Heart Disease |
I am a 40-year-old male who was diagnosed with a cardiac condition known as Bradycardia on September 17th 1999, and had a pacemaker implanted to correct an extremely low heart rate. I began practicing your yoga with Lynn and Jeff at FUNKY DOOR YOGA on Polk Street in San Francisco in September, 2000, a month or so after the studio opened. I could barely finish the class for the first month, but I noticed an improvement within about two months after I began. Three weeks ago I returned to my cardiologist at Stanford and was informed that my atria (upper chambers of the heart) were no longer being paced by the pacemaker. Can you believe it? I'm also off all medication that I used to rely on for hyper-tension. I hope my progress continues. I had consulted many cardiologists regarding my condition. Most agreed that I would be "pacemaker dependent" for the rest of my life. They told me that while my heart was strong, the electrical system that regulates my heart rhythm in my brain had ceased to function. Until I began Bikram yoga, I felt tired and depressed, emotionally drained at the thought that my heart would be controlled by a machine for the rest of my life. I gave up running (I was a marathoner for ten years when I lived in New York) and started to rely on anti-depressants. Bikram Yoga gave me the courage to get strong enough to get off the medication and begin running again.
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