Appreciating Your Entire Cardiovascular System

by BaxterThe Heart of the Circus by Marc Chagall*Sometimes it’s easy to equate your cardiovascular system with its engine, the heart. But, as we shall see, it is so much more than that. It’s also common to think of the cardiovascular system as the part us we “exercise” when we do aerobic activities, such as running, biking, and active hiking. But this system is just as essential for quiet times as it is for active ones. And understanding a bit about...

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Techniques for Improving Cardiovascular and Heart Health

by Baxter and NinaNancy Ruby, Age 58, by Melina MezaIn today’s post, we are providing recommendations for using yoga tools for their preventative benefits on your cardiovascular system and heart. So start by considering your health status as it relates to heart and cardiovascular health. If you’re healthy then you can follow our recommended techniques. But if you’re having cardiovascular problems or have risk factors for developing heart problems,...

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Yoga Lowers Heart Disease Risk as much as Conventional Exercise

by NinaWalk Along the Banks of the Seine Near Asnieres by Van Gogh“A recent review of yoga and cardiovascular disease published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology indicates that yoga may help lower heart disease risk as much as conventional exercise, such as brisk walking.” — Julie Corliss, Harvard Health BlogWell, that sentence from More than a stretch: Yoga’s benefits may extend to the heart certainly merits a closer look, don’t you...

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Yoga After Heart Surgery for Stent Placement

by Baxter Back in the late 60s and early 70s, a new surgical treatment for blocked heart blood vessels was being perfected. Known as coronary artery bypass grafting, it allowed doctors to work around the heart’s own blood vessels that supply the muscle of the heart with oxygen and nutrition when they became dangerously plugged with plaque buildup. Patients that previously would have, most likely, suffered severe or life-ending heart attacks...

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Heart Health and Yoga: An Overview

by NinaThe Heart by Henri Matisse*After three years of blogging, even I, the Editor-in-Chief, can't remember everything that’s on our blog. So because someone close to me has developed heart disease and I want to be able to help him, I’ve been—hahaha—reading through my own blog today. At the same time that I’m trying to see which topics we’ve covered so far (nothing on stents that I can see—paging Dr. Baxter Bell!), I’m also trying to get up...

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Featured Sequence: Dynamic Cardiovascular Health Practice

by BaxterHeart health should be at the top of almost everyone’s priority list for the simple fact that cardiovascular disease is the number one cause for death in the US each year. More people will die this year from heart disease than will die from all the cancers combined! So, keeping your heart healthy can translate into a longer, more vital life for many of us.  The practice I am sharing with you today assumes that you do not have any active...

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Yoga and Heart Health: the Newest Study

by BaxterIn the spirit of keeping up with all the new developments in the scientific study of yoga, I’d like to share some information about a new study on yoga and heart health that came out last week. Last Tuesday, the day I went live on yogauonline.com with my own lecture series on heart health, they ran a story about a new study that reviewed a bunch of previous studies looking at yoga’s impact on various factors related to heart disease. Since...

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