Yoga article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Living Well: It's not a stretch: Anyone can do yoga
By BOB CONDOR
SPECIAL TO THE P-I

If you can breathe, you can do yoga. That's what Seattle yoga instructor Lisa Holtby says, and she has the credentials to support her statement.

Holtby has taught yoga since 1995 at Seattle Yoga Arts studio on Capitol Hill. She taught classes for Cancer Lifeline, a local non-profit organization that offers emotional support and resource services to people living with cancer. In 2004, she wrote a book, "Healing Yoga for People Living With Cancer." She is a faculty member for annual CURE Magazine national conferences open to cancer survivors.

And, when invited, Holtby speaks to health practitioners about how yoga can fit into medical treatment protocol. Just last Wednesday afternoon, she spoke to a gathering of Group Health doctors, nurses, researchers and other practitioners about the "power, potential and pitfalls" of yoga in health care.

"It's an interest-group meeting we have monthly to understand the range of things outside medical convention that might help patients," said Dan Cherkin, senior scientific investigator for Group Health Cooperative. "We are looking to define what is the future of health care. Can we find ways for people with diabetes or hypertension, for example, to get in touch with their bodies and make changes? Drugs have their place, but they don't help people change behaviors."

Holtby's approach is to make yoga accessible to everyone by developing routines that you can do from a chair, lying on your back or stomach, leaning against a wall for support and, of course, standing and participating in a mat class.

"What we see in the media is pictures of people (in yoga postures) who are in the best health of their lives," she said.

Here's a twist: Holtby said yoga has a quality of instant gratification otherwise too prevalent in our society.

"I tell students that whether you are sick or new in class, yoga can help you feel better right away," she explained.

Holtby recommends finding an experienced teacher who knows how to modify postures, plus committing to four yoga classes before reaching any conclusions. The first class is "a lot coming at you." By the fourth class your experience is "more meditative." From there, Holtby is a believer in "a little bit of yoga every day but whatever fits into your schedule is good."

The chair postures include back bends, forward bends, twists -- "a full practice but sitting," said Holtby. It works for someone who is challenged with a health condition -- Holtby designed it for cancer patients experiencing the deep fatigue of chemotherapy -- yet has great potential (to use one of her keywords at the Group Health talk) for office workers and others who sit at desks and computer terminals during long days.

For his part, Cherkin has explored yoga's health benefits in research. He co-authored a small study, receiving significant local and national media coverage, that showed yoga can significantly reduce lower back pain without medications or surgery. He and Group Health colleagues are working on a larger study that follows up those results and adds the comparison of yoga to physical therapy.

"We want to see if there is a difference between yoga and the stretching/strengthening component of physical therapy, which doesn't have the breathing and mindfulness elements of yoga," said Cherkin.

For example, Holtby starts her Seattle Yoga Arts classes by suggesting that each student select an intention. Someone might use the yoga postures that day as a vehicle for overcoming fear, while a parent with young kids might see the class as release from a hectic schedule and the requisite busy mind. Holtby knows: She has a 5-year-old son.

"Lisa amazes me with her calmness, insight and dedication to her practice," wrote student and Seattle physician Dr. Stephen Smith on Holtby's lisaholtby.com Web site. "What is especially impressive is that she is doing this while caring for a new child!"

"You can also hold that class for someone who is ill or someone you are worried about," Holtby said. "This mindfulness doesn't have to stop in class. You can do the same thing while doing the dishes."

During her Group Health talk, Holtby made the point that "yoga is a way to learn how to differentiate sensation versus pain" and that yoga can be "a way to come home after invasive treatments." She and the practitioners discussed how these inviting concepts can become more inherent to mainstream medical practice. The outlook for yoga in the medical setting is optimistic but realistic.

Holtby allowed that among the "pitfalls" of yoga is the largely unregulated teaching profession and that instructors will be more accepted by doctors and others if they can quantify their training and experience. She also endorsed "modifying appropriately" and that instructors can encourage progress of yoga on the medical track by maintaining a "do no harm" credo with small groups and one-on-one.

After the Group Health talk, Cherkin said that it is a slow process persuading doctors to add yoga to the therapy list. He noted a gap between the growing number of physicians who might say, "Oh, go ahead, yoga probably won't hurt," to health providers who suggest yoga as one of the possible treatment options. Cherkin sees the sense of trying to close that gap.

"Slowing down is not what we do," he said. "What we tend to do is go, go, go. We don't value slowing down. Yoga is a way for people at all stages of health to get more in touch with your body and yourself."