember, keep aware of the back of your neck. You want it long and relaxed rather than pinched. Support your torso with your hands by pressing them into the floor. If you can straighten your arms, and move fully into the pose, that is terrific. If you are not there today, then go only as far as you can without hurting yourself. Be sure to keep the eyes looking upward and elongate your throat. Breathe five to ten deep, full breathes. When you are finished, lower yourself slowly back onto the mat on an exhalation. Cobra will leave you buzzing and stimulated and once again, you don't want to do it for too much or too long. Oh, and do Child's Pose after any backbend poses to release the spine and give you a cooling stretch in the opposite direction.

Hypothyroidism is a tricky bugger. Just when you think you've found the panacea, you find out that too much of a good thing really will kick your butt. That's exactly what happened to me. I threw myself into yoga (the physical aspects of it) but I didn't do much about how busy and tense I was. And even the busy-ness of my new mission of getting myself healthy took enough out of me that my thyroid remained sluggish and got a lot worse.

That's another thing they don't tell you. With hypothyroidism, the thing that will kick your butt? Staying (too) busy, active, and stressed.

Next time: Stress: the root of thyroid evil!

http://IzoldaT.com