Gentle Yoga Poses for Back Pain Relief

Some gentle yoga exercises can help with back pain. GENTLE STRETCHES : All yoga postures should be learned with a trained yoga teacher, but IMPORTANT especially when you have a backache, you should not do any yoga postures without expert guidance. This is especially true if your pain comes from a slipped disk. In general, the following postures may be helpful: Camel pose Lotus pose Cow pose Forward Bend Spinal Twist Palm Tree pose Locust pose gentle, modified Fish pose All these postures may be used both as a preventive measure and to help remedy back pain.

But again, be sure to get advice from a trained teacher. (Illustrations of yoga postures appear in appendix 4.) MORE TIPS TO HELP HEAL BACKACHE • Backache is often due to excess vata, so it is helpful to reduce your consumption of vata- increasing foods. Avoid most beans, including black beans, pinto beans, adzuki beans, and garbanzo beans. Avoid raw, cold salads.

(See chapter 8 for more on the vata-pacifying diet.) • Avoid exposure to cold weather or cold winds. • Sit quietly and meditate, or observe your breathing. This will help relax tense muscles. (For help with meditation, see chapter 7.) • Don’t walk in high-heeled shoes.

• Don’t try to do jogging, jumping, or other strenuous exercise, rather, do some gentle yoga stretching as mentioned above. • Sexual activity should be minimized. Following these guidelines will help you heal your aching back as well as avoid back pain in the future. Bad Breath Bad breath is often a sign of systemic toxicity, either in the colon, intestine, or mouth.

It can also be due to chronic indigestion or malabsorption. When digestion is weak or sluggish, the food you eat undergoes fermentation and putrefaction in the gastrointestinal tract, leading to the formation of ama, which has a foul smell. Stand in front of a mirror, and stick out your tongue. If the back portion of the tongue is coated, that is the sign of ama, which is responsible for the bad breath.