Hearing the word “osteoporosis” often brings on fear, especially for middle-aged women who’ve lost weight, whether deliberately or otherwise. But it can affect anyone at any age. The usual advice—Take something for it—in this case is calcium. Take calcium supplements and drink milk, they say.

Calcium Supplements Not the Answer

I have explained in Raw Foods and Osteoporosis how the key with calcium is the absorption, not the amount. My objection here is to our culture’s presumption that adding something, consuming more, bringing in a new supplement, is always the answer to whatever ails us.

Hula Dancing?

A lady emailed me via my website. Worried about how to head off osteoporosis, or reverse it once begun, she asked me what to do. And she lives, incidentally, in Hawaii. My answer would be: Hula dancing. Yup—you heard me right.

Fact: There’s a link between controlled eating and weight-bearing exercise on the one hand, and good bone density on the other.

A 1995 British study compared ballet dancers with a control group of non-dancers. Diet was recorded, but not especially tightly controlled. Training patterns and exercise levels were carefully recorded. Researchers found a solid correlation between good, high bone mineral density and the kinds of exercises dancers do—those that focus on the legs and pelvis. (Physical Activity, Body Composition and Bone Density in Ballet Dancers. W.D. van Marken Lichtenbelt et al. British Journal of Nutrition 1995 Oct;74(4):439-51.)

There’s a clear message here: Dancing helps your bones!

Dance Your Way to Health

Under-utilizing key musculoskeletal systems—legs and pelvis prime among these—is a cause of osteoporosis. Why? Because, as science now knows, bones adapt to the stress of weight-bearing exercise by altering their microstructure. Translation: Exercise helps head off osteoporosis.

But back, now, to that fearful image, burned into the head of any woman “of a certain age” who worries about osteoporosis, and that seemingly inevitable fall. Reading the Journal of Bone Mineral Metabolism isn’t the remedy she’s hoped for. Dancing, however, may well be. So…dance.

Not a ballet or hula-dancing kind of chick? Something else, then. A jazz dance class for beginners. Somewhere nearby, for you country-western fans, they’re still teaching line dancing. Many extension programs will offer Introduction to Dance classes, exploring numerous styles, so you can pick and choose what fits you best.

Careful but Steady

Be careful. I would be happy to see you start mall-walking, if that’s your first exercise in years. But strolling won’t cut it, as far as bone health is concerned. Stressing the bones of the legs and pelvis is what’s necessary here, in a way at least a little similar to the way dancers do. Key phrase: weight-bearing. Leg presses at the gym will do nicely. You can do simple squats at home as well, though you’ll need to perform lots of those over the course of a week.

Get Out There!

But get out there. Diet matters, no doubt, and does link importantly with the exercise regime you choose. Check out my book, Raw Food and Hot Yoga, especially the chapter “Feed Your Bones Right,” to make sure your bones are receiving and absorbing the nutrients they need.

But exercise—weight-bearing exercise, remember—matters every bit as much in delaying or preventing osteoporosis and getting your bones to optimum health now.

Yes, you can dance your way to better health!

100%  naturally. No risky human growth hormone (HGH) therapy, which can bring increased risk of heart attack, fluid retention, liver damage and enlarged breasts (but only for men), just to name a few of the side effects.

Your legs, more than any other part of you, account for your height. So you might think the legs are where to go, if you want to work on getting taller. But no. In each long bone—femur, tibia, fibula, in the legs—are two growth plates, one at each end. But these fuse at about age 24 in males, 18 in females, effectively ending growth. Short of surgery, there’s little you can do there.

The spine’s the place to go. Your spine accounts for about a third of your height. Within it are the 33 separate, stacked bone segments we know as vertebrae, held together by tough, fibrous ligaments. It’s a remarkably flexible structure, save down at the bottom, where the lowest nine vertebrae fuse to form the sacrum and the coccyx (tailbone). Climbing up from there, you find the 5 lumbar vertebrae, the 12 vertebrae of the thorax or back of the chest, and finally the 7 cervical or neck vertebrae. Each pair of vertebrae is separated by a cartilaginous pad or disk. The thickness of these disks contributes significantly to height. The thicker the disks in aggregate, the greater your height. So, then, how can we work with the spine to grow taller without any drugs or other invasive or dangerous methods?

My suggested alternative…exercise. Two types are helpful in particular: stretching exercises and hanging exercises. Both are non-invasive methods that hold promise for adding an inch—possibly more—to your height. The idea: to get you spine gently and intermittently into traction, decompressing, increasing the fluid capacity in your disks. This thickens and strengthens cartilage along the spinal column, making it stronger and eventually longer. A stronger spine allows you better to resist the compressive forces of gravity.

For stretching, yoga is your best friend. Hot (Bikram) Yoga, in particular, because the heated environment helps deeper stretching and injury prevention, reducing stress and tension. Poses especially good at decompressing the spine are the Pada-Hastasana (Hands to Feet pose), the Sasangasana (Rabbit pose), and the Janushirasana with Paschimottanasana (Head to Knee Pose with Stretching). You can learn much more about the benefits of Hot Yoga in my book Raw Food and Hot Yoga.

Besides yoga, two methods of hanging down are beneficial for adding to your height. Hanging relies on simple gravity to decompress the spine, lengthening and straightening it to achieve an increase in height. The first way is simple. Find a bar and develop a daily routine wherein you hang from it by your hands for as many seconds as you can. Then take a few seconds’ break and get back at it. See how many sets of “hanging down” you can fit into a 5-minute period each day. After a few weeks, this will get easier. You can increase the time of each set and the number of sets. If you cannot find a place to hang down, install a bar in a doorway of your home. Some bars don’t even require screws and hang on by your own weight.

The second way is to hang upside-down using an inversion table or “gravity boots” that hang onto a bar. Those who’ve read my first book Your Right to Be Beautiful may remember how the inversion table helped me stretch out my shorter leg before my surgeries. Some people find they can hang upside down by their feet longer than hanging on a bar by their hands, making this method more effective for them. You can start by hanging for at least 2-3 minutes in the morning and 2-3 minutes in the evening. Gradually build up to double that time. An extra benefit: many people who experience back pain also find an inversion table gives much-needed relief.

Practicing Hot Yoga and these hanging exercises may not only help you grow taller but will increase blood circulation, improve overall flexibility, and aid your digestion. So come on…hang out with me, and grow taller!

It’s more than a matter of fitness, for some runners. It’s an addiction. Not to the running itself, necessarily, but to that “runner’s high.” The so-called “runner’s high” is, be assured, quite real. Once endorphins enter the bloodstream, they can create a pronounced euphoria.

But the runner’s high isn’t the same for everyone. And despite the title, runners are not the only ones hooked on it. Any aerobic exercise or cardio workout can give you a “high.” Some say it’s akin to ecstasy, while others describe a numb, relaxed feeling, almost “druggy.” Still others say they reach a feeling of invincibility and overwhelming happiness. Whatever the individual experience, it’s all those jolly endorphins running about your body!

Cardio workouts in your everyday exercise are important to your heart, lungs and cardiovascular system to work more efficiently. Over-exercising or too-strenuous exercise can, however, actually break down your body, and can be hard on the adrenal glands. Is there another, safer way to get the same desirable results (or better) and enjoy the runner’s high?

Bikram yoga not only builds up your body, strengthening and toning, but many are surprised to find hot yoga is a cardio-enhancing workout. Ask anyone who’s done hot yoga. Some will tell you not only about the fitness benefit but about the “high” they get afterwards.

Bikram poses keep your heart rate up and your respiratory system strong and active. Abundant fresh blood flushes throughout your body. Your brain also gains stimulation from varying blood pressure and oxygen circulation. Muscles contracting and stretching lead to endorphin release. Bones become stronger, working against gravity, and reap refreshing supplies of blood and calcium. Every Bikram class starts and ends with a breathing exercise that even further oxygenates your body.

Compressing and extending body parts increases blood circulation, flushing out toxins as fresh blood, nutrients and oxygen flood in. When you’re on a raw foods regimen, you especially want this to happen. Why? Because your bloodstream is clean and nourished, and increased circulation and oxygenation causes it to reach places where normally it might not. Every body area continuously gains strength—bones, muscles, and all the body’s major organs and systems.

You’ll experience much less likelihood of injury in Bikram yoga than in running, so you can plan on pursuing yoga well into your seventies!

If you understand the importance of aerobics and want the healthiest, most efficient exercise, you’ll find challenge and delight in hot yoga. Delight enough, indeed, that I often go twice a day! In my latest book, Raw Foods and Hot Yoga, I explain why this form of exercise outweighs almost all others in benefits, including that euphoric feeling you’ll walk out with after each and every class.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease, tending to appear in flare-ups which come and go. The arthritic knee often swells, getting achy and stiff. Your knee’s motion eventually decreases and leads to deformed joints. Bursitis is an inflammation in the bursae that occurs after a knee injury. It can lead to redness, swelling, aching, stiffness and pain. A torn cartilage (called a meniscus injury), tendon injuries (tendonitis) and ligament injuries are similar in their symptoms, which include pain, swelling, and an inability to extend or straighten the knee.

Bikram Choudhury, founder of Bikram hot yoga, suffered a weightlifting accident to his knee—an injury so severe the doctors pronounced it irreparable. Refusing to accept their prediction, he looked to his own yoga teacher and guru. Bikram developed his series of 26 postures, performed in a room heated to 105 degrees, specifically as a means of healing his own knee problems. He accomplished his goal in six months, using his customized regimen. The result: Hot yoga is a top recommendation for dealing with knee problems and possibly avoiding knee surgery altogether. Your doctor, however, may not be aware of this.

Countless people who have suffered various knee conditions have been told that surgery or drugs, including regular injections, are the only help they will find. Fortunately, many have ventured the alternative route and can testify to the powerful effects of Bikram yoga, not just for temporary pain relief, but for permanent healing. Skiers, dancers, and martial artists who have injured one or even both knees have lauded the healing they have found. You’ll find powerful testimonies on the Bikram Yoga website.

Don’t think it’s only the young who can heal from serious injuries to the knees. Just walk into a hot yoga studio, and you’ll be surprised at the number of over-fifties you’ll see there, sweating and stretching. Has hot yoga become the latest fad among the bingo set? No—the fact is hot yoga works when nothing else does.

During my travels, in all my Bikram yoga classes, I see people who have turned to hot yoga to deal with their knee troubles. Many find the Fixed Firm Pose to be the most healing. What’s “hot” about hot yoga is, well, the heat. It’s invaluable when performing this and other knee-challenging poses—the heat is soothing and helpful in giving the freedom of movement to perform poses more fully, more correctly. Many find Bikram yoga has saved then from “inevitable” knee surgery. They keep coming, and soon other health problems get resolved, too.

Still others have claimed that their knees are better now, after some time doing Bikram yoga, even than they were before they were injured. How long before you’ll see a difference? It varies. The time needed may depend on the injury itself or on how often the person can attend class. Based on numerous individuals’ testimonies, incredible results from Bikram yoga often begin to appear after just a couple of weeks. Pain and swelling start to go away in arthritic areas, including the knees.

During the Bikram sequence, your body is continuously flushed with fresh blood, increasing circulation. The effects of heat and sweat include a flushing-out of toxins, further helping the body heal. A raw foods diet greatly enhances these benefits and can accelerate healing even more.

After several hip surgeries I still had problems with alignment. Whenever I tried to do the Head to Knee Pose with Stretching Pose (something like the Hurdler’s Stretch runners use) I felt sharp pain in my left knee. I knew hot yoga’s therapeutic, restorative routines would bring my skeletal system into proper alignment. I persisted, gently, respecting my own limits. After a few months the pain subsided. It’s never returned. I don’t even remember precisely when the misalignment disappeared, but now I can work the pose comfortably.

I wholeheartedly recommend a combination of a raw foods diet and regular Bikram yoga practice for a long list of physical complaints and problems. I’ve definitely had my share of problems. But I’ve overcome just about all of them with this unbeatable duet of diet and exercise. Add the raw food diet to your Bikram yoga practice and you can beat, I believe, just about any injury and any physical ailment. Knees are no exception.

If you’re considering knee surgery, it’s entirely possible that trying raw foods and hot yoga may, over time, save you much in pain, rehabilitation and surgical costs. I cover all these miraculous benefits in my latest book, Raw Foods and Hot Yoga. I’m no stranger to surgeries or physical therapy, and now I know that I no longer have to endure either. And that, to me, is priceless.

Persistent arthritic pain in the hip area brings people to hip replacement surgery. The hip is a “ball and socket” joint. The pelvic bones (the socket) and the end of the femur (the ball) form the hip joint. A smooth layer of protective cartilage covers both bones at the joint allowing a full range of rotation. Loss of this cartilage from wear-and-tear, as a consequence of running, cycling or jumping, can cause arthritis. Inflammation and injury are other common causes.

My Hip Story

I turn 52 in January, 2010. When I was born (in the former Soviet Union), my hips were dislocated. For the first three years of my life, I walked on dislocated hips because no one diagnosed the problem. My right hip became so crushed that the doctor had to chop off the head of the femur. After this surgery, on my first walk, the femur bone moved upward, and my leg became much shorter. It sounds barbaric, yes, but this was standard medical procedure for hip issues like mine back there back then. The artificial hip was not yet available in the USSR.

Years later, I had to have both hips replaced with titanium ones. For me, artificial hips are technological blessings. With their help, the orthopedists made my legs even. I cannot be more grateful. But this was not the end of my struggle for even gait.

Improved Alignment

I walked with a limp almost all my life, and my body skewed to compensate for the shorter leg. It took four year of Bikram yoga (hot yoga) to bring back a decent measure of alignment to my body. Now, if you didn’t know the story, you’d never even notice. Considering the magnitude of the misalignment I started with, I consider this a miracle.

Alignment is extremely important, and hot yoga addresses this very issue. Your body is pushed, pulled, twisted, straightened and brought into balance while ligaments are stretched, muscles are strengthened, and bones move into proper alignment. Heat improves your circulation while providing pain relief, and sweating removes toxins.

When Physical Therapy Isn’t Enough

My dear childhood friend started to have pain in her hip. An orthopedist diagnosed her with severe osteoarthritis. He prescribed a hip replacement surgery as the only solution. Margaret was still in her fifties, so she was distraught about the prospect. She was clutching at straws: “What about physical therapy? Would swimming help? Just tell me how many hours I need to swim to reverse this condition?” The doctor turned serious and said, with more than a touch of sarcasm, “Swim all day—and you only get 15 minutes for lunch!”

Swimming and physical therapy just won’t help in this situation. But hot yoga is different. It stretches the ligaments around the joints, allowing fresh blood to flush out hard-to-reach places. If, moreover you’re following a raw food diet, the combination of yoga and diet will cleanse your blood, help your injuries heal faster, and may even re-build worn-out cartilage.

Avoid Hip Surgery!

There are incredible testimonies of people who, with the aid of hot yoga, have not only avoided hip surgery but have healed their hip disorders. Some have completely healed themselves with Bikram yoga after horrific car accidents. Even twenty to thirty years after an injury, people have experienced healing after only a few months of Bikram yoga. I meet such people often in my travels.

I had hip replacement done on both sides. Now, looking back, I am confident I could have avoided the surgery on my left hip if I had only known ten years ago about Bikram yoga. The arthritis I had there might have been reversed with hot yoga and the raw foods. Had I known back then, at least I would have tried. What did I have to lose?

What Do You Have To Lose?

What do you have to lose? Surgery should always be your last resort. If you have hip problems, realize that you may be able to turn things around by embracing the raw foods diet and daily hot yoga practice. At least try, so that you won’t regret not trying later. Read more in my latest book Raw Food and Hot Yoga.

Since early childhood I had eleven surgeries on my hips. From those operations, many toxins and poisons were pushed into my body. So my healing process was one which took much patience and perseverance. It was my raw foods lifestyle that helped me not only to recover but to move to a much higher plane of health than I had experienced before these surgeries.

Hot Yoga + Raw Foods=The Ultimate Combination

If you practice hot yoga daily while yoking it with the raw foods diet, you could potentially alter and even reverse physical dysfunctions. If hip surgery is truly unavoidable, it is important you learn about the raw food diet and how it can aid your quick recovery. In my experience with raw food and hot yoga, there is nothing you can’t conquer!

Fibromyalgia is becoming better known as an autoimmune disorder (meaning the body attacks its own cells). It presents a random collection of symptoms, including mild to extreme pain throughout the body, and tender points in soft tissues, muscles, tendons and joints. It is also common to experience fatigue, sleep disturbances, morning stiffness, chronic facial muscle pain, headaches, depression, numbness in hands and feet, memory difficulty, irritable bowel syndrome and anxiety. Fibromyalgia often mimics the pain of arthritis without the swelling and destruction of the joints.

Fibromyalgia has become increasingly common. Practitioners with a nutritional focus have come to believe that a major role in its development is the lack of calcium, magnesium, and (most of all) vitamin D in our modern lifestyles. Besides the crucial role diet and adequate sunlight play in the cure and prevention of this affliction, stress is also a major factor. For some people, symptoms go away when stress decreases and certain lifestyle changes are incorporated.

Physical or emotional trauma may play a role. Some evidence suggests that fibromyalgia patients have abnormal pain transmission responses. Symptoms may be relieved by gentle stretching and light massage, as well as acupressure, acupuncture, and relaxation techniques. But the real root of the problem must still be addressed.

Studies have shown that a change in lifestyle and a healthier diet will often make symptoms disappear outright. When you embark on the raw food diet, you start dealing in health, not disease. You start to cleanse, nourish, balance and strengthen the body, so that the root cause of symptoms gets dealt with, as distinct from merely suppressing symptoms.

The raw food diet is famously powerful in strengthening the immune system. One study published in 2004 in The Townsend Letter cited that 18 patients with fibromyalgia switched to the raw vegan diet for three months and saw considerable improvement in every area: reduced pain, increased mobility, improved sleep, and alleviated depression. Not surprisingly, the symptoms gradually returned when the patients went back to their cooked food diets.

Important as it is, the raw food diet may not always be enough. You need to get that blood flowing by increasing circulation. Improved fitness through exercise is vital. The best way to begin a fitness program is to start with short sessions of just a few minutes of gentle, low-impact exercise. Lengthen your sessions gradually, as your body grows accustomed to the changes.

One major reason exercise programs fail is that they’re begun too aggressively. “I’m gonna do two hours a day at the gym” is great for Arnold—not for a beginner. Starting out slowly and gently can help ease you into a good program you can stick with and will help you avoid overtaxing the body. High-impact aerobics and weight lifting could increase your discomfort. Starting slowly helps stretch and mobilize tight, sore muscles. Whatever exercise you choose, let it be a gentle form.

Many people find hot yoga remarkably healing. Your workout can be as gentle as you need it to be, wherever you are in your recovery—a great boon to those suffering with fibromyalgia. Hot yoga’s therapeutic warmth helps relieve pain while increasing circulation and releasing toxins through sweat. And, as anyone who’s been to at least one class can testify, hot yoga is the ultimate stress relief!

Check out my book Raw Food and Hot Yoga. Raw food and hot yoga might be just what you need to rid yourself of fibromyalgia!

Often I ask for help with poses, someone to offer an extra push, a twist to help me get the most benefit from the poses. Once I even asked my husband, a big guy with a lot of strength and no clue of yoga mechanics to give me an extra push in the Spine Twisting Pose. Big mistake! What’s worse, it was done at home at room temperature, not in a heated studio. My muscles weren’t warmed up, and my overzealousness led to sciatica and the pain that comes with it.

Sciatica occurs when there is some type of damage to a particular nerve in the back of the leg—the sciatic nerve. This nerve controls many muscles, from the sole of your foot up to the back of your thigh. Sciatica can arise from an underlying health condition such as degenerative disc disease, pelvic injury or a slipped disk, or as in my case overexertion.

Sciatica pain can feel different to different people. For some it feels like a mild tingling, for others a dull ache. Still others report it as more of a burning sensation. In the worst cases, the pain is so severe it can keep one completely stationary. My sciatica expressed itself as a sharp pain I’d feel in certain positions.

The most common recommendation: rest. And that’s the advice most medical sites seem to offer. Wait…did I hear “rest”? Telling me I have to rest is like telling a monkey he can’t eat a banana. Sorry—I’m a chick in motion. Rest—in the sense of days of lying about—just doesn’t cut it for me. The prescription only made me more determined to find out how to rid myself of this problem once and for all.

I dug in to my own research. I came across a post on a forum where the writer clearly stood in that “work through the pain” school of thought. From his own experience he encouraged doing Bikram yoga regardless of sciatic pain. This made sense to me: Since Bikram yoga didn’t actually cause the condition, and Bikram is so therapeutic for so many other physical discomforts, I saw it as a possible cure for my sciatica. I kept up my yoga practice. But I did take it easy, avoiding the most painful positions. Sure enough, in about two or three weeks I’d forgotten I ever had it. I actually couldn’t pinpoint the moment it went away. That pain has never returned.

My having already spent many years on a cleansing, rejuvenating raw food diet made it easier for my body to heal itself. When your body is freed from the burden of toxins and given the nutrients and raw materials it needs to perform its necessary functions—including recovery from injury—you’ll definitely have a leg up!

Your body, on a good raw food regimen, won’t be expending precious energy on processing food and fighting so hard to maintain a balance. Aided by the moist heat of hot yoga, Bikram yoga, in my experience, is the best physical therapy in the world. Looking back, I’m not surprised at all that the sciatica disappeared with the combination of the two—right diet plus right exercise.

No matter how much assistance I get now in my poses, whatever shenanigans I go through or how twisted up I get in a heated room, I never seem to get injured. In the beginning, I was more susceptible to injuries. But now, on a consistent diet of 100 percent raw food and several years doing hot yoga, I am exceptionally resilient. Whether you want to prevent or overcome sciatica, raw foods and hot yoga will both lift you up and push you forward in becoming the healthiest person you can possibly be.

For more information read my latest book Raw Foods and Hot Yoga.

After a bicycle accident, I sustained an injury which resulted in yet another surgery and a frozen elbow. I had trouble managing even simple things like buttoning a button or combing my hair. After months of painful physical therapy, much to my delight, I discovered that combining a raw food diet with hot yoga was the winning combination I was looking for. The Locust Pose was particularly effective at ridding me of this condition, giving me back my full range of motion.

Though tennis elbow is an inflammation to the outside bone on the elbow, normally caused from overextension or repetitive movement and strain of that area, it doesn’t mean you have to smack 200 tennis balls a day to get it. The name tennis elbow misleads many to believe it is most likely to occur among those who actually play tennis or racquetball. But the fact is, almost anyone can get it. And your food and exercise are a direct link to what your body will be most susceptible to.

You may be thinking: Oh, a bit of pain in my arm. I think I’ll just take a little Ibuprofen. It’s not that big a deal. I don’t need to completely change my diet or lifestyle… Perhaps you’re content with taking a pill to ease the discomfort. But what many have not been educated about is the serious health risks you are taking by just eliminating the symptoms of inflammation while ignoring the root of the problem.

Medical studies have discovered inflammation as a predominant factor in diseases from arthritis to heart disease to even cancer. You body responds to inflammation by producing “C-reactive proteins.” Elevated cholesterol and triglycerides along with high levels of C reactive proteins have been shown in studies to be the strongest predictor of heart disease!

What factor directly affects the overall functioning of your body the most? Answer: the food you eat. Your first step is finding the purest, healthiest foods to aid in reducing inflammation and helping your body cleanse out toxins that prevent healing.

Various foods prevent inflammation, while others aggravate it. Certain raw foods are best for preventing and healing tennis elbow because they are high in polyphenols, which (to make a long story short) help inhibit inflammation. Polyphenols are found in blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cranberries, strawberries, cherries and many other berries as well.

Another natural anti-inflammatory is Quercetin, found in such foods as apples, red grapes, yellow and red onions, broccoli and garlic. It is also important to eat foods high in antioxidants to help cleanse your body of harmful substances that can keep you from healing. Kale, spinach, carrots, bell peppers and tomatoes are a great source of antioxidants. These are most beneficial when eaten raw because, by eating raw, you are sustaining all of the nutrients and getting the most out of the food you eat.

Your second step…getting all those nutrients to the areas you are trying to heal. To do this, you need superior circulation, and a cleansing, gentle form of exercise. I have found hot yoga to be not only the most healing exercise, but the one that makes the most sense across the board. Circulation is a key component in hot yoga: You’re not only stretching and strengthening every area in your body but, because you’re practicing this series of cleansing poses in a heated room, you’re also sweating out harmful toxins from your body, making for the most effective way to heal and prevent your body from other injuries.

You can find more information about the unmatched synergistic benefits of combining these two lifestyle practices in my book Raw Food and Hot Yoga.

With a clean, strong, well-balanced body, you will find that certain ailments will simply, quietly disappear. You won’t have chronic, unnecessary aches and pains. Inflammation will no longer be an issue because your immune system will not need to produce a protective substance to heal itself.

So next time you find yourself shuffling through the bottles of pain relievers in your bathroom cupboard, think again! It’s better to replace a flat tire instead of duct taping over the hole that’s creating the problem.

How about you? Do you know how to find Bikram yoga classes in your area? Try this webpage, which you may find very helpful for all things Bikram: www.bikramyoga.com  and click on “class finder”.

Perhaps, though, you live in a more rural area, or you have transportation issues, and you just haven’t been able to locate a good hot yoga class in your area. Fret not! There are still options for you! (Surely you didn’t think Mr. Choudhury would let you off that easy, did you?)

You can do hot yoga at home. With a little determination, you can turn almost any room into your own private hot yoga studio. I know many people who simply provide themselves with a heater, a humidifier, a mirror, and Bikram Choudhury’s own book, CDs or cassettes and…voila! There they are, stretching and sweating with the best of us.

Have a bathroom big enough to be comfortable moving around in? This would probably be your best bet, as a bathtub full of hot water easily delivers a nice bit of humidity easily, and you likely have a large mirror in the room already, or could affix one to the back of the door. So all you need to do is add a space heater.

If your bathroom’s not right, choose any room in the house that you are comfortable in. Your aim is a temperature of about 102 to 105 degrees F (39 to 41 degrees C) and about 40% humidity. If you have a thermometer that can measure these things, a little experimenting will lead you to a combination giving you roughly the conditions you need.

Space heaters and humidifiers are perfect for this job. But you’ll want to exercise caution if using either of them in the bathroom. Do yourself a favour: Read the instructions that come with these pieces of equipment. Be sure you follow standard safety procedures, such as maintaining the prescribed distance between the heater or humidifier and any wall, curtains, plastic, or other fabric. Be sure the floor is dry. Don’t let cords get wet. Bikram yoga should be a stimulating experience—but not an electrifying one!

You’ll want to dress in cool, comfortable yoga gear and see how you are performing the poses in a mirror. A yoga mat with a towel set on top is what you’ll be performing your poses on. I would suggest purchasing, from Bikram’s array of books and CDs, those that are specifically designed for use at home. You can find them for sale on Bikram’s website.

What about those of you travelling for business or pleasure? While you’re online digging out the right GoogleMap, be sure you also visit Bikram’s site and get a map to a studio in the city you’ll be visiting. But what if you’re not visiting New York or Atlanta or San Francisco or Toronto? What if you’re stuck in a motel in Broken Elbow, Nebraska? Well, then, just convert your hotel room bath into your studio. Hot water, mirror, and go ahead—use all those towels!

That’s really all there is to it, whether you’re at home or on the road. Your only challenge will be getting used to what you are doing, so you know how to create the perfect Bikram yoga experience for yourself. This will only come by getting in there and practicing. Do expect some trial and error, as with anything new. You are going to sweat and you are going to work out in a way you never have before. What’s more, you’re going to love it!

If you can’t locate a studio, why not make your own? It’s quite simple, and you now have the 411! Good Luck!

If you don’t know how painful bursitis can be, consider yourself lucky. Bursitis is a painful inflammation of the fluid-filled sacs called ‘bursae’. The bursae (singular: bursa) serve as smooth surfaces to help reduce friction between uneven surfaces of the body, helping tendons move smoothly over bones, particularly around the larger joints. When this inflammation occurs, every movement delivers excruciating pain. Some common causes for this inflammation are trauma or injury, overuse, infection, arthritis, or post-surgical complications. Sometimes the cause is unknown.

Standard treatments for bursitis begin with simply taking anti-inflammatory pain medication, resting the affected area, and applying icepacks during the first few days, then moist heat after that. If relief doesn’t come, a doctor will sometimes then inject a corticosteroid into the bursa to combat the inflammation. If the bursitis arises from infection, the doctor will prescribe antibiotics. Often physicians will also prescribe physical therapy targeted at the affected area, usually including gentle stretching to improve the range of motion.

This is where Bikram yoga comes in to relieve the suffering of bursitis. The Bikram yoga series was actually designed as a form of physical therapy, targeting the major muscles and joints. This combination of gentle stretching and therapeutic poses, done in a hot, humid room, can be extremely soothing for bursitis pain. Raising your body temperature serves to enhance the immune system and sweats out harmful toxins at the same time. Exercise of this kind also releases endorphins, your body’s natural pain killer. You can see why Bikram yoga is gaining a worldwide reputation for its tremendous restorative results.

Your best adjunct to the soothing, refreshing and healing effects of Bikram yoga: eating a raw food diet! Raw foods can be your secret weapon in battling inflammation and enhancing your body’s ability to heal quickly from trauma or injury. Consuming mainly pure, clean, unprocessed food which hasn’t had the vitamins, minerals and enzymes cooked out of it, you flood your body with nutrients it needs to cleanse and heal on a cellular level. Remember the quote by the famous ancient physician Hippocrates: Let food by thy medicine and medicine be thy food.

My latest book, Raw Foods and Hot Yoga: From Severe Disability to Superior Health, is filled with information on how I conquered a plethora of physical problems with the combination of raw foods and Bikram yoga. You may be a yoga practitioner or a raw foods aficionado. Whichever one you are, try adding the other. Or you may not yet be either a yoga enthusiast or following a raw food diet—you may just be “curious.” Wherever you are in your journey, know this…Improvement in exercise is always good. Improving your diet, leaning more toward the freshness and goodness of raw vegetables and fruits, will certainly add to your well-being. The combination is unbeatable. General good health—and for sufferers of bursitis and similar ailments, relief from pain—is waiting just past the produce aisle and down the block at your neighborhood Bikram yoga studio. Try it—you’ll be glad you did!