The body is the temple of the spirit, and we should care for it as such. Ultimately, the health of your body depends on the health of its living cells, the building blocks of the tissues and organs whose diverse functions are vital to our well being.
Cells and tissues need a proper environment for health - free of toxins, rich in the necessary supplies of nutrients, and with an efficient communications system. The urgent need of every cell is to obtain oxygen to fuel its work, and to get rid of waste carbon dioxide quickly. Healthy lungs and heart are the first essential for the cells to obtain the right nutrients. By eating the right food for you, at correct times of day, you will have a healthy digestion, and the blood will absorb and excrete waste products thoroughly. The micro-circulation around the cells is the body's foundation of health and vitality.
When you press an area of your skin, it turns first paler, as the blood is pushed away, and then red as it rushes back. This is how yoga asanas work on your tissues, like a hand slowly and gently squeezing a sponge to remove all the stale, waste bearing fluids, and then stretching the tissues to allow fresh, life-giving nutrients and energy to circulate to every cell. Breathing deeply as you hold the asana sends more oxygen into the cells, and removes more carbon dioxide. Increased venous return stimulates the heart to contract more firmly in response. The asanas also massage the vital organs, and stimulate the digestive muscles to increase their peristalsis.
The patterns of modern living have a particularly deleterious effect at the tissue level. Sitting still for a long time without
moving or stretching the body allows the micro-circulation, and the major circulation too, to grow sluggish. We breathe polluted air, or smoke, and eat foods containing a range of substances that the body cannot use, or are actually toxic. When circulation is sluggish, kidneys and liver are not kept at full efficiency, and toxins build up and clog the tissues. Meat, for instance, contains more uric acid than we normally excrete, and this can damage tissues, and is implicated in gout and rheumatoid arthritis.
Uncomfortable symptoms such as indigestion, varicose veins or headaches are like the warning lights on a car, telling us that the vehicle is about to break down. While specific asanas can alleviate them, treating symptoms and ignoring the proper functioning of your whole system is like disconnect
ing the car's warning lights, so they will not annoy you. Yoga teaches that you must treat the body as a whole, as every part affects the rest, and be aware of the intimate relationships of body and mind. If you think positively, every cell in your body will be affected. And if you change your pattern of living, founding it instead on the five principles of health (p.21), you will get your whole system working at its best, so that every function of your body operates in a healthier environment.
Digestion
TMe continuous massaging of the digestive organs by the respiratory movements of the diaphragm helps keep them healthy. Backward and Forward Bends, and the Spinal Twist assist this process. Agni Sara,
below, works directly on the diaphragm.
Agni Sara
The pumping actrion of this asana is particularly useful for the digestion. Take a wide stance. knees bent. hands pressing on thighs. looking down at the abdomen. Exhaling, pull the abdomen in and up, hold the breath, and pump the tummy in and out. When you need to inhale, cease pumping, take a normal breath. exhale and con tinue. Ten to eighteen pumpings are enough each time.
Respiration
The lungs are the gateway to the body's oxygen supply. Healthy, elastic lungs will expand fully on a deep breath, dilating all the tiny air sacs where the exchange of gases with the blood takes
place, and then recoil deeply to expel the waste carbon dioxide (though not completely, as a residue of air always remains in the lungs). Yoga asanas and abdominal breathing improve all your respiratory functions, in creasing vital capacity (air in take) and developing strong muscles and elastic tissues, while pranayama teaches breath control and keeps air passages clear. Particularly helpful are the Locust and Peacock, for deep inhalation and breath-holding; Nauli and Uddiyana Bhanda for deep exhalation; and Kapalabhati
to exercise the diaphragm.
Air passages
The nasal passages filter, warm and moisten the air as it is drawn down to the lungs via the larynx and trachea. This is partly why you breathe through the nose for yoga asanas. If you have a head cold or sore throat. the Shoulderstand, Fish and Lion Pose are helpful.
Respiratory muscles
Your lungs work like bellows, in the partial vacuum of the thor acic cavity. To suck in air, the cavity enlarges-the rib cage expands. and the diaphragm moves down, massaging the abdominal organs. When you exhale, air is expelled as the abdomen contracts, the rib cage recoils and the diaphragm moves up, massaging the heart.
THE NUTRIENT CYCLES 183
Air sacs
In the lungs, the bronchi divide finely, terminating in the alveoli or air sacs. If your breathing is shallow, the furthest air sacs remain idle, and deteriorate oxygen intake is reduced and infection is more likely. In allergenic or nervous conditions such as hay fever and asthma, tightening of the small tubes and air sacs of the lungs occurs; relaxation, pranayama and abdominal breathing can be helpful.
184 YOGA AND HEALTH
Circulation
The blood stream is the body's major transport system. carrying red blood cells to ferry oxygen to the tissues and remove carbon dioxide. white cells to fight infec tion. nutrients. messenger che micals. and so on. Efficient cir culation depends on a healthy
heart. and on elastic and unob structed blood vessels. from the major arteries and veins to the
tiny capillaries. All the asanas are beneficial to circulation. par
ticularly the inverted poses. be low. Nauli and Kapalabhati mas sage the heart. while the alter nate increase and decrease in pressure on the heart created by
the asana sequence helps to build a stronger heart muscle.
Leg veins and valves Movement of your leg muscles pusties used blood collected in penpheral veins up past valves
( 1) which close (2) to stop back·
now. Standing increases the pressure on the valves.
Varicose veins
Pressure from long penods of standing. and insuffic1ency of the valves in penpheral vems. may cause the blood to run back to the superficial veins. These dilate and twist- a condition we call varicose veins.
Inverted poses
Inverting the body reverses the effect of gravity. resting the valves and vein walls. The blood pours down into head and neck without exertion by the heart. Regular practice prevents and alleviates varicose conditions.