While there are a number of conventional treatments for asbestos-related diseases like asbestosis and malignant pleural mesothelioma that have been proven to be effective, some of these treatments can cause unwanted side effects like pain and nausea. But there are a number of complementary therapies that can help ease these side effects, as well as mesothelioma symptoms themselves.

One of these treatments is a type of exercise that most people are familiar with: yoga. The origins of yoga lie in India, where this ancient art is practiced more for spiritual reasons than for health-related reasons. Outside of India, yoga has become a popular form of exercise that is physically and psychologically calming and strengthening. Learning simple yoga techniques can help improve general health by toning and strengthening muscles, improving flexibility, and improving one’s state of mind. Promotion of general health is important when fighting a major disease like malignant pleural mesothelioma, as the stronger your immune system is, the better your body can fight.

Meditation has long been known as an excellent way of reducing feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression. Currently, meditation is also believed to help manage pain and other disease symptoms. Many people with cancer who add meditation to their treatment program find the practice helps relieve pain, stress, and anxiety. Some studies have even indicated that meditation may be able to slow tumor growth and improve patient prognosis.

Acupuncture is the most widely accepted form of alternative/complementary treatment. In fact, this type of treatment is so widely accepted that many health insurance companies even cover it. Acupuncture involves the insertion of extremely fine needles into pressure points at clearly defined locations on the skin to improve the balance and flow of factors referred to as Yin, Yang, Qi, and Blood in traditional Chinese medicine. This type of treatment can provide relief from chronic pain, inflammation, anxiety, and stress, and is one of the most common alternative treatments used by those with asbestosis.

These are just a few of the complementary treatments used to treat asbestos related diseases. But while these treatments can be effective, always consult your doctor before proceeding with any new type of treatment.

By: Heather Ashare, MPH

Heather Ashare has been a dedicated practitioner and instructor of Ashtanga yoga for several years. As the yoga expert at DietsInReview.com, she shares simple and effective ways to make yoga a part of your life for greater fitness and wellness. DietsInReview.com also provides healthy recipes, weight loss tools, nutrition and health guidance in the Diet Blog and reviews of more than 475 diet plans.

Whether or not you roll out your mat to practice yoga, we all can learn a lot about our relationship to food by applying some of the principles of this ancient Indian practice to the foods we eat and how we eat them.

One of the great misnomers about yoga is that you must be a vegetarian to practice yoga. Nothing could be farther from the truth. What is more important is how do we use food? Do we use it solely to nourish us? For enjoyment? An escape?

Hatha yoga teaches us to tune our ears and eyes inward and listen to what our mind (the ego), our heart and our body is telling us. Rather than mindlessly reaching for that fifth piece of pizza or reacting immediately to a fight with our spouse by racing to the fast-food drive-thru, yoga tries to teach us to cultivate patience and observe our thoughts first, rather than quickly reacting to them.

Yoga’s ability to help heal the body and the mind is garnering the attention of medical and mental health professionals. A few years ago, a notable study showed that women who practiced yoga had greater body satisfaction, less body objectification and fewer symptoms of eating disorders than women who regularly practiced cardiovascular forms of exercise like jogging or aerobics.

Yoga is probably not the panacea to all eating disorders but its underlying message which teaches us to become more sensitive to our thoughts, feelings, and cravings opens up more pace for us to simply observe them, notice their fleeting nature and allow them to pass.

“This heightened sensitivity and responsiveness to bodily sensations is associated with less preoccupation of physical appearance, more positive views of the body, and more healthy regulation of food intake,” says the lead author of the study, Jennifer Daubenmier.

This is not to say that all of us need to assume the stance of a detached monk when a warm plate of rich chocolate brownies is placed in front of us. Who can or should resist that? But yoga tries to help us to slow down and enjoy our food, whether we’re indulging in one brownie, one bite or merely the smell of them.

The yoga of eating works its way from the inside out. Rather than focusing on the behavior of what we eat or how eat, yoga tries to get us to connect with what is going on emotionally that enables us to make food choices. In this manner, we become more aware of the actual feelings of hunger, the internal chatter in our minds that may drive us to make unhealthy food choices, and a clearer recognition of how our food choices affect us physically and emotionally. Do I really “need” that Krispy Kreme donut, or am I rather in need of something else that feeds me in a far deeper manner than fried and sweetened dough?

By applying some of these principles of patience, observation and introspection, you too can begin to alter your relationship with food for the better.

Raw Juice Fast, Vegetarinism, Yoga and what it all means!

The following post is from a girlfriend of mine, whom decided to do a Raw Juice Fast. She is also regularly practicing yoga. The following is a personal journal about what she experienced while fasting.

Trying to fall asleep the last few hours my mind just keeps flashing images of art that I have a deep desire to put out. Paintings or sculptures of my unconscious thoughts and feelings of recent events
and experiences that have not yet been expressed or made sense of.

I have been experiencing so much change and evolution, and much experimentation primarily with my diet. Aside from the idea of sparing a few more animal lives my vegetarian/vegan diet was about feeling whether there was a shift in me. In my energy or my body’s energy if I seized eating meat. Truthfully there wasn’t. Sure my mind raced back to images of innocent animals being slaughtered for the pleasures of humans, and felt good about not contributing to the meat industry; but it still wasn’t hitting home.

Last week I suffered a severe allergic attack and was not able to breath. I became overwhelmed with a feeling that my body was full of poisons and the allergy a reaction of my body trying to fight it out
the infestation. I decided to detox on pure fruit and veggie juice for a few days and see if it made a difference, and it did.

My mind resisted it because of the pleasure and psychological habit of chewing food. However, I felt alive when drinking the juices and I felt a surge of energy and life entering my body. I also had two
physical reactions to the new diet.

• On the one hand my allergy was gone and I was able to breath again within the day.
• My skin on the other hand developed an infection on my chin and upper lip area, Which I find the placement of the infection interesting, considering it is around my mouth. I can assume two things. one that the infection is a result of toxins exiting the body or that my body is rejecting the dietary changes.

Either way the infection is impossible to hide and left me feeling exposed and self conscious, which set off another train of thoughts dealing with perception and desire for acceptance, and wanting to feel attractive on the outside, realizing if there is inner balance it radiates out but that i have to keep sifting through the shit to allow the good to gain more confidence.

I am beginning to come to an agreement between my body and mind’s emotional reactions. Understanding that it is not whether or not I eat animal products that make the difference, but rather giving my body what it needs while harming my environment and surroundings as less as possible. In other words, what are my intentions? Am I killing in order to survive or for selfish reasons of enjoyment?

I do feel more firmly about the energy of food and its powerful effects on the body, and feel strongly that through nutrition I can cure many of the imbalances both physical and mental. such as my skin sensitivity, chronic knee pain caused by jointal/artheritic causes and release of tension and energy from food/and surrounding experiences that the body retains.

A few more powerful things also came to me tonight. An image of a dark red core surrounded by a bright light. Perhaps a core surrounded by truth and allowing it to enter. Maybe symbolizing my spiritual growth or release of pain and emergence from a darkness. Perhaps its the work I’ve been putting in to shine more light so I can follow my path. I was also visualizing figures of nude women which according to Feng Shui images of solitary women symbolize being alone- perhaps expressing to me that I need to remain alone right now while I’m on my spiritual journey, and that although my mind may desire a partner my heart is not ready yet. I once again saw images of roots digging deep into the ground and a headless figure with a chest wide open and an exposed heart. Perhaps symbolizing that I follow my heart and not my mind, or a vision of how I want to see the world. Rooting deep into the earth as I grow on my personal spiritual journey and wanting to share more love.

As I continue to heal and find balance physically, it is opening up more room for the spiritual inner growth I’ve been seeking. I feel my mind is becoming less occupied with finding solutions to physical imbalances and shifting inward to find more inner peace a higher intellectual development which will allow the physical to work its self out in time. Whatever shift is occurring it is allowing me to find more peace and balance and lead a happier life. It truly amazes me how much tuning in to the body and the surroundings reveals. The more I am able to quiet the mind the more i am able to learn and grow intellectually. Gaining insight of my self and my surroundings and the cause and effect.

I think the Hatha yoga I’m doing is tuning me in with the gift Jnâna yoga offers the soul.

I thank my friend, whom also works at The Yoga Shelter based out of Detroit for sharing her experiences and soulful discoveries invoked by her raw juice fast. From her personal journal entry one can gain insight on some experiences the juice fast can bring.

What does it mean to “Alkalize” your body? Well, it’s the opposite of having your system be Acidic. Remember those litmus papers from high school lab? You can actually use those to test our urine or saliva to see what your pH level is. We ideally want to score at least in the 6-7 range because this means we are not too acidic (which can lead to health problems).

What causes an acidic pH level?

These foods, for starters:

• coffee
• meat
• dairy
• beer
• aspartame
• chocolate
• vinegar
• soda

What creates an alkaline level?:

• leafy greens
• lemons (tricky because before entering your body they are acidic)
• olive oil
• most fruits and vegetables
• herbal teas
• fish

Why is it bad to have an acidic pH level? (Or: Why is it good to be Base?)

It is now known that a more alkaline pH level is most desirable in order to loose weight and keep it off, and to ward off disease. Obesity is actually linked to an acidic pH level. This is because acid is a waste product of our body after it uses energy. If we are fueling our body with acidic foods and liquids, we can not get rid of it properly and the acid builds up as fat.

Download a free Alkaline food chart here

Watch this fascinating Video about alkalizing!

Some other undesirable effects of acid buildup are:

• weak immune system
• chronic fatique
• speeds up aging process
• higher likeliness of cancerous mutations
• digestion/elimination problems
• diabeties

Some benefits of alkalizing your body are:

• thin body that keeps the weight off
• disease free body
• youthful appearance slows down the aging process
• promotes healthy cell growth (non mutated)
• feel energized
• digest and eliminate properly

What’s your pH level right now? find out.

What you can start doing TODAY:

• Add fresh squeezed lemons to your water
• Cut back on coffee (no more than 2 cups a day)

So….Drop the acid and get base…pronto!

I first became interested in yoga when I met an amazing older woman in her 60’s who radiated youth and had the body of a teenager. I had recently become health- conscious, having shed 10 lbs of post-high school fat put on in my constant pursuit of the better beer and burger.

I had become vegan and stopped drinking milk. But even after shedding the weight, I wanted to make sure I looked (and felt!) as great as my aforementioned yogi role model!

I started reading about yoga in books. I remember my very first yoga book was on Sivananda Yoga. I didn’t dare try the headstand but I started becoming familiar with these postures. I didn’t dare try the headstand, but I started becoming familiar with the various postures.

My advice to beginners in yoga is to focus only on sun salutations first until you can perform them by heart. Once you have memorized them, you can relax more. I have made for you a very useful sun salutations guide in PDF format that you can download and print! CLICK HERE for Sun Salutation Guide (PDF)

Always remember: When you go against gravity, inhale, and when going down with gravity, exhale.

As I advanced, I learned that a shoulder stand stimulates your thyroid, therefore actually speeding up your metabolism! (you can read more about increasing your metabolism in this post)

It seems to work for me, because I’ve remained 120lbs for the past decade! People often guess I’m 19 rather than nearly 30…