Yoga and Multiple Sclerosis: A Journey to Health and Healing

Yoga and Multiple Sclerosis: A Journey to Health and Healing

By Loren Martin Fishman, B. Phil, Eric Small,

Publisher: Demos Medical Publishing
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2007-05-28
Sales Rank: 46986
ISBN / ASIN: 1932603174
EAN: 9781932603170
Binding: Paperback
Manufacturer: Demos Medical Publishing
Studio: Demos Medical Publishing
Average Rating: 4.5

Yoga for people with multiple sclerosis? Absolutely! Studies show that after six months of practicing yoga, fatigue and other symptoms are significantly reduced.
Yoga and Multiple Sclerosis: A Journey to Health and Healing is a comprehensive and user-friendly guide to applying the principles of yoga to managing your MS. Yoga and Multiple Sclerosis contains information for people experiencing symptoms across the MS spectrum, including those who are in wheelchairs or who have limited mobility. With the help of this book, you will be able to manage your symptoms, raise your functional abilities to their highest levels, and foster independence and confidence.
Co-author Eric Small was diagnosed with MS at the age of 22, and soon after became a serious student of Iyengar yoga, which has helped him greatly with the effects of his illness. He has been teaching yoga since the mid-1960s. His story is a perfect example of the benefits yoga can bestow on those living with MS.

Review:

"Yoga And Multiple Sclerosis" is especially recommended for those who are experiencing symptoms across the MS spectrum

The collaborative work of Loren M. Fishman (Assistant Clinical Professor in Rehabilitation at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons) and Eric L. Small (an expert yoga instructor who was diagnosed with MS at the age of 22), "Yoga And Multiple Sclerosis" is specifically designed to instruct MS patients in the benefits of yoga exercises which can be tangible beneficial for those afflicted with this neurologic disease. Ideal for the non-specialist general reader, "Yoga And Multiple Sclerosis" describes how yoga works. The text is enhanced with photographs and descriptions of each yoga pose and clearly explains their effects, advantages, and contraindications. Of special value the yoga novice are the 'starter poses' that enable the uninitiated or physically challenged to gently achieve a yoga posture. An important acquisition for personal and community library Health & Medicine instructional reference collections, "Yoga And Multiple Sclerosis" is especially recommended for those who are experiencing symptoms across the MS spectrum (including anyone in a wheelchair or who has limited mobility) and seek to raise their functional abilities and thereby foster both their physical independence and their psychological morale.

Review:

A LONG-AWAITED BOOK

For those with MS, Loren Fishman and Eric Small's well-illustrated book offers substantial help in coping with this illness in both its relapsing-remitting and progressive forms through the practice of Yoga, the benefits of which are grounded in solid research and long experience. Eric Small is a living testament to the power of Yoga. Loren Fishman has practiced Yoga for decades as well and is also featured in the book along with Eric Small and other Yoga practitioners.

Yoga Therapy is one of the fastest growing forms of Yoga in the US, and with it comes more specialization and focus. BKS Iyengar has been at the forefront of this specialization for decades and Eric Small acknowledges this great master's work at the outset. Students unfamiliar with the use of props typical of Iyengar Yoga are charmingly encouraged to use whatever is at hand, including a bag of flour or rice if a sandbag is unavailable.

The reader will come away with a clear idea of how to begin a practice appropriate to the student's physical capacity, with illustrations for each level. Loren Fishman's sweeping and lyrical introduction helps set this focused practice within the larger context of Yoga as a whole. Indeed, it is the nature of Yoga Therapy to place the whole person at the center of a whole practice, inviting the student to participate not only as someone with a problem, but as someone with a full life interested in exploring Yoga in all its facets. In other words, this book doesn't show a student just how to use Yoga for MS, but how to have a full Yoga practice with MS.

I agree with B. Wells that the photographs in the first section could be numbered and related to the text. I would also welcome explanations in the Benefits section for each pose of how the poses actually affect the body. One takes on faith that a pose will help with urinary disorders, for example, but for the interested and curious student, how or why that is would be welcome information.

This book is accessible and valuable to all, from beginning student to teacher wanting to help a student with MS or a student having suffered stroke or other trauma to the nervous or muscular system. Eric Small's own trajectory through MS and Yoga is inspiring.

Alison West, Ph.D., Co-Director, Yoga Union Center for Backcare and Scoliosis, NY NY

Review:

Eric Small is a gifted Iyengar teacher and his work shines through in this book!

Congratulations to Eric Small and Loren Fishman on this fine book that will help thousands learn and teach yoga postures. I highly recommend this book to MS patients, the disabled, the elderly, and anyone else who is interested in starting the opening and deeping that yoga offers to us all. Superb incites and brilliant photographs showing the ways that Iyengar yoga can be adapted and made available to everyone. This book is a gift. Thanks to Mr. Small and Mr. Fishman for sharing their light with us all. And thanks to their teachers, the teachers before them, and their teachings.

Review:

Bravo, and a few suggestions

As a longtime yoga practitioner who was diagnosed with MS several years ago, I heartily recommend this book and agree with Ms. Francina's comments, whose own books have been so important to my practice.

This book is fully illustrated with photographs taken from a variety of angles, demonstrating optimal use of props. The tone of the book is as positive as it is realistic. A variety of modifications are given for each asana, so that people at most levels of mobility can access yoga's benefits. The authors' approach is intelligent, reasoned and multifaceted.

I would also like to share a few observations and suggestions which I think might make future editions of this fine work even more useful.

The book assumes full range of motion of the arms. Many people with MS experience brachial nerve pathology as part of their MS symptom complex and cannot raise their arms above the shoulders or extend them forward or backward without exacerbating nerve issues; so it would be great to see arm modifications for some of the poses.

MS is often complicated by associated, though not necessarily causally related, issues such as osteoarthritis, disc degeneration and herniation, spinal stenosis, stiffly rounded posture, musculoskeletal overcompensation, etc., which bring their own problems. Some poses -- even generally safe modifications of classical asanas -- are contraindicated for people dealing with particular conditions, and it would be helpful to see a sentence or two with that sort of distinguishing information alongside each pose. To be sure, the authors frequently and correctly urge the reader to work with a qualified yoga instructor, but in many locations one is hard-pressed to find experienced teachers trained in the use of therapeutic yoga.

While each pose is well illustrated with photographs, it is sometimes difficult to know which photograph accompanies which text description; it would be very helpful for the photographs to be assigned figure numbers, so that they could be specifically referenced in the text.

Lastly, I hope that in the future a section can be included that will describe how to actually structure and sequence a yoga practice, especially in light of the variability of MS symptoms.

Eric Small's dedicated, compassionate service to his fellow beings, born out of personal experience, is well known, and he and Dr. Fishman have produced a long-anticipated and much-needed contribution to the field of therapeutic yoga. I am very grateful for their work.

Review:

Thank you Eric Small and Dr. Loren Fishman!

I'm one of the hundreds of yoga teachers who have taken workshops with Eric Small over the years and acknowledge him as a master in adapting yoga to meet individual needs, especially in the area of yoga with chairs or a wheel chair. To have the combined expertise of Eric Small, who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at age twenty-two, (fifty five years ago), AND Dr. Loren Fishman who has used yoga in his medical practice for more than twenty-five years, is an incredible learning opportunity. While this book is intended for people with MS and other neurological conditions, the techniques described here are also wonderfully useful for older students of all levels and abilities, including those who have suffered a stroke or have limited mobility. My copy arrived a week ago and already almost every page has a Post-It to remind me of something I want to teach in my classes! I know my students will benefit greatly from this book. Highly and unequivocally recommended!

--Suza Francina, yoga teacher since 1974, author, The New Yoga for Healthy Aging and The New Yoga for People Over 50.

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