Cardiac Yoga ®

Cardiac Yoga® is a registered trademark of Dr. Mala Cunningham and is used with permission. Dr. Cunningham is a disciple of Sri Swami Satchidananda and developed this program of yoga specifically for cardiac patients with special guidance from Swami Satchidananda. Mrs. Lavender received her certification in Cardiac Yoga in 2001.

HEARTFUL: Yoga instructor tailors her sessions to cardiac patients

By Lisa O'Donnell
JOURNAL REPORTER
April 7, 2004

Candi Lavender has long been interested in sharing the benefits of yoga with people who have experienced heart problems.Last year, it began to feel like a calling. Lavender is a yoga instructor who teaches at studios around Winston-Salem. About three years ago, she decided to become certified in cardiac yoga, a style of yoga that focuses on the needs of cardiac patients and their families.

M. Mala Cunningham, a psychologist who lives in Virginia, developed the program. It emphasizes breathing and relaxation more than other forms of yoga. "These are people who need to relax, de-stress and learn to become more aware of what is happening in the body so that they can make adjustments before a major heart problem occurs," Lavender said. Her initial interest in working with cardiac patients came from her husband, Sidney Lavender, a physician's assistant in cardiothoracic surgery at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Lavender presented her idea of working with cardiac patients to local hospitals, but when she found no takers, she pushed it to the back burner.

Her interest became more urgent about half a year ago when doctors discovered that her son Jon, 21, has cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle. Tests showed that his heart was enlarged in the lower left lobe. Left untreated or undiagnosed, the disease can lead to congestive heart failure. Jon's most obvious symptom was a gurgling sensation in his throat. Other symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue and swelling of the ankles. Jon, a senior at Wake Forest University, had to make a major lifestyle change. He could no longer run, ski, play soccer or lift weights. He had to eliminate sodium from his diet. Shaken by her son's illness, Lavender quit her job teaching social studies at Parkland High School and decided to devote more time to teaching yoga, particularly to people with cardiac problems. She began talking to local cardiologists about the benefits of yoga. She also started a class at the Yoga Gallery on Trade Street for people who have heart problems. Some of the poses, such as head stands and shoulder stands, are modified to reduce strain. Instead, students might lie on the ground and prop their legs against a wall. However, as with most yoga, poses can be made more intense.

Ed Scott, 60, had heart-valve replacement surgery in 2000. He had always exercised, mostly running and walking. He started practicing yoga earlier this year. "When my daughter first talked to me about taking yoga, I thought, 'Oh, sitting on the floor cross-legged and going 'ommm.' It's not anything like that. It's fairly intense. It's not easy and the stretches and poses are difficult. They do get the heart rate up," Scott said. Lavender taught her son yoga. After he learned of his condition, he stopped all physical activities for two months. "I used yoga to get back into my exercise routine," Jon said. "It gives you a lot of exercise, but it's not too strenuous." Dr. Gretchen Wells, a cardiologist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, said that people with heart problems who practice yoga need to pay careful attention to warning signs, including shortness of breath and a racing heart. "Those are things where you need to stop and have somebody take your pulse," Wells said. She said that this type of yoga can help people with heart problems. "My opinion is that anything that involves relaxation and focusing on something outside of your self would be helpful." It's the relaxation aspect that I think is beneficial for the patient." The postures and stretches get people prepared for sustained periods of mental relaxation that allow them to tune into their bodies, Lavender said. "The purpose of yoga is to quiet the mind and to do that you have to quiet the body," she said. "If you have a bad back or your knee hurts or you have a heart condition, when you try to sit in the lotus position your body screams at you.

The physical part of yoga is to make your body more healthy so that you can sit in peace and quiet." Lavender said she saw how difficult it was for her son when his condition was diagnosed. Imagine, she said, how stressful such news would be to a 70-year-old man set in his ways. Wells said that yoga can lessen the tension that comes with heart problems. "It's a coping strategy to reduce tension and anxiety that comes with heart failure," she said. "There is so much that is unpredictable with heart failure. When am I going to be in the hospital again? What is my long-term outcome? Questions like that."