Symposium on Headaches – Geeta Iyengar – Part 2 of 2

Geeta:

Teachers should have skill, they should be sensitive enough to find out according to the patient, in which way he is complaining. And sometimes, the pain at the back of the neck – the base of the neck – I don’t think the doctors mentioned about this. A kind of spacing has to be done between the spine and the skull bone, that means the part which gets sort of congested or jammed inside – that is what causes pain. So here we work with our fingers, we elongate the neck, move the skull bone away from the spine, elongate the cervical spine. It is the contraction inside this which causes pain. Though the person is doing Viparita Karni but yet it differs according to the pain. For some people a bandage on the forehead or weight on the forehead helps to be restful and the headache disappears. For those who do not get relief this way should extend the bottom of the neck, since this gets tightened. It has to be released. So this way we handle the cases and they get relief, but it is for the doctors to do some research work, to find out, in which way it helps, why we handle in this manner, and how it is helping, when we move the skull bone with our fingers and sometimes as you know, there is a curvature where the neck part curves and you find this part just swollen – it is not due to spondylitis but it is due to the headache that is swollen. And sometimes if one side of the neck is projecting backward the other side is going in, a kind of imbalance is created between Ida and Pingala nadis, since they are not situated just in the nostrils, but all over the body, you find an imbalance in them, and with our fingers, with our adjustments, lifting with the blanket etc or supporting with the blanket and adding extra blanket etc we correct the posture and create the balance so that the person gets relief and this way by watching and experiencing one learns the adjustments. Then the patient can put the neck, or the forehead, or the temple in a proper position which is called the correct position. If the doctor’s want to explain I would welcome it. Even the practice of pranayama helps. For example Viloma with exhalation pauses, calm down the inflated brain cells and contract vascular space.

Suryabhedan pranayama helps those who have pain on the left temple. Chandrabhedan helps those who have pain on the right temple. A passive Bahya Kumbhak helps those who have a heavy head. Shavasana for those who are tensed. Anuloma pranayama clears the sinus passages. This is the way patients with migraine are treated. 

Guruji:

Disharmony in the secretions cause nervine headaches and for precipitation which affects the blood vessels we give poses on foreheads. To relieve the congestion of blood to release from the brain. Naturally we have to drain the blood system and we also have to give rest for the pineal and pituitary glands. In Setubandha Savangasana there is no strain and the adrenal glands are made to function properly while resting the pituitary and the pineal glands. As they are rested, the brain too becomes restful and the pains and pricks at that time disappear. Inverted poses, take off the load from the pineal and pituitary glands and helps the other glands to function well. Thus, the blood which is saturated in the brain is taken back bringing relief to the eyes and to the back of the neck. So we work from the peripheral area so that through the peripheral nerves the autonomous system gets relaxation and releases the tension in the nervous system. 

Mod:

Thank you Guruji. Have the doctors learned by this explanation?

Dr. Karandikar:

I have experimented on this and have found that headaches in the younger group is relieved better by a forward bends while headaches in the executive and older age group since the element of hypertension is more, Viparita Karani has helped more. I will give my own example. When I work for the whole day and at 9 o’clock when I finish my work, I find my head throbbing as there is so much of emotional strain and stress due to seeing so many patients and when I go back and do Viparita Karani for half an hour I find my headache totally relieved. This headache is not relied by anything else, a cup of coffee, a tablet of aspirin, nothing relieves it. 

Or even food doesn’t relieve it. At times food relieves by increasing the blood flow. As Dr. Pai rightly put it that these are the substances which are causing agents for headache and this headache can be relieved only by doing the Viparita Karani, Setubandha Sarvangasana and at times I find that Ardha Halasana does not help. The Ardha Halasana and forward bends help in the younger age groups, where there is more physical activity, less mental activity. And more physical activity brings out more stress about the circulation in the brain and they really require more oxygenation. And this oxygenation can be done by giving forward bends. When you put your head nearer to the knees so that the pressure on the arteries is taken off and a lot blood flows to the brain. But if you give them Viparita Karani, they say, no, we do not want this, because it does not help them, as they have no problem which is emotional. Their problem is physical.

Geeta:

I would like to add to what the doctors say forward bends and twistings will be okay to get rid of the headache at the younger age and at later age when there is tension Viparita Karani will help, but before that there is a stage where backbending’s help to get rid of the pains. There is also a stage which has to be known. When school going children complain of headache it is not that they have tension, there is no emotional problem as such, but lack of energy in the nerves which is caused due to competition in studies etc. and the nerves which cannot take that stress and strain will be causing the headache. So the first stage in case of children where you have to take a curative measure will be backbending. Viparita Dandasana or Urdhva Dhanurasana sometimes immediately take off the pain and one can’t believe it. Because children develop tremendous energy in the nerve fibers and the heaviness which comes and causes the headache, will be taken off. There is also a later step, when girls reach the menstrual stage, or a boy puberty – these kind of tensions can be removed by forward bends, Halasana etc. Here, I can say emphatically that is also a stage where backbending can be a cure. In later age groups Viparita Karani or Setubandha Sarvangasana etc will help, since some relief has to come from the emotional side. 

Mod:

There is one more vital point to discuss before we conclude – the question is not only to cure headaches but how to avoid headaches. My question to you Geeta is regarding the yoga philosophy. There are certain aspects in yoga philosophy, which is followed by Iyengar students or they are supposed to follow as Iyengar students, does it automatically prevent all types of headaches?

Geeta: 

If the answer is purely on yogic lines, then it can be said, yes. For example if you follow ahimsa then you can avoid headaches as there is no himsa (violence) in thought and deed. But the problem here is that everyone is not capable to follow yama and niyama in a very strict manner. For example the principle of niyama says not to get irritable (santosh), be calm and quiet. They are okay to say, but difficult to put into practice for a common man. In this respect I would say that certain asanas and certain pranayama which we recommend for headaches, will bring the change at the emotional level, the change in attitude. If you read “Light on Yoga”, Guruji says do inverted postures because these postures bring a perfect balance in the emotional state. So emotional stability comes with these asana’s when you practice them in a proper manner. It just cannot come as something from outside. But to get rid of this headache it is not just the psychological factor which is involved. It is the psychological factor that affects the physiological body and causes headache. In that case the headache could be due to the strain in the eyes, so you are comparing the headache with the eyes and there introduce Shanmukhi Mudra, at times we say tie a bandage around the eyes and put the thumbs into the ears or fingers on the eyes in a proper manner and control the nerves. Supposing a person continues to do this Shanmukhi Mudra, there has to be a change, an emotional change. 

Inside the ears the nerves we have – supposed in a place like Bombay the noise is all the time here – there is sound pollution and obviously the nerves are affected. With Shanmukhi Mudra you control your ears. I mean the electrical nerves are controlled in that manner and the himsa (violence in thought and deed) occurring from inside through the ears will be checked to a great extent and thereby controlling the emotions also. For example people who complain about noise in the ears – this is an outside symptom. So if we strengthen their nerves, these things will be lessened. And in the strengthening process you have to introduce asanas such as Halasana, mudra like Shanmukhi or particular pranayama like Viloma with interrupted exhalation.

In this stage it is not merely a structural thing like exhale, wait, exhale, wait, but in that exhalation waiting process, there is something like drawing the ears inside and drawing the eyes inside. And in this manner emotional stability is achieved. So what Guruji sometimes says by putting the philosophy in the other way – do asana and pranayama  and in that, do introduce yama and niyama. But people do not understand him and the outsiders may criticise him saying yama and niyama are two separate limbs of yoga and ask how one can combine them with the other two limbs of asana and pranayama  . But through practice, asana and pranayama  can definitely bring an inner control. For example in a headache supposing the right side head is aching, then inhalation on the left side and exhalation on the right side ie Chandrabhedan can pacify the right side of the head. In short, the forward bendings and twistings improve the digestion and Pitta is brought under control. Inversions (Sirsasana  Sarvangasana, Halasana, Setubandha Sarvangasana) bring the Vata under control. Therefore, often, after the inversions, the nostrils open suddenly. The respiratory defects are corrected. The back bendings bring the control over Kapha. They strengthen the nervous system and inversions quieten the nervous system. The function of the endocrine system is corrected by pranayama and the nervine system is strengthened. When the nerves are quietened, the nature of the person changes. He reacts to the outer world calmly and quietly. The strengthened nerves can take onslaughts and can encounter the circumstances, since the energy is stored and reserved in them. The person can face problems, boldly. The systems of the body become problem proof and hence the capacity to tolerate, the endurance is increased. The body  cooperates with the mind and vice versa. The body builds up the willpower of the mind. The Halasana, Setu Bandha Sarvangasana etc change the facet of ego and the superiority and inferiority complex of the ego are balanced and that is how one changes with Guruji’s method of doing asana and pranayama.

Article from 70 Glorious Years of Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar

(Commemoration Volume)