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Jan200911

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Arthritis and rheumatism – Part one of two

Arthritis and rheumatism

ONE of Yoga’s answers to the problems with which this Article series is concerned reads a little like black magic.
Still it adds a touch of the bizarre and the exotic to this exacting science of discipline and, as with all Yoga practices; there is sound good sense behind its methods.

The Indians claim that people who are afflicted with arthritis or allied complaints should keep a raw, unpeeled, winter-crop potato—yes, I did say a potato!—close to their skin day and night until the condition is relieved. It sounds a little like an old gipsy legend and as a matter of fact I did meet a gipsy some time ago who was afflicted with arthritis in the shoulders.

I told him this Yoga story about keeping a potato near one’s skin and he looked at me in sheer amazement. He was completely puzzled as to how I had got hold of this old ‘gipsy’ secret, so it seems that way back in time, gipsy or Yogi, they had respect for the humble potato as a powerful cure for arthritis.

It need not be a very large potato as apparently the smaller ones work just as efficiently and I must say more conveniently. An over-large potato carried upon the person could lead to all kinds of questions and complications. The potato should be discarded when it either grows very hard like a stone or else becomes soft and wrinkled, and should be replaced by a fresh one, but make quite sure it is a winter-crop one.

You could keep it in your pocket during the day and at night slip it into the toe of an old stocking and draw the other end over your hand so that the potato does not roll away from you while you sleep. If you are married this practice could produce some hilarity from your partner but the laugh would be yours if you cured your arthritis by this unorthodox method.

So bear with the jeers of your mate and try the experiment. You may be agreeably surprised.
For good measure, while you are on the potato cure, you should drink potato water, which is one of the very best alkalizing drinks and helps the system to eliminate the impurities which are to blame for your complaint. To prepare this drink and it need not be unpalatable if you flavour it well, wash four or five fairly large potatoes but do not peel them. Put them in a saucepan with two pints of water and bring to the boil. Simmer them slowly for about an hour and then strain through a fine sieve or cloth.

Drink the water first thing in the morning, at least once or twice during the day, and just before you slip your hand into that stocking with the potato in it before you hop into bed at night. If you visit your local health shop you will find all kinds of vegetable extracts and salts with which to make your potato water more drinkable.

It is also highly beneficial to arthritis sufferers to eat one or two finely grated raw potatoes, including the skin, every day. I know it sounds revolting but, added to soups, stews, salads or vegetables just before serving you would hardly know it was there! However, your system will know it is there and react ”n a very favourable way. It is worth trying is it not? and I would be most interested to hear from my readers who notice an improvement in their condition through the ‘potato cure’.


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Jan200910

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Arthritis and rheumatism – Part two of two. And now for the PLOUGH POSTURE:

Arthritis and rheumatism - Part two of two. And now for the PLOUGH POSTURE:

1. Lie down on your back, feet together and hands along your sides. Raise your legs and buttocks off the ground and as you put your hands on your hips to steady yourself push your legs over your head while keeping your knees straight.
2. Bend your legs backwards until your toes touch the ground. Press your chin firmly against your chest in a chin lock and place your hands, palms down, facing the opposite way to your legs. Your body now roughly resembles an old-fashioned plough. Try to increase the stretch of your spine by pushing your toes away from your head as far as you can.

Your hands may be placed in two other ways if you wish. One way is to lace them together and place them behind your head just above the neck and the other is to keep them on the hips as in stage one. Indeed this way may help you to push your body over a little more and increase the stretch of the spine.

Some of my older readers may find difficulty with Halasana at first so try it this way. Take your starting position with your head two, three, or more feet away from the wall according to your height and convenience. When you swing your legs over your head your toes will touch the wall. Try then to walk down the wall with your toes, but gently please. Do not try to force your toes lower down the wall than they will comfortably go, otherwise an enraged and rigid muscle could repay your lack of consideration by giving you agony for weeks, which would have the effect of scaring you away for evermore from this most valuable posture. So careful, please.

When you are able to perform this Plough Posture to your liking try to increase, all the time, the overall stretch, as this position is most beneficial when carried to its extreme form, i.e. with the toes at the maximum distance from the head and the chin pressed firmly into the middle of the chest.
The way you unwind yourself from the Plough Posture is equally important as the way you get into it.

Performed in its correct way, the unwinding of the Plough requires considerable muscular control so, as always, go slowly at first and constant practice will give you the control you need. As you unwind this posture keep your head on the floor throughout until you return to the starting position flat on your back. Your natural tendency will be to raise your head as you unwind but, although you must do it this way when you first begin, always bear in mind what you are aiming for.

The keeping of your head on the floor increases the work on your dorsal and abdominal muscles and gives them a very powerful massage and exercise. As you unwind bend your knees as this will make things easier for you than keeping them straight, and above all unwind slowly-
This posture is, as you will have realized by now, deceptively simple looking. Graceful in execution and beautiful in its static stage, nevertheless it uses a lot of muscles which you may seldom have used before in this particular manner, and it also requires a high degree of muscular control to perform it to perfection.

When you can do this classical Plough Posture perfectly you might like to try three variations, just to add variety to your daily practice schedule. In each case the posture will limber the spine, keep it more supple and youthful and therefore discourage arthritis and rheumatism.


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