Yoga For Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by weak, thinning bones that can lead to fractures. Yoga can be an effective treatment for osteoporosis, either on its own or supplemented by other treatments. So if you’re looking to promote good bone health and ward off osteoporosis, try taking up a therapeutic yoga practice.

According to Dr Loren Fishman "The architectonic, the structural support of bone, follows the lines of force to which that bone is exposed. When bone cells get stimulated through being compressed or twisted or elongated, they produce more bone mass until that bone gets strong enough, to resist the pressure. At that point the pressure no longer distorts the bone, and the bone-making cells stop making more. What a wonderful feedback system. In osteoporosis, the bones bend more, so pressure is more effective in stimulating the cells to make bone.In short, like weight training, yoga works by stressing the bone. Yoga stimulates the bone with isometric contraction at almost every conceivable angle for long periods of time... Yoga helps grow bone mass, but because yoga poses pull and stretch the bones from every conceivable angle, yoga also may stimulate the formation of a bone structure that is able to resist greater amounts of pressure, as well as many different types of challenges."

Find the recommended, by the yoga therapist Ellen Saltonstall, poses below:

• Balancing Table

• Salabhasana

• Utkatasana

• Vrksasana

• Ardha Chandrasana

• Virabhadrasana I