Hope for Autoimmune Disease

15 Personal Stories of Living Better With Bikram Yoga Ann Chrapkiewicz & Jennifer Lane

Published under the auspices of the Ten Percent Project, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to creative projects, research, teaching, and communications about the health benefits, principles, and accessibility of Bikram Yoga.

Copyright ©2020

All rights reserved.

Chrapkiewicz, Ann, 1978 --

Lane, Jennifer, 1976 --

Cover designed by Jamie Payne

Photos by M. McPeak or A. Chrapkiewicz

Table of Contents

About the Authors

5

The Global Need For This Book

6

About This Project

8

Autoimmune Diseases Featured in This Book

10

Part 1: The Stories

Chapter 1. Tina - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

13

Chapter 2. Billy - Crohn’s Disease

23

Chapter 3. Leslie - Rheumatoid Arthritis

37

Chapter 4. Cindy - Type 1 Diabetes

47

Chapter 5. Kathy - Rheumatoid Arthritis

55

Chapter 6. Stacy - Multiple Sclerosis

67

Chapter 7. Jennifer - Lupus

75

Chapter 8. Ayesha - Rheumatoid Arthritis

89

Chapter 9. Mark - Spondyloarthropathy with Enthesitis 99

Chapter 10. Gina - Mixed Connective Tissue Disease 109

Chapter 11. Jessica - Crohn’s Disease

119

Chapter 12. Andy - Rheumatoid Arthritis

127

Chapter 13. Mary - Hashimoto’s Disease

137

Chapter 14. Brendan - Multiple Sclerosis 145

Chapter 15. Rowena - Rheumatoid Arthritis

149

Photos

161

PART 2 - The Context

What is Yoga?

175

Why the Heat?

185

Notes on Teaching

189

My Health: Who is the Expert?

193

End Notes

199

How to Find a Bikram Yoga Class

200

Acknowledgments

201

About the Authors

Ann Chrapkiewicz attended her first Bikram Yoga class in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in July 2003. She completed Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Los Angeles in August 2004. Since then she has taught over 6,500

hours and over 6,000 students. After teaching throughout the state of Michigan for many years, Ann opened her own yoga school, Bikram Yoga Capital Area, in East Lansing, Michigan, in 2013. She is a Level 3 Teacher as well as an approved Teacher for Continuing Education with the Original Hot Yoga Association. Before opening her yoga school, Ann completed her M.A. in Medical Anthropology at Michigan State University. She also earned an M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in Literature and Media Studies from Duke University. She has studied exercise physiology at the graduate level, completed immersive courses in Integral Anatomy with Gil Hedley, and practices yoga and Yoga Shapeshifting with Mary Jarvis. She is the founder of the Ten Percent Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to communicating the accessibility and benefits of the Bikram method of yoga.

Jennifer Lane was diagnosed with lupus in 2012. Since she began Bikram Yoga in 2015 at Ann’s yoga school, she has seen countless improvements in her health (read chapter 7 for her story). She often encourages other autoimmune sufferers to try it, wishing for them to experience the same life-changing benefits. Jennifer has to push herself to get started, but she loves the way she feels after her Bikram Yoga class each day. Jennifer has a dual degree in Public Relations and Organizational Communication from California State University, Sacramento. She has dedicated the last twenty years to raising her two boys, Zachary and Andrew, and looks forward to traveling the world with her husband, John.

5

The Global Need For This Book

It is estimated that somewhere between four percent and ten percent of the global population suffers from one of over eighty autoimmune diseases.

In the United States alone, up to 23.5 million Americans suffer from an autoimmune disease, and the prevalence is rising1. Some of the more common autoimmune diseases are rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, and lupus.

If you are one of the millions of autoimmune sufferers, you likely have been through an arduous journey of pain, frustration, missed work, misdiagnosis, countless medical appointments, and depression. You may have tried various medications, a diet change, or other avenues of treatment.

We see both a global, epidemiological problem, as well as a lived, experienced, individual one.

And we know about a system that has helped many people greatly reduce or eliminate their autoimmune symptoms yet is effectively unknown to autoimmune professionals and patients.

That system is Bikram Yoga.

If you have fatigue, chronic pain, joint pain, poor balance, or inflammation, Bikram Yoga may be an important part of the solution and a relatively inexpensive one. Whether or not you have an autoimmune diagnosis, you can incorporate Bikram Yoga into your life and see what it does for you.

Although Bikram Yoga has been available for almost forty-five years in the US—and for a couple of decades in many other countries—we feel that its therapeutic potential has only barely been explored. It is unknown to those who may need it most.

Bikram Yoga is commonly viewed as just another “hot yoga” fad or as an extreme fitness regimen for the young or already fit. Yet for many people of all ages (including those 60 years of age and up), it is the primary treatment for managing autoimmune symptoms.

1 National Institutes of Health; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

6

Practitioners of other forms of yoga—or participants in various yoga fitness programs— may be surprised to learn about the unique healing properties of Bikram Yoga. And we especially hope that we will reach autoimmune sufferers who don’t know where else to turn.

7

About This Project

This book has largely been the product of three things: Jennifer’s excellent organizational skills, Ann’s connections to the global community of Bikram Yoga teachers, and the worldwide presence of so many Bikram Yoga practitioners with stories to share! We are so grateful for this opportunity to connect you with these experiences. Our determination to bring this project to you, and our faith in its value, has been bolstered by our own yoga practices and by the people featured in this book.

How It Got Started

In spring 2018, after practicing a Bikram Yoga class together, Jennifer said to Ann, “Hey, we should write a book. This yoga has helped me so much with my lupus symptoms. I bet there are other people out there with similar experiences!” Within a month we had a few meetings, drafted a plan, wrote up a questionnaire, and sought people willing to share their experiences with autoimmune disease and Bikram Yoga. Ann posted a notice in all of the Bikram Yoga-related Facebook groups. She also emailed all her studio-owner and teacher friends who might know of Bikram Yoga practitioners with autoimmune issues.

Within a few weeks, we received nearly forty responses from around the world; many of our interviewees recommended other Bikram Yoga practitioners for us to contact. We were astonished at how quickly we found ourselves at the center of a global network of people with common experiences.

We selected a group of participants from those who had responded to our questionnaire. We aimed in our selection to represent a range of diseases, ages, and regions of the world; we also sought a balance between men and women. Ann and Jennifer together participated in each interview. We felt that it was important for both of us to be there, as we each brought a different perspective to our listening and our follow-up questions. Jennifer had personal experience with autoimmune symptoms, diagnosis, and medications. Ann had been on the listening end of hundreds of healing stories from her students, and she had long been on a search for ways to help teachers (herself included) better communicate the therapeutic potential of Bikram Yoga. Our combined experiences allowed us to both relate to our participants in different ways and to ask them more meaningful questions.

8

Bikram Yoga Around the World

Some of our participants lived twelve time zones away from Michigan, so logistics proved to be a little trickier than we had anticipated. But we loved the interview process. It fed our faith in this project and in this yoga.

All it took was a couple of hours each week, a cell phone, and a $100 audio recorder. And, of course, our interest in and curiosity about these people who were willing to come along for the ride! With every interview, we were reminded of the need for these stories to be told.

We got to hear accents and dialects from around the US and overseas. We learned about autoimmune diseases in a unique, real-life manner. Some of the stories we heard broke our hearts. But all of them gave us hope and inspiration. We transcribed the recorded interviews and a book started to take form.

Although we tried to represent the range of autoimmune diseases, we did not receive responses from anyone with Sjogren’s, Addison’s, or vasculitis, so those diseases are not included in this book. We suspect that Bikram Yoga would be as beneficial for those challenged by these conditions as it has been for those featured in this book. We are sincerely interested in hearing from people with these conditions who wish to share their experiences.

Every story in this book is personal. Each story was told by someone challenged by one or more autoimmune diseases; someone who has incorporated Bikram Yoga for relief. And not just relief from discomfort but also the relief associated with something that has finally worked.

We were impressed by the generosity and selflessness with which the participants shared their vulnerability, struggles, and joys.

Although we have edited for readability, we have sought to preserve the personality, energy, and expressions of each person we interviewed.

We present these humans and their stories to you with the highest hopes for the healing of you or someone you know. And we look forward to someday hearing your story.

9

Autoimmune Diseases Featured in this Book Resources found on the websites of American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, Inc. and the NIH National Library of Medicine Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ( Chapter 1): a serious, long-term illness that affects many body systems and can often make you unable to do your usual activities or get out of bed.

Crohn’s Disease ( Chapters 2 and 11): an inflammatory bowel disease characterized by severe and persistent inflammation of the intestines.

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (Chapter 13): a chronic inflammatory thyroid disease in which the immune system attacks and destroys the thyroid gland.

Lupus ( Chapter 7): a disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. It can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, brain, and other organs.

Mixed Connective Tissue Disease ( Chapter 10): a disease with signs and symptoms of a combination of disorders—primarily lupus, scleroderma, and polymyositis. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as an overlap disease. Early symptoms often involve the hands.

Multiple Sclerosis ( Chapters 6 and 14): a disease of the nervous system which affects the brain, spinal cord, and the protective covering of nerves.

Rheumatoid Arthritis ( Chapters 3, 5, 8, 12, and 15): a chronic inflammatory arthritis that causes pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of function due to inflammation of the joints and surrounding tissues, and, in some cases, other organs.

Type 1 Diabetes ( Chapter 4): a chronic disease in which there is a high level of sugar (glucose) in the blood. This is not to be confused with type 2

diabetes, which is not an autoimmune disorder.

Spondyloarthropathy with Enthesitis ( Chapter 9): an inflammatory rheumatic disease that attacks the connective tissue.

10

Part 1: The Stories

11

.

12

Chapter 1

Name: Tina, age 44

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Diagnosis: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Pre-Diagnosis

I’m a very active person and I always have been. I’m also a plus size woman, so being active is important to me for my health more than anything.

In 2011 or so, I was doing Zumba and someone said I would be a great instructor. I thought it would be fun, so I started teaching Zumba and I loved it. I even got certified to teach it.

Not long after, I started getting these weird muscle cramps that just wouldn’t go away. You know how you get a muscle cramp, but then it goes away and you are ok? Well, the cramps I get—and I still get them to this day—they will last half an hour, forty-five minutes, an hour...even an hour and a half. So I knew something wasn’t quite right.

So I went to the doctor, and they said I was just dehydrated.

I said right back, “I am not dehydrated. I am an active person who is very in tune with my body, and hydration is something that I take very seriously.”

The response was still, “You are dehydrated.”

Fine. The doctor wanted me to track ounce by ounce everything I consumed. Water, electrolytes, everything. So I agreed to do that for four weeks. When I went back to the doctor, she basically fell over when she saw what I was doing on a daily basis to stay hydrated. I wake up in the morning and I do himalayan sea salt. It is crazy what I do to stay hydrated.

The doctor said that maybe I should go to an orthopedic person, and I agreed.

13

I live near the University of Utah, which has some really good doctors. So I went to an orthopedic group that takes care of all the athletes at the university.

This was one of those moments in my life that I will never ever forget. They took a ton of x-rays, and afterwards the doctor sat down with me and my husband. The doctor grabbed my hand and said, “So … you have an extra vertebra in your back.”

I took a big gasp of air, and then the tears just started flowing down my face.

How did that never get found before? And what does that mean? Am I looking at becoming paralyzed in the next month? I mean, what does this mean?

Jump ahead. We then went for a second opinion, and according to that doctor I don’t have an extra vertebra. How did a specialist mess that up?

So I got really frustrated and decided to go to a neurologist, and that practitioner just offered me drugs. Let’s try this drug, let’s try that drug. No diagnosis, but let’s start giving you drugs.

Diagnosis in Mexico

My husband is from Mexico, and I went to college in Mexico. Although I am not Hispanic, my parents used to go to Mexico on vacation. One thing led to another and I ended up living down there for college. I learned that the medical system in Mexico is actually very good.

As a kid I suffered with inflamed tonsils and ear infections all the time, and the doctors would always tell my parents, “If she gets another ear infection we are going to have to take her tonsils out.”

Well, I had my tonsils out in Mexico when I was 21, and I have never had a single problem since. I also have had four knee surgeries (the fourth surgery was in Mexico), and now my knee is fine.

So after the conflicting diagnoses with the vertebra and my experience with the neurologist, my husband said, “Why don’t we go to Mexico? It is cheaper, and you could go to every single possible specialist they have.”

14

So I did that. In August of 2014, I went to Mexico for a week. I had multiple appointments every day. I had a heart doctor, an OB-GYN, orthopedist, neurologist, internist, everything. I spent four hours in a lab having every possible ultrasound, plus an EKG. We were trying to rule it all out.

One of those doctors finally sat me down and said, “These are one of those diagnoses that doctors don’t like to give people, but the blanket you have over you is fibromyalgia—and it is stress-induced fibromyalgia. In addition to that, you have all of the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.”

I suffer from all of it. I have insomnia, carpal tunnel, sciatica, just a lot.

That same doctor said to me, “I think you need to do yoga.” And I laughed at him. He repeated, “I think the best thing for you—in addition to these medications—is yoga.”

And all I could think was, “I don’t do yoga! I do P90X and Insanity and Zumba and weights. But yoga … no way!”

I Don’t Like Yoga

I don’t like yoga. I don’t like ashtanga yoga. I don’t like regular yoga. I find regular yoga boring.

I have a membership at 24-Hour Fitness. I have been a member there forever. I pay $69 a year. I have tried yoga there and I always walk out. It is boring to me, and I don’t want to offend anybody, but it is boring to me.

So when this doctor suggested yoga I literally laughed in his face. For me, yoga is very slow motion. It is doing poses I can’t do. I’m a tin man kind of person: I’m stiff. I’m big. And I just can’t do it. It frustrates me. It is slow.

Even the things I CAN do put me to sleep! I just don’t enjoy it, and I’ve tried a lot.

My first yoga experience was the P90X video, and I always dreaded Thursday–the yoga day. I love P90X, but yoga for 90 minutes was just too much.

So now with the fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue diagnosis, I started trying a bunch of things on my own. I was going to a chiropractor and getting massages. At one point, a massage therapist told me, “Hey, you might want to try Bikram Yoga”.

15

It’s funny because when all my pain had started, I vaguely remember another friend telling me I should try Bikram Yoga and I was like NO. No chance with this girl.

But I remembered hearing that some people like Bikram, and there was a studio literally a mile away from my home. They had this $20 pass for unlimited classes for ten days. In 2013 I went and tried it but I lasted two days and never went back. I thought, “This isn’t really for me.” But I was also really closed-minded because it was yoga.

And for me I don’t even call it Bikram Yoga. I call it Bikram. If I put yoga at the end, I don’t like it. I do Bikram. It is just easier that way.

I Tried it Anyway

So anyways, in October 2014, a year after I had tried Bikram and then gotten the diagnosis and recommendation for yoga, my husband was going to be out of town. I was thinking, “What am I going to do with myself?”

I decided to go to Bikram, and I made up my mind that I was going to go for ten days in a row this time. To truly give it a chance to help me.

The first couple of days, I was thinking, “What have I got myself into?”

I remember I hated the first day. “Why did I do this to myself?” I thought.

“You wasted $20!”

Then the next morning I was packing up for work. I was packing my bag, and I was thinking, “This is stupid.” But I went to Bikram anyway. I was so nauseous. I felt terrible. I literally thought I was going to pass out from the heat.

The instructor said, “If you need to take a knee or sit down, go ahead.” But I’m not that kind of girl. I don’t take knees! I was frustrated with myself that I couldn’t do a lot of it.

By day three, I started looking around and talking to people before or after class, and it was interesting because everyone at Bikram had a story.

Whether they got there because they had an automobile accident, or they had reconstructive surgery on a joint, or they have back problems.

It felt like everybody there had a story.

16

We also have some of the NBA Jazz players that go to our studio. It is really neat.

So after hearing about these other people who practice, my mind was opened, and I was actually thinking, “I can do this for ten days.”

I have a saying for myself, “I can do anything temporarily.” And this is no different. Ten days is temporarily. It is a blip on the radar of my life.

I think I actually signed up for a membership on day eight. I woke up that morning and realized, “I feel good!” At that moment, I understood why that doctor told me I should do this yoga. And I realized that I CAN do this yoga. I had a whole little conversation in my head about it.

90 Day Challenge

Just a few months later—January 2015—I went completely chemical free and I did a 90-day Bikram challenge. I did 91 Bikram classes in 90 days. I felt amazing! I thought I was already really in tune with my body but it took me to a whole new level.

Plus I detoxed my body from the drugs I had been taking for so many years.

Even before all my symptoms hit hard, I had been on birth control for years.

I had also been taking Advil and Tylenol, probably to mask the pain. So that whole detoxing period worked.

The first twenty days or so wasn’t amazing, but after that I just went with it.

It was an amazing thing; the support from the studio was so uplifting.

Once I did the 90-day challenge, I knew what Bikram did for me, and I kept going on a very regular basis. I have kind of experimented with how often to practice. My minimum is three days a week; five to six days a week is perfect. The main reason I don’t go seven days a week is that Sunday is the only day that my husband and I both have off from work. I feel bad leaving him for three hours so I don’t go Sundays usually.

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Benefits that Keep Me Going

The heat! It is interesting because summer is the hardest time of year for me, physically. The heat at first was really hard for me, but then my body started craving that heat.

I also started to notice changes such as:

● less cramping in the middle of the night;

● I was less tired in the middle of the afternoon;

● I could stay up later and stay awake for most of a movie (which was rare);

● PMS symptoms weren’t as bad;

● when I did get sciatic pain, it wasn’t quite as debilitating.

So that is what keeps me going. The other thing I love about Bikram is I know exactly what I am walking into. I let myself go. I don’t try to think ahead and rush into a pose. But I know what to expect. It never changes.

Diet and Bikram

I eat very clean. I don’t eat anything out of a bag, a box, or a can. Period.

My only exception is Shakeology because I have used it for years, and it has a ton of superfoods in it. I actually took it out of my diet for a month to see how I would feel, and I ended up bringing it back. It definitely helps me feel better and keeps my body in check.

I have done a ton of research on nutrition and have attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I am also a certified health coach through ACE

(American Council on Exercise) and a personal trainer.

For me, the optimal diet is raw-vegan, but I get bored with it. So I eat really really clean and don’t eat a lot of meat.

Exercise and Rest

Currently, in addition to Bikram, I am doing at-home workouts. I am a Beach Body coach, so I am always doing one of those at home. My latest adventure is F45, which is a workout from Australia.

As a child, I was a super sound sleeper and I slept 8-10 hours all the time.

Nothing woke me up. Even in college I remember being a fairly good 18

sleeper, but when all these health issues started happening, insomnia hit me as well. Getting to sleep is hard. Staying asleep is hard.

With Bikram, honestly, I don’t know if it helps me sleep any better. But what I have noticed is that with Bikram I no longer have the horrible fatigue during the day that I used to. I used to be non-functional by 3 p.m. every day.

I also have restless leg syndrome, so sometimes that kicks in and I can’t get comfortable. It used to be really bad, but it has calmed down a lot with Bikram.

Mental Health

I think this is one of the most important pieces. When I started doing Bikram, I was actually managing a business for a friend, and it was very stressful.

She wasn’t living nearby, so it was stressful trying to get her the information she needed. I was always trying to make sure she was happy, and always sending pictures. I worked 24 hours a day, and it was a little overwhelming!

Those 90 minutes at Bikram—not being able to be contacted—felt like traveling to another world. For me it is still that way.

Now I work from home and do my own thing, but I still have that 90

minutes where nobody can find me.

During a Bikram class, even though I am in a room full of people, all those people are in the same state that I am and they don’t want to talk. It is just an amazing thing.

It literally lets me shut my mind off. Without Bikram, I have a mind that just goes, goes, goes! For example, when I feel a pain, my mind goes to that pain. I think, “Poor me, my body is hurting,” or something else negative.

But when I am in a Bikram class, even if I have a pain or a spasm or a cramp, my mind doesn’t go to that “poor me” thinking. It stays in the moment. A Bikram class makes me just be in the room, be present, and enjoy the heat.

And just simply listen to the instructor.

19

It may sound weird, but sometimes just listening to the vibrations and tones of the different instructors keeps my mind from wandering and thinking about negative things.

I think that the doctor who had prescribed yoga for me was referring to this process I am describing. I think he knew that I needed to be able to shut down my mind for a little bit of time every day.

Mental Power

I have realized that the power of the mind is huge. I have historically had a really high tolerance to pain, and now it is even higher. I can talk myself out of it.

Two weeks ago, I woke up with a really bad cramp in my hip flexor and I literally could not stretch my leg out. I could not walk, crawl, or move. It lasted an hour. I just took some deep breaths and focused on not getting worked up.

I have often had these cramps that last a really long time, and I have noticed that if I get myself worked up mentally, it will stay longer and it will get worse.

That power of the mind is pretty amazing. I tell people all the time that I could put myself in a wheelchair with my mind. I could become completely disabled and unable to walk if I let my mind go there. But I choose not to do that.

Bikram has influenced me so much in this regard, in training me to choose to stay in the present moment. And training me to choose the focus or the thought that I am going to have when something is uncomfortable.

Some people make themselves so sick by just thinking about how sick they are. They read my story about going chemical free and say, “I could never do that.”

Well, why not? I’m nobody special. I really am not. I am just a girl that wants to live more years and live healthy … and be happy and a little less painful.

I don’t want to be in a wheelchair. I want to be active. I like doing active things. The only difference between me and that person who is sitting at 20

home and still feeling the effects of chronic fatigue is the mental aspect. It really is.

I have read a few books about the power of the breath, and that has helped me be receptive to yoga ideas. I am a really spiritual person, too, and it goes hand in hand with my Bikram practice. A lot of the people who practice Bikram with me have similar thoughts, and we can talk and bounce ideas off each other. Having that supportive community of people has helped me a lot.

How Badly Do You Want to Feel Better?

I am in a lot of Facebook groups about fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome. When I mention to someone that they should try Bikram, their reaction is the same as mine was: “No way!”

More times than not, people say it is the heat that keeps them away.

“I could never do the heat.”

I hear that over and over. I get it. I understand it completely. I can’t do the heat. The summer sucks. I get it. But the heat at Bikram is amazing. The heat at Bikram is a completely different beast.

Bikram has just been so life changing for me on so many levels. The mental level, the physical level, it really is quite amazing. I don’t think any of the other kinds of yoga have the same power to heal the body. I just don’t.

Nobody is going to change that opinion.

I have shared my Bikram experience so many times. I am like a walking billboard–I talk to people about it a lot!

I do all these things—running, Zumba, spin classes, outdoor workouts—I am very active. But Bikram specifically is the piece that helps me stay as active as I do. It keeps me more fluid and mobile than if I didn’t do it.

The people who say they can’t, or who think it will be too hot … I think if they would take the time to really try it, something huge would happen.

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You know, just ten days. Take class for ten straight days. One after the other. Then let’s talk. Are you still laying on the couch? Do you still feel like you can’t function? Or can’t make dinner for your kids?

I don’t feel like you would still be on the couch. Trust me, I see people who come and go from the studio all the time. People who make the ten days in a row STAY. The people who don’t, don’t. And the people who stay do it because it is working. They notice something huge in those ten days and decide that it is better than the old way.

The trouble is that if you just come once or twice then it’s not going to stick, and you will lose out on knowing what it can do for you.

I had done my first class and the instructor said make sure you come back on the second day. So I said ok and went back and I hated it even more. But that’s exactly when you just have to keep going. It’s only ten days of your life, and by then you will see things changing.

Current Inspiration

I think Bikram has the whole package. It has the mental aspect and the physical aspect and something even more. I know it is said to exist in other forms of yoga, but it just isn’t the same. There is something magical about Bikram. It is the only yoga that my mind and my way of thinking can handle.

There is a guy at our studio that is trying to do 1000 days in a row. He is on day 800 and something.2 He started this on his very first day, and instead of doing 10 days in a row, he just kept going.

His transformation is physical, but it is so much more! He has lost a ton of weight. His skin color is different and he looks healthier. He just glows. He has read all the Bikram Yoga books.

When he first started, he didn’t talk to anybody or even look at you. And now he talks to people, he smiles, and he high-fives everyone. I would guess he has dropped over 100 pounds.

Before Bikram I used to weigh 150 pounds more than I do now. I’ve lost a whole person.

2 at the time of the interview in July 2018

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Chapter 2

Name: Billy, age 43

Location: Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

Diagnosis: Crohn’s Disease

Pre-Diagnosis

So I’ve had Crohn’s disease all of my life, but I didn’t find out until I was twenty. For my whole childhood I was raised to do the whole biomedical thing, doctors and medications. But even so, I never got diagnosed. My mom remembers so many times when I was a kid my belly would get all big, and she would rush me to the doctor, but nobody knew what was wrong.

When I was twenty, I went in for an emergency surgery that was initially thought to be my appendix; but it wasn’t my appendix at all. Once they went in to do the surgery, they discovered a big blockage in my digestive tract that was the size of a grapefruit!

So the doctors were like, “Oh, you have Crohn’s Disease. And this is why for the last twenty years everything has sucked and you didn’t know why. And this is what you do: you take this medicine.” Which is going to make it suck worse.

So I was finally diagnosed, but I had the same symptoms. Nothing really changed, except now there was a name for it. I spent thirty-six days in the hospital post-surgery trying to figure out how to spell Crohn’s disease, not being able to eat anything, and getting all my nutrition through an IV … and just trying to get through it.

Dealing with Crohn’s Disease, Before Bikram Yoga The main medication I took is called Asacol. When I would get flare-ups I would be put on the prednisone steroid for a while and that was rough. As 24

the years went by, new medicines were introduced. I tried Humira. I also tried Remicade.

So although I took a lot of medications, I was never really wanting to. My mentality was usually: “I’m going to suffer a bit in the body that I’m in, because I don’t want to mask some problem and pretend it is not there.”

I mean, when you are on prednisone, the side effects can make you lose faith in everything. I felt like it was often worse than the symptoms of what I was initially dealing with. So even though I was taking so many meds (Asacol, Humira, and Remicade), I truly didn’t want to be. I was getting by, but I was a shadow of the person that I am now.

I would always do as much as I could the natural way. I would try elimination diets that were supposed to help you recharge if you did them for a month. I just tried

to do whatever I could

do.

Smoking pot was a big

one. In any state that is

offering medicinal

marijuana, there is a list

of diseases available that

marijuana is supposed to

help (usually like cancer,

glaucoma, Crohn’s

disease). And Crohn’s is

known to be one of the

main diseases that

marijuana helps.

But all those things were

just treating the symptoms—they didn’t treat the real problem. That is what Bikram Yoga ended up doing.

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Finding Bikram Yoga

What brought me to Bikram Yoga wasn’t actually the Crohn’s disease—it was terrible back pain, including herniated discs and awful sciatic pain.

I had never been into fitness or athletics of any kind. I went to college for music and I was a touring musician for many years. Later I settled down and started doing landscape design.

Shortly before I turned 30, I ended up needing to have back surgery because of the landscaping labor. It was terrible. I had two herniated discs, and I was in chronic pain, including crazy sciatic pain down my right leg. I couldn’t deal with it. I didn’t know anything about backs so I went to a doctor. He discovered two herniated discs (L4 and L5) and said I would have to have surgery.

I didn’t know anything, so I said okay and went ahead and had the surgery.

It was a lumbar discectomy, and it was a failed surgery. I came out of the surgery feeling the same if not worse than when I went in.

After the surgery I went to physical therapy. At some point my sessions were getting close to running out, and I wasn’t feeling much better. My physical therapist said, “I don’t know Billy, maybe you should try yoga.”

I laughed at her and put her off for about a year. I was like, “Please! I’m covered in tattoos and I play bass in a rock band … we are sponsored by Jagermeister … what am I going to do with candles and incense and meditation? How is that going to help my back?”

But I was really desperate one day and happened to drive by a sign that said

“Bikram Yoga, $20 for Two Weeks.” So I went in.

I practiced consistently, and it started to fix my back very quickly. It worked so well that I kept going … and eventually I just fell in love with Bikram Yoga.

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Slow Medicine

Over the course of years the Bikram practice was very powerful—but very slow—medicine. I started to notice internal changes and how I could digest food better.

I mean with Crohn’s disease, you have a hard time gaining weight, you are anemic, you know every single rest stop on the highway, you can’t go out to dinner with your friends, you feel weird and awkward because you can’t eat

… and eating is such a social thing.

Most people suffer in silence because everyone wants to talk about their bad knee, but no one wants to talk about diarrhea. That is why I put it out there (even on my website!) that I have Crohn’s disease. I want to help the people who suffer and who don’t want to talk about poop.

Suffering silently just sucks.

After about four or five years of consistent practice my intestines were better. Like, completely better. It’s hard to even describe.

Let’s put it this way—four years ago I had peanut butter for the first time in my life. And now I can eat cashews, salads, Indian food, drink alcohol, have coffee, go out to dinner with my friends, and not have to hit the bathroom every ten seconds. Before, if I ate salad, I would end up in the emergency room. No joke.

So currently, after ten years of Bikram Yoga practice, I’m symptom free. I haven’t been on any medication for several years. I also use the practice to keep my back feeling good. For me it truly is medicine. I have healed the real physical aspects of my back but also the internal.

In 2012 I went to Bikram Yoga Teacher Training. That is the same year I stopped taking all of my medications.

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I have been teaching Bikram Yoga since training, and now I own a studio in North Carolina. I tell people all the time if you have high blood pressure, diabetes, anything like that, some sort of something, Bikram Yoga can help.

It is not just about touching your forehead to the floor and being flexible.

The Real Problem

You know, in today's medicine, the last thing that the doctor asks you when you go in is, “What do you eat?”

If you go in and say: “I feel really lethargic and I have no energy and I can’t get off the couch.” They don’t say: “Well, have you been eating only Doritos for the last six weeks? Here’s your problem.”

My doctors didn’t seem to have information about nutrition, so they were only focused on my symptoms and trying to alleviate those symptoms.

When in actuality they never addressed the real problem.

The crazy thing was that the yoga practice didn’t really help so much with the symptoms, but it really directly affected the problems themselves at the root level. It actually addressed my internal digestive health, the positive bacteria in the gut, the blood and circulation, the amount of water I had to drink, my stress levels, and even having a community of people all healing together. There are so many different levels to it.

Crohn’s disease for me was 50 percent what I ate and 50 percent stress, and Bikram Yoga took care of the stress part.

First Class

I knew absolutely nothing about yoga; I didn’t even know that Bikram Yoga was hot. I went into the studio with $20 and the guy said: “We are just opening and our first classes are tomorrow.” So I gave him $20, and he said to come back tomorrow and I would have two weeks to take class.

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This was back in the time where I didn’t ask Siri. That didn’t exist. So I showed up wearing sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt, and carrying a chai latte, thinking we were going to do yoga and sit and meditate with a bunch of cute girls. I obviously didn’t know what to expect.

So in my first class I got my fucking ass kicked. I was like, “I’m never coming back, I’m never wearing sweatpants, this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life!” I had no idea what had just happened.

But I came out of class and a couple of hours later I felt a little bit different.

I’m really frugal so I wanted to get the most out of my $20. So I came everyday for the whole two weeks. During that two weeks the studio started doing a 30-day challenge. By the end of my two weeks, I was like well I’ve been coming everyday, I’m already halfway through this challenge, so I’ll continue on and see what happens.

My teachers had been saying that 30 days in a row will change your body.

Great, I thought, because my back was really hurting, and this yoga was already working. If this could fix my back that would be great.

And then, somehow, I read in Bikram’s new book3 at the time that if you do 60 days in a row it will change your life. At the time I didn’t know anything from anything but I said what the hell, I’m already halfway through, may as well do 60 days.

So my introduction was 60 classes in a row right out of the gate. No doubles, no days off. And my back was feeling good. I was having more moments where I didn’t have back pain and sciatic pain.

That consistency and regularity of practice was what helped me over the course of all these years with the autoimmune stuff. It is easier to fix a knee or a shoulder—that could be really quick. But with some of the internal stuff it is powerful but much slower.

3 Bikram Yoga: The Guru Behind Hot Yoga Shows the Way to Radiant Health and Personal Fulfillment by Bikram Choudhury

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From Desperation to Transformation Before Bikram Yoga, I had such a bad back; I was out of work and really couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t live my life. My quality of life was zero at that point.

I had already had surgery, and the pain only got worse after that, so it seemed like there were no choices left. I was desperate.

At that point I really thought I had tried everything! I wore red underwear for my root chakra, I hung upside down on an inversion table, and I was waking up to alarm clocks that were Tibetan singing bowls—I was trying anything that I possibly could to get out of pain.

Then, in this state, I tried Bikram. And it was working! There was nothing more important to me than just showing up. When you are in pain, there is nothing else that exists. I wanted more of the pain relief, so I did what I needed to sustain the practice.

One of the things I realized during that first two months was that I had apparently never drank a glass of water in my whole life. I didn’t realize how much water I needed. With Bikram Yoga I had to drink so much water, just to be able to keep up with it. Even just that will help you start to feel better—I don’t care if it is arthritis or whatever, even just drinking water helps to keep your body in its proper functioning state. And Bikram Yoga sort of forced this fact upon me.

Bikram Teacher Styles

It was really hard for me at first because the studio where I first practiced (Bikram Yoga, in Hudson, MA, which is now closed) had certain rules. For example, when I first walked in the teacher said, “OK your goal is to stay in the room.” In my mind I was like, “I might have to go to the bathroom, I don’t know, we will see how it goes.”

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I struggled a bit with it. I had to liberate myself from following all the rules or I wouldn’t have been able to stick with it. Like you know, don’t drink your water at certain times or whatever. Man, if I didn’t drink my water I felt like that would have such a huge affect on my digestive health and inflammation and all of that.

After a while, I started taking classes with Diane Ducharme in Denim, Massachusetts. She went to training in 1995 and has had her studio for over twenty-two years. She teaches Bikram Yoga from a very pure and original place of how it was designed.

This is a type of yoga for people with chronic pain and injury and illness, and that is what she teaches. Her studio is like an infirmary ward. I started going to her and started adopting her studio as my home studio. She would talk about things like blood flushing through your body, why we rest for 20

seconds, and all the internal things—like why we are massaging our ascending colon. Her explanations really started to resonate with me. She helped me understand more about how beneficial this was from a physiological or medical perspective. And I think that helped me benefit even more.

There was a moment early on, when my digestive health was getting better, and I was seeing these magical transformations in people. I remember thinking that I needed to go and learn everything I could about this practice and share it with everyone, because it was amazing.

Because it wasn’t just me. There was the 80-year-old woman with the new hip, and there was the young dude with all the muscles who could barely bend over and was so stiff and inflexible. And everyone was doing it together. It was this amazing thing that made me better at everything outside of the yoga room. So for me, I run my studio the same way Diane did. I want my people to know what is happening, so the change can start in your brain and then you can put it all together—your brain and your body.

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Sharing the Practice

I told people right away about Bikram because my back was feeling so much better. At the time, I was in a rock band that toured and my life and friends were a whole different scene. It is a different section of people. Half of the people who played the drums ended up with a bad back.

So I was telling those people, “Dude. You have no idea, you gotta come to yoga. You have no idea what just happened to me.”

I would challenge them. I would say, “If you can stay in that room the entire time I’ll buy you a beer.”

I was just raving about it. And I remember, too, when the teacher would say in Wind Removing Pose4, “You are massaging your ascending colon and descending colon,” I would giggle and think, “Yeah, like, sure. I’m stretching my hamstrings, I get it, but this seems like hogwash.” But now I don’t giggle anymore because I have realized that it works!

Barriers to Practicing Bikram Yoga

The first barrier is that people think they can’t handle the heat.

Part of the problem now is that compared to when I started people have so much more information in advance. Some people read one or two people’s opinions on social media that it was hard, and hot, and long … and they immediately decide it is not for them.

It is true that you have to do the work. It is true that it is very challenging.

But a big part of the issue is societal, in that we are so externally goal-oriented: how many miles can you run, how many minutes can you do on the elliptical, how much weight can you bench, how long can you do it, etc.

4 Wind Removing Pose is pictured on page 161

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But Bikram Yoga is not that. There is no destination in yoga really, not something you can measure easily on the outside. It is just a path.

As soon as you walk in the front door and cross the threshold of my studio

[Billy owns Rebel Hot Yoga in Wilmington, NC], you know that the external goals don’t matter. My pregnant teacher will get up on the podium and say,

“All you need to do is breathe, and everything else is optional. When you are thirsty, drink your water, and if you are tired, take a break.” That is how we open every class. If you need to pee then you go and come back.

There is no expectation.

Finding Balance

Well now I’m a studio owner, and I’m at my studio all the time. I practice six times a week, although I don’t need six classes a week to stay healthy. Since it is my business I want to see my people, socialize, take class, and mentor teachers. So I am there practicing almost every day.

For me, three classes a week is the magic number. If you do more than three a week, you will get all of the benefits. If you do under three, you will maintain what you have and make incremental improvements. But when you need to heal, the more you come, the better it is.

I’m a very lean person, so I have to be more conscious about staying hydrated. For someone with my body type, if they aren’t conscious and practice too much without hydrating, they could become dehydrated and could exacerbate symptoms.

You have to find the right balance though. You need to practice enough to get the benefits but not so much that you can’t stay hydrated, or that you get stressed out about it, because that is counterproductive. At my studio we don’t do 30-day challenges; we do a 20-classes-in-30-days challenge, so there are built-in breaks.

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The way that I was taught to do it by Diane is when you have something that is really acute, you need to come in six days a week until you find some sort of resolution. And then after that, you can have your maintenance practice of three times a week or so.

For me, if I don’t practice for a week, I can feel pain and symptoms coming back in my back and in my stomach.

Bikram Yoga is now medicine for me. Some people take pills. Some people take yoga. At first it was like boot camp, because I needed to change so many things about my mind and my body and my emotions. But now it is sustainable, so I can maintain what I have, and the symptoms stay dormant.

I also know that sometimes in my life my back is going to hurt, and at some time in my life I’m going to have a flare up in my digestive symptoms. But when I look at the whole long-term big picture and accept that, I also know that I have my yoga practice to be able to get my health back. When I’m symptom-free I want to maintain that, so I always try to keep my practice regular.

Another example of the big picture is that I have a bad knee right now, a torn meniscus. When things like this come up, I want to be in class five times a day doing just one percent of the postures, because I know that’s where the benefit is.

What’s cool though is that the compound effect makes a huge difference.

The improvements in circulation, strength, and stress relief are accumulative—the class that I take today is the result of every class I have ever taken. It just keeps building upon itself.

These days I don’t have to do six classes in a row because I have so much interest in the bank. I can jump back in, and my body knows what it needs to do to heal.

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Progress

For me, the Crohn’s Disease was about fifty percent what I ate and about fifty percent stress and emotion. If the IRS called up, my stomach would kill and I would have a big flare up.

It is a bodily response. Just like if Sandra Bullock walked into my studio, I would have goose bumps, and my body would react!

One thing I have been

thinking about since you

contacted me was the

connection between

autoimmune disease and

Bikram Yoga. With

autoimmune disease—

and Crohn’s disease in

my case—I always felt

that this was my own

body creating a condition

that didn’t otherwise

exist.

Nobody stabbed me with

a knife. Nobody did something to me. It was like I was stabbing myself somehow. My body just didn’t get it, and it is creating this thing, this unneeded inflammation. It is unnecessary, but my body didn’t know how to respond correctly.

So then Bikram Yoga also seems to be creating some thing. But a different kind of thing. It is teaching my body a new way to respond. Almost like a different immune ability.

In the past, and if I have a flare up now, my body would create this reaction internally to some external situation (stress, etc.).

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And in yoga, all the things we work on—like self-control, concentration, faith, patience, determination—these are creating a different state within my body. These states are equally valid to the body, because they are creating a different emotional state and different bodily response to stresses. I think this is a big part of how this changes the autoimmune response. So class is like the Bikram Yoga force field.

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Chapter 3

Name: Leslie, age 59

Location: Broederstroom, South Africa

Diagnosis: Hashimoto’s Thyroid Disease and Rheumatoid Arthritis

History of Illness and

Diagnoses

The arthritis probably started when I

was about twelve years old,

although I wasn’t diagnosed until

recently. I had always had achiness

in my knees, joints, and hips, but

since I was so active as a kid, I think

that my activities would sort of work

out the pain. I was a cheerleader

and gymnast, and I rode my bike a

lot.

I was only diagnosed with

rheumatoid arthritis (and Ankylosing

Spondyloarthritis) about five or six years ago—when I was in my mid-fifties.

When I was around 30, shortly after my daughter was born, I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid. My hair was falling out, and I was tired all the time. After testing my thyroid, they gave me Eltroxin. It worked for the symptoms, and I’ve been taking it ever since.

With the Hashimoto’s specifically, I think I’ve been having symptoms my whole life, but I was only diagnosed about three or four years ago.

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Personal History and First Impressions of Yoga I was raised in Chicago, moved to Los Angeles in 1981, lived in Italy and Los Angeles from 1985-1995, lived in the US exclusively from 1995-1997, and then moved to South Africa in 1997 (where I currently live).

When I was growing up in Chicago, there was a show on PBS called “Lilias, Yoga and You” that I used to do. I had dislocated my knee several times as a kid, so I was in casts a lot. But I could watch this show and do some yoga.

I still remember this one time that police came to my school in Chicago in order to try to scare us away from drugs and cults. And as part of their presentation they showed a photo of people doing yoga.

Finding Bikram Yoga Without Knowing It

In 1981, when I was in my early twenties, I moved to Los Angeles. That was the day when everyone—myself included—was doing aerobics, but I do remember that yoga studios were starting to pop up.

In 1985, I moved to Italy. I lived on a farm outside Tuscany and there were no gyms anywhere. I would ride my bike and walk, but there was nothing else—no aerobics or anything, none of the things I used to do to be active. I had a few Jane Fonda VHS tapes, but we didn’t have a TV or anything so I had to find a way to keep fit.

The one thing I happened to have was this Raquel Welch book5 where she explained a series of yoga postures and had photos of each of them. I thought, “Wow, if Raquel Welch looks like this and is so old, then wow.” I used to do cheerleading and stuff, so I figured I would be able to teach myself these exercises out of the book. If you can believe this, I read the posture instructions from the Raquel Welch book into a cassette tape recorder!

5The book Raquel: The Raquel Welch Total Beauty and Fitness Program by Raquel Welch was published in 1984. In 1985 Bikram Choudhury sued her (for stealing his 26 hatha-yoga postures sequence that he developed) and won.

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Teaching myself by listening and practicing to my own homemade cassette tapes—that was my first real impression of yoga. And it was just brilliant. I loved the series in her book.

Raquel had added a few things but basically I had my own recording of the Bikram Yoga class. I was just doing the yoga there in my house in Italy with the book and the cassette tapes I had made.

I would often go back to LA and take some yoga class, but they were never as good as what I was doing. At that time I didn’t know that Bikram Choudhury was in California, or that Bikram Yoga even existed there.

Raquel Welch had mentioned Bikram Choudhury in the front of her book, but she really made it sound like it was her own series.

Anyways, back in Italy, I found that if I would do the yoga everyday to my own voice recording, I would always feel way better. So I just carried on with it.

Then there was a period where I didn’t do it anymore—I had two babies, and I kind of let it go.

I remember that my arthritis was getting worse and worse at that time when I wasn’t doing yoga.

Bikram Yoga Take Two

In 1997, I moved to Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2004 an official Bikram Yoga studio opened in Johannesburg, and that was when I actually did my first hot class. I was used to doing it myself at home. My first thought was,

“Why do you have to have it so damn hot?”

But I started practicing there, and with the heat plus the postures, I was instantly a lot better. My arthritis and pain noticeably improved. I just kept up with the practice and kept going until I went to teacher training in 2013.

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The studio owner liked it really hot, and it took me a while to get my head around the heat. One of the teachers was a bit strict and mean. I think that was the height of a certain attitude among some Bikram teachers that they should make it as hard as possible.

Pushing people when they were really uncomfortable I didn’t like so much.

But one thing I

really liked

about Bikram

Yoga was the

whole

community.

Staying focused

and having the

full 90-minute

meditation

was—and is—so

good. I really loved it and still do. I wish there was more. It seems to be falling apart a bit.

Bikram Yoga and My Autoimmune Symptoms

I don’t know if you can really put a percentage on it, but if I had to, I would say that the relief of my symptoms is about seventy-five percent diet-related and twenty-five percent yoga-related. I know Bikram Choudhury didn’t care about diet, but even Raquel Welch in her book said that your body is like a Ferrari—if you put crummy fuel in it, it is going to have a negative effect. And that was back in 1984.

In the years before I went to Bikram’s training, I was doing the yoga regularly, but I was gradually getting more stiff. At that time I still didn’t even know I had rheumatoid arthritis. So I was doing more yoga to deal with the arthritis, even though it was not yet diagnosed.

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I was practicing probably five times a week at that time, and it always made me feel better. I just noticed that my overall stiffness was increasing.

Finally, in 2013 or 2014 (after Bikram Yoga Teacher Training) my doctor diagnosed me with rheumatoid arthritis. She prescribed methotrexate, tramadol, and several pain killers. The methotrexate did help, and I carried on with the Bikram Yoga practice. The heat and the Bikram were definitely helping my symptoms to go away, but the pain would still come back.

The thing that worked—starting three years ago—was I decided to do a vegan diet. I found that the vegan diet actually gets deeper to the cause of autoimmune disease. I was influenced by Forks over Knives, and I went on and got my plant-based nutrition certificate from Cornell with Dr. T. Colin Campbell. I focused my studies on vegan diets and autoimmune issues.

I think that Bikram Yoga can bring tremendous healing to the body, as well as relief from the symptoms of autoimmune disease, but I do believe the root cause of autoimmune disease is an inability to digest animal protein.

So for me to completely resolve my autoimmune issues, I need to do the vegan diet as well as Bikram Yoga. When I have gone to a party and eaten something with cheese in it, then I can feel it.

Family Matters

My daughter also has Hashimoto’s and takes thyroid medication. She has suffered from bipolar disorder as well; I actually think it is an autoimmune-related problem. Autoimmune disease attacks different things, but I think hers was attacking the brain.

My daughter became vegan for ethical reasons, and ever since then she has never had another bipolar episode. She is off all her medications now that she is vegan. She just looks amazing, back like she used to be before all the drugs and the doctors.

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My Diet

When I went to Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in 2013, I knew I was going to be practicing twice a day, five days a week—and once on Saturdays—for nine weeks straight. I thought the two-a-days at training would help me, but it was actually too much. I did it, but I had to get medical help a few times. I was 54 at the time, but I wanted to keep doing it because I’m a bit of an ambitious yogi. I followed the dialogue as hard as I could. I’m 59 now, and at a certain age I had to learn how to back off.

When I was at training, I was actually doing the Paleo diet. It was absolutely the worst thing for anyone with autoimmune disease. I would do the yoga, which would make me feel great. But then I would go eat bacon and eggs and feel terrible again by 3:30 p.m. Then I’d go back for the 5 p.m. class and I’d feel great again … and then eat meat for dinner and feel bad again.

For me the biggest thing is that Bikram Yoga helps a lot, but the rest of the solution is not to eat animal protein. Even if I just eat a tiny amount, I can feel it in my shoulder the next day. I actually got to a point where I had a frozen shoulder. I also had knee pain so bad that I couldn't walk down stairs without clutching. Then when I went vegan, it just kind of turned around.

When I get into the yoga room, I feel better, so I want to force myself to go.

Since I started the vegan diet, I don’t take the methotrexate anymore, and I don’t take any more painkillers either. I’ve been on the thyroid medication for almost thirty years, and I don’t think my thyroid is going to come back at this stage, so I keep taking that medication.

Practice Frequency, Balance, and Other Yoga

I have a little studio at home with heaters. I am on a farm in rural South Africa and a little isolated, so I just have a little group here. To get to the nearest studio to teach, it is about an hour drive each way.

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Since training, I would say my minimum Bikram practice is three times a week and my max is five times a week. I’ve done some 30-day challenges as well. At some point I probably taught six classes a week.

I would say the best average for me is to practice four times a week. Good maintenance is three a week.

I also do Kundalini yoga everyday. The one thing that Bikram Yoga was lacking was this thing called the spine flex. I have really bad scoliosis now from this arthritis that I didn’t know I had. In the Kundalini practice, there is a posture called spine flex. It is like a balm, and I have to do that everyday—

it helps a lot. I teach both Bikram and Kundalini in my little studio. I find relief from both in different ways.

The actual holding of the 26 postures in Bikram Yoga affects all of the joints, glands, muscles, and endocrine system systematically, as you proceed through the practice in the proper order. The Savasanas (rests) allow the body time to take the oxygen to the diseased or scarred areas and remove the CO2 from the body, releasing the body of the diseased carbon tissue.

This is why I prefer Bikram Yoga for healing.

Breaks from Bikram Yoga

If I take a break from Bikram Yoga, my joints start to freeze up. If I don’t do anything because I’m on holiday or I’m drinking wine or whatever, I can start to feel my body cramping up.

After a break, when I need to get back to normal functioning, I go back to the actual Bikram Yoga studio, because my little studio doesn’t get hot enough. The heat of the room really facilitates movement in my joints, resulting in a tremendous amount of pain reduction at the end of the 90

minutes.

At the studio I can actually feel the heat itself opening up my joints and allowing the energy to flow through. So then doing the postures on top of having the heat—there is a super effect.

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Barriers to Practicing Bikram Yoga I think most people are resistant to the heat. Scared of the heat.

I know autoimmune disease is terrible, and I also know that Bikram Yoga and a vegan diet helps a hell of a lot.

Even just sitting in the hot room can help a lot. And then when you move a little bit in the hot room, that makes such a difference.

There was a period of time when I would often wake up with a frozen shoulder, and it was bad enough that I would have to have my daughter come and drive my boys to school. I couldn’t drive my car because I couldn’t even turn the steering wheel. But then I would go to yoga and it would feel better. So even in that state—after waking up with so much pain—you can be in the hot room and work it out.

Lifelong Healing with Bikram Yoga

I had a hip replacement and I was back on the mat in Bikram Yoga in two weeks. I have had quite a few injuries and surgeries along the way, so it is not just my arthritis. I have a lot of experience practicing with injuries. It can be done and people should do it. If not for Bikram Yoga, I would still be just sitting there and unable to bend my knee past 90 degrees.

In 2008, I fell on a step and I was in a wheelchair for a few months. About six months after the accident I was able to come back to class. When I started back up, I practiced 3-5 times per week, and at that rate it took me an entire year of practice to sit Japanese style6. For quite a while, I would have to support myself with my fingers to very gently get into that position.

Then I was in a car accident and I was hit in the right knee and had to have reconstructive knee surgery. The doctors told me I was always going to 6 Japanese style is pictured on page 161

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have a limp or use a cane, but I’m fine. I can’t really hike anymore but I’m fine.

I have to be really careful with my back in the Standing Head to Knee7

because of my scoliosis. Certain people have difficulty going far into specific postures, but it is all doable to some extent.

That’s the thing I like about Bikram specifically. The specific 26 postures are doable for everybody. Even Standing Head to Knee Pose, which is such a challenge! Even after these injuries and surgeries, I can still do it somewhat.

I can get my elbows below my calf muscles—but I have to go super slow and be focused. I have to be gentle, but that is always an option if you are injured or in pain.

7 Standing Head to Knee Pose is pictured on pages 162-163

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Chapter 4

Name: Cindy, age 49

Location: Sacramento, California, USA

Diagnosis: Type 1 Diabetes

Getting Diagnosed

I was sick a lot as a kid and I was on antibiotics a ton as a result. I got pneumonia like every other year until I was thirteen, and I got strep throat at least twice every year (if not three or four times!). I almost died of influenza when I was three. I didn’t have a great immune system, even as a child, but the doctors never suggested an autoimmune issue.

When I was seventeen, there

was this period of time when I

was really tired a lot and fairly

lethargic. My mom (who was a

nurse at the time) noticed that I

was really slow to heal from

getting my wisdom teeth

removed. Besides that, I was

drinking a lot of water but

seemed to have an

unquenchable thirst. And then I

also started losing some weight

for unknown reasons.

So my mom picked up on all of this and was kind of concerned, so she talked to one of the doctors at work and asked them to order a lab test. I got to go into the lab without seeing a doctor first, and I had the blood work done. My fasting blood sugars were over 400 at the time, and normal is 70-120. So they were kind of high! So at that point I was finally diagnosed with type I diabetes.

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I think it was that same day that I was sent over to an endocrinologist in town and put on an insulin shot regimen. He had me give myself my first shot. I remember that appointment so well because he told me to act like I was throwing a dart at my leg.

I thought, “Well that’s not normal! I don’t typically want to throw darts at myself … but ok.”

Progressing

When I was a junior in college, I struggled a bit to keep my blood sugar down in the “ideal” range with just an insulin regimen. I ended up transferring home and taking some outpatient workshops to help me with healthy eating and managing my diabetes.

I was eventually put on an insulin pump and that helped a lot with my insulin levels, especially in the morning. The pump allows you to program changes to the insulin levels every hour if needed.

Food and Exercise with an Insulin Pump

I had managed with insulin shots for a long time, but when I was 31 I finally got my first insulin pump. It was the same year I got married. And then I had kids a few years after that.

The thing that is great about the pump is it gives you a lot more freedom and flexibility in terms of when you eat—and even how much you eat. Prior to going on the pump I could have never skipped a meal, nor had a really big meal and then not eaten later. I do think it is healthier to have moderate sized meals throughout the day, but the pump has given me more freedom to skip or delay meals if I want.

Exercise prior to being on the pump? Well, even if my blood sugars were in a decent range, I would need to have a snack right before exercising to keep them from crashing during a workout.

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On the insulin pump? Now if my blood sugars are in a certain range before I exercise, I can now turn my pump down or off and then go exercise.

Bikram Yoga With an Insulin Pump

So I started Bikram Yoga around 2008 because I had gotten a knee injury from running. I had done a few Bikram classes here and there before that, but my doctor told me I had to stop running. So that led me to go back to Bikram, because nothing else felt quite the same. Plus, because of my diabetes, I knew that the consistency would help me a lot.

I have also struggled with depression, and it has always gotten worse when I stop exercising. So I was wanting to prevent that from happening.

When I committed to doing Bikram, the biggest thing for me regarding my diabetes was how I was going to deal with my insulin. With a pump it is definitely easier because you can turn the pump down (or off) during exercise and then go back to monitoring it without having high spikes or lows. So that was a benefit to having a pump.

However, extreme temperatures can make insulin go bad. So at the time when I was consistently practicing Bikram Yoga (four to five times a week), I knew practicing that often could make my insulin go bad. So I decided to disconnect the pump pretty much every time I went into the hot room.

Prior to going into class I would test my blood sugars. Depending on where they were, I would usually disconnect. Then after the class I would reconnect and make any adjustments needed.

It was very rare that it was too low for me to do class. The times where it was really low, I would just need a little snack before class.

First Impressions

When I first started Bikram classes, I definitely thought it was hard. There were times when the heat would get to me and I really wanted to leave the 50

room. The mindset of thinking, “This is too much,” was there. But it was a good practice to work on controlling my focus and breathing, realizing it is okay to just be present in the room. Once I started practicing consistently that anxiety got much easier to deal with.

One instructor told me to stop wiping the sweat off myself so much, which is just so contrary to what we feel like doing. It was amazing to learn to let my body sweat like that, to let the sweat help your body to cool down, and just be ok with it.

I had some nausea at the beginning and I heard that was typical. And that got better.

People can tell you about these things—the struggles when you start Bikram Yoga, and then how it all changes—but it doesn’t mean as much until you experience them yourself.

Effects of Class on My Blood Sugar

Pretty soon into my practice, I started to notice that often times when I came out of the hot room not only were my blood sugars pretty normal, but I found that the effects of the class would keep working in my body for several hours after class was over.

So I would try not to adjust anything with my insulin pump, because I didn’t want to overcorrect.

I was amazed that Bikram Yoga helped regulate my blood sugars for more than just the time that I was in the hot room. It helped for hours after the class was over!

It was totally different from running or other intense cardio workouts.

The blood test that measures your overall blood sugars is called A1C; when I was swimming or doing Bikram Yoga regularly, I would see my numbers 51

drop without a lot of extra effort. But it was definitely introducing Bikram into my life that helped a lot.

Then vs. Now

I’m not currently practicing Bikram because I started working full time, and I have kids … and life is busy. But I’d really like to start practicing again on a semi-consistent level because it makes my overall health, my knee issues, and so many other things feel better. Even just talking or thinking about it, I know I should probably go back to the hot room.

“Side Effects” of Bikram vs. No Bikram

Sleep was easier when I was practicing Bikram. And sleep is very important for those with type I diabetes.

It also helped me tolerate temperatures and the outdoor heat in Sacramento.

The flexibility I gained was remarkable, and that is probably what I miss the most. Mainly in my legs and my hip flexors. My left knee doesn't have any cartilage in it, and since I haven't been in the hot room in a while my one knee won’t bend all the way.

And right now my hip flexors are so tight that I can’t sit cross-legged. I also have a shoulder injury from a frozen shoulder I had years ago. It was doing much better when I was in the hot room on a regular basis.

I felt like I had more consistent energy when I was practicing Bikram regularly. I wasn’t tired all the time. I could stay focused on things. The practice of emptying your mind and not having to think about things while you are in the hot room was a really helpful and good practice.

I had struggled with depression back in my late 20s and then again around the time when I stopped doing Bikram. I had overcommitted my life to too many things, and I let Bikram fall out of my life. That really was detrimental.

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I ended up being hospitalized with another depressive episode. I really think Bikram Yoga had helped me manage that well—maybe because the physical activity releases the endorphins and allows so many good things to happen.

Some people can be busy all the time and not suffer for it. But I am not one of those people. I have learned that I suffer greatly when I try to do too much. My first depressive episode came about six months after I had trained and run a marathon. The second episode happened after I was overworked, had stopped practicing Bikram Yoga, and had stopped taking a few medications. I didn’t realize how much the yoga was helping me manage.

Currently

I was the first to be diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in my extended family. Since then, though, I have had cousins on both sides of my family diagnosed with type I diabetes. And my sister has been diagnosed with a few things, including rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid issues. I also have thyroid issues, and the doctors go back and forth thinking that it is connected to my autoimmune issues.

I haven’t been officially diagnosed with celiac disease, but I definitely have an immune response to gluten. I did the Alcat screening test (measures food sensitivities linked to inflammation and chronic activation of the immune system) about ten years ago. That helped identify foods that I have a strong negative response to. I am gluten free. I have removed dairy from my diet, but I do eat animal protein. I feel like I follow more of a Keto diet (which is low carbohydrates). This way my blood sugars are easier to manage, and my digestive issues are almost nonexistent.

Lately—although I know I want to get back to Bikram Yoga—I’ve been doing some vinyasa yoga at my local gym, walking, and doing some swimming.

The challenge with Bikram is trying to make it happen with a busy life.

Trying to find 90 minutes can be hard, but I know it will be worth it. Doing yoga in a regular room at a gym is nice, but I haven’t had the gains that I had with doing Bikram Yoga in the hot room.

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With Bikram Yoga, I felt like I was really starting to help myself overcome some of my ailments, but it was one of those situations where I was working a lot, decided to go back to school, plus I was working to manage life with two young kids. Bikram Yoga was the thing that got dropped, but I should go back.

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Chapter 5

Name: Kathy, age 61

Location: DeWitt, Michigan, USA

Diagnosis: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)

Pre-Diagnosis - My History of Movement and RA Symptoms I think I was undiagnosed for a very long time, but I definitely had symptoms. My hands, elbows, and hips seemed to be the worst. Even as a child, if I would lean forward and rest on my arms in my bed, I would have to struggle to straighten my elbows back out. I thought that was strange, but I had my well-checks with my doctor, and he didn’t seem to be concerned about that. I was a very active child and teenager.

During college I took the required amount of physical education credits.

One of those classes was a physical fitness class. One of the requirements was to walk a mile in twelve minutes. I had never done that before! While we were walking, we had to do a lot

of swinging our arms forward and

back, and at a certain point, I thought,

“Why don’t I just run? I’ll get it done

faster!” So I started running, and I fell

in love with the feeling that it gave

me.

At that time, I never seemed to have

problems or pain in my joints. I just

kept running. My running friends and

I ran thirty miles per week and

participated in many 10Ks, which was

the usual distance for road races in

the 1980s.

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For the first ten years of running, I suffered shin splints and a few stress fractures, yet I don’t recall any joint pain. The joys of parenting entered the picture which required taking a break from running. I managed to stay very active, attending aerobics classes and walking. Previously my husband and I had always run together. Although I missed that time together, I knew we’d both get back at it as our children grew older. He pursued bicycle riding and enjoyed it very much. We took many family bike rides and especially liked riding in Manistee National Forest during summer camping trips. Although I didn’t think very much of it at the time, I experienced elbow and hip discomfort after riding. I chalked it up to the physical demands of life while raising my children.

As our children grew more independent, my husband and I gradually returned to running. The town we live in is somewhat hilly, so those enjoying running, walking, and bicycling are typically going uphill or downhill. We live about two miles from the local coffee shop, so we would run there, get something to drink, and then either walk back home or run a little more.

There was this one particular time in 2004 while we were running, and I felt a very uncomfortable sensation in my right hip joint. We were going downhill out of our subdivision, and we had just crossed the main road. All of a sudden, I said to my husband, “I have to stop.” My right hip hurt so badly. I just couldn’t go any further.

He asked if I wanted him to go back and get the car, but I said I thought I could make it. So I started to walk, but I just couldn’t do it. The pain was excruciating. All I could think was, “What did I do wrong?”

I experienced other little tweaks over the years and thought at the time that maybe it was my shoes. So I tried orthotics, and I was wearing Dansko shoes most of the time at work. I was doing everything I thought was right—not knowing that my body had something wrong with it.

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My job kept me on my feet most of the day. I taught middle school for most of those years and the last ten years were spent at the high school level.

The classes I taught were very “hands-on” which kept me moving from group to group, individual to individual.

Previous to the 2000s, I had been healthy and was normally fine if the students in my classroom were sick. But just prior to my injuries in 2004-2005, I noticed that if one of my students sneezed really close to me, I would have pink eye within the next few days. My body wasn’t fighting it off.

There were a few times that I probably did not have pink eye. I would wake up in the morning and my eye would be quite red and blood-shot. Later in the day, my eye would return to normal. Looking back, I think it could have been the greater presentation of the autoimmune problems.

Within a period of six months, I received treatment for pink eye four times.

At that point, my doctor suspected that something else was going on.

Getting Diagnosed

In early spring of 2006, I had another hip injury, attended physical therapy, and felt good about slowly returning to running. The redness in my eyes continued and my physician was showing more concern. She knew something was going on, but she didn’t want me on antibiotics again which was just fine by me.

Several years previously, I had been diagnosed with periodontal disease and had been put on antibiotics for two straight years. Eventually my periodontist decided the antibiotic treatment was not working. Although I was on a very low dose antibiotic, I had concerns that the use of long term antibiotics may have caused some issues with my body.

So later in spring 2006, I had some blood work done and the RA factor in my blood was very high. My primary care physician called me the next day and 58

said I needed to see her that day. I did so and was referred to a rheumatologist shortly thereafter.

I went to the rheumatologist thinking that I would be in and out with more instructions; but after an hour and a half he ordered tests for lupus, Sjogren’s, and other autoimmune illnesses. I was sitting there stunned. I was knitting a pair of socks as I was waiting during the pauses of the appointment, and I remember thinking, “My elbows really hurt.”

My physician confirmed an RA diagnosis and began the long explanation of how my body was attacking itself. He listed many activities I needed to relinquish, paused, and said (about my knitting), “You are probably going to have to stop doing that.”

I replied: “You just took away my running. You just took away my knitting.

Can I still walk distances and if so, what length?”

He said that I would absolutely have to walk everyday. It was very important for me to continue exercising.

I left the office with multiple prescriptions, exercise sheets, lists of foods to avoid, and lists of foods to increase in my diet. I got in my car and cried.

Recommendations for Treatment

My rheumatologist wanted me to be healed as much as I could with food. I really liked him for having that approach. He also had a good sense of humor which made going to appointments less dreadful.

What he didn’t tell me was how sick I was going to get from the medication (Plaquenil). I think it was the cocktail of medicine that made me feel so sick; I had to go on Plaquenil and Mobic. Once I started the RA medications I had six months of nausea with very little relief. I was just so weak and had lost nearly ten pounds. It took many phone calls and visits to his office to try to fine tune everything in addition to treating the new symptom of insomnia. I was so frustrated!

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He said it would take a good three to six months to get an accumulation of medicine in my bloodstream and maintain its presence. I also take medicine to regulate blood pressure, thyroid, and cholesterol.

At another follow-up appointment, I explained to the doctor how defeated I felt which was accompanied by many embarrassing tears. He told me my symptoms were completely normal and encouraged me to try Cymbalta. So now I had two more meds to add to the cocktail and was quite concerned with more unpleasant side effects.

I reluctantly began taking the Cymbalta which resulted in some unexpected symptoms of a prickly sensation in my hands and feet. It was awful, I was so nauseous, and I just couldn’t do it. I often thought, “I just want to eat and live my life feeling good again!” So I was slowly weaned off of the Cymbalta dosage for depression, and I just stayed on the lowest dose for pain management.

Once the “cocktail” of medications was right, I slowly began feeling normal again. Oh! What a relief!

Attempts at Self-Treatment

In my own research, I learned that RA is not just in the body’s joints; it can affect any system in the body. I recalled that I’d frequently have stomach aches.

In the course of my own exploration, I was watching a television show whose topic was celiac symptoms, and I realized that I had 9 out of 10 of the symptoms! After much thought and research, I decided to eliminate gluten from my diet for at least one week. I figured it couldn’t be problematic as long as I replaced the missing micro and macro nutrients with those found in vegetables and fruit. I had already greatly reduced red meat from my diet per my physician’s recommendation. It seems meat causes inflammation in the body.

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Within a week, I couldn’t believe how much better I felt! It was so dramatic a difference—so much so that if there is a food, or other item, that has gluten in it, I will fast before putting it in my body!

This choice was not on my doctor’s recommendation, but I did inform my primary care doctor that I was doing it and would report my results in an upcoming physical.

During one of my RA check-ups, I saw a different physician. She completely put down my attempts at self-treatment by eliminating gluten. She said I couldn’t know if I had celiac unless I chose to have a biopsy of my small intestine.

But what I do know is how much better I feel. If there is cross-contamination with gluten, I am doubled over in pain. It is a stabbing pain, about an inch below my belly button.

At one point I was told if I really wanted to know if I had celiac, I could go back to eating wheat and other grains containing gluten for 3-6 months and then have a biopsy. I decided not to get the biopsy; it wasn’t worth the pain of starting to eat those things again.

Bikram Yoga Showed Up

Over the years, I would always ask my RA doctor if I could start running again. He would always say no—and he even said he would never say yes!—

but he would also remind me of the other things I had been able to do. I got back into sewing, reading many more books, and other hobbies that I enjoyed.

After my 2006 diagnosis, walking and easy hiking were my only physical activities, other than the usual house chores and playing with my grandkids.

About two years ago (in 2016) I was playing chase with my grandson, and I slid on some really hard dirt. I landed right on my buns, but I got up and said to myself: “Shake it off and you will be fine.” But after that was when 61

the sciatica pain showed up. It was bad—tremendous pain that shot down my leg to my foot.

So in the summer of 2017—right after I retired from teaching—I got into physical therapy. At one point, the subject of yoga came up, and my physical therapist said that there was one therapeutic yoga place I should try. I started looking up yoga studios. I have to say that when I saw the phrase “hot yoga” I didn’t think I could do that, especially not with my blood pressure issues.

At a hair appointment my hair stylist, who knew what I’d been going through physically, suggested Bikram Yoga. She and her husband were going to the upcoming Sunday night class which allowed me some time to research the local Bikram Yoga studio website to educate myself. I decided to go along with them.

Previously, I had asked my RA doctor if I could try yoga. He said I could, but that I needed to be very mindful and careful. He specifically told me to go somewhere where the instructors have a vast knowledge of the human body and postures.

So this is where I was just before I started Bikram Yoga. In ongoing pain from sciatica, and still—after twelve years of not running—wishing I could run.

First Class Recollections

My first Bikram Yoga class was rough!

Although—thank goodness—I knew from being a runner that I needed to be hydrated ahead of time.

At one point I remember thinking, “There’s more? Haven’t we already done enough?”

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I had no concept of time because I was concentrating so much on the instructional words. I do remember thinking, “I know I can’t do this! Not on a regular basis. Maybe two classes a week.”

When we were in Standing Head to Knee Pose8, I remember thinking: “Who could possibly do this? I am so embarrassed!”

But I kept listening to the teacher. She had us so focused, and she kept saying how we would improve with a regular practice.

I got home from my first class, and I was still beet red in the face. My husband asked me how it went and if I thought I was going to go back. I remember telling him that it was really hard, but in some strange way I really liked it. And I was absolutely going back.

The feeling was so good—like I just did something really good for my body and I got to be physical in order to do it. It reminded me of running, in the sense that I was never competing with other people but instead I was just trying to become better. I felt I had done something good for my body and good for my brain!

Progress

Soon after I took that first Bikram Yoga class, I received a call from my former principal asking me to be a long-term substitute in the classroom in which I had taught. I had retired the previous June and was settling into retirement. I accepted the job and it kept me from going to yoga, but I knew I would return as soon as I could.

When my substitute position was finished the holidays were here, and my now adult children gifted me the first month’s Bikram Yoga membership for Christmas. So I started what grew into a regular practice.

8 Standing Head to Knee Pose is pictured on pages 162-163

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My family has been so supportive, I get choked up just thinking about it. My husband can see when I have pain and he says, “You need to go to Bikram.”

If we’re on a trip, he encourages me to go as soon as we return.

Plus, once I started practicing, things started to happen that I could not believe.

One example is that after only four months of practice, I can straighten my left elbow all the way. And I hadn’t been able to do that for almost fifty years!

Remember the sciatic pain I had mentioned earlier? Well, before I started Bikram Yoga, I had been doing physical therapy. After six weeks of physical therapy, I was still having a lot of pain, and I would always have to step with my left foot first. Getting out of bed was often pretty painful.

But I have had no sciatica pain since I started practicing Bikram Yoga regularly four months ago. I can get out of bed without any pain, and I can step on either foot first.

Why Did I Keep Going to Bikram?

So many parts of my body feel better thanks to my teacher, Ann, and her incredibly descriptive classroom instructions.

● My sciatica is getting better.

● My elbow range of motion is better.

● My stamina has increased.

● My focus has improved.

● I have improved posture.

● My joint pain is reduced. I use less prescription anti-inflammatory cream on my joints and muscles.

● My legs and arms have gotten so much stronger! I have even started seeing a little bit of muscle definition.

● It helps me be able to hold my granddaughter, who is a healthy twenty-two pound baby!

● My back has felt so much better.

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● My body temperature seems better overall. I am not so cold all the time.

● I have gained abdominal strength.

● I’ve made many new friends!

I can’t believe how much better my hands function! If someone had told me before I started practicing that this would have improved so dramatically, I definitely would not have believed them.

I love the specific instructions and corrections to help me practice the postures better. I am generally fearful of hurting myself, so I really appreciate the little corrections to the postures to make them safer and more beneficial.

I also love the fact that I am so focused in class. When outside thoughts enter my brain, it’s easier to chase them away or put them on pause until class is complete.

I remember when I first started practicing, I couldn’t do most of the postures others were executing with ease. I realized through conversation with others to give it time and attend class regularly. They were right, of course.

I recently went on a hiking trip with my husband, and we averaged ten miles a day of hiking and walking. So many times, I thought, THANK YOU

BIKRAM YOGA! There was no way I could have done this before.

Personal Summary

Five days a week is my ideal practice schedule, but I help take care of my Littles (grandkids), so sometimes I can only attend four classes.

The first time I attended five consecutive classes, I was pretty whipped by the last day. I figured I just needed to be more mindful of proper water hydration and electrolyte consumption. The last time I participated in five days in a row, I was much better off.

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Bikram Yoga is less costly for me than physical therapy and works so much better because every part of the body is used during the 90 minute class. I was paying a lot out-of-pocket for physical therapy, and I always did the exercises I was given, but Bikram is even better for me.

After I had practiced for a month, I was thinking, “How did I not know about Bikram? How did I not know this was out there?” I thought everyone should know!

I thought, “Well, I know a lot of people who could benefit from this yoga, so I’m not going to be shy about spreading the word.”

I last saw my RA doctor about a month before I started Bikram. He said,

“How cold are you?” I responded with the usual, “I’m freezing.” I needed to wear multiple layers and I would never expose my feet. Wool socks with Birkenstocks and all.

Bikram Yoga has really helped with my body temperature overall. I really don’t like the fact that I need to take the thyroid medication—I will continue taking my reduced dose as long as blood tests support the need. I think Bikram is doing much more for my thyroid due to the multiple throat compressions in the postures.

Reactions and Responses

When my primary care physician heard from my husband that I was practicing Bikram, she was concerned because I’m on blood pressure medicine and I shouldn’t be upside down. At each of my appointments she asks if I am still practicing and taking my blood pressure daily. I have provided her with literature about Bikram Yoga.

I have told my neighbors all about Bikram Yoga. My friend, who now practices with me, is a runner. She has her own story. She came with me to class, and she was very excited about it. I smiled and told her it would only get better.

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Chapter 6

Name: Stacy, age 39

Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Diagnosis: Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Life Before MS

Before I was diagnosed with MS I was a competitive tennis player and athlete, and I was pretty healthy growing up. I think the worst I had was mono in high school. That was it.

The first time I noticed any symptoms was in the spring of 2008, when I was 28 years old. At the time, I was preparing for a move to Florida, and I was having very strange fatigue issues. I would have these crazy fatigue attacks, but I attributed it to the packing I was doing, getting ready to move, and all of the stresses associated with that. Unfortunately, it kept getting worse.

There were many times where I would

wake up on my sofa with an entire

mouthful of food—I would literally fall

asleep in the middle of eating.

I woke up one morning, about a week

before I was set to move, and I had

hardly any vision in my right eye. I went

to the doctor that same day. He said it

was just a fluke and to just come back if

it gets any worse.

Two days later it went from bad to

worse and I literally couldn’t see at all. A different doctor at the same facility told me again it was just a fluke.

I remember saying to that primary care doctor, “Well, maybe I should go to an eye doctor.”

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The doctor’s response: “Well, I’m looking at your eye, and I don’t see anything.”

Luckily, I had recruited a friend to drive with me for the move—between the vision and the fatigue, it was a good call. I got to Florida, my friend had just left, and I was having dinner with my parents. While we were eating, I had one of those fatigue attacks. My dad said, “I don’t care what the answer is, but I want to know what you are on.”

He thought I was on drugs!

I explained, “I am not on anything. This is just happening to me.”

I proceeded to catch them up on what I had been going through in the weeks leading up to my move. My mom made me an appointment at an eye doctor.

Getting Diagnosed

At the eye exam, the doctor said, “I think we need to send you to the hospital for an MRI, so that we can rule out a brain tumor. Given your age and symptoms, I think what we probably have here is Multiple Sclerosis with optic neuritis.”

It turns out that optic neuritis, the swelling of the optic nerve that results in vision loss, is often the first presenting symptom of MS, especially in women in their twenties.

I got diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in August of 2008 when I was 28 years old. Everyone I knew was either falling in love, getting married or having children; here I was falling for no reason, getting muscle spasms I could not control, and having problems speaking (I was starting to slur my words). Life as I knew it would not be the same ever again.

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No one in my family has MS. I had heard of the condition, but never knew anything about it before my diagnosis. I recall asking the doctor, “So what am I looking at here? Do I take a pill for the rest of my life?”

The doctor said, “It is a little more complicated than that.”

Initially, I went on a trial medication called Tecfidera [which has now been approved by the FDA], but I had a horrible reaction to it. These MS

medications sometimes have side effects that are worse than the actual MS

itself. In fact, I had just started my first job as a school teacher when I had a bad reaction to the medication. The whole situation was awful.

I stayed on the trial medication for nearly two years, but I had to discontinue treatment due to the horrible side effects. My hands were swelling so much at night that I had to sleep in braces in an attempt to keep the swelling down; every morning I would wake up and immediately cry from the pain. My fingers grew about four ring sizes overnight. It was crazy what the medication was doing to me!

A specialist I saw in Boston suggested I try another, more traditional MS

medication called Copaxone, which is a daily injection. Unfortunately, I had to come off of this medication, too, due to different but still very awful side effects.

I saw several doctors over the course of several years. I would be remiss if I did not point out that no matter what symptoms I would describe (muscle issues, pain, fatigue, anxiety, problems sleeping, etc.), any remedy offered always came in pill form. Every single time.

I think for the first seven years of my diagnosis, I spent the majority of time in bed—not doing much with my life. I was so over-medicated and just not myself. I was a shell of my former self for way too long.

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Hoping for a Change

Near the end of 2012, my parents decided to reverse retire and moved from Florida back to Chicago, where they had first met and had me. Still in no shape to take care of myself, I went with them. Now, I’m not a parent, so I’ve only heard about the kind of love that parents have for their children. How these two incredible humans managed to deal with me in the state I was in— AND love me through it … I have no words. I am simply, forever grateful.

In 2015, following the sudden death of an old love and in dire need of a change, I moved overseas. Initially, things seemed to be going well, but eventually I started having new symptoms, indicative of a relapse.

It was very difficult navigating the health system in a different language. I became so frustrated and so sick, that after seven months I decided to move back to Florida to be near my neurologist.

When I arrived for my visit with my Florida neurologist, I had to wait two and a half hours to see her. I finally saw my doctor and started to explain the symptoms I was having. After twenty minutes, she just said, “I’m sorry, but I have other patients I need to see.” She proceeded to give me prescriptions for several heavy duty medications and sent me on my way. I was so infuriated that I ripped up the scripts and said to myself, “I’m done with the doctors, I’m done with MS, I’m done with it all!”

I was angry. I was frustrated. I was depressed. I felt hopeless. I was at a dead end.

Two days after that appointment, I wound up taking the wrong medication when I was in a fatigued state. I was in a coma and on a ventilator for about thirty-six hours.

This incident ended up being the best thing that happened! When I woke up, I was clear-headed for the first time in a very long time. I was done with 71

all that medication. I was even done smoking cigarettes (yet another bad habit I had picked up along the way). And it only got better after that.

Now I have a completely new medical team, and I am currently only on one medication to treat my MS, an infusion called Tysabri. The only other thing I use to medicate myself is cannabis, and it is by far the most effective medicine to manage my MS Symptoms. Then, of course, there is the added bonus of the fact that it does not cloud my mind, fatigue me, or worsen any of my other symptoms.

While cannabis helps, the biggest thing that has truly saved my life—and has also given me quality of life—is Bikram Yoga.

Starting Bikram Yoga

I had tried Bikram Yoga back in 2011 but didn’t stick with it. When I returned to Chicago in 2016, I started taking drop-in classes here and there.

But in 2017 I finally became serious about Bikram Yoga; from that point forward, it has truly healed me in so many ways.

Honestly, I initially went back because I had put on a little weight. Also, my MS had progressed to the point where I couldn’t run anymore, and I had to find an exercise I could do. So, I started to go to Bikram three or four times a week. Shortly thereafter, I signed up for unlimited classes.

I used to always go to the back of the room, so I could use the wall to help with my balance. Then I noticed my balance getting better. I didn’t need the wall. I noticed if I went to the front of the room near the mirror, I could see better and it seemed like that was helping me balance even better.

I kept noticing that things were starting to improve. The days I took off from yoga just were becoming my “off days”; I speculate that anyone who has battled a chronic illness knows exactly what these “off days” are like. It became crystal clear to me that Bikram Yoga was my pathway back to a healthy body and renewed spirit. It was and still is my physical therapy, my cognitive therapy, and just plain therapy for the soul.

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Progress with MS

I saw my neurologist right before I started doing Bikram regularly in 2017. I was super wobbly. My lesions are mainly on my brain, and I also have at least one on my spine. My current doctor is at Northwestern and he is wonderful.

I told my doctor that I started to practice Bikram Yoga, and he said, “If you are going to do that, then I need you to do a cold shower afterwards to cool down. We don’t want you to overheat.”

I said, “Deal! I can do that.”

Six months later, I showed him some pictures that someone had taken of me at Bikram to show my progress.

When he saw the photos, he said, “This is hands down the best thing you can be doing for yourself.” I should note that he has not mentioned the cool-down shower since.

Listening to My Body

I have heard people say not to mix heat and Multiple Sclerosis, but the most important thing that doctors told me was to listen to my body.

And my body tells me that it feels good to practice Bikram Yoga.

My body is telling me I need that hot room. The hot room allows my muscles to open up; it feels like a safe place for my muscles. In fact, my muscles spasm in the cold, so hot is actually much better for me. I just feel great when I am in that magical room.

As long as I practice consistently, I don’t need an MRI to tell me something is off with my MS, because I am so aware of everything in my body now. If anything is off, I will immediately know. Going to Bikram Yoga consistently is almost an insurance policy that my MS will remain in remission.

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Diet

I became vegan in 2012, but when I was overseas in 2015, I added fish again to my diet. So, I guess I’m technically a pescatarian. I think I missed sushi more than anything else, but the omega oils in fish are really good for MS

so that’s another added bonus. I also try to cut gluten when I can.

Advice for others: Multiple Sclerosis and Heat

I feel like I have been through it all over the past ten years. I did everything wrong initially, so I learned the hard way what was right.

Back in 2014, I had a doctor that looked at my MRI and his response to me was, “I wouldn’t have guessed you would be walking in here. I thought you would have needed a device to assist you.”

Now I can do handstands and some days, I can even stick the final part of Standing Head to Knee Pose9, the only time in the standing series that the eye gaze changes (no small task for someone plagued with balancing issues!). While cannabis certainly helps my symptoms, I’m fairly certain that Bikram Yoga is more responsible for how well I am presently doing.

When I first got diagnosed, I would never have believed it if someone told me that Bikram Yoga would improve things. But it clearly has. I’m more optimistic than ever that I can keep this condition manageable if I just keep doing what I am doing. I truly believe that the worst days of my MS are behind me. 100 percent!

Because of the lesions and the Tysabri, I need to get scans every six months.

Since 2017 (when I started my regular Bikram Yoga practice), my MRIs have not shown any new lesions or any further progression of the disease.

I will talk to anyone about my experience. I really like to share with people the feeling I get from Bikram Yoga. For me, it is euphoric. If that makes me sound like a drug dealer on the corner pushing something, then so be it!

9Standing Head to Knee Pose is pictured on pages 162-163

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Currently

I currently do Bikram Yoga every day and even doubles when time permits.

I completed 105F’s Teacher Training in the spring of 2019 and am beyond thrilled to be

teaching this

beautiful series at

both 105F yoga

studios. I am also a

substitute teacher

at Be Yoga

Andersonville.

When I got my life

back in 2016 after

returning to the US,

so many things

seemed to be

falling into place, except for my career. But now I get to teach this yoga!

Before I got MS, I had really been passionate about a job I had had in the entertainment industry, and since then, I never thought I would love a job so much. But that has all changed. I absolutely LOVE teaching Bikram Yoga, and I look forward to every single class. I pinch myself every time I see a paycheck hit my account. I can’t believe that I get to do this for a living, and I hope I get to do it for the rest of my life!

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Chapter 7

Name: Jennifer, age 41

Location: East Lansing, Michigan, USA

Diagnosis: Lupus

Pre-Diagnosis

If you had asked me about my health history in my early 30s, I would have said very average. I suffered with a few things like seasonal allergies, sinus infections, and random viruses. I had mono as a teenager. I never had any sports injuries or accidents. My only official medical diagnosis was chronic urticaria, more commonly known as hives, that came on suddenly in 1997

when I was 21 years old. My hives were an everyday occurrence so I had been instructed by a doctor to take an antihistamine. The hives persisted, and as soon as the antihistamine wore off they would reappear. After I suffered with hives for ten years, an allergist agreed to run a detailed battery of tests and even tested me against my own blood plasma to see if I had built up an allergy to myself. But nothing showed up as a cause and I was told just to continue on with the antihistamine on a daily basis.

So fast forward a few years. I was married, I had two kids, I was a full-time wife and mom and spent many hours helping out at school and church events. It was January 2012 and we had just returned from a Christmas trip to see relatives in California. Like every holiday season, I was fighting off a bad cold that I always attributed to lack of sleep, poor diet, and added stress. One cold night I was brushing my teeth and looking in the mirror and my face was super red—very flush like I had just run a race but, in reality, I had only been on the sofa reading. As I looked closer in the mirror I noticed the unusual shape of the redness. It was across the bridge of my nose and stretched across under both of my eyes and seeped down toward my mouth. It was a distinguishable shape like a butterfly. I called my husband in to see if he noticed the redness and he did. He asked if I should go to the 76

doctor and I replied, “Why? I feel fine. I’m sure it will be gone in the morning.”

The redness was gone in the morning but reappeared a few days later, and within a week I started feeling weird. Tired, foggy thinking, couldn’t concentrate, low energy. By the next week I had sore muscles even though I hadn’t done anything. The following week fatigue set in. It was so severe.

Unexplainable. If I took a shirt out of the dryer and shook the wrinkles out, my arms felt like they were going to fall off. I couldn’t understand how I went from being super energetic to being so tired that I didn’t have the energy to drive. At one point it got so bad that I would need to build up the energy to put on my coat, and then I would need to sit and rest in order to regain enough energy to walk out to the car, and then I would need to sit and rest again before I could move my arm to put the car into reverse.

This fatigue was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was not like sleep deprivation, or pulling an all-nighter in college, or even having a colicky newborn. This was a new level of tired that felt like my bones were tired and my body was failing. It felt like my muscles were deteriorating.

I tried to self-diagnose. I didn’t have any medical background but I wasn’t afraid of a little research. I read about symptoms and pain and fibromyalgia.

I searched through webmd.com. I read a helpful book called Women and Autoimmune Disease by Robert Lahita, MD. I had heard of serious conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome. I felt like I had ruled out MS and diabetes, and when I really started to evaluate myself I was pretty confident I had lupus or lymphoma.

One thing was clear—it was time to go to the doctor.

Getting Diagnosed

I made an appointment with a primary care provider in late January 2012, and I had to drag my failing body to the doctor’s office. I remember so clearly how hard I was trying to keep it together—I felt like crying with weakness and fatigue. The doctor was very supportive and said he could tell 77

I was not in peak condition. He asked me what I thought was wrong so I told him straight up, “I think I have lupus and I’m scared I have lymphoma.”

He said, “Those are valid concerns but I think it might just be your thyroid.

Let’s try you on a thyroid medication and I’ll run some blood work to check for any red flags.”

He suggested that I go on Armour Thyroid which is a natural thyroid medicine. If it was my thyroid, I would feel better within forty-eight hours.

This was the most hopeful I had felt in a long time. I was so sick of being sick and I wanted a quick fix. Even though I was practically running on empty, I dragged myself to the pharmacy and filled the prescription and then waited and prayed that I would feel relief.

Sadly it wasn’t my thyroid. I took the medicine but my symptoms persisted.

The good news was my blood work showed healthy blood and no signs of lymphoma. At the same time, a few weird things showed up in my blood work that pointed to a likelihood of autoimmune problems. My doctor then suggested that I see a rheumatologist because my issues were outside his expertise. Unfortunately, I had to wait two months for an appointment.

While I waited to be seen, several new symptoms emerged. I became sore to the touch. My husband couldn’t even put his arm around me without me wincing. It felt like I had bruises everywhere. I had body aches. The best way I could describe the feeling to others was explaining how your body aches when you have the flu or a high fever.

Silently I kept asking myself and wondering, “What is wrong with me? Why am I not getting better? Is this all in my head?”

Some days I felt so bad that I didn’t even have the energy to read while laying on the sofa. All I could do was lay there. On better days, my mind was clear enough to read a book, but my arms were too weak to hold the book in place. It really felt like I was losing my life. “How can a person function if they don’t even have the strength to hold a book?” I thought.

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After three months of suffering I was starting to feel depressed. Plus, the symptoms were so inconsistent, I was questioning whether it was in my head. Some days I woke up feeling terrible and stayed the same throughout the day. Other days I might wake up feeling decent and then crash a few hours after getting up.

Finally the day arrived and I was headed to the rheumatology appointment.

I was told that the initial visit might take up to an hour, so I had prepared as much detailed information for the doctor as I could. When the doctor entered the room she asked me to explain my symptoms. I pulled out the typed, double-sided list I had prepared so I wouldn’t forget anything—I was so relieved to finally have a chance to be heard.

She listened to all of my symptoms and then, as she was gathering her things to walk out the door, simply said, “I’ll run a few tests, but in the meantime, you should think about your problems less.” In total, she spent about eight minutes with me.

I walked to my car and cried because I had waited two months for this appointment. I felt like she was brushing me off and thought I was crazy.

This was a very low point. I didn’t know how to move forward.

A week later I received my lab results in the mail. I got online, looked up the scores, and tried to figure things out. It showed high numbers for my DS-DNA and low numbers for my complement component C3 and C4.

Sure enough, my blood work indicated I had lupus. A few days later, the rheumatologist called me and apologized for not contacting me sooner. She had been out of town and was just reviewing lab results that had piled up on her desk. She simply said, “I just wasn’t expecting to find anything. But I’m surprised and you actually have lupus.”

I responded very naturally, “I’m not surprised at all. I won’t be returning to your office, so I’m going to find another doctor.”

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She responded, “I understand if you don’t want to see me. But please don’t ignore this. You need to be under a doctor’s care. You need to take this seriously.”

What I really wanted to say was, “No, lady, you needed to take this seriously. You made me feel like a head case. You made me feel like I was losing my mind.” But I kept my composure, said thank you, and ended the call.

At this point, I felt validated. But also scared.

This was the first time someone actually said, “You need to take this seriously.” I started reading everything I could find about lupus, treatments, side effects, life expectancy, organ involvement, and autoimmune overlap conditions (a common occurrence when a person who has one autoimmune disease can easily have multiple diseases under the autoimmune umbrella). It turns out the hives that started in 1997 were probably an autoimmune problem that had been plaguing me for seventeen years but had gone undiagnosed.

Recommendations for Treatment

The first line of defense for lupus is prednisone. Prednisone is a corticosteroid created in 1955 and used on a regular basis to suppress the immune system and decrease inflammation. After doing a considerable amount of reading and research, I had come to the conclusion that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life on steroids. Because that’s basically what doctors do—they prescribe long-term corticosteroids. You take them every day for your whole life. That is the go-to treatment for lupus.

When I went to see Rheumatologist #2, she said I needed to go on steroids.

When I said, “I don’t want to,” she replied, “Then why are you here?”

“There has to be another option. I don’t want to be on steroids for the rest of my life. The side-effects from long-term steroid use can be worse than 80

the symptoms.” Side-effects are no joke—retina degeneration, depression, fluid retention, cataracts, glaucoma, severe face swelling, muscle atrophy, ulcers, and dementia.

“I’ve read that diet can make a difference,” I offered.

“Diet won’t change anything,” chided the doctor.

The rheumatologist stared at me blankly. But after a civil discussion she offered me an option I had not yet come across. She suggested that I use the prednisone for five day intervals as needed. She explained it can sometimes work to kick start your body back into balance. Five days is long enough to get the benefit, but a short enough duration that the medication won’t greatly impact your organs. This sounded like a good option and I was willing to try it. The steroids made me feel better within eight hours. I had more energy, my brain was much more alert, my body was less painful. But on the flip side it gave me terrible insomnia and anxiety. The good news is the five days of prednisone helped me feel better for a few months. I’m not sure why doctors don’t offer this course of action more often. This discussion and outcome made me more confident to talk to doctors about alternative options. I feel like I’m not a textbook case and I don’t deserve a textbook diagnosis.

Attempts at Self-Treatment

A friend suggested that I see a nutritionist to help with my lupus aches and symptoms. Unlike the long wait for the rheumatologist, I was able to make an appointment for the following day.

Prior to meeting the nutritionist, I felt like I was a relatively healthy eater in my adult life. We didn’t eat fast food. I didn’t drink coffee or soda. I loved carbs and I loved to bake cookies and cakes and, although I enjoyed food, I wasn’t overweight.

The first thing the nutritionist said was ,“Let’s try no gluten, no rice, no soy for three months.”

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What? Ninety days? It sounded extreme, but I thought if it would help me feel better, I could do anything for ninety days. He also suggested that I take vitamin D and fish oil.

So I left the nutritionist with a prescription for healthy eating. Extremely healthy. Basically I could only eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, and meat. No bottled salad dressings, no processed foods, no eating out. Luckily I was able to find some great PALEO recipes, which made the process a bit easier—but it was still super challenging. It took the fun out of eating and I felt like the downer in the family who was keeping everyone else from eating out and having fun.

The good news is the hard work and sacrifice was worth it. I was feeling better. I was smiling more. My body felt like it was starting to recover. The diet change was worth the effort.

I was REALLY hoping when the ninety days were over that I would find that I could eat bread again. I loved my toast and bagels and tortillas. But wouldn’t you know it—when I slowly reintroduced foods I found that gluten was my biggest trigger. Every time I tried to eat just a small amount of gluten, the body aches would quickly return. It was informative to find out my trigger food, but it was disappointing at the same time.

In addition to diet, I tried to keep my symptoms in check by carefully monitoring my sleep and activities. I was careful not to overcommit to things because I never knew how I would be feeling. I was very strict about getting eight hours in bed. Notice I say “in bed” instead of “asleep.” I struggled to stay asleep and I was restless at night, but I was aware of how much my body needed rest so even if I wasn’t asleep my body was still in a resting position.

Diet and rest helped to alleviate my symptoms, but they weren’t a total fix.

When I was being extra careful about diet and sleep I would still have random lupus flare ups.

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Bikram Yoga Showed Up

Life was moving on and I was learning to live with my “new normal.” I was coming to terms with the fact that the lupus symptoms were going to plague me on and off and I was just going to have to learn to live with them.

By the summer of 2015 I had been diagnosed and strictly gluten free for three years. I was managing but not thriving. I was ready to find a way to exercise to try and improve my strength and endurance. I had been saying for months—no, make that years—that I couldn’t work out. When my kids were little, I couldn’t work out because I was taking care of them. Then I felt that I couldn’t afford to take exercise classes. Then the kids went to school and I was busy during the week with school commitments and volunteering. I still liked going for walks, but the truth is the weather (especially cold weather) kept me from getting out there. So here I was, weak and lacking muscle mass of any kind … and complaining about it.

A Bikram Yoga studio opened about two miles from my house. I drove by it probably a hundred times and one day mentioned to my husband how I might want to try it out. It appealed to me because it was close to my house and there was plenty of parking. I had also heard that Bikram was “hot yoga” and I was always freezing due to my bad circulation. A few days later my husband came home and surprised me with a gift—which was very out of the ordinary—of a one-month trial to Bikram Yoga.

Looking back I think I was in kind of in a bad spot—mentally drained, frustrated with my health issues, stressed out about family issues. It is frustrating when you feel like your body is letting you down. I felt like he bought me the one-month trial pass and—although he didn’t say it out loud—must have been thinking, “If you’re not going to do it for yourself, then do it for us.”

First Class Recollections

The first class I attended was three years after my lupus diagnosis. It was August 2015 when I stepped in the hot room for the first time. The class 83

truly seemed like it was three hours long. I knew it was heated yoga but I wasn’t prepared for the reality of what I would experience.

First of all, I wore pants. What was I thinking? But I managed to follow along and tried all the postures. My first thought was, “I have never sweat this much in my whole life.”

And I was so out of shape. It felt like all of my muscles were on fire. I couldn’t even hold my arms up over my head for more than a second or two.

The next morning I woke up sore. So sore. I hadn’t used these muscles in years. So the next day, class number two, was even harder. Because this time I knew what to expect and I was sore. I remember thinking during class, “I’ll get my money’s worth for a month but there is no way I could keep doing this on a regular basis. These people must be crazy to come every day and do the same exact poses. It is so monotonous.”

Progress

By my third class, my mind really started freaking out. I started making excuses and comparing myself to others. My head was processing all these thoughts as I was struggling in the postures.

● My neck has always been tight and my lymph nodes are always swollen—“My neck will never bend back like that.”

● My shoulder has a calcification and even physical therapy didn’t help at all—“My shoulder is never going to get better.”

● The inflammation in my feet is from lupus and I can’t sit on them in a resting position—“There is absolutely nothing I can do to fix that.”

● “This is good for them but not for me,” or “Lucky for them their body moves like that. My body does not move like that.”

● And sometimes I was just thinking, “Get me out of here.”

Then I had a wake up call. The teacher came over to me while I was attempting to do Locust Pose10 on the floor, and she corrected my form.

10 Locust Pose is pictured on page 164

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She also told me not to quit just because I was uncomfortable. “If you are not dealing with an injury, but just dealing with tight or sore muscles, then try to hold the posture just a little longer each day. You will see results in ten classes,” she instructed. That was the carrot on the string for me. I needed a goal. Something to shoot for. A deadline to assess my progress.

Another yoga student told me after class, “You really need to do it ten times. You can’t really judge Bikram Yoga unless you have done ten classes.”

In another class sometime that month, the teacher said, “Get up on your knees and move to the top of the mat, and think to yourself ‘It is a privilege to be here.’ Then see what happens with this posture.”

Wow, that really spoke to me. That comment didn’t have anything to do with the yoga, the postures, my weaknesses, or my ailments. But it had everything to do with my attitude and perspective. So even though I had a different teacher for the following class, I kept thinking about the words from the day before. When I wanted to quit or complain, in my head I thought, “It is a privilege to be here.” I continued on in that way, class after class, day after day.

Even with all that doubt and stubbornness, after nine classes I could sit on my feet in Half Tortoise11—something I had not been able to do for twenty years.

After about fifteen classes I could scratch my back—something I hadn’t done in about three years.

And those two things alone encouraged me to keep going. When my thirty days were up, I decided I needed to continue. After only one month, I could feel the inflammation in my neck go way down. A few weeks after that, the back of my neck started to relax and I could move my head easily.

11 Half Tortoise Pose is pictured on page 165

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I also saw other benefits. My breathing was improving, and I was able to take long, deep breaths. My skin was soft and clear and much less dry. My sinuses were staying

clear. My arms were

getting stronger.

Muscles in my legs

were appearing after

being MIA for over a

decade. And little by

little, I was able to do

the entire class.

Reflecting on all my

lupus issues I was able

to see how my diet

changes relieved

some issues and my

strict sleep regimen

helped my body get through the day, but the Bikram Yoga practice was making big strides in my physical body. Bikram Yoga was bringing life back to my body and helping me move with more range and less inflammation, and I felt better than I had in years.

Why Do I Keep Going to Bikram?

Bikram Yoga helps me live with my autoimmune condition instead of being controlled by it. It helps keep my symptoms at bay. It helps me stay focused on improving my health issues without being consumed. It helps me feel like my body is getting younger instead of older.

Is it hard to get to class? Yes!

Is 90 minutes a long time to spend in a hot room? For sure!

Do I feel better when I go to Bikram Yoga? Absolutely.

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So I keep going. Trying to go three days a week and sometimes four. Trying to work on the details of each pose. Trying to increase my strength and endurance. Trying to ignore the sweat in my eyes. Trying to not let my mind wander.

I haven’t “perfected” the postures by a long shot. I still can’t keep my legs straight when I touch my toes. I still don’t feel like I can do Rabbit Pose12.

But I try and I focus and I tell myself it is a privilege to be here or I’ll be glad I did this later today. And that is always the truth.

Finding Balance with Lupus, Bikram Yoga, and Life Between 2012 and 2015, I lived with my lupus diagnosis and I had not yet discovered Bikram Yoga. For those three years I used diet as my main medicine. I saw a rheumatologist, a naturopath, and a nutritionist; I read lots of books, I kept track of how much sleep and rest I needed and worked hard to achieve it. I eliminated foods from my diet that made me feel bad. I determined that internal stress and strife is a big trigger for me and increased my inflammation. It is a daily acknowledgment that I have to make myself rest and care for my body, knowing I can’t push my body to the limit because then it can take days or weeks to recover.

Bikram is part of my life now. My body craves the heat. My body needs the stretching and strength building. I miss it when I can’t get to class and I can feel the change in my body if I have a few days without Bikram practice.

Living with lupus is like solving a puzzle—always searching for what pieces make you feel better and what pieces make you feel worse, and constantly gaining knowledge through experience. As I learned more and more about my body, it was easier for me to pinpoint what to do to heal faster.

Internally, I try to find a personal contentment while also realistically understanding that I can’t do everything. People with lupus must find their own personal prescription for balancing life with their disease.

12 Rabbit Pose is pictured on page 165

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I have found that Bikram Yoga is a

reliable activity that I must keep in my

weekly routine in order to keep my

inflammation down and my lupus

symptoms in check. I have found that two

classes a week of Bikram is not enough to

accomplish this, but five classes is too

much for my system. Three to four

Bikram classes per week seems to be the

sweet spot. Three classes gives me a little

more time in my week if I need to

schedule in rest. Four times a week in the

yoga studio keeps my inflammation at

the lowest possible level, and it allows

me to eat a bigger variety of foods

without feeling the negative consequences. Plus, four classes a week keeps my joints more flexible, and since I suffer with stiffness this is important to consider.

Lessons Learned

For a while I was scared to miss yoga for vacation or if we had company staying with us. I felt compelled to go—I was so afraid if I got out of the habit then I would lose everything I had gained. One time I packed all my yoga gear so I could go to yoga classes on vacation. I was so stressed about fitting in classes with family commitments that the stress was causing inflammation in my lymph nodes, and the pressure to keep my yoga schedule (my own pressure in my mind) was causing me alternative health issues. So now when I travel I don’t put pressure on myself to find a Bikram studio. I try to do the standard breathing exercise in my hotel room in order to keep my neck flexible. If I do make it to a yoga class on vacation then it is just a bonus.

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89

Chapter 8

Name: Ayesha Nauth, age 42

Location: Brighton, United Kingdom

Diagnosis: Rheumatoid Arthritis

A Fast Fall from Youthful Health to Severe

Rheumatoid Arthritis

I was born in Guyana, South America, and my parents brought us over to England when I was 12. I went to school and had a perfectly good childhood. Then I went to university and was quite involved in everything going on sportswise, including basketball and hockey.

In my final year in university, my

feet and my hands started to

swell. So I went to the doctor

the next day at the university.

They sent me for blood tests at

the hospital and they said it was

arthritic. The RA factor13 in my

blood system was extremely

high, so I needed to go to

hospital to do some other tests. I

went to the hospital and they

kept me for ten days, and I was

officially diagnosed with

rheumatoid arthritis. My stay in the hospital felt like forever, but I was grateful to have a lot of visitors. In addition, I sort of made friends with the 13Rheumatoid factors are proteins produced by your immune system that can attack healthy tissue in your body. High levels of rheumatoid factor in the blood are most often associated with autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis. www.mayoclinic.org 90

elderly around me, even though I was only 22. You always think, “That isn’t going to happen to me. Arthritis is for people that are older.”

My feet were quite swollen—so much that I couldn’t wear shoes at that point. I was in severe pain, but otherwise felt fine.

The doctors prescribed a ton of drugs, and they were pumping me with medication. But eventually they sent me back to university. I was really suffering and couldn’t even get to lectures, so friends were bringing me notes and helping me out.

I plummeted into a depression straight away.

The doctors kept running tests—trying to get things to work—and prescribing lots of painkillers. Then I did all my examinations and went back home to my parents. At that point I became basically bedridden for a really long time. Just before I left university, my boyfriend broke up with me because he said he couldn’t deal with the condition. The doctors told me I would be in a wheelchair by the age of 35. I already had a walking stick.

Medications, Depression, and the Ups and Downs of RA My parents wanted to find a more natural remedy, so they tried reflexology, acupuncture, and Chinese Herbs, and they took me around to lots of different people to try to find a cure. At this stage I couldn’t feed myself. My mom had to cut up my food and feed me—I couldn’t even hold a cup. My hands and my wrists and my knuckles just seized up.

I also remember my family, friends, uncles, and aunts visiting me, but I felt really embarrassed, because I was only age 22 and 23, yet so incapable of doing anything for myself.

This continued for a long time. With the medication it takes three to six months for it to get into your system and start working, so if it is not working after six months or so, then they try something else. For years and years doctors were trying different things until they could find something 91

that worked. I plummeted further into depression. I wanted to take an overdose of all the medication I was taking. Like, seriously, I was at a very low place in my life and didn’t think life was worth living.

However, at some point the medication started working, and I started feeling better. The medication that ended up working was methotrexate—

which is really common for rheumatoid arthritis and also can be used to treat cancer—but it had a lot of side effects.

At that time my parents were going through a divorce, which was also very stressful. My mum got a house and took me and my sisters with her. She helped me get a call center job because I wasn’t as sick anymore. I could work behind the scenes and not be seen. I was earning money and doing well and feeling a little more independent and getting my life back again.

Rheumatoid arthritis is very up and down. For a while you feel better, and then you plummet and can’t go to work some days, but then some days you are fine. I carried on and I was feeling better and better with the drugs but still in pain. I started doing an evening course in graphic design. I passed the course and then was able to get a job in London. It was good to start working again, but I couldn’t wear heels, and I remember feeling awful in my flats. My toes were really curled up and deformed, and I was trying to hide them in normal shoes, but I couldn’t. It was awful.

Bikram Yoga - A First Class Miracle

A friend of mine at the time was practicing Bikram Yoga, and she suggested that I try it. I distinctly remember going in the room on the first day. At this point I couldn’t turn handles on a door, and several of the fingers on my hands were curled in towards my palm in a deformed position.

Due to my deformed fingers, I would always have to wait for someone to open a door for me. I never wanted to ask someone to open the door for me, because they would look at me and think, “What’s wrong with you?” So I would just wait.

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That first class is etched in my memory. I remember that I couldn’t get my hands together anything close to the proper grip, but I was really determined. Being in a group you can become quite competitive, but it can be used for good. I have that competitive background from sports; you either compete or you use the same energy as the person next to you. That competitive spirit made me want to keep up with the person next to me in the class. Yet, at the same time, if someone was sitting down, it motivated me to want to be stronger for that person. I felt people trying to be stronger for me as well.

In addition to my hands, my knees were so swollen and huge that I couldn’t kneel down, bend, or do Fixed Firm posture.14 Instead, for the whole floor series I was just on all fours. I felt awkward that I couldn’t get onto my toes.

I had so much pain, but at the same time, I knew something was working.

After class, something had changed. I could feel it in my body. When I walked out, I could turn the door handle myself! I couldn’t believe it. I felt different mentally and physically. I also felt like this was something I wanted to be good at, because I couldn’t do any of the other running or team sports that I used to do. So I decided to keep going, practicing and practicing, and going to as many classes as I could when I was not working. I bought a yearly pass right after the introduction period.

Transformations Over Time

I felt a lot of changes in my body after starting Bikram Yoga. My skin had been awful because of the medication I was on; it was like snakeskin. But after practicing for a few months, my skin was looking better. It wasn’t scaly anymore. I also was feeling less swollen from the steroids that I was taking.

During the first year of practicing Bikram, I went to class on average three times a week.

Sometimes I would be in tears most of the class because of the pain. One time when the teacher noticed me crying, she said, “This is just temporary.

14 Fixed Firm Pose is pictured on page 166

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You are going to feel pain anyway because this class is very hard, so you know, don’t worry about it, just keep going.”

A year later, I was feeling incredible. The National Asana Championships for the United Kingdom were being held, and I decided to go and watch it. I was in the audience, and Michelle Pernetta (one of my teachers) was judging.

At one point, she turned around to me and said, “You go get dressed for the stage.” I was reluctant but did it anyway. I think this was in 2009 (I had only been practicing for about three years). I said to Michelle, “Oh my god, my skin is so bad. I’m not very good, I’m embarrassed and I don’t want to be on stage.”

She said, “No, you need to go. This is what yoga competition is about. This is about inspiring people. People will feel good about doing Bikram Yoga if they see someone like you doing it, because a lot of people come here from different backgrounds, with different talent levels. Go on stage; you will be fine. It will be good for you to compete and be in a different light and challenge yourself.”

So I had to borrow a leotard, and other people did my make-up (which was definitely not me!). I then went on stage. I had never been in this situation before. It was out of my comfort zone, but I did it, and I felt very proud of myself.

Michelle was right about how great the experience would be. It was good to get the first competition out of the way, to feel the adrenaline, to feel people watching me, and to feel what it was like to demonstrate the postures. So I just carried on practicing really regularly.

After seven years of practicing Bikram I went back to my doctors, and they were really astonished. A normal person’s RA factor is two to three, because everyone has a little bit of inflammation in their system. When I was first diagnosed, my RA factor was over sixty-five, and it stayed on 94

around forty-five to fifty for a long time. But on this visit my results dropped to four. Truly astonishing!

At times, I was still in a little pain, and I needed to continue taking medication, but it was nothing like it had been before. Given that all of my blood results looked normal, it was really hard to prove that I was in enough pain to get more medication when I needed it. When I had pain or symptoms, the doctors would look at my blood results and say, “This doesn’t add up.”

Upping the Intensity

I had by now worked my way up in the corporate world and was working in banking in the city. I was doing quite well; I now had my own flat which I had bought by myself with my own hard-earned savings. But I felt empty, and something was missing. I wanted to give back something to the yoga world for saving my life.

I decided to quit my job in 2009, and in 2010 I went to Bikram Yoga Teacher Training and came back to teach for Michelle. I was living in Brighton and traveling back and forth to London on the train for nearly four hours per day, to teach and practice. In 2012,

when I competed again in the

National Asana Championships for

the United Kingdom, I came in

third.

In 2013, I was introduced to the

advanced practice in London. I was

encouraged by many teachers and I

kept practicing intensely. I was

teaching back-to-back classes,

practicing 90 minutes of Bikram

and then advanced classes for two

to three hours.

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During that year, I decided to enter the competition again—but this time I won! I then went to Los Angeles to compete in the World Championships.

In the World Championships that year, I think I came in 24th out of 100

women. I just kept going really. I was travelling and teaching on yoga retreats in Italy, Spain, India, etc. Being a teacher means that you have access to all these amazing studios around the world; I travelled and taught in Vienna, America, Canada, and Thailand.

Intensity + Frequency ⇒ Benefit

The thing about the phase I went through—where I was training for competitions—is that it probably had the biggest healing effect. At one point I thought, “Because I have arthritis, I need to take it a little bit easier.”

But it was the opposite. I needed to practice a lot more to heal my broken body.

During this time, I was practicing twice a day and teaching twice a day, so I was in the hot room all the time. I felt incredible.

If I didn’t practice in the hot room intensely like I did, I think my joints would be more deformed than they are now. I think the disease slowed down because of the postures I was doing and the intensity of it. The swelling in my hands has decreased, and my fingers aren’t as bad as they would have been had I not practiced Bikram Yoga. Although Bikram Yoga was not able to reverse the joint deformation that had already happened, I think it kept the arthritis at bay and stopped the deformation from progressing.

Pregnancy, RA, and Bikram Yoga

The doctors said that I might not be able to have children. My husband and I tried for two years. We were about to go through fertility treatments, but then I got pregnant. I now have a five-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy.

They are perfectly healthy, and I am trying hard to keep it this way, making sure they exercise. They practice yoga with me and eat well.

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I practiced Bikram Yoga when I was

pregnant with my daughter, all the way

up until three days before I gave birth.

My RA symptoms went completely into

remission when I was pregnant, and I

think they stayed away while I was

breastfeeding. When I was done

nursing, the RA came back a bit, but

then I got pregnant quite quickly

thereafter.

There is a twenty-two-month gap in age

between my children. So I had it pretty good with four years of remission.

When I was pregnant I thought, “Oh, this is what it feels like to feel normal!

This is what a normal person can feel.” I was so free and I felt like I could do anything. It actually felt the same as when I was doing Bikram really intensely and doing the advanced practice.

Changes in Practice Frequency and Benefits

A couple of years ago I opened my own studio called The Hot Yoga Hub. I taught all the classes, apart from a couple each week, so that I could practice in my own studio. However, I found it very hard to maintain a work/life balance and be there for my children and husband. So in August 2018, I decided to close the studio. I felt as though I was preaching all the benefits and helping others to achieve their goals and to heal themselves with the yoga, but at the same time I was suffering both physically and mentally. I needed to find the balance again.

I no longer own a studio but I still teach Bikram Yoga classes. Sometimes I have a flare up overnight, and when I wake up, I have pain or trouble moving in the morning. But I have to get on with it, because students are waiting for me to teach. Fortunately, by the time I am done teaching the class, the pain has dissipated.

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Since I haven’t been practicing as much these last few years, my knees are a bit painful, and my wrist hurts, but it is manageable. I know the reason for the pain is because my practice has decreased.

Other Exercise, Other Approaches

I feel uncomfortable in my body—and mentally—if I’m not practicing. There is this internal craving for it, and I can’t imagine life without it. I have tried to go to the gym, but every time I try, it’s not motivating, and it doesn’t have the same aftereffect at all.

My medication has also increased. I have been taking methotrexate for a long time, and in 2017, I received an injection of Rituximab, which lasts for approximately two years. In the last four months I started Abatacept, which is one injection a week. We’ll see how this one works.

In the past year, I have changed my diet as well. Certain types of food I was eating caused inflammation and as a result I have tried to cut back on those types of food. I have been taking a lot more probiotics, like homemade kombucha and kefir, and a really high dosage of vitamin D. I’m trying to be gluten-free because wheat and gluten affect my arthritis. I am also doubling up with herbs and plenty of organic vegetables and anything that is really rich like flax seeds and nuts. I’m trying to have a really simple diet and not eat as much meat anymore—and I definitely avoid processed foods and sugar. I eat a lot of quinoas and lentils. I’d say it is close to a vegan diet but not completely. Just more of a plant-based diet.

Involving the Medical Professions

I actually have clients who stopped needing to see their osteopathic practitioner or chiropractor because they started coming to Bikram Yoga.

There are some people who say their osteopathic practitioner recommended hot yoga to them, which is really amazing!

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When I told my rheumatologist about how my practice had basically removed my symptoms, he was really intrigued and wanted me to give a lecture on my experience. I still do get asked to talk at local community events and to inspire children. I have done a few talks to young children in local communities and scouts.

Inspiring Others to Try

I have people contacting me specifically to come practice with me because they have RA. We have a lot of students with arthritis who come to us because of my story. I also have lots that come because they have been told about it.

When I speak to people in class, I’m now open to them about my arthritis so they know the struggles and so they feel inspired to work, too. They feel understood and that they are not alone with their pain and their condition.

It inspires them, and they feel instantly great afterwards and less alone.

I am now teaching yoga to children and teenagers and local adult classes in the yoga school. My next dream project is to build a yoga retreat in the Algarve, Portugal.

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Chapter 9

Name: Mark, age 28

Location: Melbourne, Australia

Diagnosis: Spondyloarthropathy with Enthesitis

Getting Diagnosed

As a teenager I was probably just

as healthy as everyone else. I

played basketball and tennis, and

I was active pretty much every

day—I could run and jump and

do lots of things. As far as family

history goes, my maternal

grandfather had rheumatoid

arthritis.

When I turned 18, I got some

chronic fatigue, then the flu,

then plantar fasciitis. From that point on, I just had chronic pain that never went away. So I went to some doctors and nothing came back positive. It probably took about three months of doctor visits to get a diagnosis; I saw a surgeon as well as a rheumatologist. A bone scan at the time also showed I had inflammation in my feet and knees.

There were doctors who thought it might be fibromyalgia or something, but it was the bone scan from the rheumatologist that solidified the diagnosis.

I was diagnosed with spondyloarthropathy with enthesitis [inflammation in the connective tissue]. The inflammation occurs where the tendons and ligaments connect to the bone. This disease is different from rheumatoid arthritis; RA is inflammation in the lining of the joints, and mine is 100

inflammation in the connective tissue. My disease is an inflammatory arthritis but it is just hitting a different tissue.

My feet were at that point very swollen, and I could hardly walk at all. I was in a lot of pain. I couldn't leave the house at all; I was bed-bound and very sore. That was pretty horrible.

Originally I was just put on sulfasalazine and that didn’t do anything.

Eventually I was put on methotrexate and that helped a bit.

The medications did work a little bit to get me out of the house, but the medications never helped enough to get my life back to where it was. I was also put on antidepressants, anti-inflammatories for pain, and Plaquenil.

With all of that I was able to study and go to university, but I wasn’t able to do much else because I couldn’t walk that far. I was still in a fair amount of pain just doing anything.

People with my condition are usually diagnosed around the age of 16.

When I was first diagnosed, I was told that within three months most people can be back playing sports or running. So I was always told that I should have a good outlook. It was just that I never really responded to the drugs that well. My doctors were always pretty optimistic that things could improve for me, but it never did with the drugs.

First Impressions of Bikram Yoga

At the end of 2014, I went completely plant-based, and that allowed me to start reducing my meds. I got to a point where I wasn’t quite as sensitive to heat as I had been.

Before I had been plant-based, I would be in a lot of pain if my body temperature went up at all. So previously, I could hardly do any exercise.

Like maybe ten minutes of walking or something very gentle. I picked up some tai chi and built up that way.

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After about six months of that I was feeling pretty good. I had heard that Bikram Yoga can be really effective with autoimmune disease, so I thought I would give it a go. I figured that the worst that could happen was that I might be sore for a few days.

So I waited until after my exams at uni and then I went to my first Bikram class in 2015. I actually had a really good class.

The first thing I noticed was the heat. I remember feeling like it really knocks you out. The Plaquenil and the antidepressant I was on both make you more sensitive to the heat. So the first time I walked in, I felt like I got hit in the chest hard with the heat.

I really thought what was going to happen was that I was going to last about ten minutes, and then I was going to get sore and nauseated. But I got through it just fine. Once I was in the room I actually never got the urge to leave at all. After the first class, I didn’t get sore at all, and I felt really good afterward.

I couldn’t do a lot, but it just felt really good. During class my pain levels were about the same as usual, but afterward my pain levels went down quite a lot. Like maybe fifty percent or something like that. I went back the very next day for my second class. I didn’t drink enough water though, so my second class wasn’t very good. After that I waited a week.

The following week I still didn’t have as good of a class as the first week. My problem for the first month or so was that my muscles were so tight and weak that I actually found it was really hard to recover. I would feel great after class but then my recovery time—for sore muscles and everything—

was quite tough. So I didn’t really get a lot of benefit to start off with. And at the beginning it was just really hard to get to class.

Pain, Triggers, and Frequency

I found that even though it was physically tough on me, my pain levels would always go down after class.

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One of my biggest triggers of symptoms is heat, so it is sort of strange how Bikram Yoga works for me. But it does.

I didn’t really know how long I would be able to keep doing Bikram just because of how hard it was. When I finished uni, I was able to start going more consistently; when I was able to build up to three times a week, I started noticing a bigger difference. At that time, I started practicing yin yoga as well.

At the beginning of my Bikram practice, I noticed more pain relief but I wasn’t putting on any muscle and I wasn’t getting more flexible. My body wasn’t changing that much, but I just felt good. When I picked up to three Bikram classes a week, I started to notice my body change.

I think that my biggest issue was that I was still on medications that were making it harder to handle the heat.

Stopping My Medications

When I started Bikram in 2015, I had already given up the anti-inflammatories and the methotrexate, but I was still on Plaquenil and the antidepressants. I was finding that both of them were making the heat very hard to handle; I was getting very dehydrated, which was making me very tired.

Also, my balance was very terrible. I was sort of feeling like my body was getting better, but I didn’t feel like the Bikram was going to get me all the way there without getting off the drugs. So I think it was April 2016 I got off the antidepressant. I found that really tough. It was probably six weeks or so that I was feeling withdrawal.

Then, in October 2016 I started cutting down on the Plaquenil. I actually got really bad withdrawals from that one as well; I felt so dizzy. It got bad enough at one point that I was spending all day in bed, and it would actually get worse if I took the drug. I cut down from 200mg to 100mg.

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As I was trying to take less of the Plaquenil, I realized that every time I took the drug, I felt terrible and I couldn’t do anything.

When I finally stopped taking the drug completely, I started to feel better and I was able to get to Bikram again. I haven’t taken any Plaquenil since November 2016. I saw my rheumatologist in mid-September 2017 and she was happy for me to remain drug-free.

Sharing Your Experience

I am part of a few support groups online. I don’t feel like people are really that interested in Bikram Yoga. If I talk to people about it, most people are not interested because they are worried about

it being hot. And most guys don’t seem to be

interested in yoga.

I do recommend Bikram to people in my

arthritis support group. But I don’t know if

anyone has actually tried it.

A couple years ago I went on holiday, and it

was the longest break I had had from Bikram.

With the change of climate, I did fine. It was

up in north tropical Queensland, so it was nice and warm.

Living in Melbourne, where the weather gets

cold, I really need the heated yoga.

Besides not having the heat, my other issue with “regular” yoga is that there is often quite a lot of pressure on the wrists. In Bikram Yoga there is no pressure on the wrists, so I don’t have any problems.

If I wasn’t going to Bikram, I don’t think I would be able to manage my condition as well, and I am pretty sure I would still be on all the drugs.

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Intensity, Rest, and Modifications When I am doing the Bikram class, I find that if I follow the dialogue exactly—especially when I am having a really sore day—it can actually make my pain levels go up. So I have sort of learned that sometimes you shouldn’t push yourself as hard and just find a way to do the postures that actually helps you.

That might mean doing less of a posture, or sitting some out, or even trying to modify some of the postures.

When modifying the postures, my aim is to take a bit of pressure off whichever joint is a bit tender. However, the dialogue does a good job of teaching you to do this. The trick is to make sure that I contract my muscles to take the pressure off my joints.

Even though there is a lot of emphasis on locking the knee when standing on one leg, I completely ignore it. If I contract the muscles around my knee, then I just end up hurting myself. If I just keep my leg straight, my muscles contract just enough by themselves.

When squatting down for the first part of Awkward Pose15, for a long time I would get pain in the front of my knees. To take a bit of pressure off the knees, I make sure that I stick my bum back and that my knees line up with my ankle. When the knees start going forward of the ankle, they start to take more of the pressure and that is when I get pain.

I lessen my effort in many of the postures, depending on how I’m feeling. I have learned that even if I just come to class and lie down in Savasana16 for a while, even that can help. It just calms my body down a bit by being in the hot room. Just lying there can feel really nice.

15 Awkward Pose is pictured on pages 107, 167-169

16 Savasana is pictured on page 171

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Diet

I’m on a completely plant-based diet. If I went off that at all my pain levels would go up instantly. I’m even strict within the plant-based diet. I basically live on quinoa, oats, nuts, seaweed, and vegetables. It is very bland, but it keeps my pain levels down.

Mental Health

Before I started Bikram, I had a lot of anxiety, and probably a little bit of depression. I have found that that is pretty much all gone now. Just being in the hot room and trying to do all the postures really does help my mental health.

Bikram Yoga brought me out of my shell a bit and made me more confident.

All of that sort of thing has been good. I do find that it is a little bit hard sometimes, because the postures can be tough when I am very stiff and sore. But it is good for my mental health, regardless of how much I can accomplish in class.

Stress and Pain is Connected

I’ve felt my best when I was able to do six Bikram classes a week. It sort of depends, because sometimes my body just isn’t able to do it. Overall, I have mostly averaged three to four classes a week.

A couple months after I went drug-free, I was looking for a job, and that was quite stressful. At that time, my pain levels went up quite a lot. But I was able to get the job (that I am still at now), and I was able to bring my pain level down by doing a lot of Bikram Yoga, a lot of cold showers, and massage, plus chiropractic visits about every three weeks.

I work as a software engineer and programmer. I made the mistake of trying to up my hours at work a bit. I had been working three days a week and I added more. After a month or so my health started going backwards.

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I went back to working three days a week, however, I did not manage to get my body back to what it was. I was having problems with my liver and feeling overall quite tired.

Currently

I do quite a bit of walking, probably thirty minutes a day, which is a lot more than I used to be able to do. I also try to do spin bike, because that is really good for the knees. It gets my blood pumping.

Pain is all over my body but it is all very low. Most of my pain has been in my feet and hands and some in my knees. Once I came off the drugs, I noticed pain in my elbows and then in my back and neck and jaw. I also have headaches and eye pain. It is not anywhere near what it used to be, but instead of just concentrated in a few joints it is everywhere now.

I ended up seeing another rheumatologist to get a second opinion. The rheumatologist confirmed my diagnosis, however, it did not really matter anyway. My inflammation levels were low, and with ongoing issues I was having with my liver, he did not want to put me on medication anyway. My second rheumatologist pointed out that a lot of my symptoms were consistent with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, however there are so many possible causes and no treatment. So that was a dead end.

I looked further into my liver issues, as the liver specialist I was seeing at the time was concerned. The presumption was that it was autoimmune related, however, I never got a diagnosis. The good news was that after doing multiple biopsies of the liver, it was concluded that there is nothing to worry about and my liver is slowly getting better anyway.

As going down the medical path did not help me, and increasing my yoga was not working completely, I needed to find something else. That ended up being meditation. I found that if I meditated thirty minutes to one hour then I would feel much better. As a bonus, if I meditated before Bikram, I would have a much better class.

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As a break from work I travelled to

Ko Pha-naan in Thailand for a yoga

health retreat. The yoga was not

Bikram, instead it was focused on

deep breathing and moving the

spine. I spent three weeks eating

very fresh vegan food, doing yoga,

and breathing in the nice fresh air.

By the end of it I felt much better. I

can eat any vegan dish that I like, my

pain levels are much better, I have

more energy, and I just feel better

overall. I have even been able to

increase my working hours to four days a week and started learning to drive! I am not cured yet, however, I am still improving every day. I just need to keep looking after myself and I will be fine.

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Chapter 10

Name: Gina, age 38

Location: Haverhill, Massachusetts, USA

Diagnosis: Mixed Connective Tissue Disease

Low-Level Symptoms in Early Life

Around age 9 or 10 I vividly remember waiting at the bus stop, and my hands started turning purple. I remember looking at other kids, and their hands weren’t purple. I told my parents, but I guess it didn’t seem that severe—they didn’t think much of it.

Soon after that, my primary care doctor noticed, and he diagnosed me with Raynaud’s disease. Because the symptoms were uncomfortable and a little bit embarrassing, he put me on a calcium blocker. That medication didn’t work, though, so he recommended Ginkgo

biloba, which did help.

So it seems that I was experiencing some

low-level autoimmune symptoms from that

time, up until the age of 16 or 17. At that

point, things started to get a lot worse; my

hands and my feet started to swell, turn red

and purple, and itch to the point that I

couldn’t wear normal shoes. The increased temperature of my skin from the shoes

would make my feet itch so bad I couldn’t stand it.

By my senior year of high school, I was missing a lot of school because I couldn’t get relief. The only thing that helped was soaking my feet in a sink or bathtub.

My doctors at this point were questioning whether it was just Raynaud’s.

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Then, in my early 20s I had some digestive issues, but it ran in my family, so I sort of brushed it off. It wasn’t too severe, so I didn’t think too much of it.

Disease Onset

A few years later, though, I developed severe abdominal bloating—to the point that even though I was a normal weight, people would ask when I was due, thinking I was pregnant.

At that point I didn’t have health insurance and I was broke, so I just tried to deal with it. I wasn’t doing yoga or anything.

When I finally did get health insurance, I went to the emergency room and found out that I had developed a bowel blockage. Over the course of the next few years, I had several bowel blockages, and on two occasions I had to have part of my intestines removed.

Surgical Interventions

My first surgery (2008) was a cecal volvulus. It was very unusual; twenty-year-olds don’t just have their intestines tie themselves up in knots. Mine was so unusual that none of the doctors in Boston had seen anything like it before. They had to take out a whole bunch of colon; the ascending colon, the cecum, and part of the transverse colon. Prior to the surgery, I felt like I couldn’t get any doctors to help me. They didn’t seem to believe the amount of pain I was in.

The only reason I got the surgery so quickly was because I presented in the emergency room as an emergency case. I had some complications and an infection.

A year later, I had a second surgery—a small bowel obstruction—in the same type of emergency situation, because no one in the meantime would treat me (or they couldn’t figure out how to). They thought my problem was an adhesion from the first surgery.

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So for the second surgery, they removed part of my small intestine, and they tried to fix the problem from the first surgery.

Disease Diagnosis

After all of this, I still didn’t have an officially named autoimmune diagnosis.

In addition to the digestive system problems and swelling of my hands and feet, I was also dealing with systemic full-body rashes. It would happen whenever I would eat food of any kind. And the rashes would be full body—

I mean lobster-level coloring. Something was clearly wrong, but we just didn’t have a name for it.

My doctor finally recommended that I see another rheumatologist. My blood work came back abnormal, and I was officially diagnosed with mixed connective tissue disorder, which is also sometimes called undiagnosed connective tissue disease.

Several other doctors who have seen my blood work said I had enough symptoms to be diagnosed with lupus, but they never put that on my paperwork.

I was prescribed Plaquenil, but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.

I actually got the most relief by avoiding inflammatory foods—especially dairy and gluten. For me my symptoms were way worse than my blood work showed.

I stopped working completely, because I couldn’t handle being up and about physically with the abdominal pain. It was so sad.

My doctor finally concluded that it was the autoimmune disease that was making my intestines react like this. It wasn’t technically an intestinal problem, because I had had all the gastrointestinal tests and had passed them with flying colors. So gastroenterology couldn’t find any explanation.

At other points doctors thought it was scleroderma. But no one was able to definitively call it something that was recognized.

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My symptoms were so all over the map that no one wanted to attach their name to the wrong disease or do a surgery on me that wasn’t needed. They did all the usual tests, but I passed them all. They gave me medication to try for my stomach, but none of it worked.

It took high levels of effort to keep my pain manageable. I had to take an herbal laxative regularly and I would have to put a heating pad on my stomach for about two hours every night to calm everything down. So I had this routine where I would take the pills and then lay down with the heating pad. A few times I had traveled somewhere by plane, and I didn’t take my heating pad. I would end up in the ER at my destination because I was in so much pain.

In the meantime, I was trying to run a business and do competitive adult gymnastics, and I also had family commitments. I felt handicapped by all the health issues.

I probably got fifty percent relief from changing my diet and removing gluten and dairy. I was not always diligent about sticking to this, but I did my best. I was struggling with an eating disorder during this time, and my food cravings got the best of me at times, but I was making an effort to follow the gluten- and dairy-free plan.

In 2008 I incorporated acupuncture treatments, and they helped a lot with the stomach pain. A non-inflammatory diet plus acupuncture gave me about eighty-five percent relief, meaning that about fifteen percent of the time I was having a flare-up of pretty severe abdominal pain. I would need to take pain medication to manage it.

Bikram Yoga Enters the Picture

All through this time, I was keeping up as best as I could with my favorite hobby, competitive gymnastics. I was even competing some of those years, but it would depend on how healthy I was. When I felt well I did great, but when I didn’t feel good, I couldn’t even practice. It was very stressful to not know whether or not I’d feel well on any given day, as the practices and 113

competitions are scheduled, and I would set up my work schedule around them. I wanted to be able to count on my health day-to-day.

All told, I did competitive gymnastics for eighteen years; from age 14

through age 35, with a few years off in between. Although I was successful and even won some gold medals, there is no doubt that the sport would have gone even better for me–and been more enjoyable and less stressful–

if my health was under better control.

At one point, I had a problem with one of my knees. My coach had always noticed my purple hands too. I remember one day my coach saying,

“Between your knee and your circulation problems, I think Bikram Yoga would really help you. You should at least give it a try.” She had recently started Bikram Yoga herself, and she was loving the results.

If someone tells me something like that, I am pretty proactive; so I thought I should go. My coach practiced at a Bikram Yoga studio in New Hampshire, and I lived in Massachusetts. But I looked it up and was happy to find that there was a Bikram studio in North Andover, about fifteen minutes away from where I lived.

I told my gymnastics coach that I really wanted to give Bikram Yoga a try and skip some of my practices for a bit in order to fit it into my schedule.

She was extremely supportive of that, because she knew it would be better for me in the long run to heal my body than to get to practice every day.

First Impressions

So I just showed up to a class on a Saturday, a few days after my coach had told me about it. I had read online about it a little bit in advance; people said it was really hard, so I was expecting a challenge. But I think because my gymnastics practices were at least four hours long—and without air conditioning in the summer–I felt like the typical obstacles for me weren’t there. I wasn’t afraid–just curious.

I had tried other yoga in the past and I always thought, “Well, they aren’t asking me to do a flip or a full backbend, so this isn’t hard stuff.” I had also 114

tried yoga at my fitness gym in the past, but I didn’t like it enough to stick with it.

One thing I noticed right away about Bikram Yoga was that my endurance wasn’t that good. I could get into a posture, but I definitely couldn’t hold it the whole time. The class wasn’t too bad or too challenging, but I was kind of intrigued that I wasn’t able to hold stuff for the recommended length.

That humbled me a bit.

I was tired at the end of the first class, but it wasn’t one of those come-to-Jesus things for me or really that big of a deal. In my 10-day intro special, I think I went to seven of the ten days.

So after the first few classes, I felt like I was able to relax better because I knew what to expect. I think in other yoga classes, part of the difference was that I wasn’t able to relax in the class; I was always trying to learn what I was supposed to be doing rather than just letting go and letting the instructor guide me.

I realized that with Bikram Yoga, the class wasn’t going to change. I could go listen to the consistency of the instruction and the postures and just get through it. For me it was more of a mental thing than anything physical.

Although, speaking of the physical–the benefits started right away. I started getting relief from my knee pain within those first ten days. Since I had ten days to go as much as I wanted, I felt like I might as well take advantage of it. Looking back, I don’t think I was having any pain at all that week. My knee felt better, and I didn’t have abdominal pain.

I think the break from life was huge–just going in and not thinking about anything else for 90 minutes.

And not having any mental pressure was a big deal. When you are training in competitive gymnastics, there is always some degree of pressure. You are afraid you are going to get hurt if you miss one thing, or your coach is going to be mad if you don’t concentrate or whatever. Even though my coaches were relatively laid back, still it was a lot of pressure.

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So after my 10-day Bikram Yoga trial, I did a punch card initially; but after about a year I just got an unlimited plan.

I had tried yoga again at my fitness gym, but I still didn’t like it enough to stick with it. I craved the heat—having the heat was an incentive for me to go to the Bikram Yoga class. I also really liked the community at the Bikram Yoga studio, so that was another motivation to get there.

One of the unexpected benefits for me was getting a better handle on my appetite/food cravings. As I mentioned previously I had been struggling with an eating disorder—something I dealt with for approximately twenty years to varying degrees. I was very close to being symptom-free when I started Bikram Yoga. But after doing Bikram for a couple of weeks, my symptoms improved so much to the point that I basically forgot I had eating issues altogether. I no longer felt that ravenous feeling that would cause me to be out of control with food. I also think my blood sugars were evened out from the Bikram Yoga.

For me, the eating issues tied into the digestive problems. The problems started because my stomach always had a more bloated appearance due to the digestive problems, which then caused me to feel self-conscious about it. That caused me to either starve myself in an attempt to make my stomach smaller, or overexercise or purge my food in another attempt to make my stomach smaller or feel less bloated. So between Bikram Yoga helping me feel calmer and less stressed, I started digesting better, and I started making better food choices (namely not too large of portions and sticking to the autoimmune diet of gluten-free and dairy-free better).

Making better food choices reduced the bloating, so it all started working together.

I used to abuse food to calm my anxiety, and Bikram Yoga taught me how to use my breath for the same purpose. From what I learned at Bikram Yoga, I was able to switch my coping mechanism over to something healthier. I also found that by seeing all the different body shapes and sizes in class, I started being kinder to myself if my body didn’t look perfect. In gymnastics, most people who do that sport are in crazy good shape, but by 116

seeing “real” people at Bikram Yoga, it helped to reframe what a normal body looked like and what bodies of all shapes and sizes could do. Being bigger or smaller didn’t seem to matter that much in class, and that was useful for me to see.

Bikram Yoga and

Autoimmune

Symptoms

I feel like Bikram Yoga

started helping my

autoimmune symptoms

after about one or two

months. My hands

definitely weren’t as

purple.

The improvements in my

stomach issues were much more apparent. The problem didn’t go away completely, but my stomach would swell much less often. I would say that it went from being once a week to once a month. Now it is even less than that.

Once I started Bikram Yoga, I didn’t need to use my heating pad anymore on my abdomen to help my digestive system. And that was huge! I mean, I don’t even know where my heating pad is right now, because I don’t even need it. So now that I go to Bikram Yoga, I don’t have to worry about the laxative pills or the heating pad or any of that. I can just live my life.

I had asthma and was on an inhaler and that is better now.

I look very different after Bikram. Before practicing Bikram Yoga my face was so full it was crazy. My body was swollen and inflamed. All that has improved.

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Do You Tell People About Bikram Yoga?

I recommend Bikram Yoga to a ton of people, and I have brought people with me. I really like to tell people when something is working! I work as a personal trainer, and on the back of my clipboard for my business there is a Bikram Yoga sticker. So every time I hold my clipboard my clients can see it.

My personal foundation is fitness, so although I do promote it heavily, I think of Bikram Yoga as an on-the-side sort of thing. I like to use it as my recovery days during my exercise week.

As a personal trainer, I also support any person’s decision. So if they only want to do yoga, or if they want to do running and yoga, that is fine. My whole thing is that you should just do what makes you happy and what leads to your best life.

So if I’m talking to someone and I think they could benefit, I certainly encourage them to go.

Currently

I have been practicing about twice a week lately. That is less than I did at first. Initially I went at least four times most weeks.

I had ankle surgery a few years back, and since then I’ve been struggling with nerve pain in my feet. Some weeks and months I feel good and can push myself in class, but other times I choose to sit out the more challenging poses on my feet and let my body soak up the benefits from the heat and the breathwork in a more gentle way.

When I am limited physically, I find that the class helps me work mentally and spiritually. I am the type of person that likes to go one hundred miles per hour at all times, but I have come to realize that if you do not build in breaks into your day, week, month, and year, your body will force you to take them by becoming sick or injured. Now I try to not let it get to that point by listening to my body more than ever.

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In that vein, my body was telling me it was done with all the pounding and stress of gymnastics, and I chose to be done with it a couple of years ago. I am not sure I would have realized that if Bikram Yoga had not taught me to listen to my body, and I might have continued to the point where I developed further damage. I am glad I have improved the skill of listening to my body, and I believe Bikram Yoga was a huge part of that.

Fortunately I still get benefits from doing Bikram Yoga once or twice a week. It definitely keeps my autoimmune symptoms in check. It helps keep my stress levels in check as well.

I went back to the rheumatologist when the foot pain started, because my primary doctor wanted to make sure it wasn’t an autoimmune problem. My rheumatologist confirmed that I no longer have any signs of autoimmune disease … which is amazing.

Back when I was in the early stages of diagnosis, I had several doctors in Boston tell me that I would have to learn to live with debilitating symptoms of my autoimmune disorder, and now most days I literally have no symptoms at all. I’m proud of the work I did to help my body get to this point. I continue to tell folks all about Bikram Yoga—for me it truly was and is life changing.

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Chapter 11

Name: Jessica, age 39

Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Diagnosis: Crohn’s Disease

History of Illness and Diagnoses

I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis when I was 11. It wasn’t until I was 32, though, that the doctors decided it was Crohn’s and not colitis. This change in diagnosis had some implications for treatment. Crohn’s is a little harder to treat in the sense that it affects more parts of the body than colitis does; any kind of procedure you might get for Crohn’s might help temporarily, but you would likely end up needing more procedures later on.

When I was younger, there was blood when I went to the bathroom, and I had to go to pediatricians and gastrointestinal (GI) doctors and all of that and they prescribed some pills. So I’ve had

this disease for most of my life. Looking

back, I can say that it didn’t really get bad

or affect my life too terribly until college.

When I was in high school my symptoms

were unpleasant and I didn’t talk about it

with friends, but it was controlled with the

first level of medication that they gave me. I

know I experienced a lot of discomfort, but

I didn’t restrict what I did and I didn’t worry about going out or spending time with friends or anything like that. It was a pretty normal high school experience in that respect.

College was the first time I was hospitalized from a flare-up of Crohn’s. But then I recovered and continued going about my business. They did put me on steroids a few times (prednisone, which I guess is used to treat a lot of 120

autoimmune stuff). A lot of people have really bad side effects from prednisone—they gain weight, they break out, their face swells up, all kinds of terrible things. But I didn’t really have any of those problems.

After college, I lived in Philadelphia for about eleven years, and toward the end of my time there I started getting pretty sick. The medications I had been taking weren’t really working. I just wasn’t in a good place. I lost a lot of weight—I think I weighed like ninety-five pounds or something and I’m five feet, one inch tall.

When you think about Crohn’s there is like a pyramid of treatment options, and they try as much medication as they can before they do surgery. So at that point, I was on the most medicine possible before surgery.

They tried me first on an injectable version of Cimzia, but it didn’t work.

(Which was fine with me, because I didn’t want to inject myself anyway!) Since that didn’t work, they put me on intravenous Remicade, which I didn’t start until I moved to Michigan in 2011. One of my doctors in Michigan suggested a diet low in gluten and certain types of sugars. So I tried that, and I tried the intravenous drug. I started to feel better. Not great, but better.

Previously, I had eaten whatever I wanted; I didn’t necessarily eat well or care about what I ate. Although I knew at the back of my mind that diet could have an impact on the disease, I kind of did what I wanted.

So, where I am now is that the disease is under control and I’m not having any flares. And I just see doctors when I need to for maintenance purposes.

So I’m lucky in that respect. I think that only a third of people with Crohn’s won’t require surgery at some point, so I’m hoping to be in that group. The Crohn’s statistics are pretty tough with respect to most people needing some kind of invasive procedure at some point. I’m hoping to steer clear of that.

I think there are four or five medications that are the last resort before surgery. They are all similar enough, but they are slightly different. The 121

injection didn’t work for me but the IV does. I have been on the IV drugs since 2011 or 2012. I typically get them every eight weeks. If I start to get symptoms, sometimes they move the infusions closer together, so then maybe every four to six weeks. But right now it is every eight weeks.

I just go in to the doctor for the infusions. I bring my laptop. Then they hook me up to the IV for the Remicade infusion, and I sit in the chair with the needle in my arm, and the drugs go in. Then I walk out and I go about my day. The whole thing is very strange. If you read about Remicade infusions, they tell you about all these scary terrible side effects. But I have been really lucky that I haven’t had any of the side effects. Sometimes I’ll practice yoga the same day or sometimes I’ll work out. I didn’t have any trouble adjusting to the medication.

Diet Change

I don’t know if I went about it the right way, but the doctor I started seeing when I moved to Michigan recommended the diet called FODMAP. I was feeling so crummy at that point that I decided to follow it. The idea is that you can slowly put the restricted things back into your diet; apparently you are not meant to follow it indefinitely. But I had been feeling so crummy for so long, and on the diet I was finally starting to feel better, so I didn’t start putting things back in.

I’m gluten-free and low sugar. There are some things I eat like sushi that might have trace amounts of gluten in them, but I’m not going to eat a bowl of regular pasta. Things with fructose, or high fructose corn syrup, have been found to cause inflammation and gastrointestinal irritability. If you google FODMAP diet you will get this diagram of things that are recommended and things that are not recommended. Many fruits and vegetables have fructose in them so I’ve cut them out. I don’t eat candy. I don’t drink. I don’t eat anything fried. It is healthy—it is just limited. No beans. I stick pretty closely to the list and those things are on the “don’t eat me” list.

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It can be inconvenient socially, for example when I am invited to go to a friend’s house for dinner. They will ask, “So what can you eat?” And I say,

“Well here are the four things I can eat.” It is not super convenient, but it has helped a great deal and it sustains me. I had been tested for food allergies before and nothing ever came up positive. But this diet makes a big difference.

Attempts at Exercise, Yoga, and Mindfulness

I had done yoga before, off and on, at home or in a class. I had tried some generic “hot yoga” classes too. I enjoyed them, but I didn’t feel any particular release from it.

I was trying to develop a mindfulness and meditation practice right around the time I found Bikram Yoga. The sitting-still and meditative form of mindfulness wasn’t working for me all that well, though. I found that for me, Bikram Yoga is much more effective for meditative and mindful states than the sitting-still version of mindfulness practice.

Initial Thoughts About Bikram Yoga

Kristin (a classmate and friend at Michigan State University) just randomly told me about Bikram Yoga. I remember thinking she was really cool, and that if she was going then I would give it a try.

I absolutely hated the first class. My thoughts: “Who is this peppy person and what is she doing?” I just hated it, and I walked out even though I was asked not to walk out.

My thoughts: “These people are nuts.”

After I walked out, I think someone probably followed me out to check on me and encourage me to come back in. So I came back in, and I still hated it.

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At the time I was super stressed out with school, and family stuff, and health stuff. I also remember thinking, “If I can’t even follow instructions to stay in a room and do nothing, then I probably need to come back here.” So initially I kept going with Kristin, but then I started going by myself.

When I think about why I even came back after my hated first class, I think it was because I really liked the studio, I liked hanging out with Kris, and I thought the teacher was pretty much the friendliest person in the world. I noticed a really nice sense of community, and it was a great distraction from school and work. I also liked to be without a phone for that time and just have that time truly for myself. Looking back, it probably made me feel a lot calmer.

I don’t know if I noticed symptom relief right away, but there must have been some reason I kept coming back!

Bikram Yoga and Changes in Crohn’s Symptoms

I noticed changes in my Crohn’s symptoms pretty quickly after starting Bikram Yoga. Probably within a month or two—it was pretty quick. Ever since taking that first class, I have practiced three or four times a week.

Right away, I noticed I was less anxious and had more energy than before.

I was definitely calmer, too, and all of a sudden I had more tolerance for people and things. More patience. Well, I could still use a lot more patience, but I noticed an improvement.

In terms of symptoms from Crohn’s… I have less pain. Even though I’m on a pretty strict diet and practice regularly, I still have a lot of pain (bowel and stomach) that I think just comes with the illness. But it is definitely reduced with the Bikram Yoga practice.

Balancing Bikram Yoga and Life

Depending on my schedule, I usually practice four times a week at a studio here in Chicago called 105F. What is interesting is the teachers are not all 124

trained in Bikram. They don’t even call it Bikram, but it is the same series of postures.

So I do Bikram Yoga, and then I walk a couple miles a day around the city, and then I do cardio two times a week. I had been doing cardio three times a week and I guess it was just too much. I also did a lot of running before and I just kind of stopped. I don’t know … I just stopped enjoying it. I can run but I just don’t. Those are the main forms of exercise.

I do have to find the right balance of practice and rest. I can’t really drink coconut water or electrolyte drinks, so I really have to hydrate, and I try not to practice more than three days in a row. If I am feeling kind of worn out, I don’t do as much cardio. If I feel worn out I will take a break, but I usually try to practice if I can. I remember one of my teachers saying, “Especially when you don’t want to go to class, go to class.”

Since I started, I haven’t purposefully taken any time off from doing Bikram Yoga. Although last summer, I had to miss four or five days in a row and I definitely felt worse when I missed that many days of class. My stomach started to get upset.

If I don’t go for even a few days in a row, I start to get tired and I feel really tense. Who is to say if that is from anxiety or missing yoga or a combination of both. But I try not to miss it. I just see Bikram Yoga as part of my routine.

I don’t imagine not ever doing it. If I stopped, I feel like it would be a catch-22. Like if I stopped doing it I might get sick, and if I got too sick then I probably wouldn’t be able to practice; so I’m just trying to stick with it for as long as I can.

Perceptions and Barriers

Heat:

I think most people say things like: “It is too hot, I’m not going to be able to do it”.

Or, “Why on earth would you spend 90 minutes in a hot room?”

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Others perceive it as out of their reach, something that they would never be able to do.

Bikram:

There is some controversy around Bikram Choudhury, the creator of the series. But I’m not practicing for him. It is just his practice I am doing.

Workout Mentality:

When I tell people I’m going to yoga, they always say, “Have a good workout.”

But it is not that kind of thing. I always think, in response, “But that is not really what it is about!”

Yes, Bikram Yoga is a physical activity, but it is not meant to be a workout necessarily or exclusively. That is just people’s perception.

I did have a friend who came with me to two classes and then stopped. I wouldn’t have blamed her, though. I probably wouldn’t have gone back to that particular studio—it was very fitness-y and not focused on the concentration and therapy.

I think that some people perceive it like hippy-dippy meditation or tree-hugging stuff that people think of when they think of yoga. But it is not that at all! The yoga is a lot of hard work. It’s hot and I’m sweaty and I sometimes don’t want to be there. But I know I will feel great after, and I know that it helps my mental health and physical health.

Biomedicine and Bikram Yoga

Doctors don’t care. Well, I shouldn’t say all doctors, but the GI doctors that I have had in the past are very much focused on which pill we are going to take to fix this problem. They don’t care about the yoga practice or any other forms of treatment that might be helpful, unfortunately.

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I did go to an orthopedist recently because I’m having some IT band pain.

He actually said something like, “You can still practice yoga even if it hurts, because I know it is an important part of people’s routines.” I was totally blown away to hear that. It was actually really nice that he acknowledged yoga as important.

I have tried to cut back on my Crohn’s medication, but I don’t think I would be able to be healthy without it. And I don’t want to test it, because sometimes you can get really sick really quickly and I don’t want to be in that situation.

I just cut a medicine by about 25 milligrams like nine months ago maybe. I was trying to cut back but I think I still need it. It is called Azasan, and it is another immunosuppressant.

One thing they don’t tell you with these Crohn’s drugs is that you are immunocompromised, so you have to be pretty careful. But I don’t seem to get sick … ever … knock on wood. I feel like that is from practicing Bikram Yoga, actually. The practice seems to make my immune system a lot stronger than it used to be.

I go back and forth with wanting to be informed with the research related to Crohn’s and other people’s experiences because it seems like the responsible thing to do. But then I also tend to get freaked out when I read about the illness and how serious it can get, so I don’t always want to read about it. Everyone seems to have such a different experience with it.

Encouragements

If someone is even remotely interested in healing, or feeling better, I would say just try Bikram Yoga. I love listening to personal stories about other people who got relief from this practice. I would just tell them to try. And know that it is hard, but it will be worth it. The first few classes might not be super pleasant, but just keep coming back.

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Chapter 12

Name: Andy, age 66

Location: Oxford, England

Diagnosis: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis and Osteoarthritis

Life As I Know It

Prior to my recent diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, I had lived for many years as a vegetarian. Through most of my adult life I have done walking, swimming, badminton … mainly as a social activity. Never any yoga of any sort. I just never considered yoga—that is, until my arthritis became really bad.

I’ve had arthritis for over forty years, and throughout that time it was relatively stable. My first symptoms—back when I was 23—started after I went cycling one spring morning. When I came back from the ride, I remember thinking, “Oh, my legs feel very stiff.” I thought perhaps I had done something stupid on the bike. So I rested up for the rest of the day.

By the next morning, I had to be taken in an ambulance to the hospital where they initially diagnosed me with osteoarthritis (later revised that to psoriatic arthropathy). Although aged 23, I was told that most of my joints were similar to that of a 55-year-old with osteoarthritis, and that was the cause of the misdiagnosis. For part of my recovery plan over the coming months they put me on gold injections, which did not seem to provide much benefit and eventually they were stopped. Also, concentrated support from a physiotherapist whilst in hospital enabled me to return to fairly normal life at home and work. And as I have said, after this I was relatively stable for the next forty years. I did use some medication: strong anti-inflammatory tablets taken as needed.

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Now we come forward about forty years to May 2015 when things went badly wrong. My daughter had died in 2011, and then in 2015 my son got married. In my mind, everything came to a head, and I don’t think I could deal with the stress. And so at my son’s wedding party I decided I would not speak; my wife delivered the speech we had planned. After that my health rapidly went further downhill until by November 2015 I was in so much pain that I could not walk more than a few meters. For example, to walk the distance from my bedroom to my bathroom it would take me ten minutes of agony (a normal journey of ten seconds!). Thus I was soon retired by my employer “on grounds of ill

health.”

Life really was getting worse. This

included modifying our home with

various arthritis-aids to help me

live day to day. I had difficulty with

bathing, even having to call

paramedics to help me get out of

the bath one day. That was my last

bath! We also obtained a

wheelchair, which I objected to,

but clearly I needed it more and

more.

The Start of Recovery - Diet and Medication

Riddled with pain, my daily life was spent at home in front of the TV, binge-watching Netflix. One thing I found on Netflix was the amazing documentary “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead.” This inspired me to think diet might play a role in recovery. As recommended, I tried juicing green vegetables and did get some small benefit but not a serious improvement. Similarly I went gluten-free and that again provided some further minor relief. From these early experiments I concluded I was onto something; I had the direction but not a solution.

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Inside my body, C-reactive protein17 was spiraling out of control and my doctor recommended powerful drugs to control the disease. Thus he put me on methotrexate. I objected, having read about its potential side effects. (One common side effect which didn’t affect me was hair loss.

Another is fatigue which I did suffer badly from.) After a month my doctor increased the medication aggressively, with further increases planned.

My opinion is that I don’t think the methotrexate ever really helped me.

The common argument for the drug is that it stabilizes the illness such that further joint damage is reduced. And certainly that argument was made by my doctor. However, I rejected further increases. That was because I had found my solution: dietary changes.

In early 2016, I had found the Paddison Program which is a comprehensive self-educating solution focused on rheumatoid arthritis. I started this program around Easter. From the very first moment my health began to improve. Let me restate that, my health began to really improve, reliably and steadily. The pain seemed to reduce almost daily. The improvements were small, indeed very small. But small changes added up–and they kept on coming. Consequently the inflammation similarly began to reduce. But I did have a lot of inflammation, considering at one point my legs looking like tree trunks!

Progress wasn’t perfect. I did have a slowdown at around six months in September 2016. The improvements stopped. After discussion and reviewing the Paddison Program guidelines more closely I stopped all oils and any high-fat foods such as avocado and nuts—and my progress began again.

And thus by October 2016, I was able to walk reasonably well—albeit short distances.

17This is a protein created by the liver; levels in the blood increase when there is a condition causing inflammation somewhere in the body.

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Experiencing Bikram Yoga

Now as part of recovery from rheumatoid arthritis, the Paddison Program very strongly recommends Bikram Yoga to anyone who can do it. Since I had never done any yoga, I was very reticent. Indeed I thought, “Yoga: not for me.” With consistently good reports from others going down a similar pathway, however, I went to my first Bikram Yoga class October 18, 2016.

That first class is firmly etched in my mind. Here I was almost a cripple walking into a room full of relatively healthy and flexible people who were able to do yoga with ease. For myself I could hardly do anything, so much so that I was even provided a stool to sit on in the class. To get to the floor poses, I would first sit on the stool and two people would gently help me down from the stool to the floor! At the end of class people would lift me up and back onto the stool. If there was no one to lift me, I could have been stuck on the floor forever!

I used this stool for the first four months. After four months, I found a way to get up unaided. It took me fifteen minutes and it wasn’t a pretty sight—

but I did it! In the following weeks those fifteen minutes dropped and dropped.

Tiny Improvements, Day by Day

This style of yoga and the consistent improvements it brought suited me. I set about doing Bikram Yoga four or five days every week and have stuck with that regimen ever since. I get small, even tiny improvements to my body. But these small changes are affecting the whole body and they add up. A feature of Bikram Yoga is you do exactly the same poses in the same sequence. Thus I was able to perceive those small improvements, bit by bit.

This feedback system provided me with tremendous motivation.

Further motivation came from actual reduction in joint pain. There is no question that the joints benefit from Bikram Yoga. Pushing joints close to the pain—time and time again, day in day out—really does help, as if by magic, remove that pain forever!

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In all, Bikram Yoga has been fundamental in rebuilding my body. I mean, I couldn’t even walk before I started practicing. I couldn’t even lift my legs to do balancing poses at all. Also I couldn’t lift my arms above shoulder height.

So there was, and is, a lot of rebuilding to do.

There are lots of things that my body still needs to correct. I am really very diligent in doing the postures absolutely as correctly as possible, because I know that is the way I will get the best improvement without causing inadvertent damage.

Also motivation comes from knowing that either I go forwards with yoga and my diet, or I will inevitably go downwards. There is very little, if any, middle ground. So yoga is my physical discipline that helps me improve. In my mind I am saying things like, “I want to be better, every day.”

I really don’t think I am a special person. Anyone could do both the diet and Bikram Yoga. That said—something in the way my mind is wired means that I am quite aware of my own body. But Bikram Yoga has taught me to be much more self-aware.

Further Thoughts

One important thing about Bikram Yoga is the highly skilled teachers. My experience is they keep a very close eye on you, especially if they know you have got some kind of physical or mental challenge. They will make sure you don’t damage yourself, say by stretching too far. For example, you don’t want to end up with back strain because you’ve not paid attention on how to bend over safely or didn’t deal with some aspects of a particular body weakness.

I have searched across the internet for further help and advice on Bikram Yoga for people with arthritis, but I haven’t found much out there. I say this because the standard Bikram instructions are not always appropriate for people who have really severe physical challenges like myself. Some poses I am still in the first phase, so instructions on how to move to further stages 132

are not much help. This is another reason why having great teachers you can rely on is so important.

A lot of people who don’t do hot

yoga are actually frightened of

the heat. In my case, I didn’t

really find the heat a problem. I

have found, though, that

breathing by the nose helps

people deal with the heat.

Also it was probably about six

months before I worked up the

courage to not bring any water

into the studio. For some people,

their water bottle seems like a

crutch. They are told that if they

get hot, then they should drink

water. I wasn’t any different, so

initially I probably spent half the

class drinking! Now generally I

don’t have any need for water in

class: instead I hydrate very well

before and after class, but rarely

during.

One notable change in recent months is my breathing. I just suddenly found one day that my breathing became in sync with the poses. It was a beautiful feeling. It has helped me to go in and out of poses with more grace. From that day onwards I said to myself, if I can’t do the poses completely the least I can do is try to be graceful!

The almost-daily yoga has also helped me deal with small arthritic reactions. It is my understanding that almost all arthritic reactions are caused by the foods you eat. Although I try to avoid them, sometimes they are eaten accidentally. Now I know I can get rid of that pain using yoga, by 133

going into the postures, approaching the point of discomfort and then holding it there.

The mix of my yoga practice and the whole food plant-based diet are complementary and support each other. Both provide small improvements.

The plant-based diet without oils is therefore very high in water which helps with hydration in the studio!

By January 2017, in discussion with both doctor and rheumatologist, we decided I would step down my methotrexate over a six-month period to phase it out. And so, July 2017 was my last methotrexate tablet. When I started to reduce the drug in 2017, I actually began feeling healthier immediately. After the last tablet things only got better.

I would encourage anyone with arthritis to do either or both the Paddison Program and Bikram Yoga. If done in a determined way, at the very least it should help people reduce the amount of drugs taken.

I am not completely healed. But I have my solution. I also have my journey.

There is no end point—just continual improvements. And I cannot recommend this pathway highly enough.

[You can follow Andy’s updates on Facebook, just search for his tag

#yogalog]

Bonus Interview with Katy per Andy’s suggestion Katy, age 28

Portland, Oregon, USA

Q. What autoimmune disease do you have?

A. Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis

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Q. How old were you when you were diagnosed?

A. 10 months old

Q. Can you describe the onset of symptoms?

A. Upon waking me up one morning, my mother noticed my ankles were swollen so badly she couldn’t even get my shoes on. I was constantly crying, I stopped crawling, and every movement hurt.

Q. Do you have any family history of autoimmune diseases?

A. No

Q. Did you try adjusting your diet to help with symptoms?

A. I have gone to several naturopaths in the past and was given different dietary restrictions each time, but none of them helped lessen my symptoms, until I came across Clint Paddison, the author and creator of the Paddison Program for rheumatoid arthritis. Clint was diagnosed with RA in his early 30s, but founded his own diet (low fat, whole foods, plant-based) and went to Bikram Yoga every single day. Because of the diet plus Bikram Yoga, he has been drug-free, pain-free, and symptom-free for over five years now. He created the Paddison Program to help others, like myself, heal from their rheumatoid arthritis as well. Since I started his program years ago, I have seen significant improvements in my body. I have been able to get off very heavy addictive painkillers (tapering off some other drugs as well), and I have never felt better.

Q. What made you go to your first Bikram Yoga class? Were you hesitant?

A. Curiosity. Clint Paddison highly recommended it to me, as it was what helped heal his RA. I had heard that it had helped many people heal from different injuries or illnesses, and I was hopeful that it could do the same for me. I was desperate for relief from pain and stiffness. I really had no idea 135

what to expect, as I had never been to any kind of yoga class before. So I invited one of my close friends to join me on my first class.

Q. Do you remember your thoughts during the first class, and what you

felt like after that first class?

A. I stood in the back row— shy, timid, and very self-conscious. Because of my RA, I grew up hating myself and the way I looked. So walking into the hot room and realizing I had to look at myself in the mirror for 90 minutes was possibly one of the hardest parts of the class. I could not balance for more than a second. I felt very weak and unstable. I glanced around at all the other people in amazement and awe. I couldn’t do more than half the postures because of my very stiff joints.

Walking out of class, though, I felt so good. It was like nothing I had ever done before, and watching everyone else in the room inspired me. When I came home from class, I sat on the couch and was expecting to feel worse.

As a kid and at all times previously, doing any type of exercise was extremely difficult for me and only made my joints hurt worse and be in more pain. But I never felt that after Bikram Yoga. In fact, I felt better after exercise for the first time ever. My joints felt looser, and I slept much better.

The sweating felt good on my body. I told myself I had to go back the next day. And then it turned into the next, and the next. And before I knew it, I found that Bikram Yoga was my medicine.

Q. What was the experience that led you to think, “This is going to work

for me”?

A. The more I came to class, the better my joints felt. I slowly began to notice tiny improvements in certain postures, such as grabbing a foot I couldn’t grab before. And that inspired me and gave me hope. No other exercise has given me the potential to change, strengthen, and become more flexible. And the yoga community was always so welcoming and supportive. I felt like I was practicing among family. I liked that it never felt like a competition, but that we each got to work on our own body. After a few months of consistently going, my pain levels were so low I was able to 136

taper off heavy Vicodin pills. Within seven months of practicing, I was Vicodin-free and have been ever since. I knew that Bikram Yoga was working for me. After about a year, I even started tapering off my RA injections. Initially I was taking one injection a week. Currently I am only taking one injection once a month, and my inflammation levels are continuing to decrease, even on less drugs.

Q. What makes you choose Bikram Yoga over other forms of exercise?

A. Throughout my life I have tried various yoga videos at home. I also tried ballet for a couple years and swimming, but all of these were so hard on my inflamed, stiff joints. I eventually gave up on exercise entirely because all exercise made me feel worse. But Bikram Yoga has turned my life around and has brought hope and a new future to my life. It has never made me feel worse. Bikram Yoga continues to bring more strength and flexibility, but it has also helped with my self-confidence, self-care, and love for others around me.

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Chapter 13

Name: Mary, age 45

Location: Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Diagnosis: Hashimoto’s Thyroid Disease

Mary’s story is unique in that she had practiced Bikram Yoga for many years before any sort of autoimmune diagnosis was made. It makes us wonder how many Bikram Yoga practitioners are out there who may have an autoimmune disease that is asymptomatic, and thus undiagnosed, due to the yoga.

Initial Bikram Experience

I started practicing Bikram Yoga

in 2003. I was 31 and living in

Connecticut. At that time, I was

fairly tired from my stress load at

work; I was tied to a computer

all day, and it was sucking the

life out of me. If I could get a

break from the computer for a

day or two, I could bounce back

just fine. So it wasn’t great, but it

did not feel like an “I can’t get out of bed” type of tired.

I started practicing Bikram Yoga mostly because I lived up north; I was cold all the time and I just could not get warm. Most people hate the Bikram heat at first, but I loved it.

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When I first started practicing, it was only once or twice a week, but I immediately felt a difference. I could tell that the work I was doing at the computer was killing my neck and my shoulders. The Bikram Yoga immediately started bringing awareness that I was not taking care of my body the way that I should.

Continuing Bikram Yoga

After that, I was inconsistent with the practice because of travel. I moved to Mexico City in 2005 and there wasn’t a Bikram Yoga studio there at the time. But around 2006 someone opened one. So I started doing it again.

When I had first done Bikram Yoga in Connecticut, I didn’t realize that it was an option to go everyday … or that people even did that. But when I started again in Mexico City, I was first told that I should go everyday. I was like,

“What? That is crazy!”

But then I started going every day, and it was amazing. So much changed.

The stress I felt from being in a different country … being in a work environment that was not in my native language or culture … and the very different gender roles I was dealing with …

I felt so much less stress from all of it.

The teachers at the studio there were always saying things like, “By going everyday, everything else will just work out on its own. Just go everyday.”

And it really did happen. I think it was a mix of a lot of different things—

being healthier, getting my blood moving, aligning my energy, things internally working a lot better, learning to take care of myself throughout the class, and letting feelings go during class. It helped in every area of my life.

It was there that I decided to go to the Bikram Yoga Teacher Training.

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I went to Bikram’s training in 2008. We all did two classes every day, and I had so much energy. I would even wake up in the middle of the night with just a ton of energy. Physically my body changed, and I felt healthy and in good shape.

After training, I taught for three years in Mexico. Even when just teaching18

I felt like I got some of the physical benefits of being in the hot room, focusing on each word, and being in the present moment.

Decline in Health

My energy really crashed when I moved back from Mexico City in 2016. I moved back to Nashville then, and there wasn’t a studio I could get to in less than an hour, so it wasn’t feasible to keep up with my Bikram practice.

It was a time of transition for me, integrating back into this country. It was then that I let the Bikram practice go, and that is when I started feeling the exhaustion. But this was the “stay in bed” kind of exhaustion.

Family History and Getting Diagnosed

I had done gymnastics as a kid and a lot of sports in high school. I also played college tennis. So I have a background of being active.

Everyone in my family has been diagnosed with some type of thyroid disease—my mom, my sister, my aunt, my uncle, and all my cousins. They are all on Synthroid.

Getting diagnosed has been interesting, as I have seen both a general practitioner and a naturopath, and they are not in agreement on what my issue is and what I should do about it.

My general practitioner took the position that my thyroid was absolutely fine. At one point, I started feeling really, really tired all the time, but my GP

18 Bikram Yoga teachers do not practice the postures while they are teaching them; they use instructional language only to guide the students in technique and staying in the present moment.

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still insisted that my thyroid was fine. So I asked him, “So do you wait until the thyroid dies before they tell you it is a thyroid problem?” My GP said that I was just depressed, and he wanted to put me on antidepressants.

My naturopath told me, “Your doctors are telling you that you are fine, but you have Hashimoto’s disease.” She told me to stay away from gluten, because she said that the gluten was causing my body to attack my thyroid.

Her goal was to get me more functioning and less tired.

The naturopath is more proactive as far as working with what I do have, so that the thyroid doesn’t die. She has said that I do have a thyroid problem—

in fact, she is sure that I have Hashimoto’s disease! She recommends that I pay attention to it and do some things with adaptogens and diet.

The one thing that both the GP and the naturopath have diagnosed is a very significant vitamin D deficiency, particularly in the winter.

Link Between Yoga and Thyroid Health

My mom got a Hashimoto’s diagnosis when she was about 55, and my sister was placed on Synthroid about twenty years ago in order to preserve the thyroid she had left. Out of everyone in my family, I only have one cousin who is not on Synthroid, and she also happens to do yoga. I know that there are lots of factors here, but it is kind of interesting that out of everyone in my extended family, we are the only two that practice yoga and the only two not on Synthroid.

Bikram Yoga has proactively helped me take care of my thyroid. The fact that I have never gone on Synthroid, well, I personally attribute it to the yoga.

Benefits of Practicing

When I practice Bikram Yoga on a regular basis, I don’t have the overwhelming sluggish feelings that I do when I’m not practicing.

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Another part of my condition is that my extremities feel cold all the time.

And so the heat really helps with that. For some reason, being able to move my body in the heat makes it possible for me to live in a cold climate and not feel cold the rest of the day.

My naturopath has prescribed some diet change, but overall the biggest factor in how I feel is whether I’m practicing Bikram or not.

I do like to mix in a few different kinds of yoga just for variety, so I do some vinyasa yoga too. But I feel like for health and maintenance, Bikram is it. In vinyasa, I feel like a lot of strain is being put on your shoulders, and that strain doesn’t happen in a Bikram class. It is so safe, and the teachers are more effective at guiding you so you don’t get hurt.

Time, Rest, Savasana

For me the 90-minute class is

extremely important. I think it is

really necessary to have the

first set as a diagnostic set, and

then have the second set to go

to stillness in the posture and

just stay there.

When I do a 60-minute class, it feels quite rushed, and I don’t get as much healing. I think it is because I am not in savasana after each posture. My blood is still moving, sure, but I’m not getting that change from maximum exertion to maximum relaxation. I seem to need that alternation for the healing process to keep my thyroid working.

There are some postures that use the tourniquet effect19, which brings oxygenated blood through certain parts of the body more effectively. I am sure that this process is working on my thyroid and that it is a huge part of balancing my condition.

19 See page 186 for explanation of the tourniquet effect.

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Back to the Basics

I find that some of the main principles of the Bikram practice aren't transmitted to students. I'm working with my studio to educate and remind people that the 90-minute Bikram class is truly for beginners and that this is a basic, therapeutic class.

Bikram Yoga is for healing, and it is for newbies.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation about what it is, and not enough focus on what it can really do for you. When people talk about it, the focus so often is on, “Oh my gosh, this is hot!”

That the focus is on the heat rather than looking at how it can really help people—especially those

with autoimmune disease—is really unfortunate.

For me, Bikram is the most complete yoga, and it is the yoga that gives me the most energy.

Currently

Unfortunately we don’t have a dedicated Bikram studio here. I typically practice about four classes a week; two Bikram and two vinyasa. I can tell the difference with either one. I also teach two Bikram classes a week.

I feel like the heat and the Savasana between each posture in a Bikram Yoga class is so key in helping my body regulate.

Like I mentioned before, I think it is very significant that every person in my family is on Synthroid, but I am not! I am so glad that I started practicing Bikram early enough in my life; I feel like I caught my condition early enough … before my thyroid cuts out completely.

Some yogas are taught with an advanced body teaching other advanced bodies. My body was not like that; it was broken from sitting at a computer 143

for years. When I found Bikram Yoga, it was my broken body that we were working with. I wish more people could know that this class is for broken bodies!

I feel like the teaching of some yoga is: “If you are bendy, you can do this class.”

But with Bikram, the approach is: “If you are broken and you need serious healing, this class is for you.”

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Chapter 14

Name: Brendan, age 52

Location: Luxembourg

Diagnosis: Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Life before MS

For most of my life, I have worked in finance, as a derivative swap broker.

The job was very stressful and fast-paced. I worked hard and played even harder. I suppose, looking back now, I would have been—in most ‘normal’

people’s eyes—a functioning alcoholic. I loved my work and lived life to the fullest … it was like one big party for thirty-plus years.

Yoga in any form was certainly not on my radar whatsoever. I’d joined various gyms to try and get back in shape over the years. I would start off with good intentions, only to stop after a couple of months.

When I came to Luxembourg in December 1987, I was only 90 kgs (198 lb.) at 2.01 metres tall (6 ft., 7 in.). I was so skinny that my nickname was Streaky.

Over the years of excess and partying, my weight ballooned to 168 kgs (370

lb.) at its worst! My nickname changed to Bubba, or fatty! It is now 136

kgs—which is still too much—but it is at least heading in the right direction!

Illness Onset

For all those years of work and partying, I was never ill. For a really long time, I never even had a sick day from work. I would often go out all night and then straight to work with no problems. Although my weight was an issue, apart from being overweight, my blood pressure and blood work was always fine. I displayed no symptoms before my first Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

‘attack’ in late 2003.

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My symptoms came on overnight. I woke to find the left side of my face numb, and my speech was slurred. I attributed it to excess partying and sleeping wrong, or the air conditioner in the office or something like that.

My general practitioner initially thought it may have been Bell's palsy, but when he examined me he immediately referred me to a neurologist whom I saw within the hour.

When I got the results from the neurologist, I sent them to an MS specialist in Sweden to get a confirmation of diagnosis; so I was officially diagnosed in early 2004.

Once diagnosed, and back at work, life pretty much went on as normal.

However, I did find I suffered more fatigue, and when I got tired, a nap wouldn’t suffice.

Luckily, my office was very understanding; being one of eight shareholders/owners I was very fortunate.

I had a second attack within six months and was immediately put on a disease-modifying drug, Rebif, which is a beta interferon. My life went on pretty much as normal. I still partied as usual, so much so that even my work colleagues forgot that I was ill. I guess I just managed my recoveries better.

After being diagnosed, I used a cross trainer down at the gym for an hour, three times a week, plus walking on a treadmill, but again this lapsed after a few months. I never tried to adjust my diet to help my symptoms.

Doubts About Bikram, Especially with MS

My colleague's daughter went to Bikram Yoga Teacher Training, and we ribbed him constantly. When she came back from training, she opened a small studio here, and my wife then began practicing Bikram Yoga with her.

My wife bought ten classes, went four times, and hated it. But she then 147

went on to finish her remaining classes, and fell in love with it. In the fall of 2013, she went to Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Los Angeles.

When she got back, my wife decided to open the first affiliated studio here.

I invested, so I thought I’d better practice what I preach.

I tried Bikram Yoga for the first time in 2014. I was very hesitant.

During my first class, all I could think was, “OMG, will people pay money to do this … what have I invested in?!!”

I was concerned about my health and particularly the heat and humidity.

My neurologist was totally against it. The fact is that a lot of people with MS

are known to struggle terribly with heat, humidity, and chronic fatigue.

These conditions can possibly lead to flare-ups/attacks (relapses), and therefore most neurologists are very wary.

I learned that there are four types of MS; I suffer with relapse and remitting which is the most common form. I am also of the type who isn’t negatively affected so much by heat but by the cold. Once my neurologist realized this and saw the benefits of my practice, she did a u-turn and is now fully supportive of me doing Bikram Yoga.

Persistence

To this day, it is still a struggle to go, but the feeling after each class was always what kept me coming back for more.

I’ve experienced improved flexibility, core strength, and mobility. Mentally, I suppose I feel that if I can do Bikram Yoga, I can do anything!

I like the consistency and repetitiveness of the practice. I know what’s coming up and can therefore manage my energy levels.

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I like the community and the fact that it’s not a competition, and that all different age groups, all different body types, and people from all different walks of life can participate.

In the hot room we are all equal.

Currently

I changed my MS medication to tablet form, Tecfidera, in 2015. I also stopped taking another drug, Neurontin, since reading about long term adverse effects. I have replaced this with CBD oil and have noticed no change in my general health.

Ideally, I practice Bikram Yoga three to four times a week. However, I had a few falls a couple of months ago and wasn’t fit for class for over three months. I’m now back; I did my first class and will be adding two to three of these back into my weekly routine. Slowly does it. I practice to improve and keep my flexibility, and for my general health and well-being.

I haven’t had an attack or full on relapse of MS since I began my Bikram practice in October 2014.

We visited Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Murcia, Spain, in Spring 2019. I finally got the chance to experience taking classes from Bikram Choudhury himself. Simply put, it was the best! Bikram was aware of my chronic illness and treated me with compassion. I was hooked. I even dabbled with the idea of attending teacher training myself sometime, however I don’t believe I would be physically capable of the rigorous twice daily classes, lectures, and posture clinics. And I would not wish to be treated differently than other trainees because of my condition.

As of Fall 2019, I have still had no new MS flare-ups or relapses. I’m fully back to my regular three-times-a-week practice and appreciate every day how much this truly healing yoga therapy has helped me in so many aspects of my daily life.

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Chapter 15

Name: Rowena, age 43

Location: Sydney, Australia

Diagnosis: Rheumatoid Arthritis

Getting Diagnosed

It was the year 2000. I was in the

performing arts industry—

singing, dancing, and acting—

plus I started studying massage.

One day I went to my massage

school, and while I was walking

upstairs my left knee swelled up,

all of a sudden. It got worse and

worse throughout the day.

People told me that I would

probably need to go get it

aspirated, and I just started

laughing. I was like, “I don’t need

to get it aspirated!” But on the

Saturday soon after, I went to a medical clinic; they said that it might be rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and that I would need to go and get tested.

So on the Monday after that initial clinic visit, I went to the rheumatologist.

They aspirated my knee, gave me a cortisone injection, and performed blood tests. It was then that they diagnosed me with rheumatoid arthritis.

RA is a genetic disposition in my family. My mum, my grandma, and my great-grandma had it too. I’m not sure if it goes back farther than that, but I know of at least those three generations.

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The diagnosis sort of went like this: “You have rheumatoid factor in your blood, which means you will have it for the rest of your life. Really your only option is to go on anti-inflammatories.”

I replied that I didn’t really want to do that, because I had had a kidney disease many years earlier. The doctor mocked me in response. He said,

“Oh yeah, I know you have all your natural therapy voodoo stuff, but you need anti-inflammatories.”

So I took the anti-inflammatories for a few days, and my kidneys started to bleed.

Then I went to another doctor who checked the side effects of the prescribed anti-inflammatories. He informed me, “Side effects from those medications are kidney problems.”

I had told the other doctor that I had kidney disease!

So that was it. I had three days of drugs and that was it. I refused to go on any drugs after that.

I endured three months of really dramatic swelling, but it was only in my left knee. I never had arthritis anywhere else, but I did have problems with my eyesight. I can still see, but I noticed that when my knee was at its worst I lost some vision and I couldn’t see at a distance anymore. I could tell it was a direct correlation, but nothing was ever really tested to determine that.

So I had a really tough three months. I was seeing a chiropractor who also gave me some homeopathics; for those three months he was trying everything—including acupuncture—and nothing was helping. The homeopathics would make the swelling go down, but then it would flare up again. So it caused some changes, but it didn’t really fix it.

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This swelling was pretty much constant for the next few years. Especially when the weather was cold. It would always flare up again under stressful situations, although it never flared up as badly as the initial period.

During this time, I ended up in hospital due to an eating disorder. My colon had started to bleed and I was in intense pain. At the hospital, they initially told me I had Crohn’s Disease. After more tests, they thought I had some sort of food poisoning, or some sort of parasite, but not Crohn’s. The whole thing really scared me. I heard this really strong voice in my head, saying that even though I didn’t have Crohn’s disease, this was my wake up call.

Bikram Yoga Entered My Life

So when I got out of hospital, I was literally praying for help. I just couldn’t live like this anymore. At one point, I heard someone call my name, but there was no one in the street. I was looking around, looking for where the voice came from, but there was no one there calling my name. And right then, I heard this same voice say, “Look up.” So I looked up, and there was this massive big sign, flapping in the breeze on the building, and it said: Bikram Yoga Grand Opening.

I had heard people talking about this Bikram Yoga. And my reaction was always, “Oh yoga. Ugh, how boring!”

But when I saw that sign, I knew deep inside me this was the sign I had been looking for!

So I went in and gave them my credit card and signed up for a three-month pass.

First Impressions

Oh my god, I went to the first class … and it changed my life so much. I could barely do anything because my knee was so swollen at the time. For 152

example, I couldn’t even put my knee on the mat in Camel Pose20. There was so much that I couldn’t do. But the energy that was surging through me was unbelievable. So I kept going back.

My knee just started getting better and better. I swear that within a month I was able to put my knee on the floor. And eventually I started being able to do postures. It just got better and better from there. And it was like that for eleven years.

I think I was not really a normal person, because I loved my first Bikram class. Because I had been dancing, I was fairly strong even when I had arthritis. Despite that strength, though, the muscle had atrophied in my leg.

I still remember how hard it was to do awkward pose.

But even so, I just felt the energy straight away to my spine. It was making me feel so much better, that I didn’t give a shit that it was hard.

Bikram Yoga and Mental Health

Bikram Yoga has affected me mentally in every way. I had an eating disorder before I started; Bikram Yoga changed my whole state and body image. I always thought I was an ugly, fat human being. I couldn’t even look at myself; I would cry.

But with Bikram Yoga I loved myself. I love how it changed my ability to deal with stress. As you probably know, autoimmune disease is definitely connected to stress. So as soon as I’m feeling stressed, I know I need to go do a yoga class. It helps so much every time—it will counteract anything that is going on. It helps me be calm, it helps me sleep better, and it just helps me feel more positive.

I still remember that after my first class, I didn’t feel depressed afterwards.

It was a natural high. I mean, sure, the frustration was definitely there when I couldn’t do certain things. I couldn’t bend my knee properly. I do 20 Camel Pose is pictured on page 170

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remember struggling with that. But it didn’t even matter because I felt so much better.

Stress and a Second Flare-Up

After I had been practicing Bikram yoga for about eleven years, I went through, well … I went through a lot. I was living in India and had opened a yoga studio for Bikram Choudhury. I went through a big stressful period in general. Basically there was a ton of stress in a short period of time.

I had then come back to Australia, and I was training full time for the International Asana Championships. I admit that I was pushing myself to the limit. I was studying naturopathy in college, practicing every day, and sometimes I would teach the 6 a.m. Bikram class. Sometimes I would do a mini training for myself in the morning, then I would go to college, then I would come back and teach two classes at night, and then I would come home and start my assignments at 11 p.m. I would go to bed at 1 or 2 a.m.

and then get up at 4 a.m. So I was pushing myself to the limit. And I was stressed about my boyfriend. It was so much at once.

So I got back from the world championships and was fine for a bit. But about two months later, I had an RA flare-up all over again, but it was so much worse than the first. I really just had to calm my life. I even had to stop teaching for a while, because it was too much for me.

It turned out that I had a monoarthritis just in my knee. No place else. The doctor said in some ways it is harder to treat. When the RA affects your whole body, it feels worse but it can be easier to treat. When it is just one joint, it is much harder.

Doctors, Choices, Drugs

My parents were with me when the doctor tried to tell me that I needed to have surgery.

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I said, “No way.” So then he said, “Well, then you should take methotrexate,” and I said, “No fucking way.”

The only reason I was even willing to see the rheumatologist was because my parents were supporting me at that time (since I had had to quit my job).

So the doctor sent my parents out of the room, and then he said to me, “I know you don’t want to go on the drugs, so just take the folic acid in front of your parents and pretend it is the methotrexate. If your condition gets better within the next six months, then you will know it fixed itself, without the drugs. The drug would take at least six months to work anyways.”

I ended up taking the methotrexate for one week, but I couldn’t do it any longer. Every bone and cell in my body was just cringing and fighting it. It went against everything I believed in, and if I was fighting it that hard I knew it wasn’t going to help me.

So then after that, I just took the folic acid.

I still kept studying, but my dad was having to drive me places. I bought a heater, and I did Bikram Yoga every single day in my house. Other than studying and doing Bikram Yoga, I just pretty much rested the whole time.

And with that, it got better and better.

This Bikram Yoga series is just amazing. I can’t imagine what I would have done without it.

Joint Deformation and Blood Test Results

Around the time of that second flare-up, I also had a Baker’s cyst. I think part of why the flare-up was so much worse the second time around was because the Baker’s cyst had ruptured. The swelling was all through my leg and my knee. My leg and the whole knee got really deformed, because the flare-up lasted for eight months.

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Rowena’s knee during a flare-up Rowena’s knee after Bikram Yoga Now it has been over eight years since that flare-up, and I have had no swelling or anything. No signs of it. I even sent the rheumatologist a picture of me in full bow pose. It is amazing to heal with Bikram Yoga.

Eight years after that flare-up, I don’t have any deformity in the knee at all.

So not only do I know that the yoga dealt with the pain and inflammation, but it fixed the deformity as well. It probably took a year or two, but it reshaped the whole joint. If you look at my leg now, it looks normal.

During the second flare-up, I had my blood tested. What was really interesting was that there was no rheumatoid factor in the blood, even though the first test results from a decade prior showed that there was.

I don’t remember what the results are now, but it was crazy. I had had a longtime diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, so my doctor at the time was confused by the fact that I didn’t have rheumatoid factor in my blood.

I told him that my original rheumatologist had said that the rheumatoid factor would never go away. And the new doctor said, “Well, yeah, it doesn’t.”

But it had.

I still had high levels of C-reactive protein. I had changed my diet. I did use some herbal and nutritional medicine, too.

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But I seriously know that it was doing the Bikram Yoga everyday that took the pain away. It just got better and better and better. And I just got stronger and stronger and stronger.

Coming Back from the Depths of Depression

When I had the second flare-up in 2011, I was so depressed I actually wanted to kill myself. One day, about three months after the flare-up started, I woke up and couldn’t walk. I had previously been able to hobble a bit and put my foot on the floor, but that one morning, I couldn’t even do that. The Baker’s cyst had apparently ruptured, so when I tried to get up to go to the bathroom, I actually just fell to the floor.

So I told my stepfather that day that I wanted to kill myself. He burst into tears because he could see how I was so miserable. I was just like, “I can’t live like this anymore.”

I felt like a hypocrite, because I had been saying for so long that yoga was healing my life, but at that moment, my life was so bad.

After that very low moment, though, whenever I would do the yoga, I would feel more positive.

Then one day I had a revelation and thought, “Come on, Rowena, this is your chance to prove everything you stand for. It has helped your eating disorder, and now it is your chance to practice it every day and let it heal you, and to let it change your mindset. Then you are going to really walk the talk.”

That was really what that second flare-up taught me. To be able to truly shift from feeling like I wanted to kill myself, to then thinking that even if I have the arthritis, I’m going to do the yoga and feel happier, and that is how it is going to be.

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180 Degree Turn Around

Just the other day I was teaching a Bikram class, and after class someone said, “I love when you teach, because you are one of the most positive people I have ever met.” Which just shows how much the yoga has done.

Because I used to be one of the most negative people! Everything was negative, and I always would complain. On the outside I might be nice and say, “Hi, how are you?” But inside, I was still negative. I used to only think negative thoughts about myself and about life.

I have been told I am a tough teacher because I don’t back down. I always say that if you want to heal, then do this and that (in the yoga class) and you will get it. I will find the positive in it every time. But some people are still stuck in their negative head.

So when that student said something after class recently, I was like, “Gosh, I really am positive.” I think it has changed over time, over sixteen years of practice. It wasn’t something that changed in a week. It has been a culmination that just keeps adding up, a little bit at a time … like interest in a bank.

Bikram Yoga has changed my whole outlook on life. It has changed the way I feel about myself. It has changed the way I respond and communicate with other people. It has empowered me to become a strong, loving human being. A complete 180 degree change in my life.

Now, I think the happiest thoughts, no matter what is going on. The yoga made me focus on living right now, even amongst the pain and the swelling and the fact that I couldn’t work.

To just do yoga, and feel the peace, and enjoy every moment.

It gave me so much that it is hard to explain, but I have changed a lot in these last eight years. The flare-up and the depression were actually big catalysts. The yoga changed me so much that now there is an inner strength 158

within—and a feeling of being empowered—more than I ever had before.

That is such a gift.

The Paddison Program for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Clint Paddison is a researcher. He did research and created a program to reverse RA with diet. He also did a TedX talk about Bikram Yoga.

Clint and I met at the first yoga studio I practiced at. My cookbook had recently been produced, so I was at the studio doing workshops. And Clint had recently started a podcast about RA, so we were introduced. He interviewed me three times, and we did one entire interview about Bikram Yoga.

Clint had a similar situation to mine; he did the Bikram and the diet. It was the perfect combination really. He advocates Bikram Yoga, and the people on his forum who do the Bikram heal faster and always get better results.

This has also been my experience. As soon as people start doing Bikram Yoga they get massive results … even if they had already been following the diet he developed. They still get noticeably better results by adding Bikram Yoga.

We just recently did a workshop together and had 40-45 people come. It was incredible to hear the people’s results who had been on his program for a while. It seems like the trick is to stick with it. Some people give it a go, but they don’t stick around long enough. Despite the fact that they start feeling better when they start practicing the yoga, some people start to think negatively about feeling hot or tired during the class. And then they stop coming because of those thoughts, even though class was helping them. But the ones who stick around get incredible results.

Resistance to Bikram Yoga

Some people are in a desperate state, and they are willing to try anything.

But I also get a lot of people who are in a fear state, and often still 159

controlled by the doctors. That is where a lot of resistance to Bikram Yoga can come up.

Another type of resistance goes something like, “It is too hard and too hot.”

I honestly don’t understand.

I have one student who is elderly. Her family—well, mainly her husband—

really wanted her to heal. He brought her to Bikram everyday, and he was advocating it. But then she brought her best friend to try it, and her best friend said, “I really hate this. It is too hot and too hard.” So the student got talked out of it by her friend. She stopped coming.

I always try to share my story and Clint Paddison’s story and give them background information, because I can almost guarantee that the yoga is going to help!

Another client of mine started Clint’s program [the Paddison Program], but she was quite resistant. Fear was triggered in her, and she was looking for a quick fix. After five or six weeks of yoga, her blood work still showed that the inflammation was really high. So her doctor convinced her that the yoga wasn’t working.

She came back to class after that, and I tried to tell her that it takes patience. But she ended up choosing the prednisone, and she stopped coming after one or two more weeks.

I had another lady with RA in both knees, and she would need to use the wall and a chair and she was really improving … and then she just disappeared. I don’t know what stopped her from coming.

I tried to talk a lady into keep practicing on a boat. She travels six months a year on a boat, and I tried to tell her she could still do it. She and her husband are still practicing at our studio when they are on land, and it’s made a big difference in her life.

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I’ve had clients who have had RA, and the problem is that the disease hits people so hard that they give up. They listen to the doctors and get scared into taking the drugs. People see improvement, but then they get scared back onto the drugs.

Food and Diet

Regarding my diet, I don’t fit in a box or label. I am 99 percent vegan, but once in a while I might splurge or go to a dinner party and eat something non-vegan like honey.

Dairy is the worst thing ever. If I have dairy, my whole body swells up.

When I had the last flare-up, I had been eating this yogurt, and every time I ate the yogurt I would notice my leg would swell up. I know the dairy makes my legs swell.

I do eat a lot of raw food, but I still eat cooked food. I don’t eat wheat or dairy 100 percent.

Currently

I practice everyday! I am busy, but I practice five to six times a week definitely, and then I can still do a little at home if I can’t get to class for the other days. I actually feel sick if I don’t practice, and I am much more happy if I’m practicing everyday. I do have a sauna, so if I can’t get to class on some days, then I’ll go in there and do some postures so I can feel better. I also teach seven to eight classes a week right now. I love it.

When I was building up my business, I had to cut back on my yoga practice, but then I started to feel depressed. So I had to get back to five days minimum. Yoga is my priority. I try to get all my clients to go to Bikram Yoga, because I know it will help them.

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Photos

Wind Removing Pose

Sitting Japanese Style

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Standing Head to Knee Pose

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Locust Pose

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Half Tortoise Pose

Rabbit Pose

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Fixed Firm Pose

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Awkward Pose: Part 1

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Awkward Pose: Part 2

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Awkward Pose: Part 3

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Camel Pose

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Savasana

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Part 2: The Context

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What Is Yoga?

There are probably as many beliefs about what happens in a yoga class as there are people who have heard the word. And there are, in fact, hundreds of different things happening in “yoga classes” in North America.

Some imagine and expect low lighting, chanting, candles, and soft music.

Others imagine and expect energizing playlists, constant movement, and unavoidable high intensity. Still others think it is a religion which might conflict with their own faith.

The reality is that all of the above are accurate, in the sense that these things are happening in various yoga classes in the twenty-first century.

However, another reality is that the above statements are also entirely inaccurate, in the sense that none of the above happen in a Bikram Yoga class.

So, when thinking about yoga, or when in conversation with someone who might be open to practicing, it is important to get some clarity about what our, or their, preconceived notions are like. Then, learn what a Bikram Yoga class entails.

What Happens in a Bikram Yoga Class

1. People of many ages and walks of life gather in a room and set up their mats. They have hydrated thoroughly—before coming to the studio—and arrive at least a few minutes before class begins.

2. There are mirrors at the front of the room so students can observe themselves, and so that the teacher can better observe students.

3. The teacher gives basic and clear verbal descriptions of exactly which body parts to move, as well as when to move them.

4. Sometimes the teacher states the results of doing those movements, as well as how to better accomplish the movements.

5. The 26 postures are repeated in the same order in every class.

6. The yoga sequence and techniques do not change; rather, repetition of the yoga postures—and gradual mastery of the techniques—changes you.

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7. There is comprehensive and strength-based movement of the spine into various positions which are then held in stillness. As a result, there is internal compression and extension of the organs and glands of the neck, thoracic cavity, abdominal cavity, and pelvis, among other physiological effects.

8. Circulation of lymph and blood is manipulated by attempting each of the postures and holding them in stillness. Variance in circulation and oxygenation occurs in each part of the body. These effects happen regardless of how far or how deep a person goes into each posture.

9. The teacher does not touch students. Your progress comes from your own efforts and from your repetition of the postures.

10. There is no music played during class.

11. The teacher’s instructional language is almost entirely composed of a) basic body part words, 2) precise, direct command verbs, and 3) directions (e.g. up, in, towards the ceiling, left/right, etc.).

12. Students attempt to move their bodies at the same time that the teacher is saying the body part words and verbs. As a result, the student’s mind—even if just for a few moments at a time—stops its usual chatter and just listens. The typical response to this is stress relief.

13. All postures are held still.

14. Breathing is to be normal at all times during the postures (smooth, quiet, and by the nose only).

15. Two breathing exercises are also practiced; one at the beginning as an important respiratory and neurological warm-up, and one at the end to assist the post-class relaxation and elimination of waste products (CO2).

16. Teachers should not be mentioning personal beliefs regarding politics, religion, new age spirituality, etc.

17. Teachers focus on the present moment and present experience.

Are Bikram Yoga and Hot Yoga the Same Thing?

From the early 1970s until approximately 2010, Bikram Yoga—also known as the 26 & 2—was equivalent to “hot yoga,” as it was the first and only yoga practiced in a heated room. The unparalleled benefits and worldwide popularity of Bikram Yoga inspired many to try to imitate some aspects of it.

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Since the early 2010s, many other “hot yoga” and heated fitness trends have proliferated, especially in North America. However, it is not just the heat that makes Bikram Yoga work. The sequence, principles, and practice methods of Bikram Yoga create the transformative benefits of what some people refer to as the “90-minute miracle.”

The following table should help you distinguish between Bikram Yoga and other heated yoga practices.

Bikram Yoga

Hot Yoga

Repeated Posture Sequence; 26

Various sequences depending on the

postures and 2 breathing

teacher

exercises, 2 sets of each

Comprehensive treatment of

Varying sequences may or may not

every muscle group, joint, and

cover each muscle and system

major system in the body

Method accessible to all ages

Mostly accessible to flexible young

including ages 70+

women

No inversions for beginners; no

Depending on teacher, downward

downward dog

dog and inversions may be present

Stillness during and after every

Movement and stillness depends on

posture

teacher; stillness becoming less

common

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Specific “tourniquet effect” in Tourniquet effect might take place

every posture for specific health

in some postures

benefits

Emphasizes spine strength,

Commonly emphasizes hip mobility

mobility, and circulation

and arm/shoulders; less focus on

spine

Possible to do while injured or

Often requires ability to walk,

partially immobilized, even with

stand, or put weight on wrists and

cast, broken bones, etc.

shoulders

Emphasis on mental aspects

Often emphasis on “interesting” or

and mastery of basics and

new postures, fitness trends such as

breathing

barre, pole, etc.

Detailed instruction of each

Varying amounts of instruction

body part movement

throughout the class, moment

by moment

No music

Music is likely

Emphasis on precision of

Common emphasis on doing

technique for each body part,

“whatever feels right”

and moving together with the

instructions

Research on the specific

Variety makes research difficult, and

sequence and method

claims cannot be translated to other

demonstrates tangible benefits

versions

to several internal systems

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Yoga and the Healing Process

In the next section, we will be going into more detail about the specific functions of the heat in a Bikram Yoga class. But before we do that, we want to briefly discuss our working definition of “healing.” In the wider North American culture, yoga is blanketly assumed to be good. It is often assumed to be healing in some way. But what that means is not always thought about or discussed.

What does it mean to start and commit to a healing process? What does it mean to want to feel better in a deeper and lasting way? We would like to help reframe the conversation around the healing process and about what

“yoga” can be.

Healing is quite distinct from treating symptoms. Healing is not equivalent to just getting better enough to go back to work. Healing is not the simple pop of a pill—nor a fun exercise class with some yoga moves—that allows us to get back to our usual patterns.

The healing process, we have come to experience and witness, involves transformation. And we have found that it actually requires some level of discomfort in order to work.

Sometimes that discomfort is giving up food we enjoy that causes inflammation. Sometimes that discomfort is calmly allowing a bit of sweat to run in our eyes. And the deeper and more transformative healing involves giving up certain patterns of thought about ourselves.

We are purposefully keeping the suffix “-ing” on the word “healing,” as it is an ongoing process. Even when a particular body-part injury has “healed,”

there will always be areas of our bodies—or our minds, relationships, lives, etc.—that need observation and some sort of healing attention.

If we are lucky we will have some sort of healing process active as long as we are alive.

Barriers to and Support for the Healing Process We acknowledge that initiating and committing to a healing process is a challenge. Many contemporary interactions between capitalism and 180

biomedicine21 often only encourage and support the relief of symptoms, rather than deep and transformative healing.

The measure of success is often: Can a person feel decent enough to get back to work?

But at some point you may realize that getting by—or functioning just enough to show up for work—is not enough for you. You know or believe that there is something more.

Perhaps you want to stop getting surface relief. Or you might be unwilling to perpetuate the long-term side effects of medications. Or perhaps you don’t even want to start taking a medication due to side-effects and organ involvement.

Many mainstream approaches toward our bodies—which include the focus on treating symptoms, as well as numbing pain with food and drugs—can make it difficult for us to make significant changes in our diets, our behaviors, or even our breathing and movement patterns. However, if we recognize this, and if we decide we are willing to go against the status quo just a little bit, we have incredible potential to transform and feel so much better.

How Does Bikram Yoga Support Transformation?

So, in this larger context of numbing and symptom-treating, where does yoga come into the picture? What we have found about Bikram Yoga in particular is that it supports and trains people to observe, confront, and transform exactly those things they try to avoid.

● We avoid looking at ourselves (often because we are avoiding the negative thoughts that we don’t know how to control or transform).

● We avoid being present with our bodies and our thoughts.

● We avoid discomfort.

● We avoid taking sufficient time for self-care.

● We avoid slowing down and holding still, physically and mentally.

21 For more on this topic, see Ivan Illich, Limits to Medicine, in Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health, 1976; Hans A. Baer, Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America: Issues of Class, Race, Ethnicity, & Gender, 2001; and Howard Waitzkin, The Politics of Medical Encounters: How Patients and Doctors Deal with Social Problems, 1991.

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Bikram Yoga trains us to stop avoiding these things. It even has the potential to transform the negative thoughts and judgments into neutrality, acceptance, and eventually gratitude!

Why is Bikram Yoga So Hard?

The challenging process of transformation is not always welcome nor understood in the context of the contemporary yoga scene.

In the past few decades, many have been led to believe that yoga should only be soothing, that any discomfort is a sign to stop, and that a class or a teacher you don’t “like” is one to be avoided.

But the discomforts in Bikram Yoga, when we observe them without knee-jerk reactions, are exactly what will lead us into the healing process.

Repeated attempts to sweep discomfort under the rug lead to accumulations of fear and aversion that build up over the years. And this fear and aversion keep us stuck in old patterns of thought, movement, and oftentime, disease.

Some people are afraid of Bikram Yoga. Some have a list of reasons why they will never do it.

In many cases, though, the only barrier to healing is fear itself. Or the aversion itself. It is only the mind telling you that the yoga class is a problem.

So, this next section explains the potential of a Bikram Yoga class to those who might be somewhat fearful but who are willing and ready to transform that fear into something much more helpful and healing.

What Is Actually Asked of You in the Yoga Room?

The only thing asked of a Bikram Yoga practitioner is that he or she be in the yoga room for 90 minutes and breathe. If a rest is needed during the standing postures, people kneel down with the body and spine upright. If a rest is needed during the floor postures, people remain in the lying-down resting positions in stillness. In fact, taking these breaks as the body demands it are a part of this practice just as much as the postures themselves. No one wins any prizes for never sitting down.

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We try to hold as still as we can, whether in a posture, or not in a posture.

And during each posture, we try to breathe in by the nose and out by the nose.

That’s it.

But Then Our Minds Enter the Room

The only real trouble comes up when the mind gets involved! Ninety-nine percent of the discomfort in Bikram Yoga comes from our mind. Yet the mental discomfort in a Bikram Yoga class holds the greatest potential for transformation.

One of Ann’s students entered the practice with great physical pain and no tolerance whatsoever to heat. She literally sat on the floor in the yoga room for the entirety of her first four classes.

During her fifth class, she did two of the twenty deep breaths of the Pranayama Deep Breathing exercise. It took her over six months to be able to complete the entire standing series without sitting down. Four years later, she usually does most of the class.

This is one example of how the physical realm does not need to be a barrier. She simply did what she could tolerate. But she kept coming back.

The benefits she got for the quality of her life were huge! She regained the ability to climb stairs. She went from hardly being able to walk around the block (before Bikram Yoga) to being able to walk over a mile (after several months of Bikram Yoga). She went from suffering in Missouri heat on trips to visit her family (before), to having no trouble with heat at all (after).

However, had she not been so determined to relax in the class and do very little when she started, she would likely have given up after a single class.

She would have said, “This is too hard.” Or, “I can’t possibly do what these others are doing.” It was her thoughts that made the difference, not her physical skill.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, a person stops Bikram Yoga due to mental discomfort, not physical impossibility.

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What is Mental Discomfort?

Mental discomfort appears in the form of certain thoughts.

This often happens when we reach a physical limit—endurance, strength, mobility—and then, rather than accepting that limit in the moment, we apply a judgement to it. The thoughts in your own mind might appear like this:

● Why can’t you do as much as the others?

● You’re in shape; you shouldn’t need a break.

● What’s wrong with you?

● Why can’t you balance?

● You should be able to do more.

● When are you going to be able to do this posture?

● I should be getting better at this by now.

● I’m too old for this.

The trouble is, instead of seeing and accepting the physical limit as reality, we mistake the argumentative thoughts for reality! When we do this, we are often compelled to try to resolve the argument. So we might not take a break when we need one. We might feel inadequate or “less than”

compared to the person next to us. We might not come back to class because we believed the thought that we are not “good at it.”

But in Bikram Yoga we are being trained to recognize thoughts like these and stop giving them so much power over us. We look at the thoughts and realize that they are rarely in touch with reality. We learn how to keep our thought process in the present moment rather than letting it judge.

How Does Bikram Yoga Keep Our Thoughts in the

Present Moment?

In Bikram Yoga we train ourselves to synchronize our thoughts with the words of the teacher, moment by moment. Bikram would always say, “My brain, your body.”

This process forces us very quickly into present-moment thinking. Keeping our focus exactly on the teacher’s words and on our body parts helps us realize when we are allowing our minds to go into judgment mode, into conditioned patterns of thinking, into feelings of inadequacy, etc.

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Instead of complaining inwardly, “It’s too hot in here,” blaming the environment for our suffering, we learn to take care of ourselves by breathing more calmly and focusing on what we can control internally. This is one of the processes by which we take responsibility for ourselves in the present moment.

Instead of having the knee-jerk reaction, “I don’t want to do what the teacher says,” or, “I want to do my own thing,” we surrender to the instructions. We take a break from trying to control things, even just for a few minutes at a time. We get a break from being held hostage to the whims of our thoughts, our moods, or our fickle desires.

The potential for psychological benefit in Bikram Yoga is huge, specifically due to the combination of the heat, the synchronization of the mind with the present moment, and the consistency of the postures.

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Why the Heat?

So, how does the heat in a Bikram Yoga class facilitate the healing process, in the context of these cultural and psychological barriers to healing? In short, the heat helps us get more quickly to the root cause of issues rather than covering them up or just providing surface relief. It is truly a bones-to-the-skin shift in the body. It addresses thought patterns just as much as, or even more than, it addresses muscles and circulation.

One thing to always keep in mind is that Bikram Yoga is not an exercise class in a hot room. It is not a movement class in a hot room. And it is definitely not a stretching class (although muscle stretching does occur).

Bikram Yoga is a specific series of positions, each held in stillness. It is a 90-minute process of self-observation and uncovering what has been swept under the rug for years or decades. And yes, the room happens to be slightly above body temperature.

So we want to give you two things to think about with respect to the heat: 1) the physiological benefits, and 2) the psychological benefits.

Physiology and Speculated Mechanisms

On many Bikram Yoga and “hot yoga” websites, we see the claim that the heated room helps to loosen muscles, thus enabling a deeper stretch.

While it is true that the heat helps to loosen stiffness in the skeleto-muscular system, this is a very narrow view of how the heat works in a Bikram Yoga class.

In addition to reducing stiffness and enabling movement, we speculate that the following mechanism is one of the main reasons Bikram Yoga is so effective for a number of physical symptoms and ailments.

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The “tourniquet effect” happens when the alternation between posture and rest, posture and rest, etc., creates a variance in circulation to body parts. During each posture, restrictions in circulation are initiated and maintained by gravity, pressure, or muscle contraction (usually a combination of these three). Then, after each posture, those restrictions are removed, and a higher pressure blood flow is allowed to return to those areas of the body from which the circulation was restricted. These tissues, having been mildly oxygen-deprived, will absorb oxygen from their restored blood flow more efficiently than usual.

According to many healing practices, including osteopathic medicine, increasing oxygenated blood flow to a given area increases the ability of the tissues there to heal.

The tourniquet effect—as we understand and have described it—requires holding of a position (in stillness) for a certain amount of time. It then requires release of the position back to a relatively neutral or rest position (again held in stillness). Repetitive movements and movement in general will not create the tourniquet effect.

This concept of the tourniquet effect is not a new one. All Bikram teachers have heard about it from Bikram Choudhury, and hopefully they mention it in class to their students. However, in speculating about the mechanisms of healing in autoimmune diseases and other pathologies, we believe the tourniquet effect is worth serious study and consideration.

We speculate that the tourniquet effect is amplified during Bikram Yoga.

During the 90-minute class, three things cause an increased overall rate of 187

blood flow throughout the body: 1) the environmental heat and humidity, 2) the internal heat generated by muscle contraction, and 3) the increased cardiac output due to major muscle use in the standing postures.

Thus, when the “tourniquets” of each posture are applied, the variance in blood flow and oxygenation is much greater than it would be if the class were practiced in an average room temperature of 68-70°F, or even a room of 80°F.

Psychological Benefits of the Heat: Discomfort and Self-Observation

We have found that healing often requires both 1) discomfort, and 2) self-observation. For an autoimmune sufferer who has suffered chronic discomfort, acute pain, and/or loss of function in bodily systems or joints, you might think you have experienced “more than your share” of discomfort. You may not initially want to consider trying something that is out of your comfort zone, or which promises to challenge you.

Or perhaps as someone who has endured so much suffering, you are willing to try out a different type of discomfort—especially one with the potential to relieve a majority of your physical symptoms and related mental suffering.

The desire to avoid discomfort is understandable.

The desire to avoid deep self-observation is also understandable (it is often uncomfortable!).

But when practiced in a supportive environment, Bikram Yoga can specifically lead us through these things so that we can get unstuck from mental, physical, and emotional barriers that prevent healing.

The heat helps us experience a physical limit starting in our very first class.

This allows us to observe and deal with the mental discomfort that usually arises.

As the hot room and the postures bring us to our limit quickly, we get the opportunity to observe and redirect our thoughts.

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We can’t stay stuck in the usual patterns of comparisons, demands, expectations, and judgment.

If we are willing, we can experience true moments of freedom, often within those first few 90-minute classes!

Talking to People about the Bikram Yoga and the Heat Despite the clear physiological and psychological benefits of the heat, it can still be challenging to get someone to try Bikram Yoga.

Instead of assuring our fellow coworkers or family members—or YOU, if you are still concerned about it—that they will just “get used to the heat,” it may be more productive to start asking questions of them (or ourselves) instead. Here is a start:

● Do you want to feel better?

● How badly do you want to feel better?

● Do you want to really get to the root cause of your pain?

● Are you willing to be a little bit uncomfortable in order to do so?

● Are you willing to give up certain patterns of thought in order to assist your healing?

Some people will happily answer that they just want to treat the symptoms.

To swallow a pill and numb the pain. Or that they don’t want to experience discomfort.

We can accept this response without judgment. However, this mindset will prevent a person from having the chance to experience the potential life-altering benefits of this healing system.

What we have found is that if someone truly wants to heal—and is even just a little bit open-minded about trying Bikram Yoga—some measure of healing success is highly likely. It is understandable if there is a little bit of fear present, but if you take steps to prepare and commit (hydrate in advance, take at least 10-12 classes in your first month), you will be in an excellent position to engage in the healing process of Bikram Yoga.

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Notes on Teaching

In our collective experience with practicing Bikram Yoga, teaching Bikram Yoga, and writing this book, we have been reminded that the quality of teaching is important if this practice is going to reach its healing potential across generations and around the globe.

The strange but good news about Bikram Yoga is that it can be practiced successfully even with new and relatively inexperienced instructors. The brilliance of Bikram’s instructional dialogue and his official teacher training is that teachers with only 500-700 hours22 of training contact hours (and usually at least 500+ hours of practice experience prior to training) can share and teach the yoga postures with precision. And, more importantly, students around the world can get the benefits.

However, in talking with our autoimmune friends, we were reminded that teachers can make the yoga less accessible to those who might need it the most. Teachers can and do make choices—whether consciously or not.

Some modes of instruction allow the slow, therapeutic process to take place, and others make it more difficult, particularly for new students.

Don’t Be a Yoga Teacher; Be a Student

The shortest and sweetest advice we can give to teachers is that you really have no idea what people are bringing with them into the room. We suggest you observe students more and more closely, and long term, until you realize that you are more of a student than a teacher.

Ann always tells her teachers that they should be learning at least ten times as much as they “teach.” In every single class they teach!

22 Some may be familiar with Yoga Alliance designations such as RYT-200 (Registered Yoga Teacher who completed a 200-hour training) or E-RYT-500. These designations are not indications of training standards or skill level; Yoga Alliance is a commercial membership organization, not a certifying body. Bikram Yoga Teacher Training has never been affiliated with Yoga Alliance nor used these designations, so you will not usually see a Bikram Yoga teacher using any of these labels.

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If a teacher ever feels like two classes are alike, he or she is not in learning mode. If a teacher ever gets bored in a class, he is not in learning mode. If a teacher ever feels like all she is doing is saying the same words over and over—again, not in learning mode.

Ann has many specific techniques she shares with teachers to get them more and more into the present moment and more deeply in a learning mode.

But the first principle as a teacher must be that there is always going to be more that we do not know than we do know. There is a whole world and a whole history inside of just one single student. Having this attitude of not-knowing can make the difference between a student staying and managing their autoimmune disease, or turning away.

In the course of our interviews, a few of our participants commented on their experiences with teachers on various parts of the planet. We’ll leave their thoughts in their own words.

I have to say, I’m always so grateful that I started Bikram Yoga (where I did), because had I started somewhere else, I don’t think I would ever have gone back. At her studio, there is a focus on meditation, and the psychological or internal approaches to the practice.

But at the other places I have been, the focus is not on the meditation. Sure, it is the same postures, but it is more like a workout class. If I had not had teachers who were always encouraging us to just try a little bit each day, not to rush or force things, etc., I don’t think I would have come back.

- Jessica

The teachers themselves need to help the handicapped people, people who are in pain and suffering. When you get the 23-year-old teacher who has never had a sore finger, it is really hard for them to understand and then 191

teach others the powerful things that Bikram Yoga can do for people who are in pain. One thing that teachers need to be able to transmit is that you can do Bikram at any age. The youngest student I have is 45. It is important that teachers help students understand that you have to work with where you are, but you still need to push yourself.

You’ll often get someone in there who is really overweight and has bad knees and arthritis. At times they just need to sit there. Teachers need to learn how to inspire them to try and do everything they can in the Bikram class. It is a matter of making sure they try, but also being totally positive.

Some teachers don’t know you have these issues. In a lot of places it says you are supposed to talk to the teacher, but that doesn’t always work. A lot of teachers don’t have the experience of working through an injury, so they don’t know exactly how to help.

I’ve also seen some teachers being mean, and then the person never comes back. People need to feel nurtured, welcome, and able … but they also need to feel empowered and it is kind of hard to do all of it at the same time.

The heat is very important and I think it is a vital part of the Bikram Yoga and I think it does actually help the energy flow through the joints and whatever blood vessels or diseased area—I think it accelerates the healing in my opinion. But it works at 38 degrees celsius (100.4 F), too. I don’t think it would be bad to back it off a few degrees for people. The warmth is very healing but to crank it up so people are dying and they are never going to come back, I don’t know. When done right, I think Bikram Yoga really can help a lot of people.

- Leslie

Modifications

In some circles, Bikram Yoga has a reputation for “not allowing modifications,” but this is a misunderstanding.

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The way we see it, every posture is always modified, as the body is different each day.

Yet every posture still retains the same precision of set-up and therefore will result in the same or similar results for the circulatory systems, the nerves, the spine, and the skeleto-muscular system.

You never know how deeply you are going to go. You might just set up the posture one day. Another day you might be able to do ten percent of a posture. And on another day it feels like ninety percent of a posture can happen.

“Modification” occurs in the present moment as you discover how far you can go with normal breathing. But in nearly all cases, it does not mean you change the posture.

Now, as a student, you may or may not be able to find a teacher who has experience in helping you make “modifications” to the postures. While it is possible for an experienced student to figure these things out on their own by following the dialogue and applying the guidelines below, it is made smoother with the assistance of an experienced teacher.

Here is the most general “secret” for students and teachers alike: in almost all cases, even when there is injury, immobilization, a missing limb, or pain, we use the following three principles according to each posture.

1) We use as much of the spine as possible according to the ideal posture instructions,

2) we cause the organ and gland compressions and extensions in the same way as the posture instructs, and

3) we change the body’s circulation in the same (or similar) way as the posture instructs.

When this is attempted, the benefits of the class are still accessible, even from a chair.

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My Health: Who is the Expert?

In collecting these stories and writing this book, we have been frequently reminded that there are often tensions between bodily knowledge and biomedical diagnoses. As some of the stories here demonstrated, diagnosis can be a lengthy, frustrating, and disempowering process. This happens, for example, when the autoimmune sufferer feels symptoms, but initial tests do not show results. Or when a clinician tells a person that her illness is “all in her head” or merely a psychological problem.

As we have seen in our stories, there are also many situations in which prescribed medications do not help the symptoms; in many cases they can make them worse or cause side effects that are worse than the autoimmune symptoms themselves.

These issues of diagnosis and prescription lead some autoimmune sufferers to question whether or not they should be following their physicians’

advice. And whether the “experts” really are the experts.

So we are interested in the question: Who has the “knowledge that matters”? Where does it reside? With the medical practitioner? With a laboratory test result? With our personal experience that we have observed over time? With some combination of these?

This “knowledge that matters”—knowledge that we have invested physicians and other perceived authorities with, and which thus has power—has been referred to in the medical anthropology literature23 as

“authoritative knowledge.”

Beyond the scope of autoimmune sufferers, these questions can be applied to any individual, whether they are healthy, ill, symptomatic, or some combination.

Knowledge That Matters

One of the things we have learned over the course of our own experience—

with both this yoga practice and with putting this book together—is that health practitioners don’t always possess the “knowledge that matters” for 23 See Brigitte Jordan’s “Authoritative Knowledge and Its Construction,” Chapter 1, Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge, edited by Robbie E. Davis-Floyd and Carolyn F. Sargent. 1997.

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our healing process. They certainly have specific types of training and experience that we respect, but we have encountered the limits of their knowledge in very specific ways.

We (Ann and Jennifer) both have made various personal choices that went against the medical advice we received, and which benefited our healing process, mental health, pain levels, etc. We have spoken with hundreds of others who have done the same.

Ultimately, each of us decides where “knowledge that matters” resides, whether we realize it or not. Until we deeply consider this, however, most of us simply follow the protocol absorbed from our families, our cultures, the media, our friends, etc.

In many cases, this leads us to believe that any and all physicians possess the most important knowledge about our health and wellbeing. It is common to believe that they know more than we do about all aspects of our bodies and our health, even if their training is limited to very specific realms of medical practice or pathology. We may believe that we must do exactly what our physician tells us to do, or we may completely depend on a physician’s diagnosis to validate our symptoms.

Or maybe you have been brought up in a household where traditional medicine was categorically rejected. Still others of us will consider physicians’ advice but tend to reject it.

Or we may decide that a well-thought-out combination is in our best interest. We may try to integrate physicians’ recommendations with our own insights, personal conversations, research, and experiential authority.

In perhaps the most ideal cases, we work with physicians and other healthcare professionals who respect our personal experience, and who themselves help us invest our bodily experience with authority.

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When Authority Conflicts

In some cases, however, there is subtle or outright conflict between a physician’s pool of knowledge/advice on the one hand, and our bodily knowledge/experience, on the other.

The following chart gives some examples of conflict between a clinician’s recommendation and a person’s experience, using real-life cases related to Bikram Yoga.

Clinical Recommendation

Personal Experience

This can become Authoritative

Traditional Authoritative

Knowledge as a person trusts his or

Knowledge

her own bodily experience or as

he/she experiments with different

healing modalities

Avoid “hot yoga” because it is too

Bikram Yoga can be practiced

strenuous and the raised body

extremely gently and according to

temperature is dangerous.

my ability. When I am injured, it is

the only movement exercise I can

do comfortably. I hydrate well in

advance, and I make sure to

breathe normally. I can always sit

down if I need to rest. I can even

take my temperature during class if

I am concerned about high body

temperatures.

Take over-the-counter or

Prescribed medications led to

prescription anti-inflammatory

negative side effects, little-to-no

medication to manage pain or

improvement in my symptoms, or

autoimmune symptoms.

addiction. Bikram Yoga led to

improvement in my condition with

no negative side effects. I would

like to reduce my medications and

use the yoga practice to manage

my condition.

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Do not practice yoga until your Bikram Yoga is the only thing that

injury is completely healed.

reduces my injury pain, even the

day following an injury. I can move

Wear a brace, and do not do yoga

very carefully and slowly, doing

at all—nor move your spine—for 6 about 10% of the usual depth of weeks.

postures. At times, I can’t move

certain body parts at all, but I can

still get the benefits of movement,

circulation, and deep breathing.

Bikram Yoga is my main

antidepressant. I am better off

doing class at a reduced or minimal

level than not at all, especially

when I am injured and can’t do any

other physical activity.

The examples are as unique and diverse as each of us.

How to Talk to Doctors

In many health-related books or articles, we see the disclaimer “Always follow your doctor’s orders.” Yet one of the problems with this advice—

particularly in cases involving Bikram Yoga—is that most doctors are not informed about the specifics of Bikram Yoga, nor do they know how it can be tailored to the needs of those with injuries, pain, autoimmune diseases, or other conditions.

Many clinicians may associate Bikram Yoga with generic American “hot yoga” (which can include everything from Pilates in a hot room to vigorous movement-based classes or light weight training). They most likely do not understand the specific movements in each of the Bikram Yoga postures.

And they probably don’t know that we hold still in every posture24.

24 A yoga posture or asana is, by definition, held in complete stillness, and it is always to be followed by complete stillness in a neutral position. Movements or transitions between postures are something else. Much yoga (and hot yoga) in North American contexts has become a class made up mostly of the transitions, rather than yoga postures.

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Maybe the clinician read the one discredited study25 but is not aware of the body of better-designed research that shows only mild increases in body temperature, and which also shows numerous physiological benefits.

We respectfully question a recommendation made about something (i.e.

Bikram Yoga) in which the recommender does not have expertise or education.

As a Bikram Yoga teacher, I (Ann) am always very happy to speak with a physician about what exactly “the patient” can or should not do.

● Should the patient not sweat while a wound is healing?

● Should the patient not elevate the heart rate at all?

● Can the patient elevate the heart rate to a certain extent? If so, what is it?

● Should the patient not increase the blood pressure at the level of the chest?

● Does the patient need to sit in a chair for most or all of the postures instead of standing up? (It is possible to do the entire Bikram Yoga class from a chair and the floor.)

● Should the patient avoid putting the head below the heart?

● Should the patient not flex the vertebrae in the neck?

● Should the patient not flex the knee for a few weeks?

● Should the patient keep the shoulder joint in non-movement for a few weeks?

● Can the patient sit in a 105℉ room at forty-five percent relative humidity, and breathe slowly for 90 minutes?

These are the types of questions that we can be asking our physicians. I encourage you to ask until you get specific answers, as well as solid reasons behind the answers.

Depending on the recommendations, the Bikram Yoga practice can almost always be “modified” appropriately by an experienced teacher. Some amount of the class can nearly always be practiced, and some benefits will start to follow.

25 The American Council on Exercise (ACE)-sponsored study warned the world about the

“dangers” of the heat in Bikram Yoga. The study, however, was faulty in both its design and its conclusion and was discredited by one of the leading physiology researchers of Bikram Yoga (Brian L. Tracy, Ph.D.). Although there have been well-controlled studies of Bikram Yoga on a variety of topics (including body temperature), Yoga Journal has only ever featured the ACE

study.

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We deeply respect physicians for the areas they are trained in, and we hope to open a dialogue with them rather than close it off. However, we cannot in integrity say “Always follow your doctor’s advice” when it comes to how to proceed with the yoga practice.

However, for those seeking a comprehensive healing process, we are comfortable making the following recommendations:

● read

● ask questions

● talk to more than one doctor whenever possible

● speak up if something doesn’t feel right

● get more specific details on why certain recommendations are being made

● educate your physicians about the specifics of Bikram Yoga

● observe the effects of medications, stress, and foods on your system

● practice breathing wel

● keep moving

● do research (not just the internet-gossip, but deeper investigation!)

● experiment with diet and nutrition

● try 10 Bikram Yoga classes (even if your first few classes just involve sitting in the hot room and breathing slowly)

The stories in this book are just a small percentage of those that we have heard over the years, and we are thrilled to get the word out to you via this project.

We do not know the percentage of autoimmune sufferers for whom Bikram Yoga will work, as there has not yet been an interventional research study on this topic. As soon as a researcher is motivated and funded sufficiently to implement a study, we believe that it will produce publishable results.

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End Notes

We have been inspired and delighted to share these personal examples of how Bikram Yoga has made tremendous improvements in the lives of people with autoimmune diseases.

Please note that the men and women who shared their stories with us still have diseases and symptoms. We cannot claim that Bikram Yoga cures autoimmune disease. We do not advocate for people to stop taking their medications. The treatment paths and health outcomes will be as unique as each individual.

Some people—like Rowena—saw such drastic improvements that they were able to stop taking medications completely. Other people—like Jessica—found that they needed diet change, medication, and Bikram Yoga to feel their best. Every one of these people have forged their own paths and you can, too.

As authors of this book, we were encouraged by the stories that we heard.

We hope that you will also feel encouraged that there is hope for a better quality of life.

Our hope is that this book will help many more people relieve some of their autoimmune symptoms and struggles. But even if it is just one person, then all of the work will still be worth it.

We envision writing another book that deals with Bikram Yoga and a different health issue, such as asthma, headaches, or back pain. Maybe you will be the highlight of the next chapter we write!

If you have a story to share with us, we would love to hear it! Please fill out this Google survey to tell us more: bit.ly/BikramYogaAutoImmune

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How to Find a Bikram Yoga Class For those seeking the relief and benefits that have been shared in this book, you will want to practice the traditional 90-minute Bikram Yoga class, practiced at a temperature of 105°F/42°C at 40-45% relative humidity.

There may be an independently-owned Bikram Yoga school in your area, which could be easily found using an internet search engine.

There may be a yoga school near you that was formerly called Bikram Yoga, but which has changed its name. In this case, you can look at that yoga school’s website schedule for a 90-minute class called one of the following: Bikram Yoga, The Original Hot Yoga, or something that mentions “26

Postures and 2 Breathing Exercises” or “26 and 2.”

It is ideal if the school owner (preferably) and/or the teacher has completed the official Bikram Yoga Teacher Training.

If you cannot locate a yoga school near you that offers Bikram Yoga, you are invited to participate in live-streamed (online) group classes and/or private lessons with Ann Chrapkiewicz at Bikram Yoga Capital Area.

Information can be found here:

http://byca.yoga/online-bikram-yoga-classes/

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Acknowledgements

From Ann:

I am forever grateful to Bikram and Rajashree Choudhury, without whom none of this would be possible. The strength, clarity, and self-empowerment that Bikram Yoga Teacher Training created in me sixteen years ago is still alive today. To Emmy Cleaves, who set the bar high for precision, knowledge, and communication, and who, early on, inspired me to apply my intellect to yoga. To Mary Jarvis, whose experience, wisdom, precision, keen eye, unwavering dedication to this yoga, acceptance, love, humor, and Yoga Shapeshifting make this practice even richer!

Immense gratitude to Sadhguru and the Isha Yoga volunteers for everything you do and for bringing about a shift of energy on the planet. I am grateful that your time on the planet overlaps with mine.

My academic and intellectual interests in Bikram Yoga have been understood and supported for over a decade by Judy Pugh and Mindy Morgan, MSU Professors of Anthropology. I am appreciative to both of you for your outstanding teaching, unconditional mentorship, sincere friendship, and wisdom.

To the independent Bikram Yoga school owners who have committed their lives to sharing this yoga, I am grateful for what you contribute to our planet.

Thanks to Lora Rosenbaum for owning and operating the first Bikram Yoga school I attended (Bikram Yoga Ann Arbor), to Brandon Kietzman for being my first mentor and for teaching in the present moment (Bikram Yoga Traverse City), and to MaryElla Jones and Jenny & Ian O’Laughlin (Bikram Yoga Grosse Pointe and Bikram Yoga Farmington Hills) for providing teaching opportunities when I was a new mom.

To Forrest Henry, Nancy and Michael Daher, and Robert Phipps, thank you for believing in my vision for Bikram Yoga Capital Area (BYCA) and for helping make the vision become a reality. And to Forrest, my now-teenage son, who un-self-consciously has become a positive example at BYCA, for youth and adults alike.

To my dad, for showing me that it is possible to make a career out of the things you are passionate about. And for encouraging me from a young age not to care about what most people think.

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To all of the teachers, local and visiting, who have taught at BYCA for the past two years. You have made it possible for this project to coexist with the rest of my life as a school owner, mother, and yoga practitioner.

Carolyn, your desire to always learn and improve—coupled with your steadiness as a teacher and a person—are such a blessing! And special thanks to Angela Sinclair for going above and beyond expectations as a teacher, housemate, friend, caregiver, and confidante.

Thanks to Michael Fine, James Kleinbaum, and Marini Lee for support in establishing the Ten Percent Project, and Michael McPeak for photography. Jesse Kirchner, your astute editorial input was outstanding.

To all of the consistent members of the BYCA Karma Yoga team over the past two years - Sarah, Marilyn, Hari, Hayley, Briona, Rob, Daniela, Robbie, Lena, Kate, and Jordan - for bringing so much love and care into the yoga school. I appreciate your energy, your reliability, your humor, and your attention, more than I can ever express! And to all of the students I have had the privilege of teaching over the past 16 years, you lift me up and provide so much purpose to this life. I am grateful everyday to witness the joy in your hearts, the sparkles in your eyes, the glows on your faces, your improved gait, the reduction in your pain, and the stories of how Bikram Yoga has changed, saved, or improved your lives. I can only hope that the good feelings I get from witnessing each and every one of these daily miracles are quietly expressed through this project.

From Jennifer:

I am so thankful for my husband, John. He has been my faithful supporter for 26 years. He encouraged me along every stage of writing this book. He also gave excellent edits and feedback.

I am grateful that I have a Bikram Yoga studio only one mile from my home. It is a privilege that many people don’t have, and I try not to take it for granted. I can’t say enough about Ann’s skill as a Bikram Yoga teacher—she commands the perfect balance of kindness, firmness, compassion, and motivation. I have benefited from her expertise and her friendship. If I ever have to move to a new area, she will not be able to be replaced.

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To my two college-aged sons, Zachary and Andrew, I am thankful for the opportunity to raise you to adulthood. I hope you come to experience the healing effects of Bikram Yoga in the near future.

My parents deserve a big thank you for always being dependable and trustworthy. My sweet mom didn’t live long enough to see this book in print but I know she would have been so proud.

I am blessed to have countless friends who have asked questions about this book project and encouraged me along the way. I am so thankful to have you in my life. I am also grateful for my Christian brothers and sisters at University Reformed Church. Thank you for encouraging me to grow in faith and sanctification.

And lastly, to all my yoga friends at BYCA, thanks for being in the room and showing up and holding still and sweating right alongside me. We have laughed, cried, celebrated births, and mourned deaths together. I am thankful for you!

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